The Final Boss Has Returned - Chapter 109
I narrowed my eyes and assessed the enemy forces.
They weren't enough to fill the horizon, but still, a considerable number of monsters were swarming toward us.
From the tentacled monsters I'd seen in the dungeon, to gigantic creatures resembling elephants!
Truly, all manner of monsters were marching swiftly in our direction.
"Hey, they're coming to wreck us, right?"
"I suppose that must be the case."
"That's what I think too."
Yujin nodded at my words, and I agreed with his.
[Holy shit, we drop into another world and immediately run into monsters.]
[Where's the saintess to welcome the hero, lollll]
[What kind of stream is impossible to predict even an inch ahead, hahaha damn lol]
[Other streamers who wring out the same content every day should reflect on themselves, lmaooo]
[Why would they reflect tho, honestly this combo is just unfair lol who knew Yujin and Drakan's chemistry would be this insane? hahaha]
[Honestly I'm in the Infinite Yujin Church but I acknowledge their insane chemistry.]
[I'm a Black Ox too but I admit this combo is sick lol]
[FR they need to collab again no matter what lol]
Donations were exploding in real-time along with the chat, but what I needed wasn't donations—it was a countermeasure.
"What about the Gate we came through?"
"It disappeared as soon as we moved through it."
Yujin answered my question immediately.
Sure enough, even scouring the surroundings with wide-open eyes, the Gate was nowhere to be found.
Truly, damn it all—the unstable dimensional Gate we'd ridden seemed to have been a one-way ticket to another world.
[Lmao trapped hahahaha]
[You can enter freely, but leaving's another story lolll]
[Customer, this is a one-way route. Once you go, you can never return.]
[The broadcast genre just made a sudden switch to wild reality variety. Absolutely insane.]
At the news that the Gate had vanished, the chat window began flooding entirely with 'lol's.
I looked at the monster army, now close enough to be visible to the naked eye.
Given our combat strength, dealing with that level of monsters wouldn't be difficult. But the problem was that this place was essentially enemy territory.
"Beating them won't be hard, but fighting here is the worst possible move."
I said, alternating my gaze between Yujin and the monsters.
"Any means to escape from here, or call in support? Did you try experimenting with a Friend Summon Stone or something?"
Friend Summon Stone!
An item from the Point Shop that let you call a friend regardless of distance. I'd asked Yujin because it was a waste to spend my own points buying one just to test it.
Yujin, the good-natured pushover that he was, would no doubt sacrifice his own points without hesitation to conduct the experiment in my stead.
Having heard me, Yujin manipulated something in the air, then soon shook his head side to side.
"It doesn't work. Neither the Friend Summon Stone nor the Base Return Stone function. I only get the message: 'This item cannot be used in the current region. This item can only be used in Ard World.'"
In conclusion, both of my predictions had been correct.
One was the prediction that if I said this, Yujin would use his points like a pushover to buy the items and test them. The other was the prediction that those convenience items bought with points wouldn't work in this world.
The reason I'd expected the items not to work was simple.
Because this place was another world.
Inside the passage earlier, I'd witnessed the Transcendents' messages glitching out in real-time, turning into meaningless signals.
And now, the Transcendents' messages—which had been ringing out intermittently—had gone quiet as the dead.
As the Demon God's contractor, I was an existence that drew attention from all the Demon Kings in the Hall of Ten Thousand Gods, including the Demon God himself. Because of that, the Demon Kings' messages had never cut out before.
But ever since coming to the Broken World, the Demon Kings' messages had been completely severed.
The reason for that was undoubtedly the same as why the items didn't work.
Therefore, I'd predicted that Point Shop items—things like the Base Return Stone—likewise wouldn't work by the same logic. And that prediction had hit the mark.
"So it won't work, just as expected. Not that I had much hope anyway."
"That is correct. Now that it has come to this, we have no choice but to consider another escape route. Fighting would be, as Drakan-nim said, the worst of the worst possible moves."
My eyebrows twitched at Yujin's words.
He too knew full well that if we kept fighting in this other world—which was no different from enemy territory, with no possibility of resupply or support—we would be the first ones to tire.
'So a top ranker didn't earn their spot playing pogs, huh.'
I thought as much while looking at Yujin.
Anyway, to get out of this situation, cooperating with him was necessary.
He was my mortal enemy, to be sure. But that aside—whether I liked him or not—I had no choice but to tackle this damned other world together with Yujin, that bastard.
Of course, what I wanted was revenge against him.
But now—still—the fruit of revenge had yet to ripen.
Simply put, it wasn't yet time for revenge.
Well, killing his character might be easier than expected, perhaps.
He foolishly believed in the goodwill of humans, and even now he trusted me. If I betrayed him—dropped him in the middle of enemy territory or something like that—I might be able to finish him off more easily than I'd thought.
'It's not that I haven't considered it, but that would be stupid.'
But choosing a method like that to kill him would be, for me, the worst move imaginable.
For one, he was a top ranker. His monstrous skill, and what the sole EX-rank in the Combat Information Archive implied, were things I'd already observed to the point of exhaustion in Monster Land and the Abandoned Temple.
Yujin—that bastard—had more than enough skill to look after himself in this hellish other world.
Unless I designed a trap thoroughly, he would likely survive even after smashing through it, and our lives would be the ones in danger instead.
And secondly, if I backstabbed and killed Yujin like this, it might feel exhilarating in the moment, but I wouldn't be able to handle the tremendous backlash of public opinion that would follow.
Yujin!
He was still a noble hero, the warrior of all, the guardian of justice. The grassroots sentiment of Ard World and countless users still supported him.
The fact that his hegemony was still maintained was proof of that. The example was during the Infinite Yujin Church scandal, when public opinion flipped like a lie the moment he apologized to me.
And while my image had been greatly diluted, I was still a villain from the past.
To get here—though it was Sin Ha-yeon's money, not mine—I had spent money like water and employed all manner of schemes to barely dilute my image and rally public support, building a golden tower. And now, unable to suppress a momentary urge for revenge, I would backstab Yujin?
At that moment, all the public opinion I'd gathered up until now would denounce me at once, and I would surely lose everything I had.
That would literally be a mad act that would destroy everything I'd built up in one go, and killing Yujin like that would have no meaning for me whatsoever.
'I could backstab him if I wanted, but I can't handle the storm of public backlash that would hit afterward.'
One can gain the world on horseback, but one cannot rule the world from horseback!
I engraved that lesson deep in my heart from the previous game.
In the previous game, I hadn't won public support, and because of that, I had ultimately lost to that bastard Yujin.
Once was enough for stupidity. I wasn't some fucking idiot who would repeat the same mistake twice.
The revenge I wanted didn't end with simply killing Yujin.
The hegemony of Ard World that Yujin held!
To reclaim that hegemony, turn public support to my side, and furthermore, return to my rightful place—the position of top ranker—that was the final goal of the grand picture I had been drawing ever since I returned to Ard Saga Second.
And to complete that grand picture, I could control emotions like the desire for revenge as much as needed.
I wanted to take revenge, not that I was a madman blinded by it, after all.
Moreover, in the current situation, Yujin was useful combat power.
Even for clearing quests smoothly in this isolated other world, the might of a top ranker was necessary for me.
Anyway, if I backstabbed and killed Yujin now, the losses would far outweigh the gains. Therefore, I decided not to backstab him.
And to me, lost in such thoughts, Yujin's voice reached my ears.
"The problem is how to escape from this spot. This is an open wasteland, with no cover whatsoever. If they charge from another direction, the risk of being surrounded is high."
Yujin's concern was valid.
Had we been in a place like a mountain, valley, or forest—where concealment and cover were easy, and there was plentiful terrain to utilize—it might have been different. The problem was that we were smack in the middle of open plains.
According to the Broken World info window, this world was the home ground of a being called the Conqueror Sovereign, Hive Mind.
It was a world under his dominion; there was no way his army amounted to just that much.
Moreover, since it was said he was invading other worlds even now, one could only imagine the actual scale of forces he possessed.
My thoughts having reached that point, I shook my head.
"I have a way for that."
Anyway, what mattered now was that I had a way to get through this situation.
[Oh Drakan was kinda cool just now lolll]
[Is he making up for getting carried in the dungeon earlier? lol]
[Honestly it was ugly when he was leeching;]
[No, that was already over when the system's strict judgment came out 50:50, why do you keep bringing it up; that's absurd lol]
[You're the absurd one lol, the absurd one is you because you're a Black Ox lol, anyone can see he got carried lol]
[Yutkwi is even talking in Drakan-nim's live. The world has really changed lol]
The instant I finished speaking, a flood of chat messages reacting to my words poured in endlessly.
I ignored the flashing chat and called for Dice.
"Dice."
[Your command, O Apostle.]
"Summon the Bone Wyvern."
Bone Wyvern!
Undead created by reviving a dead wyvern!
Unlike ordinary wyverns, it was undead. Therefore, as long as the necromancer's mana permitted, its flight duration was extended—a characteristic unique to the Bone Wyvern that Lich Dice could summon.
[As you command.]
Having heard my command, Lich Dice chanted a spell, and soon the air distorted as a wyvern composed solely of bleached bone revealed itself.
It was the Bone Wyvern itself.
"Is this... the method Drakan-nim spoke of?"
I nodded in response to Yujin's words and answered.
"That's right. From now on, we ride the Bone Wyvern and escape through the sky."