The Final Boss Has Returned - Chapter 145
The Siwon Valley Raid!
The raid, which had captured the attention of all users in the Arde World and moreover everyone interested in Arde Saga Second, had naturally ended in victory for Yujin and Drakan.
[Honestly, isn’t it weirder if they lose? LOL]
[Of course they had to win LOL]
[For real, if the two supreme beings of Arde World joined hands and lost, they should uninstall]
[But still, the eye candy was insane. Agreed? Yeah, agreed~]
[Didn’t know they’d both pop their ults right from the start LOL]
As soon as the raid ended, not only were gifs and clips being made, but the entire internet was flooded with talk of the raid.
Drakan, and Yujin!
The performance those two had shown in the raid was truly unprecedented in Arde Saga Second.
Yujin!
Arde World’s top ranker had shown them exactly, without holding back, why he stood at the pinnacle of Arde World.
He had spread wide-area buffs to all users present through Solar Manifestation, and his appearance of shaking the enemy lines with Solar Bombardment was enough to astonish people.
But more than anything, the sight that surprised people was Hero’s Strike.
[Is Hero’s Strike for real?]
[I only heard about the specs, but it’s actually insane;]
[How are you even supposed to beat a skill like this, ah LOL]
Hero’s Strike!
A skill with a truly overpowered effect where its power increased proportionally to the number of allies on the battlefield!
Of course, unlike the vast majority of other ranker users, Yujin had revealed his specs and skills without hiding anything, so many people knew the skill effects well.
However, except for the previous game, there had never been a single time Yujin used his ultimate skill directly, so it was true that there was public opinion subtly undervaluing him.
In particular, the toxic fandom within the Church of Infinite Yujin had drawn aggro by praising Yujin, which had increased such public opinion, but today’s battle completely annihilated the sentiment that undervalued him.
Hero’s Strike.
As the skill name suggested, the slash extending from the golden-glowing holy sword annihilated the enemy army, splitting the heavens and overturning the earth—a blow that was literally earth-shattering. The users who witnessed it were astonished.
[I was there, and I seriously thought I’d gone crazy;;]
[For real, lights kept flashing everywhere and enemies just kept evaporating LOL is this really a skill a player can have?]
The surreal spectacle of the enemy army being erased every time Hero’s Strike flew!
And at the sight of even the Alpha Mind that had held out until the end meeting its death by Hero’s Strike, the users present all felt a shudder simultaneously.
But Yujin wasn’t the only one who garnered attention in the raid.
[Wasn’t Drakan fucking strong too?]
[Has it even been a year since Drakan started the game? How the hell did he get this far?]
[Crazy;; so form is temporary, but class is forever, is that it?]
Drakan!
Just as he intended, he firmly solidified his image as Yujin’s counterpart and a challenger for hegemony in this raid.
Cloaked in the Avatar of Blood and Iron, flashing here and there across the battlefield no less powerfully than Hero’s Strike, slaughtering monsters, and dealing tremendous damage alongside Yujin in the final Alpha Mind raid—Drakan’s appearance was more than enough to match the image of Yujin’s counterpart.
Moreover, the fact that it hadn’t even been a year since Drakan climbed to his current position made people expect even more from him.
Objectively speaking, Drakan’s current power fell far short of Yujin’s, but the very fact that he had risen to a level comparable to Yujin within a year was in itself a factor that warranted the high praise.
[Ehh, still, the Sword Emperor fought better;]
[He’s just average Over Ranker level though?]
[The Heukus are praising Drakan again LOL ugh, disgusting LOL]
Of course, there was no shortage of public opinion that Drakan was being overrated.
The Church of Infinite Yujin!
Yujin’s toxic fandom actively attempted to downplay the high praise for Drakan.
The target most compared in such downplaying was none other than Sword Emperor Arzen.
Sword Emperor Arzen.
The strongest Over Ranker and the user closest to EX-class.
The Sword Emperor’s performance was truly overwhelming, which was why he would be ranked number zero if asked to name the next EX-class ranker.
Compared to such a Sword Emperor, the performance Drakan showed was something other Over Rankers could sufficiently do, so the Church of Infinite Yujin’s downplaying wasn’t wrong.
Of course, as seen in his duel with Spear King Rio, Drakan’s mechanics were outstanding to the point of being incomparable to other Over Rankers, so super plays appeared more often in the raid than other Over Rankers, but anyway, the current Drakan was a user remaining at the Over Ranker level.
But their downplaying of public opinion wasn’t very successful.
[LOL the Yujin zealots are pushing their “fairness” again LOL look at them, disgusting LOL]
[No but LOL why compare him to the Sword Emperor? How is Drakan-nim, who hasn’t even been playing for a year, the same as some old fossil deadweight? LOL]
[Plus, Drakan hasn’t even finished his Ascension Quest yet? And they’re comparing him to downplay;;]
Drakan!
It was because public opinion arose among the anti-Church of Infinite Yujin and Drakan’s fandom, the Heukus, that he couldn’t be compared one-on-one with other Over Rankers, becoming the dominant trend.
As they said, it hadn’t even been a year since Drakan returned to the game, and above all, Drakan hadn’t even properly completed his Ascension Quest yet.
Ascension Quest.
Given that this quest, given to normal users under the name “Awakening Quest” rather than Ascended users, caused character specs to differ by heaven and earth depending on whether it was cleared or not, one-on-one comparisons were at an unreasonable level, as they said.
[Just you wait, Yujin zealots. Once Drakan-nim finishes his Ascension Quest, he can go toe-to-toe with Yujin LOL]
[Are the Heukus even human? How can you think that after seeing this raid?]
And so, the internet topic that continued ended, as always, in a war between the Heukus and the Church of Infinite Yujin, the fandoms of Yujin and Drakan.
While daily public opinion battles continued on the internet like that, Drakan and Yujin—the two great forces of Five Eyes and the Dark Alliance—were crossing over Siwon Valley and heading toward the Primordial Plateau.
* * *
[You have discovered the Primordial Plateau.]
[Primordial Plateau]
[The Primordial Plateau is the hometown and holy land of the First Inhabitants who once lived in the Broken World.]
[The First Inhabitants built countless cities and temples upon the Primordial Plateau, but due to the Hive Mind’s invasion, most of the First Inhabitants’ ruins were corrupted or destroyed, and now only traces of their flourishing days remain.]
[Countless ages ago, the Hive Mind that invaded the Broken World began its invasion from the Primordial Plateau, which was none other than the heart of the First Inhabitants.]
[The appearance of the Primordial Plateau, which had been a holy land for so long, has now vanished; all that remains is the Hive Mind, the Monarch of Conquest, and his direct army.]
[First Discovery Bonus!]
[All stats have increased by 234.]
[Fame has increased by 32,321.]
I dismissed the notification window that popped up the moment I entered the Primordial Plateau.
After wrangling with Yujin over who would enter the Primordial Plateau first, I ended up being the first to set foot upon it.
“Congratulations on the first discovery.”
Looking at Yujin spinning around behind me and speaking with a smile, I felt my insides twist.
It was because I didn’t want to go out of my way to hand him another good deed.
Well, since my stats and fame had increased significantly, it was better to think of it as settled with that.
Especially since my stats had risen greatly; considering the system of Arde Saga Second, which measured character specs through stats and various other factors instead of levels, this side might actually be gaining more practical benefits.
Yujin—if he possessed these stats, he would have been ahead of me by that much, so it was a matter of trade-offs.
“Yeah.”
I nodded at Yujin’s words and looked at the scenery of the Primordial Plateau.
The Primordial Plateau.
True to its name as a plateau, the vast, desolate grassland spread endlessly wide, the cloud-covered sky of the Broken World appearing even closer.
Here and there, stone pillars and masonry that looked like ruins…
The Hive Mind, the Monarch of Conquest.
Contrary to the description that the final boss of Phase 2 was here, not even a single passing ant could be seen on the Primordial Plateau.
“This is suspicious.”
Yujin said this beside me.
It was suspicious, just as he said.
Siwon Valley.
At that place—the entrance leading to the Primordial Plateau—monsters had swarmed to a truly disturbing degree.
The endless swarms were at a level where the numbers faced so far looked like a joke, enough to make one worry about going hoarse from shouting skill incantations.
I understood why Yujin had gone so far as to recruit alliance forces while raiding Siwon Valley myself.
With Five Eyes’ military strength, they could have broken through Siwon Valley, but had they done so, there would have been massive casualties.
‘It’s a shame I couldn’t exhaust Five Eyes’ forces, but the Ascension Quest is something I must clear no matter what.’
I looked at that and thought it a shame, but since the Ascension Quest absolutely had to be cleared anyway, I set aside such regrets.
And besides, Five Eyes would soon split apart.
Because I held a trump card capable of dividing them.
It was merely being kept hidden because the time was not yet ripe.
Anyway, the fact that there was no one at the main base we had finally reached after breaking through such nauseatingly relentless forces was suspicious.
Shouldn’t there at least be some troops to greet us?
I thought for a moment, then slowly looked at Yujin and spoke.
“For now, let’s build a forward base first and send out scouts to survey the surroundings.”
There was no answer to be found by worrying now.
Of course, I had a few guesses, but proceeding based on guesses alone was dangerous.
Building a forward base first and sending scouts to survey the surroundings to gather information was the top priority.
It was an extremely standard strategy, but recklessly adventuring in the Broken World—an unexplored otherworld we knew little about—could end in complete ruin.
Moreover, if I were alone it would be one thing, but Yujin was here now, and countless users followed behind us.
In such a situation, if something went wrong while I shouldered the risk and adventured blindly, all arrows of blame would undoubtedly rain down on me.
Moreover, the opponent was no ordinary foe.
The Hive Mind, the Monarch of Conquest.
As the final boss of a phase, he was clearly no easy opponent.
“Yes, Drakan-nim, you are right. Let us do so.”
Yujin also readily agreed with my words.
Yujin was a pushover, but not a complete idiot.
He possessed at least this much discernment.
If he were stupid, he wouldn’t have been able to drive me out during the World Revolution.
The moment I was thinking that—
[The Dark War God delivers an oracle.]
[A quest has occurred.]
A meaningful notification window appeared before my eyes.