The Final Boss Has Returned 4

Chapter 4

I traced a trembling hand across the sleek, silver capsule that occupied more than half of my shabby studio apartment.

The virtual reality connector I ordered yesterday, commonly referred to as a capsule, arrived this morning with an installation technician.

That’s right.

Today was D-day, the day I return to Ard Saga Second.

‘This day has finally come!’

Although it took a month, I didn’t regret the time spent.

I was already two years late to the starting line.

An extra month wouldn’t make much of a difference.

It was actually riskier to jump in headfirst without thorough preparation.

With that in mind, I pressed the button outside the capsule. With a whirring sound, the capsule opened, revealing its interior.

I quietly stepped inside.

The familiar feeling of the seat against my back made my heart pound.

It had been a whopping six years since I last entered a capsule.

I tried to remain calm, but I couldn’t help the trembling.

As I put on the helmet, my eyes slowly closed, and soon, the interior of a massive temple made of white stone unfolded before my eyes.

It was the character creation space.

[Welcome to Ard Saga Second, user.]

‘It used to be a meadow in Ard Saga 1, but it seems they’ve changed it to a temple.’

As I reminisced about my first experience starting Ard Saga, translucent message windows popped up one after another.

[Iris scan results identify you as an existing user.]

[2nd Playthrough Special Perk: You can apply the Legacy System ‘Steel Monarch’.]

[Please select whether to apply the Legacy System.]

A smile crept across my lips as I read the system messages.

“Apply.”

[The Legacy of Steel Monarch Drakan is activated.]

[You are changing to the special class ‘Successor’.]

[Changes are being made to the Status Window.]

[Unique Traits are replaced with Legacy.]

As soon as I finished speaking, a gloomy, dark red light flickered around my body and disappeared.

The new character I created had inherited the legacy of the Steel Monarch.

The Legacy System.

This was the secret weapon that convinced me I could close the two-year gap.

The core of the Legacy System was the Legacy, as mentioned in the system message.

This Legacy encompassed all the quests completed, achievements earned, reputation, fame, and items accumulated by your previous character. It was a system that allowed you to inherit the accomplishments your character left in the history of Ard World through Legacy Skills and Legacy Weapons.

Thanks to this Legacy System, existing users had a significant advantage over new users in Ard Saga Second. And among existing users, those who had achieved more in the previous game, the Rankers, had an even greater advantage.

The downsides were that you were forced to change to the special class ‘Successor’ upon applying the system, and the ‘Unique Traits,’ a new system introduced in Second, were replaced with the Legacy. However, I believed the merits outweighed the drawbacks, so many returning users, including myself, chose to become Successors.

[Legacy]

[Steel Monarch]

[Grade: Legendary]

[Legacy Level: Beginner Level 1]

[Drakan, the leader of the Iron Blood Alliance, known as the Steel Monarch, once reigned at the top of Ard World and even achieved the feat of unifying the continent. Although he was defeated in battles against numerous heroes, including the Hero Eugene, and ultimately lost his throne and met a tragic downfall, his tyranny left an unforgettable scar on history. Drakan’s name, who redrew countless maps and caused innumerable casualties, is still synonymous with tyranny.]

[Legacy Skill]

[Steel Swordsmanship]

[Grade: Legendary]

[Legacy Level: Beginner Level 1]

[Where Drakan tread, only ruins and corpses remained, and a path of blood and iron followed in his wake. His swordsmanship, a perfect reflection of his tyrannical path, boasted overwhelming destructive power and absolute defense.]

[Legacy Weapon]

[Iron Blood Executor]

[Grade: Legendary]

[Legacy Level: Beginner Level 1]

[A renowned sword obtained by Steel Monarch Drakan after conquering the Dwarf Kingdom. The dwarven artisans were forced to forge and offer this sword to the tyrant while shedding tears of blood. It devoured the enemies of the Overlord for many years but was ultimately broken in the battle against Hero Eugene.]

I closed the translucent notification window of the Legacy System.

The grade of the Steel Monarch Legacy I inherited was Legendary, one step below the highest grade.

Considering that the ‘Hero’ Legacy inherited by that bastard Eugene was known to be of Mythic grade, the highest grade, and that even most Rankers couldn’t inherit a Legendary grade Legacy, I was starting from an advantageous position.

‘This is good enough!’

Hero Eugene.

I gritted my teeth as I thought of him.

Just then.

Another system message appeared, and a large mirror rose, reflecting my image clad in the default attire of a t-shirt and shorts.

[Please set your character’s name.]

The character creation process had officially begun.

Looking at the familiar scene, I finalized my character customization with the name Drakan, the human race, and no changes to the appearance. The mirror in front of me and the temple background were then engulfed in darkness, leaving only a hologram message floating in the air.

[The tutorial will begin shortly.]

[TIP: Your character has only one life in Ard Saga Second, and you lose everything upon death. Be careful not to die!]

As soon as the message disappeared, a grassy field appeared, and users were summoned with flashes of light.

“Wow, this is so real!”

“Is this really a game?”

The surrounding area was filled with users marveling at the perfect virtual reality of Ard Saga, moving their bodies around and jumping.

Of course, there were also those who appeared to be returning users, their expressions serious as they stared into the void.

The total number of users gathered for the tutorial was thirty.

Of course, this wasn’t all the users who started today.

For efficiency, the tutorial was conducted with groups of thirty users.

I smiled as I observed the scene.

Even back when I was actively playing, newbies summoned to the city square for the first time would marvel at the in-game virtual reality, indistinguishable from reality, and would do exercises or jump around.

Although the location was different, seeing the newbies exhibit the same behavior made me realize once again how realistic Ard Saga remained.

Just as I was savoring the in-game realism I hadn’t experienced in six years……

[Choose your weapon.]

A system message appeared, followed by a row of weapon icons below.

It meant to choose a beginner weapon, but instead of choosing a weapon, I chose a different option.

“Iron Blood Executor.”

[Summoning the Legacy Weapon ‘Iron Blood Executor’.]

As soon as I spoke, space ripped open, and a dark red longsword, emanating an ominous light, appeared and settled in my hand.

Iron Blood Executor.

My main weapon from six years ago, when I was at the peak of Ard Saga, and the strongest item at the time!

A slight tremor ran through me as I gripped its hilt.

“What’s with that guy?”

“He must be a returning user.”

“What kind of Legacy did he inherit?”

I heard the murmurs of surrounding users as I summoned the Iron Blood Executor, which clearly looked extraordinary.

Ignoring their voices, which seemed to be a mixture of surprise and envy, I quietly looked up at the air.

[Monsters will be summoned shortly for the combat tutorial.]

[TIP: Death in the tutorial is not real death. However, if you die in the tutorial, it will be considered as not completing the tutorial, and you will have to retake it. If you don’t want to retake the tutorial, be careful not to die!]

As expected from the information I gathered beforehand, a flash of light erupted along with the notification, and a wolf, appearing twice the size of an ordinary wolf, emerged.

It was a Dire Wolf, a beginner-level aggressive monster.

“Grrrr!”

The Dire Wolf, summoned to match the number of beginners, howled and charged at the beginners without hesitation.

“Uh, what? Ahhh!”

“Oh my god! It’s a real wolf!”

With the screams of the beginners, startled by the Dire Wolf’s attack, as my background music, I quietly raised the Iron Blood Executor.

Back in the day, I was someone who even took down World Quest Raid Bosses.

This kind of Dire Wolf wasn’t even a snack.

‘The Dire Wolf’s weakness is between the eyes!’

I accurately thrust the dark red sword towards the space between the eyes of the Dire Wolf charging at me.

“Yelp!”

The Dire Wolf yelped, its body trembling before turning gray and scattering.

[Level Up!]

[You are the first to defeat a monster in the tutorial!]

[You have achieved the achievement ‘A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step!’]

[As an achievement reward, all stats have increased by 1.]

Perhaps because I was Level 1, my level rose quickly after defeating just one monster, and I even earned an achievement.

It was an achievement I aimed for based on the information released beforehand, and seeing as I achieved it easily, it seemed my month-long effort of going to the dojo to regain my combat senses wasn’t in vain.

I habitually tried to open the Status Window but stopped.

Unlike the previous game, in Ard Saga Second, all stats were automatically distributed according to your class, so there was no need to open the Status Window when you leveled up.

“Ahhh!”

“H-Help me!”

Let me emphasize once again that Ard Saga was a hyperrealistic game indistinguishable from reality.

Therefore, the wolves, just like real wolves, no, even more ferociously than real wolves, growled and relentlessly attacked the users.

No matter how much information you had beforehand, no one could remain calm when suddenly attacked by a wild beast, and as a result, the newbies screamed and scattered in panic.

Of course, there were some newbies who bravely wielded their swords and fought back, and returning users who handled the wolves with familiar movements using their Legacy Weapons, but most of the newbies here were too busy being scared.

“Ah, no!”

Some users were dying, their bodies scattering into gray ash as their life force depleted.

They were dead.

Unlike the previous game, where resurrection was possible as long as one accepted the penalties of experience loss and item drops, characters in Ard Saga Second only had one life.

Well, death in the tutorial wasn’t real death, and dying here wouldn’t make the character disappear, but it was different in the main game.

If you died there, your character would disappear permanently, and you would lose everything you had built up in the game.

Ard Saga, both in the previous game and Second, maintained a one-character-per-person policy without alternate characters, so it was a huge penalty.

Of course, it was possible to purchase an account creation ticket to create and log in with a new character.

However, even if you created a new character and logged in, the previous character and the new one were treated as completely unrelated strangers in the game.

In other words, even if you built up a good relationship with an NPC before dying, they would ask “Who are you?” when you approached them with a new character.

Simply put, dying in the game was no different than having your second life completely reset.

Therefore, the higher the level and the more you had accumulated in the game, the more users feared death.

And I knew very well who had accumulated the most in this game.

‘Eugene, that bastard. Once he dies, it’s all over for him too!’

Ard World.

I will turn this world, which that guy loves so much, into his grave.