Everyone was enjoying the 2023 IAC and its sub-story: When Worlds Collide... that the story decided to remain as a webcomic of sorts on the website. But the IAC as a whole was drawing to an end so people could get some rest before school starts, so it was time to show the "endgame" of WWIII as a closing ceremony.
Its highlight was a final showdown between Sauron and Hide. While Sauron was able to get the occasional blow in, he was, ultimately, unable to overcome the magic of Sohayamaru and finally vanquished. With his death, the waters of the Mediterranean Sea poured back in over Mordor, turning it back into the Black Sea.
Finally, at the Interim (the Japanese equivalent of the gates to the afterworld), everyone said their goodbyes to each other and departed. But Hide was getting an unusual "job offering" from Amaterasu. What it basically meant that, with Sauron's final defeat, Hide had finally achieved "enlightenment", but his soul was too adventurous to leave the mortal world behind forever, so he was "promoted" (for lack of a better term) to "angry god of Buddhism" and would be working for Amaterasu directly. Hide lingered long enough to kiss his mother and uncle goodbye and see Toyotomi Hideyoshi off on his final journey before boarding the Ark of Yamato for the Celestial Realm.
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Of course, other discoveries were too important to simply let go, even if they were discovered during the IAC. For example, the discovery of two different shipwrecks at Aeaea were doing a good job of keeping attention there. The Mystery Gold Nugget found in Australia was sparking all kinds of theories, both in person and on the internet. The usual internet weirdos claimed that it belonged to the Illuminati, among other things, but the authorities were ignoring this and focusing more on the facts.