Chicken Out? I Choose to Attack!
With that, Lin Ye had formed an initial assessment of the instance!
At that moment, it was as if he had gone back over a hundred years to 1894! As if he had become a member of the Beiyang Fleet.
The fire of rage in his chest had been kindled without his noticing!
If he compared this [Battle of the Imperial Sea] instance to that naval battle from his previous life,
the similarities were that the enemy forces were roughly equal in strength and size, and the combat environment was much the same.
The difference was that the combat strength of these 2,000 challengers was far greater than that of the Beiyang Fleet back then!
Among these challengers were advanced Level 2 challengers.
Level 2 challengers had permission to carry instance weapons with them.
They had a certain foundation in technology and military construction, and had now brought weapons from instances they had created themselves into this Battle of the Imperial Sea instance.
Among them were quite a few good warships, such as the ironclad beneath Lin Ye's feet!
He had just inspected this warship.
It had two reciprocating steam engines on two shafts, as many as thirty single-mounted guns, and another ten above-water torpedo tubes.
This warship alone was as powerful as the enemy's cruiser fleet.
Besides this warship, the challengers had more than ten others of comparable strength, as well as several wooden boats and steam-powered sailing ships. Although those vessels had limited combat power, they could still be useful if handled properly.
Lin Ye did not know whether he was simply lucky, but enough Level 2 challengers had been brought into this instance, and they had brought enough weapons with them. It felt as though their strength was in no way inferior to the enemy's.
[5...4...3...2...1]
[The countdown has ended. The instance has officially begun!]
As the notification announcing the official start sounded, the ten red-sun cruisers accelerated and sped toward the challengers.
Lin Ye noticed that no one in the crowd on deck was going to man the guns and fight back. Instead, they were all gathering toward the captain's cabin.
Lin Ye hurried over as well and found an old man in the captain's cabin, smoking. Like him, the old man had white hair, yellow skin, and black eyes.
There was a Level 2 marker above the man's head.
That meant the ship beneath their feet belonged to this man, and the other challengers had landed aboard thanks to him.
"Mr. Ding Chang, please hurry and steer the ship toward Wei Haiwei."
"Honorable Mr. Ding Chang, you are our savior. Please be merciful and take us away, amen."
"Ding Chang, seumnida, I'm begging you..."
The challengers pleaded desperately, but without exception, they were all asking to retreat at once.
At that moment, Lin Ye finally understood why this instance had been classified as difficult. It was not because the instance itself was so powerful, but because it misled the challengers from the very beginning.
First, it gave them a simple mission objective: flee to Weihaiwei Naval Port.
Then, seeing the enemy ships' unstoppable approach, most challengers would default to fleeing.
Over time, it had become a passive escape instance.
But that would only send them into the trap laid by its designer, Itō Hidetaka.
Those ten cruisers flying red-sun flags were fast. Running blindly would only leave them taking hits without fighting back.
In the end, even those who really managed to reach the evacuation point would have gambled with their lives to do so, trading the other challengers' failure for their own escape.
To truly clear this instance, they could not run. They could only fight!
"Mr. Ding Chang, I'm Lin Ye." Lin Ye walked straight up to Ding Chang and introduced himself.
"There isn't much time left, so please allow me to be brief."
"I'm a military researcher with extensive experience in warfare. If you trust me, please hand command of the warship over to me! I'll bring you a victory."
The other challengers immediately erupted at his words.
"What's a Level 0 like you shouting about?!"
"Damn! This is a difficult-level instance. Getting out alive would be good enough. Don't tell me you actually want to clear it?"
"That's pure fantasy!"
Ding Chang slammed his hand down hard on the table, then looked at Lin Ye and said in a deep voice:
"You're one of the Great Xia people."
"That's right, I'm one of the Great Xia people, with black hair and yellow skin," Lin Ye replied.
"Good! Great Xia people don't lie to Great Xia people. I'll leave my Dragon God Ship under your command."
With that, Ding Chang turned his gaze to the other challengers, who were still grumbling, and cursed:
"What's all the noise about! This is my ship!"
"If you white skins and black skins don't like it, jump into the sea yourselves."
"You're freeloading on my ship, and you're still whining."
In truth, winning or losing made no difference to Ding Chang. After all, he was a Level 2 big shot, the equivalent of a noble in this world. One loss or one win would not change much.
He was playing either way, so he might as well give his compatriot a chance.
As for the other challengers, they could only swallow their grievances. They were there to leech points in the first place, so naturally they could only follow Ding Chang's arrangements.
A great deal of time had already passed, and there was none to spare for Lin Ye to waste.
He went straight to the Dragon God's wheelhouse, switched on the radio communications system, and began sending a radio message to the other challengers' ships.
[Level 2 big shots, I'm Lin Ye, commander of the Dragon God. Next, please follow my orders and attack the enemy fleet. I'll lead everyone to clear this instance and claim its first-clear achievement!]
Lin Ye had given some thought to sending the message this way.
First, he addressed the Level 2 big shots directly because they owned these ships and had absolute authority over them.
As for the Level 0 and Level 1 challengers, Lin Ye chose to skip them entirely.
Besides, Lin Ye had mentioned a crucial piece of information: the first clear!
In this world, the first clear of an instance came with a special achievement reward, generally a technology-tree reward that was among the best available at the current stage.
It would be greatly beneficial when the people who cleared it went on to create their own instances.
These Level 2 experts had little interest in the few dozen points awarded for clearing the instance, but they were particularly keen on the first-clear reward.
[Interesting! It's rare to see someone volunteer to lead the team, and he's a Level 0 youngster at that.]
[I've run this instance three times, and this is the first time I've seen anyone willing to take the initiative and attack.]
[Whatever. Since you're willing to lead, my Planck is willing to follow your command.]
And so, the entire challenger force, twenty ships of all shapes and sizes, was now under Lin Ye's command.
This time, instead of retreating, they advanced, accelerating straight toward the enemy's red-sun flagship fleet!
All twenty ships set off at once, stirring up waves across the Imperial Sea.
Outside the instance, the spectators were startled to see this as well.
Bullet comments immediately flooded the instance.
[Damn! There really are challengers who'd choose to attack in this instance?!]
[A newborn calf isn't afraid of a tiger. Didn't you see that this commander-in-chief, Lin Ye, is just a Level 0 noob? Who knows how many Level 2 big shots have already thrown out their backs in this instance. What's a Level 0 like him pretending for...]
[Is this questioning the Great He people's ability to create instances and their level of instance technology?]
[Those Level 2 big shots obviously don't care, but pity the unlucky Level 0s in this instance. Do they know that if they fail the mission and their points bottom out, the Firmament will erase them directly?]