Closed Beta That Only I Played

Chapter 138: The Useful Man & The Useless Man (1)

Chairman Yon said with a smile on his face, “Haha. Thank you all for remembering Bora. Although Bora is not here, she must be very pleased that she helped Korea win this event. So, you don’t have to feel gloomy because of her.”

Then he continued as if he had more to say, “By the way, I would like to invite all the people here to a championship dinner, but it is regrettable that you are all important members in your own guilds, so let me skip that. As the head of the Mirae Guild, I would like to say that Bora played a big role in bringing us this victory, but there is another man who played a bigger role. It is none other than Asirante. Perhaps nobody here will refute this. So, I would like to make one suggestion as the head of the Mirae Guild. I think all our guilds should be generous enough to compensate Asirante to some extent, who is now the pillar of Korea. As you know, there is no guarantee that there will be no contest among countries like this in the future.“

I never expected that Chairman Yon would mention me like that. Moreover, he even went to the trouble of suddenly singling me out among the Daeyu members and calling me the pillar of Korea.

As soon as Chairman Yon finished talking, somebody chimed in loudly.

“I agree! Starting with Round 80, oh no, Round 70, it would have been impossible for us to get here without Asirante’s contribution. So I totally agree with Chairman Yon that we all have to pay some compensation to Asirante. However, I think we have to give some compensation to Bora as well because what she did was obviously commendable,” said Daesung Group’s Chairman Junghan Kim.

Certainly, other people knew what the two chairmen were up to when they made such blatant statements, but they didn’t refute at all, so they decided to give special compensation to Asirante and Bora.

At that moment, a message rang.

[The 4th Anniversary Event has ended.

-All the users of each region in Ludon’s arena will be moved to their own region in 10 seconds.]

I looked at the message with a pleased look because I won first place and got an additional reward of 400 remaining stat points based on my contribution.

***

New York, USA.

“…”

“…”

“…”

There was only silence in the Holdridge’s Group executive meeting room because their team members missed the first place.

They won second place and received a good reward, but they were angry because the reward for 1st place was much better than 2nd place.

Obviously, as far as coins were concerned, the reward for 1st place was fantastic.

One of the five top executives broke the heavy silence and said, “Who won first place?”

“Well, it is Korea.”

“Korea? You mean the South Korea that I know?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

When Austin, the head of Holdridge Group’s intelligence department, replied, groans were heard from everywhere in the conference room.

Some of the participants asked where Korea was located, saying they had never heard about it. But since they were all stunned at the news that the Korean team won the special event, it was natural that they began to whisper among themselves in shock and frustration.

“Everybody, be quiet!”

However, they suddenly became silent when one of the top five executives shouted at them.

“How… How is it possible that Korea won first place? As far as I know, Korea wasn’t even on the list of the top ten contenders at all.”

The Holdridge Group compiled its own list of countries that would most likely be included in the top ten rankings of the 4th Anniversary Event. Of course, many of their expectations were wrong.

For example, they didn’t expect the appearance of a sacrifice in Round 32 and the sacrifice’s counterattack in Round 68 at all. But what they never expected was that Region 53, Korea, would win 1st place.

And that’s why they were holding the emergency meeting now.

When the top executive asked that question, Austin, the head of the intelligence department, said, wiping off the sweat on his face, “Well, I haven’t collected the exact information about it yet. However, as there are 60, or 59 witnesses there, let me collect the information as quickly as possible.”

“Do you think you can get the information quickly? I think the Korean team will do everything not to leak any information as much as they can.”

“I will move as fast as possible by using all our resources such as money, honor or blackmail.”

“Hmm…”

“Uh…”

The top five executives just groaned as if they were not satisfied with his answer, but they didn’t press him too hard because it has been only ten minutes since the 4th Anniversary Event ended.

The meeting continued for a while.

Although the 4th Anniversary Event was over, its repercussions were still going on.

***

“Okay, let’s break up here.”

“Good job.”

“Thanks for your great work!”

There was no such thing as a grand ceremony for the three Korean teams’ disbandment right after they were moved out of Ludon’s arena.

They just shook hands and parted.

Since I was a member of the Daeyu Guild, I first left with them before parting with them, for I had something to do right now before logging out and taking a break like them.

I resumed hunting right away.

The period during which I could gain 50% additional EXP was exactly 30 days.

So, as soon as I parted with them, I immediately moved to the Tombs of the Dead. But there were already lots of Daeyu guild members there hunting monsters, including the eight monster herding teams reserved for me.

Of course, I understood their position.

With an additional 50% increase in EXP, hunting only two monsters would be like hunting three monsters normally.

In other words, this was a situation where even those not interested in hunting would not be able to resist getting back into it.

At that moment, I thought of driving them out of the hunting ground and asking the eight teams to herd the monsters for me, but I decided that it was not necessary to play the villain in this situation. Besides, it was time for me to find a new hunting ground.

In fact, despite hunting in the Tombs of the Dead just before the start of the 4th anniversary event, my level did not even go up by one. And I had recently gained 900 remaining stat points from the event.

Of course, I invested all of them in intellect, and thanks to my Mutual Growth trait, my stamina increased by 900, and my willpower by 450. Besides, all stat points increased by another 100 because of my new title.

When I took all of this into account, the Tombs of the Dead was too easy a hunting ground for my level. However, there was still something that I felt rather sad to leave behind.

It was none other than the monster herding teams.

Apart from everything else, their efficiency was really good in terms of their time and labor.

So much so that as long as I had their support, I should hunt by all means.

Of course, even if I didn’t have such herding teams, I had a secret weapon that would make up for their efficiency and productivity. It was none other than Blink with zero cooldown.

‘Well if that’s the case, I think that hunting ground should be okay.’

After Daeyu’s Chairman Suh declared that he would stop supporting me, I checked out several hunting grounds. And I found one hunting ground that was pretty good for me, and it was owned by Myongjin.

I immediately sent a message to Director Sok about this when I found out.

Although I confirmed that this was clearly an abandoned hunting ground, I wondered if there might be any Myongjin guild members hunting there because of the 50% increase in EXP.

Actually, I wanted to use Blink with zero cooldown as freely as I could when I hunted there.

Of course, I wanted to hide my secret weapon to the end, but I didn’t want to keep it under wraps forever for fear of my opponents noticing it.

“Move to the Saber Steel Tooth Tiger’s Habitat.”

[You have been moved to Saber Steel Tooth Tiger’s Habitat.]

I chose the Saber Steel Tooth Tiger’s Habitat. Monsters with strong physical attack between levels 800 and 900 was common here, and I could hardly counterattack because of their super speed.

Apart from other factors, the extreme speed of the monsters was very attractive to me because it meant I could herd them in one place very quickly before attacking.

“Welcome to the Saber Steel Tooth Tiger’s Habitat, Asirante. Thank you for contacting us here at Myongjin first.”

Director Sok was already on standby with five other staff at the Saber Steel Tooth Tiger’s Habitat.

Of course, we pretended not to know each other because there might be a mole among the five guys, although I trusted them.

So, Director Sok and I exchanged greetings as if we were strangers to each other.

“Oh, thanks for accepting my request,” I said.

“Haha, you’re welcome. I’m grateful to you for reaching out to us first.”