The Final Boss Has Returned – Episode 24
The Lawless Port Recapture Battle!
Drakan, JDG, and Jakeu!
Beyond them, Rankers and Named Players gathered in Argan Village, along with countless nameless users!
Since Yujin had completely seized hegemony over Arde World, the users’ attention was focused on the large-scale war event occurring for the first time in a long while.
Even before the war started, countless streamers and users poured out all kinds of predictions on Arde Live and the Arde Forum.
[(KingGod TV) This Is Definitely It! Lawless Port Recapture Battle Victory/Defeat Prediction Results!]
[(Special Feature) The Lawless Port Recapture Battle. Comparative Analysis of Both Sides’ Military Strength. Chances of Victory?]
SNS and communities, as well as game media on Arde Live.
Countless people poured out endless wild speculations about the Lawless Port Recapture Battle, and posts about the Lawless Port Recapture Battle never ceased day after day on internet communities and SNS, including the Arde Forum.
Drakan and JDG are going to win!
No. An unexpected result might come out!
Countless opinions clashed, but the prevailing public opinion was generally that while JDG’s forces were superior, if the Lawless Port—supported by the Pirate Alliance—induced urban warfare, the chances of victory were impossible to know.
Of course, among them, there were those who voiced the minority opinion that Drakan might perhaps employ a strategy of destroying or burning down the city, but they soon faced the counterargument that “Drakan, being so selfish, would never do such a thing,” were attacked as absurd, and such opinions vanished without a trace.
But it was also true that there was no user who had experienced as many wars as Drakan.
Even users who hated Drakan acknowledged his war-running abilities, so the users were subtly expecting Drakan to show a strategy so exquisite and novel, one that could resolve this current crisis, that even Zhuge Liang and Zhang Zifang would weep.
On top of that, the fight between the Church of Infinite Yujin—whom one couldn’t leave out now—and other users was also breaking out sporadically across the internet.
The Arde Forum.
From the days of the previous installment until now after Second’s release, the Arde Forum had solidified its position as the internet community representing the Arde Saga, and its best posts and comment sections had already become a mess due to the fight between the Church of Infinite Yujin and other users.
[To be honest, I do think Drakan’s gonna win lol. JDG has an Over Ranker, and they even scraped together every last one of the Black Oxen. Even I’d win if I was commanding lololol]
[Well, I think it’ll be tough. The Pirate King isn’t an idiot, he must’ve sent support. I met him during an eastern village support quest last year, and their communication network was built so well that support came immediately. They’re not just some pirates. Maybe if it were someone on Yujin’s level, who knows.]
[You Yujin cultists are just pretending to have facts, right? If the Church of Infinite Yujin doesn’t act as a meat shield, honestly JDG or Lightwing would be about equal in strength, no? Honestly, Yujin hasn’t properly shown himself fighting since coming to Second, so the dominant opinion is that if he clashed with multiple Over Rankers it’d be close. Yet you’re talking like he’s gonna beat the Pirate King lololol]
[Honestly, it won’t be that close. He’s got War Chronicle meta and Contract meta. And since Yujin has both War Chronicle and Contract as total cheats, Drakan will have both as total cheats too. Drakan’s Demon God Contract is a fact. I think they’re gonna win. But the guy in the reply isn’t wrong either. Anyone who’s done urban warfare knows pirates and bandits have low individual combat power, but in a chaotic melee they’re utterly infuriating.]
[Why’s Drakan so overrated lol? He briefly changed tack, took a bunch of photo ops, acted like a politician, and people think he’s a good guy? The fact is, if he hadn’t completely f***ed everything up in the previous game, guys like the Pirate King wouldn’t have even appeared lololol]
[Why bring up the previous game here? Another Yujin cultist starting a deflection, right? Everyone knows the Drakan from the previous game a thousand years ago and the Pirate King from Second a thousand years later have nothing to do with each other, right? Rather, it’s that amazing Yujin who ignored the Pirate King even when eastern users went to ask for help, right? Caught having zero facts and being completely biased, haven’t you?]
[Real talk, the above comment is right. The fact is, the fact is Yujin abandoned the East and played hero lolololol. Playing warrior while eastern users were suffering, disgusting, right? From an easterner’s perspective, Drakan—who directly mobilized troops to crush those pirate bastards—is much better than Yujin, who only pretends to be good on the outside.]
If there was one thing different from usual in this fight that had occurred countless times, it was the tide of public opinion surrounding Drakan.
Of course, even before that, there had been users praising Drakan or mentioning a re-evaluation.
But that wasn’t them sincerely re-evaluating or following him; they were propping him up merely as a concept or out of antipathy toward the Church of Infinite Yujin.
Drakan. No matter what anyone said, he was the ruler of the era before Yujin, and the only user who had faced Yujin head-on!
Propping up such a Drakan was tantamount to belittling the world-shaking achievement of the World Revolution that Yujin, his colleagues, and the Church of Infinite Yujin had accomplished together.
That had been the reason why antipathy toward the Church of Infinite Yujin manifested as praise and re-evaluation of Drakan.
But now it was different.
Now, users who sincerely followed Drakan were beginning to appear, not because of antipathy toward the Church of Infinite Yujin.
The reason for this shift in public opinion was simple.
It was because favorable public opinion toward Drakan was gradually spreading, centered around eastern users suffering from the Pirate Alliance.
It was only natural that the hearts of eastern users groaning under the Pirate King’s tyranny were leaning toward Drakan, who had immediately and boldly mobilized troops to take action, rather than the aloof hero Yujin who remained in the center merely watching the fire while claiming to uphold principles.
Just as public opinion toward Drakan was changing positively, bit by bit.
[Breaking news! Real-time streaming activated on Drakan’s official channel!]
[JDG turned on a live broadcast too! Lololololol]
[War’s up!! War’s up!!]
[War, let’s gooo!!]
Bait was thrown that made the already heated internet burn even hotter.
It was the long-awaited Lawless Port Recapture Battle!
It was the real-time live broadcast of Drakan and JDG announcing its start.
* * *
The Black Spire.
The black spire soaring in the center of the Lawless Port like a blade thrust toward the heavens.
In the lord’s office on the top floor of the so-called Black Tower, Jakeu looked down at the view of the Lawless Port outside the window with trembling hands.
Lawless Port!
Buildings constructed without a shred of order, and narrow alleys tangled like a spider web came into his sight.
Jakeu smiled as he looked upon the Lawless Port’s appearance.
‘All preparations are complete.’
From the time Riakeu and the Baeksangeo Charge Squad arrived until now, Jakeu had mobilized every means and fund to install fatal traps throughout the alleys of the Lawless Port, and of course dispersed pirates in ambush throughout the buildings, establishing countless other countermeasures.
Having transformed thus, the Lawless Port looked fine on the outside, but the moment an enemy stepped even one foot into the city, it had become a terrible and massive trap that would make them taste hell.
‘You idiots!’
Jakeu inwardly mocked Drakan and JDG.
If their army had rushed in before preparations for urban warfare were completed!
Perhaps he might have been at a disadvantage.
But for some reason, they gathered their army yet didn’t attack the city, and thanks to that, Jakeu—having bought time—was able to turn the entire city into a trap.
‘Come if you dare!’
A smile hung on Jakeu’s lips.
Drakan!
And JDG!
No matter how great they were, if they stepped into the Lawless Port that had transformed into a massive trap, they would have to be prepared to bleed.
Not that they could escape the trap he had laid.
The way to deal with urban warfare was forming an encirclement, but the Lawless Port was a port city, and with their naval power, they could never defeat the Pirate King’s fleet!
Therefore, even with the obvious tactic of urban warfare, they would have no choice but to fall for it.
Checkmate!
That is the situation they are in, Jakeu thought.
Urban warfare. Through melee combat inside the city where numbers became meaningless, he would seize the final victory.
Jakeu clenched his fist, thinking thus.
‘Drakan!’
Jakeu’s eyes gleamed.
Because the moment he recalled that bastard, grudge toward him welled up from deep in his heart.
The very culprit who had issued an extermination order and mercilessly retaliated against and trampled upon him—who had been enjoying the noble hobby of PK—just for touching a mere low-ranking guild member of the Ironblood Alliance!
Thanks to that, until Drakan’s downfall, he couldn’t even properly log into the game he loved, so Jakeu’s heart boiled with even greater hatred toward Drakan.
Jakeu equipped his beloved weapon, the cutlass.
They say a rotten fish is still a croaker; though the former top ranker had yet to reclaim his ranker position, he had signed a contract with Jeil E&M and every time a video was uploaded, it caused such a stir that it shook the entire internet.
If he could cut that bastard’s throat with his own hands!
The world’s attention would surely pour down on him.
“Hehehehe.”
Jakeu let out a sinister laugh.
Drakan’s level was still known to be in the 100s.
Of course, the fact that he possessed a legendary-grade War Chronicle and was a contractor with the Demon God of Darkness was widely known through videos, and Jakeu was aware of this as well.
But no matter how good his War Chronicle abuse and Contract abuse were, his level was still in the 100s, and he was nothing but a has-been who hadn’t returned long ago.
Jakeu thought thus.
‘Cutting off that has-been’s head to take revenge and gain fame! This is what killing two birds with one stone means!’
Jakeu smiled, imagining himself cutting off Drakan’s head and thus finally completing his revenge.
Soon, their army would rush in.
But Jakeu was not afraid.
Their army would wander inside the massive labyrinth called the Lawless Port and eventually become a disorderly mob to be defeated in detail!
Drakan!
That extreme egoist overflowing with greed, who knew nothing but himself, would surely push his army into the city for his own desires.
Just as Jakeu was flying on the wings of all sorts of delusions.
Kwaaa-kwang!
A deafening roar that shook the earth’s axis crashed against Jakeu’s ears.
“Wh-what?”
The sudden explosive sound!
Jakeu jumped in surprise at that sound and looked out the window.
And what came into Jakeu’s sight was the burning city, and all sorts of AoE magic including a rain of fire and lightning pouring from the sky.
And attacks from siege weapons including mana bolts flying in from outside the city.
“This, this is insane!”
Jakeu was aghast at that sight.
Because now, the opponent’s intent, Drakan’s strategy, was transparently readable.
Drakan had never intended to engage in urban warfare from the start.
He wasn’t the only one who had been happy about buying time.
While he had been doing the stupid work of laying traps in the city, the opponent had brought siege weapons to blow away the city, a magic corps, and wyvern riders to pour down magical bombardment.
And urban warfare—or rather, all fights and strategies—only had meaning if the opponent agreed to engage in them.
That his conviction that Drakan would absolutely never burn down the city had horribly missed the mark.
Watching the burning Lawless Port, Jakeu finally realized.
“Uaaaaaaagh!”
A scream echoed from Jakeu’s mouth.
His entire body trembled.
Jakeu couldn’t believe the current reality.
The traps he had carefully laid, the pirates he had put in ambush!
All of that prepared for urban warfare was vainly burning and crumbling away.
“How, how can this be!”
Burning down the city to avoid urban warfare!
Of course, theoretically it was the best countermeasure they could choose right now.
Urban warfare was a battlefield advantageous to the Lawless Port side!
It was certainly a much easier path than crawling into the Lawless Port knowing full well it was a trap and bleeding, to boldly blow up the city and clean up the remaining stragglers.
But there was a trap on that easy path.
Everyone already knew that the objective of the quest Drakan had received was the recapture of the Lawless Port.
That’s right. It wasn’t subjugation, but recapture.
In other words, if he completed the quest objective, it meant he would have to operate the Lawless Port himself from then on.
In that situation, burning down the city was an absurd choice.
Who would turn a city that would become their own into ashes!
Even if they won the war that way, all that would remain was ashes.
That was truly an act of madness.
That is why Jakeu hadn’t even considered that Drakan would burn down the city.
Because anyone could see, any user with a brain, let alone common sense, wouldn’t commit such an act of madness!
Moreover, Jakeu knew Drakan well.
He was a person more selfish than anyone, knowing nothing but his own gain, yet thorough in profit-and-loss calculation.
That was why he had been able to exercise powerful iron-fist rule in the previous installment based on money squeezed from ordinary users.
Jakeu thought that such a Drakan would rather drive users into urban warfare than burn the city and suffer losses in its later operation.
That was because the Drakan shown in the previous installment was a cold-blooded man who used and discarded others without hesitation for his own benefit!
Anyone else maybe, but Drakan would never, ever do something that caused him losses, so there was no need to worry about him burning the city.
Jakeu, who had thought that way, now wanted to turn back time.
To think that such a crazy act, and by Drakan no less, could happen!
But it wasn’t important that Drakan was committing this crazy act right now.
The problem he faced now was that Drakan’s crazy act had become reality, and the target of that crazy act was himself.
“You crazy b*stard!!”
Jakeu grabbed the back of his neck and roared at the top of his lungs, cursing Drakan.
Even as he did so, like Jakeu’s heart burning black, the flames rising in the Lawless Port blazed redder and redder.
The Lawless Port Recapture Battle, where the attention of countless users was focused!
Its prologue shockingly began with indiscriminate magical bombardment and siege weapon attacks directed at the city.
And the shocking sight of the Lawless Port burning was broadcast live to the world through Arde Live, and the viewers who saw that scene flipped out.
Drakan!
He had gone and caused another incident after all.