The Final Boss Has Returned
Chapter 76
[New Race, Undead… It’s here!]
[(Breaking) Necromancer unlocked.for real]
[Did Dark Knight unlock drop?]
The unlock of a new race, the Undead, and a new class, the Necromancer, as well as the Dark Knight!
In particular, news of the Necromancer’s unlock—a class that had been wished for release since time immemorial, and a traditionally popular class for over twenty years across the gaming industry and fantasy novels alike—set Ardet World ablaze.
[Necro droppedZZZZ]
[I just got off work. Three-line summary pls. New class out?]
[It came out as a new class, but for now it’s race-locked, so apparently you have to raise a new Undead to play it]
[Nice, heading there right now lol been craving a gangster necro]
[People are waiting at the necro job change quest right now. Get in line]
[Screw necros, what about the North? We got a cold wave debuff]
[Northies? lol]
[Equip cold-resist gear lol]
[Profiting hard as Undead thanks to the northern bumpkins lol ^^7]
[This is a comment the northern bumpkins can’t read lol]
Necromancer!
A class imbued with the romance of commanding an Undead army!
At the news of the Necromancer’s unlock, the Ardet forums descended into chaos in an instant. The situation had reached a point where even existing Northern users were deleting their characters to reroll as Necromancers, so the cold of the North was no longer even a topic of conversation.
It was only because the Necromancer was so popular, but the Dark Knight—who used ‘Dark Aura’ and struck a chord with the chuunibyou hearts of players—and the new Undead race also drew immense attention, and the results of that were immediately reflected in the Skull Castle.
“Ah, could you move aside please?”
“Does anyone know where to do the Necromancer job change?”
“Is this the city where I shall begin my new life? It is brimming with the aura of death.”
Skull Castle!
The Undead starting base at the edge of the world was already packed to the point where new Undead users had no room to step.
Especially at the Skull Spire, where the Arch Lich who gave the Necromancer job change quest was located, users lined up endlessly to receive the quest. Things had reached a point where the Arch Lich had set it up so that job change quests could be distributed to other Liches as well.
Of course, when the Warlocks, Merfolk, or Pirates had been unlocked, new users had flocked to Lawless Harbor, the Great Coral Reef, or the Pirate Archipelago to choose Merfolk, Warlocks, or Pirates, but the current population explosion was on a level incomparable to that!
It was evidence of just how many users had longed for the Necromancer, and at the same time, it was a moment where the number of users supporting Drakan was also increasing by that much.
* * *
Lightwing Entertainment Building.
In an empty conference room with the lights off, Berda’s face hardened stiffly as she checked the trends of public opinion on her laptop.
Spear King Rio!
Because of that idiot who had dug his own grave and kindly served it up to Drakan, public opinion toward Drakan had once again shifted favorably.
For Berda, who had already been troubled by the apology Drakan showed in his recent interview, this incident was truly nothing short of a shock.
‘Nothing is going right.’
Berda calmed her trembling hands, opened the bottled water next to her laptop, and gulped down the lukewarm water.
Doing so wouldn’t soothe her burning insides, but it was still better than not drinking water.
Yujin!
The man she loved to the point of madness seemed to believe in Drakan’s change with absolute faith, but to Berda’s genuine heartache, she could not agree with Yujin’s opinion.
Drakan!
She might know better than even the beloved Yujin what kind of man he was, as she had faced him strategically for supremacy over Ardet World.
Drakan was extremely selfish, a cold-blooded man who did not hesitate over means and methods to achieve his goals.
The conclusion Berda had reached was that such a Drakan showing altruistic behavior was not, as Yujin thought, because he had experienced a grand awakening, but rather a highly calculated political act.
‘Lord Yujin. I wish you would harbor just a little doubt toward Drakan.’
Berda sighed inwardly.
Yujin!
Berda knew all too well that he was the type to believe in human goodwill and treat anyone with unhesitating kindness.
It was only natural, as she herself had fallen for Yujin’s kind heart.
But at times, even while knowing his personality, Yujin’s actions made her feel as frustrated as eating sweet potatoes dry without water, and now was precisely such a time.
Drakan!
In Berda’s opinion, that bastard had cunningly deceived nearly everyone, and with his acting had even fooled Yujin, finally reaching the point of using him.
Indeed, who would have predicted that Drakan—a man who was a corpse without his pride—would kneel in the middle of an interview broadcast!
She, who prided herself on being colder and more rational than anyone in the Lightwing Guild and was the acknowledged brain of the guild, had failed to predict that Drakan would take such a groundbreaking action. She herself had briefly suspected that he might have truly awakened the moment he knelt, so it was clear that everyone else had fallen for Drakan’s acting.
‘Everyone is being deceived. I have to tell them…’
Berda sighed inwardly.
Drakan!
The bastard who had returned had become even more dangerous.
Unlike the past where he had been shortsighted and pursued only his own interests, he was now looking further ahead and acting altruistically, as if he had changed, even when it seemed inefficient at first glance, all to seize control of the users’ public opinion.
Had the deep-sea fishing boat broadened his horizons? Or if not that, was it defeat?
She could not know.
Berda shook her head and once again revised her assessment of Drakan upward.
He had already been the most difficult opponent to face in the previous work.
The biggest reason the Lightwing Guild had been able to defeat Drakan was precisely that his vision had been extremely narrow, to the point where he couldn’t take care of anything beyond his own interests.
But the current Drakan was different.
He appeared to have overcome his weakness of narrow vision, and if the current him rose to a position similar to the Lightwing Guild and waged a war for supremacy once more, Berda would see the odds of that war as fifty-fifty.
It meant that no one would know who would win.
And to prevent such a situation, she had to break his wings before he could soar again.
But now was still not a good time to carry out a scheme.
Yujin!
Wasn’t his attention still focused on Drakan? Wasn’t Draken taking advantage of his goodwill? Wasn’t the public’s attention fixed on him? Moreover, most decisively, carrying out a scheme at this point, not long after the clumsy scheme of the Church of Infinite Yujin had been exposed during the Merfolk quest, was extremely dangerous.
But that didn’t mean she could just leave him be.
After agonizing for a while, Berda finally made her decision and picked up her phone.
Rrrrrring.
The lonely ringing tone echoed sorrowfully in Berda’s ear.
* * *
Southern Grand Forest!
The largest forest in the world, occupying one-third of the southern region of Ardet World.
The Grand Forest was a field with just as many unexplored regions as its size, and also a demonic realm teeming with countless monsters.
And for users, many monsters meant abundant experience points, items, and gold!
Moreover, an unexplored region also meant there were many undiscovered dungeons and areas. This meant that if things went well, one could reap sweet gains through various first-clear bonuses. Paradoxically, even now, countless users were flocking to the Grand Forest with the mindset of trying to receive a first-clear bonus at least once, like the Gold Rush of the western frontier in history.
And to resolve the Dark Elf quest, I too had to head to the Grand Forest like them.
The problem was the strategy for the quest.
Should I go solo, or form a small-scale elite party like during the Undead quest, or perhaps organize a large-scale expedition force!
After repeatedly worrying over the strategy, I made my decision.
First, I would enter solo to gauge the situation, then decide whether to deploy additional personnel like a party or expedition force after seeing the follow-up quest content.
And that was the reason I was currently in the middle of the jungle with Shin Ha-yeon.
“It feels like we’re out on a picnic with just the two of us.”
Shin Ha-yeon!
She had insisted on forming a duo with me when I said I’d go solo. And I had accepted her proposal without much thought.
Leaving aside the fact that Shin Ha-yeon was my financial backer, she was someone who always pulled her weight.
I looked at Shin Ha-yeon, who was showing an unusually excited demeanor for some reason in the great jungle with its fine mountains, water, and air, and spoke. While sitting astride a tree stump at the campsite we had arranged for camping.
“But aren’t executives at major corporations busy? Is it okay for you to play around like this?”
“I’m fine for the time being. After all, as long as I present the vision, the lower-level staff take care of the work. Besides, there’s no one left in the company who opposes me now, so there’s nothing to trouble my head over.”
Shin Ha-yeon smiled brightly at my words, sat down beside me, and spoke while looking at me.
‘No one who opposes her,’ she says—pulling out such a chilling story with a smiling expression, I thought.
‘Didn’t she say she turned her father into a figurehead?’
I looked at Shin Ha-yeon’s brightly smiling face and recalled what she had told me before.
Realizing that her father was behind the group’s executives who protested that the investment in me was inefficient compared to the returns, she had cut off all her father’s limbs and made him a chairman in name only. Her face, which had spoken as if it were nothing, with the same tone as saying she had a sandwich for lunch yesterday, still flickered before my eyes.
“And my vision is right here, in Ardet World. So in a way, me going on an adventure with you right now, Lord Drakan, is also part of my work.”
As she said, the current Shin Ha-yeon had placed her vision in Ardet World.
He who dominates Ardet World dominates new media!
Since she operated with such a mindset, her words weren’t wrong in a way, and could even be called extremely rational thinking.
I said nothing and looked at Shin Ha-yeon.
“Perhaps… do you dislike me following you around?”
Shin Ha-yeon asked, seeming somewhat anxious.
I looked at her fidgeting fingers and answered.
“No. I don’t mind.”
“Thank goodness.”
At my words that I didn’t mind, Shin Ha-yeon finally put on an expression of relief.
She had always been like that, but recently Shin Ha-yeon had been showing quite a wealth of expressions and emotions before me.
Of course, it was clearly goodwill stemming from a business relationship at first, but the more time we spent together, the more her attitude grew distant from that of a business relationship.
A person who showed an excessively cold and rigid side to others changed like that only in front of me.
Unlike Yujin, who still acted oblivious despite having three beauties circling him and openly showing affection, I was not so dull that I couldn’t see the true intentions hidden behind such behavior.
“Shin Ha-yeon.”
“Y-yes?”
When I called her by her name for the first time instead of ‘you,’ ‘there,’ or ‘Executive Shin,’ Shin Ha-yeon visibly flustered.
I looked at such a Shin Ha-yeon and spoke.
“You and I are allies connected by business. We agreed that I would take supremacy over Ardet World and revenge, while you would take the tangible and intangible added value stemming from that and the initiative in the new media market that will unfold through Ardet Saga: Second and Ardet Live.”
A business relationship!
Except for my parents, I had lived maintaining this kind of relationship with most people in the world.
A relationship where we used each other based on mutual interests!
I was someone who knew the very bottom of this world all too well.
Born into a devastatingly poor family, I had done every job imaginable, legal or illegal, since middle school to earn money. Having boarded a deep-sea fishing boat as if sold into it while burdened with astronomical debt, the world was not a wonderland overflowing with dreams and hope, but a cold, cruel, and ruthlessly relentless dystopia.
I couldn’t afford to bet on vague values like trust, human goodwill, or love at this point.
Visible interests were more reassuring than invisible emotions.
So to her, who seemed to have not yet crossed the line by much, I had to make things clear this time.
“However, right now, you are dancing on the edge of that line between public and private.”
Shin Ha-yeon’s pupils widened at my words.
“I’m not a tactless bastard like a certain someone. And I hate being unable to separate business from personal matters.”
I hate ambiguous relationships.
Especially if one harbored one-sided emotions for no reason, there was a high possibility of dragging private matters into the public domain and making a mess of things.
“So I’d like you to answer me right here. How far are you going to take this?”
Shin Ha-yeon smiled at my words.