Chapter Summaries

Lin Ye entered the hard-level Battle of the Imperial Sea dungeon, where challengers faced powerful enemy cruisers and a mission to sink the flagship Matsushima. He recognized the battle as a historical naval conflict from his past life and resolved to clear the dungeon to reach Level 1.

• Lin Ye arrived aboard an ironclad warship among more than a hundred challengers, most of them frightened and at Level 0.
• Lin Ye recalled that the Firmament controlled a peaceful world where people gained points and levels by challenging dungeons, with failure risking death.
• Viewers' bullet comments identified Itō Hidetaka as the dungeon's creator and described the Battle of the Imperial Sea as a difficult naval warfare instance.
• The system announced that challengers could survive for two hours or flee to Weihaiwei Naval Port, while sinking the flagship Matsushima earned 30 points and failure cost 50.
• Lin Ye noted that reaching 100 points would let him advance to Level 1, recognized the cruisers and battle as a conflict from his past life, and decided he had to clear the instance.

Lin Ye realized the challengers would be trapped if they fled, so he persuaded Ding Chang to put the Dragon God Ship under his command and rallied the fleet to attack. The twenty ships advanced toward the enemy fleet as spectators watched, leaving the battle about to begin.

• Lin Ye assessed the challengers’ warships and concluded that their combined strength could match the ten approaching red-sun cruisers.
• When the instance began, most challengers begged Ding Chang to retreat toward Weihaiwei, but Lin Ye recognized that fleeing would play into Itō Hidetaka’s trap.
• Lin Ye asked Ding Chang to hand over command of the Dragon God Ship, and Ding Chang agreed while rebuking the other challengers.
• Lin Ye broadcast a call for the Level 2 ship owners to follow his orders, promising to lead them to victory and the first-clear achievement.
• The challengers brought all twenty ships forward to attack the enemy fleet, surprising the spectators outside the instance.

Lin Ye led the challengers to sink the Matsushima and clear Itō Hidetaka’s Battle of the Imperial Sea dungeon, earning everyone rewards and a first-clear bonus. Itō Hidetaka lost the points he had hoped to gain and vowed to erase Lin Ye in a future dungeon.

• Itō Hidetaka mocked Lin Ye for choosing to fight his cruiser fleet instead of fleeing.
• Lin Ye ordered the challenger ships to form a column and fire on the Matsushima from beyond the enemy’s range, disrupting the Red Sun Cruiser Fleet’s formation.
• Lin Ye’s fleet focused its fire on the Matsushima, and the Dragon God’s shell struck the flagship and caused its engine to explode.
• The Matsushima sank, completing the dungeon mission, and the surviving challengers received points while all challengers were awarded radar scanning technology.
• The Red Sun cruisers fled, and the challengers celebrated their first clear as viewers praised Lin Ye’s tactics.
• Itō Hidetaka smashed his coffee cup after learning the clear would cost him points and swore to erase Lin Ye in a future dungeon.

After reaching LV1, Lin Ye received a 30-day exemption from being forced into other challengers’ dungeons and entered the Creation Space to build his first dungeon. He planned to base it on the Five Permanent Members and use his modern military knowledge to develop powerful weapons.

• Lin Ye returned from the dungeon with 130 points, reached LV1, and saw his promotion announced across the world.
• The Firmament granted Lin Ye a 30-day challenge exemption and unlocked his dungeon-creation privileges.
• Lin Ye decided to create a dungeon based on the Five Permanent Members, drawing on his military knowledge from his previous life.
• Lin Ye entered the Creation Space and found himself in a vast, blank sandbox world with virtual controls.

Lin Ye used his knowledge of Earth to begin building a reusable Earth map in the Creation Space, then chose his first dungeon: [Raging Waves]. He prepared to challenge the Great He Clan’s confidence in its naval warfare.

• The Firmament explained that dungeon creations had to follow logical principles and that Lin Ye should begin by designing a map.
• Lin Ye decided to create Earth as the shared setting for his future Earth Online dungeons and began constructing the planet in the Creation Space.
• Lin Ye let the map continue taking shape while considering which of the Five Permanent Members’ dungeons to design first.
• Lin Ye ruled out Gallic Rooster and John Bull, then chose [Raging Waves] to confront the Great He Clan’s naval warfare reputation.

Lin Ye designed the large-scale [Raging Waves] dungeon, setting its challenger capacity at ten thousand and placing its factions and main battlefield around Pearl Harbor. He began building the [Raid on Pearl Harbor] prerequisite quest and its TF58 fleet, then decided the main dungeon also needed Eagle Sauce's formation of eleven nuclear-powered submarines.

• Lin Ye set [Raging Waves] to hold ten thousand challengers despite the Firmament's warning.
• Lin Ye placed the dungeon faction in Eagle Sauce's territory, assigned the challengers the Shorties' islands, and set Pearl Harbor as the main battlefield.
• Lin Ye began transmitting Eagle Sauce Country's history and details into Creation Space, which started constructing its cities and landmarks.
• Lin Ye asked the Firmament to allow a prerequisite dungeon and planned [Raid on Pearl Harbor] as the introduction to [Raging Waves].
• Lin Ye began creating the TF58 Nation-Destroying Fleet at Pearl Harbor for the prerequisite quest.
• Lin Ye decided [Raging Waves] needed Eagle Sauce's formation of eleven nuclear-powered submarines.

Lin Ye completed the design of Raging Waves’ nuclear-powered carrier fleet and Eagle Sauce’s systems of hegemony, then met Zhao Jianyu, who invited him to join the Great Xia research institute. He declined to decide immediately and asked her to warn Great Xia challengers to surrender if they were selected for his upcoming dungeon.

• Lin Ye successfully used the Firmament to create a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered carrier and planned a fleet of eleven carriers for Raging Waves.
• Lin Ye supplied the Firmament with information about Eagle Sauce’s military power and economic, energy, and media dominance, beginning a simulation that would take five hours.
• Lin Ye left the Creation Space, bought pork knuckle rice, and was approached by Zhao Jianyu, an assistant from the Great Xia First Dungeon Technology Research Institute.
• Zhao Jianyu invited Lin Ye to join the institute, but he said he would consider the offer later.
• Lin Ye asked Zhao Jianyu to spread the word that Great Xia challengers selected for his upcoming dungeon should surrender to minimize their losses.
• Zhao Jianyu dismissed Lin Ye’s warning as youthful overconfidence and worried that his dungeon design could cost him his points.

Lin Ye submitted his ten-thousand-person dungeon, "Raging Waves," for review and began refining virtual Earth while the unprecedented project sparked widespread debate. Meanwhile, Itō Hidetaka faced condemnation from Great He leaders for the losses caused by his dungeon, which Lin Ye had helped defeat.

• Lin Ye submitted "Raging Waves" for review, and the Firmament announced that his ten-thousand-person dungeon had entered the review stage.
• Lin Ye returned to Creation Space to develop the Russian Bear and Dragon Country territories for future dungeons.
• Media and experts across the world reacted to Lin Ye's unprecedented dungeon, with most doubting that it could succeed.
• The Emperor and other Great He leaders rebuked Itō Hidetaka for the easy defeat of his Battle of the Imperial Sea dungeon and the resulting loss of points.
• Itō Hidetaka accepted the criticism in silence and blamed Lin Ye for the damage to his standing and dungeon.

In the Great He, Itō Hidetaka convinced the Emperor that Lin Ye’s planned ten-thousand-person instance would fail, while Ding Chang expressed cautious admiration for Lin Ye’s ambition. The chapter left Ding Chang asking Zhao Jianyu to keep watching Lin Ye.

• Itō Hidetaka told the Emperor that Lin Ye’s success in the Battle of the Imperial Sea instance was luck and warned that Great Xia’s growing skill required close attention.
• Itō Hidetaka argued that Lin Ye lacked the backing and expertise to create a ten-thousand-person instance, and Minamoto no Yorimitsu agreed that the project was unlikely to succeed.
• The Emperor accepted Itō Hidetaka’s judgment and began a tea-drinking ceremony with the others.
• Zhao Jianyu told Ding Chang that Lin Ye had not yet accepted the institute’s invitation and had begun designing a ten-thousand-person instance.
• Ding Chang praised Lin Ye’s nerve, told Zhao Jianyu not to dismiss his ambition, and asked her to keep an eye on him.

Lin Ye's dungeon Raging Waves passed the Firmament's review with a record-setting Purgatory-level rating, and he received a 30-day R&D acceleration reward. After learning the opening rules, he reviewed Azure Star's top challengers and began choosing whom to designate, starting with the Great He people.

• The Firmament approved Lin Ye's Raging Waves dungeon as Purgatory-level, the highest rating in the world.
• The Firmament awarded Lin Ye a 30-day R&D Acceleration Card for creating the world's first Purgatory-level dungeon.
• Lin Ye learned that designers could designate 20% of challengers for each opening, while the Firmament selected the rest.
• Lin Ye opened the challenger ranking and saw that Fulangche, Ivan Tyulenev, and Adolf held the top three positions, while Long Yuan ranked seventh.
• Lin Ye searched the challenger list and decided to begin his selections with the Great He people.

Lin Ye selected Itō Hidetaka and many Great He challengers for his Purgatory-level dungeon, Raging Waves, which opened with a livestream. Itō Hidetaka was summoned to enter and, convinced he could lead the challengers to clear it and wipe Lin Ye out, prepared his weapons.

• Lin Ye reviewed Itō Hidetaka’s profile and suspected his many dungeons were backed by an organization.
• Lin Ye selected Itō Hidetaka and numerous Level 0 and LV1 Great He challengers, then the Firmament opened Raging Waves and its livestream.
• Itō Hidetaka received a summons to enter Lin Ye’s Purgatory-level dungeon and was shocked that it had passed review.
• Itō Hidetaka calmed himself, gathered weapons from his four dungeons, and resolved to lead the challengers to clear Raging Waves and eliminate Lin Ye.

Zhao Jianyu warned Great Xia residents about Lin Ye’s newly approved Purgatory-level instance, Raging Waves, and Ding Chang ordered the institute to watch its first livestream. The instance began with 10,000 challengers, including Itō Hidetaka, in a vast military camp as the Firmament revealed the enormous Earth Online map and their starting point in Dongying.

• Zhao Jianyu saw that Lin Ye’s Raging Waves instance had received a Purgatory-level rating and warned Great Xia residents to surrender immediately if selected.
• Zhao Jianyu reported the instance to Ding Chang, who summoned the institute staff to watch the livestream together.
• The Firmament deployed Itō Hidetaka and 9,999 other challengers into a military camp by the sea.
• The Firmament introduced Earth Online as the instance map and identified Dongying as the challengers’ base of operations.
• The Firmament marked the Hiroshima Kure Naval Arsenal as the challengers’ spawn point, shocking them with the instance’s immense scale.

The Firmament revealed that Raging Waves pitted challengers against Eagle Sauce Country and offered missions to destroy Pearl Harbor Military Base or overtake its economy, plus an individual surrender option. Thousands surrendered, and Itō Hidetaka recognized the design as a way for Lin Ye to harvest points before he tried to rally the remaining challengers.

• The Firmament showed the map of Eagle Sauce Country and identified Pearl Harbor Military Base as the mission objective.
• The Firmament announced that challengers could destroy the base, overtake Eagle Sauce Country economically, or surrender and lose 20 points.
• Around three thousand challengers, including many Great Xia people, surrendered and left the dungeon.
• Itō Hidetaka realized Lin Ye had used a low-penalty exit to collect points and weaken the remaining challengers.
• Itō Hidetaka addressed the challengers over the barracks loudspeaker, urged them not to surrender, and promised to explain how to clear the dungeon.

Itō Hidetaka argued that Lin Ye’s dungeon was a bluff and persuaded the challengers that Pearl Harbor Military Base could be captured with their superior fleet. With Prince Singh’s support, Itō rallied the group and revealed his desire to kill Lin Ye.

• Itō Hidetaka claimed the Firmament’s difficulty assessment might be wrong and called Lin Ye’s dungeon a paper tiger.
• Prince Singh introduced himself and praised the dungeon’s war and economic mission routes.
• Itō convinced Singh that the challengers could ignore the economic route and capture Pearl Harbor Military Base instead.
• Singh revealed that he had twenty warships and ten torpedo gunboats, while Itō said he had brought ten warships and other naval weapons.
• Itō rallied the challengers, claiming Lin Ye lacked the technology to support the dungeon’s huge map and that its other forces were an illusion.
• Itō recalled that Lin Ye had ruined his dungeon and resolved to have Lin Ye killed.

Itō Hidetaka convinced the challengers that Pearl Harbor could be destroyed with a simple surprise attack, and they put him in command. Lin Ye watched them commit to the mission, knowing that destroying Pearl Harbor was only a prerequisite for the far more punishing Raging Waves, which they could no longer abandon once they began.

• Itō Hidetaka proposed luring away Pearl Harbor’s forces or catching them off guard to destroy the base, and Prince Singh handed him command of the challengers’ warships.
• Singh and the other challengers praised Itō’s plan and criticized Lin Ye’s dungeon design, while Great He Clan and Great Xia viewers argued in the livestream comments.
• Lin Ye watched the dungeon from outside, enjoying barbecue bought with points earned from challengers surrendering.
• Lin Ye revealed that the Pearl Harbor mission was only a prerequisite for Raging Waves and that challengers who started could not back out.
• Lin Ye understood that Itō believed he had uncovered the plan, while Itō had grasped only its first layer.

Itō Hidetaka led seven thousand challengers into the Raging Waves instance and found Pearl Harbor seemingly undefended, so his fleet began bombarding the base. Outside the instance, spectators and Great Xia researchers believed Lin Ye had made a fatal mistake, while Zhao Jianyu watched the attack unfold in despair.

• Itō Hidetaka organized the challengers' fifty warships and sailed toward Pearl Harbor after two days of preparation.
• Singh and Itō Hidetaka found no patrols or defenses around Pearl Harbor and concluded that Lin Ye had failed to set up the enemy forces.
• Itō Hidetaka ordered the fleet to open fire on Pearl Harbor, and the bombardment began destroying the base's buildings and facilities.
• Spectators mocked the instance in the bullet comments and predicted that Lin Ye would be erased after the challengers cleared it.
• Researchers at the First Instance Technology Research Institute blamed Lin Ye's apparent oversight, and Zhao Jianyu watched the base collapse while wishing she had been wrong about him.

Ding Chang realized there was no time to transfer points to Lin Ye, but insisted the researchers keep watching his dungeon. After the challengers destroyed Pearl Harbor and believed they had won, the Firmament revealed that it was only a preliminary dungeon and warned that Eagle Sauce Country's TF58 Nation-Destroying Fleet would arrive in five minutes.

• Ding Chang asked Zhao Jianyu whether the institute could transfer points to Lin Ye, but she explained there was not enough time.
• Ding Chang ordered the researchers to keep watching the dungeon despite their anger at Itō Hidetaka and the destruction at Pearl Harbor.
• The challengers destroyed Pearl Harbor Military Base, and Singh and Itō Hidetaka celebrated while expecting their rewards and extraction.
• Itō Hidetaka realized the challengers had not been transported out or given rewards, and the Firmament announced that the preliminary dungeon was complete and the main dungeon, Raging Waves, had begun.
• The Firmament warned that the Pearl Harbor attack had enraged Eagle Sauce Country and that the TF58 Nation-Destroying Fleet would reach the battlefield in five minutes.

After the challengers completed a prerequisite mission, the dungeon assigned them the ultimate task of destroying the TF58 Nation-Destroying Fleet and warned that surrender was no longer possible. Lin Ye’s carrier-launched anti-ship missiles devastated the fleet before its ships appeared, leaving Itō Hidetaka struggling to respond.

• The dungeon updated the mission to require the complete destruction of the TF58 Nation-Destroying Fleet and increased the penalty for failure to 200 points.
• Itō Hidetaka ordered radar reconnaissance and defensive preparations, but the fleet detected no enemy within five hundred nautical miles.
• Missiles struck the challengers’ warships, destroying several vessels and killing 2,000 participants before the enemy fleet appeared.
• Itō Hidetaka ordered the surviving warships to advance toward the direction of the attack and spread out to avoid further losses.
• Lin Ye explained that the attack had come from carrier-launched anti-ship missiles, while spectators mistook them for long-range shells.

Lin Ye left the Raging Waves instance, and Itō Hidetaka ordered the surviving challengers onward, determined to expose the Nation-Destroying Fleet’s capabilities. A massive air force then destroyed their fleet, leaving Itō and Singh among fewer than a hundred survivors, with Singh demanding an explanation.

• Lin Ye left the instance livestream to go running and plan his next instance designs.
• Itō Hidetaka blamed Lin Ye’s traps and psychological warfare for the fleet’s losses, then ordered the surviving ships to advance.
• The Matsushima’s radar sounded an air-raid warning, and Itō discovered hundreds of unfamiliar aircraft above the fleet.
• The aircraft attacked with machine guns, rockets, and torpedoes, splitting the Matsushima and destroying the challengers’ warships.
• Itō and Singh survived in the water, while the challengers’ numbers fell from five thousand to fewer than a hundred.
• Singh swam to Itō and demanded an explanation for the disastrous battle.

Itō Hidetaka and Singh blamed each other after Lin Ye’s air force devastated them in the Raging Waves dungeon, while Itō claimed the mission description was flawed. As the planes returned to their base, a fleet of colossal warships emerged through the fog, leaving Itō and Singh stunned.

• Singh accused Itō Hidetaka of misjudging the enemy, and Itō insulted Singh for handing command to him.
• Itō claimed Lin Ye had deliberately misled them with an erroneous mission description and said he would report the dungeon to the Firmament.
• Viewers argued over whether aerial combat belonged in the Raging Waves dungeon, with some insisting the mission prompt was misleading.
• After bombing the survivors, the aircraft withdrew in formation as Itō and Singh searched for somewhere to hide.
• A deafening roar accompanied the emergence of enormous warships from the fog, and the planes began landing on the first ship’s deck.