The Final Boss Has Returned Chapter 93
Drakan and Rio, and the War Between North and East!
The first all-out war between users in Arth Saga: Second came to a close with Drakan’s victory.
Rio, who had charged at Drakan only to meet a miserable death at the hands of the Over Ranker-class powerhouses under Drakan’s command, was broadcast live across the entire world through the airwaves, and the moment Rio met his death, the Northern Alliance collapsed with terrifying speed.
Of course, the Great Chieftain of the Northern Alliance, as well as the Master Druid, refused to surrender and attempted to resist, but…….
With even their deaths on the battlefield, the focal point of the Northern Alliance completely disintegrated, and as countless users surrendered, the war concluded with Drakan’s total victory.
The outcome of this war came as a great shock to the users.
Over Ranker!
Not only had two character avatars of the twenty transcendental beings called Cheonoecheon—stars among stars—vanished from Arth World, but Drakan had also secured the complete surrender of the Northern Alliance, bringing the entire North under his dominion.
And that wasn’t all.
The Ten Great Guilds!
One of the steadfast Ten Great Guilds, which had seemed like it would never collapse, fell from its position on the spot, reducing the Ten Great Guilds to the Nine Great Guilds, which was also an enormous source of gossip among the users.
[Holy crap, Karun died too and Rio died too]
[Never in my dreams did I think he’d fight to the death like this;;]
[Ah, this is what a game is. Haven’t had this much fun watching in ages lol Didn’t they fight like this every day in the previous game? I should’ve played the previous game, what a shame;]
[If it were the previous game, you’d have been controlled by Drakan and quit;;]
[You’re a Yeotkui]
[Dentures confiscated for 2 weeks]
[Isn’t the Simseong Milky Way Guild ruined?]
[It’s not ruined yet, but now that Rio’s finished, they’re practically out of the Ten Great Guilds lol]
[Then they’re the Nine Great Guilds now lololol]
[It wrapped up kinda sloppily, but who the hell hired the Black King?]
[It’s not like Drakan only has one or two enemies? Someone paid to hire him lol]
[What a deflection; anyone can tell the Yeotkuis did it, no?]
[Welcome, Heuku~ If you guys blood-shield Drakan, does he at least give you an allowance?]
A considerable number of users regarded this war as nothing more than “entertaining content,” and while various talking points circulated among users, the biggest talking point at this point in time after the war’s end was, without a doubt, how Drakan would govern the North.
[Drakan ended up devouring a whole region like this, guys, we’re screwed now, Drakan’s going to start controlling everything~]
[What kind of bullshit is that? Did you already forget the promise Drakan made with Yeotjin? Plus, after taking Lawless Port and the Pirate Archipelago, Drakan kept tax rates low and didn’t control anything—so what’s with this control obsession now lol You prequel fanatics level;;]
[Even if he does control things, your Yeotjin would give Drakan a proper lesson, so why the fuss lol]
Having acquired dominion over an entire region called the North, beyond Lawless Port and the Pirate Archipelago, how would Drakan rule the North!
Drakan’s antis mocked that he would impose heavy taxes and all sorts of controls like in the past, while Drakan’s fandom, the Heukus, refuted this by citing the example of the Lawless Port he currently operated, saying it wouldn’t happen, and the Arth forums transformed into a battlefield once again.
But in reality, Drakan was ruling Lawless Port and the Pirate Archipelago rationally.
He didn’t control things like before, nor did he levy heavy taxes; his rule was truly smooth and unproblemable, so the antis’ forced claims that he would seize control soon lost their power.
But it wasn’t only users who were watching Drakan.
Dr. Kim Hong-gi.
The chairman of Miracle Holdings, the holding company overseeing Miracle Entertainment—the creator of Arth Saga, the number one conglomerate in the Republic of Korea—and the genius developer who had created Arth World, which was no different from another world!
He, too, had his eyes on Drakan.
* * *
Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do.
From its initial opening in 2012 until today, when Arth Saga had conquered the world, at the center of this industrial complex that could be called the heart of Korean IT, twin skyscrapers—the tallest on the Korean peninsula—surpassed Seoul’s Jeil World Tower and stood proudly towering over the area.
The so-called Miracle Twin Building.
The nickname of this massive twin building, which housed the headquarters of Miracle Entertainment—the largest game company in the world, practically dominating the global gaming industry, and shining as the number one conglomerate in Korea—was the Lighthouse of Pangyo.
As befitting its nickname as a lighthouse, the Miracle Twin Towers shone brilliantly today as well!
At the very top floor of the skyscraper on the right, the Sky Lounge, Dr. Kim Hong-gi’s office was situated.
In his office, where the night view of Pangyo Techno Valley and Seongnam City was visible in full through the floor-to-ceiling windows, a frail old man wearing jeans and a shabby plaid T-shirt sat in a chair.
“Drakan.”
The name Drakan flowed from the mouth of the frail old man, Dr. Kim Hong-gi.
On Dr. Kim Hong-gi’s desk, various materials about Drakan were displayed as holograms.
From internet reactions regarding Drakan to the videos he had uploaded on his official channel, and finally to the quests he was currently undertaking!
Known information and unknown information—all of it unfolded before Dr. Kim Hong-gi’s eyes like a panorama.
“Miracle.”
[Did you call for me, Doctor.]
Before Dr. Kim Hong-gi’s words had even finished, a stiff male voice flowed from the hologram.
AI Miracle!
The super-advanced artificial intelligence that managed Arth World, developed personally by Dr. Kim Hong-gi, and which practically served as his secretary—this AI revealed its presence.
“What is the probability that Drakan will see the ending?”
[Drakan’s trajectory has continually deviated from the range I predicted. When he first started the game, the probability of him seeing the ending was a mere 3%, but it has currently risen to 30%.]
“I see. *Cough*! *Cough*!”
While responding to Miracle, Dr. Kim Hong-gi suddenly covered his mouth with his right hand and coughed.
Red blood stained Dr. Kim Hong-gi’s right hand.
[Vital check. No abnormalities. Would you like to take a painkiller?]
“*Haa.* *Haa.*”
Listening to Miracle, Dr. Kim Hong-gi sank his body into a custom-made chair that had cost tens of millions of won to produce.
“The painkiller.”
[Here it is.]
*Zing.*
Taking the painkiller pill handed to him by the robotic arm that sprang from the desk, he tossed it into his mouth along with the water placed on the desk, and gazed at the hologram of Drakan floating above it.
Drakan.
Dr. Kim Hong-gi knew him well.
It was only natural, for before the era of Yujin, back in the days of the previous game, the user who had come closest to the “ending” of Arth Saga was none other than Drakan.
‘If he hadn’t rushed the Overlord Quest so recklessly, perhaps Drakan might have seen the previous game’s ending.’
But in order to conquer the Overlord Quest, Drakan had squeezed users dry and even gone into debt with loan sharks, and eventually, all the accumulated side effects exploded at once, leading to his ruin at the hands of a Saint called Yujin, and ultimately, the ending of the previous game had become Yujin’s.
Dr. Kim Hong-gi recalled the past when he had faced Yujin.
‘He said he wanted to remain as a single user, didn’t he.’
Yujin.
His words had left quite a deep impression on Dr. Kim Hong-gi.
A pure, kind, upstanding young man rarely seen in today’s world—a ruthless, ultra-competitive society—that was the impression of Yujin in Dr. Kim Hong-gi’s mind.
And Yujin was a person who did not deviate much from that impression.
He pursued an ideal that could not be realized in reality, but it was precisely because he pursued that ideal too excessively that he was a limited person.
That was Yujin.
‘His determination to protect Arth World is quite to my liking, but his lack of flexibility is concerning.’
Dr. Kim Hong-gi!
He did not want virtual reality technology indistinguishable from reality, and AI technology with perfectly implemented reason and emotions, to leak into fields outside of gaming.
He had already foreseen that if such technologies were indiscriminately revealed to the world without restrictions, the aftermath would be so tremendous that even he could not control it.
It was a situation where a dystopian society that might only appear in sci-fi works could manifest in reality.
And Dr. Kim Hong-gi did not wish to see a future thrown into chaos because of the technology he had created.
In that sense, Yujin could be said to be a successor candidate whose thoughts aligned with his own.
However, just as people cannot live on dew alone, one could not run a massive corporation like Miracle Entertainment on ideals alone.
In that sense, Yujin’s flaws—his inflexibility, stubbornness, and blind adherence to principles—weighed heavily on Dr. Kim Hong-gi.
‘Drakan is dangerous because he’s a human who could do anything.’
And Drakan, another prime candidate for successor, was the complete opposite of Yujin from head to toe.
He was excessively pragmatic, weighing profit and loss in every matter, and since his return to Second, he had been taking highly calculated political steps to win public opinion, rapidly rallying the sentiments of users who had turned their backs on him due to his actions in the previous game.
Moreover, he had already become the Demon God’s Contractor and was only one step away from Apostle Recognition!
If he finished the Apostle’s Path Quest and became the Dark Apostle, there was a high probability that he would eventually end up fighting Yujin, the Warrior of Light, for hegemony over Arth World at the end.
Of course, unexpected dark horses might emerge as successor candidates in the meantime, but given the current situation, the most likely candidates were two: Yujin and Drakan.
That was why it would be a problem even if Drakan won in the end and saw the ending.
Drakan was too pragmatic and had little interest in ideals like protecting Arth World—the kind of ideal Yujin advocated.
If Miracle Entertainment fell into the clutches of Drakan, who moved solely for his own gain, even Dr. Kim Hong-gi could not dare to predict that future.
Of course, he would undoubtedly run Miracle Entertainment far better than Yujin, but there was no guarantee that Drakan would uphold his will—not revealing VR and AI technologies to the public.
He was truly a human like a ball that could bounce anywhere!
That was the Drakan that Dr. Kim Hong-gi had in mind.
“This is difficult.”
Dr. Kim Hong-gi shook his head from side to side.
Both Drakan and Yujin had aspects that displeased his eyes.
“If only I could mix the two of them half and half, that would be just perfect.”
How wonderful it would be to combine only their strengths!
But reality was not so, and above all, he could not violate the principle he had set himself—to hand over the company to the user who saw Second’s ending—at this late stage.
Therefore, worrying about this now was meaningless.
Thinking so, Dr. Kim Hong-gi let out a sigh.
[Would you like a cup of coffee, at least?]
The one comforting Dr. Kim Hong-gi in that moment was not a human, but AI Miracle.