Points Soar, Advancing to LV3!

[Esteemed Dungeon Designer, this opening of your dungeon, Raging Waves, has ended! It will open again in 24 hours.]

[Raging Waves was not cleared during this opening. Your dungeon design has earned the Firmament's approval, and you have received a total of 1,900,000 points!]

Lin Ye was still enjoying his lunch when the Firmament's notification sounded.

At the same time, the detailed statistics provided by the Firmament appeared before Lin Ye.

"Looks like the dungeon is over."

Ever since Lin Ye had taken a look at Itō Hidetaka's actions last time, he hadn't entered his dungeon again.

So he didn't know his dungeon had ended until the Firmament notified him.

"Strange, why are there so few points?"

By rights, Raging Waves should have harvested a massive haul of points this time.

Thanks to Itō Hidetaka's earlier series of blood-spitting moves, the dungeon's difficulty could be said to have been raised to the maximum, and the mission penalty had been raised even higher.

All 20,000 people had failed, and each had lost 5,000 points, bringing the total to a billion!

Even at a rate of one percent, Lin Ye should have received ten million points.

Yet he had only received 1.9 million.

Only a fifth of what Lin Ye had expected.

"Firmament, isn't this a bit too little?"

The Firmament promptly gave him a very official answer.

[Esteemed Dungeon Designer, the Firmament has clear rules regarding the percentage of points returned. Points are returned according to a tiered calculation:]

[For the portion of the total that does not exceed 100 million points, the Firmament returns one percent to the Dungeon Designer.]

[For the portion exceeding 100 million but not exceeding one billion, the Firmament returns one-tenth of one percent to the Dungeon Designer.]

[...]

Seeing this peculiar calculation method, Lin Ye suddenly felt a familiar sense of discomfort.

Wasn't this the tax system from his previous life...

The more you earned, the more you paid.

The tiered calculation had its reasoning and basis, so naturally it was also fair and reasonable.

Though he was a little annoyed, there was nothing Lin Ye could say.

After all, the Firmament was the ruler of this world.

Besides, the rule wasn't directed at him alone. Everyone on Azure Star had to abide by it.

In fact, Lin Ye could even understand why the Firmament had such a system: it was to prevent "super monsters" from being cultivated on Azure Star.

This was already an era where the winner took all. High-level people could harvest points without limit, and without restrictions, some could easily become nearly invincible in this world.

That was definitely not what the Firmament wanted to see, because it would seriously affect the balance of the dungeon system.

But in the end, it didn't matter. Lin Ye was still in the early stages of his growth, and while the Firmament ate the meat, it wasn't bad for him to get a sip of soup.

Since this was a world ruled by the Firmament, he had no choice but to bow his head under another's eaves for the time being.

On the bright side, those 1.9 million points were a huge sum for him right now.

[Esteemed Dungeon Designer, the Firmament has detected that your points have reached the million-point level. You are now qualified to advance to Level 3, and your level has been adjusted to Level 3!]

[Level 3 designers receive the permanent Design Acceleration Privilege. The Firmament will allocate more Divine Creation Space to you, increasing your dungeon design speed tenfold!]

[You have broken Azure Star's record for the fastest advancement to Level 3!]

He had actually leveled up again, which put Lin Ye in an excellent mood.

Level 3 came with a permanent Design Acceleration Privilege, which could also stack with the Acceleration Card the Firmament had given him earlier, increasing his dungeon creation speed a full twentyfold!

That was exactly what Lin Ye needed right now.

At this rate, Lin Ye could release his next dungeon, [Earth Online: Five Permanent Members: Winter Is Coming], within two days.

"Firmament, how many points do I need to accumulate to advance to LV4?"

[Firmament notification: A challenger needs a reserve of ten million points to advance to LV4! After advancing to LV4, a challenger will receive permanent Exemption Authority and cannot be forcibly pulled into a dungeon by any Dungeon Designer!]

Lin Ye nodded. He now had two million points, and if things went smoothly, he should be able to reach LV4 after Raging Waves ran a few more times.

He still had the Newcomer's exemption protection. As long as he advanced to LV4 within the month, he could seamlessly extend his protection period.

Lin Ye finished lunch, put on his coat, and walked out of the villa.

He went into the small courtyard outside his villa.

He sat leisurely in a rocking chair, listening to the wind howl slowly over the cliff and watching lines of text flash and scroll across the distant sky.

[Congratulations to challenger LeBron Bryant on advancing to Level 2!]

[Congratulations to challenger LIM on advancing to Level 2!]

[Congratulations to challenger Lin Ye on advancing to Level 3!]

...

[Lin Ye has broken the record for the fastest advancement to Level 3. All challengers, please take pride in this!]

[Lin Ye has broken the record for the fastest entry into the top 50 of the Individual Heroes Ranking!]

[The dungeon Raging Waves has broken the record for the most people eliminated in a single run!]

[The dungeon Raging Waves has broken the record for the highest total player capacity!]

[The dungeon Raging Waves has held first place on the Heavenly Ranking for two consecutive days!]

...

The names of Lin Ye and Raging Waves began appearing frequently above the dome.

The dome of this world was actually an enormous screen that announced all kinds of major dungeon-related news from Azure Star.

It was a bit like some of the online RPGs Lin Ye had enjoyed playing in his previous life. Whenever you did something big, you didn't have to worry about others not knowing.

The system would automatically announce it to the whole server, creating quite a sensation.

Lin Ye smiled faintly and didn't pay it much attention.

Given what Raging Waves had going for it, it was only natural that it would dominate the screen.

As long as the dungeon kept running, Raging Waves would break even more records.

Lin Ye opened the Firmament's Hero Ranking to take a look.

[No. 49. Kim Geun-seok; race: Goryeo people; level: LV3; Dungeon Work: "The Chaebol's Grandfather"]

[No. 50. Lin Ye; race: Great Xia people; level: Level 3; Dungeon Work: "Earth Online: Five Permanent Members’ Raging Waves"]

[No. 51. Katerina; race: Celtic people; level: LV3; Dungeon Work: "Whirlwind Blade"]

...

Without realizing it, he had already entered the top fifty of the Firmament's Hero Ranking. Lin Ye was fairly satisfied with his speed of advancement.

Top 50 meant he had become a powerhouse in this world, worthy of the name.

Because this was a world ruled by the Firmament, Lin Ye had felt an accompanying sense of insecurity ever since he transmigrated here.

And the only way to ease that insecurity was to keep making himself stronger...

Just as Lin Ye felt he could breathe a sigh of relief, the Firmament sent another notification.

[Esteemed Dungeon Designer, based on the previous two dungeon attempts, the Firmament has reviewed the dungeon Raging Waves...]

[The difficulty of Raging Waves will remain Purgatory-level. At the same time, the dungeon's player capacity will be increased to one million!]

"One million people?"

Good grief!

The dungeon's player capacity had been increased fiftyfold in one go!

That made Lin Ye take the matter seriously.

Every day, the Firmament made real-time adjustments to various dungeons, with the aim of bringing them to a level where, according to its understanding, challengers had a chance of clearing them.

Because actual dungeon attempts would inevitably differ somewhat from expectations, it was perfectly normal for player numbers to be adjusted as a dungeon progressed.

Lin Ye had more or less expected the Firmament to make further adjustments to the dungeon this time, because Itō Hidetaka and his group had made far too little progress during the first two challenges.

But Lin Ye hadn't expected the number of challengers to increase by so much this time.

One million people!

Many of the small settlements on Azure Star might not have a combined population of one million.

On Earth in his previous life, some medium-sized countries might not have had a million active-duty and reserve personnel combined.

His Raging Waves could now definitely be considered a National War-level Dungeon!!!