Chapter 60
“Honorable? You’re a despicable pirate spouting such nonsense. If you’re so upset, why don’t you overwhelm me with numbers too?”
Drakan sneered in response to the Pirate King’s shout.
“Drakan, you d*mn b*stard!”
The Pirate King roared at Drakan’s taunt and swung his cutlass, attempting to attack. However, his attack was blocked by Queen Honey’s shield, which had appeared in front of Drakan.
“You d*mn b*tch!”
The moment he cursed at Queen Honey, who had blocked his attack for the second time after the Cursed Magic Bullet,
Countless attacks once again rained down on the Pirate King, making it hard for him to even regain his senses.
Tank, Damage Dealer, Healer!
The Pirate King had no way to withstand the organized and perfectly coordinated group attack, a textbook example of teamwork.
“You cowardly bastards……”
The overwhelming and thorough group attack was so dominant that even the chat was filled with comments saying the Pirate King was pitiful.
Overwhelmed by the onslaught, the Pirate King met his death, leaving behind the dying words of “cowardly.”
The moment the Pirate King died!
A single message appeared before the eyes of all users who shared the quest.
[Pirate King Drake has been defeated.]
Naval Showdown!
The war to determine the hegemony of the eastern sea ended with Drakan’s victory.
“Huu.”
Drakan took a deep breath and smiled as he looked at the endless stream of notification windows that appeared before his eyes after the quest completion message.
[Quest ‘Naval Showdown’ completed.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
……
[All stats increased by 68.]
[Pirate Archipelago has been added to your territory.]
The always pleasant level-up and stat increase notifications were followed by the joyous news that the Pirate Archipelago had been added to his territory!
But the rewards didn’t stop there.
[Acquired the title ‘Conqueror of the Eastern Sea’.]
[Fame increased by 18933.]
[Your heroic tale of defeating the Pirate King and dismantling the Pirate Alliance spreads beyond Lawless Port Granado to the entire eastern region!]
[Residents of the eastern region begin to praise you.]
[Nobles of the Gasan Kingdom are starting to take notice of you.]
Drakan!
Whether in reality or in the game, his fame was skyrocketing.
Drakan smiled as he looked at the last message, the one about the nobles of the kingdom taking notice of him.
‘Gasan Kingdom, you’re next.’
▄ ▄ ▄
Naval Showdown!
The large-scale collaboration event centered around Drakan, a rising star and super rookie who has been gaining popularity in both Ard World and Ard Live, with participation from JDG and Ignis, as well as all the major streamers affiliated with Jeil E&M!
The event, which had generated a lot of buzz from the start with its impressive lineup of participating streamers, concluded with a resounding success, even surpassing initial expectations.
It was no surprise that the viewership ratings of JGN, which exclusively broadcasted the event, soared, and the participating streamers also benefited from higher viewer numbers, donations, and subscriber growth compared to their usual streams.
Furthermore, the event garnered significant attention both online and offline, with people interested in Ard World discussing the Naval Showdown whenever they gathered, dominating discussions on the Ard Forum, SNS, and even in real-life conversations.
And thanks to the Naval Showdown event, Drakan, who had been regarded as a promising super rookie with potential, finally had his breakout moment, solidifying his position as a star user.
In particular, the eastern users who had suffered under the Pirate Alliance and the Pirate King showed overwhelming support for Drakan.
The new generation of users felt the same way. They were enthusiastic about Drakan’s decisive and dominant performance in both war and combat, and rallied behind him.
A concrete support base!
The core fanbase, the foundation of a fandom, had finally taken shape.
The Ard Forum’s top posts were constantly filled with discussions about the Naval Showdown, and the same was true for SNS and Ard Live.
Of course, not everyone welcomed Drakan’s victory.
Drakan!
He had transformed from a promising newcomer to a full-fledged star with this victory, and this inevitably attracted the attention of Eugene’s malicious anti-fanbase, composed mainly of older generation users.
Until then, no matter how much buzz Drakan generated, he was just a promising rookie. However, with his victory in the Naval Showdown, he became a bonafide star user, and at an unprecedented pace.
Although he was still insignificant compared to the top-ranked Eugene, the problem was that the user in question was Drakan.
Who was Drakan?
The only user who had faced Eugene head-on and his complete antithesis.
For Eugene’s d*e-hard fans, Drakan was an unforgivable archenemy, and his rise was enough to bring back nightmares of the past.
Although Eugene had entered Drakan’s broadcast, donated 10 million won, and even had a brief conversation with him, that fact didn’t matter much to them.
Eugene!
Knowing better than anyone that he was kind, or in other words, naive, his hardcore fans believed that he had been deceived by Drakan’s facade.
Therefore, some extreme fans even left comments on Eugene’s official channel or sent fan letters, urging him not to be fooled by Drakan.
Thus, the hardcore fans were collectively agitated and expressed anxiety over Drakan’s actions, and the streamers who uploaded videos to Ard Live were no different.
This anxiety was also shared by ‘Ard Encyclopedia,’ a prominent issue creator with 1.5 million subscribers who had always claimed to be a devout follower of the Infinite Eugene Church. Eventually, Ard Encyclopedia uploaded a video targeting Drakan to his channel.
[Drakan? Man, I feel sorry for the kids who stan Drakan. I wonder if they even know what he did in the past? Back then, really, wow, let’s not even talk about it.]
[You had to pay a s*it ton of gold as an entrance fee to enter dungeons, and you think that was the only place? They took entrance fees for mines, and even decided the price of weapons produced in workshops. Who was the one responsible for all that? Drakan!]
[Our Eugene-nim cleaned up after Drakan and created a better world. Anyway, kids these days don’t know what it was like during Drakan’s reign. Just watch. Drakan won the Naval Showdown, right? Soon, he’ll be collecting tolls on the eastern sea, even more ruthlessly than those pirates. I guarantee it.]
[So, there are still idiots who stan Drakan after all this? Those idiots are all posers! Or just newbies who haven’t played the previous game. Seriously, if there are people who genuinely stan Drakan? They need to see a doctor. They’re truly the biggest suckers. They should all get their heads smashed in.]
A 1.5 million subscriber issue creator’s video targeting Drakan!
As a video from a streamer with over a million subscribers, the Drakan attack video quickly spread, but the reaction, as expected, was cold, except for the malicious fandom of the Infinite Eugene Church.
This was only natural, as most general users who had witnessed Drakan and Eugene interacting with each other this time did not harbor any animosity towards Drakan, if not outright goodwill.
Moreover, Ard Encyclopedia himself was a notorious Infinite Eugene Church fanatic, and had already garnered a lot of negative attention. Naturally, the like count on his Drakan attack video was overtaken by dislikes, and the video was flooded with malicious comments.
[Don’t feed the troll.]
[The guy who can’t say a word in front of Drakan-nim is all talk.]
[Isn’t it pathetic how you’re trying to bring him down because he’s doing well? Disgusting;]
[Don’t you know your master donated 10 million won on Drakan’s stream?]
[Guys, don’t click the video, just hit the dislike button. Clicking it increases the view count and makes that b*stard money.]
[Seriously, what’s this Lucky Loser TV, a channel that makes money by stitching together issue scraps, talking about? lol]
[Suckers, suckers lol. If stanning Drakan makes us suckers, then I’ll be a s*cker.]
[S*cker, the word sounds nice. Isn’t it cute? I like it, I’m a s*cker from now on lol.]
Of course, the video wasn’t just filled with malicious comments.
S*cker!
This word, from Ard Encyclopedia’s final statement, became a topic of discussion among some of Drakan’s fandom. After Ard Encyclopedia’s video spread online as a clip, almost all of Drakan’s core fanbase came across it.
If stanning Drakan makes them suckers, then they would gladly be suckers!
With that sentiment, Drakan’s fandom started calling each other suckers, and ironically, the name of Drakan’s fandom was naturally decided.
It was ‘Suckers.’
Of course, it wasn’t just Ard Encyclopedia’s attack video that garnered attention.
While the attack video was a hot topic, the issue that most users were focusing on was Eugene’s appearance on Drakan’s live broadcast.
Eugene!
The fact that he personally entered Drakan’s broadcast as a viewer and donated a whopping 10 million won caused a huge stir online, even prompting gaming media outlets to rush to publish articles about it.
[Eugene donates 10 million won to Drakan!]
[Drakan has a brief conversation with Eugene during his broadcast.]
[Attention! A true reconciliation between the two giants?]
Eugene and Drakan!
The interaction between the two, who had fought a war over the fate of Ard World in the previous game and were also gaining attention in the sequel, Second, was a juicy piece of news that the gaming media couldn’t miss.
Of course, it was only natural that Shin Ha-yeon had a hand in this.
For Shin Ha-yeon, who had seized control of the Jeil Group, manipulating gaming media outlets, which only dealt with online articles, was a piece of cake compared to controlling major media outlets with their immense power and influence.
Under Shin Ha-yeon’s influence, the gaming media was subtly shifting Drakan’s image to a positive one by associating him with Eugene’s image.
Of course, it wasn’t just the media. For most general users, excluding Drakan’s passionate fandom, the Suckers, and Eugene’s hardcore fans, the Infinite Eugene Church, this incident was a hot topic.
Eugene and Drakan!
Initially, when the two met in real life to apologize and shake hands over the Infinite Eugene Church scandal, most people interpreted it as a political gesture.
There’s a saying that there are no permanent enemies or permanent friends in politics!
Just like that saying, even those who had denounced each other as enemies could smile, shake hands, and take pictures together as long as their interests aligned. Similarly, the political actions taking place in Ard World were no different.
Therefore, both Drakan and Eugene had shown a reconciliatory attitude to smoothly move past the Infinite Eugene Church scandal.
Especially, some people didn’t understand why Drakan would act like that! People don’t change overnight! He must have an ulterior motive!
While such opinions were prevalent at the time, they lost their basis with this second interaction between Drakan and Eugene.
Eugene readily donating a large sum of 10 million won and Drakan reacting in the chat for the first time!
The actions of the two generated a lot of buzz, and Drakan’s negative image was gradually being diluted by the attention.
[Drakan playing hard to get was hilarious, I rewatched it 5 times last night lol]
[It would’ve been bad if he ignored the donation, but playing hard to get once made him more likable]
[Is he actually a tsundere?]
[It would’ve been lame if he had acted all proud and refunded the donation, but he was so cool]
[I’m more surprised that Drakan was reading the chat? I thought he was too old to read it]
[If he and Eugene team up to fight a boss later, it’ll be awesome]
As the public’s attention focused on Drakan!
A teaser video announcing an exclusive interview with Drakan on the game-specialized broadcasting station JGN was uploaded to Drakan’s official Ard Live channel.
