The Final Boss Has Returned Episode 33
A Quest That Could Not Be Refused!
Moreover, it wasn't just any quest—it was a rare quest with two or more completion conditions, meaning it had a branching point.
Depending on which objective I completed here, the contents of the subsequent linked quests would probably change as well.
Looking at that quest, I laughed inwardly.
‘To think they'd give me a whole month. They must be unable to contain their confidence!’
It wasn't like they were invading tomorrow or the day after, but a whole month!
That was plenty of time to sufficiently establish countermeasures.
"Since you've understood well, take your leave."
"In one month, when our alliance's grand fleet appears on the horizon, I hope you will have made your decision."
Leaving those words behind, Edward left the office.
I watched him disappear and clapped my hands together with a sharp snap.
A quest had been given, so now it was time to discuss countermeasures.
* * *
Jeil Content Hub Building.
In the conference room at its very top, along with my dedicated support team as usual, I was logged out and discussing countermeasures for the current situation.
The difference from before was that Ignis, the master of JDG, and Sin Hayeon were participating in the meeting together.
"The pirate alliance's forces are as previously reported. Excluding Yujin and his allied guilds, there is currently no user force in Arde World capable of waging all-out war against the Pirate King at sea and winning."
"So even borrowing JDG's strength and mobilizing all the eastern users, all-out war would be difficult."
I finished speaking and downed a glass of water placed in front of me.
"That is correct. However, this quest is not all-out war, but a simple Lawless Harbor defense battle. It's unknown how much of his forces the Pirate King will mobilize, but the defense itself has a certain chance of victory if we mobilize JDG's forces."
The team leader continued speaking.
He was right.
The objective of this quest was a defense battle!
In siege warfare, it was common knowledge that the defender side held the advantage over the attacker side.
So the team leader was also saying that while all-out war at sea might be a different story, simply defending Lawless Harbor was possible with our current forces.
"If we show ourselves defeating the pirate alliance once again in this defense battle, public support for Drakan-nim will become even firmer, and it will also have a positive effect on the fandom forming around Drakan-nim."
Fandom!
I had already heard in a previous report that my fandom was just beginning to stir.
The strategy presented by the team leader was extremely by-the-book and rational.
It was true that public opinion centered mainly on the east had turned positive toward me, and if we proceeded according to the strategy proposed by the team leader, we would be able to consolidate public opinion smoothly.
Yes.
Smoothly.
But I had no intention of going smoothly.
My final goal was Yujin! To crush him and rise once more to the pinnacle of Arde World!
And Yujin wasn't an easy opponent who could be defeated through such smooth methods.
‘Yujin isn't a pushover.’
I hated Yujin, but I didn't underestimate him.
And likewise, I didn't overestimate myself.
Know the enemy and know yourself! To know your opponent and know yourself was truly the first step toward victory—this was something I knew all too well from the countless victories and defeats I had experienced in the previous game.
Of course, it was also an undeniable fact that I was currently absorbing public opinion with terrifying momentum, raising my level, clearing quests, and causing a whirlwind in Arde World that had been stagnant.
A promising next-generation ranker, the current dark horse, and a secondhand rookie who was formerly a top ranker!
That was exactly my position in Arde Saga Second right now.
And I knew very well what kind of position being a "prospect" was.
‘A user with a high chance of becoming a future ranker, and also an existence that existing rankers love and hate the most.’
In Arde Saga, a prospect was a contradictory existence.
They were targets for recruitment by veteran rankers leading guilds, while simultaneously being targets of suppression by rankers who had formed a cartel of vested interests and veterans.
An existence capable of influencing the future power structure in any form!
Because that was what a prospect was, the backroom battles of enticement and suppression between guilds over prospects were fiercely intense.
Take me, for example—I had countless times suppressed or enticed prospects who went against the rule of the Guild Alliance and the Ironblood Alliance, so that said it all, and likewise, Yujin had received tremendous suppression during his days as a prospect.
Moreover, I wasn't just any prospect now.
A special-grade prospect who might aim for not just a ranker's seat, but even a High Ranker or Over Ranker's position!
A rising star who, not long after appearing, contracted with the Demon God, burned Lawless Harbor, and drew the support of eastern users!
That was exactly my current position.
Under normal circumstances, countless guilds, management companies, and agencies would definitely be sending me love calls by now, but the fact that they weren't was surely because the Jeil Group was behind me.
The Jeil Group!
There was no guild, agency, or management company in the country with the guts to pull tricks against a mega-corporation chaebol ranked fifth in the Korean business world.
Anyway, what mattered now was that I was 'still' a prospect.
To shake off the prospect label as soon as possible, become a true Named and Ranker, and furthermore, to surpass Yujin, I needed to rise faster than I was now.
‘If I chose a smooth growth method, at my current pace I might somehow reach the Over Ranker seat. But Yujin—crushing him would be hard.’
More than anything, I knew this well.
The fact that while I was growing, Yujin wouldn't be waiting for me quietly at the top!
Yujin was known to be currently undertaking the Conquest Quest.
Conquest Quest!
A quest process of revisiting the feats one's character had achieved in the previous game; if a guy who had unified an entire continent and seen the ending in the previous game completed the Conquest Quest, I couldn't even imagine how much stronger he would become.
Of course, if it were the previous game, I would have mobilized the Ironblood Alliance to interfere with Yujin's Conquest Quest, but now I didn't even have the power to do so!
Interfering with his quest in the current Arde Saga Second, where Yujin held hegemony over Arde World, was no different from suicide.
Even if I mobilized the forces of JDG and the Jeil Group, while it might be possible in reality, defeating Yujin in Arde World was still impossible.
So now was not yet the time to challenge Yujin.
But that didn't mean Yujin was idling away in complacency at the top.
In this current situation, there was only one way for me to narrow the gap with him!
A path where I devoured everything at a speed that would make anyone call me crazy, shooting upward rapidly.
And to do that, I couldn't follow the quest's objective exactly as given.
"It's a smooth and good strategy. But that's exactly why it's lacking."
At my words, the team leader flinched, and I continued.
"I'm saying that a smooth strategy isn't enough to beat Yujin."
At my words, a cold silence flowed through the conference room.
And the one who broke that silence was none other than Sin Hayeon.
"Drakan-nim is right. Smoothness alone cannot defeat Yujin."
Sin Hayeon added her usual enchanting eye-smile and gentle voice as she looked at me and spoke.
"So, do you have a different plan in mind, Drakan-nim?"
I looked at her and said.
"Let's bring in another force, like we did during the Lawless Harbor recapture."
The one who answered my words was not Sin Hayeon, but the team leader.
"If you're speaking of the eastern users, even with their strength added, all-out war with the pirate alliance is insufficient."
"Not users."
I smiled at the team leader's words and recalled what Kalid had said.
I remembered clearly what he had said.
Fishmen!
That they had the potential and power to repel pirates.
Moreover, since the same information appeared in the Abyssal Lighthouse's description window, these words were likely true.
And anyway, to clear the 'Apostle's Path' quest, the Fishmen quest was something I'd have to do eventually!
They say it's better to take the beating first—since things have already come to this, if I dove into the Fishmen quest, subdued the Fishmen, and faced the pirates with their forces...
I could catch two rabbits with one stone—the Apostle's Path quest and the Pirate King's subjugation—and even draw the complete support of the eastern users.
Of course, the difficulty of the Fishmen quest would clearly be no joke, but I hadn't even thought that I could take the all-out war against the Pirate King lightly.
Rather, the very fact that a path called the Fishmen quest existed, which could resolve the all-out war with the Pirate King, was important to me.
From the previous game until now, except for the single defeat I had suffered to Yujin, I had continuously won and succeeded.
Among them were several quests deemed impossible by the public, and I had experience shattering people's expectations and clearing such quests with ease.
Even the Overlord Quest—when its contents were revealed, people had sworn that no one would succeed even though I was sitting at the top ranker's position at the time, yet I had succeeded.
I had to concede hegemony to Yujin not long after, but still.
So no matter how difficult this quest was, it wasn't at a level that was impossible.
I looked at the team leader and said.
"Fishmen. We pull them into this game."
* * *
Granado, the Lawless Harbor.
Not long ago, this city had become a hot topic due to the Lawless Harbor recapture battle, but now it was packed with users.
Black Mages!
It was because Lawless Harbor was the only city where one could change to the recently unlocked new class, the Black Mage.
"Hello, brothers! I just finished changing to Black Mage. Now I'll demonstrate Black Mage skills in the dungeon right up ahead. Please subscribe and like!"
From streamers who turned on live broadcasts to stream Black Mage-related content, to users deleting their raised characters and leveling up new ones to change to Black Mage, to newbies who had flocked after hearing the rumors!
Lawless Harbor was literally a mountain and sea of people, packed so tightly there was barely room to step.
In such a Lawless Harbor, what captivated the users' eyes was undoubtedly the construction site covering the entire harbor.
Reconstructing the burned buildings, as well as the city walls surrounding the city and various facilities including newly built casinos!
It was no exaggeration to say that the entire city was a construction zone!
Users muttered as they watched that sight.
"Wow, how many buildings are they even constructing?"
"Was Drakan a golden spoon? His money must be rotting away; building this much at once would cost an insane amount."
"It might be the first time in Arde Saga that someone who destroyed a place is rebuilding it himself."
"That's none of our business; shall we go do some construction repeatable quests? The rewards are pretty decent, and it might be worth trying as a daily quest when you're a newbie."
The one who had burned the city was rebuilding it!
People were surprised once by the unprecedented sight, and surprised twice by the construction quests that paid decent wages.
Users marveled at Drakan's endless wealth that was literally no different from pouring gold onto the ground, and some of them began receiving construction daily quests and working at the construction site.
Not all users were overflowing with gold, and since newbies lacked funds, construction daily quests immediately began rising as a hot spot for gold acquisition.
And so, one week in game time passed.