Recaps

Itō Hidetaka urged the Great He Emperor to let him lead elite challengers into Raging Waves and seize Lin Ye’s aircraft carrier technology by bypassing the dungeon’s expected route. The Emperor saw potential in the plan but rejected it because the risks were too great and Itō lacked the authority to command Great He’s elites.

• The Emperor warned Itō Hidetaka not to act rashly while Great He investigated Lin Ye and considered recruiting him.
• Itō Hidetaka argued that Lin Ye would not willingly hand over his technology and insisted that Great He should conquer Raging Waves instead.
• Itō Hidetaka proposed sending twenty thousand Great He elites, all at least LV2, to skip Pearl Harbor and attack Eagle Sauce Country directly.
• The Emperor considered the plan a risky attempt to exploit a loophole in Lin Ye’s dungeon design.
• The Emperor rejected the proposal, citing the danger of committing Great He’s elites and Itō Hidetaka’s lack of standing to command them.

The Emperor pressured Itō Hidetaka into leading Great He clansmen through Raging Waves using the economic overtaking quest, despite Itō’s doubts and lack of expertise. The next day, Lin Ye discovered that Itō and thousands of other Great He people had volunteered to enter his dungeon.

• The Emperor rejected Itō Hidetaka’s request to bring Great He Clan elites and urged him to choose the economic overtaking quest instead.
• Itō warned that Eagle Sauce Country’s advantages and his own lack of economic expertise made the quest difficult, but the Emperor offered him merchants and managers and left him little choice.
• Itō agreed to lead Great He clansmen into Raging Waves when it reset the next day, deciding the gamble was better than being abandoned.
• Lin Ye received notice that enough challengers had applied to enter Raging Waves and asked the Firmament to show him their list.
• Lin Ye saw Itō Hidetaka at the top of the challenger list and was amused that the dungeon designer had volunteered himself for another run.

Lin Ye learned that 20,000 Great He Clan challengers had entered Raging Waves and dismissed warnings that their coordinated assault could threaten his dungeon. Itō Hidetaka and the others arrived at the armory, where viewers expected them to fail again.

• Lin Ye saw that the challengers were all from the Great He Clan, including Itō Hidetaka and many low-level members.
• Zhao Jianyu warned Lin Ye that the Great He Clan used organized group assaults and might have a hidden plan to conquer Raging Waves.
• Lin Ye thanked Zhao Jianyu but refused to accept points, confident that his dungeon could withstand the attack.
• The Firmament deployed 20,000 Great He Clan challengers, including Itō Hidetaka, into Raging Waves.
• The challengers found the Wu Naval Armory as before, while livestream viewers doubted they could conquer the Purgatory-level dungeon.

Itō Hidetaka entered the Raging Waves dungeon with a handpicked team of Great He students and rallied them to fight for the Emperor and their settlements. After reviewing the missions and seeing Singh blame him for their previous failure, Itō shut off the chat and chose the economic overtaking mission.

• The Firmament explained the dungeon's factions and presented missions to destroy Pearl Harbor, overtake Eagle Sauce Country economically, or surrender.
• Shancheng Kojirō introduced himself to Itō Hidetaka and said the Emperor had arranged for him to lead talented students from universities across the settlements.
• Shancheng's students bowed to Itō, who rallied them to fight for the Emperor and their settlements.
• Singh criticized Itō in the livestream chat, blaming his command for their previous defeat.
• Itō switched off the chat and announced that he would choose the economic overtaking mission.

Itō Hidetaka chose mission two, and Firmament turned the Raging Waves instance into a nonwar challenge where weapons and armed violence were forbidden. Researchers at the First Instance Research Institute questioned why Lin Ye would suppress the military technology that gave him his greatest advantage.

• Itō Hidetaka selected mission two, and Firmament announced that the instance would test logic and management without weapons or armed violence.
• Ships, tanks, guns, and other military equipment dissolved into mosaic, startling challengers who had expected economic warfare to include combat.
• Researchers at the First Instance Research Institute praised Lin Ye for creating a new instance format and discussed its possibilities.
• Zhao Jianyu told Ding Chang that the nonwar mode might weaken Lin Ye by shrinking the instance and removing his aircraft carrier advantage.
• Ding Chang agreed that Lin Ye seemed to be cutting off his own strength by making challengers of every level unable to use weapons.

Inside the Raging Waves instance, Itō Hidetaka regained his confidence after concluding that Non-Combat Mode leveled the playing field and favored his team’s expertise. Lin Ye dismissed that assumption and prepared to show that Eagle Sauce Country’s economic and other forms of hegemony made the instance challenging even without weapons.

• Itō Hidetaka laughed at the disappearance of his fleet and argued that locking weapons would weaken Lin Ye’s advantage and make Raging Waves easier to clear.
• Shancheng Kojirō and the other challengers praised Itō’s reasoning, while spectators debated whether the weapon restrictions had created a loophole.
• Lin Ye watched the livestream and dismissed the challengers’ assumption that an instance’s difficulty depended mainly on military weapons.
• Lin Ye considered how dollar, media, oil, and technological hegemony supported Eagle Sauce Country’s power, alongside its naval strength.
• Lin Ye decided to demonstrate how terrifying war without gunpowder could be, then exited the livestream and started his car.

Itō Hidetaka and the challengers learned that they could direct Eastern Ocean Island’s industries to overtake Eagle Sauce Country in GDP or per capita GDP, and they pursued rapid growth with reckless measures. As Eastern Ocean Island’s economy surged, Itō received a call threatening sanctions unless his country stopped its violations and compensated Eagle Sauce Country.

• The Firmament showed the challengers Eagle Sauce Country’s industries and economic indicators, then revealed that Eastern Ocean Island needed to exceed it in either GDP or per capita GDP to complete the mission.
• Itō Hidetaka urged the challengers to use any means necessary, and Shancheng Kojirō led them in making drastic changes to Eastern Ocean Island’s industries.
• The challengers boosted imports and production, cut environmental protections, dumped untreated wastewater, expanded whaling, and promoted Dongying’s action film industry.
• Eastern Ocean Island’s per capita GDP rose to 40,000 dollars in less than half a day, and Itō Hidetaka gloated that Lin Ye had underestimated him.
• Itō Hidetaka answered a call from an unidentified number, and the caller accused his country of violating international conventions, demanded it stop and pay Eagle Sauce Country compensation, and threatened comprehensive sanctions.

Itō Hidetaka rejected Eagle Sauce Country’s demand for one trillion in compensation and ordered Shancheng Kojirō to intensify Eastern Ocean Island’s economic exploitation. The Firmament adjusted Task Two, shortening its time limit and raising the failure penalty, leaving Itō and the challengers facing a deadly challenge.

• Itō Hidetaka received the Eagle Sauce’s Fury event and rejected Eagle Sauce Country’s demand for one trillion in compensation.
• Itō Hidetaka ordered Shancheng Kojirō to squeeze more productivity from Eastern Ocean Island’s people to speed up economic growth.
• The Firmament declared that Itō had rejected Eagle Sauce and shortened Task Two’s time limit to 60 hours while increasing the failure penalty to 500 points per challenger.
• Itō realized that nearly twenty thousand mostly low-level challengers could be wiped out if they failed, and the frightened challengers stopped managing the island and protested.

Itō Hidetaka rallied the challengers in the Arsenal after Lin Ye’s pressure left them demoralized, but Eagle Sauce then imposed hundreds of sanctions on Eastern Ocean Island. The island’s economy and stability began collapsing, leaving Itō furious as the Firmament blamed his earlier choices.

• Shancheng Kojirō warned Itō Hidetaka that the challengers in the Arsenal had lost their will to fight.
• Itō Hidetaka used the loudspeaker to rally the challengers with appeals to their oath, the Emperor, and their chance of survival.
• The challengers renewed their efforts, and Itō Hidetaka vowed that Lin Ye’s tactics would not defeat him.
• The Firmament announced that Eagle Sauce would impose full-scale sanctions on Eastern Ocean Island, including energy, technology, trade, financial, administrative, and public opinion measures.
• Hundreds of sanctions appeared, and Eastern Ocean Island’s statistics plunged as its output turned to negative growth.
• Itō Hidetaka protested that the instance was unreasonable, but the Firmament said his actions had triggered the consequences.

Itō Hidetaka watched Eagle Sauce Country’s sanctions devastate Eastern Ocean Island’s economy and public standing, while researchers in Great Xia recognized the depth of Lin Ye’s worldbuilding. As protests spread and the National Diet moved to impeach Itō’s faction, he faced the prospect of losing control of the island.

• Ding Chang explained to the researchers that Eagle Sauce Country’s sanctions reflected its power as a hegemon in Lin Ye’s Earth Online world.
• Itō Hidetaka dismissed the sanctions as an impossible illusion until Shancheng Kojirō arrived with reports of international condemnation and domestic protests.
• Itō read reports detailing severed trade ties, falling marine revenues, defective Fengtian Motors vehicles, and other scandals harming Eastern Ocean Island.
• Shancheng Kojirō revealed that Eagle Sauce Country’s financial interests controlled many Eastern Ocean Island businesses and media outlets.
• Shancheng Kojirō told Itō that protesters accused his faction of violating human rights and democracy, and that the National Diet had moved to impeach them, potentially stripping them of control over Eastern Ocean Island.

Itō Hidetaka struggled to respond after losing control of Eastern Ocean Island, then ordered harsher repression to keep the economic overtaking mission alive. Shancheng Kojirō reluctantly agreed to carry out his orders as Itō declared that completing the mission mattered more than the island’s people or stability.

• Itō Hidetaka realized that losing control of Eastern Ocean Island threatened the economic overtaking mission and blamed Lin Ye for the crisis.
• Itō ordered Shancheng Kojirō to use warships and troops to suppress unrest, but Shancheng reminded him that the dungeon was in Non-Combat Mode and had no deployable warships.
• Itō told Shancheng to use Eastern Ocean Island’s police, courts, and public security institutions to arrest dissenters and punish workers, bribing officials who refused.
• Shancheng warned that further repression could worsen international sanctions and trigger domestic riots, but Itō dismissed his concerns and demanded that the population work around the clock.
• Itō insisted that the challengers must complete the mission and obtain the technology in Raging Waves, even if Eastern Ocean Island was ruined, and Shancheng agreed to follow his orders.

Itō Hidetaka’s forceful policies temporarily restored Eastern Ocean Island’s economic growth, but Lin Ye judged that the crackdown had already doomed his attempt to clear the second Raging Waves task. With the deadline approaching, Itō Hidetaka remained confident that he could overtake Eagle Sauce Country.

• Shancheng Kojirō enforced Itō Hidetaka’s orders by arresting protesters, silencing negative news, forcing factories to increase production, and halting an impeachment motion.
• Eastern Ocean Island exhausted its reserves and relied on domestic stockpiles as the crackdown briefly stabilized the economy and raised per-capita GDP to $50,000.
• Itō Hidetaka ignored the Firmament’s warning that public loyalty was falling and believed his policies could reach the $70,000 target within two days.
• A day and a half into the second round, Lin Ye watched the livestream and said Itō Hidetaka’s brute-force approach could not clear the dungeon.
• Lin Ye explained that the task required economic understanding and concluded that Itō Hidetaka had already sealed his failure by choosing suppression.

With less than five hours left in the mission, Itō Hidetaka ordered Shancheng Kojirō to blame security agencies and push Eastern Ocean Island’s exhausted people to work harder, but the economy began to decline. Shancheng rushed back to the command room with news of a disaster, leaving Itō’s plan and the mission’s outcome unresolved.

• Itō Hidetaka demanded that Shancheng Kojirō explain why per capita GDP had stalled at 60,000 yuan, and Shancheng said the workers had reached their limits.
• Itō Hidetaka ordered Shancheng to arrest security agency personnel, blame them for the harsh policies, and urge the people to keep working.
• Shancheng Kojirō issued the order to arrest all security agency personnel, shocking the livestream audience.
• Per capita GDP fell from 60,000 to 58,000 yuan, and Itō Hidetaka called for Shancheng.
• Shancheng Kojirō rushed into the command room, sweating and nearly falling, and told Itō Hidetaka that something terrible had happened.

After Eastern Ocean Island’s institutions and industries turn against Itō Hidetaka, Shancheng Kojirō tells him the challengers have lost control and failed the mission. Itō learns Lin Ye’s dungeon setting is keeping the surviving challengers trapped until two remaining special events are complete.

• Shancheng Kojirō shows Itō Hidetaka the wave of negative news and impeachment proposals, then says they have lost control of Eastern Ocean Island and failed the mission.
• Itō Hidetaka accuses Shancheng Kojirō of lying and being Lin Ye’s spy, so Shancheng punches and slaps him before leaving the Command Room.
• Itō Hidetaka asks the Firmament why he has not been teleported out, and it confirms the mission failed but Lin Ye’s special setting has delayed the challengers’ exit because Itō harmed a friendly NPC.
• The Firmament says the dungeon will remain open until the challengers finish the special events [Enemy of the World] and [People's Uprising].

After Itō Hidetaka’s decisions trigger harsher sanctions and a far more punishing mission, the people of Eastern Ocean Island rise against the challengers at the arsenal. Itō is captured by the mob and thrown into the sea, where he begins to drown.

• The Firmament declared Eastern Ocean Island a global enemy and upgraded the mission to Global Hegemon, raising the failure penalty to 5,000 points.
• Itō Hidetaka learned that settlement would follow the changed mission and angrily protested the increased penalty.
• The Firmament announced a people’s uprising, and a crowd of at least a million broke into the arsenal.
• The crowd overwhelmed the unarmed challengers, killing many as the instance population plunged.
• The people tied up Itō Hidetaka, beat him, and threw him into the sea, where he began to drown.

Itō Hidetaka’s faction failed the Raging Waves instance, and the Firmament deducted 5,000 points from him, downgrading him from Level 2 to LV1. His public demotion humiliated him and deepened his hatred for Lin Ye before he fainted.

• The Firmament announced that the challengers had drowned, recorded 19,930 eliminations and 2% instance completion, and closed the failed instance.
• Spectators reacted with fear and debated whether Itō Hidetaka’s decisions had caused the disaster.
• Itō Hidetaka returned to his villa and learned that losing 5,000 points had dropped him from 13,000 to 8,000 and cost him his Level 2 status and weapon privilege.
• The Firmament publicly announced Itō Hidetaka’s downgrade above the dome, humiliating him across Azure Star.
• Itō Hidetaka grew angrier at Lin Ye and fainted from rage.

After witnessing the devastation and scope of Lin Ye’s Raging Waves instance, the researchers recognized that he had built a complete world rather than a conventional instance. Ding Chang saw Lin Ye as Great Xia’s best chance to regain prominence on the Hero Ranking, but warned Zhao Jianyu that powerful challengers—and especially people from Dahe—might soon enter his instance.

• The First Instance Technology Research Institute researchers discussed Raging Waves, and Zhao Jianyu argued that Lin Ye created a complete world using a perspective like the Firmament’s.
• Zhao Jianyu advised the researchers not to attempt to grasp the instance’s deeper systems and to surrender if they were selected to enter it.
• Zhao Jianyu discovered that Ding Chang was crying and learned that her terminal cancer left her little time; Ding Chang said she hoped to see a Great Xia person reach the top of the Hero Ranking.
• Ding Chang urged Zhao Jianyu to warn Lin Ye to check his instance for loopholes, predicting that powerful challengers would seek it out after its record-breaking devastation.
• Ding Chang warned that Dahe Settlement would likely seek revenge and that LV4 powerhouses might voluntarily challenge Lin Ye’s instance.
• Ding Chang told Zhao Jianyu to stop trying to recruit Lin Ye, saying the institute might hold him back and that his staying in the Soaring Dragon Settlement was already a blessing.

Lin Ye received 1.9 million points after Raging Waves ended, advanced to LV3, and entered the top fifty of the Heroes Ranking. The Firmament then raised Raging Waves’ capacity to one million challengers while keeping its difficulty at Purgatory level.

• The Firmament explained that its tiered point-return rules reduced Lin Ye’s reward to 1.9 million points.
• Lin Ye advanced to LV3, gained permanent Design Acceleration, and learned that LV4 required ten million points and granted protection from forced dungeon entry.
• The Firmament announced Lin Ye’s records and Raging Waves’ records, and Lin Ye saw himself ranked No. 50 on the Heroes Ranking.
• The Firmament reviewed Raging Waves and increased its player capacity to one million while leaving its difficulty at Purgatory level.
• Lin Ye realized Raging Waves had become a National War-level Dungeon.

Lin Ye decided to strengthen Raging Waves after the Firmament raised its next instance to a million challengers, turning Eagle Sauce into a complete military power. He finished by giving it nuclear weapons as a safeguard, leaving the upgraded instance prepared to resist conquest.

• Lin Ye judged that a million challengers could threaten Raging Waves and asked the Firmament for permission to upgrade the instance.
• Lin Ye used Creation Space to build Eagle Sauce's air force, including fighters, bombers, missiles, and overseas military bases.
• Lin Ye expanded Eagle Sauce's army with one million personnel and large quantities of tanks, vehicles, artillery, and launchers.
• Lin Ye submitted three uranium-enrichment methods to Divine Creation Space, which approved the principles behind producing nuclear weapons.
• Lin Ye built 100 nuclear reactors and 10,000 atomic and hydrogen bombs, planning to use them against Eastern Ocean Island if challengers came close to conquering Raging Waves.

Lin Ye finished preparing Raging Waves for its reopening and took a break, confident that its completed form could withstand any number of challengers. As news coverage and protests over the dungeon spread across Azure Star, Lin Ye found that every television channel was discussing Raging Waves.

• Lin Ye left Creation Space after estimating that Raging Waves would be fully modified within half a day, then decided to rest until the dungeon reopened.
• Zhao Jianyu warned Lin Ye that Raging Waves' capacity had risen to one million challengers and that high-level challengers would likely arrive, but Lin Ye said he trusted his dungeon.
• Lin Ye asked Zhao Jianyu to warn Great Xia residents to surrender immediately if they entered Raging Waves, then ended the call.
• Zhao Jianyu reflected on Lin Ye's rapid rise and regretted not telling him that his ranking benefited Soaring Dragon Settlement with better resources.
• Lin Ye turned on the television and found reports about Raging Waves on every channel, including coverage of its victims, traffic in Dragon Soaring Settlement, and Great He Clan complaints about its point deductions.

Lin Ye explained how Itō Hidetaka’s repeated disobedience triggered Raging Waves’ heavy penalties, while the Dahe Settlement reeled from nearly twenty thousand eliminations. The Emperor had Itō brought before him and announced that they would discuss the next day’s assault on Raging Waves.

• Lin Ye recalled that Itō Hidetaka’s conduct had caused the dungeon’s penalty mechanism to deduct 5,000 points and helped Lin Ye reach LV3.
• Dahe residents mourned the nearly twenty thousand people eliminated, and crowds demanded that Itō Hidetaka be expelled and punished.
• The Emperor summoned Itō Hidetaka, whom Shogun Minamoto no Yorimitsu dragged into the residence.
• Itō Hidetaka begged for his life and blamed the eliminations on the Emperor’s orders, but the Emperor denied instructing him to act recklessly.
• The Emperor ordered Minamoto no Yorimitsu to raise Itō and said they would discuss the next day’s assault on Raging Waves.

The Emperor announced that he would personally lead one million Great He Clan challengers into the Raging Waves dungeon to restore Dahe Settlement’s standing and claim its technology. Itō Hidetaka agreed to join the expedition, and the Emperor ordered him promoted to Level 2 before warning other settlements not to interfere.

• Itō Hidetaka refused to lead another Raging Waves challenge, citing his past defeats and his current Level 1 status.
• The Emperor declared that he would lead one million Great He Clan members into Raging Waves, including the Shogun, Iga Ryūji, and Daiwa’s military commanders.
• The Emperor explained that victory could give Dahe Settlement the dungeon’s technology and allow it to expand its territory over other settlements.
• The Emperor told Itō Hidetaka to serve as an adviser and join the challenge to redeem his earlier failures, and Itō vowed his loyalty.
• The Emperor ordered a subordinate to take Itō to the shrine and raise him to Level 2, then directed the television station to announce the expedition and tell other settlements not to interfere.

The Dahe Settlement announced that the Emperor would lead one million Great He challengers into Lin Ye’s Raging Waves instance, turning the coming assault into a major Azure Star spectacle. As the challenge approached, Ding Chang worried that the Emperor’s forces could overwhelm the instance, while Lin Ye remained unreachable.

• The Dahe Settlement announced the Emperor’s million-person Raging Waves Expeditionary Army and warned outsiders not to join.
• Dahe media and cheering crowds rallied behind the Emperor, while the challenge drew attention across Azure Star.
• The Firmament temporarily closed every instance except Raging Waves so challengers could watch the livestream.
• Ding Chang learned of the planned assault and worried that the Emperor, the Shogun, and a million elite challengers posed an overwhelming threat to Lin Ye’s instance.
• Zhao Jianyu told Ding Chang that Lin Ye had been warned and was confident, but she could not reach him by phone.

As Raging Waves reopened, Lin Ye discovered that the Dahe Settlement had sent a million Great He challengers into the dungeon, including its top experts, for a coordinated assault. The chapter ended with Lin Ye realizing the Emperor had committed the settlement’s full strength to the run.

• Adolf, Cromwell, and Park Seong-man entered the Raging Waves livestream as viewers discussed Lin Ye and the Emperor’s chances.
• Park Seong-man said he believed the Emperor was stronger and that Lin Ye’s rise had involved luck and help from the Dragon Soaring Settlement.
• Lin Ye woke after resting and learned that the Firmament had reopened Raging Waves and declared an Amnesty Day to draw challengers to watch.
• Lin Ye opened the dungeon backend and found that every one of its million challengers was from the Great He people, with Emperor Xiaochuan ranked first.
• Lin Ye concluded that the Dahe Settlement had likely transferred its stored points to its challengers and was staking everything on the assault.

Lin Ye watched as the Dahe Settlement entered his Raging Waves dungeon, where the Emperor was made commander-in-chief but found the million challengers scattered across Eastern Ocean Island’s military bases. The assault began with the Emperor in the imperial palace, still adjusting to the dungeon’s changed setup.

• Lin Ye welcomed the Dahe Settlement’s powerful challengers as a test for his dungeon and entered the livestream to watch their run.
• The Emperor rallied his commanders and Great He Clan leaders before the Firmament transported their million-person force into the dungeon.
• The Emperor awoke in a lavish palace with only Itō Hidetaka beside him, and learned that their surroundings differed from his previous dungeon visits.
• The Firmament appointed the Emperor commander-in-chief and explained that challengers had been assigned to twenty military bases across Eastern Ocean Island.