12: The dungeon is open, the raging sea

In the secretarial office of the Great Xia Clan’s First Research Institute.

Zhao Jianyu was organizing materials.

As the director’s secretary, her tasks were quite complex.

She had to immediately record new instances announced on the Sky Curtain daily into the system.

This was to prepare for upcoming instance research.

Just then, Zhao Jianyu noticed a startling piece of information on the Sky Curtain.

“Infernal Grade instance Raging Sea and Surging Waves is about to begin…”

“Infernal Grade instance? Raging Sea and Surging Waves?”

“Someone completed the creation of an Infernal Grade instance?”

Zhao Jianyu couldn’t help but shiver; during this period, Director Ding Chang had told her to pay attention to Lin Ye’s movements, so she was already very familiar with this instance name.

She truly couldn’t believe that Lin Ye’s ten-thousand-person instance could actually pass the review and even receive Infernal Grade difficulty certification.

Over the years, Zhao Jianyu’s experience was that the Sky Curtain’s difficulty certification would only be lower, never higher.

The few Infernal Grade instances on Azure Star had not been conquered to this day, let alone this Infernal Grade instance now.

She suddenly recalled what Lin Ye had told her before.

“If any Great Xia Clan compatriots are accidentally randomly selected by the Sky Curtain… I hope these people can voluntarily surrender and exit the instance.”

At this moment, Zhao Jianyu finally realized that Lin Ye’s words were neither a joke nor arrogance.

This was genuine advice.

An instance rated as Infernal Grade, its level of danger was imaginable; some Lv0 Challengers would most likely be directly annihilated!

Zhao Jianyu quickly called the communication department of the Great Xia Clan’s gathering area.

“Hello! I am Zhao Jianyu from the First Research Institute.”

“Please send an electronic message to all residents of the Great Xia Clan’s gathering areas: if selected for the Raging Sea and Surging Waves instance, do not have any illusions, surrender immediately and leave the instance.”

After making this call, Zhao Jianyu immediately reported the matter to her director, Ding Chang.

Ding Chang’s reply was to have everyone from the research institute gather at the unit immediately, and then broadcast the Raging Sea and Surging Waves instance live in the conference room.

Everyone was to watch the first live broadcast of the Raging Sea and Surging Waves instance together.

Zhao Jianyu exhaled a long breath and immediately sent out notifications to all staff members of the research institute.

She was well aware of the necessity of this full-institute observation.

For an Infernal Grade instance, and one created by a Great Xia Clan member, no amount of emphasis was too much!

“This Lin Ye…”

“Could it be that, as Teacher Ding Chang said, he is a one-in-ten-thousand instance design genius?”

Zhao Jianyu murmured to herself.

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“Welcome to the Infernal Grade instance: Raging Sea!”

“Instance loaded…”

“Deploying Challengers to the virtual battlefield, 10000 / 10000 deployed…”

Accompanied by the Sky Curtain’s prompt.

Ito Hidekazu and 9,999 other Challengers had already been deployed into the instance.

Amidst countless mosaic transformations, the world before Ito Hidekazu’s eyes had undergone earth-shattering changes.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself transported into an incredibly vast military camp.

This was a military camp by the sea; with a slight glance, one could see.

Looking around, there was a dense mass of people.

Various complaints rose and fell.

“Oh my god, I’m so unlucky to be drawn into an instance like this.”

“Maya, someone save me.”

“Ten-thousand-person instance?! Is this for real?”

“It’s over, it’s really over this time.”

Entering this kind of ten-thousand-person instance for the first time, looking at the overwhelming crowd, Ito Hidekazu also felt a bit dizzy and breathless.

Amidst the chaos, the Sky Curtain’s subtitle prompt reappeared before everyone’s eyes.

“Welcome, Challengers, to the instance designed by Mr. Ye: Raging Sea!”

“This instance is complex in design and high in difficulty, so the Sky Curtain will provide Challengers with a detailed mission introduction.”

At the same time, a huge virtual image appeared directly above the military camp.

Clearly, the virtual image was of a blue planet.

“What is currently appearing in the light screen is the map for this instance: Earth Online.”

“This is a map? I’ve never seen an instance map like this.”

“Why does it look so much like our Azure Star? Did this Lin Ye move a real-world scene into the instance?”

“Look closely, this planet only looks similar to Azure Star, but it’s actually not the same; the land on this planet is clearly much more extensive.”

“If the instance map is as big as the real world, then wouldn’t the instance and reality already be integrated!”

“…”

Everyone started discussing, as it was truly something unseen and unheard of.

As the Sky Curtain introduced it, the virtual image also transformed in real-time.

The blue planet continuously zoomed in.

A yellow highlighted landmass appeared in everyone’s view; it was an island floating in an ocean, appearing very small within the entire Earth Online.

“This is where all Challengers are based: Dongying. With a total area of 378,000 square kilometers, it is composed of four large islands…”

Immediately after, a red dot was marked on the island.

“And this is where you were born, the Kure Naval Arsenal in Hiroshima, Dongying.”

Just this initial introduction alone scared some Challengers speechless.

The maximum map range of previous instance maps was generally less than one-tenth of the current Dongying Island.

The Infernal Grade instance Blood-Stained Marne River only had a map range of 50,000 square kilometers.

Yet now, an island of 378,000 square kilometers was merely the Challengers’ base.

And this island was but a drop in the ocean, pitifully small, within the entire map.

How vast was this instance map?!

It truly brought the scale of the real-world Azure Star into the instance.

It was even larger than Azure Star, one could say.

The Challengers were in an uproar, and the instance’s bullet comments also became agitated.

“This… Is this the scale of an Infernal Grade instance? Oh my god! This must be billions of times larger than the previous hardest Blood-Stained Marne River.”

“It’s too exaggerated, simply too exaggerated!”

“With such a massive scale, how could one person complete it in a single day? This Lin Ye must have organizational support behind him.”

“This is interesting; I see Ito Hidekazu is among the Challengers for this instance. Could this be considered a form of revenge from Lin Ye?”

Bullet comments are, after all, just bullet comments; besides the shock, there was now more of an attitude of enjoying the spectacle.

Everyone wanted to see just how terrifying this Infernal Grade instance truly was.