The Final Boss Has Returned — Episode 19
“There are several reasons why Yujin has been unable to deal with the Pirate Coalition, but the biggest reason is that the Pirate Coalition is not a user-created guild—it is an in-game faction united around a Pirate King who is an NPC.”
Faction.
As Team Leader Lee had said, factions and guilds were fundamentally different concepts.
If a guild was a type of interest group created by and centered around users, one that originally did not exist in the game’s background lore, then a faction could be called a force formed with NPCs at its core—something closer to a background fixture of Ard World.
Users could raise their reputation with these factions to receive quests, accumulate contribution points to borrow items or NPC troops, or even join a faction to become a member—using factions to enjoy a wide variety of activities and content.
Of course, because the Ard Saga series was one of high freedom, guilds established by users could also acquire faction status within the game through means such as founding a nation, usurping a throne, or revolution. But the “factions” that the majority of users referred to did not mean that. They meant organizations that had existed in Ard World from the very beginning, such as kingdoms, empires, and the Magic Tower.
“Yujin strictly regulates bad manners and PK between users with an iron fist, but he does not intervene in the atrocities committed by factions like the Pirate Coalition. This is because a faction is one of the constituent elements of Ard World, and Yujin himself refrains as much as possible from artificially interfering with the components of Ard World unless there is a justifiable reason, such as a quest.”
“That’s how the bastard approaches Ard World—how he approaches this game.”
Having listened to the explanation, I nodded.
Yujin. Because I knew all too well the attitude with which he approached this game, I could understand in an instant—why the hell he didn’t intervene in the Pirate Coalition’s atrocities—the moment I heard the story.
What he wanted was to protect another world called Ard World as if it were a natural monument or a national park.
Yujin being sensitive to atrocities committed by users while offering no comment on atrocities committed by NPCs was, in the end, an extension of that same line of thought.
Users and NPCs are different.
Users were outsiders to Ard World who came from reality, but NPCs were natives of Ard World.
Therefore, the atrocities of users had a negative effect on Ard World, but the atrocities of NPCs were merely one of the components of Ard World.
That is what he thought.
“Furthermore, the Pirate King’s Pirate Coalition is a powerful faction. Excluding Yujin and his allied guilds, no other guild could guarantee any chance of victory against the Pirate Coalition.”
“Are you saying that user power has not yet surpassed NPC power?”
“That is correct. For now, the strength and influence held by NPCs and factions in Ard World are far greater than those held by users and guilds. This is because it has only been two years since Ard Saga Second was released.”
NPCs were stronger than users!
It had been the same in the previous game.
Until I and the Iron-Blood Alliance successfully completed a treason quest, usurped the throne of the Kingdom of Saxony, and monopolized the power of a nation.
In Ard World, NPCs had been far stronger than users, and the forces of factions like kingdoms or the Magic Tower had been far more powerful than guilds.
Of course, even without me, the moment when the total strength of users inevitably surpassed the total strength of NPCs would have come as time passed, but in Ard Saga Second, that moment had apparently not yet arrived.
“Moreover, Yujin and the Lightwing Guild are currently occupied with performing a Transcendence Quest, so they have no leisure to pay attention to outside matters.”
Transcendence Quest!
I had a fair amount of information regarding that quest.
It was a quest that inherited transcendence based on the achievements one’s character had accomplished in the previous game; I had heard that a Transcendence character who completed the Transcendence Quest became so strong that it would be no exaggeration to say they were an entirely different character from before.
‘If that bastard finishes his Transcendence Quest, he’ll be even stronger than he is now.’
I kept the information that Yujin was progressing through his Transcendence Quest firmly in mind.
“For these reasons, Yujin is leaving the Pirate Coalition as it is.”
Team Leader Lee’s explanation came to an end.
Silence flowed through those present, and I looked at Team Leader Lee and asked,
“What are our chances of victory in this war?”
“If we simply compare the forces of Lawless Port with JDG’s forces, excluding the Pirate Coalition as a whole, JDG holds the advantage.”
At Team Leader Lee’s words, everyone focused their gazes on him.
“However, Lawless Port is a strategic military stronghold and a commercially important port city for the Pirate Coalition. Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility that the Pirate Coalition will send reinforcements to Lawless Port, and if that happens, our chances of victory will decrease.”
Yet that was Team Leader Lee’s prediction, and Ignis did not offer any particular rebuttal to his words.
Since he had said that the Pirate Coalition’s entire force was stronger than Yujin, it was only natural that JDG alone could not gain the upper hand over the Pirate Coalition.
“Then we’ll have to bring in others.”
At my words, everyone’s gazes turned toward me.
Doubt rose on Ignis’s face, cold sweat trickled down Team Leader Lee’s forehead, and Shin Ha-yeon wore an enigmatic smile.
“By others... whom do you mean?”
Amid the sudden silence, the first to ask was Ignis.
I looked straight at Ignis, who was struggling to hide his bewildered expression, and answered,
“The ordinary users of the East.”
At my bombshell statement, Ignis’s poker face cracked.
“What do you mean?”
Ignis asked back in a dumbfounded voice.
I looked at Ignis and replied,
“It’s a method that bastard Yujin used often. Sharing large-scale quests under the pretense of goodwill while mobilizing users for his own quest clears.”
I recalled the past.
Yujin was famous for sharing large-scale quests similar to the ones I had received with ordinary users.
The users had rejoiced at his quest shares, saying they could participate in large-scale quests that were hard to come by.
But from my perspective, the reality was merely that he used users as cannon fodder to overwhelm impossibly difficult quests with sheer numbers for his own benefit, then plucked the sweet rewards for himself.
“And why couldn’t I do the same?”
I smiled.
Someone once said this.
The enemy is the greatest teacher!
And I agreed wholeheartedly with those words.
Just as I had learned from him in the previous game, I too would mobilize ordinary users for war.
“But unlike Yujin, isn’t your reputation rather poor, Lord Drakan? Even if you were to rally users, who would answer your call?”
Ignis objected to my words.
“You’re right. My reputation is a bit poor.”
I readily acknowledged Ignis’s words.
The reason that bastard Yujin could mobilize ordinary users for quests was because his reputation had been good.
On the other hand, I was not.
Drakan the Steel Sovereign. Leader of the Iron-Blood Alliance!
The merciless dictator of Ard World!
There was nothing about this name that could make users feel favorable.
“But right now, those Pirate Coalition bastards have an even worse reputation than I do.”
I was a figure from the past, nothing more than a bygone danger.
But the Pirate Coalition was different.
They were a threat that existed in the present era, a public enemy of the Eastern users.
“Besides, Ard Saga Second is a game. The most important thing in a game is fun, and what users want is exactly that—fun.”
I spoke while looking at Ignis.
Fun!
That was the absolute truth that held true six years ago and still holds true now.
The reason users played games was because they were fun!
Of course, each individual’s standard of fun would differ, but essentially, that was the point.
“And war is one of the most wildly fun pieces of content among Ard Saga’s many offerings. On top of that, the opponent in that war is the villain dominating the Eastern region! At this point, it’s a very attractive event where you can enjoy both fun and the pretext of being a hero of justice...”
I snorted.
War.
One of the biggest events that all users enjoyed, competing for the top spot among Ard Saga’s countless contents!
Because Ard World was reality yet not reality, people enjoyed war.
In other words, if I opened up the event called war by sharing the quest, users would line up to participate even just for fun.
Moreover, this war wasn’t just any war.
Wasn’t it a just war to recapture Lawless Port—a key stronghold of the evil organization known as the Pirate Coalition, which ruled the Eastern sea and coastlines and committed wholesale plunder, arson, and murder!
It was truly a god-tier event where one could secure both justification and profit.
“And yet, to kick away an opportunity to participate in such a big event just because of the host’s reputation? That’s absurd.”
When I finished speaking, Ignis fell silent.
He knew it too.
That my words were true.
Fun!
What users pursued was precisely that fun.
I was convinced that this war content would draw enough interest and attention from users to overshadow my reputation, and that users would finally participate in my quest.
“But if you share the quest with ordinary users, the quest completion rewards given to you, Lord Drakan, may decrease.”
Following Ignis, the one who spoke to me was none other than Team Leader Lee.
The quest completion rewards could decrease.
Of course, it was a valid point.
It wasn’t for no reason that I hadn’t shared quests with ordinary users in the previous game.
“I don’t care.”
But to me now, that wasn’t very important.
“Because if I win this war that way, the hearts of the Eastern users will turn toward me.”
The Pirate Coalition, an evil force running rampant throughout the entire East!
Whether intentionally or not, Yujin had left such bastards alone until now, and the Eastern users undoubtedly harbored considerable discontent toward him because of it, whether openly or not.
It was only natural. Yujin, who called himself the protector and hero of justice in Ard World, was bound by principles he himself had set and could not even subjugate the Pirate Coalition, which was causing immense harm to the Eastern users.
Of course, there were various circumstances in reality, but from the perspective of Eastern users who had a fire at their feet right now, Yujin’s circumstances wouldn’t be very important.
‘Yujin, you’re wrong!’
Not intervening artificially in the components of Ard World such as NPCs or factions, as if it weren’t a matter between users.
That policy had been a fairly acceptable principle, at least in the previous game.
Because in the previous game, you could revive even if you died!
Because if your character died, you just had to think of it as stepping in crap!
But Second was different.
If a character died, revival was impossible.
Everything accumulated in Ard World until then would disappear.
In such a situation, the weight of the Pirate Coalition—which indiscriminately killed and plundered Eastern users—was incomparably greater than in the previous game, and the resentment the users felt toward the Pirate Coalition was surely unimaginably deep.
Unlike the previous game, dying to pirates meant that your game life ended right there.
But Yujin, without giving that any thought, was clinging to the same principle as in the previous game.
Well, in principle it was correct, but it was a stifling point that didn’t resonate with the hearts of users suffering at the hands of the Pirate Coalition.
The gap between ideal and reality.
I intended to exploit the opening born from that gap without letting it slip away.
“I will resolve the Pirate Coalition that Yujin couldn’t resolve, and the hearts of the Eastern people who witness that will naturally follow me...”
Simply put, it would be pure catharsis!
The stifling, inflexible, principled pushover Yujin could never provide it; I intended to give the Eastern users a refreshing, cathartic release.
“At this level, even if I give up a portion of the quest rewards, it’s a profitable deal. Isn’t it?”
Public sentiment.
I knew very well just how powerful that force of public opinion was.
Six years ago.
In that great war that had decided the hegemony of Ard World—now called the World Revolution—the power of ordinary users, united and made manifest under Yujin and the Infinite Yujin Church, had been beyond imagination.
To the extent that it had brought about the fall of the Iron-Blood Alliance and the guild coalition that had ruled Ard World by force, and sent me—a top ranker—to a distant fishing boat.
If I could obtain that powerful, overwhelming force.
I wouldn’t mind giving up all—yes, all—of the quest rewards, not just a portion.
No, rather, obsessing over quest rewards itself was a very shortsighted, outdated way of thinking.
Because I had fallen precisely by ignoring public opinion and pursuing only my own interests, I knew this all too well.
To truly reign as a top ranker.
To overthrow Yujin, that bastard.
And to maintain the hegemony I held.
I had to make that powerful force of public opinion my own.
I must not ruin the bigger picture by clinging to petty gains before my eyes!
I must not take the users’ opinions lightly!
That was the lesson I had learned from my crushing defeat six years ago.
The moment I finished speaking, Shin Ha-yeon sprang up from her seat as if she had been waiting and began to clap.
While giving a standing ovation, Shin Ha-yeon smiled at me.
After finishing her applause, Shin Ha-yeon looked around and spoke in a cold voice.
“Team Leader Lee. Ignis.”
At Shin Ha-yeon’s call, the two answered respectfully.
She looked at the two of them and gave an order.
“Did you hear what Lord Drakan said? Draw up the plans accordingly and carry out this matter.”
One word.
At that single word from her, the meeting’s conclusion was reached without any dissent.
I smiled as I watched the scene.
The Lawless Port Recapture Battle!
Because I felt as though that battle, which would become the turning point for reversing public opinion toward me, was approaching me with great strides.