The Final Boss Has Returned Episode 166
“As promised, we shall sell Simseong Iron Stars to the Jeil Group.”
It was none other than the sale of Simseong Iron Stars!
Indeed.
One of the stakes in the bet Sin Hayeon and Chairman Sin Hyeonsik had made over the outcome of the war was precisely the sale of Simseong Iron Stars.
“What about Vice Chairman Sin?”
“As promised for him as well. He should go to the American branch and cool his head for a couple of years. Childish pranks are more than enough when done just once.”
Chairman Sin Hyeonsik said so and drank the tea placed on the table.
The subtle fragrance of the tea tickled his nose.
The second stake of the bet.
It was sending Sin Jeonghyeok to a foreign branch.
And Chairman Sin Hyeonsik accepted that stake willingly.
Because the Simseong Group's main businesses were manufacturing, including semiconductors and smartphones, not the culture industry.
Arth Saga Second was a sufficiently attractive market, but it was not a particularly attractive field for the Simseong Group to enter.
Of course, it wasn't that the Simseong Group didn't operate sports teams, but he had thought Sin Jeonghyeok's recent attitude of obsession toward Arth Saga Second was excessive.
As the crown prince who would one day inherit the massive empire called the Simseong Group, being obsessed with such a trivial place was a bad habit.
And if this opportunity could fix that habit and broaden his horizons, Chairman Sin Hyeonsik was fully willing to accept the price of the bet.
“You're right, Chairman. Jeonghyeok certainly needs to fix his temperament from the ground up.”
Sin Hayeon smiled and raised her teacup.
Chairman Sin Hyeonsik looked at her and spoke slowly.
“But tell me, if I had won, did you truly intend to sell the entire New Media Business Department of Jeil E&M, including Drakan?”
“Yes.”
Sin Hayeon nodded at Chairman Sin Hyeonsik's words.
The consideration Sin Hayeon would have had to pay if she lost the bet.
It was the condition of handing over to the Simseong Group the New Media Business Department of Jeil E&M—that is, the department overseeing all businesses related to Arth Saga Second, including Drakan, Ignis, and JDG.
“I don't care whether I win or lose, but what made you dare stake that?”
And it was, as Chairman Sin Hyeonsik said, a fatal price.
Unlike the Simseong Group, whose main business was manufacturing, the Jeil Group's main business was the culture industry.
Of course, Jeil E&M was a massive company.
From cable broadcast stations to records, performances, and celebrity management, it was a major corporation so large that calling it a media dinosaur supporting the entirety of the Republic of Korea's culture industry would not be an exaggeration.
Compared to the entirety of such a Jeil E&M, one could say the New Media Business Department was not that great a price.
It wasn't that the New Media Business Department was small, but that Jeil E&M was excessively large.
However, Chairman Sin Hyeonsik knew well.
That the New Media Business Department was precisely the so-called “future livelihood”—what Jeil E&M, no, the Sin Hayeon before his eyes, was enthusiastically investing in.
In other words, Sin Hayeon had placed the future of the massive chaebol group called the Jeil Group on the scales of a gambling table and made a bet with him.
And this was the reason Chairman Sin Hyeonsik had accepted the bet she proposed.
Though it had been diluted greatly by now, the Simseong Group and the Jeil Group were estranged relatives who had split off from each other due to a management dispute in their fathers' generation—worse than strangers.
He had thought that if he could snatch away the Jeil Group's “future” with just this much of a bet, it would not be a losing proposition for him.
Of course, the result was the exact opposite, but that wasn't particularly bad either.
Chairman Sin thought that Simseong Iron Stars was an object no different from a chicken rib—tasteless to eat yet wasteful to discard—and if this matter could serve as an opportunity to fix Sin Jeonghyeok's temperament, this much was not a bad price to pay.
Sin Hayeon replied with a smile to Chairman Sin Hyeonsik's words.
“Lord Drakan.”
“Drakan?”
“Yes. Lord Drakan. Since Lord Drakan would never lose, this bet was my win from the very beginning.”
Hearing those words, Sin Hyeonsik smiled.
Sin Hayeon.
Sin Hyeonsik knew all too well that she was no ordinary human.
A monster who had pushed aside her brothers with a woman's body that was not recognized for succession rights, and had even turned her father into a retired old man confined to the back room.
She was an unprecedented figure, one rarely found even in the business world where bloody family feuds were common.
Therefore, Chairman Sin Hyeonsik did not underestimate Sin Hayeon simply because she was young.
‘So this is the person chosen by such a Sin Hayeon.’
Sin Hyeonsik's eyes narrowed.
He had never seen Sin Hayeon speak of trusting her subordinates.
Perhaps that was why he felt even more curious about this person called Drakan.
Moreover, rumors circulated in society that Drakan and Sin Hayeon were in a romantic relationship.
“How much do you trust him?”
“Lord Drakan is my companion. Without Lord Drakan, I could not have seized dominion over the new media market represented by Arth Saga Second either.”
“I see, just as I thought.”
Sin Hyeonsik nodded at Sin Hayeon's words, spoken without hiding her ambition.
Dominion over the new media market.
That she desired this was already an open secret in the business world.
Beyond distribution businesses including department stores and large discount stores, and beyond media businesses represented by K-pop and the Korean Wave, seizing even the initiative in the new media market represented by Arth Saga Second was the final destination of the desire Sin Hayeon harbored.
And the long-term piece she had put forth to secure dominion over that new media market was none other than Drakan.
Sin Hayeon was saying as much.
“Of course, Lord Drakan is also my lover personally.”
Adding those words, Sin Hayeon showed Sin Hyeonsik a smile different from before—one that seemed sincere.
Her words were true.
Drakan.
He was precisely the only companion Sin Hayeon had in mind, and she truly thought that no one other than him was qualified to stand by her side.
If she had poured the same support into another person as she had into Drakan, could that person have achieved the same results?
Sin Hayeon thought absolutely not.
Her support was important, but she thought that it was ultimately because he was Drakan that he had risen to this position.
She was certain that even if she had given another person as much support as Drakan, they would not have produced such results.
‘My eye for people was not wrong.’
Sin Hayeon recalled her first meeting with Drakan.
Even then, at this place, in this seat, she had met Drakan and recruited him into Jeil E&M.
In that very place where she met Drakan, Sin Hayeon had been convinced.
That Drakan was precisely the right person for rebellion.
And today, finally, Drakan had clearly proven to the entire world that he was the one and only talented individual of rebellion by rising to the EX rank.
And this fact made Sin Hayeon endlessly delighted.
Sin Hayeon smiled.
“What wonderful timing.”
Looking at Sin Hayeon smiling, Sin Hyeonsik smiled faintly, drank all the tea before him, and set down the empty teacup.
“Thanks to you, I witnessed a fine spectacle.”
“It was I who had a fine meeting.”
“I hope your work goes well in the future as well.”
Sin Hyeonsik said so and rose from his seat, and Sin Hayeon looked at him, still maintaining her smile.
And so, the secret conversation between the rulers of the two great chaebol groups at the Sky Lounge of the Jeil World Tower concluded amicably.
* * *
After the Battle of the Black Plains ended in Simseong Iron Stars' defeat.
Xiongmao Esports immediately declared surrender, as if they had been waiting.
[This war was started unilaterally by Simseong Iron Stars, and since they have surrendered, there is no longer any meaning for us Xiongmao Esports to continue the war. Thus, we declare our surrender.]
With Xiongmao Esports surrendering as well, the war finally ended in victory for Drakan, JDG, and the Dark Alliance.
But what drew the users' attention was not the war's outcome.
Because as soon as the news spread that Drakan had become an EX ranker, the entire internet was turned upside down.
[Is EX rank for real?]
[Drakan?]
[Honestly, wasn't this the expected result? LOL]
[Lord Drakan is now on the same level as Yujin lol]
[Is the Infinite Yujin Church's occupation finally ending?]
[Hail Lord Drakan!]
[Kya lol, the Yujin cultists' collective silence is so good lol]
[It's the black oxen's world now, I tell you!]
Drakan!
His reaching the EX rank didn't simply mean that another ranker on the same level as Yujin had appeared.
Drakan was Yujin's former rival, the leader of the Dark Alliance—the opposing camp to Yujin—and the actual rallying point for the anti-Infinite Yujin Church forces.
The fact that such a person had risen to the EX rank was akin to the appearance of a true diametric opposite to Yujin.
[Did you see the Tyrant King's Sword? lol]
[Dude, the sky splits when he swings his sword once? Wtf lol]
[For real, seems like he's on par with Yujin;]
[- What are you talking about, no matter how strong Drakan is, he still can't compare to Yujin-nim;; Did you already forget what Yujin-nim showed during Broken World?]
[- You're a Yujin cultist]
[- The Yujin cultists are still alive lol Ah lol, go back to your cafe lol]
Moreover, users focused on the divine might Drakan had shown on the battlefield.
The Tyrant King's Sword and the World of Steel.
Their enthusiasm began to boil over at the sight of Drakan's divine might—so overwhelmingly fitting of the word “overwhelming”—incapacitating two Over Rankers in short order.
Reading this public sentiment, believers of the Infinite Yujin Church launched simultaneous keyboard battles across the internet, desperately defending Yujin and tearing Drakan down, but it was impossible to scoop up spilled water.
That wasn't all.
The aerial mobile fortress, Bolthar.
It was only natural that enormous interest was drawn to the superweapon that had overwhelmed the battlefield with even a brief appearance at the end.
[Is that Bolthar?]
[They say it's Bolthar lol]
[Dude, when did they make something like that?]
[I heard making that was the Awakening Quest?]
[Now it's really Drakan's era, ah lol]
[The waves before the Yangtze River, begone! lol]
Internet public opinion was already burning hot with support for Drakan.
Drakan.
The tower of public opinion he had carefully built since his return to Second was finally shining its light, and at the same time, it was the moment the karmic retribution returned upon the Infinite Yujin Church—the extreme fandom of Yujin—for all the tyranny they had committed on the internet until now.
And so, public opinion among users finally split completely into two sides: the Holy Alliance and Yujin, and Drakan's Dark Alliance.
It was the moment Drakan's public opinion division operation, which he had carried out until now, had completely succeeded.
At that very moment when the entire internet was in an uproar over Drakan's ascension to EX rank.
A major event that once again shook the internet began appearing as news articles.
[(Breaking) Simseong Iron Stars Acquired by Jeil E&M. A 'Seismic Shift' in the Eight Great Guilds?]
[Unprecedented 'Big Deal' in the Industry Concluded. Simseong Iron Stars Becomes 'One Family' with Drakan and JDG.]
[Simseong Group Sells Simseong Iron Stars. Aftermath of This War's Defeat?]
It was none other than the sale of Simseong Iron Stars!
It was the moment Chairman Sin Hyeonsik fulfilled his bet with Sin Hayeon.