Debuff Master

“Are you sure? Are you really prepared to pay whatever price just to defeat Siegfried van Proa?” the Savior asked.

“I already told you that I am!” Kaosin exclaimed with a hint of annoyance. Then, he added, “I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to beat him. Even if it costs me my life.”

“Your resolve is quite impressive.”

“Destroying that bastard is my life’s one and only wish.”

Kaosin was telling the truth. The humiliation he had suffered at the arena on that day and the fact that Tae-Sung had made a fool of him in the waiting room were just too much for him to withstand. Kaosin felt like he wouldn't be able to keep on living his life until he had avenged himself.

He was a very proud person, after all, so such humiliation wasn't something he could live with. In fact, he would love to stab Han Tae-Sung with a knife in real life if he could do so and get away with it.

Thus, there was no way he would weigh the consequences if it meant he could destroy Siegfried.

“All right then. I can think of one method that will fulfill your desire. Are you interested?”

“What is it?”

“Inscribe these runes on your chest. One run on each side,” the Savior said, taking out two rocks with ancient runic inscriptions on them.

“Rune of Contract?” Kaosin grumbled after recognizing the runes.

“Yes, these are ancient runes.”

“But these are…” Kaosin muttered, hesitating after reading the effects of the Rune of Contract using his Rune of Insight.

[Rune of Contract: Rampage]

[An ancient rune that explosively increases the user’s powers.]

[The side-effects are quite strong and excessive use of this rune will make the user addicted to it.]

[Type: Rune]

[Rating: Unique]

[Effects: All stats are increased explosively upon use]

[Rune of Contract: Subordination]

[An ancient rune that takes away the user’s freedom in the event that they fail to honor the agreement.]

[Type: Rune]

[Rating: Unique]

[Effects: The user will become the subordinate of the rune's owner upon failing to honor the agreement.]

The Rune of Contract: Rampage provided Kaosin with the power to defeat Siegfried, while the Rune of Contract: Subordination would turn him into the Savior’s slave if he failed to defeat Siegfried.

In other words, this was a double-edged sword for Kaosin.

“If I lose… Will I become your slave?”

“Yes.”

“So this is like entering into a contract with a demon.”

"You’re not wrong.”

The Savior did not bother denying what Kaosin said. He was granting him power in exchange for his servitude if he failed to defeat Siegfried.

This was a deal that only a demon would probably offer.

“You may refuse my offer if you’re not confident you could win,” the Savior said, putting the runes back into his inventory.

“Wait,” Kaosin stopped him. Then, he asked, “I won’t become your slave as long as I win, right?”

“Of course.”

“Hmm…”

“I advise you not to proceed further if you’re not confident of your chances.”

“Who said I’m not?” Kaosin retorted. Then, he lashed out, “Do you really think I can’t beat that bastard even after doing all that?! Fuck!”

“Then are you agreeing to the terms of our agreement?”

“Of course!” Kaosin lashed out once again and shoved the runes into his Inventory.

Then, he gnashed his teeth while thinking of Tae-Sung’s arrogant smug face.

“Just you wait, you bastard.”

***

Tae-Sung decided to tell his mother the truth about how much he had earned so far over dinner. He told her how he owned five buildings in Gangnam and was getting hundreds of millions of won in monthly rental alone on top of his other income streams.

He also told her how he was living in a premium luxury residence, and his earnings from the game had exceeded billions of won at this point.

This was something he had no choice but to come clean with.

It would be impossible for him to hide how much he was making now that they knew who he was through the tournament, as this was the age where a famous gamer was akin to a celebrity or a sports superstar.

There was no way he could get away with a bunch of excuses, as his name was all over the news, and he was the center of attention these days.

Tae-Sung’s mother looked at him and asked, “Is that… true?”

“Yes,” Tae-Sung nodded. Then, he explained, “I'm not just earning money. I'm earning a lot of money. I am earning so much that I do not know what to do with it anymore.”

“Oh my…”

“We can send Tae-Hee to study in America now, and we do not have to worry about money.”

“Tae-Sung…”

His mother’s eyes started tearing up after hearing of his success.

Tae-Sung introduced Cheon Woo-Jin and Seung-Gu to her. “This guy helped me a lot, and this guy has helped me a lot too.”

The atmosphere at the dinner remained great until it ended. Tae-Sung sent his mother and Tae-Hee home in his ultra-luxury sedan, the Rolls Royce Phantom, and he went somewhere else with Cheon Woo-Jin and Seung-Gu.

Their destination was a luxury lounge bar in Cheongdam.

“Whoa! You’re really amazing, Tae-Sung,” Cheon Woo-Jin said with a smirk while browsing on his smartphone.

“Hmm? What are you talking about?” Tae-Sung asked.

“Everyone’s talking about you.”

“Really?”

“Take a look,” Cheon Woo-Jin said, sending a link via a messenger app.

Tae-Sung clicked on the link and saw that every single headline was mentioning him alone. They were singing praises of how good he was at the game and how handsome he was too.

“I think you’re going to have a lot of female fans starting from today,” Cheon Woo-Jin said, smiling sheepishly.

“Huh?” Tae-Sung muttered, tilting his head in confusion.

It was then.

“E-Excuse me…?”

“Are you Han Tae-Sung by any chance?”

A group of beautiful women sitting at the table across from them approached and struck up a conversation with Tae-Sung.

“If you don’t mind… Can we take a picture together?”

“Please!”

“I decided to become your fan from today!”

Tae-Sung froze up, not knowing how he was supposed to react.

‘T-They want to take a p-picture?! With me?!’

He was just an ordinary person up until this afternoon, and nobody would care whether he existed or not at the time.

However, things had changed drastically since this afternoon. All that it took was for him to appear on TV once, and people started coming up to him, claiming to be his fans all of a sudden.

The fact that all of this happened in a matter of a few hours was shocking in itself.

‘Whoa… I probably should be careful from now on…’ Tae-Sung thought after realizing just how famous he had become after appearing on TV once. He realized that he had to be careful of his actions from now on.

“Sure! He can take a picture with you!” Cheon Woo-Jin replied instead.

Snap![1]

Thanks to that, Tae-Sung took a picture with his fans for the first time in his life, and these fans were extremely beautiful, too.

Of course, he looked very awkward in the photo alongside his beautiful fans.

“Thank you!”

“We will keep rooting for you!”

“You’re so handsome! Kyah!”

The women thanked and said a few words before returning to their table, and it went without saying that it took less than five minutes for them to post their selfie with Tae-Sung on their social media accounts.

“I’m so jealous of you, hyung-nim!”

“Tae-Sung! You’re a big shot now!”

Cheon Woo-Jin and Seung-Gu pretended to be jealous and started teasing Tae-Sung.

“Hey! Cut it out!!” Tae-Sung lashed out at them with his face flushed.

Well, it was all fun and games until he tried to strangle both of them to death for teasing him.

***

Siegfried did not take a single step out of the Proatine Kingdom while the Super Rookie Tournament was ongoing. There was no telling when and where the Church of Osric would be lying in wait with a trap, so he decided to play it safe until the tournament ended.

He bulldozed through the group stages and won both of his matches in the round of sixteen and round of four, catapulting him into even greater stardom than before.

His social media following only had his sister, Cheon Woo-Jin, and Seung-Gu. All that changed after the tournament, as he was flooded with millions of people wanting to follow him on his social media accounts.

The Super Rookie Tournament was just a local tournament in South Korea, but the whole world was paying attention to it, so even foreign fans overseas started following Tae-Sung on social media.

Surprisingly, rather than hide from the spotlight, Tae-Sung decided to hire people to manage his social media accounts, and this decision turned out to be another opportunity to make money for him.

He started getting sponsorship deals from companies the moment his accounts had more than one million followers, and these were not some shady companies trying to sell uncertified supplements or no-name brand clothes.

The companies offering sponsorship deals included famous fashion houses such as Gucci, premium luxury automaker Mercedes Benz, and other companies with the same prestige as them.

Tae-Sung accepted some of the offers and was paid handsomely in exchange for promoting their products. He also received various clothes, accessories, and cars for free in exchange for the sponsorship deals.

He was not a fan of taking pictures, but he decided to hire a team of professional photographers to take high-quality pictures to promote the brands, which resulted in more people following him.

Thus, his follower count ballooned to more than five million people, cementing him as one of the rising stars among influencers.

Thanks to that, Tae-Sung’s income saw a twenty percent increase after the Super Rookie Tournament, and he was now earning enough to buy a small building every two to three months.

“Hngg…! I can’t keep up with my earnings!”

Tae-Sung would always moan out of joy whenever he saw his bank account.

Time passed rather quickly, and it was time for the semi-finals of the Super Rookie Tournament.

Exactly one hour before the semi-finals started…

“Who am I up against this time?” Tae-Sung wondered while checking the match-up.

He was not really interested in who he was up against, as he knew he would most likely face Kaosin in the finals unless there was an upset along the way. Still, he decided to check just for the heck of it.

“My opponent today is—”

Knock! Knock!

Someone knocked on his waiting room door, interrupting him

‘Huh? Is it already time? But I think there’s still time left?’ Tae-Sung wondered. Then, he answered, “Yes, come in.”

The door opened, and a familiar face came in.

“Eh?”

Tae-Sung was slightly surprised after recognizing the visitor, who was a middle-aged man.

The man looked old, but he was undoubtedly handsome despite his age.

More importantly, Tae-Sung was very certain of the man's identity

“Yong Tae-Pung… sunbae-nim[2]?” Tae-Sung muttered with his eyes wide open.

The living legend among pro gamers, Yong Tae-Pung, had actually decided to visit his waiting room.

“W-What brings you here…?” Tae-Sung asked, sounding slightly awkward. He met Yong Tae-Pung quite often in the game, but this was the first time he was meeting him in real life, so he was flustered by the sudden visit.

“I am lazy~ Hehe~”

“I cannot be bothered to leave home.”

“I cannot digest my food if I eat with people I do not know.”

On top of that, he had repeatedly rejected Yong Tae-Pung’s request to meet up for lunch or dinner, so he felt like hiding in a hole right now.

Unfortunately, Yong Tae-Pung seemed to have read his mind.

“What brings me here? This ungrateful junior of mine wouldn't visit me first, so I had to come all the way here,” Yong Tae-Pung said with a smirk.

“I-I did not mean to… It was just…” Tae-Sung replied awkwardly. He had no idea what to do or what to say right now.

“Can I come in?”

“So I can finally see the face of my junior?”

“Excuse me.”

“Let me see him, too!”

Then, a group of middle-aged men came into the waiting room in droves.

“H-Hiiiik!” Tae-Sung shrieked in horror after recognizing all of them, causing him to wonder, ‘I-Is today some meeting of legends or something?!’

The reason was that the middle-aged men who came into the waiting room after Yong Tae-Pung were all ex-pro gamers who had once reached the pinnacle of e-sports alongside the living legend.

1. Fun fact. It’s mandatory for smartphones sold in Korea and Japan to have a shutter sound when taking pictures. ☜

2. This is how seniors are addressed in Korea. Saying ‘senior’ sounded weird, so I just stuck with the Korean word. ☜

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