Debuff Master

Two days later, the Obliteration Effect that started from Area 9 slowly spread over to the other areas, and Siegfried followed it, looting every area it passed through.

Aside from Area 8, Area 12, and the closed Area 13, Siegfried had already looted the nine other areas.

A message popped up in front of him.

[Alert: Your Inventory is full!]

Siegfried’s looting filled his Inventory to the brim.

“Ah… Tsk…?but I only picked up the good ones…” he muttered while clicking his tongue.

He had to leave behind the cheaper ones in favor of the more expensive items since his inventory could no longer accommodate any more items.

“Let’s focus on the really expensive ones from now on and ignore the average ones…”

Siegfried grumbled at the fact that he could not sweep everything up because of his limited Inventory space, and he was kicking himself for not expanding his Inventory space before coming here.

“Still… This much should…” he trailed off while looking at his Inventory with eyes filled with hope.

If he could safely leave this island and sell off all of these items…

Debt?

He could kiss that goodbye.

In fact, he would have two to three hundred million won left after paying off his upcoming tax bill next year.

‘I can pay for Tae-Hee’s tuition center and her university tuition with this amount. Then, I’ll buy some nice herbal medicine for Mom and move them to a nice house,’?he thought.

It was possible to get a decent small-sized apartment with two to three million won in the province. After all, the housing prices over there weren’t as high as in Seoul.

Meanwhile, while Siegfried was happily walking on a rosy path…

[Alert: ‘Evangan’ has died!]

[Alert: ‘Alrayyan’ has died!]

[Alert: ‘Itzykirk’ has died!]

The news of the participants’ deaths continued to pop up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

‘I think I’ve picked up most of the things here,’?he thought as he hopped on a half-destroyed steel horse. The steel horse’s durability was less than thirty percent, and he found it while he was roaming around the closed-off areas.

‘The remaining areas are Area 8 and Area 12. Area 13 hasn’t opened yet so I can stay here for a while and move on to the first area that gets closed off,’?he recalled the information being broadcasted around the island a while ago as he parked the steel horse in front of the boundary to Area 8.

Then…

“Euaaaaaaak!”?

Someone’s scream echoed through the air.

***

‘Was that scream from Area 8?’?Siegfried wondered. He carefully peeked into Area 8 to see what was going on and saw a lone Adventurer surrounded by a group of Adventurers.

‘What? Why don’t they just kill him?’?Siegfried grimaced while watching over the scene.

Siegfried was disturbed by the scene because the Adventurer who screamed—no—was still screaming was being ganged up so badly it started to look like he was being lynched.

“You piece of trash!”

“Take this, you bastard.”

“You dirty little scum.”

“You dare stand up against us? Know your place! You loser from a tiny country!”

“Never go against us! We are the largest country in the world!”

The assailants were wearing red bandanas just like the group who tried to gang up on Siegfried, and Siegfried was able to tell at a single glance that they were Chinese gamers.

‘What do you expect? Those bastards only act tough in groups,’?Siegfried thought while clicking his tongue.

It seemed that the game had brought out their darkest trait. There was nothing wrong with that. After all, everyone had one or two bad traits, but their actions toward the lone Adventurer lying on the ground could only be described as heinous.

“Pull out his fingernails!”

“Shave his head! Keke!?Shave it!”

“Hihi!”

“You better cough up all of your items, you Bangzi!”

There was no problem if they just killed the Adventurer off, but the group didn’t do that. Instead, they kept on mocking and torturing him. In fact, one of them took the Adventurer’s dagger and started cutting his hair with it.

‘That has nothing to do with me…’?

Siegfried decided not to get involved. After all, the tournament was a melee free-for-all. Even though he found the group’s actions to be distasteful and repulsive, he was still a third party, so he didn’t really have a reason to get involved.

“I… I have to survive! I have to survive no matter what! Come and fight me, you bastards!” the Adventurer being lynched screamed at the top of his lungs.

Surprisingly, the Adventurer didn’t give up on his survival. He tried to resist his assailants.

Was he all talk?

Yes, he was… ｂ𝚎ｄｎ𝚘ｖ𝚎𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

However, the Adventurer seemed unfazed by his powerlessness as he continued to resist. Siegfried was reminded of someone he knew while he was looking at the struggling Adventurer…

‘It feels like I’m looking at my old self…’?Siegfried thought. He couldn’t help but recall the days when he used to fight against the Genesis Guild.

‘Ah… I shouldn’t…’?

Siegfried tightly clenched his fist and suppressed the desire to get involved.

Step…

However, he was subconsciously walking toward Area 8’s barrier.

***

Whoosh!

A mace flew from out of nowhere, and the mace’s name was Golem’s Rock Fist.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The mace smashed the assailants in the head one by one.

Thud! Thud! Thud!?

Five of the assailants immediately fell to the ground, and there was only one of them left in the blink of an eye.

“W-What’s going on?!” the final assailant exclaimed in surprise at the sudden turn of events.

Siegfried wearing Camouflage Cape appeared like a ghost behind the final assailant, and what happened afterward was obvious.

Pukeok!

Golem’s Rock Fist smashed the final assailant’s head. Now, there were six dead Adventurers and six dropped items on the floor. Aside from the deceased and their items, there was one more Adventurer—the lynching victim Siegfried saved.

Siegfried inspected the items dropped by the assailants, but he found that they weren’t really valuable.

Seuk…

He raised his mace at the remaining Adventurer while thinking, ‘this is better than being tortured.’

All along, he had been planning to administer the coup de grace to the Adventurer.

“N… No…!” the Adventurer named Seung-Gu cried out like a wounded beast.

[Seung-Gu]

[Type: Adventurer]

[Level: 81]

[Class: Golem Maker]

[Titles: Site Leader, Construction Site Maestro, Skilled Administrator.]

Seung-Gu was a ‘Golem Maker,’ but his golems were nowhere to be found.

“I can’t die here like this! Never! Come at me!” Seung-Gu screamed and glared at Siegfried, but his character could no longer fight as both his HP and stamina were already close to rock bottom.

It was pretty admirable for him to fight until his character was incapacitated, and Siegfried couldn’t help but wonder why he wanted to go to such an extent.

‘What is he fighting for?’

Huff… Huff…?

Seung-Gu tried to look for whatever way he could use to block Siegfried’s attack.

“Why? Why do you keep fighting?” Siegfried asked.

“Because I have to survive…” Seung-Gu replied.

“I’m asking you why…”

“I don’t have a reason to tell you…”

“Then, die,” Siegfried nonchalantly said. He prepared to swing his mace down.

“Euaaaaak!”?Seung-Gu gritted his teeth and screamed. He wanted to dodge Siegfried’s mace.

“I’ll ask you for the final time. Why do you have to survive?” Siegfried asked after stopping his mace halfway.

“W-Will you spare me if I tell you?” Seung-Gu nervously asked.

“Who knows?” Siegfried replied with a shrug.

It was not difficult for Siegfried to spare him.

Why?

Because he wasn’t a participant in this tournament.

“My mom’s… operation fee,” Seung-Gu said in a weak voice, and then he further elaborated, “My mom has to receive bone marrow transplant surgery, but there’s no match. We have to buy them from overseas, but it’s quite expensive…”

“Stop with the sob story,” Siegfried said with a grimace.

It was pretty obvious to him that the guy was just trying to weasel his way out with a sob story. It would be much more believable for him if he said something like “I want to be the best in this game”?or something.

“Why did you even ask if you won’t believe me? Asshole…” Seung-Gu grumbled before saying, “I’m not some ungrateful bastard who’s going to lie about his own mother’s condition. What kind of a bastard says such things about their mother just for a game?”

“Hmm…” Siegfried muttered. However, he was still staring at Seung-Gu with a look full of doubt.

“This is my social media account and my katalk ID…” Seung-Gu said as he opened his social media apps and showed them to Siegfried.

‘Is it true?’?Siegfried wondered. He checked the Adventurer’s social media account while keeping his guard up.

‘Ah…’?He was able to confirm that Seung-Gu was indeed telling the truth.

It was impossible for him to make this up since both of the faces in the photos uploaded to the social media account and the face in front of him right now were the same.

「SeungGu1207: I hope my mom can recover soon. I’ll treat her to lots of meat once she recovers!」

「SeungGu1207: Looking for a bone marrow donor! The blood type is… [read more]」

「SeungGu1207: I love you mom??」

Seung-Gu’s social media account was full of pictures of a middle-aged woman, and Siegfried assumed that she was Seung-Gu’s mother. There were many posts wishing her a full recovery.

“I can make enough money to pay my mom’s surgery costs if I win this tournament… that’s why I have to win this,” Seung-Gu said.

“Go,” Siegfried said.

“What?” Seung-Gu asked in disbelief.

“Although you will end up dying soon,” Siegfried added.

He turned around while thinking, ‘Is there a reason for me to kill him myself? He’s going to die anyway…’

He wasn’t the type to show mercy to someone else, but killing someone desperately trying to survive to be able to pay off their mother’s hospital bills didn’t sit well with him.

Ding!

A message popped up, announcing the beginning of the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament finale.

[Alert: All participants may now access Area 13 from now on!]

[Alert: Area 8 and Area 12 will be obliterated and closed off in thirty minutes!]

“You better move fast. You wouldn’t want to get bombarded and die after I spared you, right?” Siegfried nonchalantly said.

“Thank you…” Seung-Gu muttered. He forced himself to stand up. He then toward Siegfried and said, “I will pay you back for your kindness. I will.”

“What kindness are you talking about?” Siegfried said with a smirk.

***

Siegfried went back to one of the closed-off areas after separating from Seung-Gu. There, he waited for the obliteration of Area 8 and Area 12.

However, he stumbled upon someone familiar.

“Why the hell are you here?” Siegfried asked.

It was none other than Cheon Woo-Jin.

Cheon Woo-Jin seemed to have been waiting for Siegfried behind the barrier.

“I wonder why I’m here?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked in response, and then he said, “I came because I was worried about the dude who seemed to have sold his country out in his previous life.”

“Who sold what out?” Siegfried grimaced. He then smirked before saying, “I was sucking this place dry. This place is a land flowing with honey.”

“I know. I came running because I was worried you were going to die, but what a surprise! Whew, this place does smell like sugar,” Cheon Woo-Jin said while pretending to sniff the air.

“How did you get in here? Did you come in here before the tournament started similar to what happened to me?” Siegfried asked.

“I just came here,” Cheon Woo-Jin nonchalantly replied.

“How? The barrier—” Siegfried started.

However, Cheon Woo-Jin cut him off and said, “A barrier like that is… how should I put it? Nothing to me?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?” Siegfried grumbled.

“Of course, I did have to make some concessions. I won’t be able to fight for the next three months,” Cheon Woo-Jin said with a shrug.

“What do you mean?” Siegfried asked while seemingly confused.

“It’s something like that. Anyway, it’s none of your business,” Cheon Woo-Jin said with a mischievous grin.

“By the way, it seems that you managed to escape the Aura of Self-Destruction,” Cheon Woo-Jin said, changing the subject.

“As you can see,” Siegfried replied with a shrug.

“Then… why don’t you just win this tournament since you’re already here?”

Cheon Woo-Jin suggested that Siegfried should just become the winner of the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament.

1. Bangzi is a derogatory term used by Chinese to call Koreans or Ethnic Koreans.

2. Katalk is short for ‘Kakaotalk’ which is South Korea’s largest messenger application.

3. Author originally used the term ‘sucking honey’ which means hitting the jackpot without having to do anything.