Closed Beta That Only I Played

At the Kusan Group.

“So, his name is Asirante, right?” Chairman Unki Chung asked.

“Yes. And this guy is the man who is most likely to have reached the maximum level during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Closed Betas. Well, I"m more certain now from watching this video. I"m certain Asirante is the man who reached the maximum level in all three rounds of the Closed Beta. There is no other way we can explain his tremendous power,” his chief secretary Taesun Lee replied.

Then, Sokyoung Chung, who once met the ice wizard identified as Asirante during the Scorpion King quest, opened his mouth.

“He has become a lot stronger. Even when he was only level 131, I found it very hard to deal with him, and I feel it even more so now. Given his ability when he was level 131, he must have levelled up faster than anybody else, but it looks like him levelling up once is equivalent to others levelling up 10 times or even 100 times or even more.”

But n.o.body in the conference room refuted him because the current Asirante made it look like this could really be true.

“By the way, the fact that he revealed his ident.i.ty openly…”

Asirante did not disclose his ID to the end when he was the 30th partic.i.p.ant in the Scorpion King"s quest. So, they could not help but suspect his real motivations from openly revealing his ID this time. They had the impression that Asirante freely revealed his ident.i.ty instead of disclosing it reluctantly. Everyone in the conference room was smart enough to make such an inference.

“Isn"t it something like a show to demonstrate his real worth and value?” Chief secretary Lee said.

“Hmm…” Chairman Chung groaned at that.

Then Lee continued, “Maybe Asirante won"t be in a hurry. He won"t close shop before he meets a real customer who can appreciate his value.”

“Okay. Good. Anyway we have to win him over by all means. He may be the most needed man when the server wall disappears, and the world opens up beyond this narrow land of Korea. We especially need him to prevent China and j.a.pan from eating Korea up.”

“Got it, Mr. Chairman!”

“I will try to find the best possible solution.”

So, Daesung and the Kusan, who had already encountered Asirante, or more precisely, Lumen, began to move rapidly.

But they were not in a hurry because Asirante showed no impatience or immediate signs of movement given the way he acted toward the Sungchang Guild.

Besides, they could give him a bad impression if they hurried recklessly.

Of course, Mirae and Daeyu also began to move for Asirante was too attractive for them to sit idle even if it was highly unlikely for them to win him over.

In particular, Bora Yon of the Mirae Group recalled one person after watching the video.

She recalled none other than her bosom friend Juyoung Hong, even though the man in the video was wearing a robe and a mask. But she shook her head almost immediately because she thought it was highly unlikely that Myongjin neglected such a valuable guy in a shallow outside their main house.

She felt that unless Myongjin was crazy, they would not do this because they knew the significance of “Revival Legend” more than anyone else.

So she shook her head more to erase the image of Juyoung overlapping with this man Asirante in her mind.

And what about Myongjin? Of course, they moved too.

Chairman Sangman Hong knew very well that a dam could fail even with a small leak.

At the abandoned field of trees.

‘Aren;t they being too prudent?”

It has already been a week since that family meeting in the bas.e.m.e.nt study.

I knew that rumors about me had spread widely enough, but it was quiet, as if n.o.body was interested in me.

Of course, I heard through my sister that Mirae, Daesung, Kusan, and Daeyu were racking their brains to find out more about me.

Anyway, even though I was lost in idle thought, I didn"t stop focusing on hunting.

At that moment a message that I was looking forward to rang.

[You have levelled up.]

“Oh, Check status window.”

[Name: Lumen, Asirante

Level: 299

Number of kills: 1137, Number of deaths: 0

t.i.tle: Only Closed Beta Max Level User and 4 others.

Health: 1,387,000(now) / 1,387,000(max)

Mana: 1,042,500(now) / 1,042,500(max)

Strength: 1320 Agility: 1320 Health 6950

Willpower : 4255 Intellect: 7970

Remaining Stat Points: 350

Remaining Skill Points: 0

Traits: IceMan, Mutual Growth, G.o.d of Enhancement]

When I partic.i.p.ated in Sungchang"s boss monster raid, I was level 264.

So, I had leveled up by 35 levels in the last.

If I leveled up one more, I would be level 300, the same level which I achieved during the 3rd Closed Beta.

I could not help but be satisfied with this. Then my eyes turned to the Intellect stat which was almost 8000. Of course, I got this high number thanks to the items I had currently equipped including rings, earrings, necklaces and other options, but I especially benefited from the legendary Sacred Permanent Snow Spirit accessories that granted 250 Intellect.

When I equipped the set items, I immediately knew why everybody was so anxious to obtain good items.

Since I could get more satisfaction when I achieved level 300 later, I invested all my remaining stat points in Intellect and closed the status window.

Then, I pulled out an item from the inventory.

“Check item.”

[Root (general)

-If you eat it, you will get one root.]

It was an item I obtained from the long-rooted ancient tree.

I"ve never seen such an unkind and blunt description like this in all the several games I have played.

So, I asked my dad, brother, and sister about this because they knew I had hunted the long-rooted ancient tree. They also knew that Sungchang gave up on the items dropped by the boss monster.

But no one knew the meaning of this description. Even Managing Director Insu Sok didn"t know.

Of course, this item was of the lowest grade with only a one line description.

Based on this, I could easily infer that it was not an important item.

It looked even more trifling when compared to the 11-line description about the stone squirrel"s undigested mineral ma.s.ses.

“Hmm.”

I looked down at the root that looked like a dried fern about the size of my finger.

“It"s only a general grade tiem at best. If this thing was valuable, Sungchang wouldn"t have let me have it."

Sungchang decided to give me all the items that the boss monster dropped. They didn"t even pay attention to the items as if they thought they were all useless.

Honestly, the item was too insignificant for me to agonize over its use and efficacy for over a week.

So, I just put it in my mouth and chewed it. And after chewing this thing that was tough like rubber a few times, I swallowed it.

Then I waited for one minute, two minutes, three minutes and five minutes, curious to see what would happen. But nothing happened until five minutes pa.s.sed.

“What the heck? Check the Summoned Tree list.”

[Summoned Tree list.

-Currently, there is no summoned tree.

-You can acquire and use the summoning tree skill.]

“Check the Tamed Monster list.”

[Tamed Monster list.

-Currently, there is no tamed monster.

-You can acquire and use the taming monster skill.]

“…”

It was a message that said I had nothing I wanted at the moment.

So, I checked the message and then trod forward with my right foot, then my left foot.

Then, I also tried jumping because roots were generally buried in the ground, absorbing moisture and nutrients to maintain the trunk of a tree.

So I wondered if there was some effect that would come from my feet or soles touching the ground, but nothing happened even though I jumped off the ground with both feet at the same time.

“Huh.”

Of course, I didn"t expect anything big because it was only a general grade item, even though it was an item dropped by a boss monster.

But I didn"t think that absolutely nothing would happen from eating the root.

I didn"t have to agonize over it because agonizing wouldn"t give me an answer.

So, I checked the time first because I was supposed to visit my main house tomorrow.

It was exactly past 1 am. I immediately moved to the Safety Zone in the abandoned field of trees and logged out.

I wanted to hit level 300 by hunting for a few more hours, but I didn"t want to break my schedule because I could hunt after waking up in the morning before leaving for home anyway.

As always, I logged out, brushed my teeth, and went to sleep, dreaming of hitting level 300 tomorrow and having new skills and items.

At dawn when Juyoung was still asleep. Something appeared on his soles. It was black and wrinkled and the size of a little finger. Then, it crawled around him like a caterpillar before disappearing back into his soles.

The next morning.

As soon as I got up early in the morning, I didn"t wash or have breakfast so I could access the game immediately because I really wanted to hit level 300 before visiting home.

Since I concentrated more than ever before, I achieved level 300 in less than four hours.

As a result I received 3 skill points from achieving level 300.

This achievement alone was enough for me to celebrate, for acquiring a new skill meant that I would become stronger than before.

But this time there was one more thing I was waiting for. It was none other than the level 300 only quest that could be an opportune moment to advertise my name Asirante.

And this was my original plan. The boss monster that I hunted with Sungchang wasn"t initially part of my plan.

Anyway, I moved to the Safety Zone in an abandoned field of trees with a smile and logged out.

I took a bath straight away and skipped breakfast even though I was hungry because I wanted to eat a warm home-made meal.

The moment I sat down on the bed to put on my socks, I found something unusual.

“Uh? What the heck is this hole?”

There was a small hole by the leg of the bed.

“Was it there from the beginning?”

But I didn"t really care because it was so small that I might not have noticed it before.

Anyway, I left the one-room studio while holding my 3G VR device.