Debuff Master

The quest details appeared in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Destroy the Suspicious Altar]

[Destroy one of the altars set by the Church of Osric across the continent.]

[Progress: 0% (0/1)]

[Reward: Level +3]

[Altars]

[Northern Region - Great Woods Altar]

[Central Region - Sky Fortress Altar]

[Southwestern Region - Black Desert Altar]

[Western Region - Mount Kunlun Altar]

[Eastern Region - Sky Tower Altar]

[Warning: This quest must be cleared within 30 days.]

“It’s related to the Church of Osric?” Siegfried asked after checking the quest details.

“Yeah,” Cheon Woo-Jin nodded in response.

“But what about it? The game will get ruined just because they built some altars?”

“That’s what I initially thought too, but…” Cheon Woo-Jin said before he took out a small crystal ball the size of a baseball from his inventory. The crystal ball was letting out a red glow that looked quite sinister for some reason.

“This is the problem.”

“What’s that?”

“Crystal Ball of Destruction.”

“Crystal Ball of… Destruction? Let me take a look,” Siegfried said as he flashed his Rune of Insight at it.

[Crystal Ball of Destruction]

[An artifact created by a Great Seer in ancient times.]

[It will glow red if the world is in danger, and it will show the cause behind it.]

[Type: Crystal Ball]

[Rating: Epic]

[Note: You could gain insight into future incidents if you analyze what the crystal ball shows you.]

“Look here,” Cheon Woo-Ji said as he brought the crystal ball closer and asked, “You can see the Church of Osric’s symbol, right?”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“And also something that looks like an altar.”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t tell for sure, but I’m certain that those guys are definitely plotting something to wreak havoc on the continent.”

“Hmm…”

“It’s going to be problematic if the game we all enjoy gets ruined by them, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Siegfried nodded in agreement, but then he asked, “But do you really think they’re going to let it be? I mean, isn’t this game the beehive\'s main source of income?”

BNW was currently dominating the virtual reality gaming industry. However, a mere quest would actually ruin a game. It didn\'t make sense at all. The backlash was definitely going to be immense as well. It was highly likely that the beehive’s stocks were going to plummet, and the livelihood of the gamers who had been relying on the game would be affected as well.

“That would be the case for other companies, but it’s different with the beehive, right? What do you think the beehive is going to do if this world gets destroyed and they have to stop the game?”

“No idea?”

“Season two.”

“S-Season two?!”

“They will probably reset the game.”

Wham!

Siegfried looked as if he had been struck by a hammer.

Reset? BNW was going to start from scratch?

“Hey, no way—“

“Nope, I’m confident they will reset it.”

“How do you know?”

“Do you even know how this game was created?”

“They invested money, hired developers, and coded it?”

Cheon Woo-Jin shook his head and replied, “No, this game was created by artificial intelligence.”

“S-Serious?!”

“Well, it did start with the developers creating a primitive planet, but what happened after that was what was really important.”

“W-What happened?”

“The artificial intelligence sped up time.”

“…!”

“Civilization repeatedly flourished and was destroyed by the artificial intelligence as it sped time up, and it stopped once it judged it to be the most optimal timing. That timing is the current world we have descended to as Adventurers.”

“That means…”

Siegfried immediately knew what Cheon Woo-Jin meant.

The beehive was not going to lose anything even if the world BNW was set in was destroyed, as they could easily create another world by using the primitive planet they kept as their backup and let the artificial intelligence work on it again.

“Do you know why the beehive doesn’t get involved in the game? Because they don’t really have to do so. I mean, why would they do that when the artificial intelligence does it on its own? They won’t suffer at all even if this world gets destroyed.”

“You’re right…”

“They’ll probably go; that’s it for season one! We will launch Brave New World season two next week!”

Siegfried realized that the developer and distributor of BNW, Hive Games Entertainment, was a scary company that would not bat an eye even if their extremely popular game went bust overnight.

“Also, if this world gets destroyed and they open season two, then—“ Cheon Woo-Jin said.

Siegfried continued his words, “It will be different. The artificial intelligence won’t do the exact same thing, and the numerous variables are going to add up. In other words, season two is going to be an entirely different world.”

Cheon Woo-Jin nodded and said, “Bingo. So if you want to continue playing the same game… then you have to stop the destruction of this world.”

“Yeah, I have to stop it.”

Siegfried had no plans to stop playing the game. He could not afford to quit the game now that he had a foxy wife, Brunhilde—who was actually not so foxy. He even had a beautiful bunny-like daughter—who was cuter than a bunny, Verdandi.

“So you better give this quest your all. Got it?”

“You don’t have to tell me that. But why me? I’m sure there are better gamers you could entrust this quest to. Isn’t entrusting this quest to them the smarter choice?”

“I’m planning to?”

“What?”

“There are others aside from you.”

“…”

“There are five altars, right? I’m planning to entrust each altar to the Adventurers I trust, and you’re one of them.”

“Oh…”

“So, which altar do you want? You can choose anywhere except the Sky Tower Al—“

“Sky Tower,” Siegfried replied even before hearing Cheon Woo-Jin out.

***

“No.”

Cheon Woo-Jin flatly refused.

“Don’t you know you can’t enter that place?”

“So?”

“I have no idea how the Church of Osric entered the Sky Tower, but I’m still searching for a way to get in there, so choose somewhere else.”

“But I don’t want to~” Siegfried coyly replied and said with an extremely annoying and punchable face, “I’m going to go to the Sky Tower~”

“Hey! Cut it out!” Cheon Woo-Jin screamed with obvious annoyance in his voice, and then he added, “I already told you! It’s not possible to get in there. How do you plan to go there? Just go to the Sky Fortress. That’s probably the easiest one.”

“Nope~ I’m going to the Sky Tower~”

“It’s impossible to get in there. Even we are suffering because of—“

Clink! Clink!

Siegfried waved a key in front of Cheon Woo-Jin’s face.

“What’s that?”

“Geez~ I wonder what this is?” Siegfried said with an arrogant smirk.

“N-No way…”

“Are you raising a flag now?”

“How did you find that?”

“I have my ways~”

“Hey! Do you have any idea just how much time we spent looking for that?! We searched the entire continent just to—“

“Tsk tsk… How incompetent…”

“…!”

“Were you struggling just because of this one key? Tsk, tsk, tsk…”

Siegfried acted high and mighty even though he only managed to obtain the key out of sheer luck.

“I’m going here, so send someone else to that Sky Fortress or Mattress.”

“…”

“I’m going to accept the quest now~”

Siegfried pressed the Select button and tapped on the Eastern Region – Sky Tower Altar on the quest screen.

[Alert: Would you like to accept the Quest – Destroy the Suspicious Altar: Sky Tower?]

[Alert: YES!]

[Alert: You have accepted the Quest – Destroy the Suspicious Altar: Sky Tower!]

Siegfried accepted the quest and made his way to the Sky Tower to destroy the altar that the Church of Osric had put up there.

***

However, he didn\'t immediately make his way to the Sky Tower.

“I need to broadcast this.”

The Sky Tower was a mysterious place that no other Adventurer had ever stepped foot in, and somebody stepping foot in it meant that a new Named Dungeon was going to open. This was the reason Siegfried was confident that viewers would flood into his channel if he were to broadcast the Sky Tower for the first time in BNW’s history.

It also meant that…

‘I’m going to rack in quite a lot of donations!’

Having a lot of viewers was automatically going to translate to more earnings, and this was another reason he was going to broadcast this time, even though he rarely broadcasted.

‘I should hire one or two part-timers to manage the chat…’

Siegfried logged out and hired part-timers to manage his chat room, and he logged back into the game to make his way to the Sky Tower.

“Your Majesty, we have finished imprisoning the prisoners,” Oscar reported.

“Oh?”

“Would you like to go have a look?”

“Sure.”

Siegfried followed Oscar to the dungeon in the castle basement.

The prisoners were the White Cardinal, Carlisle, and the followers of the Church of Osric.

“Aaaargh!”

“Kwaaaaah!”

“Ack! Aaaaaah!”

Screams of agony could be heard reverberating from the dungeon.

“Is it over there?” Siegfried asked.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Oscar replied.

“Let’s go.”

They walked about five hundred meters.

“Whoa…” Siegfried gasped after seeing a bright fire illuminating the dungeon.

Fwaaah! Fwaaaah!

What surprised Siegfried was that the fire was ablaze from humans and not wood, and they were none other than Carlisle and the White Cardinal tied to iron frames while getting scorched.

The sentence Siegfried handed them was not death by burning. A person burned to death would experience pain for a short while before immediately succumbing to their wounds, which made it not the ideal punishment.

What Siegfried had in store for them was quite different, as neither Carlisle nor the White Cardinal died despite their bodies being burned by the flames. A metal hose continuously supplying top-tier healing potion was embedded into their chest, and this prevented them from succumbing to the flames.

How long was this going to go on for?

Until Siegfried was satisfied…

“Aaack! P-Please! Kill me! PLEAAASEE!”

“J-Just kill me now! KILL MEEE!”

Carlisle and the White Cardinal begged for death, but Siegfried did not bat an eye at their pleas.

“I already told you. You’re going to beg for death,” Siegfried said before he flashed a smile that would send chills down the spines of hardened warriors and added, “I’ll consider releasing you guys after you rot for fifty years here.”

“P-Please! No!”

“Have a nice day,” Siegfried said as he turned around and left.

However, what he had in mind as he walked away was quite different.

‘You’re going to stay here until the day the game server closes.’

He was prepared to be cruel and cold toward those who had dared to abduct his daughter, Verdandi.

***

On that same afternoon, Siegfried finally left for the Sky Tower together with his comrades.

[Eastern Region Ancient Ruin: In front of Sky Tower]

A message popped up in front of his eyes when he arrived at the Sky Tower.

“Wow… This thing is really tall…” Siegfried grimaced as he looked up at the tower that seemed to continue on forever. It was mentioned in the legends of the continent that the Sky Tower was created by the ancient people to reach the celestial realm.

“Hmm… I guess I should turn it on now,” Siegfried muttered as he looked at his watch.

It was currently 4:54 pm…

The viewers were probably waiting in his channel’s lobby since he had posted a teaser announcement video of his plans to livestream at five in the afternoon.

‘There should be at least ten thousand people.’

This was his first time live streaming, but he was confident that the Sky Tower was enough of a content for him to gather at least ten thousand viewers.

‘Was this how you do it?’ he wondered as he pressed Record on the interface and tapped Livestream to connect it to G-Tube.

[Alert: You are live!]

The moment the broadcast went live…

—SP00112: 1

—SgtMaggot: 2

—xxINK96: 1

—Fetish6969: 11111

—An28: Hi, hi!

—RoundRound: Oh, was I too late?

Some of the viewers were quick to enter to claim first place, but the viewer counter showed no signs of stopping.

55… 574… 3,112… 12,212… and 45,531.

‘F-Forty-five thousand?!’ Siegfried was stunned after seeing the viewer count.

He never imagined in his wildest dreams that he would get forty-five thousand viewers in less than a minute after he had switched on his livestream. However, the truly shocking part was that the counter did not stop there. One hundred thousand, one hundred fifty thousand, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand…

The viewer count was increasing at a rapid pace until it reached impossible figures.

‘W-Where are all these people coming from?!’

The number on the counter was so high that even the streamer himself, Siegfried, could not believe what he was seeing.