CH 238

Non-discretionary expenses were expenses necessary for survival, and these expenses wouldn’t change unless there was a sudden change in lifestyle.

Some of the things that could be considered non-discretionary expenses were house payments, phone bills, medical bills, food expenses, utilities expenses, insurance, and other costs that would occur as long as a person was breathing.

Obviously, the cost would depend from person to person, and it would vary anywhere from hundreds of thousands of won to millions of won a month. After all, non-discretionary expenses were based on an individual’s lifestyle.

In the case of Chae Hyung-Seok, his non-discretionary expenses were a lot. The deposit for the luxury house he was living in Hannam-dong alone was already one billion won, and he was paying a monthly rent of twenty million won.

Of course, there was more where that came from. Chae Hyung-Seok possessed five luxury imported cars, and one of those cars was known as a hypercar that cost more than three billion won—a Bugatti.

Of course, both the house he was living in and the cars he owned were technically rented rather than his personal, permanent property. The main reason he was renting those cars instead of outright owning them was to avoid paying taxes.

Renting assets instead of owning them was a common loophole used by the rich to reduce their tax bill, and many people were abusing the loophole to save money.

Most wealthy people would use whatever they had saved on taxes using this loophole to invest, and Chae Hyung-Seok was no exception to this.

Most of his monthly non-discretionary expenses were paid with his income from the game instead of his other sources of income, and it wasn’t difficult to achieve because a Ranker could easily obtain rare items that could be sold for tens of millions of won.

He was also earning a pretty amount from running the Genesis Guild.

However, his monthly income from the game was drastically reduced when the maggot known as Han Tae-Sung suddenly made a comeback as Siegfried, and the comeback of the maggot snowballed into Chae Hyung-Seok’s defeat against the GT Guild.

The Genesis Guild lost a lot of their rights and assets after losing to the GT Guild.

The guild was also affected in reality.

Most of its major sponsors abandoned it after it lost against the GT Guild.

However, Chae Hyung-Seok’s troubles didn’t end there because his guild’s headquarters was bombarded. He had to spend a ton of gold on erecting air defenses that would probably never be activated.

The final blow to his income was the stroke he suffered thanks to Han Tae-Sung. The stroke didn’t allow him to play the game, which reduced his income to almost nothing.

Unfortunately, Chae Hyung-Seok’s problems snowballed from there.

Even his personal businesses were starting to get affected.

Chae Hyung-Seok could have never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that he would suffer such a massive income loss. Therefore, he had been lavishly spending on both himself and his businesses.

Perhaps this was a good example of how greed could ruin people.

Ironically, Chae Hyung-Seok didn’t reflect on his own greed and financial mismanagement.

He blamed Han Tae-Sung for his plight.

At a mental ward, Chae Hyung-Seok was looking at the mountain of bills in front of him.

“Han Tae-Sung… That son of a bitch…” Chae Hyung-Seok growled.

He was furious. He didn’t expect that he would suffer a stroke and be on the brink of financial ruin just because of one maggot.

“Just you wait… I will fuck you up as soon as I get out of here…!” he gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.

Chae Hyung-Seok only suffered a mild stroke, so he had recovered quite a bit, and his rehabilitation was progressing pretty well to the extent that he could probably be discharged in a month’s time.

There was the aftereffect of tremors in his right arm, but that would eventually go away.

“Just you wait… I will step on you and make you take your own life…!” Chae Hyung-Seok clenched his fist and gnashed his teeth at the thought of Han Tae-Sung.

He picked up his phone and called someone.

“Hello? Hi, hyung. Are you busy? Oh, really? Anyway, can you help me sell my cars and move my company offices to smaller places? I’ll be up and running soon, but I think I’ll have to reduce my spending for now.”

Chae Hyung-Seok was forced to sell his beloved cars and move his companies to cheaper places until he recovered both his health and finances.

He swore to crush Han Tae-Sung or better known as Siegfried. He swore to crush Siegfried to the extent that he would never be able to make another comeback.

***

Meanwhile, Siegfried picked up the pace after finalizing his deal with the Thieves Guild.

Why?

[V Sports] Pro Gamer Chae Hyung-Seok’s Recovery!

[BNW/Interview] Pro Gamer Chae Hyung-Seok “I will be recovering soon. Please look forward to my return”.

Siegfried discovered from the news articles that Chae Hyung-Seok was about to make a comeback.

‘I have to screw his guild up as much as I can before he returns,’ Siegfried knew that he was running out of time.

The first thing he did after returning to the Proatine Kingdom was to bolster their kingdom’s military power.

Then, he brought all of the Chromatic Dragon’s bones—except for the skull because it was carved into a throne by his subjects unbeknownst to him—to the Bavarian Workshop.

“Ah! You came just at the right time! I was getting curious about what happened! So? Did you manage to obtain the Vampire Lord’s soul…?” Quandt asked in a voice full of anticipation.

“Of course I did.”

“…!”

Siegfried took out the Magic Sword of Vengeance: Avenger and said, “The Vampire Lord’s soul is trapped here in this magic sword. We can use it later once we need it.”

“Oh! Is it finally about time for us to craft a Universal weapon?”

“C’mon, we still have quite a long way to go.”

“Not at all! We already have three out of the seven materials required!”

“Well, we actually have four.”

“What?!”

“Do you recognize this~?” Siegfried asked in a playful tone as he took out the Chromatic Dragon’s scale and showed it to Quandt.

“This multi-colored dragon scale looks like it belongs to—d-don’t tell me?!” Quandt exclaimed as his eyes shot wide open.

“Then what about this~?” Siegfried asked in the same tone before taking out a huge horn that filled the entire workshop.

“Hiiiiik?!” Quandt shrieked in horror and fell on his butt.

He immediately recognized the huge horn that glowed in a kaleidoscope of colors, which made it hard to tell its actual color.

“D-Don’t tell me?! You hunted a Chromatic Dragon?! It looks like the dragon was almost an Ancient-type judging by the size of the horn!”

“Well, I didn’t personally hunt it… The stupid dragon body slammed into my building and committed suicide.”

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".

“Does that even make sense? What nonsense are you—”

“Let’s just say that I was lucky enough to find a dragon that committed suicide, and I simply collected its remains.”

Siegfried was technically telling the truth.

The Chromatic Dragon had truly committed suicide.

“A-Anyway… if you have the Chromatic Dragon’s horn, that means…”

“We already have four out of the seven materials required to finish Herbert’s weapon.”

“Oh! Oh my god! How can this be?! Four out of the seven materials!”

“So I was thinking…” Siegfried muttered while carefully observing the blacksmith’s mood, and then he asked, “I will give you the bones and scales of the Chromatic Dragon… Can you craft weapons and armor for my subordinates to wear? Of course, I am willing to—”

“Free! I will do it for FREE!” Quandt cut him off.

“Then, can you make me a new throwable set? The Blood Butterfly set is awesome and all, but that was made from the materials derived from a young green dragon, so…” Siegfried casually added.

“No problem! And you’re right! The Chromatic Dragon’s scales are much better than the Green Dragon’s scales! Not only that, but a dragon’s scale becomes harder the older the dragon! I’ll definitely make you a new set that will blow your mind away! Haha!”

Quandt seemed to be in a great mood.

***

Three days later.

[Alert: You have obtained ‘Beautiful Massacre Throwable Set’!]

Siegfried obtained a new throwable set personally crafted by the head blacksmith of the Bavarian Workshop. The new throwable set was an upgraded version of the Blood Butterfly’s Dance, and it was forty percent more powerful than the old set.

‘Wow, this is awesome!’ Siegfried was astonished at the new item.

He returned to the Proatine Kingdom and immediately called for a meeting.

He started the meeting with words full of charisma.

“I was feeling apologetic for not being able to reciprocate the hard work that all of you have done for our kingdom, but I am glad to present these gifts to all of you,” he said as he presented the weapons and armor crafted from the bones and scales of the Chromatic Dragon as well as some of the dragon’s meat.

The word grateful or surprise was not enough to describe the reactions of the officials of the Proatine Kingdom.

“…!”

Oh my god!

To think that weapons and armor crafted from the scales and bones of the Chromatic Dragon would be given as gifts to his subjects! On top of that, he was even bestowing upon them the dragon’s meat, which was known to be a supplement rivaling most lesser elixirs as gifts!

These gifts were the things that officials from most small and weak countries would never even dream of receiving!

“We thank the Great King for his grace!”

“We thank the Great King for his grace!”

The officials shouted at the top of their lungs.

Then, a string of messages popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: Your subjects revere you!]

[Alert: Your subjects now completely trust and revere you!]

[Alert: Your subjects are now willing to put their lives on the line for you!]

[Alert: The loyalty of your subjects has reached the maximum!]

[Alert: Your subjects will now fully trust you no matter what you do, atrocities included!]

The subjects weren’t simply swayed because of the gifts—no, this was only achieved thanks to Siegfried’s usual demeanor toward them coupled with the fact that he usually showered his subjects with gifts.

[Alert: The Explosive Growth event has been triggered!]

A unique message popped up in front of Siegfried.

[Explosive Growth]

[This is triggered when the trust and respect of your NPC reaches maximum. The NPCs will become even stronger while this is active.]

[Type: Event (Buff)]

[Duration: One Year]

[Effects: Experience Points gained by NPC +120%, Chance of NPC surpassing their limit +30%, Chance of NPC unleashing their hidden potential +20%]

The Proatine Kingdom’s military power was bound to become even stronger after the Explosive Growth event—the ultimate affinity event—was triggered.

Why?

It was all because of the Explosive Growth event’s bonuses, and the entire year was definitely more than enough for the officials, knights, and soldiers to grow even stronger than they were a year ago.

***

Miho from the Thieves Guild visited Siegfried on the same evening.

Miho was still wearing her tight suit, and she passed a few documents to Siegfried.

“These documents contain the information that Your Majesty has requested from the guild,” Miho said.

The way she spoke to Siegfried changed after she learned about his status as a king.

“There was a spy from the Genesis Guild among the Adventurers,” she added.

“Really?!” Siegfried exclaimed. He immediately checked the documents. He commissioned them just in case, so he was surprised to learn that there were indeed spies among them.

The Genesis Guild attempted to plant three spies in the new guild Siegfried was creating, and the names of these Adventurers were Morpho, SingSingHighschoolGirl, and Gotchai.

The report from the Thieves Guild stated that these three intended to infiltrate Siegfried’s new guild and act as spies for the Genesis Guild.

If he had unknowingly accepted these three into the guild…

If he waged war against the Genesis Guild with these three in his guild…

A chill traveled down his spine at the mere thought of it.

‘I was really about to be royally screwed if I hadn’t taken any precautions…!’ he realized that he was one fatal mistake away from being ruined all over again.

This was a tactic that the Genesis Guild frequently used. They would plant a spy in an enemy guild or a promising new guild, and then they would use the information they collected to chip away at the guild slowly.

Siegfried had fallen for the same tactic while he was still running the Beamer Guild, and this tactic was the reason he entered a downward spiral in both the game and in reality.

The mere thought of almost falling for the same trick twice was indeed more than enough to send chills down his spine.

“Hyung-nim!”

Seung-Gu suddenly opened the door and barged in.

“Hmm? What’s up?” Siegfried asked.

“The guild headquarters is done!”

“Oh?”

“We made sure to place lots of traps and defensive fortifications, so I dare say we aren’t lacking in any way compared to the headquarters of the top ten guilds.”

“Okay, let’s go create our guild tomorrow,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

“All right! Then, I will log out first, hyung-nim!”

“Sure, get plenty of rest, and thank you for your hard work. Let’s grab a meal the day after tomorrow or something.”

“Yes, hyung-nim!” Seung-Gu saluted and logged out.

Siegfried’s eyes narrowed while staring at the documents.

‘So you tried to plant spies in my guild again? What a fine gift, indeed. I guess I should return the gesture in kind. It’s only polite for me to do so, right?’

Siegfried grinned. It was a grin that looked both evil and cold at the same time.