Chapter Summaries

The Emperor ordered Yamamoto Sanjūhachi and Tominaga Yukiyasu to launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, destroying its base and the Nation-Destroying Fleet. The attack triggered the special event "Memories of Pearl Harbor," and Eagle Sauce declared war on Eastern Ocean Island with devastating military, economic, intelligence, and nuclear consequences.

• The Emperor sent the navy and air force separately toward Pearl Harbor under Yamamoto Sanjūhachi and Tominaga Yukiyasu.
• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi and Tominaga Tadashi found Pearl Harbor undefended and contacted the Emperor for permission to attack.
• After the Firmament warned that attacking without declaring war would trigger dangerous consequences, the Emperor ordered the forces to destroy Pearl Harbor.
• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi and Tominaga Yukiyasu led the bombardment, sinking Pearl Harbor and destroying the thirty aircraft carriers of the Nation-Destroying Fleet.
• The Firmament announced that the surprise attack had triggered "Memories of Pearl Harbor" and that Eagle Sauce had declared war, imposing sweeping military, economic, and intelligence penalties while raising the chance of a nuclear strike to 100%.

After Dahe Settlement’s fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, Eagle Sauce’s buffs stacked to their peak, while Lin Ye revealed that its true Nation-Destroying Fleet consisted of eleven Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Yamamoto Sanjūhachi ordered his ships to return, but a fleet approaching at an impossible hundred knots set off alarms across the armada.

• Lin Ye explained that the Dahe Settlement fleet had bombed abandoned carriers at Pearl Harbor, while Eagle Sauce’s actual peak fleet used eleven Ford-class nuclear-powered carriers.
• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi dismissed the Firmament’s warnings and ordered the fleet back to Eastern Ocean Island to resupply.
• Alarms sounded across the thirty thousand warships as radar detected an approaching fleet.
• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi learned the incoming fleet was traveling at least a hundred knots and was stunned by its speed.

Yamamoto Sanjūhachi’s fleet came under a devastating attack from Eagle Sauce’s Super Hornets after its communications were paralyzed. Tominaga Yukiyasu sent Dahe Settlement’s air force into battle, but its aircraft were outmatched by Eagle Sauce’s technology.

• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi realized the approaching warships could reach his fleet within minutes, then a signal attack disabled his fleet’s radar, communications, and warning systems.
• Eagle Sauce’s Super Hornets attacked the Challenger fleet, sinking hundreds of warships and causing further losses as ships fired on one another.
• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi tried to shoot at the fighters with an antiaircraft machine gun, then called on Tominaga Yukiyasu to save the fleet.
• Tominaga Yukiyasu launched 40,000 Dahe Settlement aircraft against the Super Hornets, but the Eagle Sauce fighters easily outmaneuvered them.

Eagle Sauce’s aircraft outmaneuvered the Challenger fighters before unleashing a massive missile barrage that annihilated the air force and killed Tominaga Yukiyasu. As the smoke began to clear, Yamamoto Sanjūhachi saw the silhouettes of iron behemoths emerging.

• Tominaga Yukiyasu berated the Challenger pilots as they failed to hit the maneuvering Eagle Sauce aircraft.
• The Eagle Sauce aircraft abruptly withdrew, and Tominaga Yukiyasu mistook their departure for a retreat.
• Tominaga Yukiyasu recognized the distant light as a vast missile swarm and ordered the aircraft to scatter, but the missiles struck before they could escape.
• The missile barrage destroyed tens of thousands of Challenger aircraft and killed Tominaga Yukiyasu, causing his instance mission to fail.
• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi watched the air force’s destruction and saw iron behemoths emerge as the battle smoke cleared.

Yamamoto Sanjūhachi’s fleet was surrounded and annihilated by Lin Ye’s vastly upgraded Nation-Destroying Fleet, wiping out the challengers’ forces at Pearl Harbor. The Emperor watched the losses devastate his plans as fewer than half a million challengers remained and the instance’s warships and aircraft fell to zero.

• Yamamoto Sanjūhachi counted eleven carriers and saw them encircle the remaining ships, then realized his fleet could not match Eagle Sauce’s power.
• The Nation-Destroying Fleet launched a missile barrage that killed Yamamoto Sanjūhachi and destroyed the surviving forces at Pearl Harbor in under five minutes.
• Viewers reacted with fear and astonishment as the barrage comments described the fleet’s overwhelming strength.
• The Emperor lost the Pearl Harbor views and saw the challenger count fall below five hundred thousand while the warship and aircraft totals dropped to zero.
• The Emperor realized that his navy and air force had been wiped out and that his plans for victory had collapsed.

After the Emperor’s attack on Pearl Harbor failed, Eagle Sauce declared all-out war on Eastern Ocean Island, leaving the Emperor facing an overwhelming enemy. Great Xia researchers assessed Lin Ye’s advanced fleet technology while Eastern Ocean Island descended into economic crisis and protests, and Itō Hidetaka suggested surrender.

• The Firmament announced that Eagle Sauce had declared all-out war on Eastern Ocean Island and would land troops in one day, forcing the Emperor to consider surrender or a final stand.
• At the Instance Research Center, Zhao Jianyu said Lin Ye’s warships were decades or perhaps a century ahead of Great Xia’s technology, and Deng Xian suggested the aircraft carriers used nuclear energy.
• Itō Hidetaka told the Emperor that Eagle Sauce’s sanctions had crippled Eastern Ocean Island’s economy and supplies, while news of the Pearl Harbor defeat sparked protests against the Emperor in Edo.
• The Emperor asked Itō Hidetaka what he would do next, and Itō suggested considering the people’s wishes and surrendering to Eagle Sauce.

The Emperor rejected Itō Hidetaka’s suggestion to surrender and ordered Dahe Settlement to fight Eagle Sauce to the bitter end. Itō feared the Emperor’s strategy would provoke another disastrous dungeon event, but he dared not oppose him.

• Itō Hidetaka warned the Emperor that Dahe had little chance of clearing the dungeon and suggested surrendering to Eagle Sauce.
• The Emperor overturned a table, condemned Itō for proposing surrender, and insisted Dahe would never give up in a dungeon.
• The Emperor ordered all challengers to defend Eastern Ocean Island and threatened anyone who fled or surrendered.
• The Emperor told Itō that Dahe would fight to make Eagle Sauce pay and force Lin Ye to reveal his trump cards.
• The Emperor commanded military leaders to prepare for war and promised extra rewards for killing Eagle Sauce soldiers or destroying its equipment.
• Itō silently feared that continued resistance would trigger a special event and bring harsher penalties, but he could only obey.

The Emperor refused to surrender and ordered Eastern Ocean Island to prepare for war, while planning to defend against Eagle Sauce Country’s air attack. Eagle Sauce instead destroyed two major military bases with hypersonic intercontinental missiles, leaving the Emperor stunned and only 350,000 challengers alive.

• The Emperor rejected surrender, ordered challengers to suppress civilian protests, and instructed military bases to prepare their anti-air weapons.
• The Emperor planned to abandon offense and use Eastern Ocean Island’s home-ground advantage to defend against Eagle Sauce Country’s expected air attack.
• Itō Hidetaka reported that Hiroshima Wuhai Military Base had been destroyed, killing all 100,000 challengers stationed there.
• The Emperor watched Eagle Sauce destroy Maizuru Military Base with a missile, reducing the instance population to 350,000 challengers.
• Itō Hidetaka guessed that Eagle Sauce had used a long-range weapon like Lin Ye’s tracking shell, and the Firmament identified the missiles as AGM-183 ARRW hypersonic intercontinental missiles.

Eagle Sauce's hypersonic intercontinental missiles destroyed nearly every remaining military base in the Instance, leaving the Emperor and Itō Hidetaka as the last Challengers. The Firmament relayed Eagle Sauce's demand that they surrender or face an ultimate punishment.

• The Firmament explained that Eagle Sauce's missiles could travel at fifteen times the speed of sound and had struck Eastern Ocean Island from Seattle, shocking the Emperor and Itō Hidetaka.
• The Emperor challenged the Firmament over Lin Ye's advanced technology, and it insisted that the Instance's technology had sound principles and passed rigorous review.
• Eagle Sauce's missiles destroyed seventeen of the eighteen remaining military bases, reducing the Instance population to 50,000.
• Edo No. 1 Army Arsenal was destroyed, and the resulting shock wave shook the Imperial Garden Pavilion of Pines as the Light Screen went dark.
• The Emperor realized that only he and Itō Hidetaka remained, lamented the defeat of his million-strong force, and heard Eagle Sauce offer them surrender in exchange for avoiding an ultimate punishment.

Lin Ye’s Supersonic Missiles destroyed all twenty military bases on Eastern Ocean Island, but Emperor Xiaochuan refused to surrender and demanded that Eagle Sauce launch its final weapon. A B-2 Spirit bomber dropped Lin Ye’s 50,000-ton atomic bomb, Shorties, on Edo City, and the Emperor watched the blast surge toward the Imperial Garden.

• Researchers and Great Xia officials marveled as Lin Ye’s Supersonic Missiles wiped out Eastern Ocean Island’s twenty military bases.
• Itō Hidetaka begged Emperor Xiaochuan to surrender, but the Emperor struck him, threatened him, and vowed that the Dahe people would fight to the death.
• The Firmament announced that Eagle Sauce would launch a nuclear strike on Edo City, and Emperor Xiaochuan prepared to die by his own sword rather than surrender.
• A B-2 Spirit bomber appeared above Edo City and dropped Shorties, an atomic bomb Lin Ye had increased to a yield equivalent to 50,000 tons of TNT.
• Shorties detonated in central Edo, destroying buildings and engulfing the city in fire as the blast swept toward the Imperial Garden.

The Emperor and Itō Hidetaka died when Eagle Sauce’s atomic bomb destroyed Edo, causing the Raging Waves dungeon mission to fail. In the Great Xia Settlement, researchers struggled to comprehend the weapon as Deng Xian identified it as a nuclear-fission device.

• The Emperor panicked and begged for his life as the atomic bomb’s blast blinded and engulfed him and Itō Hidetaka.
• Firmament announced that the Emperor had been killed by Eagle Sauce’s atomic bomb and that all challengers had died, failing the dungeon mission.
• The livestream shifted to an aerial view as the explosion’s fireball and mushroom cloud destroyed Edo and killed its civilians.
• Viewers and researchers at the Great Xia Settlement’s dungeon research center watched in stunned silence before reacting to the bomb’s power.
• Zhao Jianyu asked Ding Chang whether he understood Lin Ye’s technology, while Deng Xian identified the weapon as nuclear fission and said nuclear energy could be made into a weapon.

After Great Xia’s experts celebrated Lin Ye’s nuclear weapon and the Dahe Settlement’s defeat, the Raging Waves dungeon remained open and its challengers found themselves trapped in a white void. The Firmament announced that Lin Ye had arranged individual trials and penalties for their crimes, beginning the dungeon’s final stage: Dongying Judgment.

• Deng Xian concluded that Lin Ye had mastered nuclear fission and urged Great Xia to appoint him director of the research institute, while Ding Chang and Li Yunlong celebrated Great Xia’s victory.
• Spectators noticed that Raging Waves had not closed and that no results screen or point deductions had appeared.
• The Emperor awoke in a white void alongside the dead challengers, including Itō Hidetaka, Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Yamamoto Sanjūhachi, Tominaga, and Iga Ryūji.
• The Emperor reassured the trapped challengers that the dungeon’s 500-point failure penalty would not erase them.
• The Firmament announced that Lin Ye had set individual penalties based on each challenger’s crimes and declared the final stage, Dongying Judgment.

The Firmament opened Lin Ye’s Earth International Tribunal to judge the Great He Clan challengers for their actions in the Raging Waves dungeon. Iga Ryūji received only a 20-point deduction for surrendering to Eagle Sauce, leaving the Emperor furious at what he saw as Lin Ye’s attempt to encourage betrayal.

• The Firmament announced a separate settlement and began the Dongying Trial because the challengers had failed to clear the free-mode dungeon.
• A grand tribunal appeared, and the challengers discovered they were in Lin Ye’s Earth International Tribunal as the livestream resumed.
• The Firmament summoned Iga Ryūji, whose surrender to Eagle Sauce and disclosure of military information had made him a target of the other challengers’ anger.
• The Firmament deducted 20 points from Iga Ryūji for choosing to surrender to Eagle Sauce, then transported him out of the dungeon.
• The Emperor recognized that the light punishment could encourage challengers to surrender and share their faction’s information with Eagle Sauce.

The Firmament judged the challengers for their actions in the instance, imposing point deductions that erased many of Eastern Ocean Island’s forces. Itō Hidetaka was ultimately sentenced to immediate erasure, while the Emperor feared that Lin Ye’s manipulation of the judgment could cost him his position.

• The Firmament deducted points from Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Yasui, and their troops for invading Dragon Country, then punished Ogura Tako, Miyazaki Sanrin, and hundreds of thousands of challengers for conscripting residents into the war.
• The Firmament sentenced Yamamoto Sanjūhachi, Tominaga Yukiyasu, and their naval and air forces to lose 10,000 points each for the Pearl Harbor attack, erasing as many as 200,000 people and demoting many survivors.
• The Emperor realized Lin Ye had shaped the judgment to make severe deductions appear reasonable, and he feared being demoted from his position.
• Itō Hidetaka, having gone mad, ignored the Firmament’s summons as it listed his crimes and deducted 100,000 points from him.
• The Firmament erased Itō Hidetaka after declaring that he lacked enough points.

The Firmament judged Emperor Xiaochuan for his crimes in Lin Ye's instance and deducted one million points, demoting him from LV4 to Level 3. The Emperor was teleported out as the Firmament posted the instance's clearance statistics.

• The Firmament erased Itō Hidetaka after deducting one hundred thousand points, leaving the Emperor fearful of his own penalty.
• The Firmament summoned Emperor Xiaochuan to the tribunal and listed his crimes, including promoting war, developing biological weapons, and invading Dragon Country.
• Emperor Xiaochuan protested the charges and demanded a quick ruling, but the Firmament deducted one million points.
• The Firmament demoted Emperor Xiaochuan from LV4 to Level 3 because his points fell below ten million.
• The Emperor begged the Firmament to reverse the decision, but it teleported him out and displayed the clearance statistics to spectators.

After Raging Waves closed with no clears and 200,000 eliminations, Lin Ye explained how he had tailored the dungeon’s punishments to exploit the Firmament’s rules and the Emperor’s violent conduct. The Firmament then began calculating Lin Ye’s dungeon-point rewards.

• Raging Waves closed with 200,000 eliminations, and spectators expressed fear over its difficulty and the Emperor’s million-point deduction.
• Lin Ye finished watching the livestream and said the Firmament’s approval determined what counted as reasonable.
• Lin Ye recalled designing the dungeon to punish rebellion and violence, expecting the Firmament to approve the rules because they appeared to reduce the difficulty.
• Lin Ye said the Emperor’s actions had caused his own ruin and that Dahe Settlement had brought its losses upon itself.
• The Firmament announced that no one had cleared Raging Waves and began calculating Lin Ye’s dungeon-point rewards.

Lin Ye received 1.93 million points from Raging Waves and concluded that the Firmament’s tiered return rules made the result an enormous profit. He rose to forty-ninth on the Hero Ranking and planned to earn more from the Five Permanent Members’ other dungeons, though he expected the Firmament to restrict Raging Waves.

• The Firmament awarded Lin Ye 1.93 million points for Raging Waves and explained its tiered point-return rates.
• Lin Ye reasoned that the large number of participants in the Pearl Harbor attack had driven most of his earnings, while the Firmament’s return-rate threshold limited further gains.
• The Firmament notified Lin Ye that his ranking had risen, and he found himself at forty-ninth, one place above his previous position.
• Lin Ye noticed that his rise had pushed Katerina and Kim Geun-seok down the rankings, with Kim Geun-seok falling out of the top fifty.
• Lin Ye anticipated that the Firmament would restrict Raging Waves and planned to release two more difficult dungeons based on the Five Permanent Members.

Lin Ye learned that the Firmament had temporarily restricted Raging Waves for a three-day review, but promised to reopen it afterward and extend challenger privileges to compensate. He used the time to begin creating Winter Is Coming, with Bear Country’s map already complete and weapons and missions still to add.

• Lin Ye saw that Raging Waves ranked among the dungeons with the most challengers wiped out, despite having been open for only three days.
• The Firmament announced that Raging Waves would be classified as a Restricted-Level Dungeon for a comprehensive three-day review because Azure Star’s people could not clear it.
• Lin Ye asked whether Raging Waves would reopen and receive compensation; the Firmament promised to release it after review and extend challenger privileges by three days.
• Lin Ye decided to use the extra time to finish Winter Is Coming and entered Creation Space.
• Lin Ye inspected the completed Bear Country map, including Volgograd, Saint Petersburg, and Moscow, and prepared to add weapons and mission mechanics.

Lin Ye designed Bear Country in the Winter Is Coming dungeon as a powerful version of the Russian Bear, giving it brutal winter conditions and forces strengthened by the cold. He began building its naval and air forces, leaving the dungeon’s military setup underway.

• Lin Ye set Bear Country’s weather to seventy degrees below zero with constant blizzards and made its native NPCs members of the cold-resistant Russian Bear Tribe.
• He gave the Russian Bears increased morale, combat strength, and marching ability when fighting in snow, while challengers would suffer the winter’s debuffs.
• Lin Ye configured Bear Country’s navy, including three active aircraft carriers and ten Borei nuclear submarines, and accelerated construction in its shipyards.
• He assigned Bear Country 5,000 aircraft, including Su-57 fighters, PAK-DA stealth strategic bombers, and Tu-160 Blackjack bombers.

Lin Ye designed Bear Country’s air force and began building its army for the Winter Is Coming dungeon, equipping it with advanced bombers, tanks, and missile systems. With production underway, he continued preparing the dungeon’s overwhelming military arsenal.

• Lin Ye added two hundred Tu-160 bombers and one hundred PAK-DA stealth bombers to Bear Country’s air force after Creation Space approved the PAK-DA design.
• After seeing the warplanes enter production, Lin Ye continued working in Creation Space and set Bear Country’s army strength at two million soldiers.
• Lin Ye planned forty thousand ground armored units, including twenty thousand T-14 Armata tanks.
• Lin Ye ordered Creation Space to test and produce Yars, S-300, Buk-2, and Pantsir-S1 missile systems.