Chapter 563

Chapter 563

The amateurs confident in their skills registered in droves the moment the Super Rookie Tournament registration was opened. A few of the famous amateurs posted videos on their social media, showing their intention to join the tournament.

Those videos garnered a lot of attention from people.

The amount of attention the tournament was receiving naturally evolved into debates on what kind of tournament it was going to be and who would most likely win. Discover new chapters at novelhall.com

However, there was one small problem, and that was the fact that people started bringing Siegfried up as a potential candidate, too. He was currently the most famous Adventurer even amongst the pro gamers, and some people even went as far as dubbing him "Super Rookie."

Most people thought it was a given that Siegfried would participate in the Super Rookie Tournament. South Korea was famous for having a very high level of competition and producing some of the best pro gamers in the world, so winning the tournament would mean instant worldwide fame for the winner.

Thus, everyone thought Siegfried would participate with the goal of becoming the winner of the tournament.

“Siegfried-nim!”

“Excuse me! Siegfried-nim!”

“Are you joining the tournament?”

“Will you be participating in the Super Rookie Tournament?”

Siegfried was bombarded by dozens of questions the moment he stepped into the arena, catching him completely by surprise.

“Huh? Me? No, I’m not joining. Why?” Siegfried replied, looking completely flustered. He could not understand why they were asking him whether he was going to join the tournament or not.

Everyone he met proceeded to ask him the same question over and over again, and he was forced to reply with the same answer.

“No, I’m not joining.”

Siegfried headed straight for the automatic matching room to get away from the Adventurers, but his path was unfortunately blocked by another group, who were a bit different compared to the previous ones.

“Siegfried-nim! I am a reporter with the Game Forum! Is it true that you are participating in the upcoming Super Rookie Tournament?”

“My name is Lee Seung-Chul with the Daily BNW! The only thing known about you so far is that you are South Korean. Please introduce yourself to the people!”

“Five minutes! Just give me five minutes with you!”

Siegfried was surrounded by Adventurers, who were actually reporters and was bombarded by even more questions.

‘W-What the hell?! Why are there reporters now?!’ Siegfried was stunned. He was caught off guard by the sight.

“I’m not joining!” Siegfried shouted in response and pushed his way to the portal.

“Siegfried-nim!”

“Mr. Siegfried!”

“Wait a minute!”

“One question! I just have one question for you!”

“Excuse me!”

The reporters chased after him like a hungry pack of wolves.

***

“I thought I was gonna suffocate to death! Phew!” Siegfried let out a sigh of relief as soon as he entered the automatic matching room after managing to get away from the reporters.

“Kyuuu! Why are you running away, owner punk?!” Hamchi retorted.

“It’s too troublesome.”

“Weren’t you an attention seeker?!”

“What did you say? How am I an attention seeker?”

“Kyuu! Hamchi can tell from a mile away!”

“Are you picking a fight with me?!”

“Kyu! But why aren’t you joining the tournament? You will become famous in your world and here if you win the tournament!”

“What’s the point of becoming famous?” Siegfried scoffed. Then, he shrugged and added, “It’s too troublesome. Everyone will start watching my every move if I become famous.”

“Kyu?”

“I won’t be able to eat in peace outside if that happens. The paparazzi will be all over me trying to snap a picture, and they’re going to start writing nasty articles about me.”

He was right. In this era, VR games were so popular that pro gamers were much more famous than celebrities.

Even those streamers specializing in BNW content earned billions of won, and some of them had to suffer from being stalked by sasaeng[1] fans.

And what was going to happen if he became a pro gamer and became very popular?

[V Sports Breaking News! The new rising star, Han Tae-Sung, found to be single since birth... (omitted)]

[V Sports News! Han Tae-Sung’s true personality has been revealed! A demon in human skin!]

A chill traveled down Siegfried’s spine the moment he imagined his potential reputation. Becoming famous was akin to the thief walking into a police station for him, as everything about him would be on the news for everyone to see.

“N-NOOOO!”

“Kyu?!”

“I can’t become a pro gamer! To hell with that Super Rookie or whatever the hell that is! I don’t need their filthy money, too!”

“Owner punk...? Just what the heck have you been doing in your world...?”

Ziiiiing!

He threw his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp at Dakku’s face and used his Great Champion’s Belt to shoot out a green laser infused with radioactive energy from point-blank range, hitting Dakku dead center on his chest.

“A-Aaack!” Dakku screamed in agony, but he managed to withstand the laser beam, thanks to his extremely high Defense. Then, he twisted to parry the laser beam and go on the counteroffensive, but there was no way Siegfried would allow him to do so.

Whiiiiish! Bam!

The +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp circled back like a boomerang and struck Dakku at the back of his head.

“Ah...!” Dakku groaned before falling face first to the floor.

Thud!

Dakku was planning on wiping the floor with Siegfried and uploading their duel with the title "I Caught an Abuser Ft. Siegfried' on G-Tube, but unfortunately, the opposite happened—Siegfried had wiped the floor with him.

– GzaSan: ?

– TastyDaughterInLaw: ????

– SGR: ?

– kjy0904: Crazy...

– GreatMonkWonHyo: Whoa...

Silence ensued in Dakku’s chatroom, but it only took a single second for the chatroom to erupt into utter chaos.

“Thank you for the match!” Siegfried exclaimed, bowing and paying his respect to Dakku before running away as fast as he could to the automatic matching room.

***

The news of Siegfried wiping the floor with Dakku spread like wildfire throughout the top Rankers. Dakku wanted to hide his shameful defeat, but it was impossible to do so, as clips from his own livestream had already spread like wildfire on many different online forums.

In fact, a few media outlets even wrote articles about his PVP defeat.

Meanwhile, Siegfried matched and fought against other named pro gamers, and he somehow managed to maintain his undefeated victory streak, which now stood at 210 wins.

It was only after his two-hundred-and-tenth duel ended that he finally realized...

“I’m... really good at this...?”

After matching with the American pro gamer, Firebird, and exchanging blows with him, Siegfried realized that he was really strong. He hadn't fought that many pro gamers, but the fact that he had defeated nine different pro gamers in a row meant that he had won using his own abilities and not by luck.

“Sigh... Owner punk can be quite stupid at times like this...” Hamchi let out a sigh and shook his head. However, Hamchi only reached that conclusion because there was something he was unaware of.

What was that?

Siegfried had been chasing after the shadows of those who were way ahead of him, but that was no longer the case.

‘I really think I can defeat most of them now,’ Siegfried thought. He believed that he had grown strong enough to challenge those at the top without relying on the Debuff Master’s skills.

‘Hold on... Who was the PVP champion last year? I don’t remember...’ Siegfried racked his brains, trying to recall the name of the champion after suddenly developing an urge to challenge them.

“Kyu! What are you thinking about, owner punk?!”

“N-Nothing.”

“Kyu?”

“Let’s call it a day.”

“Are you going already? You didn’t fight that many rounds today! Kyu!”

“I’m wasting more time waiting in the queue rather than actually in a duel.”

“Kyu! You’re right!”

“Let’s come tomorrow.”

“Alright! Kyuu!”

Siegfried decided to call it a day and return to the Proatine Kingdom.

He was about to leave the arena when—

“Siegfried-nim!”

“Sir Siegfried! A word, please!”

“Why did you say that you're not going to participate in the tournament?!”

“Did you change your mind?”

—The reporters swarmed and barraged him with questions.

“Huh? I already said I’m not participating. Who said I’m participating?” Siegfried replied, slightly flustered.

One of the reporters hurriedly opened a link and showed it to him, “Here! The Hive Games Entertainment has officially announced that you've registered for the Super Rookie Tournament!”

“Whaaat?!” Siegfried exclaimed, stunned at the news. He blinked twice before reading the article shown by the reporter. The headline of the article stunned him once again, making him feel like a blunt object had struck the back of his head.

[Official! Hive Games Entertainment Korea: We hereby confirm that Siegfried has officially registered for the Super Rookie Tournament.]

1. A term used to describe obsessive fans. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasaeng_fan ☜

2. This is a saying in South Korea referring to North Korean spies back in the day. They tend to study everything about South Korea, but they are always caught due to their lack of mainstream knowledge or trends. ☜