There were only forty-eight hours and fifty minutes remaining until the guild war between the Genesis Guild and the GT Guild started. One of the key figures of the Genesis Guild, Welches, was leisurely taking a stroll in a low-level dungeon.
He was taking a stroll in a low-level dungeon because of a guild announcement.
[Guild Message: Everyone is prohibited from entering high-level dungeons and raids forty-nine hours before the guild war commences.]
The announcement stated that guild members shouldn’t engage in any risky endeavors before the guild war against the GT Guild.
A guild war required the full power of a guild, and this was a preventative measure most guilds would place to ensure that all of their key figures would be available for the guild war.
In other words, Welches had come to this dungeon that was far beneath his normal hunting caliber to make some pocket money and kill time.
To read the uncut version, go to pawread dot com.
‘The thought of sucking these noobs dry is already giving me the chills!’ Welches thought. He was a high-level Buffer that enjoyed seeing low-level Adventurers sucking up to him.
Welches was an infamous Pro-Buffligan—Buffer-cum-Hooligan—who often tormented weaker Adventurers for entertainment. Well, it was a common trait that people would display in games once they got strong enough, so it wasn’t weird at all.
“I should turn on my live stream first…” Welches decided to turn on his personal livestream channel while walking toward a dungeon. He chatted with his viewers to kill time, “Hello, everyone! I’m on my way to a Level 200 dungeon. Shall we see how much damage the Adventurers I buff can dish out? It’s going to be amazing. My show is amazing. Do you agree? My stream is amazing, right?”
Most of his viewers were here for the catharsis that they would feel while watching a low-level Adventurer dish out hundreds of thousands of damage simply because of a buff from a high-level Buffer.
“Oh! Thank you for the thirty thousand won donation, Dakjji-nim! Huh? The guild war? Ha! It’s obvious our guild is going to win. Those GT bastards are nothing against us. I will show you during the guild war that—”
Kwang!
A hammer flew from out of nowhere and struck the back of Welches’ head.
“Kuheok!”
Welches fell to the ground.
Puk! Puk! Puk!
Afterward, someone mercilessly whacked Welches on the head with the same hammer.
—Lee Dong Yeol: ?
—2312211111: What’s going on?;;;;
—MbenzAMG: Is that an ambush?
—tnlrhtlvdj: Welches is getting beaten to a pulp…
—Blania: The hammer villain has appeared!
The viewers were stupefied because it seemed that an unknown hammer-wielding assailant had appeared out of nowhere to mercilessly beat Welches up.
“Kuek…!”
The beatdown continued until Welches died.
***
The next morning.
“What the hell…?”
Chae Hyung-Seok hurriedly logged into the game after receiving a call, and he was so dumbfounded that he even forgot to get angry.
“Twenty-two of our key figures… can’t join the guild war? Does that even make sense…?” Chae Hyung-Seok muttered in disbelief.
“Hyung… that’s…” Minwoo—Chae Hyung-Seok’s loyal lackey—hurriedly explained what happened last night in a trembling voice.
Of course, Chae Hyung-Seok didn’t completely trust Minwoo.
“Some madman is assassinating our guild members…”
“Who was the bastard who dared to assassinate our members? Huh? Who is it?!”
“We haven’t confirmed anything yet. We weren’t able to collect any footage as the assailant emerged from the live stream camera’s blindspot, so…”
“Did those GT bastards finally lose it…?”
Chae Hyung-Seok believed that the culprit behind the assassination of their key figures was none other than their opponent for the guild war, the GT Guild.
It wasn’t strange that the GT Guild would resort to such underhanded tactics because of the astronomical amount of rights and items that were on the line.
“Those shameless bastards actually dared to do something so despicable with only two days left before the guild war? I heard they even signed an agreement to live stream the guild war…”
There was a clause in guild wars that prohibited the guilds from attacking each other before the guild war started.
Both guilds would usually enter into an agreement after placing their stakes, and a professional TV channel would usually be the arbitrator for these events.
It was imperative for the TV channel that both guilds fought with their full power, as their viewers could get bored and complain if the fight ended up being one-sided.
However, the contract agreement was nothing but a piece of paper because the identity of the assassin was unclear.
“I’ll go meet Jung Tae-Hwan, so ask our members to lay low and stay somewhere safe.”
“All right, hyung.”
Chae Hyung-Seok logged out of the game and went straight to a café in Gangnam to meet the Guild Master of the GT Guild, Jung Tae-Hwan.
The English luxury sedan and pride of England—the Bentley Continental GT stopped in front of the café.
“Hm? What brings you here? I don’t think we’re close enough to visit each other like this in real life…?”
A man who looked like a large-framed gangster got off from the Bentley and sneered at Chae Hyung-Seok. The man was none other than the Guild Master of the GT Guild, Jung Tae-Hwan.
“Do you really think I’m here to visit a bastard like you?” Chae Hyung-Seok growled.
“What did you just say?”
“Ha! Who would want to see someone who looks like trash? What? Visit you in real life? Do you really think that there are people out there who would go out of their way just to see your ugly face?”
“Is this bastard drunk in broad daylight, or did you go insane from shivering in your boots? Hey, Chae Hyung-Seok. I didn’t like your tone when you called me a while ago. What? You want to have a go at it now?”
Jung Tae-Hwan was completely worked up, and it looked like he was going to attack Chae Hyung-Seok at any moment now. He was a large-framed man with a rough demeanor similar to a true gangster.
However, Chae Hyung-Seok didn’t bat even an eyelid at his threat. He climbed his way to the top with his grit alone, so there was no way he would back down from a simple threat like this.
“Yeah, should we have a go at it? Do you want to wage war instead of a guild war?”
“War?”
“Hey, you despicable and cowardly piece of shit. You signed the agreement with the broadcasting station for a fair fight, but did you even read what you signed?”
“What bullshit are you spouting…?” Jung Tae-Hwan seemed really confused.
Why was he suddenly talking about the contract?
“Hey, Jung Tae-Hwan.”
“What?”
“This is my final warning. Let’s fight fair and square.”
“What fair and square are you talking about…?”
“You should take out twenty-two of your men to make things leveled.”
“What? Take out twenty-two of my men? Hey, are you high? Why the hell would I take twenty-two of my men out from the guild war?”
“You assassinated our guys.”
“…?”
“I’ll let it slide this once, so take out twenty-two of your men. Let’s fight fair and square.”
“Who assassinated who?” Jung Tae-Hwan retorted in disbelief. Then, his eyes narrowed as he asked, “Hey, Chae Hyung-Seok. What are you talking about? Don’t tell me… you think I assassinated your guys…?”
“Then, you didn’t?”
“Am I crazy? Why would I assassinate your guys two days before the guild war? What if I get caught doing that? The penalty clause is three times the contract amount, you know? I’m getting five billion won out of this! That means I’ll have to cough up fifteen billion won if I get caught doing that!”
“That’s why I’m calling you a crazy bastard. Who else would dare to assassinate my guild members if not for you?”
“Are you suffering from dementia by any chance?” Jung Tae-Hwan asked out of nowhere.
“Dementia…?”
“Yeah, dementia. You know, Alzheimer’s or something.”
“Hey, listen up, you should come up with a better excuse than that if you want to get out of this.”
“No, you listen up, Chae Hyung-Seok. I know it’s normal for you to accuse us since there are only less than two days before the guild war, but you should probably use that head of yours if it’s working. How many people do you think hates your guts…?”
“That’s easy. There are at least a thousand of them…”
All of a sudden, a name flashed in Chae Hyung-Seok’s head—Han Tae-Sung.
“It’s my turn now, so no hard feelings, all right? I’ll make sure to drive you crazy at the end of it.”
Why did his name pop up out of all people?
There was a truckload of gamers who were gnashing their teeth at him in hatred, but…
“Looks like you thought of someone,” Jung Tae-Hwan said with a hint of ‘I told you so’ in his voice.
“Yeah, but… that bastard’s not that strong to do something like this,” Chae Hyung-Seok replied.
“Go and argue with that guy you thought of instead of lashing out at me,” Jung Tae-Hwan said with a smirk.
“Fuck off.” Chae Hyung-Seok waved his hand like he was swatting a fly.
“Good luck~” Jung Tae-Hwan sneered before adding, “It seems that someone’s dead set on messing with your guild. You should be careful at night. Neither of us is clean by all means, but there are more people who loathe you than me. I doubt anyone wants to kill me so desperately, but I can’t say the same for you.”
“Yeah, that’s a given—hold on, what do you mean by that?”
“Who knows? I’m sure you know better than me, right? I mean, you’re too greedy if you think you can live a good life after screwing other people up. Take it slow, you’ll probably end up dead in a ditch somewhere at this rate.”
“What the fuck are you saying—” Chae Hyung-Seok wanted to retort.
However, Jung Tae-Hwan nonchalantly left the café and hopped into his Bentley.
***
While Chae Hyung-Seok was talking with the Guild Master of the GT Guild, Jung Tae-Hwan…
“Aren’t those GT bastards going too far?”
“Is this going to turn into a fully-fledged war?”
“What, war? It will probably happen after the guild war. We have already signed the agreement for the broadcasting rights, and there’s also the revenue from live streaming plus the advertisements we got.”
“Ah, I don’t care. Let’s just wait and see. Our guild master has already gone to meet Jung Tae-Hwan. Just hurry up and deal the cards.”
Some of the Genesis Guild’s key members were gathered in a pub playing a card game. The card game was called Hardstone, and it was something like a mini-game using a magical deck. There was a pile of gold coins on the table, and they were obviously fighting to take ownership of the pile of gold.
Chae Hyung-Seok had specifically told them to stay low somewhere safe, but it seemed that playing cards in a pub was their definition of staying low and safe.
Ding!
A singer stepped up onto the small stage in the corner of the pub and started strumming his guitar.
“What? Why is that NPC so handsome for an NPC? Makes me want to ruin his face…” a Genesis Guild member grumbled in envy.
It wasn’t strange that he was jealous because the NPC on the stage possessed near-immaculate beauty that even men would feel either jealous or fall in love with him.
Of course, none of the Genesis Guild members bothered to use their Rune of Insight on the NPC. Why would anyone bother with checking the status of an NPC singing in a pub?
“Hey, did you shuffle properly? Why the hell is my hand so bad?”
“Fuck off if you’re scared. Haha!”
“Look at these kids bickering among themselves. Why are you so worked up when it’s obvious that I’m going to win in the end?”
The Genesis Guild members were getting riled up with their card game.
Meanwhile, the singer finally started singing.
Ding! Ding!
Exactly one minute later, the Genesis Guild members playing cards started bleeding from their eyes, nose, and lips.
“Hmm… I think I lost this round… huh? Hey, what’s up with that nosebleed?”
“Nosebleed? Hey, you’re bleeding from your ears!”
“Hey! Wake up! Hey! What’s wrong with you?”
“Ugh…”
“What the hell is going on? Why do I feel so weak…?”
“My eyes are… I can’t see my cards…”
The Genesis Guild members started panicking at the strange and sudden turn of events.
Thud!
The door was flung open, and a hooded figure entered the pub.
The hooded figure was holding a hammer, and blood was trickling down the hammer.
Whoosh!
The singer immediately ran out of the backdoor upon seeing the hammer-wielding hooded figure.
Sseuuuu…!
A thick green fog seeped out from the hooded figure, and it quickly pervaded the air in the tiny pub.
