President Xi did not say any further, as if he did not want to make me understand.

"Okay, let me congratulate you on achieving first place! But please don't forget the information I have given you in good faith today. Let me abstain from this duel."

President Xi abstained after saying that unilaterally.

But there was nothing I could do other than look at the message that appeared.

[Your opponent has forfeited the duel.

-Congratulations. You have won 1st place in the event to select the strongest person in Region 11.]

At that moment, President Xi disappeared from in front of me, and I was left alone.

In the meantime, messages continued to ring.

[Lumen, Asirante, congratulations on achieving 1st place in Region 11.

- The rewards are as follows:

: Acquire 3 billion golden rings.

: Acquire 20,000 coins.

: Acquires 400 remaining stat points.

: Acquires 2 skill points.]

20,000 coins and a whopping 2 skill points was obviously a huge reward.

But the reward didn't draw my attention because I was occupied with some other things.

"Not just one? What is it then?"

First of all, I had no difficulty understanding that information I thought I knew about the supposed NPC was not true.

But I had no clue at all about President Xi's words that I would receive more than one bonus.

At that moment, another message rang.

[You have proven that you are the strongest player in Region 11.

-Would you like to participate in the event to select the true strongest from the strongest players of the total of 40 regions?]

"Let me participate."

First of all, I stopped pondering about it, and decided to participate in the event because I had no reason not to.

[You have chosen to participate in the King of Kings event.

- A message will ring when the event starts.

-10 seconds later, you will return to your original position.]

"…"

The long event had finally finished.

Of course, I took a break. To be honest, I didn't encounter any situation that could be called adversity or hardship. If I had to pick something, maybe it was when I met my sister in the round of 128. But my meeting with President Xi in the final round gave me lots of headaches.

'Alright. I don't know what the other bonus is, so let me sleep on it. By the way, if he is not an NPC, who the hell is he?'

While I was thinking hard about it, I felt my body being dragged somewhere, and soon the level 1500 hunting ground Land of Titan appeared in front of my eyes.

However, I didn't keep hunting, as usual.

Even though I didn't think what President Xi said was 100% true, I could not just keep it to myself.

At the small conference room of the Myongjin Shelter that evening.

Now I could say openly that I was not stupid any longer.

So, as soon as President Xi mentioned something unexpected, I immediately activated the Memory Bead. And as soon as the event was over, I got out of the Land of Titan right away and gave it to Director Sok.

A few hours later, a small group of people, including my father and some others, gathered in the small meeting room. When they gathered together, I activated the Memory Bead once again.

At the end of the video, Director Sok stood up and opened his mouth.

"Hmm...First of all, I had the Strategy Department play and double check the Memory Bead that Juyoung gave me several times. We came to the conclusion that President Xi's words were not false because at the end of the conversation, President Xi asked Juyoung not to forget that he provided Juyoung with the information in good faith. Our guys at the Strategy Department are not sure if President Xi had solely good intentions in providing us with this information, but we concluded that if it were false, he would not have said such a thing. Even though he is the most powerful man in China, President Xi would find it hard to deal with Asirante later if what he said was found to be false."

"…"

"…"

"…"

No one dared to refute what Director Sok said.

Then my father asked, "Then, do you think we can trust his words 100%?"

"Yes. Of course, we don't have to believe it 100%, but it's not something we can ignore."

"But I just wonder what he meant when he said the NPC we thought we knew about is not true…"

My father could not finish his words. And no one, including me, said anything, for we didn't know either. Anyway, we wrapped up the meeting that day with many questions unresolved.

While they were having a meeting like that at the Myongjin Shelter, the executives of Chinese Government were discussing the results of President Xi's meeting with Asirante in Beijing.

"Was it necessary that you reveal such valuable information to Asirante?"

"I don't think it was necessary."

"What's more, there is a strong helper named the Myongjin Guild behind Asirante."

With some worrisome expressions, President Xi's deputies expressed their opinion one by one after hearing that he informed Asirante about the information about the NPCs.

But President Xi opened his mouth casually as if he didn't care.

But his words were unexpected.

"What is the most valuable jewel in the world?"

"Well, isn't it true that they value diamonds as the most valuable gemstone?"

"Really? Well, it could be. So what if I had all the diamonds in the world without anybody knowing anything about it?"

"In that case…"

"…"

"…"

The other's hesitated to reply. If they were stupid enough not to know the answer, they would not be here, of course.

"Well, those diamonds would be nothing but a useless burden to me because no one would know their value. The same goes for information. There must be some clues to find the information in the market. Only then will people begin to move to acquire it. In the meantime, the value of the relevant information will go up."

After he said that, President Xi rose from his seat to leave.

Then he opened his mouth again.

"Don't you think Asirante is good enough as a starting point for that information? Moreover, if Asirante gets lost or slows down while trying to find more details, that alone is very helpful to us."

"Got it."

"Yes, sir."

His deputies did not refute President Xi's words.

At Kotum Castle's Central Square the next day.

[Currently, there are skills that you can obtain. ]

[Currently, there are ice-type skills that you can upgrade.]

What happened yesterday was quite shocking to me.

But I shook off such worries.

It was obvious that no matter how hard I tried, I had no way of finding out the extra bonus that President Xi mentioned. In other words, it would do more harm than good if I paid any more attention to that matter. What's more, the Myongjin Guild had guys who would devote their time to that issue.

So, I moved to this place, freed from such worries, because I had to obtain one new skill with my two new skill points.