33: Triggering a special event, the wrath of the Eagle Sauce! (Three more)
Beep, beep, beep…
After a few sentences, the other side hung up the phone directly.
Listening to the almost commanding tone of the person on the other end of the phone, Ito Hidekazu was furious.
“Baka!” Ito Hidekazu cursed angrily.
“What exactly is going on?”
“How dare those wild dogs on the other side directly command me?!”
Ito Hidekazu was so angry that he started speaking gibberish.
In a fit of rage, he suddenly stood up and slammed the coffee cup beside him onto the floor.
The cup instantly shattered, and rich coffee splattered out, spilling onto his expensive suit, leaving a dark stain.
He was truly feeling suffocated!
It was bad enough that he was dispatched by the Emperor in the real world, but now someone was even commanding him in this virtual instance!
Was he supposed to be someone's dog even in the instance?
Just as Ito Hidekazu was fuming, a Sky Curtain notification arrived.
“Sky Curtain notification: The actions of all Challengers have triggered a special event: The Wrath of Eagle!”
“The Wrath of Eagle: Your actions have caused strong dissatisfaction in Eagle Country. Eagle Country now demands that you cease all illicit activities and pay one trillion in compensation to Eagle Country!”
“Do you accept?”
“Reminder: Special events in instances will affect the subsequent progress of the instance, and may even change the mission status of the year. Commanders, please choose carefully!”
“Bah!”
Ito Hidekazu was shaking with anger.
What kind of damned special event was this?!
Did he have a choice?
If he chose to accept, he would have to pay one trillion to Eagle Country!
One trillion!!!
The annual GDP of the Eastern Ocean Country was only four trillion, which meant cutting off a quarter of it in one go.
If that happened, all indicators would fall into negative growth.
In the remaining four days, let alone surpassing Eagle Country, he might not even be able to preserve the principal.
The subsequent mission would definitely be declared a failure.
“Impossible!”
“It's definitely impossible to accept such an unfair proposal!”
He tried hard to compose himself, maintaining calm amidst his anger.
A thought surfaced in his mind.
Even if he refused the proposal, what could happen?
It had already been confirmed when accepting Mission Two that the upcoming instance would be a complete non-combat mode.
All war weapons on Eagle Country's side were also locked down.
Even if he refused Eagle now, the enemy forces couldn't do anything to him.
The sea is wide for fish to leap, and the sky is high for birds to fly. This Eagle Country was originally his competitor, so why should he listen to the hostile forces?!
Understanding this point, Ito Hidekazu let out a long breath, a slight smile playing on his lips.
“Damn it! I almost fell for Lin Ye's trick.”
“This guy is indeed a treacherous villain, skilled at scheming in mission designs!”
“But does he really think that I, Ito Hidekazu, would stumble twice in the same place?”
At this moment, in Ito Hidekazu's perception, this so-called special event, The Wrath of Eagle, was entirely something Lin Ye had concocted to deceive him.
Just like the prerequisite mission to attack Pearl Harbor in the previous instance.
They were all tricks, all designed to affect the Challenger's mindset.
“I will not accept Eagle Country's proposal!”
“Not only will I not agree, but I will also intensify my actions.”
Ito Hidekazu now had only one thought in his mind: to persevere.
The more Lin Ye created such smoke bombs, the more it meant that his direction was correct.
He directly called Yamashiro Kojiro to his room, and then said solemnly:
“Yamashiro-kun, I think the economic development of Eastern Ocean Island needs to be accelerated further. Some policies are still not strong enough!”
“I need you to be more thorough. Don't worry about the lives of these NPCs on Eastern Ocean Island. Completely squeeze out their productivity for me!”
“I want Eastern Ocean Country to develop faster, even if it reaches the goal at this moment and dies the next, it doesn't matter!”
“This is just an instance. Don't have any reservations.”
Ito Hidekazu's sudden surge of agitated emotion startled Yamashiro Kojiro.
But soon, Yamashiro Kojiro still bowed to Ito Hidekazu.
“Understood, Ito.”
“I will give the orders now.”
After speaking, Yamashiro Kojiro left Ito Hidekazu's room to execute his orders as quickly as possible.
Ito Hidekazu did not directly reply to the Sky Curtain, but this action had already shown his attitude.
He would fight Eagle Country to the end.
Just then, the Sky Curtain's notification sounded again.
“Dear Challenger, your actions have made a choice regarding Eagle's proposal.”
“You have rejected Eagle!”
“Because of your choice in the special event ‘The Wrath of Eagle,’ the instance mission has been accordingly modified!”
“Mission Two: Economic Overtake (✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦)”
“The time limit for this round of missions has been shortened to 60 hours. All Challengers can participate in the management of Eastern Ocean Island. As long as the economic overtake of Eagle Country is achieved at any point in time, the mission is considered complete. Each Challenger will receive 150 points!”
“Failure of the mission will deduct 500 points from each Challenger!!”
“What? The previous mission actually changed?”
“It can be like this?”
Ito Hidekazu felt somewhat caught off guard.
This mission adjustment was not the same situation as the mission changes in the previous instance.
Last time, after the Challenger completed the prerequisite mission, new follow-up missions were given.
This time, however, adjustments were made to the existing mission settings.
The mission's time limit was cut in half!
This was a bit tricky. With the current rate of economic growth, Ito Hidekazu calculated that the economic overtake would take at least three days.
Now that the time was shortened, the difficulty of the mission had clearly increased significantly.
Moreover, the most crucial point was that the mission completion reward and failure penalty were also increasing exponentially!
Ito Hidekazu might not care about the completion reward, but this failure penalty was too deadly.
Because most of the Dahe Clan Challengers who entered this instance were LV1, and 90% of them did not have enough total points to cover 500.
Previously, it was calculated as a deduction of 100 points, which meant these people could survive even if the mission failed.
Now that it had become 500 points, it meant that once they failed, they would be directly annihilated!
The pressure of death instantly arrived.
For a moment, Ito Hidekazu also panicked, even feeling a bit suffocated.
He himself wouldn't die, but if the mission really failed, and nearly twenty thousand compatriots were directly annihilated, how would he explain it to the Emperor?!
Wouldn't he become a sinner of the Settlement?
Ito Hidekazu was uneasy, and the other Challengers were even more uneasy, because this was a living, breathing death threat.
All Challengers who were directing the operations of Eastern Ocean Island stopped what they were doing.
“Why is this happening?”
“Didn't they say there would be no life-threatening danger? Why did the Emperor lie to us?!”
“If I had known this, I shouldn't have volunteered for this damned instance.”
“Wuwuwu, I want to go back! I want to go back!”
Some timid Challengers even started crying directly out of fear.
They were originally university students, always protected by the Settlement school, and had never really experienced the threat of life and death.
Now that they realized they might die, their mindset immediately changed.