Where Did the Shellfire Come From?

[Dungeon mission updated!]

[Current mission: Completely destroy the TF58 Nation-Destroying Fleet! Success rewards 100 points; failure deducts 200 points!]

[Firmament notice: This dungeon contains a series of missions. Rewards for all stages will be granted together upon completion of the ultimate mission!]

[Firmament notice: Because the challengers have thoroughly enraged Eagle Sauce, surrender and submission are no longer supported in this dungeon. From now on, you must face Eagle Sauce's wrath!]

The challengers panicked the moment they saw the mission update.

None of them had expected a dungeon to work like this, with missions divided into stages and an ultimate mission.

After spending so long at it, they had only completed a prerequisite mission. There was no telling how many more missions awaited them before they could clear the dungeon.

And clearly, as they progressed, the missions would grow more difficult and the penalties more severe!

The penalty for the current mission had already risen to 200 points. If they failed, lv0 challengers would be wiped out on the spot.

Even some LV1 challengers would meet their end in this dungeon.

The challengers' soaring enthusiasm was cut by more than half, and their brains all short-circuited.

In the Matsushima's command room.

Prince Singh of the Ah Sans was growing restless as well.

Two hundred points was nothing much to him, but the dungeon's twists and turns made him anxious.

A nameless fire was rising in his chest.

"Mr. Itō, what should we do next?"

"Lin Ye is obviously playing us for fools!"

Itō Hidetaka was no more at ease than anyone else at the moment.

Because clearly, Lin Ye had schemed against him!

Destroying Pearl Harbor in the prerequisite mission had already consumed most of their ammunition. Completing the missions that followed would be harder still.

On the surface, however, Itō Hidetaka put on an air of calm.

"Don't panic."

"For all we know, Lin Ye is bluffing about this mission too!"

"The enemy forces will arrive in five minutes, which means they're already close. Let's set up a defensive formation and conduct reconnaissance first!"

"Try to lock onto the targets with radar, and we can strike first to gain the advantage!"

Itō Hidetaka did have some strategic talent after all. After a brief analysis, he immediately took action.

He ordered every warship to activate its radar system and sent two light warships to patrol the nearby waters.

The commanders of the various warships soon reported back.

"Commander-in-chief Itō, radar shows no sign of enemy activity within five hundred nautical miles."

The report made Itō Hidetaka's brow furrow again.

"No sign of the enemy?!"

"How is that possible?"

The mission notice said the enemy forces would arrive in five minutes, yet five hundred nautical miles was a vast distance, far beyond the speed any ship in this world could reach.

He looked at the clock on the instrument panel and began calculating the time.

"What kind of fleet does Lin Ye have at his disposal?"

While Itō Hidetaka was still wondering, the gloom on the horizon was torn open, as if a crack had appeared in the sky.

Fiery red arcs streaked across the sky like meteors piercing the night, trailing scorching flames.

Boom!

Boom!

Two thunderous blasts rang out as violent explosions erupted among the challengers' warships.

Powerful shock waves churned the surface of the sea in an instant, throwing up enormous waves.

Amid flames that blazed to the heavens, several warships were torn to pieces, their steel wreckage flying in all directions through the fire and explosions!

The enemy warships had yet to arrive, but their shellfire had beaten them there.

So the five minutes had referred to the enemy's shellfire!

"Ah!"

"Help!"

"Aaaaah!"

Under the sudden attack, wails filled the sea.

Some were killed by the explosions on the spot, while others were burned alive.

Death in the dungeon meant mission failure, bringing their dungeon journey to an end.

Although the dungeon was virtual, the pain inside it was just as real as in reality.

Fortunately, the Matsushima was a little farther from the explosions. After being tossed about, Itō Hidetaka scrambled to his feet.

He then glanced nervously at the dungeon's participant count.

It had already plummeted to 5,000!

With a single attack, the enemy had wiped out 2,000 of their people without even showing themselves.

What kind of combat power was this?

It completely overturned Itō Hidetaka's understanding.

Meanwhile, the spectators watching the dungeon were all dumbfounded.

[No way! They didn't detect any enemy forces within five hundred nautical miles just now. Were those shells fired from more than five hundred nautical miles away?]

[If I remember correctly, the longest-range armor-piercing shells on Azure Star can only reach sixty nautical miles right now, can't they? Five hundred nautical miles is nearly ten times that distance!]

[How can shells like that exist? How could a young man like Lin Ye possibly have weapons with that kind of technology?]

[Whoa, that was a real eye-opener!]

The questions in the bullet comments were exactly what Itō Hidetaka was wondering himself.

But he still reacted as quickly as he could.

"All warships, listen up! Head full speed in the direction those shells came from!"

"Then spread out! Don't bunch together; get into formation!"

"If you don't want to die, listen to me!"

Itō Hidetaka immediately ordered all the warships forward at full speed.

It was the only thing he could do.

The shells had traveled a great distance, which meant they would also have been in flight for a long time. For all he knew, another salvo was already on its way toward them.

So they had to get moving.

Besides, the enemy was currently beyond their fleet's range, while they were well within the enemy's bombardment range.

That difference in range was fatal. They couldn't even fight back.

All they could do now was close the distance to make up for it.

Gulp, gulp.

Outside the dungeon, Lin Ye took a sip of ice-cold cola and shook his head helplessly.

Lin Ye found it funny how Itō Hidetaka in the dungeon and the spectators in the bullet comments understood weapons.

These people actually thought the explosions just now had been caused by armor-piercing shells from warships...

Clearly, this world had no concept of missiles at all.

That first salvo had been like using a cannon to swat mosquitoes.

"So I'm opening up a whole new world for you," Lin Ye said with a wry smile.

That first wave of attacks had been anti-ship missiles launched from an aircraft carrier!

According to the history of Earth's development in his previous life, this weapon had been invented toward the end of World War II.

One little anti-ship missile had left these people so shocked.

He really had no idea what expressions they would make when they saw the Five Permanent Members' intercontinental missiles.

The longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles could travel several thousand kilometers, striking directly from one continent to another!