The Final Boss Has Returned
Episode 22
Urban Warfare.
Drakan had already seen through the sinister scheme that Zack had laid, for Death Saw Riark and the White Shark Assault Force had arrived as reinforcements.
"If the Pirate King isn't a fool, he will have sent reinforcements to Lawless Harbor by now. And those bastards will bring those reinforcements, open the city, and try to engage us in urban warfare."
The barracks established in Argan Village.
At the operational meeting held in the humble village hall at its center—a building ill-suited to the countless sprawling structures around it—Drakan spoke thus at the meeting attended by executives from JDG and allied guilds, eastern Rankers who had studied the quest, and finally Sin Ha-yeon.
"Of course."
Ignis nodded at Drakan's words.
Guild Master of JDG!
Over Ranker, Flame King Ignis!
That seat had not been won at a hwatu table, and Ignis had been renowned during his pro-gamer days for his strategy, tactics, and outstanding game sense, so he had somewhat sensed the enemy's ulterior motive.
"That's right. The only way they can beat us with a city that has no walls is urban warfare, where numerical superiority becomes somewhat meaningless, forces are scattered, and they have no choice but to be driven into individual engagements and guerrilla battles."
Drakan.
There was no user in Arde World who had experienced more wars than him.
Even Hero Yujin, the current Top Ranker, had practically no war experience compared to Drakan.
From the moment he formed the Iron Blood Alliance until the very instant of its downfall, Drakan's game life was, without exaggeration, one that began with war and ended with war.
From urban warfare to guerrilla battles, siege warfare, large-scale campaigns, and all-out war!
Drakan was a veteran who had experienced nearly every form of combat imaginable in Arde World, and for Zack to wring out a strategy before such a Drakan was nothing short of a farce more embarrassing than writing characters before Confucius himself.
"That's the problem. To defeat an opponent who initiates urban warfare, the best tactic is to refuse the urban battle and surround the city to starve them out, but with our forces, it's impossible to completely surround Lawless Harbor."
Urban warfare!
Drakan knew very well what a quagmire urban warfare was.
Urban warfare waged in a labyrinthine city built haphazardly and without planning, like Lawless Harbor, was all the more horrifying.
Inside the city's narrow, filthy alleyways, the numerical superiority held by friendly forces would lose its meaning, and massive casualties were certain when facing enemy forces who knew the urban terrain better than his own troops, not to mention an elite guerrilla force bolstered by the Pirate King's reinforcements.
Yet to surround them, cut off their supplies, and force a surrender was impossible, for Lawless Harbor was a port, and the faction ruling Lawless Harbor was the Pirate Coalition.
Lawless Harbor could continuously receive supplies from the Pirate Coalition indefinitely via the sea, and completing an encirclement by blockading the sea from their side was impossible.
The Pirate Coalition.
Their notorious reputation had been built upon the sea, and defeating them on the sea with their current forces was nigh impossible.
"But is there any other option available to us?"
Ignis looked at Drakan and asked again.
Flame King Ignis. He was originally an arrogant man.
Until the pro league for Heroes of Legend collapsed due to the explosive success of Arde Saga Second, Ignis had been a pro gamer who ranked number one in the AOS game called Heroes of Legend, standing at its pinnacle.
After the pro league was disbanded due to poor performance, he threw himself into Arde Saga Second together with pro gamers he was close to.
A groundbreaking figure who had broken through the entrenched veterans formed by players of the previous game to rise to the rank of Ranker as a new player, he had even elevated his guild to 6th place—the de facto strongest position in the human realm.
The Unique Trait "Flame Specialization," which doubled the effects of flame-type skills.
A contract with the Fire Spirit King, a Transcendent of the Spirit Realm, on top of his Hidden Class, Flame Sorcerer!
Possessing the perfect trifecta that made one destined to become a Ranker, he had been the most prominent user among those affiliated with Jeil E&M.
Drakan!
At least, before he contracted with Jeil E&M, that is.
'Just what did Chief Sin see in Drakan to treat him like this?'
Ignis still harbored doubts.
Of course, he knew very well about Drakan.
Arde Saga Second was a game closely connected to its predecessor, Arde Saga, both systemically and in terms of background setting, so it was impossible to play without being well-versed in the previous game's information.
In that process, Ignis had naturally acquired information about Drakan as well.
The Top Ranker of the era before Yujin, Drakan!
He had quelled the Warring States period when countless guilds and Rankers each coveted the top position, and after bringing massive guilds to their knees through Guild Wars and subjugating them under the name of the Guild Alliance, he had seized continental hegemony through the Continental Unification War—a Hegemon King.
But where there is light, there is darkness, and in the end, he could not overcome the limitations of the Guild Alliance and his iron-fisted rule, falling to Hero Yujin, a rising sacred star, and met his downfall.
His achievements had been great, but in the end, he too was a loser who failed to protect his apex position and surrendered it to Yujin, a now-forgotten legend, a washed-up has-been.
That was how Ignis evaluated Drakan.
The modern era is an age of infinite competition.
A cruel world where those who fell behind in competition even once could not survive again, where failure was not tolerated.
'No matter how great Drakan was, the previous game and Second are different games.'
To Ignis, who harbored such thoughts, Chief Sin's actions were utterly incomprehensible.
Her usual self had been a woman of cold composure who acted solely based on calculation while thoroughly pursuing her own benefit, befitting the age of infinite competition.
That was the true nature of Sin Ha-yeon as Ignis knew her.
But before Drakan, she was different.
Sin Ha-yeon consistently used honorifics he had never heard from her before, treating Drakan favorably.
Treatment so exceptional that neither he, nor any Ranker or named player affiliated with Jeil E&M up until now, nor even the top stars currently at the forefront of the Korean Wave under Jeil E&M, had ever received.
It was Drakan who was receiving such treatment.
Yet the very reason Ignis could not say a word despite this was Sin Ha-yeon.
Chief Sin. She was fervently supporting Drakan, even mobilizing her own in-game character for the first time, which she had never shown anyone.
Because Ignis could not dare rebel against her, the true ruler of JDG and the absolute dominant power, he was faithfully following Drakan.
Ignis looked at Drakan with a suspicious gaze.
'Can you truly present a way to break through this crisis?'
The current situation, as Ignis assessed it, was truly a quagmire.
The strategy the enemy would employ was, as Drakan said, urban warfare—only one thing.
The problem was, as Drakan himself had said, that they had no choice but to respond to that strategy!
Even though they knew full well it was a trap, there was virtually no brilliant scheme to break through the current situation where they had no choice but to crawl into the trap.
Of course, a method existed to cleanly burn down the city itself and push through, but Ignis expected Drakan would not choose that method.
And for good reason, because if the city were burned down, the losses Drakan would suffer would be enormous.
It might have been different if this were a punitive expedition, but the quest Drakan had received was to retake Lawless Harbor.
It meant that when the war ended, dominion over the city would fall into Drakan's hands, and reconstructing a city completely smashed to pieces would naturally entail enormous rebuilding costs.
In the end, it meant losing money even if they won, and Drakan was famous as a user who never did business at a loss.
Excluding that method, there was no other strategy.
Other than accepting the bleeding.
Ignis's gaze turned toward Drakan.
Drakan looked at Ignis and smiled.
'I can almost hear your eyes rolling from here.'
Drakan had experienced the full gamut of human nature while playing games.
Unlike Yujin, who had walked only a path of flowers through passionate camaraderie and hot-blooded adventure, meeting only comrades who trusted and believed in one another while laughing in high spirits from start to finish like the protagonist of a hot-blooded growth tale, Drakan was a user who had pierced through a thorny path rife with all manner of filthy deeds, including betrayal, conspiracy, and backroom schemes, to finally seize the seat of Top Ranker.
Therefore, Drakan did not easily trust anyone, and rather than users, he even placed more trust in NPCs whose loyalty could be gauged through numerical values.
'Well, I suppose I paid the price for that.'
For Drakan, comrades he could trust and rely upon, like Yujin's group, had not existed six years ago.
The high-ranking executives of the Iron Blood Alliance and Drakan were not steadfast comrades bound by mutual trust, but a strict business relationship bound by mutual interests.
The other guilds belonging to the Guild Alliance, subjugated through war, were the same.
Thanks to that, when Drakan began his downfall after suffering consecutive defeats to Yujin and the Revolutionary Army, they left his side like ghosts, and by the final battle at Voltaha Castle, his last stronghold, only the NPCs loyal to him and a few users who had failed to properly grasp the situation remained at his side.
And Drakan humbly accepted that result.
He was a loser!
But separate from accepting the result, Drakan did not think that his organization, built upon interests, had been wrong.
To blindly trust in the goodwill of others like Yujin would be impossible because the scars left by the years he had walked were too deep.
'I can't suddenly start doing things I never did before, like that Yujin bastard. Easily believing in others' goodwill like a sucker and making comrades is his strong point, not mine.'
Drakan knew.
Yujin had won, but his victory had been accompanied by miraculous luck, and more than anything, he was not Yujin.
Drakan himself was not handsome enough to put celebrities to shame like Yujin, nor was he pure like that bastard, nor did he have a kind personality.
If someone like himself pretended to be generous by following Yujin's example, he would end up like the crow trying to imitate the stork and tearing its legs apart.
There was much to learn from Yujin, but that didn't mean he needed to become exactly like him.
Because Yujin and Drakan were completely different people from head to toe!
Drakan needed a method that suited him, and he was currently in the process of finding an answer that fit.
'I have my own way.'
Whether it was a steadfast comradeship bound by loyalty, or a business relationship bound by interests, both had their strengths and weaknesses.
There was no such thing as a perfect method in this world.
And he thought.
If the flaws could not be hidden, he would maximize the strengths to render the flaws meaningless!
That was why Drakan joined hands with Sin Ha-yeon.
He did not trust Sin Ha-yeon.
But he believed that her interests aligned with his.
Sin Ha-yeon wanted a talent capable of inciting rebellion, and Drakan himself was the only user in this world who could raise a banner of revolt against Yujin.
And both Drakan and Sin Ha-yeon desired hegemony over Arde World.
Both knew.
Rebellion against Yujin's era, and the subsequent hegemony over Arde World!
As long as both conditions were maintained, this alliance would be mutually beneficial and perfectly satisfy each other's interests.
Therefore, both Drakan and Sin Ha-yeon knew well that this alliance would be near-eternal.
Of course, the possibility of betrayal was not nonexistent, but Drakan was not naive enough to let her get away with killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, and Sin Ha-yeon was not stupid enough to senselessly cut open the belly of the golden-egg-laying goose named Drakan.
Drakan and Sin Ha-yeon.
Ironically, the alliance of interests born from the extreme selfishness of these two people had become just as sturdy as Yujin's comradeship, which was tightly bound by loyalty and trust.
Both Drakan and Sin Ha-yeon were cunning pros who had been through all sorts of trials, not amateurs, so both knew well that there was nothing to gain from betraying each other.
And because Drakan was such a person, he had long since seen through Ignis's feelings.
'Because of Sin Ha-yeon, he can't utter a peep to me and follows along, but inside, he must be dissatisfied with me!'
A rolling stone dislodges an embedded stone.
Just as that saying goes, Ignis must be feeling as though the rolling stone called Drakan is dislodging him, the embedded stone!
Drakan knew well that this type of emotion could not be resolved overnight, and that if he approached with kindness first, it could backfire instead.
'There's no need to pay him any mind, but….'
Drakan had no need to concern himself with someone like Ignis.
Because Shin Ha-yeon was by his side.
The absolute dominant power!
Before Sin Ha-yeon, who wielded unchecked power, Ignis was nothing more than an infinitely small subordinate.
'Since it's true that fighting an urban battle would be a loss, it wouldn't hurt to give him an answer.'
Drakan thought so and opened his mouth.
"Of course there is."
"What is the method?"
The gazes of Drakan and Ignis briefly clashed in midair.
Sin Ha-yeon smiled as she watched the two of them.
Ignoring Ignis's gaze, Drakan looked at Sin Ha-yeon and spoke.