Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 109 - 104: Soldiers and Staff Officers (Extra for Alliance Hierarch Xia Moumou)

Chapter 109: Chapter 104: Soldiers and Staff Officers (Extra for Alliance Hierarch Xia Moumou)

When Su Chengbai died endlessly inside the Trial Illusion, players with true Return Order power also began strategizing for the brand-new Trial Illusion.

In the dorm, Chu Ge had already lain down to enter the game first, while Li Hongyun browsed his phone for a while longer.

Because he was reading other players’ comments on his post!

After successfully assassinating Emperor Yanling with his superb flying knife skills, he had smoothly gained the identity of an assassin and secured his internal testing qualifications.

Li Hongyun had noticed that his clearance evaluation seemed to differ from that of other assassins, so he casually posted the video online.

The officials had previously opened a dedicated video section that allowed players to freely post their own videos.

Though the feature wasn’t yet perfect, only allowing the posting of clearance videos, it was enough for most players; there was no value in posting failed attempts.

To Li Hongyun’s surprise, the video went viral soon after posting!

From the shocked comments of the players, one could tell that they had a whole new appreciation for the game’s freedom.

"What? You can play like that?"

"What did I just see? Nie Rang got onstage and didn’t even perform, just whipped out the sword and threw it, striking the throat in one blow??"

"This is called an assassin? It’s clearly a ranged class!"

"Has Flying Sword Immortal become sentient?"

"No, he did perform, right? He even distracted Emperor Yanling by talking to him, didn’t he?"

"These lines are hilarious; they remind me of a famous scene from an anime. Why would a big shot say such a line before an assassination? When I play, instances are nothing but brutal dramas; how come when the big shots play, it feels like the style changes to a comedy?"

"I heard it’s because he suffered a lot in the Scholar instance before, probably got mad at the dog emperor."

"Got it, he must have decided to change classes in a fit of rage after failing to persuade Emperor Weizhao in any way while playing as Yang Yan. Since the Scholar couldn’t persuade the dog emperor, why not try the assassin?"

"Too awesome, the more internal testing spots open, the more amazing big shots emerge! Looking forward to the big shot’s brilliant performance ahead!"

Seeing these replies from the players made Li Hongyun feel exceptionally good.

As a lucky player, he nostalgically recalled the feeling of being adored!

Initially, he chose the assassin identity without much thought, simply wanting to quickly clear the game and get the internal testing qualifications; otherwise, who knows how long he’d have to wait for another chance.

But now, he suddenly felt that the assassin class wasn’t bad at all!

It suited him perfectly!

Thus, he calmly accepted the assassin identity and looked forward to the next Trial Illusion with great anticipation.

In Li Hongyun’s Return Order Space, time-space currents roiled, with the river representing historical timelines stretching into the distance. A new instance "A Title of Nobility Is Not My Intent" emerged in front of the "All Is Set in Stone Save for My Coffin" instance.

For a player who had just started playing "Dark Sand," the current game content could feel overwhelming, almost too much to experience all at once.

"All Is Set in Stone Save for My Coffin" was available to experience, as well as the domains and Return Order castles.

Especially the Return Order castles—it was important to earn money there, which would directly affect the gameplay of the "Return Order Expedition" and defensive battles later on.

Or, going into "All Is Set in Stone Save for My Coffin" to catch up on lessons would also be a good choice.

Even the styles of the portals to the previous four beginner instances had changed.

The recent announcement had declared that not only was the new instance "A Title of Nobility Is Not My Intent" released, but the advanced difficulty for the four beginner instances and "Xin" level skills were also made available.

Players could completely clear the advanced difficulty levels and upgrade their exclusive talents before taking on new challenges.

But Li Hongyun still stepped into the "A Title of Nobility Is Not My Intent" instance without hesitation.

Of course, he would explore the new instance!

Old instances had already been thoroughly researched, with a ton of strategy threads out there; what fun would there be in just copying answers to clear them?

As for upgrading exclusive talents, while important, it wasn’t urgent. If the new instance proved too challenging, there was no harm in going back to upgrade later.

"Colonizing a new instance, if I could clear it first, I’d regain some ground in front of Chu Ge!"

...

After entering the "Sealing Honors was not my Desire" portal, the scenery around Li Hongyun began to change constantly and then gradually settled.

In the previous four Trial Illusions, players would directly appear at their character’s location, such as before a great hall or inside a dungeon, etc.

However, upon entering the official instance, since players had multiple identities to choose from and each identity had different starting points, the initial scene became a key location in the entire instance related to several identities.

For instance, the initial scene of "Decisions Await the Closing Coffin" was on the city wall of a clay city.

This time, the initial scene of "Sealing Honors was not my Desire" was at the governor’s office entrance.

Compared to the previous clay city, the governor’s office was obviously more imposing. Guards at the yamen gate stood straight as rods, and occasionally, various civil and military officials could be seen coming and going, which suggested many important matters were to be reported.

In front of Li Hongyun, two identity cards appeared.

They were [Soldier] and [Aide-de-Camp].

The cards featured reliefs of the two identities: the former was the image of an ordinary soldier in the Great Sheng Dynasty, wearing a red headband and a cotton armor with crossed collars, while the Aide-de-Camp had the standard image of a scholar.

It was Li Hongyun’s first time colonizing an official instance, and he felt a little nervous.

Although he had not colonized before, he had still cleared several instances and had a rather profound understanding of many game mechanics.

"Soldier and Aide-de-Camp. Although these identities don’t seem very high-ranking, in comparison to the last instance, there is a clear improvement.

After all, in the previous instance, the starting identities for players were lower-class roles like laborers and petty traders.

Being a Soldier means direct combat with bandits, and there might be a chance for promotions, just like in the Soldier instance; as for Aide-de-Camp, it should be possible to directly advise high-level characters and have a direct impact on the instance’s overall situation.

Coupling it with the names ’Subduing Bandits in the Southeast’ and ’Sealing Honors was not my Desire,’ it’s definite that the final goal of this instance is to eradicate all Eastern Barbarian bandits in the southeast.

Both Soldier and Aide-de-Camp could achieve this goal and might also gain access to some higher-level characters, unlocking the ability to play as them."

These two initial identities, one military and one scholarly, definitely play to the strengths of a warrior or a scholar, but it presented a dilemma for Li Hongyun.

He was an assassin player, who had the talent "Heroic Fury," but this talent required ample preparation and was not as readily usable in battle as the Soldier’s "Will to Break the Enemy" or the Ranger’s "Hero Leaves no Trace."

Moreover, Li Hongyun was a history student. Although not as impressive as Chu Ge, taking the Aide-de-Camp route to solve puzzles might have been a better choice.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Hongyun still chose the identity of a Soldier.

First, he would check out the battlefield situation, and if it really was unbeatable, he might consider the Aide-de-Camp path later.

Li Hongyun still had confidence in his archery skills.

After selecting his identity, the available talent skills came into view.

[Rén·Bloodbath: Fighting amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood makes it easier for you to unleash potential in extremity, allowing you to ignore pain to a certain extent and burst forth with great strength.]

[Rén·Spear Mastery: Your spear techniques are correspondingly improved.]

[Xin·Inspire: Your combat and rallying cries can better motivate the team, enhancing morale.]

Beyond the selectable talents, there was an additional section with a gold talent, "Memory Fragment," which was unchangeable.

Li Hongyun quickly glanced over the three skills and made a simple judgement.

"As mentioned in the previous announcements, Xin-level skills had been opened up, and the skill library seemed to have expanded. I’ve never seen the Spear Mastery and Inspire talents before.

In addition to regular talent skills, there’s a permanent, fixed talent slot.

The gold talent ’Memory Fragment’ from the previous instance became a fixed talent, continually effective. That makes sense, as this talent has significant importance for puzzle solving and is somewhat more critical compared to other talents.

This Xin-level skill looks decent, but I’d rather rely on myself than on teammates.

Hmm... Let’s try Spear Mastery first."

Li Hongyun lightly tapped on the "Spear Mastery" talent skill and began the trial.