The Trick Behind the Dungeon's Design

As a result, countless spectators immediately flocked to the Raging Waves dungeon, and a barrage of scrolling comments filled the screen, making for an unusually lively scene.

The challengers in the dungeon, however, had no mind to pay attention to those comments.

The Firmament's prompts were still going.

The virtual image continued to move, its viewpoint traveling east from Eastern Ocean Island, across a vast ocean, until it reached a continent.

The continent was then highlighted in blue, with the words "Eagle Sauce Country" clearly displayed across it.

[This is the enemy faction in this dungeon: Eagle Sauce Country.]

[Eagle Sauce Country has a total area of 9.37 million square kilometers, consists of 50 states, and has a total population of 400 million...]

The view continued to zoom in on a scattered group of islands.

[This is the objective of this mission: Pearl Harbor Military Base.]

[The introduction to this dungeon's map is complete. Challengers may continue to view the dungeon map on the computer at the barracks command center.]

[Next... the Firmament will provide a detailed explanation of this dungeon's missions.]

Before the Firmament had even formally explained the mission objectives, many challengers had already fallen into despair.

"How are we supposed to fight this? The enemy faction's territory and population are both far greater than ours."

"Eagle Sauce Country is over thirty times the size of Eastern Ocean Island! The gap is ridiculous."

"It really is a Purgatory-level dungeon... At first I thought our side was strong, but now it looks like the enemy faction in this dungeon is even stronger..."

The Firmament's explanation had also left Itō Hidetaka looking somewhat dazed.

He was a Dungeon Designer, so his perspective was bound to be different from that of those ordinary Level 0 people.

At this moment, he was simply astonished by the realism and immense scale of Lin Ye's dungeon.

The current setup of the opposing sides felt no different from a real war. If this world were not under the Firmament's control, such so-called wars between nations ought to be the norm.

The more realistic something was, the tighter the logic required to turn it into a dungeon, and the more details it needed.

Could it be... that Lin Ye also has an organization backing him?

Itō Hidetaka couldn't help pondering this in secret.

But he quickly pulled himself together.

A huge map alone was nothing special! After all, a map was merely what contained a dungeon.

A dungeon's difficulty depended more on how its missions were arranged and what weapons it was equipped with.

No matter how large the map was, if its technology and weapons were backward, or its missions were simple, then it was all empty talk.

He had to listen to more of the Firmament's introduction before making a judgment.

[Pearl Harbor Military Base is home to the TF58 Nation-Destroying Fleet, with approximately 30 naval units and approximately 30,000 personnel in total!]

[Optional mission one: Destroy Pearl Harbor Military Base]

[The time limit for this round is 96 hours. Challengers who destroy Pearl Harbor Military Base within the allotted time will be deemed to have completed the mission. Each challenger will receive 50 points!]

[Optional mission two: Economic Overtaking]

[The time limit for this round is 96 hours. All challengers may participate in the administration of Eastern Ocean Island. If its economy overtakes Eagle Sauce Country's at any point, the mission will be deemed complete. Each challenger will receive 50 points!]

[Optional mission three: Surrender and submit (individual option)]

[Directly announce your submission to Eagle Sauce Country. The weapons and technology you carry will be contributed to Eagle Sauce Country, 20 points will be deducted, and you will be transported out of the dungeon.]

[Mission failure: If you neither conquer Pearl Harbor Military Base nor achieve economic overtaking within the allotted time, the mission will be deemed a failure, and 100 points will be deducted!]

When they saw that optional mission three allowed them to surrender and submit outright,

many challengers breathed a sigh of relief, decisively chose to surrender and submit, and then exited the dungeon.

Most of them were Great Xia people, because they had already received a message from the gathering place telling them to surrender and leave the dungeon.

Some people of other races felt that a Purgatory-level dungeon was impossible to conquer, and that they might as well surrender.

Surrendering only cost 20 points, which was quite lenient compared to failing the mission.

Even for some bottom-rung Level 0 challengers, losing 20 points was not fatal.

But if they chose another mission and failed, there was a very good chance they would be wiped out right there in the dungeon.

"I submit!"

"I submit too! To hell with fighting."

"I want to submit to Eagle Sauce Country! I want to be transported out of the dungeon."

For a time, one figure after another was transported out of the dungeon in flashes of light.

The number of challengers in Raging Waves plunged by around three thousand. The dungeon had originally held over ten thousand people, but soon only seven thousand remained.

"I understand!"

Itō Hidetaka cried out, seeing straight through the cunning behind Lin Ye's dungeon setup in an instant.

It worked on the same principle as the option to retreat to Weihaiwei Naval Port in his Battle of the Imperial Sea dungeon.

It offered an option with a lighter penalty, thereby enticing challengers to choose it.

The people who left the dungeon thought they had escaped with their lives, little knowing that a proportion of all those deducted points would go back to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye could fill his pockets to overflowing behind the scenes!

Despicable!

Itō Hidetaka cursed angrily to himself.

He simply couldn't stand that Lin Ye had used his own trick for harvesting points to create a dungeon mission. To Itō Hidetaka, it was a complete humiliation.

Worse still, the surrender option in Raging Waves was one each person could choose for themselves. It required no vote among all the challengers and had no limit on the number of people who could take it.

The steady decrease in numbers would only make the remaining challengers who wanted to complete the missions weaker and weaker, greatly increasing the difficulty of conquering the dungeon!

For Itō Hidetaka, 20 points were actually nothing.

But there was no way he could surrender.

That would ruin his reputation and cause the Emperor and the other members of the Great He Clan to look down on him!

The Great He Clan was the bravest people on Azure Star. The word "surrender" simply did not exist in their dictionary!

"I absolutely can't let Lin Ye's trick succeed."

Itō Hidetaka muttered to himself, then charged straight into the barracks command center and began addressing all the challengers through the public address loudspeaker.

"Challengers, listen to me! I am Itō Hidetaka, a Dungeon Designer of the Great He people!"

"Please don't choose to surrender and submit! This is a trap set by the Dungeon Designer!"

"Trust me, everyone. Don't surrender. I can lead you to victory."

Itō Hidetaka's voice began to echo through the barracks.

The challengers, who had been in complete disarray, fell silent for a moment when they heard the sudden announcement in the barracks.

"Itō Hidetaka, that genius designer of the Great He Clan who designed four dungeons in a month? I didn't expect him to be in this dungeon too."

"Did he just say he could lead everyone to clear it? We're that lucky?!"

"Don't rush, everyone. Let's hear him out. He's the most renowned Dungeon Designer around right now. Perhaps he has some unique insight."

"Let's wait and hear what he has to say. It won't be too late to surrender afterward."

Seeing the challengers in the barracks gradually quiet down, Itō Hidetaka let out a long breath, then called out in a deep voice:

"Next, I'll tell you all about the trick behind this dungeon's design, and how to clear it!"