Afraid to Break the Pot While Catching the Rat!

Lin Ye glanced at the Hero Ranking in the Firmament again.

My ranking has risen again.

It rose from 48th to 46th place.

[NO45; Montgomery; Race: Irish people; Level: lv3; Dungeon Works: Desert Rose, Royal War]

[NO46; Lin Ye; Race: Great Xia people; Level: lv3; Dungeon Works: Earth Online: The Five Permanent Members’ Raging Waves, Earth Online: The Five Permanent Members - Winter Is Coming]

[NO47; Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov; Race: White Bear people; Level: lv3; Dungeon Work: Iron-Blooded Defense War]

It's obvious that at this level, ranking improvement becomes extremely slow.

This place is at the very top of the Azure Star pyramid; it has a small population, but the range of points is vast.

However, Lin Ye didn't seem to care much about rankings.

Compared to ranks, rankings are more like empty titles.

Although each level up after entering the top 50 brings increasing benefits to the Settlement.

However, these benefits don't actually have much practical significance for Lin Ye personally.

Furthermore, rankings do not fully represent ability.

Some people have plenty of points, but their actual strength is terrible. Prince Singh of the A San people is a typical example.

Lin Ye composed himself and directly asked the Firmament.

"Firmament, will there be another review and adjustment of the number of Instance this time Winter Is Coming?"

[Dear Dungeon Designers, after review, Firmament believes that the difficulty of the Winter Is Coming Instance is basically matched with the number of Challengers. Unless the Designers actively modify the Instance, no adjustments will be made.]

Lin Ye smiled.

Surprisingly, the number of people in the Firmament did not increase this time.

This left him somewhat disappointed.

It seems that because no direct confrontation between the Bear Country and the Challengers forces was triggered this time, the Firmament was unable to make a judgment.

However, maintaining the number of Challengers at 50,000 is not bad, since the Winter Is Coming Instance to be like the previous Raging Waves Instance, where resources were drained in just three waves.

He's playing the long game!

With nothing else to do, Lin Ye browsed the internet again and noticed that there were far fewer news articles about him and his Instance of the game today.

Today's hot topic, however, is the "Strong Clan Plan" in the South Korea Settlement.

In fact, it is not uncommon for different Settlements to buy technology from each other. Even the Great Xia Settlement would purchase some new technologies from other Settlements.

However, it is rare to see people like the Goryeo people who secretly buy tank blueprints and then secretly modify them.

Settlements that typically do this are usually harboring ulterior motives.

Once this kind of thing is exposed, other Settlements will inevitably be on guard!

In a short time, a barrage of criticisms and attacks against the South Korea Settlements emerged online.

[Buying tanks, secretly developing their strength—what exactly is South Korea trying to achieve!]

[South Korea has been purchasing large quantities of weapons from various settlements over the years, which is clearly insidious!]

Where do the points for purchasing weapons come from? The South Korea chaebols must have exploited a lot of the people's hard-earned money!

Is this model of chaebols controlling Settlement in South Korea really reasonable? I suggest Firmament conduct a thorough investigation!

[If it weren't for God Ye's help, who knows which Settlement would have been struck by that blow from South Korea.]

[...]

Faced with this overwhelming barrage of accusations and insults, Lin Ye could only silently mourn for Kim Geun-seok.

"Did you think that was all? No... you have to keep challenging this Instance."

"Heh~ the best is yet to come."

South Korea Settlement.

The Kim Family Manor.

Kim Geun-seok had just been teleported out of the Instance and was panting heavily.

The terrifying images of Dongfeng Missile bombing still echoed in his mind.

"Damn it! Fuck it! Fuck it!"

He was incredibly frustrated this time, feeling like he'd swallowed a dead fly.

It would be one thing to fail a normal Instance challenge, but what's frustrating is that he failed inexplicably.

Their once-proud Tank Corps was thus annihilated in a way that was almost like a game.

He was just about to unleash his fury when he noticed a figure sitting in front of him for quite some time.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be his own father, Kim Chan-hoon.

Judging from this, Dad has been waiting here for quite some time.

"Dad...?"

Snap!

Before Kim Geun-seok could finish speaking, Kim Chan-hoon slapped him hard across the face, causing him to stumble and nearly fall onto the sofa behind him.

"Dad, I..."

"You piece of trash!" Kim Chan-hoon's eyes widened in anger, his face as pale as paper, and his whole body trembled slightly with rage.

It looked like it was about to devour someone.

"Do you know that because of your incompetence, hundreds of people in the company have lost their lives, and my Kim family has become a laughing stock!"

"And it brings shame upon our Settlement!"

Kim Geun-seok covered his face, looking displeased, and couldn't help but try to explain himself.

"Dad, I had no choice. I did everything I could to be careful in the Instance, but I still fell for Lin Ye's trick..."

"The only one to blame is Lin Ye for being too cunning."

Snap!

Another slap landed on Kim Geun-seok's face. He let out a wail and dared not argue back.

In the Kim family, hierarchy and seniority are paramount. Although he is now the head of the Kim family, much of the power in the company is still held by his father.

If you upset your father, he can take back the points he inherited from you in any way he wants.

"I'm asking you, what's going on in your head?!"

Have they forgotten even the most basic military common sense?

"Since we're going to engage in Land Warfare, why not designate the Malaysia and the Tank Country as the Spawn Points? Even a level 1 Challengers should understand this basic common sense!"

Kim Chan-hoon's tone was full of frustration and disappointment.

"I... I... I'm afraid there's a trap," Kim Geun-seok answered honestly, his face flushed red. "Lin Ye is very good at using these tricks; I'm afraid his choice of Spawn Point is a trap."

"Are you stupid!"

"The foundation of any Instance is that it must be logical. Even Lin Ye's special mechanisms have perfect logic to pass the review by Firmament."

"If you're being tricked just because you chose a Spawn Point he explicitly gave you, then this Instance is illogically creating problems for Challengers, and Firmament will never allow that!"

Kim Chan-hoon grew increasingly angry as he spoke, and his voice began to tremble.

"To use a Chinese idiom from the Great Xia Settlements, your current situation is one of being afraid to catch a mouse for fear of breaking the vase!"

"Do you understand?!"