Closed Beta That Only I Played

Chapter 140: The Useful Man and The Useless Man (3)

She requested me to keep the titles of ‘The Useless Man’ and ‘The Useful Man under wraps, as she didn’t want to reveal it for now even though it would be revealed someday as not a small number of team members were offered up as sacrifices globally. I wondered why she mentioned that to me if that was the case, but I ended the conversation without asking further.

Of course, I could not stop thinking of the title ‘The Useful Man’ in my mind, but I decided not to dwell on it any further because there was no use crying over spilled milk.

‘I will still have lots of opportunities in the future. For example, I can expect a level 500 only quest in the near future.’

So, I was not impatient enough to feel regret for the title.

Anyway, I resumed moving inside the Saber Steel Tooth Tiger’s Habitat.

“Blink! Blink! Blink!”

A lion the size of a hippo? Or a tiger? No, it was much bigger than that, at least 1.5 times larger than that.

Moreover, it was even faster than a cheetah, allegedly the fastest animal on land.

“Kuuuuuuuuuuang!”

“Tuuuuuuuuuung!”

Dozens of huge tigers attacked me using their huge canines or their thick limbs, but it was all in vain. No matter how fast and agile they were, they were infinitely slow compared to Blink with zero cooldown. Rather, their biggest merit of swiftness really helped me to herd them together because no matter how far I moved with Blink, they crazily chased after me with tremendous speed not knowing that they would be killed soon.

Obviously, I had not yet spent a long time here, , but over 100 saber-toothed tigers were running behind me.

Since I herded roughly 100 or more saber-toothed tigers, I stopped there and looked at the herd running behind me.

“Woooooooo…”

This scene of animals larger than hippos rushing at me fiercely overwhelmed simply by looking at them.

But I smiled leisurely before I knew it because I was confident in hunting them without any difficulty. Given the speed at which I herded the monsters here by myself, I would be able to level up faster than I did in the Tombs of the Dead where the eight herding teams were assisting me.

Moreover, the monsters in this hunting ground were much stronger, which meant that I would receive more EXP than before.

Anyway, I could think about this later, so I focused on hunting first.

I started off with using skills toward the herd of Saber Tooth Tigers.

“Ice Field! Multiple Thin Ice!”

Pasasasak!

I didn’t have to move right into the middle of the monsters like I did in the Tombs of the Dead because they were already within my range when they gathered together in one place.

So, first of all, I made the battlefield advantageous to me by transforming it into an ice terrain.

Since they were very fast animals, I could see instantly that their speed had decreased despite the only 20% speed debuff of my skills.

“Alright. Let me see how long you guys can endure. Ice Storm!”

Instead of spamming all my skills at once, I used my skills one by one to assess the monsters’ levels so I could find out a way to get rid of them systematically and efficiently in the next batt;e.

“Kuuuuuhung!”

“Kheeeeeeeeek!”

Level 7 Ice Storm. It was the most powerful out of all the skills that I possessed now.

Furthermore, excluding the bonus from my ‘Iceman’ trait, Ice Storm had an additional 10% increase in power thanks to the effect of my functional skill ring. Maybe that’s why my attack was so effective against these Saber Toothed Tigers between level 800 and level 9000. In fact, my attack was so powerful that it inflicted great pain on them.

Of course, I felt some regrets.

“Man, if it had been a little more powerful, I could have gotten rid of all these Saber Tooth Tigers with just once Ice Storm!”

Nonetheless, several Saber Tooth Tigers were killed. Besides, there were several others who were killed by the sustained damage of Ice Field.

In other words, if my Ice Storm had been a little stronger, I would have been able to kill them all with the combination of Ice Field and Ice Storm without resorting to other skills.

However, I had no other way of stopping them, so I got rid of all the Saber Tooth Tigers with Pouring Hailstone first.

At that moment, a message rang.

[You have leveled up.]

“Hahahaha.”

It was always a pleasant message to my ears.

However, I was too busy to express joy as always, so I quickly moved to another place using Blink.

As for the golden rings and miscellaneous items dropped by the Saber Tooth Tigers when they died?

I didn’t pick them up because unlike Bora Yon whose double EXP would be maintained for 300 days, I had only 30 days to apply the extra 50% gain in EXP from Korea placing first in the 4th Anniversary event. Of course, the 5% increase in EXP I received from the title of “Winner of the 4th Anniversary Event” would make this a total of 55% increase in EXP across the next 30 days.

In addition, Bora did not even receive the buffs that all Korean users received, such as the 50% increase in EXP and golden rings for 30 days.

In other words, she was really thoroughly excluded from the rewards of achieving first place.

Anyway, I moved quickly to another place, not thinking about her anymore.

Then I concentrated on hunting in the Saber Steel Tooth Tiger’s Habitat.

***

New York, USA.

As he previously promised the Holdridge Group’s top executives, Austin, the head of the Intelligence Department, obtained the Memory Bead that recorded everything about Region 53 Korea in Ludon’s arena during the 4th Anniversary Event, for he could do anything with money.

And he played it in the presence of Holdridge’s top leadership, including the five top executives.

“...”

“...”

“...”

There was a heavy silence in the conference room where the video was playing.

Austin understood why well enough because he had already confirmed what was in the video before he came here.

At that moment, one of the top five executives opened his mouth while pointing his finger at someone in the video.

“Is that the guy that you mentioned?”

He suddenly asked out of the blue.

But Austin knew clearly who he was referring to because that person’s name was still on the electric display boards in every arena with his overwhelming record of clearing 80 rounds.

“Yes, you’re right. That guy is Asirante.”

“As far as I know, that guy just completed the 300-level only arena quest. Right?”

“Yes, that’s correct, too.”

The fact that Asirante had only recently finished the 300-level only arena quest meant that his current level was not high. Moreover, his low level meant that the items he could equip were also limited. And there were none who didn’t know this in this conference room.

“Oh my God…”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Even if he took part in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Closed Betas and achieved the max level in all of them, how could he have achieved this record at his level?”

Groans were heard around the conference room because Asirante’s performance was beyond their understanding.

At that moment Sten, the first league commander of Holdridge, who was the most staunch hardliner and also a white supremacist, opened his mouth.

“How about dropping a nuclear bomb in Korea? If we do so, we can turn the entire Korean Peninsula into a dead zone. That way, Asirante will be erased from the map.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

There was silence again in the conference room.

They didn’t like the fact that such a guy with an enormous power appeared in a place other than the United States, but none of them thought of erasing one country from the map.

“Hmm.”

However, the top five executives didn’t seem to think his opinion was that bad, given their serious thought about it at the moment.

At last, one of the top five executives said, “Let us not consider it for now. If the monsters had not appeared in reality, I would have erased South Korea immediately because such a strong man should appear here in America. But, for example, if a non-Orc monster that we can’t even conceive appears, we might need Asirante’s help because this planet could be destroyed by the invasion of monsters among 9999 other things.”

But the other executives debated his words because all decisions were made by all five of them.

Time was passing slowly with Korea, which would have been on the verge of destruction by the Holdridge Group in America, in the dark about the situation.