Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

The rest of the photo shoot went without further complications. The production team worked fast.

[Task complete: successfully complete the fashion photo shoot contract and don't disappoint the producer. Reward: your CP increased by 8000!]

"Thank you once again for agreeing to do this, thank you, Mr. Gemello. It was truly wonderful to work with you. Maybe we will have another opportunity for it in the future," Joyland said when they were saying goodbyes to each other.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

It was evening by then, but not too late—Tristan wasn't working overtime, although close to it.

Joyland offered Tristan a hand to shake, which he accepted with a calm nod.

"Maybe," Tristan lied.

There wasn't enough attention or music involved in the model photo shooting process for Tristan to enjoy it. He was only doing it for the money, the advertisement, and the points.

Also, he'd prefer to work with someone like Depaul next time—someone actually organized enough to not force Tristan to pull them out of their problems.

***

Later that evening.

Tristan was back at his King Lion mansion. He had retired for the day and hid in his office there. The only people in the vicinity were the guards posted on the outside of the gates, instructed not to let anyone in.

Usually, when Tristan wanted to hide, he chose to simply keep on the Gemello identity. Nobody chased after Tristan Gemello with knives and poisons. But it didn't feel right this time.

'I can finally ascend my skill… Will creating an intelligence attribute just make me realize how stupid is everything I was doing before?' Tristan wondered.

Regardless, he opened his status, then tapped on his skill and the button "ASCEND" that appeared over it.

[Please, wait—skill ascension is in progress.]

A wave of dizziness hit Tristan. His vision darkened. If he wasn't already sitting in his spinning office chair, he'd fall. More windows of text floated in front of his mind's eye.

[Creating intelligence attribute… complete.]

[Resetting strategy skill… complete.]

[*Strategy* skill decreased from 15358 to 0.]

[Your *strategy* rank has changed from Ascendant to Nobody.]

[Spreading points overflow… complete.]

[Intelligence attribute increased from 0 to 153.]

[Your intelligence rank has changed from Nobody to Bookworm.]

When the temporary dizziness passed, Tristan opened his eyes to a world much clearer than before.

Things suddenly made sense.

More sense, at least.

'If I keep expanding the King Lion Gang, I will keep making enemies. Eventually, one of them will hire Someone You Know, and he will accept, and I will be in huge trouble. He got the No Hope nickname for a reason.'

Tristan shook his head.

'That's not what I should worry about right now. This clarity is good, but I still lost a lot of memories about statecraft and bookkeeping that I need to keep my organization a well-oiled machine.'

It was a real pity. Now that he had a taste of what extra intelligence gave him, Tristan wanted more of it.

In the back of his mind, his thoughts were swarming on their own, making deductions and conclusions. Reaching them was viscerally satisfying. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

'It's like my thinking sped up and became more multi-layered. I didn't become able to reach more complex conclusions, but things didn't escape me just because I was focusing on something else. The breadth of my thinking increased.'

That felt very right. Tristan nodded to himself and put the points. The ascended skill was outlined with star symbols.

[*Strategy* skill increased from 0 to 5000.]

[Your *strategy* rank has changed from Nobody to Impossible!!.]

Bringing the skill back felt like remembering things Tristan had known already. Very familiar, and brought almost no dizziness at all.

[Task complete: ascend the strategy skill and put at least 5000 points into it. Reward: your CP increased by 1000!]

Tristan smiled.

'Nice. I still have 4000 CP to dump into more intelligence. It feels like there can't be too much intelligence.'

Thankfully, now that the attribute was installed, Tristan could increase it by a normal price of 10 points per 1 point of the attribute.

'I really lost on dumping all the points into the stat at once earlier… Well, no use in dwelling on that.'

[Intelligence attribute increased from 153 to 553.]

[Your intelligence rank has changed from Bookworm to Mastermind.]

Tristan's head spun again. When it finished, he almost jumped from his seat.

"Damn!"

Now that he got even smarter, he realized he forgot he had a skill refund option in the shop! It was only 100 points—he could've refunded the points overflow from the strategy skill earlier…

Tristan slapped his thigh in frustration and sat back down.

'And also, now that I think of it, the Fever Dogs Gang definitely plans to try biting off a piece of our turf. I was thinking they were too busy trying to establish ourselves with the other small LA gangs, but I should've looked at the big picture.'

Tristan spun 360-degrees in his chair, then went for his laptop and began typing a message for his subordinates.

'Their leader is a nutcase, and the easiest way to prove that they are big is to kick someone much bigger and escape unharmed. They are hoping we won't care if they take only a small bite of something we don't even need. But if we let them, it will undermine our authority—unacceptable in the long term. Let James handle this before they even become a problem. Maybe he even finds common ground with them. We need more recruits…'

The next several hours were spent with little more than the furious tapping of the keyboard and occasional calls. Tristan's criminal kingdom was growing into a small empire, about to submerge all other competition everywhere it created a foothold.

First his own city, now Los Angeles, next—Mexico.

Tristan wasn't sure he could stop if he tried. There was a thought in his too-intelligent head, telling him it wasn't a good symptom.

He brushed it aside.

The sun was rising, but he was still typing and reading…

Until a ringtone of his Gemello phone broke his concentration.