The Emperor vs. Lin Ye!

Time rolled on.

A night passed in the blink of an eye.

Before long, the next day had arrived.

It was almost noon, with less than ten minutes left until Raging Waves opened for the second time!

Across Azure Star, people in every settlement had already entered the dungeon livestream to wait.

Every big screen on the streets was also showing the countdown to Raging Waves.

Before long, several gleaming golden messages flashed across the dungeon livestream.

[Firmament Hero Rankings No. 3 Adolf has entered the Raging Waves dungeon livestream!]

[Firmament Hero Rankings No. 9 Cromwell has entered the Raging Waves dungeon livestream!]

[Firmament Hero Rankings No. 39 Park Seong-man has entered the Raging Waves dungeon livestream!]

The top 50 on the Firmament Hero Rankings were Azure Star's top challengers, and they enjoyed supreme privileges in every respect.

Dungeon livestreams were naturally no exception.

Everyone else came and went from livestreams without a sound.

But when a top 50 member entered, conspicuous special effects appeared. It was as though everyone had to make way and bow down before them.

[It's... the Blood Demon Adolf! I'm actually in the same livestream as a war god!]

[It's Mr. Cromwell, the founder of the English Settlement!]

[Park Seong-man, the Korean war god of the South Korea Settlement! He's South Korea's strongest, and they say he'll be promoted to LV4 soon!]

The strongest experts were divine dragons whose heads were seen but not their tails. They would never voluntarily join just any dungeon, much less be bored enough to watch another dungeon's livestream.

So for many people, this Raging Waves livestream was their only chance to see these experts.

For a time, it truly felt as though winds were rising, clouds were surging, and the world was changing.

[Mr. Park Seong-man, I'm Korean too. My name is Ze Shai! You're my idol.]

[Mr. Park Seong-man, what do you think of this dungeon run? Who do you think will have the last laugh?]

Some challengers couldn't wait to chat with these top experts through the comments, hoping to quickly get in their good graces.

After all, in this world, a few words of guidance from an expert could help you survive in troubled times.

To survive, challengers at the bottom naturally had to be more attentive.

Even so, no reply from Park Seong-man appeared in the chat for a long time. Only after a very, very long wait did a brief message appear.

[I think Lin Ye's rise involved an element of luck, with the Dragon Soaring Settlement fanning the waves behind him. The Emperor is stronger!]

[But no matter which of them wins or loses, I'll be happy to see it!]

There were always people who took the opposite view.

As the day passed,

more voices on Azure Star began to question Raging Waves.

These people believed that, in Raging Waves' two runs, the only military power truly displayed was its aircraft carriers. As for the so-called clear rate, it was very likely that Lin Ye had tampered with the dungeon's design.

The Nation-Destroying Fleet's carrier group was indeed powerful, but against a million challengers, the outcome was uncertain!

No matter how powerful a carrier was, it was only a deck for aircraft. A navy alone naturally couldn't defeat a carrier, but a surprise attack using an air force or submarines still had a good chance of sinking it outright!

After all, a force of one million challengers was bound to have land, sea, and air forces.

Ring, ring.

As the alarm rang, Lin Ye stretched and climbed out of his comfortable bed.

He had previously spent all his energy perfecting Earth Online, taxing both his mind and body.

This time, Lin Ye had slept for half a day, and he felt much more refreshed.

Before he had fully come to his senses, notifications from the Firmament came one after another.

[Firmament notification: Esteemed Dungeon Designer, during your rest, modifications to your dungeon Raging Waves were completed. The Firmament has automatically uploaded your dungeon and reopened it for use.]

[Firmament notification: Because your dungeon Raging Waves has attracted widespread attention on Azure Star, the Firmament has temporarily designated today as Amnesty Day, encouraging all challengers to come watch your dungeon!]

[...]

"Tch..." Lin Ye chuckled helplessly.

Lin Ye didn't think the Firmament had his interests at heart with this so-called amnesty.

On closer thought, this was naturally a good thing for the other challengers, but it didn't benefit him in the slightest.

The Firmament had done this simply because it thought Raging Waves' clear rate was too low and wanted all challengers to come observe, so they could conquer Raging Waves more quickly.

Lin Ye paid no further attention to the Firmament's notifications. Instead, he opened his dungeon's backend directly, wanting to see how many slots were still vacant.

This time, he still intended to use his 20% targeted selection on members of the Great He Clan.

After all, those Shorties had previously accused him of targeting them.

But the moment he saw the challenger list in the backend, Lin Ye's jaw dropped.

[No. 1 "Emperor" Xiaochuan; race: Great He people; level: LV4; Dungeon Works: "Greater East Co-Prosperity!", "World of Military Power", "Golden Crow Fusang"]

[No. 2 Minamoto no Yorimitsu; race: Great He people; level: LV4; Dungeon Works: "Seppuku Blade", "Genpei War"]

[No. 3 Iga Ryūji; race: Great He people; level: LV3; Dungeon Works: "Ninja Corps", "Onimusha", "Izanagi"]

...

[No. 78000 Itō Hidetaka; race: Great He people; level: LV2; Dungeon Works: "Battle of the Imperial Sea", "Shogunate's Revenge", "Kill the Ninja", "Nobunaga's Ambition"]

(I gave Itō Hidetaka too high a ranking earlier, so I'm correcting it here. Level 2 is considered very strong in this world, but definitely not top-tier. He's famous because he rose quickly, designing four dungeons in one day and leveling up to Level 2 in one go.)

[No. 1000000 Ogura Yūko; race: Great He people; level: LV2; Dungeon Works: "Raging Swordsmanship"]

Lin Ye refreshed the list several times before he dared confirm it: all one million of them were members of the Great He Clan!

"Have they gone mad?"

Lin Ye was genuinely shocked.

Clearly, the Dahe Settlement had done this deliberately. It was a choice made after careful consideration.

Otherwise, even the millionth challenger wouldn't have been at Level 2! It was really a little too outrageous.

In this world, anyone who reached Level 2 could definitely be counted among the upper class.

The worlds were different, so it was hard for Lin Ye to make a direct conversion, but roughly speaking, if points were compared to money on Earth, one point was worth 1,000 yuan.

Reaching Level 2 was basically equivalent to being a multimillionaire in his previous life.

There were certainly some challengers like that on Azure Star, but compared to its population of ten billion, their proportion was pitifully low.

The entire Dahe Settlement probably had only around a million Level 2 challengers. Lin Ye could even suspect that the Emperor had transferred the settlement's stockpiled points to these people.

This time, the Dahe Settlement really had put everything on the line.