The Final Boss Has Returned — Chapter 80
Ard Live, Drakan’s official channel.
Drakan’s dedicated support team received footage from him immediately after the Dark Elf quest ended, edited it, and uploaded it straight to the official channel. The users’ reaction to the uploaded video was explosive.
[Drakan’s strong?]
[Wait, was Drakan always this good?]
[He’s going on a rampage even without Ignis, damn.]
[Wow~ I was level 90 when Drakan’s first video came out. When did he get so far ahead?;;]
[Seeing how his firepower is lower than expected even using Avatar, it looks like he didn’t use a Rune of Regression but cleared a succession quest and got skills. Is that video up?]
[That one’s still like 2nd or 3rd on the Hot Clip Chart. Go see for yourself.]
Drakan!
It was because he had finally succeeded in defeating enemies with nothing but his own strength, and with overwhelming performance at that.
Of course, even before that, Drakan had shown physical capabilities on a completely different dimension from users of the same level, befitting a former top ranker. But since he was still a Drakan who had not yet joined the ranks of the rankers, he had often shown himself relying on Ignis or other users in important battles.
Drakan’s antis had criticized him over that, calling him a coward and whatnot, but as of today, that controversy had now come to an end.
The combat video of the Unclean One that Drakan uploaded possessed exactly that level of impact.
[What’s Drakan’s level? Has he ever revealed it?]
[He posted it once a long time ago, but not recently.]
[Looking at it, he’s definitely not max level and is below ranker level, but his skills and physicals are insane.]
[I saw an analysis video saying he’s late 200s or early 300s. If you compare him to Rio, his combat power seems similar to a ranker just before 400.]
[If he’s stronger than his level, doesn’t that just make him a ranker? That’s crazy.]
Effortlessly surpassing the standard of level 380 users—commonly called the “max level”—and even comparable to your average ranker!
The very fact that Drakan, who was known to have never officially reached max level, showed this level of performance in the 300s was a shock to the users.
The video was flooded with comments, and issue creators of Ard Live who had been wandering the internet looking for bait began churning out speculation videos like bamboo shoots after a rain.
[Today, we’ll be analyzing Drakan’s combat video. First, the performance Drakan shows is simply unimaginable for a user who has not yet reached max level. Even if he used two ultimate skills, this is unbelievable.]
[When I analyzed Drakan before, I said his physical capabilities were at a level where it’d be hard to find a match—almost top tier among same-level users. The stats and skills Drakan has accumulated now, and if Drakan can maintain this pace going forward, I dare say we may very well see the twenty-first Over Ranker.]
The twenty-first Over Ranker!
An expectation that a new heaven beyond heaven might be born was spreading faintly among those who had watched Drakan’s video.
At this point, already two years since Ard Saga Second began service, the Over Rankers and even the High Rankers were mostly set in stone with little change.
It was a situation where latecomers catching up to the leaders was that much more difficult, and rising into the ranks of the Over Rankers—the top veterans among the top, this game’s ultimate old guard—was considered nearly impossible. That was precisely why people had unknowingly come to harbor expectations for Drakan.
Drakan!
If it were him, perhaps he might be able to leap over the solid wall of veterans known as the Over Rankers!
An underdog’s rebellion was always a guaranteed draw, so the public’s attention was focused accordingly, and at that very moment when people were arguing back and forth over Drakan’s video—
A video was uploaded to the Simseong Milkyway official channel, which had been maintaining a strangely silent profile since the expedition failure.
At the sudden video upload, users subscribed to the Simseong Milkyway channel pressed play, and upon checking the video’s contents, they were shocked.
[As of this moment, our Simseong Milkyway Guild and the Northern Alliance declare war on Drakan and Lawless Port.]
Spear King Rio!
It was because he had finally drawn his spear against Drakan and declared war.
* * *
Where there is a victor, there is naturally a loser as well.
Reality is neither a perfect zero-sum nor a win-win, but at least the war against the Undead was an event closer to a zero-sum game where one of Drakan and Rio would take a loss, and the one who had lost that war was not Drakan but Rio.
Had Rio been an individual, it would have ended with his personal destruction.
But Rio was not an individual—he was an Over Ranker and the master of Simseong Milkyway Guild, one of the ten great guilds, while simultaneously being in a position sponsored by Shin Jeong-hyeok, vice chairman of Simseong Group.
Thanks to Drakan’s mercy—whether it was whimsy or compassion—he had prevented permanent character deletion in the end, but after that, Rio’s life had turned into a veritable hell as all this responsibility converged upon him.
“Hey, what the hell happened? Drakan? Drakaan? Not even Ignis—you lost one-on-one to some washed-up b*stard, and how much money went into this? You lost the war even with all that? Hey, you b*stard. Are you in your right mind? Huh?”
The fury of Vice Chairman Shin Jeong-hyeok, Rio’s sponsor and the de facto owner of Simseong Milkyway Guild, truly exploded.
Had it been anyone else, it might not have mattered as much, but the culprit who had ruined everything just happened to be Drakan—the user sponsored by Shin Ha-yeon.
Shin Jeong-hyeok already felt inferior to Shin Ha-yeon. To him, this incident was like pouring oil on a burning house.
That day, unspeakable curses and ashtrays flew around the vice chairman’s office in Simseong Town, and Rio had to get six stitches above his right eyebrow at the hospital.
Rio’s misfortune did not end there. His reputation among Northern users had crashed in an instant.
It was Drakan who had brought the eternal winter to the North, but Rio who had provided the cause! Such rumors had spread among the general users of the North.
Of course, there wasn’t a single Northern user who didn’t know the real reason: they had outwardly blocked general users from participating in the Undead King raid while secretly letting in people through connections and bribes behind the scenes, and on top of being caught trying to monopolize it among themselves, they had failed.
Simseong Milkyway Guild and its allied guilds were also suffering from low morale and reduced strength in the aftermath of the expedition failure.
For now, they were maintaining their existence because Simseong Group’s support hadn’t been cut off, but rumors were circulating that they would collapse if the Simseong sponsorship ended.
Yes, that’s how it had been.
Until an unidentified someone hired Karun, the Black King, an Over Ranker called the strongest Dark Gamer, and handed him the Fisherman’s Diary, the starting item for the mermaid quest.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“The decisive factor that allowed Drakan to dominate the Eastern Sea was subjugating the fishmen. And fishmen and mermaids are bitter enemies, and the Mermaid Kingdom lies beneath the Northern Sea. Your employer told me to tell you that joining hands with them is the first objective.”
“The first objective?”
“Drakan. The first objective you must achieve to kill him. Were you planning to stay still like this?”
At the Black King Karun’s words, the vengeance that had been lying deep in Rio’s heart blazed up like a wildfire.
That’s right. All of this was because of Drakan.
The winter that had come to the North, the failed expedition, him getting cursed out by Vice Chairman Shin Jeong-hyeok and his right eyebrow getting torn by a flying ashtray. Was that all? The fall of Simseong Milkyway Guild, the loss of his reputation among Northern users. It was all because of that damn Drakan and Shin Ha-yeon, and JDG.
Such thoughts were creeping out from the depths of Rio’s mind.
“My employer told me to pass this on.” Karun’s voice reached Rio’s ears. “He asks if you don’t want revenge.”
Revenge!
Sparks flew from Rio’s eyes upon hearing that word.
Those two syllables—revenge—were exactly what Rio had wanted to hear, and the path Rio had unconsciously dreamed of.
Of course, as the saying goes, defeat is a common occurrence in warfare; defeat or failure in itself was not a big problem.
What appeared after losing to Drakan. From small things like getting cursed out by Vice Chairman Shin, to big things like losing his reputation among Northern users and falling into ruin.
Spear King Rio! Master of Simseong Milkyway Guild!
It was only natural that he would feel anger and a desire for revenge toward Drakan, the very culprit who had rendered all the blood, sweat, and tears shed to earn those brilliant titles into nothing.
“If you want revenge, I’ll help you. Because that’s the content of the request I received.”
Karun looked at Rio and grinned.
Rio looked at the old diary on the office desk and said, “Who is your employer?”
“You know we can’t just reveal things like that in our line of work, right?” Karun replied to Rio in a sly voice.
Dark Gamers!
In the previous game, they were the idols of all users because they enjoyed the game and made money, but upon entering Second, with the appearance of Ard Live and streamers, Dark Gamers quickly fell into decline.
Their main source of income had been selling items and gold, but when Ard Live launched in the Second era, streaming revenue overwhelmingly surpassed item and gold sales revenue.
With their standing weakened, Dark Gamers began doing not only item and gold sales but also power-leveling others as bus drivers, dungeon guiding, and so-called “mercenary” work akin to fixers or private investigators—and the man who had risen to the pinnacle of those Dark Gamers was none other than the Black King Karun before his eyes.
The Black King Karun—there was no flaw in his words. One of the most important things in mercenary work was trust!
That was why Dark Gamers made it a principle not to reveal their employer’s identity unless the employer themselves requested it.
“And how many people do you think hold a grudge against Drakan?”
“You have a point.” Rio nodded at Karun’s words.
Though it had diluted considerably now, Drakan had been an undeniable public enemy in the previous game, so even now in the Second era, many people were sharpening their knives for him.
The employer who had hired the Black King Karun was probably one of them. Rio thought so as he stared intently at Karun.
The Black King Karun! A stubborn user who insisted on the path of the Dark Gamer and solo play even in the streamer era, and in the previous game, the man who had proudly claimed one of the seats among the Ten Great with the nickname “Lone Wolf”!
If he helped, perhaps revenge on Drakan could be achieved. Rio thought so as he put the Fisherman’s Diary that Karun had placed before him into his inventory.
“Then, what do I need to do first?”
As Rio spoke those words toward Karun, the flames of revenge burned in his eyes.