Debuff Master

Chapter 563

The amateurs confident in their skills registered in droves the moment the Super Rookie Tournament registration was opened. A few of the famous amateurs posted videos on their social media, showing their intention to join the tournament.

Those videos garnered a lot of attention from people.

The amount of attention the tournament was receiving naturally evolved into debates on what kind of tournament it was going to be and who would most likely win.

However, there was one small problem, and that was the fact that people started bringing Siegfried up as a potential candidate, too. He was currently the most famous Adventurer even amongst the pro gamers, and some people even went as far as dubbing him "Super Rookie."

Most people thought it was a given that Siegfried would participate in the Super Rookie Tournament. South Korea was famous for having a very high level of competition and producing some of the best pro gamers in the world, so winning the tournament would mean instant worldwide fame for the winner.

Thus, everyone thought Siegfried would participate with the goal of becoming the winner of the tournament.

“Siegfried-nim!”

“Excuse me! Siegfried-nim!”

“Are you joining the tournament?”

“Will you be participating in the Super Rookie Tournament?”

Siegfried was bombarded by dozens of questions the moment he stepped into the arena, catching him completely by surprise.

“Huh? Me? No, I’m not joining. Why?” Siegfried replied, looking completely flustered. He could not understand why they were asking him whether he was going to join the tournament or not.

Everyone he met proceeded to ask him the same question over and over again, and he was forced to reply with the same answer.

“No, I’m not joining.”

Siegfried headed straight for the automatic matching room to get away from the Adventurers, but his path was unfortunately blocked by another group, who were a bit different compared to the previous ones.

“Siegfried-nim! I am a reporter with the Game Forum! Is it true that you are participating in the upcoming Super Rookie Tournament?”

“My name is Lee Seung-Chul with the Daily BNW! The only thing known about you so far is that you are South Korean. Please introduce yourself to the people!”

“Five minutes! Just give me five minutes with you!”

Siegfried was surrounded by Adventurers, who were actually reporters and was bombarded by even more questions.

‘W-What the hell?! Why are there reporters now?!’ Siegfried was stunned. He was caught off guard by the sight.

“I’m not joining!” Siegfried shouted in response and pushed his way to the portal.

“Siegfried-nim!”

“Mr. Siegfried!”

“Wait a minute!”

“One question! I just have one question for you!”

“Excuse me!”

The reporters chased after him like a hungry pack of wolves.

***

“I thought I was gonna suffocate to death! Phew!” Siegfried let out a sigh of relief as soon as he entered the automatic matching room after managing to get away from the reporters.

“Kyuuu! Why are you running away, owner punk?!” Hamchi retorted.

“It’s too troublesome.”

“Weren’t you an attention seeker?!”

“What did you say? How am I an attention seeker?”

“Kyuu! Hamchi can tell from a mile away!”

“Are you picking a fight with me?!”

“Kyu! But why aren’t you joining the tournament? You will become famous in your world and here if you win the tournament!”

“What’s the point of becoming famous?” Siegfried scoffed. Then, he shrugged and added, “It’s too troublesome. Everyone will start watching my every move if I become famous.”

“Kyu?”

“I won’t be able to eat in peace outside if that happens. The paparazzi will be all over me trying to snap a picture, and they’re going to start writing nasty articles about me.”

He was right. In this era, VR games were so popular that pro gamers were much more famous than celebrities.

Even those streamers specializing in BNW content earned billions of won, and some of them had to suffer from being stalked by sasaeng[1] fans.

And what was going to happen if he became a pro gamer and became very popular?

[V Sports Breaking News! The new rising star, Han Tae-Sung, found to be single since birth... (omitted)]

[V Sports News! Han Tae-Sung’s true personality has been revealed! A demon in human skin!]

A chill traveled down Siegfried’s spine the moment he imagined his potential reputation. Becoming famous was akin to the thief walking into a police station for him, as everything about him would be on the news for everyone to see.

“N-NOOOO!”

“Kyu?!”

“I can’t become a pro gamer! To hell with that Super Rookie or whatever the hell that is! I don’t need their filthy money, too!”

“Owner punk...? Just what the heck have you been doing in your world...?”

“I didn’t do anything! I just don’t want to join that stupid tournament! I hate troublesome things!” Siegfried lashed out and angrily stomped around as if he was throwing a tantrum.

Then, he calmed down and queued for the next match.

“Hmm... I wonder if I’ll find a decent opponent today...” Siegfried muttering before thinking of Hoshigi.

He was matched with three other Adventurers after his duel with Hoshigi, and they were either extremely strong amateurs or low-ranking pro gamers. One would think that they were very strong, considering their rank, but they weren't strong enough to push Siegfried to his limits.

‘Today should be different...’

Siegfried was hoping that he would be matched with opponents stronger than Hoshigi today, and he patiently waited for the automatic matching system to find an opponent for him.

Ten minutes passed.

[Alert: Waiting in queue!]

[Alert: Finding an opponent!]

[Alert: Opponent found!]

A message popped up in front of his eyes.

“Huh?” Siegfried muttered after recognizing his opponent instantly.

“Oh? Hello, Siegfried-nim.”

His opponent recognized him instantly as well, just like Hoshigi.

“It is an honor to meet you, Dakku-nim,” Siegfried said with a slight nod.

Dakku was a pro gamer like Hoshigi, and he was considered to be a rank above Hoshigi. The comparison was inevitable, as Hoshig had already passed his prime while Dakku was just at the peak of his career.

In fact, Dakku had placed eighth in the previous PVP tournament, and he was also an executive member of the Blade Guild, which was one of the top ten guilds on the continent. On top of that, he regularly streamed his adventures in BNW to his tens of thousands of followers.

“It is nice to meet you too, Siegfried-nim. I have heard a lot of things about you.”

“I did not expect you to know me, Dakku-nim. Hahaha...”

“Everyone knows who you are, Siegfried-nim. Anyone who doesn’t is probably a spy or something[2].”

“Hahaha...”

“Shall we start?” Dakku asked without mentioning anything about Siegfried's record or anything about the latter being an abuser. Dakku pressed the "Ready" button and looked into the camera floating above his head. “Can you see who my opponent is? I matched with Siegfried-nim and will be dueling him one-on-one. I have a feeling that this will make a very good episode for G-Tube.”

It turned out that he was in the middle of broadcasting his arena PVP matches live.

“Damn it...” Siegfried grimaced and grumbled after seeing that his opponent was live.

He was already the center of attention due to the tournament, and now, he was going to be exposed to the tens of thousands of people watching Dakku’s livestream.

‘Ah, I should finish this as quickly as possible and make a run for it,’ Siegfried thought and pressed the "Ready" button.

[Ready?]

[3... 2... 1...]

[Fight!]

The duel began.

“I will test out Siegfried-nim’s skills, everyone!” Dakku leisurely informed his viewers and was about to get into stance but—

Smack!

—He was smacked in the face by the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp that Siegfried had thrown from a distance. Dakku was sent flying a couple of meters away.

“Aargh...! W-What was that?” Dakku groaned and tried to get back to his feet.

Swoosh!

Siegfried ran toward him at full speed while recalling his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp with his Flying Sword skill.

However, Dakku was different from Hoshigi.

Smack!

Dakku anchored one hand to the ground and spun his legs like a windmill, kicking Siegfried away, and he used that opportunity to quickly get back to his feet. Then, he drew his weapon, the +15 Ultra Thin Moon, and went on the counteroffensive.

‘He’s fast!’ Siegfried realized that his opponent was much stronger than Hoshigi and focused on evading the attack instead of blocking it.

Whoosh!

Siegfried exploited the opening and swung his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp the moment Dakku’s sword had missed him. However, this was a clever ploy from him, as the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp was just a decoy, and the real attack was a kick to Dakku's midsection.

Smack!

Siegfried planted his heel into Dakku’s midsection, making the latter stagger.

‘Now’s my chance!’

Siegfried seized the split-second window of opportunity before his opponent could recover and used Machine Gun Smash at his opponent’s head.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Bam! Bam! Smack!

Dakku raised his guard to protect his head, but Siegfried knew that he would do that.

Ziiiiing!

He threw his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp at Dakku’s face and used his Great Champion’s Belt to shoot out a green laser infused with radioactive energy from point-blank range, hitting Dakku dead center on his chest.

“A-Aaack!” Dakku screamed in agony, but he managed to withstand the laser beam, thanks to his extremely high Defense. Then, he twisted to parry the laser beam and go on the counteroffensive, but there was no way Siegfried would allow him to do so.

Whiiiiish! Bam!

The +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp circled back like a boomerang and struck Dakku at the back of his head.

“Ah...!” Dakku groaned before falling face first to the floor.

Thud!

Dakku was planning on wiping the floor with Siegfried and uploading their duel with the title "I Caught an Abuser Ft. Siegfried' on G-Tube, but unfortunately, the opposite happened—Siegfried had wiped the floor with him.

– GzaSan: ?

– TastyDaughterInLaw: ????

– SGR: ?

– kjy0904: Crazy...

– GreatMonkWonHyo: Whoa...

Silence ensued in Dakku’s chatroom, but it only took a single second for the chatroom to erupt into utter chaos.

“Thank you for the match!” Siegfried exclaimed, bowing and paying his respect to Dakku before running away as fast as he could to the automatic matching room.

***

The news of Siegfried wiping the floor with Dakku spread like wildfire throughout the top Rankers. Dakku wanted to hide his shameful defeat, but it was impossible to do so, as clips from his own livestream had already spread like wildfire on many different online forums.

In fact, a few media outlets even wrote articles about his PVP defeat.

Meanwhile, Siegfried matched and fought against other named pro gamers, and he somehow managed to maintain his undefeated victory streak, which now stood at 210 wins.

It was only after his two-hundred-and-tenth duel ended that he finally realized...

“I’m... really good at this...?”

After matching with the American pro gamer, Firebird, and exchanging blows with him, Siegfried realized that he was really strong. He hadn't fought that many pro gamers, but the fact that he had defeated nine different pro gamers in a row meant that he had won using his own abilities and not by luck.

“Sigh... Owner punk can be quite stupid at times like this...” Hamchi let out a sigh and shook his head. However, Hamchi only reached that conclusion because there was something he was unaware of.

What was that?

Siegfried had been chasing after the shadows of those who were way ahead of him, but that was no longer the case.

‘I really think I can defeat most of them now,’ Siegfried thought. He believed that he had grown strong enough to challenge those at the top without relying on the Debuff Master’s skills.

‘Hold on... Who was the PVP champion last year? I don’t remember...’ Siegfried racked his brains, trying to recall the name of the champion after suddenly developing an urge to challenge them.

“Kyu! What are you thinking about, owner punk?!”

“N-Nothing.”

“Kyu?”

“Let’s call it a day.”

“Are you going already? You didn’t fight that many rounds today! Kyu!”

“I’m wasting more time waiting in the queue rather than actually in a duel.”

“Kyu! You’re right!”

“Let’s come tomorrow.”

“Alright! Kyuu!”

Siegfried decided to call it a day and return to the Proatine Kingdom.

He was about to leave the arena when—

“Siegfried-nim!”

“Sir Siegfried! A word, please!”

“Why did you say that you're not going to participate in the tournament?!”

“Did you change your mind?”

—The reporters swarmed and barraged him with questions.

“Huh? I already said I’m not participating. Who said I’m participating?” Siegfried replied, slightly flustered.

One of the reporters hurriedly opened a link and showed it to him, “Here! The Hive Games Entertainment has officially announced that you've registered for the Super Rookie Tournament!”

“Whaaat?!” Siegfried exclaimed, stunned at the news. He blinked twice before reading the article shown by the reporter. The headline of the article stunned him once again, making him feel like a blunt object had struck the back of his head.

[Official! Hive Games Entertainment Korea: We hereby confirm that Siegfried has officially registered for the Super Rookie Tournament.]

1. A term used to describe obsessive fans. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasaeng_fan ☜

2. This is a saying in South Korea referring to North Korean spies back in the day. They tend to study everything about South Korea, but they are always caught due to their lack of mainstream knowledge or trends. ☜