Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 100 - 95: Memorizing the Standard Answers Doesn’t Guarantee Passing

Chapter 100: Chapter 95: Memorizing the Standard Answers Doesn’t Guarantee Passing

Players now have access to content that Meng Yuan had meticulously transformed.

Historical slices can actually be seen as projections of past history, not as worlds that truly exist materially.

When it was first recaptured, it was already just an empty city left with no indigenous NPC population, nor any mines or various resources.

However, after absorbing the energy inherent in the historical slices and the power of the demons, the Return Orderer could remodel the historical slices.

Previous Return Orderers generally did not do much remodeling of historical slices, at most re-summoning the illusions of the natives, letting them take on the defense of the entire historical slice themselves, and taking away most of the power.

Because previous Return Orderers were lone wolves, unwilling to spend the precious power of the Return Orderer to manage and build the historical slices.

But Meng Yuan was completely different.

After absorbing the power of the historical slices, his first thought was how he could more properly allocate it to the players.

Previously, Meng Yuan’s allocation method was basically a communal pot; if players could pass the Trial Illusion, they could obtain exclusive talents inherent to that identity, and each player’s physical condition in the game Dark Sand was not much different.

But continuing with this communal pot approach was certainly not appropriate.

Because players’ abilities varied, specialized expertise differed, giving players skilled in combat better physical conditioning and more refined armor, and giving players adept in construction and management more rights to allocate internal city resources, were all methods of optimizing resource allocation.

Thus, Meng Yuan needed to use this method to categorize the players.

After all, fighting against demons involved not just using elite squads to alter historical slices, but also large army operations and city construction. Aside from combat, players could also contribute in other areas.

Meng Yuan did not hand over the powers he absorbed from the historical slices and demons directly to the players, but instead transformed them into ores in the mines and monsters, territorial outputs, and so forth, allowing players to obtain them through certain efforts.

Of course, those sporadic demons that appeared on the periphery of the historical slices were not Meng Yuan’s doing; they were demons that had accidentally wandered into the disordered temporal flows, and killing them could also extract power.

Currently, it seemed that Meng Yuan’s planning perfectly achieved the initial goals.

...

The next morning at 6 AM.

Chu Ge woke up on time as usual.

Only this time, his roommate Li Hongyun also woke up simultaneously.

Li Hongyun did not, as usual, painfully drag himself out of bed upon hearing the alarm, rubbing his bleary eyes enviously at Chu Ge, but rather incredulously looked at his own hands, as if not quite accustomed to this real world.

"Is this... what it feels like to game in one’s sleep? So cool!

"Waking up refreshed, the quality of sleep simply too good. And I can clearly remember what happened in the dream, it’s like gaining an extra dozen or so hours every day!

"I used to blame myself for not being diligent enough, we both wake up at 6, I sleep while you game, you’re full of energy and I’m exhausted... turns out it has nothing to do with my diligence, it’s purely a matter of black technology!"

For Li Hongyun, who had successfully entered Dark Sand and experienced this wonderful game for the first time, it was like opening the doors to a new world.

Looking at Chu Ge, his expression also carried a bit of pride and self-assurance.

That expression seemed to say, I’m now a noble Dark Sand player too! You’re not so special anymore!

Chu Ge asked, "So, did you pass the Trial Illusion?"

Li Hongyun was suddenly stumped, "Ah, that... not yet."

Chu Ge couldn’t help but laugh, "Ah? Didn’t you say before that you just need to play according to the guide, and anyone with hands could pass the scholar trial?

"The new instance ’Subduing the Eastern Barbarian’ hasn’t been officially updated yet, and the four basic Trial Illusions haven’t even opened the high-difficulty option; you’re still challenging the normal difficulty."

Li Hongyun coughed awkwardly a few times, "This... I admit, it really was quite different from what I originally imagined...

"I memorized your standard answers, but why weren’t the people in the instance persuaded by me?"

Chu Ge smiled slightly, seemingly having anticipated that Li Hongyun would definitely face setbacks, "Quite simple, it’s mostly because of your acting."

Li Hongyun: "Ah? I was seriously acting though? And among these four trial environments, isn’t only the assassin trial that demands high acting skills? The other three trials don’t require much acting!"

Chu Ge chuckled, shaking his head, "Of course not.

"The scholars also have requirements for acting skills, but more strictly speaking, it shouldn’t be considered acting, but rather a sense of immersion.

"When convincing someone, you first need to immerake in the character of Yang Yan and believe 100% in what you are about to say, speaking with confidence and righteousness.

"If you lack this kind of momentum, you still won’t be able to persuade anyone.

"You are facing opportunists, great villains, and an emperor known for his clever tricks. Any flaw in your expression can be caught, and if you yourself aren’t confident, the chance of them refuting you will significantly increase."

Li Hongyun’s face darkened, "Ah, why didn’t you say this earlier!"

Chu Ge said seriously, "What do you think we scholars are? You have to personally experience this setback to comprehend the true essence of the scholar profession!"

Li Hongyun had nothing to say.

He originally thought seeing Chu Ge first clear the instance, and with so many guides available online, he assumed memorizing them would be enough to pass, but now he realized he was slapped in the face.

It was much harder than he had imagined!

Li Hongyun felt immense pressure. If in the end he couldn’t clear the instance and obtain the internal test qualification, that would be ridiculous!

Wouldn’t he never be able to raise his head in front of Chu Ge?

Silently sulking, he opened the official forum and continued to check the strategy posts and other players’ clearance videos.

Chu Ge was snickering, having not seen Li Hongyun take such a beating in a long time!

After all, this guy was naturally lucky, sailing smoothly and conquering all in pay-to-win mobile games, often showing off.

Now it was good, "Dark Sand" was a game that purely depended on actual skill!

It was time for him to suffer.

Somehow, seeing Li Hongyun in distress made Chu Ge even happier than clearing the instance himself.

It was just like many people who had gotten their driver’s licenses and loved to scroll through videos of failed driving tests online.

With a smile on his lips, Chu Ge typically browsed through the forum discussions by the players.

"The gameplay in Return Order Space is so interesting! I could play here for a year without getting bored!"

"I originally thought ’Dark Sand’ was just a standalone game, but who would have thought! National wars, city-building, and simulation management gameplay are all included; there’s even fishing, mining, hunting, and other types of professional simulation game types available!"

"I previously felt that just fighting Eastern Barbarian thieves was a bit monotonous, but this version upgrade has nicely solved that issue!"

"Let me summarize the lifestyle contents of this game!

"From what I’ve seen, the lifestyle content of this game is similar to reality but still somewhat simplified. For example, in fishing, players don’t need to worry about the types of fishing gear and bait too much, and hunting has simplified the process of tracking game, which means it has eliminated time-consuming and tedious steps, yet the game retains a good level of detail in terms of skills, so it’s even more fun than in real life!

"As for woodcutting, mining, brick-moving, and the like—I’ve tried them too. Although these activities can inevitably be mundane, I find them more interesting than other games!

"Firstly, these activities are optional—not mandatory and, for example, woodcutting can be done sparingly; secondly, content like mining and brick-moving can involve NPCs as aides, taking mining as an example, players can choose to clean the mine, excavate ore, push mining carts, among other tasks, and switch between them to avoid monotony; most importantly, these activities pay quite well, hence for players who love accumulating wealth through repetitive labor, watching their purse fill up provides a real sense of achievement!

"I also tried cooking. I hunted a wild chicken in my fiefdom and processed it, the whole process was almost no different from reality, but the problem is, the NPCs didn’t fancy the dish I cooked; it couldn’t be sold, and although eating it myself could add buffs, it wasn’t as cost-effective as buying directly from an NPC...I plan to brush up on my cooking skills in reality to see if I can improve in the game.

"As for farming, everyone speculated that herbs could be handed to merchants to make medicine, and food could be used to make provisions, but since it’s only the first day, the crops haven’t matured yet, so we’ll have to wait and verify this later.

"In short, the lifestyle content of this game is quite rich and very useful, simply a farming player’s delight!"

"The monsters outside the city are quite strong and after dying you respawn in Return Order Space, but revival deducts some money, which is quite painful."

"I went to check with the blacksmith and discovered that I could buy better weapons and armor! It’s just that these items are pretty expensive, even if I provide the ore myself, I can’t afford them right now, so I have to save money slowly."

"By the way, I saw a group of pros discussing city-building in town yesterday, have they come up with any results?"

"Just in time, I am Li Weiyi, let me report on the progress of the city-building project. After a heated discussion yesterday, we have a preliminary plan for terraining changes. But we players majoring in architecture still plan to go consult friends and seniors in reality in the next couple of days, to make it foolproof!"

Chu Ge briefly scrolled through and noticed that the discussions among players in the forum were considerably more lively than before.

Moreover, many of the newbie’s guides and strategy videos from before had been bumped up again.

Clearly, the addition of new players had brought fresh blood to the forum, and the launch of the Return Order Space and fiefdom gameplay thoroughly ignited the enthusiasm of many players into simulation management!

Players were all wholeheartedly offering ideas and suggestions, aiming to build Return Order Space into a fortress wealthy in resources and formidable enough to make demons flee at the mere mention of its name.

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