The Final Boss Has Returned — Episode 159
The Daesurim was not a path suitable for an army’s advance.
Dense forests tangled like a labyrinth made finding a way difficult; monsters popped out at every turn; the hot, humid climate and capricious squalls that fell without warning produced every manner of debuff, all of which were more than enough to exhaust an army.
The Daesurim.
The greatest jungle in the Arde World was no easy adversary.
However, it was the only passage the Simseong Iron Stars could choose in order to reach the East—one of Drakan’s strongholds—and further, the North, the heartland of the Dark Alliance.
Of course, sea routes existed as well as land routes.
But the Dark Alliance’s naval power, combining aircraft carriers, a ghost fleet, the former Pirate Coalition, and the military might of the Merfolk Kingdom, could virtually be considered the strongest in the Arde World. Thus, the Simseong Iron Stars did not choose the sea route.
Because if they fought at sea, defeat was all but guaranteed.
Nor could they pass through the Central region.
The Central region was the domain of Yujin and the Five Eyes, and the odds of them lending a path for an invasion were slim.
From Yujin’s perspective, he would much rather watch potential enemies cut their own flesh and tear each other apart than feel the need to take either side. The top brass of the Simseong Iron Stars, including Sin Jeong-hyeok, already knew this.
Therefore, the Daesurim was effectively their only passage.
And since Sin Jeong-hyeok and the leadership of the Simseong Iron Stars were no fools, they had already prepared countermeasures to pass through it.
“Burn it all down!”
“We’re clearing a path.”
That meant combat engineers.
Having gathered existing intelligence on the Daesurim to map out the optimal route, the Iron Stars continued their advance by burning the forest and carving out roads with combat engineers.
The leadership’s plan was to sweep through the East in one breath and then attack the North.
But their plans began to go awry from the very start.
“What? Drakan is leading a fleet and coming to the South?”
Drakan.
Intelligence that he was leading the Dark Alliance’s powerful navy to the South via the sea route had reached Vice Chairman Sin Jeong-hyeok’s ears.
Sin Jeong-hyeok was startled that Drakan would charge in so recklessly when a landing was no easy feat, but he soon calmed down.
“It is not something I failed to anticipate.”
The Dark Alliance’s naval power was renowned for its might.
Thus, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t anticipated a counterattack by sea.
‘A scheme to disperse our forces, is it?’
Sin Jeong-hyeok’s mind began to race.
Drakan.
In Sin Jeong-hyeok’s analysis, there was only one reason he would mobilize the navy and head south: force dispersal.
Because the main force of the Simseong Iron Stars was here, if Drakan launched a counterattack in the South, they would have no choice but to split their troops.
Had this been an ordinary war, that would have been the case.
But the war Sin Jeong-hyeok was waging now was no ordinary war.
The most important objective of this war was to capture Drakan.
Since Drakan, the very objective of the war, was heading to the South—their main base—there was no longer any need to force their way through the Daesurim and continue the eastern expedition.
“This actually works out better.”
A smile spread across Sin Jeong-hyeok’s lips.
It worked out better.
That was exactly what Sin Jeong-hyeok thought.
For Drakan to come out and greet him personally in the South was a reason to be ecstatic.
‘He must think he holds the advantage at sea, but unfortunately, I have no intention of facing you bastard on the water.’
Sin Jeong-hyeok had absolutely no intention of facing Drakan and the Dark Alliance’s navy at sea.
In the current situation where their naval power was overwhelmingly inferior, that would be nothing but a pointless waste of forces.
Rather than handing the enemy merits on a silver platter, Sin Jeong-hyeok chose to strengthen coastal defenses. Under his orders, the coastal cities and ports of the South had already been firmly fortified with coastal emplacements and anti-landing facilities.
Drakan.
To properly carry out a large-scale landing operation—one said to be even more difficult than a siege—he would have to break through the coastal defense line spread out like a space-defense perimeter first.
And it was obvious that tremendous blood would be shed in that process.
Sin Jeong-hyeok believed that ultimately, Drakan’s choice of the sea route would prove to be the worst possible move, one that would naturally lead to his destruction.
And all he had to do was lead his army and easily crush Drakan after he had expended countless troops on the landing operation.
Revenge.
Drakan—one of his grand objectives and his most important target—was about to fall into his grasp, or so Sin Jeong-hyeok thought.
Imagining Drakan’s forces being slaughtered against the coastal defense line, Sin Jeong-hyeok laughed with delight and said,
“We’re turning back.”
At Sin Jeong-hyeok’s single command, the Iron Stars’ forces immediately turned their mounts around and headed south once more.
* * *
[The Iron Stars’ forces have withdrawn from the Daesurim.]
Ignis’s whisper resonated in my mind.
As I had expected, Sin Jeong-hyeok had turned the entire army around and was heading back south.
I laughed upon hearing the news.
“Just as expected.”
Sin Jeong-hyeok.
His goal was solely to kill me.
Nothing else.
He was undoubtedly deluding himself into thinking that if he killed me, the airborne mobile fortress would become his.
Of course, I had no intention of dancing to his tune.
[Shall we advance?]
“Advance once their withdrawal is complete and they’ve entered the inland South.”
That was my answer to Ignis’s question.
The Daesurim.
A considerable portion of the Dark Alliance’s main forces remained there, and Ignis was commanding that army.
Now that I had caused Sin Jeong-hyeok to turn back, the Second Army led by Ignis would move to pressure the enemy.
If the First Army I led also landed and applied pressure, the South would be attacked from two directions.
Since the enemy’s main force would clearly have its aggro drawn to the First Army I led, Ignis’s Second Army would be able to literally turn the poorly defended rear into a wasteland.
A diversionary tactic with the vast continent of the South as its stage.
That was the stage I had planned.
In any case, the airborne mobile fortress was nearing completion, and Xiongmao Esports had sent only a portion of their support troops instead of their main force, as per the secret pact.
In such a situation, tearing the South apart would be as easy as eating cold porridge.
Of course, fighting a guerrilla war and a delaying action in the jungle while waiting for the airborne mobile fortress to be completed wasn’t a bad option for me either.
However, to capture the players’ hearts, “impact” was crucial.
‘The war from now on must not end with simply defeating the enemy.’
What I pursued was not a simple victory, but a dramatic one, a victory with impact. Only then could I draw the players’ attention, public support, and the frenzy of the fandom.
The unification of the Arde World.
It was an indispensable task to lay the bedrock for that grand achievement.
Above all, I had already experienced firsthand in the previous work how the ending turned out when I pursued nothing but victory.
The past me, who had recklessly obsessed over victory alone, had eventually lost everything to Yujin and ended up boarding a deep-sea fishing trawler in defeat.
I wasn’t foolish enough to repeat that cursed past.
[Lord Drakan.]
In that moment, as I was chewing over the bitter memories of defeat once more, a whisper from Sin Ha-yeon reached my ears.
[I have initiated the public opinion operation you ordered, Lord Drakan.]
I smiled at Sin Ha-yeon’s words.
The public opinion operation.
That was precisely the bamboo spear I had prepared to fracture the Five Eyes.
The content of the public opinion operation I had ordered was this: that Yujin was fully aware of the feelings of Berda, Sharp, and Elena, yet pretended ignorance and was stringing them all along.
It was about spreading that rumor using the power of the Jeil Group.
Yujin.
The power he held in the real world couldn’t even reach the toes of the Jeil Group, so neither he nor even Berda would ever be able to detect Sin Ha-yeon’s scheme.
Dividing the enemy by any means necessary.
That was my goal.
Of course, strictly speaking, the rumor I was spreading wasn’t a rumor at all, but the truth.
Because I had told him, Yujin already knew that they harbored feelings for him.
Had the Lightwing Guild been an ordinary organization bound by mutual interests, such a rumor would never have shaken it.
It would be absurd for cracks to form in an organization over a mere scandal when the relationships were purely business.
But Yujin’s Lightwing Guild was not built on interests; it was a guild founded on deep affection between its members.
And the bamboo spear called scandal that I had prepared was a very powerful asymmetric weapon capable of shattering into pieces the very affection that bound them together.
Of course, if Yujin had a personality like mine, he could simply brazen it out and shamelessly deny the scandal, but I knew Yujin’s personality better than anyone else.
‘He will never be able to properly deny this scandal.’
Yujin.
He could never properly deny this scandal.
This was because he was, to put it nicely, too kind, and to put it badly, too much of a pushover.
And so, in a situation where he could not properly deny the scandal, the moment the truth finally came to light.
Yujin would meet his own destruction due to the compassion and loyalty he so cherished.
‘That moment will be the moment he falls from the seat of a god to that of a mere human, and the moment the Five Eyes are destroyed.’
I smiled, thinking thus.
The Lightwing Guild.
The center of the Five Eyes.
If the Lightwing Guild collapsed, the Five Eyes would no longer be able to sustain themselves either.
The Sword Emperor Argen of the Breaker Guild.
Though not to the same degree as Yujin, I knew well the human side of this man, whom I had encountered frequently both before and during the World Revolution.
Argen was never as pure or noble as Yujin.
The reason he had supported Yujin during the World Revolution was nothing more than casting a gamble, and his goal was not some noble cause like Yujin’s, but merely to seize the seat of power for himself.
Therefore, Argen was a man who was sometimes selfish and diligently pursued his own self-interest, yet paradoxically did not cross the line.
Such a man would inevitably abandon the Five Eyes the moment the Lightwing Guild collapsed.
With the Breaker Guild’s departure as the beginning, the Five Eyes would clearly disintegrate.
All of this would become a typhoon brought about by the flapping of the wings of compassion and loyalty that Yujin had cherished so deeply.
“Well done.”
[Thank you for the praise.]
Sin Ha-yeon’s voice, sounding pleased, came to my ears. I ended the whisper after Sin Ha-yeon’s reply.
‘By the time this war is wrapped up, the Lightwing Guild will be in an uproar.’
I smiled, thinking thus.
Splash.
The sound of waves, which I had always found dreadful, sounded sweet to my ears today.