The Final King Has Returned – Episode 36
After Drakan disappeared into the seabed aboard a sea turtle with Nereus to undertake a quest, the internet once again began to boil over with Drakan-related topics.
The merfolk!
A race that had never once appeared on the front lines of the Arde World across both the previous game and Second.
That race had only ever appeared in quests, history books, and legends, so the mere fact that it revealed itself before people for the first time was shocking enough—but to think it was Drakan who had summoned them!
Over this juicy bait, countless people carried on day after day with heated debates in various spaces: the Arde Forum, a massive internet community dedicated to Arde Saga, as well as social media, game broadcasters, game media outlets, and even Arde Live.
[Wow, the merfolk are insane lol. Isn't this the first time they've appeared? It hasn't even been that long since Drakan returned, yet true class is eternal.]
[Drakan's charging ahead full force like this, but who knows what Yujin is doing. Is he still on his succession quest?]
The Lawless Port Recapture.
Drakan's fandom, which had just begun to stir thanks to that incident, was gradually catching an updraft due to this merfolk appearance.
[Did you see the tabloid rumors about Drakan going around? They say it's kingdom reconstruction lol. Is that even a possible quest? No matter how much it's Drakan, kingdom reconstruction is impossible. Even if JDG helps, it won't work.]
[A quest of that caliber is impossible to clear unless it's our God Yujin.]
[Ugh, the Yujin stans are swarming again.]
[Do Yujin stans have goldfish memories? Did you already forget the Lawless Port Recapture? Unlike a certain coward, when Drakan acts, he acts, that's what this is lolololol]
[Yeah, Control-kan~ your master almost ruined the previous game~]
[Since when did the comment above mention control? lol Then who turned Second into a no-fun game? Who's the one acting like a stuffy old scholar and micromanaging everything?]
[Hey, don't you know the reason there's no newbie-stomping or beginner hunting in Second is because of Lord Yujin? If you don't know, shut it.]
The trending posts on the Arde Forum were, as always, gradually devolving into an absolute mess of user comment wars.
However, if there was one thing different from the past, it was that at the center of the anti-Church of Infinite Yujin users was the Drakan fandom, and they had begun to lead the anti-Church of Infinite Yujin public opinion.
The Drakan fandom!
This newly formed fandom consisted largely of two types of users.
The first were the eastern users who had suffered under the Pirate Coalition's atrocities and turned favorable after the Lawless Port Recapture!
And the second were the new-generation users who had started playing after Yujin defeated Drakan, or if not that, had started from Second rather than the previous game.
These new-generation users could not sympathize as much with the old-generation users regarding the era before Yujin—that is, the time when all manner of corrupt practices, like hunting ground control and heavy taxes dominated by Drakan, the Guild Coalition, and the Iron-Blood Alliance, ran rampant.
And for good reason: from the new-generation users' perspective, the era of Drakan, the Iron-Blood Alliance, and the Guild Coalition was a past they had never experienced.
Moreover, after the World Revolution, Yujin seized hegemony and all sorts of corrupt practices, including control, vanished entirely. Thus, the new-generation users had no memory whatsoever of being harmed by Drakan and the old rankers, including the former Guild Coalition.
Therefore, for the new-generation users, Drakan's era was a thing of the past that they understood intellectually but could not empathize with emotionally.
Rather, what the new-generation users recognized as problems were the various side effects that appeared after Yujin seized hegemony—starting from the "no-fun" transformation that began with the stagnation of the Arde World, to the countless tyrannies committed by the Church of Infinite Yujin on the internet.
The old-generation users responded to such complaints with non-sequiturs, insisting that the present was better than Drakan's time, and the generational conflict between old- and new-generation users continued to worsen.
In that situation, Drakan's appearance like a comet was more than enough to captivate the new-generation user base.
The legendary user who had been nothing more than a story for the old-generation users, the top ranker of the pre-Yujin era, and Yujin's antithesis!
Drawn by the symbolism of the icon called Drakan and the weight of that all-too-famous name, the new-generation users began to pay attention to him, and they could not help but be fascinated by the course of action he soon took.
From sweeping the tutorial rankings with flair to facing Yujin—none other than the Arde Saga's highest authority—on equal footing, and not even refusing his handshake, to clearing troll dungeons bare-bodied, to waging war and burning down a city…….
The new-generation users went wild over Drakan's unprecedented antics—after occupying the burnt city, he poured in gold with gusto to launch construction projects, and finally summoned the merfolk for the first time in Arde Saga service history.
A side they had never seen from the named users and rankers who had submitted to and obeyed Yujin's hegemony!
The complete opposite of Yujin, who was kind and just yet overly principled, pedantic, inflexible, and frustrating—an openly fiery, refreshing, thirst-quenching, soda-like figure!
Exactly the kind of figure the new-generation users had craved all the more!
The fact that the one showing them this side was none other than Drakan, whom the old-generation users of yore had talked about until they were blue in the face; and the fact that he was the only user among countless others who had confronted Yujin head-on, an icon of an era—the new-generation users began to cheer at this.
And finally, that fervor exploded with the Lawless Port Recapture as the catalyst, and new-generation users began flowing into the Drakan fandom.
Of course, there were also quite a few new-generation users who thought negatively of Drakan due to his past record.
But Drakan's era was already a bygone past, and besides, Drakan too had fought fiercely from his days as an underdog like Yujin to seize the top ranker's seat.
The fact that he had conquered the Conqueror Quest, which had been assessed as nearly impossible, was also brought to light, causing Drakan's stock to rise even further.
He wasn't without his dark side, but at least in terms of ability alone, he was tremendous!
You had to go this hard to take the top ranker's seat!
Drakan was a man worthy of becoming a top ranker!
Such opinions began forming among the new-generation users.
The changed trend from the past also played a part in this.
If the old-generation users of the past had gone wild for orthodox, traditional hero characters like Yujin—unable to tolerate injustice, kind yet pedantic and frustrating, but strictly faithful to principles and order—then the new-generation users were not like that.
What the new-generation users wanted was not a frustrating, sweet-potato-like "pushover" hero, but an unconventional anti-hero who didn't suffocatingly cling to principles, acted with flexibility, yet pushed forward with fiery boldness when the time came.
And Drakan was one of the named users who faithfully embodied that image.
The old-generation users could not understand the inclinations of such new-generation users.
To them, Drakan was nothing more than a villain who had reached the pinnacle of all corrupt practices, including control.
On the other hand, in their hearts, Yujin was the mastermind who had liberated them from the Guild Coalition's oppression and the long war, and the vanguard of revolution.
He was a challenger who had courageously raised the banner of rebellion during Drakan's reign, a dirt-spoon orphan who had started the game as a latecomer, caught up to the frontrunners through absurd strokes of luck including hidden classes, and finally turned the tables—a protagonist of a story straight out of a drama.
But the new-generation users likewise could not understand the old-generation users' tastes.
To them, Yujin was neither a challenger, nor a drama protagonist, nor a vanguard of revolution.
Yujin was already a top ranker, a living power and ruler of the Arde World, the very person who had turned the Arde World into a "no-fun" game by being overly obsessed with peace and goodness, and nothing more than the master of a toxic fandom called the Church of Infinite Yujin.
Therefore, as Drakan continued his march, the new-generation users' hearts gradually leaned toward him, and the conflict between users who had experienced Drakan's era and those who had not grew bit by bit like a snowball.
While the Arde Forum was burning with generational conflict, the issue streamers of Arde Live were conducting an in-depth analysis of the meaning behind Drakan's quest and the merfolk's appearance.
[The Drakan quest. The meaning of this quest, whose contents are presumed to be merfolk kingdom reconstruction. It may seem like no big deal, but in fact, this is practically a major hook leading to the mainstream.]
[If you've played Arde Saga quite a bit, you may have noticed by now. That's right, darkness and light! The Hall of Myriad Gods and the Demon Subjugation Hall! The conflict between the two great powers dividing the Arde World! You can consider this Drakan quest the fuse of this mega-sized hook.]
[The merfolk appearing in the history and legends of the Arde World are said to have been one of the allied races of the old Dark Empire. And Drakan is the Demon God's contractor. According to legend, Sion, the Dark Apostle defeated by the hero Leonhardt, was also a Demon God's contractor, and he tried to gather the old allied races of the Dark Empire to rebuild it. Sion and Drakan, the alliance and the merfolk—are you starting to get the picture now?]
[That's right. The reconstruction of the Dark Empire! Well, it may be a stretch, but the linked quest Drakan is undertaking will most likely lead to completing the great endeavor that Sion failed.]
[If this speculation is true, the Hall of Myriad Gods will not sit idly by. In the Arde Saga series's background setting, light and darkness, the Hall of Myriad Gods and the Demon Subjugation Hall, have been hostile to each other since the mythological age, and this is something that can be verified in the countless legends, myths, epics, and heroic tales passed down throughout the Arde World.]
[Perhaps the hero Yujin, who is contracted with the Goddess of Light, the head of the Hall of Myriad Gods, will one day block the path of Drakan, who has become the Dark Apostle, just as in the legend of the hero Leonhardt.]
[But for Yujin and Drakan, Drakan and Yujin! For the heart-fluttering rematch between these two, there is one great mountain that must be overcome.]
[And that is identifying the cause of the Gates and the Great Upheaval.]
[The Great Upheaval that occurred over a decade ago from Second's perspective, the resulting anomalies occurring throughout the Arde World, dungeon gates, mentions that the world's boundaries have weakened, and otherworldly monsters appearing in dungeons that could not be found in the previous game—before the cause of these anomalies, which may put the entire Arde World in danger, is identified and completely resolved, it is an open secret that the Hall of Myriad Gods and the Demon Subjugation Hall have chosen an implicit ceasefire.]
[For that reason, while the unstable ceasefire—no, cold war—between the two camps continues, both Yujin and Drakan will spend their time separately.]
[Drakan and Yujin, I really look forward to their future steps. My heart is literally pounding! Really!]
[That wraps up today's analysis. If you enjoyed this video, please make sure to subscribe to Analysis King's channel and hit the like button.]
Drakan, as the Demon God's contractor, is highly likely to walk the same path as Sion, the former Dark Apostle and Demon God's contractor!
And just as the legend of the hero Leonhardt handed down in the Arde World, the hero Yujin will one day stand in Drakan's way!
If only the various anomalies caused by the Great Upheaval in the Arde World are resolved, their rematch will immediately follow!
The contents of this analysis video uploaded by "Analysis King," an Arde Saga issue-analysis streamer whose Arde Live channel alone boasted a million subscribers, spread through his subscribers to social media and the Arde Forum, and soon the internet began to heat up once again.
Yujin and Drakan.
The two who had fought over the fate of the world in the previous game might once again clash over the mainstream!
Users went wild over this dramatic hook, and this flow of public opinion immediately reached the ears of the two main protagonists of that hook, Yujin and Drakan.