The Final Boss Has Returned
Episode 124
Birth of the 19th Over Ranker!
That startling piece of news was captured immediately by the eyes of hyenas rummaging through the Combat Information Archive site, not long after Drakan had synchronized his user information.
[Reaching max level and immediately getting SSS-rank, is this for real?]
[That's insane, hahaha]
[As expected of Drakan;]
[Isn't this case pretty much unprecedented?]
[It's not unprecedented. Mr. Yujin reached EX-rank in the archive immediately upon hitting max level;]
[Honestly, if Yujin has a Myth-grade Legacy and couldn't even do that much, it'd be embarrassing, lol]
[Fr, if I got a Myth-grade Legacy, I'd be confident I'd absolutely crush it, hahaha]
[Watch your mouth; by that logic, your Drakan is also riding Legend-grade Legacy buffs, no?]
[Yuj]
[Among users with a Legend-grade Legacy, Drakan is the first to become an Over Ranker the moment he hit max level, though?]
[Yuj stans trying to shield Yujin again, doing free comment part-time until your blood pressure spikes? Hahaha]
Level 380!
He was the first case of reaching the Over Ranker position at SSS-rank immediately upon hitting the level cap.
Strictly speaking, he was the second if including Yujin, but Yujin had been an exception since he bypassed Over Ranker and rose straight to the Top Ranker position the moment he hit max level.
But among users who possessed a 'Legend-grade Legacy,' he was the first to ascend to Over Ranker the moment he hit max level, without even having completed his Legacy Quest.
That was because even the Revolutionary Army executives who had soared and crawled through the previous installment, the leaders of the Five Eyes, and even Yujin's comrades had all failed to reach the Over Ranker position immediately upon hitting max level.
They had only risen to the position of Over Ranker after completing their Legacy Quests.
["Hello. It's your Analysis King, back again today to quickly and accurately summarize and analyze the hot topics of Ard World."]
["Here's today's issue. Look, the Combat Information Archive. You see this SSS-rank here? Drakan has finally ascended to the position of Over Ranker."]
["Ah, of course, the news of Drakan becoming a new Over Ranker isn't that surprising. I, and countless other content creators, had considered Drakan's ascension to Over Ranker a foregone conclusion."]
["But what's important is that he rose to the position of Over Ranker without even having completed his Legacy Quest. As you know, aside from Yujin, no one else has ever accomplished such a feat."]
["It makes you wonder just how far Drakan will go once he completes his Legacy Quest. Perhaps he might even be able to step into that position where only a single person stands."]
["Will the returned Conqueror King, Drakan, truly be able to stand at the summit of Ard World once more! Isn't that worth watching? This has been your content creator, Analysis King. If you enjoyed the video, please subscribe and like!"]
Analysis King. A content creator on Ard Live with 1 million subscribers!
And as a streamer famous for being the first to seize in-game bait that seemed likely to explode in views, the moment he latched onto the bait and uploaded his video, countless people began clicking on it.
Analysis King's analysis itself was nothing special—content anyone could guess with a little thought—but people focused on his final remark.
The returned Conqueror King.
The moment that nickname, 'Conqueror King'—one of the countless nicknames Drakan had been called by in the previous installment—jumped from the mouth of Analysis King, who had 1 million subscribers, the nickname for Drakan, who had ascended to Over Ranker, was as good as decided.
Conqueror King Drakan!
That was precisely the nickname Drakan received from the users of Ard World as the nineteenth Over Ranker.
And naturally, this flow of conversation reached Drakan's ears.
* * *
"With Lord Drakan ascending to the position of Over Ranker this time, the total military strength of Jeil E&M, including JDG, has now become comparable to one of the Five Eyes."
The top-floor conference room of the Jeil Contents Hub building.
As always, with myself, Sin Ha-yeon, and Ignis gathered as usual, Team Leader I began the briefing.
"Five Eyes, huh…."
I narrowed my eyes and muttered.
Five Eyes!
It was a term referring to the top five guilds entwined in a mutual alliance, including Yujin's Light Wing Guild.
Just as the real-world Five Eyes—combining the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia with the superpower United States—grasped the hegemony of the real world, the Five Eyes of Ard World likewise virtually ruled over another world called Ard Saga Second.
The name Five Eyes had originated from there in the first place.
"Each guild included in the Five Eyes possesses two or more Over Rankers."
This was precisely the greatest criterion dividing the nine guilds—once the Ten Great Guilds, now the Nine Great Guilds—once again into the upper five guilds and the lower four guilds.
All guilds belonging to the Five Eyes possessed two or more Over Rankers.
Of course, even though it was said 'or more,' the only guild that possessed a number of Over Rankers truly exceeding three was that bastard Yujin's Light Wing Guild.
On the other hand, the lower four guilds each had only a single Over Ranker affiliated with them.
Over Ranker!
In Ard Saga Second, they occupied the position of rankers above rankers, transcending the heavens—their individual presence was so tremendous that each one was treated as a strategic weapon.
Therefore, it was only natural that a guild's military strength varied according to the difference in the number of Over Rankers.
Because if the number of Over Rankers increased by one, the number of strategies available at the guild level increased as well.
And now, with me ascending to Over Ranker, Jeil E&M had risen to become a force comparable to one of the guilds belonging to the Five Eyes.
Of course, ever since JDG had absorbed the northern cooperative guilds that had splintered off from the defeated Simseong Milkyway Guild after the war with the North, its size itself had long been nearly on par with the Five Eyes; but now, with the addition of an Over Ranker—a high-ranking force—it had finally become completely equal to one of them.
"The world is calling Lord Drakan, who has become an Over Ranker, the Conqueror King."
"Conqueror King, huh? That's quite a nickname I haven't heard in a long time."
I smiled and replied to Ignis's words coming from beside me.
Iron Monarch, Conqueror King, Top Ranker, Tyrant!
I recalled the various nicknames that had been used to address me in the previous installment.
Receiving one of my old nicknames again felt deeply moving.
"So, Ignis. How is the Eastern Colony conquest plan coming along?"
Having briefly reminisced about the old days, I soon snapped out of my memories and posed a question to Ignis.
The East.
Unlike the Central region where the Five Eyes were located, the West dominated by Xiongmao e-Sports, or the South where the Shooting Star Guild and Blood Axe Guild were vying for supremacy, the East was currently a no-man's-land.
Of course, the Gasan Kingdom had been in the East, and JDG had been there too, but unfortunately, because a Colony had descended right onto the royal capital of the Gasan Kingdom, the Gasan Kingdom was virtually no different from a destroyed state, and JDG had already mostly moved its base to the North.
The East was a scene of utter chaos, where the royal capital had evaporated in an instant and the administrative system had collapsed, leaving only the local NPC lords struggling desperately!
It was time to subjugate the Colony in that East and expand the territory of the Ironblood Kingdom and the Dark Alliance from the North and Lawless Harbor to the entire Eastern region.
After all, my roots were in the East, and the support of the Eastern users had made me who I was now; so now, in reverse, it was time for me to swallow up the East.
Only then could I continue to hold the hearts of the Eastern users.
"The plan itself is proceeding smoothly. If we apply the data obtained from this conquest directly to the Eastern Colony, we should be able to fully conquer the Eastern Colony within a week."
"The Five Eyes said they would simultaneously conquer three Colonies in a week."
"That is correct."
Ignis nodded and replied to my words.
Because public opinion had been boiling over due to my initial conquest, that bastard Yujin had just declared, for the sake of controlling public sentiment, a simultaneous conquest of three Colonies in a week.
Moreover, the one stimulated by my initial conquest wasn't just Yujin.
Xiongmao e-Sports in the West, and Shooting Star and Blood Axe in the South as well!
The remaining Nine Great Guilds excluding the Five Eyes, which had still not embarked on conquest, had also been stimulated by my first colony conquest, and it was clear they would attempt to conquer the Colonies rooted in their respective regions within a week.
"We must absolutely begin the conquest war before that."
"Understood."
Furthermore, the conquest of the Eastern Colony had to begin quickly.
If we missed the right timing, Yujin and those Five Eyes bastards could advance into the East.
Since the now-destroyed Gasan Kingdom had once expressed its intent to join the Coalition, they could use that as justification to advance into the East.
To avoid the horrifying situation of the entire East, excluding Lawless Harbor, falling into the clutches of the Coalition—the Five Eyes—we had to advance swiftly and devour the East at a time when the fire had dropped on the feet of every power in Ard World.
"And I'll participate in this Eastern Colony conquest as well."
Originally, since my Legacy Quest had triggered, I should have gone to do my Legacy Quest, but given how things had turned out, it would become laughable if I didn't step forward for the Eastern Colony conquest.
Yujin, the representative user of the Coalition, was conquering Colonies—three at once, no less—so where in the world was Drakan, the representative user of the Alliance!
Because if public opinion formed in that manner, the one in trouble would be me.
To continue solidifying the hearts of the Eastern users, and furthermore, the support of the Alliance users, in such a situation, the Eastern Colony conquest was necessary.
"Then what do you intend to do about your Legacy Quest?"
Sin Ha-yeon's question reached my ears at that.
Legacy Quest!
That's right.
I had a personal mission called the Legacy Quest.
"I'll have to take care of that after devouring the East."
I told Sin Ha-yeon as such, but I myself couldn't be certain that I could seriously dive into clearing the Legacy Quest after devouring the East.
If we simply drove out all the Colonies from Ard World, could the current situation be wrapped up?
Without even needing to flaunt my veteran experience, anyone could see that wasn't the case.
Hive Mind. The ringleader of this invasion, the master of the Broken World, and one of the four monarchs comprising Gehenna!
If we didn't catch him, Phase 2 wouldn't end.
Therefore, we had to eventually conquer the Hive Mind, and the process would become a long chain quest.
And since I didn't have two bodies, the chances were high that I wouldn't be able to undertake the Legacy Quest while carrying out the main quest of the Broken World.
The small mercy was that I had ascended to the position of Over Ranker before doing the Legacy Quest.
'The odds of it becoming something I can't handle are quite high, but I still need to at least take a stab at it.'
But since I couldn't just sit idle, I planned to log into the game as soon as the meeting ended and immediately order the Dark Elf Queen to gather information about the legends of the Great Forest and locate the Witch.
If they were Dark Elves who had lived in the Great Forest for a long time, they might know something about the 'Witch' indicated by my quest.
Just as I was organizing my thoughts like that.
Riiiiiiiing.
A smartphone ringtone echoed in the quiet conference room.
It was the ringtone of Manager Gim, her chief secretary standing behind Sin Ha-yeon.
"My apologies."
Manager Gim apologized, took the call, exchanged words in a grave voice, then soon hung up and spoke in a serious voice.
"Managing Director Sin. Lord Drakan. This is an urgent report."
"What is it?"
To Sin Ha-yeon's question, Manager Gim answered in a composed, low voice.
"Vice Chairman Sin Jeong-hyeok has simultaneously acquired the Shooting Star and Blood Axe Guilds, so it is said."
The moment Manager Gim spoke, a terrifyingly cold silence descended upon the conference room.