Debuff Master - Chapter 1142

Chapter 1142

Tae-Sung stayed by Daytona’s side after admitting the latter to the hospital.

He knew all too well how much pain Daytona was in, and how easily he could decide to end his life if he were left to his own devices.

Meanwhile, Lee Geon continued spewing his poison, spreading his twisted dogma to his fanatics through his live stream.

‘This bastard is really dangerous. He’s not some petty villain. This guy is pure evil—and worse, he’s smart. Look at the way he spins this into a righteous cause, building his narrative slowly,’ Tae-Sung thought, realizing just how vile and cunning Lee Geon really was after watching the live stream.

Rather than getting swept away by anger, Tae-Sung forced himself to keep a level head and study Lee Geon. If he were to let rage cloud his judgement, then he would just be playing right into that devil’s trap.

He needed a clear mind in order to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, that was the hardest part. How was he supposed to fight back against Lee Geon?

‘I’d storm in guns blazing if he had a hideout, but this bastard’s got nothing like that. He moves around and only strikes whenever he feels like it.’

Lee Geon’s followers were not organized. They acted independently, constantly lurking in the shadows and waiting for a chance to strike at Tae-Sung and his comrades.

It was like fighting against guerrillas spread across numerous battlefields.

‘There has to be a way… There has to be—’

“T-Tae-Sung…?”

Daytona woke up just then.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

“…I’m sorry. I’m just… causing you so much trouble,” Daytona said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“Don’t say that. You’re going through hell right now, and anyone would be the same. Just hold on, okay?”

“…”

Tae-Sung couldn’t say anything, as he did not have the words that could truly comfort this grieving man.

After all, it was not like he could turn back time.

‘Hold on, I can turn back time, no?’

The thought struck him like a bolt of lightning, making him pause.

Turn back time? Yes, it was possible.

If he used the Rabbit Foot of Regression, then he could roll the entire server’s clock back and reset everything to before Amelia’s death.

“Hey, Daytona. There is a way to bring her back,” Tae-Sung said, his voice filled with hope.

“What… are you saying…?” Daytona asked, stunned.

“I have an artifact. If I use it, I can rewind the server. Amelia can come back to life, and everything will go back to the way it was.”

“T-Tae-Sung…!” Daytona gasped, his eyes widening.

However, there was something strange about him.

Tae-Sung thought Daytona would be overjoyed and would cling to that hope of seeing his beloved again.

But instead—

“Thank you, really. But I can’t…” Daytona said, smiling sadly with tears in his eyes.

“What? Hey, what do you mean by that? You can have her back! Doesn’t that make you happy?” Tae-Sung asked, bewildered by the unexpected response.

Daytona shook his head and replied, “It’s meaningless. Sooner or later, we will have to part ways again. It’s all futile…”

“H-Hey!”

“BNW will shut down one day. The servers will close, and the codes will vanish. The NPCs… they’re not real people. They’re just data pretending to be humans.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, tears streamed down his cheeks, which were proof of how deeply he was still grieving Amelia’s death. Unfortunately, he had realized the cruel truth.

“This virtual reality we cling to… everyone knows how it’s going to end. It’s going to end badly.”

“But still—”

“One day, I will have to say goodbye again. And when that day comes, I will feel this pain all over again. I can’t do it twice, Tae-Sung. I just can’t…”

“Ah…”

“I want to focus on reality now. I want to live life again. I can’t keep doing this to myself…”

Daytona’s eyes said it all. He had already made peace with everything. The fleeting happiness he felt in the virtual paradise with Amelia had turned on him, drowning him in grief and pain.

“Okay,” Tae-Sung said, gently. Then, he added, “Just think about it some more. And if you ever change your mind, I’ll be here. For now, don’t think about anything and just rest, okay?”

“…”

“Stay strong, Daytona.”

Tae-Sung decided to give him some time—time to mourn and heal.

The Rabbit Foot of Regression would still be there when, and if, he needed it.

For now, rushing things would only deepen the wounds tormenting Daytona, and trying to force things could result in an outcome that would be irreversible, even with a Universal-rated artifact.

***

Tae-Sung stepped out of Daytona’s hospital room and headed to a nearby cafe. With a warm cup of coffee in hand, he finally had a moment of quiet for himself.

‘In the end, it’s all just an illusion. Daytona’s right. It doesn’t matter if I own the game or not—they’re not real.’

He couldn’t deny Daytona’s words, as it was the undeniable truth. Everyone knew that virtual reality was not real, and it only felt that way because people wanted to believe that it was real.

Accepting that simple fact that the very thing they loved was not real was the hard part.

However, Tae-Sung’s thoughts went further than that.

‘So what if it’s an illusion? There’s an end to reality, too. One day, we will have to say goodbye to our parents, children, friends, and everyone else. If I let the fear of the inevitable stop me, then what can I do?’

He was not about to abandon everything just because he feared saying goodbye to the NPCs.

‘I’ll keep going. Yeah, the day when it will all disappear will eventually come, but if I live worrying about that, then how could I live at all?’

Different people had different ways to cope and survive. Daytona had made his choice, and Tae-Sung respected that. However, he had a different approach to the issue. Even if he couldn’t truly grasp Daytona’s pain, as he had never lost someone precious to him, he knew what he wanted for himself.

“Let’s go.”

He left the cafe and climbed into the car where his head bodyguard was waiting behind the wheel.

“Where to, sir?”

“Drive around for a bit. I just want some air.”

“Understood.”

As the car pulled away from the curb, Tae-Sung leaned back and stared out the window at the city passing by.

The gap between reality and virtual reality was a dilemma that plagued every gamer in this age.

Unfortunately, he knew that there would be no easy solution to it.

***

Meanwhile, Lee Geon and his fanatics were becoming extremely active, and they began their first operation. However, Lee Geon knew that he couldn’t start a guild. A guild was nothing more than a giant target on his back.

A guild emblem would basically be the same as putting up a neon sign on his back.

It was only a matter of time before Siegfried came looking for revenge, so instead of gathering his fanatics in one place, Lee Geon sent them across the continent to act as lone wolves.

Each one received different orders, letting them spread out like a plague.

What were their orders?

Their orders were simply—to indiscriminately massacre the NPCs.

“P-Please! Spare me!”

“Eh? Spare you? Spare what? You’re not even real. You’re just a pile of code! Kekeke! Die!”

“N-No! Aaack!”

Lee Geon’s fanatics swept throughout the continent, targeting the defenseless towns and villages inhabited by NPCs that were incapable of defending themselves.

The nations on the continent had taken a huge blow after the numerous consecutive wars that raged, leaving the rural places defenseless and ripe for exploitation.

Of course, Lee Geon and his fanatics did not stop there.

They smashed down statues, too, specifically the statues of Siegfried.

Why? It was all Lee Geon knew that Siegfried could appear through them at any moment, so it was better to destroy every single one of them.

While the slaughter raged on, Siegfried logged in and convened a long-overdue emergency meeting of the Head Crusher Guild.

The recent string of terror attacks on him and his comrades had reached a boiling point, and he needed countermeasures against them.

The meeting began with fury from the guild members.

“That son of a bitch! I’m going to gut him myself!”

“That fucking bastard!”

“Let’s wipe out every single last one of ’em!”

Thousands of guild members packed into the massive hall and voiced their outrage. If Lee Geon had been in that room, they would have torn him to shreds, leaving nothing but scraps.

Their fury had already transformed into a swarm of hornets, ready to sting at any given moment.

‘This is bad…’ Siegfried realized how dire the situation really was after seeing their reaction.

They would just be dancing to Lee Geon’s tune if they couldn’t calm down, as Lee Geon was feeding on the negative emotions of people

What they needed right now was to remain calm and devise a strategy.

Thus, Siegfried decided to step up to the podium.

“Okay, everyone. Take a deep breath and calm down.”

After the grumbling settled, Siegfried continued.

“Listen. I know you’re all furious. And so am I. But that bastard and his lapdogs don’t have a base or a flag we can tear down, which means we can’t go after them no matter how enraged we are. So for now, we stick together in squads when we move. Nobody goes solo, understood?”

It was far from a perfect solution, but this was the best he could do for now.

“In the meantime, I will mobilize the Proatine Empire’s intelligence network to track them down. For now, try to be patient and bear with it.”

Everyone nodded in response. They knew as well as Siegfried did that they couldn’t storm a base that did not exist. Until they had solid intel about the enemy, their desire for revenge couldn’t be satisfied.

‘We need information first,’ Siegfried thought and turned to Ninetail.

“You know who Beowulf is, right?” he asked.

“Of course,” she replied with a shrug.

“Use every informant we’ve got. Dig up anything on Beowulf and anyone working with him.”

“As you command.”

“Find anyone who so much as lifts a finger for him and mark them. And when the time comes, wipe them out too. No questions, no mercy.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”

Ninetail knew exactly how enraged Siegfried was and decided not to argue.

‘We will let them think they’re winning. We will watch and keep watching… And then, when they think they’re safe… we will clean them all up in one fell swoop,’ Siegfried thought.

Of course, even that would not be enough. This time, their enemies were not NPCs, after all but were Adventurers.

Siegfried could kill them as many times as he wanted, but they would just respawn.

Wipe them out today, and they would be back tomorrow again.

‘There’s only one way to get rid of them.’

Siegfried could only think of one way to restrain an Adventurer, and that was the method used by the NPCs to imprison an Adventurer indefinitely.

Unfortunately, the Proatine Empire didn’t possess the technology for that, as it was a closely guarded secret of the NPCs.

Siegfried would have access to it if he were an NPC, as he was the emperor of the Proatine Empire. However, as an Adventurer ruling an empire, there was no way he would have access to it.

In the end, there was only one hope for him to get his hands on that technology.

If Emperor Stuttgart, the ruler of the Marchioni Empire and the de facto supreme ruler of the entire continent, approved and allowed him access to that technology, then he would be able to use it to put an end to this mess once and for all.

‘I have to go see him.’

Thus, Siegfried had to go pay a visit to Emperor Stuttgart.

He had to go see him to claim his quest reward, so he decided that he might as well go and obtain the power to end Lee Geon once and for all.