The Final Boss Has Returned 7

Chapter 7

[Messages from Transcendent Beings that accumulated during the tutorial are now unlocked.]

[The Goddess of Light is astonished by your actions.]

[The Dark God is impressed by your selfish monopoly.]

[The God of War shows interest in your legacy.]

…….

I burst out laughing, looking at the countless messages that filled my vision and continued to pop up.

[‘The Sea Demon King’ is impressed by your goblin massacre and grants you 100 points.]

Some messages even gave me points.

That’s right. These messages from the Transcendent Beings were the most important content in Ard Saga Second, along with the Hardcore System.

According to the lore of Ard Saga, Ard World was completely changed by the Great Cataclysm that occurred about a decade ago, from the perspective of Second.

Numerous other worlds overlapped and collided with Ard World, creating dimensional rifts everywhere. Due to the weakened barriers caused by these rifts, gods and demon kings, who could only exert their influence indirectly through contracts or divine quests in the previous game, were now able to intervene more actively in Ard World.

And the content born from such a setting was these messages I was seeing now.

In the previous game, Transcendent Beings could only be contacted indirectly through contracts or divine quests. But in Second, they now actively observed users, sent messages, issued quests, and granted points, thereby directly influencing Ard World.

[The God of War offers you a contract.]

[The Demon King of Despair offers you a contract.]

[The Demon King of Hatred offers you a contract.]

…….

Meanwhile, Transcendent Beings continued to send me messages.

This time, it was contract offers.

There was a variety of new Transcendent Being content introduced in Second.

From the reactions of Transcendent Beings to the Point Shop where you could purchase various convenience items anytime, anywhere!

And the core of this Transcendent Being content was the contract.

Contract.

By the time of Ard Saga Second, communicating with demon kings or gods to directly gain power was no longer exclusive to hidden classes like Saintess or Hero.

In Second, any user could form a contract with a Transcendent Being and borrow their power, as long as they caught the attention of the Transcendent Beings in Ard World.

And if you showed exceptional performance in the tutorial, you could attract the attention of many Transcendent Beings and receive contract offers. Since succeeding in a contract with a Transcendent Being meant starting from a different starting line compared to other users who couldn’t secure a contract, countless users were twisting themselves every day to stand out in the tutorial.

And naturally, as a user who achieved a brilliant 6th place in the overall tutorial ranking, I was receiving countless love calls from the Transcendent Beings.

Of course, considering my legacy and my monopoly of the tutorial, I was far from being good-aligned. So, I received twice as many contract offers from demon kings than from gods.

I examined each contract offer I received one by one.

‘The Sea Demon King, this guy is Leviathan, right? He’s not bad, but his power is too focused on the sea, making its use limited. The Demon King of Hatred. He’s good in every other aspect, but his personality is too fickle, making him unpredictable.’

I started to reject the countless contract requests that flooded in.

Since I had many contract offers anyway, choosing the best option was crucial for me.

I pondered and pondered, looking at the contract requests pouring in.

When receiving a contract offer from a Transcendent Being, you could stay in the Reward Room until you accepted it. So, with a calm mind, I carefully compared the advantages and disadvantages of various Transcendent Beings and continued to contemplate for a long time.

Since contracts were irreversible, it was okay to be as cautious as possible.

At that moment, as I was deep in thought.

[The Dark God is watching you.]

A notification window popped up in front of me.

Seeing that notification, I gasped.

‘The Dark God!’

Because I knew very well who the Dark God was.

The Transcendent Beings of Ard World were largely divided into two factions.

The Pantheon, the faction of gods residing in the heavens, who possessed good and light alignment!

And the Demon Court, the faction of demon kings dwelling in the demon realm, who possessed evil and dark alignment!

These were the two major factions of the Transcendent Beings.

And Eugene, that bastard, had a contract with Luminus, the leader of the Pantheon and the Goddess of Light.

Well, he was the Hero, a hidden class that received the blessing of Luminus from the previous game. So, it was somewhat inevitable for him to become Luminus’s contractor in Second, where he inherited his legacy as the Hero.

Moreover, Eugene, that bastard, didn’t just have a contract with Luminus.

Many gods under Luminus in the Pantheon were also helping Eugene.

And I obtained all this information from his official channel on Ard Live.

Watching videos of his exploits was painful and disgusting, but I endured the rising nausea and watched them for the sake of revenge, and it was worth it.

Anyway, to defeat that bastard who was practically receiving the support of the entire Pantheon, including Luminus, I needed a comparable level of support.

And the Dark God, the owner of the notification window that appeared before me, was the being who could fulfill my desire.

As I was staring at the message sent by the Dark God.

The surrounding space around me was instantly engulfed in darkness.

Endless darkness.

Within it, a pair of intimidating red eyes emerged.

The Dark God, he appeared in person.

[The Dark God offers you a contract, holder of the Steel Monarch Drakan’s legacy.]

Looking at the single line of message that appeared, I smiled.

I already knew.

Eugene.

To defeat that bastard who had a contract with Luminus, the leader of the Pantheon and the Goddess of Light, a contract with the Dark God was necessary!

Therefore, I accepted the Dark God’s offer, which I had been longing for, right on the spot.

“I accept the contract.”

[You have formed a contract with the Dark God.]

As soon as I finished speaking, I smiled, looking at the countless notification windows popping up, including achievement completions and stat increases.

Now, it was time to head towards Ard World.

▄ ▄ ▄

While Drakan was agonizing over the contract offers in the Reward Room.

The news that the former strongest player of the previous game, Steel Monarch Drakan, had returned spread at an astonishingly fast pace through the internet and SNS.

The first thing that appeared were several GIFs and screenshots posted on a beginner user’s SNS.

There were GIFs showing Drakan wielding a crimson sword and slaughtering Dire Wolves at an insane speed, screenshots showing an unbelievable 98% contribution rate in the tutorial dungeon, and a phrase stating that Drakan had returned.

The beginner user’s post quickly spread through likes, and when the overall tutorial ranking was updated and the name Drakan was confirmed to be in 6th place, the entire internet finally caught fire.

“Is that Drakan really the Drakan?”

“Hey, out of all the people with the name Drakan, the only one skilled enough to rank 6th in the tutorial is that guy!”

Stronghold, the expected starting point for human users, was overflowing with users who flocked to the rumors.

Whether in a positive or negative sense, Drakan was a named user who left a mark on the history of Ard Saga.

At that moment, when the square where beginner users arrived was packed with users.

“Eugene-nim!”

“Eugene-nim has arrived!”

“It’s Eugene-nim!”

Like the parting of the Red Sea, the sea of people split in two.

The crowd cheered, looking at the handsome man who appeared from the edge of the square, perfectly fitting the description of a face genius.

Hero Eugene!

The pinnacle of Ard Saga!

He finally arrived at Stronghold to meet his past rival.