I'll Get My Hands on the Technology in Raging Waves!

At this moment, Itō Hidetaka had become somewhat obsessed.

Anger, humiliation, and pride all tangled together in his mind, leaving him with a single thought.

He had to conquer Raging Waves, no matter what!

He had to defeat Lin Ye head-on!

"Itō..." The Emperor let out a long sigh. "I saw the technology in the Raging Waves dungeon too. I don't believe you have the strength to conquer a dungeon of that difficulty."

"I've already sent people to investigate every aspect of Lin Ye's background. I've also sent envoys to persuade him, in the hope of recruiting him to our Great He Clan's settlement."

"Until we have a full understanding of Lin Ye's background, I advise you not to act rashly, Itō."

Hearing that the Emperor wanted to recruit Lin Ye to the settlement, Itō Hidetaka felt his whole body go numb.

All these years, Dahe Settlement had been frantically recruiting talent, practicing what was known as "take-ism."

No matter their race or settlement, Daiwa would tempt talented people with vast sums of money.

If Lin Ye really was recruited, there could be only one outcome.

Lin Ye would replace him as the genius of the Daiwa settlement, while Itō Hidetaka would be discarded like an abandoned pawn and ultimately leave the stage in disgrace.

He was only a dungeon designer, skilled in designing tricks and arranging missions. In truth, he knew very little about military technology.

His strengths lay in his ingenious thinking and strategic planning, not in actual combat on the battlefield.

Without backing to support him, the higher he stood, the harder he would fall,

Like a kite high in the sky that had lost its string, left at the mercy of wind and rain until it finally smashed to pieces.

All sorts of people would want to kick him while he was down, actively inviting him to enter their dungeons.

If things went on like that, the Firmament would soon erase him.

"Emperor! Those who are not of our race must have different hearts!"

Itō Hidetaka hurriedly spoke, looking especially nervous.

"All these years, we've tried to recruit people from the Great Xia settlement, but we've never succeeded. Those people have a strong sense of territorial loyalty. There's no way they'd leave their own settlement to come to us."

"Even if we really did bring Lin Ye over, nobody could guarantee that he'd willingly hand his technology over to Daiwa..."

As he spoke, Itō Hidetaka knelt again, looking utterly humble, with even a hint of pleading.

But it had to be said that what he said was true.

Over the years, Dahe Settlement had indeed recruited quite a few people from other settlements.

But not a single one of them had come from the Dragon Soaring Settlement!

"The best way to obtain the technology in Lin Ye's dungeon is to conquer it! Rather than beg someone else, we should work to seize it ourselves!"

"Emperor, isn't that our very spirit?"

The Emperor gave two cold laughs, and his expression darkened.

"Itō, how could I not know all that? But what makes you confident you can conquer Lin Ye's dungeon?"

Itō Hidetaka suddenly raised his head, a hint of excitement in his expression.

"Emperor, just now, the Firmament made a series of adjustments to the Raging Waves dungeon and increased the number of challengers to twenty thousand!"

"The reason I failed before was that many of those ten thousand were people of other races randomly selected by the Firmament. Some of them surrendered and quit the dungeon as soon as they entered. They had neither organization nor discipline."

"If the challengers in the next dungeon are all elites of our Great He Clan, I think we might just be able to conquer Raging Waves."

Itō Hidetaka wanted to continue, but the Emperor cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Itō, have you gone mad? Do you want me to send the people of our Great He Clan to their deaths?" The Emperor grew somewhat angry.

"Don't you desire Lin Ye's technology? If we can obtain his aircraft carrier technology, our Great He Clan will become the foremost race on Azure Star!"

"And you will become one who stands beneath the Firmament and above all others!!!"

Watching Itō Hidetaka's almost deranged expression, the Emperor gradually regained his composure.

For Itō Hidetaka's words had touched him deep in his heart.

How could he not want to become the overlord of Azure Star, standing above all others?

Who wouldn't want to stand apart in this vast sea of stars and sit firmly at the top of the Hero Ranking?

Who could resist that dazzling halo, becoming the one with the highest points and level on Azure Star?!

This world was, after all, one where people fought for themselves, and the Emperor harbored a desire of his own.

"First, I want to hear what battle plan you have."

"Emperor, Lin Ye's dungeon design skills actually aren't as great as everyone imagines. There's a huge loophole in that whole series of prerequisite missions of his!"

"And the enormous map he designed is bound to have many areas beyond the reach of any faction!"

"If we skip that so-called Pearl Harbor right at the start and attack Eagle Sauce Country's homeland directly, we can definitely catch the dungeon's faction off guard!"

"We'll land directly, then invade Eagle Sauce Country and plunder its resources while making our strategic preparations. Even if he has aircraft carriers, what can he do?"

"..."

Itō Hidetaka breathed out a long breath, a smug smile returning to his face.

"Your Majesty, what I need is for you to place the shoguns, the ninja organizations, and the elite challengers from our Great He army, navy, and air force under my command."

"Make sure every challenger is Level 2 or above. With a lineup like that, I refuse to believe we can't take down Raging Waves."

Hearing Itō Hidetaka's crazy idea, the Emperor could not help being moved and felt deeply surprised.

As he understood it, dungeon challengers had always followed the dungeon missions' guidance, obeying the rules and never daring to step beyond the bounds. Itō Hidetaka's proposal was no different from breaking that established pattern and challenging unknown possibilities.

One could even say he was challenging the Firmament's rules.

Itō Hidetaka was clearly taking a risk, making a gamble!

And he was using underhanded, unscrupulous tactics.

If Lin Ye had made any provisions for it in the dungeon, Itō Hidetaka's method was doomed to fail.

He was gambling that Lin Ye, despite all his careful planning, had overlooked this one detail and failed to make proper provisions for it.

It had to be said that this idea really might exploit a loophole and "steal" the aircraft carrier technology from Raging Waves.

"Itō, I admit your idea might be workable to some extent, but the risk is simply too great."

"Besides, I can't possibly entrust all the elites of our Great He Clan to you right now. You're only Level 2 yourself. Why would they listen to you?"

"Have you considered what position our Daiwa settlement would be in if we committed everything and failed? Every other race would target us then!"

The Emperor thought it over and ultimately rejected Itō Hidetaka's proposal.