Chapter 18
Shin Ha-yeon, who had been watching my change in expression, gave a graceful smile.
Looking at her, I said,
“First, I need an army.”
An army.
That was exactly what I desired the most.
War!
To conquer the Lawless Port Granado, I had to wage war.
And war was something I couldn’t even dream of with just me and six Black Magicians.
To even establish something that could be called a war, an army was absolutely necessary.
“Alright.”
Shin Ha-yeon responded to my request with a smile in her eyes.
As she raised her hand, the bodyguard standing behind her respectfully placed a mobile phone in her right hand.
Shin Ha-yeon took the smartphone, touched it, and made a call.
“Come up to the 40th-floor conference room right now.”
The call was short.
Not long after she hung up after just one sentence, the conference room door opened.
The person who appeared from the opened door was a handsome man with red-dyed hair and black sunglasses.
And I knew his identity.
‘The Master of JDG!’
JDG.
Jeil Dragon Gaming, with its long official name, was a super-large guild ranked 6th in the World Guild Comprehensive Ranking.
Considering that the 1st place was Eugene, that b*stard’s Lightwing Guild, and the guilds from 2nd to 5th place were allied with him, effectively five guilds were united and acting as one under the ridiculous name of Five Eyes, it was no exaggeration to say that JDG was the strongest guild in the human realm.
Moreover, that wasn’t the only reason JDG was famous.
Jeil E&M.
The fact that Jeil E&M, a major player in the domestic media market, had an exclusive contract with JDG was also well-known among users.
That was why the name Jeil was attached in front of the original guild name, Dragon Gaming.
Anyway, while gathering information about Ard Saga Second for the past month, I had naturally already memorized information about the top ten super-large guilds, called the Ten Great Guilds, and the leaders who led them.
The in-game nickname of this red-haired man in front of me was Ignis, real name Lee Cheol-hyun!
The Guild Master of JDG, a former famous pro gamer in other games, and a hidden class Flame Sorcerer in the game.
Outside of the game, he was a famous named user, an Over-Ranker who started playing from Second, not from the previous game.
That’s right.
This man in front of me was one of the only twenty Over-Rankers among the countless users in the vast Ard World.
In Second, Over-Ranker was a concept similar to the Ten Strongest from the previous game, which I was also a part of.
The name for the n most powerful users gathered together was the Ten Strongest in the previous game, and in Second, it became Over-Ranker.
However, the difference between the Ten Strongest of the previous game and the Over-Ranker of Second was the criteria.
Although there were other criteria such as stats, the previous game was all about level, so ranking by level was the end of it. But Second was different.
In Ard Saga Second, the experience required for leveling up increased significantly after a character reached level 380, making leveling up extremely difficult. Therefore, 380 was effectively considered the maximum level, and thus, level could not be used as an absolute standard like in the previous game.
Because of this, Second naturally needed a new standard that included other variables besides level, such as titles, achievements, stats, items, legacy, and unique traits, to measure a character’s specs.
Therefore, Miracle Entertainment, the company that operates Ard Saga, introduced the Combat Information Archive, a character analysis site.
The Combat Information Archive was a service that analyzed and synthesized all the information possessed by a character and calculated a rating if any user playing Ard Saga Second registered their Ard Saga Second account information.
The rating given by the Combat Information Archive ranged from the lowest grade, FFF, to the highest grade, EX, which only Eugene possessed.
Thus, the public called Eugene, who received an EX rating from the Combat Information Archive, the Top Ranker, and the twenty users who received an SSS rating, Over-Rankers.
Of course, there were distinctions below that: SS grade was High Ranker, and S grade was just Ranker. But anyway, what was important now wasn’t that, but the fact that Ignis in front of me was one of those famous Over-Rankers.
Looking at his face, I suddenly realized why Shin Ha-yeon had called Ignis here.
Shin Ha-yeon. When I said I needed an army, she was trying to provide me with the super-large guild JDG under her company as my army.
“You called, Executive Director Shin.”
“Yes. You came quickly. I like that you’re quick on your feet. Ignis.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Our Drakan-nim needs an army.”
Shin Ha-yeon spoke to Ignis in a cold voice, her face devoid of the smiles and honorifics she used when addressing me.
“Your JDG needs to earn its keep for once.”
“Understood. Executive Director-nim.”
The conversation didn’t deviate much from my expectations.
She truly did summon the master of the massive guild JDG, an Over-Ranker no less, to this place just to use them as backup for my quest.
After politely greeting Shin Ha-yeon, Ignis stood before me.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Drakan-nim.”
He offered his right hand to me in a rather courteous manner.
A handshake request.
I grasped his right hand and gazed at him quietly.
The Flame Emperor Ignis, Master of JDG!
A famous pro-gamer from other games, a new user who started from Second, not the original, and climbed to the position of Over-Ranker, becoming the master of a giant guild. The general consensus was that his pride was no joke.
To put it nicely, he was proud; to put it bluntly, it was the same as being arrogant.
However, my first impression of him in person was less of arrogance and more of politeness.
This courteous demeanor couldn’t possibly be his true personality, so it was clear that he was acting this way due to the pressure from Shin Ha-yeon, who was smiling behind him.
“The pleasure is all mine.”
After a brief exchange of greetings with Ignis, I took my seat and looked at Team Leader Lee, who was wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.
“I think everyone’s here, so let’s start the briefing.”
“Yes, Drakan-nim.”
At my words, Team Leader Lee took a deep breath, looked around, and pressed a button on a wireless remote.
“The current objective of the quest Drakan-nim received is to capture Lawless Port Granado. And as everyone here knows, Lawless Port Granado is the city ruled by the Ranker Jacques, and Jacques is a member of the Pirate Alliance, Pirate King Drake’s faction.”
Jacques.
Information about him flowed out from Team Leader Lee’s briefing.
Of course, since Jacques was a Ranker from the previous game, he was a user that existed in my memory as well.
“That guy, who used to roam solo in the previous game, barely clinging to the bottom of the Ranker ladder, engaging in petty PK and civilian massacres, has climbed quite high!”
Jacques, he was a user who took pleasure in civilian massacres and PK.
He mainly acted alone, wandering around Ard World, PK-ing lower-level users for fun, looting their items, and committing all sorts of petty acts.
Despite that, his skills were quite good, allowing him to hold onto the bottom rung of the Ranker ladder.
Well, later on, he messed with the wrong guild member, and I personally put him on the blacklist, crushing him with an indefinite k*ll order.
Anyway, it seemed that he had learned some kind of lesson from being alone in the previous game and getting beaten up, because in Second, he joined the massive faction called the Pirate Alliance to serve as his shield.
“The Pirate Alliance, to which Jacques belongs, is a faction led by Pirate King Drake. They practically rule the eastern seas and coastlines, controlling all the major trade routes and demanding exorbitant tolls from passing merchant ships. Not only do they engage in their primary occupation of piracy without hesitation, but their power has also grown explosively in the past year, and their tyranny has worsened. Anyone who resists the rule of the Pirate Alliance in the eastern seas and coastlines is killed without question. As a result, there is widespread resentment among users active in the eastern seas.”
“What is Eugene doing in this situation?”
After listening to Team Leader Lee’s explanation, I asked a question.
Pirate King, Pirate Alliance.
I had a rough idea of what kind of people they were.
A group that essentially controls the seas, extorting money from merchant ships and eliminating anyone who gets in their way, whether user or NPC, a group that truly lives up to the name “Pirate Alliance”!
That was the identity of the Pirate Alliance.
But at this point, a question popped into my head.
Eugene, the one who supposedly upholds justice in Ard World, why is he leaving these villains alone?
Knowing his personality, he should have already jumped at the chance to deal with these villains, so I was curious about the reason he hadn’t.
My question was only natural.
As if waiting for my question, Team Leader Lee adjusted his glasses and began to answer calmly.
