Debuff Master

Right after the Hourglass of Miracle turned back time.

[Alert: You have been disconnected from the server!]

[Alert: You have been disconnected from the server!]

[Alert: You have been disconnected from the server!]

Every single Adventurer logged into the gwas forcefully disconnected, and the smessage popped up in front of their eyes.

[Alert: A dimensional storm is brewing between Earth and the Nürberg Continent!]

[Alert: Please wait a moment!]

[Alert: Tremaining until the dimensional storm ends – 30 minutes!]

Nobody was allowed into the game, and they were forced to stare blankly at the message. It went without saying that Han Tae-Sung was also forced out of the game.

The gamers grumbled and left their VR capsules to touch grass while waiting for the connection to be restored, but Han Tae-Sung stayed in his VR capsule.

***

Thirty minutes later…

[Alert: The dimensional storm has ended!]

[Alert: The warp gate connecting to the Nürberg Continent has been activated!]

[Alert: Attempting to connect to the server!]

[Alert: Loading…]

[Alert: Connection established!]

[Alert: You have connected to the game! Welcto BNW!]

Chae Hyung-Seok logged into the gas soon as the connection was established.

“I never imagined this game’s server could crash like that,” he grumbled.

The owner of BNW, Hive Games Entertainment, was famous for being perfect.

Server downtime? Bug? Delayed connection?

Those were unprecedented for BNW, and it had never happened since it opened its doors to gamers until now. Hive Games Entertainment was so perfect that any problems would be automatically attributed to the gamer’s inteconnection or VR capsule malfunctioning.

“Well, I guess it’s possible since this gwas created by humans, after all,” Chae Hyung-Seok muttered. He shrugged off the disconnection and did not really complain about it.

Why was he so calm? The reason was quite simple.

Thirty minutes ago, before all of the Adventurers were disconnected from the game…

[Alert: The enhancement requested by Desire-nim has succeeded!]

[Alert: Desire-nim has successfully enhanced the +15 Orb of Death to +16 Orb of Death!]

Chae Hyung-Seok struck great fortune by managing to enhance the item he had chanced upon, the Orb of Death, to a whopping +16. He decided to gamble it without much thought, but he never imagined in his wildest dreams that the goddess of fortune would smile upon him.

However, there was something wrong with his artifact.

“What’s wrong with this thing…?” he muttered. Then, he rubbed his eyes and looked again, “W-What…?!”

[+0 Orb of Death]

He was certain that the Orb of Death had been enhanced to +16 before he disconnected from the server, but it showed that the artifact was +0 right now.

“Am I suffering from side effects…?” Chae Hyung-Seok thought he was suffering from one of the side effects of his stroke.

He checked again and again, but nothing changed. His artifact's enhancement level remained at +0, no matter how many times he checked it.

“W-What the fuck is this?!” Chae Hyung-Seok screamed.

His heart started to wildly thump.

“W-What happened to this thing…?!”

“Oh yeah! I recovered my item! Hell yeah!”

It was an Adventurer who had failed to enhance his weapon to +13 right before Chae Hyung-Seok started enhancing his Orb of Death. However, what caught Chae Hyung-Seok’s eyes was the item in that Adventurer’s hands.

[+12 Frost Beam Sword]

The Adventurer was holding the +12 Frost Beam Sword he destroyed before the server disconnected.

It was then.

“Oh yeah! Rollback, baby!”

A rollback would occur whenever a bug or glitch was found in the game, and the moderators had no choice but to rewind everything until a certain period of time. The fact that the +12 Frost Beam Sword was fine would make sense if the server had indeed performed a rollback.

Unfortunately, Chae Hyung-Seok’s +16 Orb of Death returning to an unenhanced +Orb of Death made perfect sense as well.

“Fuck…” Chae Hyung-Seok gnashed his teeth as fury welled inside of him.

Enhancing one's equipment to +16 wasn't a daily occurrence. In fact, it was something that would happen once in a lifetime—no, it might not even happen to the majority of players.

Chae Hyung-Seok could not be blamed for feeling angry right now, and it would not be strange even if he had an outburst using every single curse word he had in his vocabulary.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck this shit! Fucking assholes! You motherfucking sons of bitch whores! Why the fuck did the server rollback?! Why?! Why now, of all times?! Fuuuuuck!” Then, he grabbed the back of his neck and muttered, “C-Customer… I need to call the customer service…!”

Chae Hyung-Seok disconnected from the gto call the customer service center of Hive to try and resolve the issue.

***

Tae-Sung logged into the gright away as soon as the BNW client connected.

[Sky Fortress: Castle Gates]

He was greeted by a message informing him of his current location.

“Excellent,” Siegfried muttered with a smile.

“S-Siegfried-nim…?” Beowulf called out.

“Yes?”

“We just got disconnected, right?”

“Yes,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

“And I think there was a rollback? We died thirty minutes ago, but we are currently in front of the gate. That means… We had a rollback, right?” Beowulf deduced. Then, he suddenly froze and looked at Siegfried before muttering, “No way…”

“Siegfried-nim?”

“Yes?”

“By any chance, did you…?”

“I think we have to get moving,” Siegfried said rather than give a concrete response.

Indeed, he made the right choice. The entire island was riddled with bombs that could—no, already sent them to their deaths, so every single second was precious now that they had a second chance at things.

He felt bad for having to leave Ingrid behind when she was right behind these castle walls, but he could not afford to waste tfighting her and her minions all over again just to save her.

It was going to be a tragic irony if he tried to save her but ended up getting everyone else caught up in the explosion once again—including her.

“We are retreating,” Siegfried replied.

Hamchi could not understand why Siegfried was choosing to retreat now when their goal was right in front of them. In other words, Hamchi was an NPC, and he was unaware that thad been rewind, and it was the sfor Lohengrin and Lionbreath.

“Retreat? What do you mean by that? We have to press on!”

“Brother! Who knows what those evildoers will do if we stop here?”

Neither of them could understand Siegfried’s motive for retreating, but their confusion only grew when he did not respond to their question. He turned around and started walking while urging them to do the same, “We are retreating. Please go back to the airships as fast as possible.”

Twas of the essence right now, and he did not have the tto explain every single thing to everyone.

“Nephew!” Yong Tae-Pung shouted from aboard one of the airships after spotting Siegfried.

He stayed behind to defend the airship just in case the enemies tried to destroy it.

“Uncle! We need to hurry up!”

“Alright! Let’s go!”

Yong Tae-Pung did not ask any questions, as he was an Adventurer and he experienced what happened thirty minutes ago.

A few seconds later.

The airships took off one by one and flew away from the Sky Fortress.

Ulcera, who was watching the airships depart, screamed out of despair, “N-Nooo!”

He had cup with a brilliant plan to lure Siegfried and his comrades to the castle located at the center of the floating island before detonating the bombs to kill all of them.

Unfortunately, his plan went up in smoke now that all of them had departed the Sky Fortress.

The airships flew away, ignoring Ulcera's despair.

***

Right after the airships departed from the Sky Fortress, Siegfried activated the communication device and called Beowulf, who was currently on a different airship.

“Beowulf-nim.”

— Yes, Siegfried-nim?

“May I take command from now on?”

— Of course.

Beowulf easily relinquished command to Siegfried. He was the commander of the operation, but he knew he wasn't the best person for it. He could tell from an instant that the culprit behind rewinding twas none other than Siegfried, so he himself acknowledged that Siegfried was the best person to lead the coalition forces.

“Thank you.”

— Not at all.

Beowulf changed the channel as soon as he relinquished command to Siegfried and made an announcement to all of the airships.

— I hereby relinquish command to Siegfried-nim from this moment onward. I repeat. I hereby relinquish command to Siegfried-nim from this moment onward. All forces are to follow Siegfried-nim’s commands from now on.

The first thing Siegfried did as soon as he obtained command was to fly the Huracan over to where Daode Tianzun, Betelgeuse, and Decimato were facing off against the Dark Snake, Agareth.

He activated the magical megaphones equipped on the Huracan.

— Elder Daode Tianzun-nim!

“Oh! Siegfried! Have you already finished?” Daode Tianzun amplified his voice and shouted in response while fighting off Agareth.

He was also unaware of tbeing wound back, as he was an NPC.

— No!

“Then why have you returned?!”

— We are retreating!

“R-Retreating?!”

— I have no tto explain! Please stop the battle and retreat!

“What are you saying right now?!”

— A tactical retreat!

“T-Tactical what…?”

— Damn it! Let’s just go, you damn old geezer!

“Hey, Betelgeuse! Let’s retreat!”

“Siegfried wants us to retreat! Let’s hurry up and do as he says!”

“A-Alright!”

Daode Tianzun, Betelgeuse, and Decimato hurriedly distanced themselves from the Dark Snake, Agareth, and boarded the airships.

Agareth opened its jaws and unleashed its breath attack filled with dark energy at the airships.

“Fear not! I will cast a barrier!” Daode Tianzun exclaimed before he spread out his arms and was about to cast a powerful defensive magic.

However, Siegfried stopped him from doing so.

“Why bother, elder-nim?”

“H-Huh?”

“We just need to run away.”

“Run away…?”

Siegfried nodded and replied, “Yes, there is nothing worth defending here, so why bother? Let’s just leave that thing here and run.”

“Oh…”

“Instead of wasting your strength on a defensive spell, why don’t you do something else for me?”

“Something else? Like what?”

“A special delivery, maybe?” Siegfried replied with a smirk.