Recaps

The Russian Bear Alliance unleashed its overwhelming land and air forces against the 1.2 million-strong Nirmaner army. Guderian surrendered, but the Russian Bear forces slaughtered the surrounded army and swallowed it whole.

• The Russian Bear's Aerospace Forces caught up with the Nirmaner army and began bombing it.
• Guderian ordered his troops to set up anti-aircraft weapons and keep fighting.
• The Russian Bear Alliance's tanks surrounded the Nirmaner army from every direction.
• Guderian raised his hands and surrendered, and soldiers from Nirmaner's other settlements followed.
• The Russian Bear army charged the surrendered forces and destroyed the 1.2 million-strong army.

Guderian and Mansh’s 1.2 million soldiers were wiped out, while the Daiwa fleet and Goryeo fighters were routed by the Russian Bear’s advanced forces. Rommel’s remaining army struggled against the Dog-Head Mecha Warriors inside Saint Petersburg.

• Guderian was killed, and the Firmament announced that the Instance mission had failed and that Lin Ye had acquired his King Tiger Tank and Gustav Cannon technologies.
• Guderian and Mansh’s army of 1.2 million was destroyed, leaving the Challengers’ camp with little chance of turning the battle around.
• Daiwa and Goryeo’s forces began to realize that their fighting was harming their own side and prepared to stop.
• The Russian Bear’s Caspian Sea Monster ground-effect vehicles emerged and attacked both the Daiwa fleet and Goryeo’s fighters, routing the Challenger alliance.
• Rommel’s 800,000 soldiers continued fighting Dog-Head Mecha Warriors in Saint Petersburg as the mecha destroyed tanks and artillery, including tearing a Maus Tank apart.

Rommel discovered that the armies of Tank Country, Eastern Ocean Island, and Stick Country had nearly been wiped out, leaving his force isolated in Saint Petersburg. Kim Geun-seok, controlled by Yuri's Revenge, crashed his Golden Bird into Rommel's armored vehicle.

• Rommel urged his soldiers to hold Saint Petersburg and wait for Mansh and Guderian to come to their aid.
• Rommel checked the Instance backend and saw that Tank Country had 450,000 Challengers left, while Eastern Ocean Island and Stick Country each had one.
• Rommel realized the allied forces had been almost entirely annihilated and spotted Kim Geun-seok's Golden Bird circling overhead.
• Kim Geun-seok's fighter dived toward Rommel, and Rommel recognized that Yuri's Revenge had turned him into a puppet.
• Kim Geun-seok crashed the Golden Bird into Rommel's armored vehicle, destroying both and throwing the battlefield into chaos.

Rommel and Kim Geun-seok were killed in an explosion, and Bear Country’s forces wiped out the remaining Nirmaners, leaving the Winter Is Coming challengers with only Xi’er and Xiaochuan alive. Xi’er recognized that Bear Country’s technological and military advantage made victory impossible, while spectators watched the alliance’s crushing defeat.

• Rommel saw his mission termination notice after the explosion killed him and Kim Geun-seok.
• With Rommel gone, the Nirmaner army collapsed, and Bear Country’s mecha warriors killed the remaining forces in Saint Petersburg.
• The Challenger Alliance was defeated, leaving only Xi’er and Xiaochuan alive in the Instance.
• Spectators reacted with shock and fear as they discussed Bear Country’s weapons and overwhelming strength.
• Xi’er watched the battle footage at Tank Country’s headquarters and concluded that Nirmaner could not overcome Bear Country’s technological advantage.

After Bear Country annihilated the opposing army, Xi'er and Xiaochuan each refused to surrender and faced the consequences. Bear Country launched the Mount Fuji Plan against Eastern Ocean Island, triggering a catastrophic eruption and tsunamis.

• Xi'er celebrated the defeat as a chance to learn from Lin Ye's Instance, then received a final surrender offer from Bear Country.
• Xiaochuan refused to surrender, despite the collapse of his hopes to restore his reputation.
• The Firmament warned Xiaochuan that Bear Country would carry out the Mount Fuji Plan against Eastern Ocean Island.
• A bomber dropped something into Mount Fuji's crater, causing the summit to explode and volcanic ash, rocks, lava, and toxic gases to devastate nearby areas.
• The Mount Fuji Plan triggered tsunamis that struck Eastern Ocean Island's coasts and destroyed several coastal cities.

Lin Ye used Bear Country’s Mount Fuji Plan to devastate Eastern Ocean Island and force Xiaochuan to surrender, but Xiaochuan died in the earthquake. Xi’er watched as Eastern Ocean Island was destroyed, leaving him the Instance’s sole survivor.

• Lin Ye chose the Mount Fuji Plan to demonstrate Bear Country’s power and pressure Xiaochuan into surrendering.
• Mount Fuji erupted, and earthquakes and shock waves shattered Edo and the Imperial Garden.
• Xiaochuan surrendered, then was buried and crushed by falling rubble; the Firmament notification declared him dead.
• Eastern Ocean Island’s forces were eliminated, joining Malaysia and Stick Country among the destroyed countries.
• Xi’er watched the catastrophe from Majiwal and laughed as he became the Instance’s sole survivor.

Xi'er refused to surrender in Lin Ye’s Instance, prompting Bear Country to drop a Tsar Bomba on Tank Country. The bomb’s blast engulfed the country’s cities, leaving them in ruins.

• Xi'er praised Lin Ye’s strategy of using bombs to trigger natural disasters and declared him the strongest Instance designer on Azure Star.
• When the Firmament asked whether he would surrender, Xi'er refused and insulted Bear Country, blaming the other settlements for the loss.
• The Firmament announced that Bear Country would retaliate by dropping a Tsar Bomba on Tank Country.
• Xi'er watched a PAK-DA stealth bomber release the Tsar Bomba, initially dismissing it as another nuclear weapon.
• The Tsar Bomba detonated with a blinding flash, and its expanding fireball and mushroom cloud destroyed Tank Country’s cities.

Lin Ye killed Xi'er with the Tsar Bomba, ending the Winter Is Coming Instance in failure and wiping out Tank Country. The results revealed 600,000 eliminations, including Kim Geun-seok, while the Instance’s completion rate remained at 33.3%.

• Xi'er was killed by Lin Ye’s Tsar Bomba, and the Firmament announced that all challengers had perished and the Instance would close.
• The spectators watched the Tsar Bomba’s fireball engulf Tank Country before the livestream ended.
• The Firmament reported 600,000 eliminations, many caused by challengers killing teammates during the Yuri's Revenge buff’s civil war.
• Kim Geun-seok was eliminated after Lee Jae-yong’s actions increased his Russian Bear's Wrath buff and teammate attacks triggered a 12.8 million point deduction.
• The Instance statistics showed a 0% clearance rate and 33.3% completion, reflecting the capture of one main city before Bear Country entered its stronger second stage.

The fourth run of Winter Is Coming ended in complete victory for Lin Ye, with a 12% annihilation rate and hundreds of thousands of deaths. The Firmament returned the points spent on Long Yuan’s privilege card and awarded Lin Ye 3.98 million points, enough to reach LV4.

• The Firmament announced a 12% annihilation rate, and livestream viewers reacted to Kim Geun-seok’s death and the scale of Lin Ye’s victory.
• The Winter Is Coming Instance closed after no Challenger cleared it, preserving Lin Ye’s record of complete victories.
• Lin Ye watched the Great Xia Settlement’s infrastructure return and learned that Long Yuan’s ten million points had been refunded.
• The Firmament calculated Lin Ye’s reward, granting him 1.99 million points before his Points-Doubling Card raised the total to 3.98 million.
• Lin Ye realized his accumulated points were enough to reach LV4 as a beam of light descended upon him.

After reaching LV4, Lin Ye gained Permanent Exemption Authority, protecting him from being forced into other designers’ Instances. He entered the newly unlocked Firmament Mall, examined its costly privilege cards, and learned how weapon capacity worked for Instance challenges.

• Lin Ye advanced to LV4 with 10.22 million points, and Great Xia Settlement received improvements from his promotion.
• Lin Ye obtained Permanent Exemption Authority, which prevented other Dungeon Designers from pulling him into their Instances without his consent.
• Lin Ye entered the Firmament Mall and reviewed the prices of its privilege cards, including the Annihilation-Prevention Privilege Card and Instance Inheritance Card.
• Lin Ye asked the Firmament about Challenge Capacity Expansion Cards and learned the weapon limits for each level.
• The Firmament explained Weapon Units, including how vehicles, handheld weapons, ammunition, and nuclear weapons counted toward a challenger's capacity.

Lin Ye accepted the Firmament’s three-day reexamination of Winter Is Coming and received a 15-day Super Doubling extension as compensation. He learned that reaching LV5 required one hundred million personal points and successfully challenging the Firmament, so he put The Great Wall Watch on his agenda.

• Lin Ye left the shop after deciding he did not need weapon-capacity expansions or an R&D Acceleration Card.
• The Firmament announced a three-day reexamination of Winter Is Coming, and Lin Ye accepted while requesting compensation for the lost points.
• The Firmament extended Lin Ye’s Points-Doubling Card by 15 days and upgraded it to Super Doubling.
• Lin Ye saw Winter Is Coming top dozens of rankings and push Raging Waves off the top spot on the Heavenly Ranking.
• Lin Ye asked how to advance to LV5, and the Firmament said he needed one hundred million personal points and had to successfully challenge the Firmament.
• Lin Ye resolved to pursue one hundred million points and put The Great Wall Watch on his agenda.

Lin Ye inspected the recreated Dragon Country map and its existing weapons in Creation Space, then decided The Great Wall Watch needed to advance beyond conventional warfare. He began planning to develop Dragon Country’s futuristic military projects through repeated simulations, leaving the Instance’s future design aimed at preparing for a possible confrontation with the Firmament.

• Lin Ye entered Creation Space and saw that it had continued generating the detailed Dragon Country map while he was away.
• Lin Ye reviewed Dragon Country’s terrain, the Great Wall, and its existing Army, Navy, Air Force, and nuclear forces.
• Lin Ye decided that simply adding conventional weapons would not make The Great Wall Watch a sufficiently distinctive or scalable Instance.
• Lin Ye resolved to advance the Instance toward future warfare and incorporate the Nantianmen, Classic of Mountains and Seas, Penglai, and Houyi projects.
• Lin Ye planned to use Creation Space’s simulations and repeated trials to develop the projects despite his limited technical knowledge.

After Lin Ye decisively defended the Winter Is Coming Instance against a coalition of three settlements, the Great Xia Settlement celebrated his victory and learned that he had advanced to LV4. The chapter ended with Great Xia rising into Azure Star’s first tier with two living LV4s.

• Li Yunlong broke the auditorium’s stunned silence by praising Lin Ye for defeating five million opponents and the Nirmaner Settlement’s forces.
• Ding Chang excitedly celebrated Great Xia’s victory, and the directors and experts joined him in cheering Lin Ye’s crushing defeat of South Korea and the coalition attack.
• Long Yuan revealed that Great Xia had won its bet and urged everyone to check the settlement’s news.
• Great Xia’s media reported that Lin Ye had reached LV4 in less than a week, breaking the record for reaching the level.
• Long Yuan declared that Great Xia now had two LV4s, and the settlement had risen from a declining third-rate power into Azure Star’s first tier.

After Lin Ye’s victory gave Great Xia two LV4 Challengers, Long Yuan warned that rival settlements might try to suppress Great Xia again and urged everyone to prepare. Meanwhile, South Korea reeled from its losses and erupted in protests demanding Park Seong-man and the Four Great Families step down, as Lin Ye’s bet threatened the settlement’s future.

• Long Yuan explained how Great Xia had once been powerful before the Great Xia Punitive Campaign and years of suppression weakened it.
• Long Yuan said Lin Ye’s rise had doubled Great Xia’s top-level strength, but warned that rival settlements might launch another attack.
• Long Yuan urged Great Xia to stay alert, said Lin Ye’s Winter Is Coming Instance might deter trouble, and asked someone to remind Lin Ye about his bet with South Korea.
• South Korea suffered the deaths of Kim Geun-seok and many other elite Challengers, while the survivors lost points and were badly weakened.
• South Korean residents went on strike and protested in the streets, demanding Park Seong-man and the Four Great Families leave office and even suggesting that the settlement be renamed to escape Lin Ye’s bet.

After South Korea’s defeat, Park Seong-man blamed Lee Jae-yong and ordered him to confess publicly, while the Kim family collapsed after Kim Geun-seok and Kim Chan-hoon were wiped out. Park Seong-man refused to honor his wager to surrender the South Korea Settlement to Lin Ye, but planned to apologize to Lin Ye and the Great Xia Settlement as tensions mounted.

• Park Seong-man berated Lee Jae-yong for disobeying his strategy, while Lee blamed Kim Geun-seok and argued that South Korea could not have defeated Bear Country.
• Kim Chan-hoon tried to attack Lee Jae-yong, but the Firmament wiped him out for attempting to harm someone in the real world.
• Park Seong-man warned Lee Jae-yong to behave and ordered him to publicly take the blame for South Korea’s defeat.
• Lee Jae-yong left to address the gathered people, while Choi Tae-won asked Park Seong-man what would happen to the South Korea Settlement.
• Park Seong-man said he would break his verbal promise to give the Settlement to Lin Ye, then decided to apologize to Lin Ye and the Great Xia Settlement.

Lin Ye watched South Korea suffer the consequences of losing the Winter Is Coming Instance and reaffirmed that he would settle the bet with them. Park Seong-man publicly took responsibility for the slander against Lin Ye and knelt to apologize.

• Ding Chang thanked Lin Ye for securing victory in Winter Is Coming and warned him to consider the bet with South Korea carefully.
• Lin Ye told Ding Chang he would deal with the South Korea Settlement and watched reports about its losses and political turmoil.
• Lin Ye saw Lee Jae-yong claim that his own mistake had caused the failed Instance and dismissed the statement as shameless.
• Park Seong-man denied that Lin Ye had Goryeo ancestry or plagiarized South Korean technology, blamed the Kim family's smear campaign, and knelt to apologize.

Lin Ye rejected Park Seong-man’s staged apology as grounds for returning the Goryeo Settlement and ordered all Koreans to leave. He then returned to the Creation Space to finish preparing The Great Wall Watch, building a massive Dragon Country military force.

• Park Seong-man apologized to Lin Ye on behalf of the Kim family and claimed the alliance’s attack had been friendly competition.
• Lin Ye recorded a reply accepting the apology but reminded Park Seong-man that the bet had made the South Korea Settlement his private property, and ordered all Koreans to leave within three days.
• Lin Ye decided not to merge the Settlement into the Great Xia Settlement or establish his own settlement, leaving its future use open.
• Lin Ye returned to the Creation Space, where he completed The Great Wall Watch’s map and deployed its Army, Air Force, and Navy.
• Lin Ye equipped the Dragon Country Army with millions of personnel, extensive modern armaments, five theater commands, and eighty-two combined-arms brigades.

Lin Ye expanded Dragon Country’s navy and air force in The Great Wall Watch to overwhelming modern-war proportions. He considered the design only 10% complete, with mission progression, special buffs, and futuristic weapons still to be developed.

• Lin Ye assigned Dragon Country 24 aircraft carriers, 10 amphibious assault ships, hundreds of top-model destroyers and frigates, and vast numbers of other surface vessels.
• He added three thousand electronic reconnaissance ships and ten thousand Type 097 and Type 098 nuclear submarines to patrol and dominate Earth Online’s seas.
• Lin Ye gave Dragon Country tens of thousands of J-20 and J-31 fighters, ten thousand H-20 bombers, and countless drones.
• He judged The Great Wall Watch’s modern forces stronger than those in Raging Waves and Winter Is Coming, but said the Instance’s current design was only 10% complete.
• Lin Ye planned to add iconic buffs and refine the Instance missions, while Creation Space slowly simulated weapons based on the Luan Bird aerospace carrier platform.

Lin Ye accepted the Firmament’s review changes to Winter Is Coming and resolved to pursue his advancement through smaller goals while continuing work on The Great Wall Watch. After seeing South Korean broadcasts urging Koreans to exploit his Instances and announcing a Settlement name change, he realized the Goryeo Settlement intended to resist Great Xia.

• Lin Ye made another attempt to load the Luan Bird aerospace carrier plans into Creation Space, and progress passed 50%.
• The Firmament approved Winter Is Coming, set its Challenger count at 500,000, retained its combat-mode system, and banned the Russian Bear's Wrath buff.
• Lin Ye accepted the adjustments and planned to climb the Hero Ranking in stages while making The Great Wall Watch more demanding from the start.
• Lin Ye watched South Korean news reports stating that Park Seong-man would remain Commander and that the Goryeo Settlement had applied to rename itself the Universe Settlement.
• South Korean broadcasts urged Koreans to surrender immediately in Lin Ye's Instances, leading Lin Ye to conclude that the Goryeo Settlement intended to dig in and resist.

After the South Korea Settlement refused to honor its bet, Lin Ye learned that the Firmament would not intervene and vowed to settle the dispute through The Great Wall Watch. On the way to meet Bai Tianhao, Lin Ye discovered that eight major Settlements had launched a public campaign against him and the Great Xia Settlement.

• Lin Ye asked the Firmament to enforce the South Korea Settlement Commander's bet, but the Firmament said it would not interfere in Settlement affairs and warned Lin Ye to resolve problems through Instances.
• Lin Ye decided to use The Great Wall Watch to punish the Koreans, with bloodshed when the Instance first opened.
• Bai Tianhao called Lin Ye, said Dean Ding was gravely ill, and drove Lin Ye to a destination for an urgent matter.
• Lin Ye read reports that eight Settlements were boycotting the Great Xia Settlement and demanding it expel him, while the United States Settlement put him at the top of its elimination list.
• Lin Ye concluded that the other Settlements feared his highly ranked Instances and rapid advancement to LV4.

Lin Ye attended an emergency meeting at the Great Xia Instance Research Center, where he learned that eight settlements had launched a coordinated attack on Great Xia. Long Yuan named him the settlement’s core and asked him to command its organizations as the meeting turned to how to respond.

• Lin Ye reflected that other settlements feared his strength and would oppose him because of the instance mechanics.
• Bai Tianhao brought Lin Ye to the Great Xia Instance Research Center, where Long Yuan welcomed him and said he would eventually inherit the Commander position.
• Great Xia leaders reported that eight settlements had attacked them, killing more than a million young designers, with top-ranked experts among the attackers.
• Li Yunlong urged Great Xia to protect promising designers and retaliate against the United States Settlement, while other leaders proposed similar responses.
• Long Yuan asked Lin Ye to give his opinion, saying Great Xia’s organizations could follow his command.

Lin Ye proposed protecting Great Xia’s young designers by having experienced Challengers lead them through Instances, then urged the Settlement to divide its eight enemies through suspicion rather than fight them all at once. He left to release a new Instance and deal with the Koreans first, while Long Yuan put him in charge of the coming battle.

• Lin Ye argued that Great Xia should send experienced Challengers into medium-difficulty Instances with younger designers to improve their survival and earn them points.
• Lin Ye told the Settlement not to split its forces against all eight enemies, but to sow distrust among the allied settlements.
• Lin Ye announced that he would release a new Instance the next day and deal with the Koreans before crushing the eight settlements one by one.
• Bai Tianhao followed Lin Ye out, while the meeting attendees debated his plans and Long Yuan ordered everyone to develop a concrete strategy under Lin Ye’s leadership.
• Long Yuan privately considered handing the Settlement Commander position to Lin Ye after the crisis was resolved.

Lin Ye visited the unconscious Ding Chang and learned of the old man’s wish to restore Great Xia’s standing on Azure Star, then promised to help fulfill it. He prepared a test version of The Great Wall Watch and asked the Firmament to review it with two million participants selected from a single Settlement.

• Lin Ye decided to release a test version of The Great Wall Watch before completing the other projects.
• Lin Ye visited Ding Chang at the Deep Forest Sanatorium and learned that Azure Star’s technology could not save him.
• Bai Tianhao told Lin Ye about the Subjugation War, Ding Chang’s fall from power, and his wish for Great Xia to top Azure Star’s rankings.
• Lin Ye promised to help Ding Chang fulfill his wish and told Bai Tianhao to pass the message on if Ding Chang woke up.
• Lin Ye prepared The Great Wall Watch in the Creation Space and submitted it to the Firmament for review.
• Lin Ye asked the Firmament to assess the Instance with two million participants randomly selected from within a single Settlement.

Lin Ye pushed the Firmament to review his new two-million-person Instance, The Great Wall Watch, without reducing its participant count. The review began amid rising tension between the Great Xia Settlement and the Eight Settlements, while people across Azure Star reacted to Lin Ye’s ambitious proposal.

• The Firmament warned Lin Ye that his Settlement-based Challenger selection would encourage organized assaults and that two million participants might make the Instance too easy to conquer.
• Lin Ye insisted that the Firmament review the Instance with his proposed participant count, saying the test version contained extensive content and needed to be released quickly.
• The Firmament began reviewing The Great Wall Watch and announced that the two-million-person Instance contained many innovative elements.
• People across Azure Star reacted to Lin Ye’s new Instance, discussing its scale and the Great Xia Settlement’s vulnerability to the Eight Settlements.

Park Seong-man and Lee Jae-yong debated how Goryeo should respond to Lin Ye’s new Instance while Great Xia faced attacks from eight settlements. Lin Ye then received notice that his Luan Bird aerospace carrier platform model was complete and ready to view in Earth Online.

• Park Seong-man met with Choi Tae-won and Park Jeong-yong to discuss Lin Ye’s two-million-person beta Instance.
• Choi Tae-won and Park Jeong-yong urged caution, but Lee Jae-yong argued that Lin Ye had rushed the Instance and that Koreans could surrender if sent inside.
• Park Seong-man ordered all Koreans to attack the Great Xia Settlement’s LV1 designers and forbade anyone from entering Lin Ye’s Instance without authorization.
• Lin Ye entered Creation Space and learned that his Luan Bird aerospace carrier platform model had reached 100% completion.