CH 214

[Alert: You have obtained ‘Witch’s Platypus Staff’!]

It was at that moment that Siegfried picked up the 398th item that a message popped up in front of him.

Ding!

[Alert: You have gained a new title!]

[Alert: You have gained the title ‘Bald Phoenix!][1]

Siegfried grimaced after checking his new title, ‘What the fuck is a bald phoenix?!’

He could not understand why he kept getting strange names for his titles, and he could not help but suspect that the game’s moderators were doing it on purpose.

However, that did not mean that he did not want the titles as their effects fully made up for their embarrassing names.

[Bald Phoenix]

[An upgraded version of the title Vulture. It is only given to players who have looted more than a thousand dropped items.]

[Type: Title]

[Rating: Legendary]

[Effects: Strength of Phoenix, As Long As It’s Not Me!]

[Strength of Phoenix: Inventory +1,000 kg]

[As Long As It’s Not Me!: Chances of losing a level upon death -50%, Chances of dropping an item upon death -50%]

Increasing the inventory by one kilogram was going to cost more than fifty gold since the cost would increase the higher the inventory volume became, and the fact that the title increased his inventory capacity by a thousand kilograms was truly amazing.

However, the other effect of As Long As It’s Not Me! was even more amazing. Dying was a huge burden for Adventurers, and this title’s effect was basically insurance against death, which was simply awesome.

‘Y-Yeah… Who cares if it doesn’t look cool as long as it works…’ Siegfried consoled himself by repeatedly telling himself that a strong and sturdy product was much better than something that looked cool but would break down often.

‘Yes! A man shouldn’t care about looks! So what? I’m benefiting from it! I mean, look at these options! How amazing is it? Hahaha!’ he exclaimed inwardly.

But why was it that…

Plop…! Plop…! Plop…! 

…tears were streaming down his face?

There were times when looks mattered more than practicality, and a good example of that was the Vampire Lord.

Why?

He was extremely strong, but he made himself look like a complete piece of trash pedophile by asking for young boys and girls, right?

‘I’m going to kill that fucking pervert!’ Siegfried gnashed his teeth and directed his anger from his embarrassing title to the Vampire Lord.

“Hey, Hamchi!”

“Kyu!”

“Let’s hurry up and pick everything! We don’t have time!”

“Alright! Kyu! Huff! Huff! Kyu! Huff! Huff!”

Siegfried and Hamchi kicked it up a notch and swept across the plains picking up the dropped items.

***

“…?”

Chae Hyung-Seok’s face was covered with question marks after witnessing the entire Genesis Guild being wiped out by an unknown ability. Min-Woo’s channel soon turned gray, and large red letters spelling DEAD appeared on the screen.

‘Han Tae-Sung, that fucker…!’ Chae Hyung-Seok realized that the coward, Han Tae-Sung, had probably pulled a fast one on them again.

however, he became even more furious upon realizing that Han Tae-Sung’s cowardice made him shine even brighter after he managed to wipe out the entire Genesis Guild in a matter of a few seconds.

“Urgh… Ugh…! AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” 

Bang!

Chae Hyung-Seok cried out like a beast, and he smashed the tablet PC to the floor.

Thud! Bam! Klang!

He started throwing and destroying everything he could reach in the room.

“AAAAHHHKK! GYAAAAAH! That fucking bashta! Shon ova pitch! Han Tae-Sung! You fook…in… ASSHOLEEEEE!”

Chae Hyung-Seok completely lost all sense of reason and started throwing a fit, even though he still hadn’t recovered from his stroke.

“Shun oba titch! You smother hopper…! F-Fuck…! An inshaect liken zhou dares to.. stnjanuqh fsshaa?! I will killiinszhuu! Foozahin asnnqholle!”

He was trying to say…

‘Son of a bitch! You motherfucker! F-Fuck…! An insect like you dares to stand up against me?! I will kill you! Fucking asshole!’

Of course, he was the only one who could understand what on earth he was saying, as his cries sounded like a wounded beast howling in gibberish to others.

However, there was one thing that anyone would have understood from his cries, and that was his killing intent. A gamer would have the sudden urge to kill someone else from time to time, and Chae Hyung-Seok’s urge to kill Tae-Sung was at an all-time high.

“S-Security! Call security! This patient has gone nuts!”

“Please calm down! Sir! Calm down!”

“Should we send him to the psych ward…?”

The hospital staff tried their best to calm Chae Hyung-Seok down to no avail.

“Sedatives! Get the sedatives! Sedate this patient and send him to the psych ward! Make sure you tell them to isolate him for now and contact his guardian as soon as possible!”

Chae Hyung-Seok was sedated and locked up in isolation after failing to control his anger.

Siegfried had no idea, but he gained another victory over Chae Hyung-Seok.

To read the uncut version, go to pawread dot com.

***

Chae Hyung-Seok wasn’t the only one that fell victim to Siegfried’s ploy.

A few minutes ago…

The Vampire Lord Magnus was anxiously waiting for Siegfried while seated on his Throne of Blood. The Throne of Blood was made from a magical fountain of human blood that somehow solidified whenever Magnus sat on it.

“Luciro.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“How long before the king of my livestock arrives?”

“There is still an hour left, my lord.”

“I see…” Magnus muttered. He licked his lips with his long slithering tongue and said, “I have lived close to an eternity, but this is the first time that time has flowed so slowly…”

“Are you looking forward to it, my lord?”

“I would be lying if I said I’m not. I wouldn’t normally be this anxious, but I’m so thirsty since I just woke up from my slumber…”

“Please be a bit more patient, my lord,” Luciro said with a bow. He tried to placate the Vampire Lord by saying, “The king of the livestock is going to come bearing offerings for my lord soon. And he seems quite the sensible human, so he will probably arrive earlier than promised.”

“Hmm?”

“He is dealing with the great and benevolent Vampire Lord, so I doubt he is going to come right on time. He will definitely come thirty minutes earlier if he truly fears my lord!”

“Do you think so?” Magnus flashed a chilling smile and looked even more anxious. “I hope that is the case. I will definitely acknowledge him if he does that today.”

“He will be grateful for my lord’s abundant grace.”

“I will have no choice but to care for my lamb that brings me quality offerings—”

Boooom!

Magnus was interrupted by a large explosion.

Rumble…!

The castle trembled.

‘It seems that something fell twenty kilometers from here…’ Magnus’ sharp senses allowed him to accurately grasp the exact distance of ground zero from where the castle was located. However, the explosion was far too powerful, and the shockwave it emitted was approaching the castle at great speeds.

‘Meteor? No, Meteor is a powerful spell, but it’s not strong enough to cause this much destruction in one strike… What is it? Wait, perhaps a meteor really did crash?!’ Magnus was shocked at the incoming shockwave.

Khhrwaaaaaaaaaaang!

Three seconds later, the shockwave swallowed the entire Bloody Castle.

The castle was destroyed, and the Vampire Lord could feel himself getting ripped into pieces.

The destruction was caused by a single skill of the Rod of God—the skeleton of Herbert’s final masterpiece. The Scourge of God was so powerful that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a tactical weapon of mass destruction.

Of course, its extremely long cooldown of one year was its biggest drawback.

***

Siegfried picked up all of the items from the Genesis Guild members and immediately ripped a ‘Warp Gate Scroll’ to teleport roughly three kilometers away from the Bloody Castle, where the Proatine Kingdom’s elite forces and roughly five hundred Adventurers were waiting for him.

The kingdom’s elite forces were a formidable bunch. There were numerous named NPCs among them, and the average knights were at least on the level of an Intermediate Sword Expert.

It was the same for the Adventurers. The Adventurers who gathered here today were the ones whom Siegfried was supposed to form a guild to fight against the Genesis Guild.

Siegfried made sure to run a thorough background check on these Adventurers, so he was certain that he could trust them.

‘All right, we should stand a chance against the Vampire Lord with this much firepower,’ Siegfried was satisfied. His army was not as strong as the top ten guilds, but it was still quite formidable.

The commander of the army, Oscar, shouted, “All units! Attention! Salute to His Majesty the King!”

“Loyalty!”

The Proatine Forces shouted at the top of their lungs.

“At rest,” Siegfried replied. He proceeded to give a short speech. “It will be a difficult battle, but we don’t have a choice other than to fight if we want to preserve the peace of our kingdom. I hope that all of you will fight with everything you have for our kingdom.”

The Adventurers were envious of Siegfried.

“Wow… he’s so cool…”

“So you can do that too if you become a king?”

“I think that’s better than being a guild master. NPCs will obey every single bit of your command, but that’s not the case with Adventurers, right?”

“They say it’s better to be the head of a snake than the tail of a dragon… I guess they were right…”

They were jealous at the first Adventurer to become a king on the continent, but little did they know that Siegfried found being a king to be quite the hassle.

“Then, shall we go?” Siegfried said. He turned around and raised his fist into the air before letting loose a battle cry. “Exterminate that arrogant mosquito!”

“WAAAAAAAAAAH!”

The Proatine Forces and the Adventurers shouted at the top of their lungs as they rushed toward the Bloody Castle.

***

A fifty-kilometer-wide crater appeared where the Scourge of God hit, and the remains of the Bloody Castle and the Genesis Guild members were within the crater.

The castle of the fearsome Vampire Lord—the Bloody Castle—could no longer be seen.

However, it wasn’t really strange that it could no longer be seen.

Why?

The Scourge of God had disintegrated every single brick of the castle.

However, not everything in the castle was disintegrated by the explosion.

Whiiiiiik!

A current of blood manifested in the air.

Seuk…! Seureuk…!

The blood current soon formed the silhouette of a man.

Immortality.

The Vampire Lord was an immortal being, and the only way to kill him was to seal or destroy his soul. The evidence of his immortality was the current of blood that brought him back to life within a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately, Magnus was the only one that made it out of the explosion.

Luciro and the rest of his five hundred vampires were annihilated.

Smirk…!

Magnus grinned as he glared at the humans running toward him from the distance.

“This is going to be fun,” he muttered as his eyes turned red from rage. He then declared under his breath. “I will show you the consequences of doing something like this to an immortal being! I will make you pay!”

The Vampire Lord leisurely walked toward the charging army of humans.

1. A vulture is called bald eagle in Korean, so the wordplay here is bald phoenix. ☜