Debuff Master - Chapter 1178

Chapter 1178

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

Siegfried swallowed the potion that was poured into his mouth.

“Ughh…”

He barely managed to recover his HP thanks to Hamchi’s quick action of pouring a potion into his mouth.

If Hamchi had been just one second late, then Siegfried’s HP would have hit zero, resulting in his death.

“Kyuuu! Are you all right, owner punk?!”

“No, I’m not okay.”

Siegfried couldn’t get up.

While his HP had recovered, his Stamina was still drained, so he didn’t have the strength to lift even a finger.

“Ughh…”

Siegfried pulled out the Infinite Flask from his Inventory and chugged it down.

“Kyuuu! You really almost died, owner punk!”

“Yeah, man. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you.”

“Don’t worry! Hamchi will protect owner punk! Kyuuu!”

“Thanks.”

Even though he was the last man standing, he looked downtrodden.

‘I lost the fight.’

He admitted to himself that he had lost the fight against Lee Geon.

Strictly speaking, he hadn’t lost, as Lee Geon ended up dying first. However, Siegfried would have died a few seconds after him if Hamchi had not been there, so it was technically a draw.

‘He overpowered me completely. I would have been crushed and killed without Nine Steps to Invincibility.’

Siegfried refrained from using any victory speeches to fool and comfort himself. This was an outcome he refused to accept.

‘I don’t think I’ll win if we fight again in the future…’

If he wanted to beat Lee Geon, then he would have to level up his Invincible Spear Art even further. Not only that, he would also need to level up Nine Steps to Invincibility and be able to kill his enemies in fewer hits.

The biggest problem was…

‘That Devouring Grand Art… It’s an insanely broken skill,’ Siegfried couldn’t think of a way to counter it. Until he figured out how to counter the Devouring Grand Art, obtaining an overwhelming win against Lee Geon seemed impossible.

How could he do that against someone who could devour every type of energy and skills used against him? Not only that, Lee Geon could even copy the skill and throw it back at Siegfried.

As if that wasn’t broken enough, Lee Geon was a genius with a god-given gift for gaming.

‘I have to get stronger,’ Siegfried thought. He accepted what was basically his first defeat since becoming the Debuff Master, and he resolved to push himself harder than ever.

‘The next time we face off… I’ll be different. Just you wait.’

Still, the fight wasn’t for naught.

At the very least, he experienced Lee Geon’s true strength firsthand and learned about his skills, too.

‘I can’t let him have anything nearby to absorb whether it’s an enemy or an ally. I have to face him one-on-one without anyone else around us. Otherwise, he’ll just feed on everything and become even stronger.’

Siegfried replayed the whole fight in his mind while waiting for his HP and Stamina to recover.

He extracted the video recording of the fight and analyzed every single move, both his and Lee Geon’s moves, to pinpoint the reason behind his defeat.

Meanwhile, his HP and Stamina recovered enough for him to stand back up on his feet.

“What the hell…?” Siegfried muttered, staring down at Lee Geon’s corpse.

Not a single random loot had dropped upon Lee Geon’s death.

Anyone who died near Siegfried was supposed to drop their three most valuable items by default, but Lee Geon hadn’t dropped anything.

‘Does he have some passive skill that protects him from the penalties upon death?’ he wondered.

However, that was not the only thing that didn’t add up.

‘How come the greatsword is shattered?’

He couldn’t figure out why Lee Geon’s massive greatsword was broken into pieces. The Nine Steps to Invincibility had killed Lee Geon instantly, but the greatsword hadn’t taken a direct hit.

Then, why was it shattered and in pieces?

‘Was its durability already low?’

His questions did not stop there.

‘Is something like the Devouring Grand Art even possible? His mana hall shouldn’t be able to hold out if he mindlessly absorbs many different energy sources with contrasting properties…’

This was a problem that Siegfried once faced. The different energy sources within him had ended up clashing, damaging his mana hall. Hence, he ended up creating a new energy source to adapt to it.

However, Lee Geon’s Devouring Grand Art flat-out ignored that rule. It defied every bit of common sense that Siegfried knew.

‘I’ll have to ask Master about this…’

In the end, he decided to ask Deus about the matter and put it at the back of his mind until then.

“Let’s go clean up the village, Hamchi.”

“Kyuuu! Roger that!”

And so, the first clash between Siegfried and Lee Geon ended in a draw, with neither side emerging victorious.

***

“I… I lost…?” Lee Geon mumbled in disbelief. He had climbed out of his VR Capsule after being forcefully logged out of the game upon his death.

He had been dominating Siegfried from start to finish and was about to finish him off, but he was killed by a ridiculous skill at the last very second.

The whole thing felt like a sham orchestrated by the game against him.

However, his disbelief did not last long.

“How dare… a lowly piece of shit like you…”

A growl like that of a beast slipped from his lips.

The next instant—

Baaam!

He grabbed a chair next to him and smashed it at the VR capsule.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Lee Geon raged, slamming the chair on the VR capsule again and again.

“You piece of shit! How dare you?! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

He couldn’t see it any other way. He had lost. Even if Siegfried had ended up dying right afterward, the fact that he had died first meant that he was the loser.

He had been crushing Siegfried throughout the entire battle, but none of that mattered to him. What he wanted was an overwhelming victory that would force everyone to acknowledge that he was the clear victor, not this half-baked outcome.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Roaring like a madman, he smashed his VR capsule worth millions with the chair in his hands until his rage finally subsided.

Lee Geon held immense pride in his gaming talent, so defeat was something he refused to accept. Thus, the anger raging from inside him was beyond words.

Perhaps that was the reason why, but…

“Just you wait, Han Tae-Sung. I’m going to make sure you understand exactly where you belong the next time we meet.”

The rage and fury seething in Lee Geon’s gut went far beyond anything he had ever experienced before. He had been toying with Han Tae-Sung for fun, as if he were playing with a squirming bug.

Today, that would change. Han Tae-Sung had cracked open Lee Geon’s pride, so playtime was officially over.

“How dare that filthy piece of shit go against me. I’m going to crush him. I’m going to break him completely.”

Burning with venomous determination, Lee Geon gnashed his teeth while thinking of Han Tae-Sung. Ironically, as different as they were, both Siegfried and Lee Geon thought they were the one who lost the fight.

Both refused to settle with such a result, and both swore that the next time they faced each other, there would be no doubt about who the winner was.

***

Tae-Sung stepped away from BNW for a while after the fight with Lee Geon. After logging out from the game, he replayed the footage recorded over and over again, analyzing every second of his clash with Lee Geon.

The fight taught Tae-Sung a lot of things. He honestly believed that there was no other Adventurer who could rival him since he became the main protagonist of BNW.

However, facing a genius like Lee Geon humbled him quickly, and it made him realize that he had to push himself harder as well as to refrain from being too arrogant.

In other words, that match became a turning point for Han Tae-Sung to look in the mirror and grow stronger.

However, the people’s reactions were nothing but positive, unlike Tae-Sung’s harsh critique of himself.

“Whoa! You really won by that slim of a margin? That’s insane, hyung-nim!”

“You’re really amazing, Han Tae-Sung. You really beat Lee Geon?”

“Amazing, oppa!”

Everyone was blown away by the fact that Tae-Sung managed to beat a genius gamer like Lee Geon, regardless of whether he won by a hair’s breadth or not.

Lee Geon’s name was that big. For more than a decade, no one had ever managed to break his undefeated record. He had been reigning supreme in the gaming world, and no one had ever come close to defeating him.

Someone had finally defeated him, so it wasn’t a surprise that everyone thought that Tae-Sung had done something incredible.

Perhaps that was the reason why Lee Geon hadn’t uploaded the footage of the battle to his G-Tube Channel; he also said nothing about who had won or who had lost.

Anyone who asked about the result of their battle was instantly kicked out of the stream, and they were blacklisted forever from Lee Geon’s channel.

As a result, rumors swirled around.

[Hot Issue: Han Tae-Sung vs Lee Geon! Who Won?]

[V-Sports: Why are both silent…?]

[Column: What Happened That Day?]

Even major news outlets published articles about the silence on their main pages.

[Kimddokkang: I just know bro won. Don’t ask me which bro, though.]

[SYP: Please tell us what happened…]

[JehyeonAhn: Hey, you won, right?]

[LastRiceCake: Please tell me you didn’t lose to that troll!]

Tae-Sung’s G-Tube Channel and social media accounts were flooded with tens of thousands of comments and DMs asking the same question.

Just like Lee Geon, Tae-Sung stayed silent, too.

The outcome had been far too messy, so it would only stir up more controversy if he were to say something.

‘I’m sure Lee Geon feels the same. He doesn’t think that he won either. That’s why he didn’t upload the video and has decided to go quiet,’ Tae-Sung thought. He realized that Lee Geon was probably thinking just like him, so he decided to stay silent as well.

Neither of them could accept the fight’s outcome, and there was nothing to gain by telling the world about it, so it somehow turned into an unspoken agreement.

While the whole world was going crazy with curiosity over the clash between the two titans…

“Let’s go, Seol-Hwa.”

“Okay, oppa.”

Tae-Sung headed for the airport with Yong Seol-Hwa.

He had promised her they would go on a trip to Europe once the Coral Planet Expedition wrapped up. He thought of going to clear his head while keeping his promise at the same time.

Once they got to the private airport terminal, they checked into their flight and were just about to board his private jet when a thought popped up in Tae-Sung’s head.

“Hey, Seol-Hwa,” Tae-Sung called out to her. Then, he asked, “Did you even tell your family? I just realized I never asked you about that. Two weeks is a long time, even if it’s a vacation. Won’t your parents worry?”

“Don’t worry, oppa. I explained everything to them, and they gave me permission,” Yong Seol-Hwa replied with a smile.

“Really?”

“Yup!”

“That’s a relief…?”

For some reason, Tae-Sung couldn’t shake the feeling that she was lying.

‘Hey, you little punk! Where do you think you’re taking my daughter?! I won’t allow it! Over my dead body! No way! She’s not spending a single night with you! You hear me, punk?!’

He couldn’t help but imagine Yong Tae-Pung’s reaction, as he was famous for doting on his daughter. Tae-Sung then realized that there was no way that old man would allow his daughter to go overseas for two weeks, especially with her boyfriend.

‘Did she… sneak out without permission…?’

He cast a doubtful glance at her when suddenly—

“Wait! How many times do I have to say it?! My daughter is inside! I said I’ll pay you! Just let me through!”

—A familiar voice echoed from the check-in area far behind them.

“Huh?” Tae-Sung tilted his head in confusion. Then, he turned and asked, “Hey, Seol-Hwa? That voice… it sounds kinda familiar, no?”

“Nope, it’s not,” Yong Seol-Hwa cut him off. Then, she smiled and said, “Just your imagination, oppa. You’re imagining it.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go.”

“No, really. He sounds exactly like your dad—”

“I said, you’re imagining it,” she said, grabbing his hand and dragging him toward the private jet. Then, she smiled and said, “We will be late. Come on, hurry.”

“But I swear that was your dad’s voice—”

“It’s not,” she said, interrupting him again. This time, her smile turned scary.

With that, she dragged him—no, she threw him into the private jet.

“Please take off. Now.”

Yong Seol-Hwa pressed the pilot to depart immediately.

Thanks to that, the private jet they were in taxied in a rush and took off, soaring for Europe.