Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 133 - 128 Found a Flaw in ’Dark Sand’!

Chapter 133: Chapter 128 Found a Flaw in ’Dark Sand’!

These exclusive talent skills upgrades, although indeed noticeable, were far from a complete transformation.

For example, the assassin skill "A Common Man’s Rage" used to be guaranteed to activate provided there was adequate preparation, but now it could activate with a smaller chance even when preparations were insufficient.

In extreme cases, it could indeed allow an assassin to burst forth with considerable combat power, but such heavily chance-dependent factors were hardly ideal for inclusion in battle plans.

But for Li Hongyun, this upgrade was quite cost-effective.

Because he was an incredibly lucky player!

If he could turn "A Common Man’s Rage" into a permanent skill, wouldn’t his combat power climb several levels?

Of course, even the luckiest of players had their limits, and Li Hongyun couldn’t expect a skill with a very low probability to activate 100% of the time, but for him, as long as it activated a few times at crucial moments, that was a huge gain.

After successfully upgrading his talent skill, Li Hongyun joined other players in the climb up the leaderboard.

He had gone from the initial "Ding Upper" to "Yi Upper," crossing the threshold for ranking selection.

However, based on the situation of the previous instance, to securely advance to the final trial, it seemed that reaching at least "Jia Lower" would be stable.

So, he had to keep grinding.

Upon visiting the forum, it was flooded with posts sharing ways to improve scores.

"I’ve discovered that the new instance’s scoring mechanism isn’t exactly the same as before, for example, Governor Lin’s cultural program scene seems to have a high weight in the score! So, the emphasis of this scene is not how to speed through, but how to role-play!

"The dialogues with Sun Fanghua, with the Emperor, and with Mr. Xu, whether you can play the role of Lin Xiangmin well, are all important factors affecting the score. So I suggest that everyone should not rush through, but try to perform the part convincingly!"

"I’ve found a relatively reliable method to steadily progress through a stage by just standing in this specific position to cover General Deng, allowing for a stable pass. And don’t worry about lowering your score by doing this, tests show that actions in this stage have a negligible impact on the final score."

"In the part with Supervisor Wang, a combat style that uses close-quarters fighting seems to score a little higher. Perhaps it’s because the historical Supervisor Wang also fought like that."

"Doesn’t that mean players of the scholar class role-playing as Supervisor Wang and engaging in hand-to-hand combat would score even higher?"

"In theory it should, but the difficulty is just too great. Are there really any scholar players who can survive such intense combat and make it to the end..."

From specific combat positioning and tactics to the key points and essence of role-playing a character, the players’ discussions covered it all.

Of course, since the instance itself didn’t have a precise and detailed scoring standard, these strategy guides were mostly determined by players after numerous clears, according to their own combat styles combined with observed score changes, and therefore might not be entirely accurate.

But regardless, the players were methodically pushing their leaderboard scores forward through these means.

"Sigh, keep striving!"

Li Hongyun silently noted down several key points for clearing stages in his notebook, then replanned his new clearing method in his head, ready to continue his struggle for a high score that evening.

With the leaderboard cutoff date rapidly approaching, the players currently ranked didn’t dare to slack off, for fear of being squeezed out by others at the last minute.

...

Meanwhile, in a mansion in a first-tier city domestically,

a middle-aged man dressed in a business suit, looking very much the business elite, pressed the mansion’s doorbell.

"Ding-dong!"

After several presses, the door finally opened.

However, the middle-aged man was taken aback once the door opened.

Because Su Chengbai, who was answering the door, was in quite a disheveled state!

His eyes bore heavy dark circles, his disposition was jittery like a spooked bird, and his hair was messy, resembling a disaster victim.

Every movement he made seemed rather neurotic.

Su Chengbai glanced at the visitor, appearing a bit confused, "Are you... Mr. Bai?"

This Mr. Bai, whose full name was Bai Yuanteng, was the CEO of Yuanteng Entertainment. Yuanteng Entertainment had always maintained a good cooperative relationship with Su Chengbai, even building several historical knowledge and cultural online programs around him.

Bai Yuanteng was somewhat surprised, "Mr. Su, what happened to you?"

Su Chengbai stubbornly shook his head, "Nothing’s wrong with me, I’m fine! Do you need something, Mr. Bai? Come in and we can talk."

The two entered the living room of the mansion and took their seats.

Mr. Bai Yuanteng looked around and noticed that the living room was in disarray, scattered with numerous books.

And on the sofa, there was the gaming helmet, placed in the most conspicuous position.

He was somewhat puzzled, "Mr. Su, have you been playing that game these past few days... Isn’t it said to have a beneficial effect on sleep? Then what’s this..."

Su Chengbai stared back with dark circles under his eyes, "I’m fine! I’ve already found evidence that the game is based on false history. Just give me a few more days and I’ll expose this scam online..."

Bai Yuanteng was taken aback and quickly said, "Mr. Su! I came here exactly to talk to you about this!

"Let’s just drop this, ’Dark Sand’ really has an elusive background, and if we keep this up, we might really cross a line!"

Su Chengbai stiffened his neck and retorted, "Drop it? How can we just drop it!

"Mr. Bai, don’t you see this as a great opportunity? Look at it this way, if I can really prove that so-called ’historical memories’ in ’Dark Sand’ are fake, think about how much traffic we’ll get when our new show launches!

"At that time, it might become the hottest cultural show in the country!

"Moreover, you have nothing to worry about. If something were actually wrong, someone should have come knocking on my door by now, but so far, nothing has happened. The game company even conceded and gave me special access!

"So there’s absolutely no problem, don’t be afraid!"

Mr. Bai frowned slightly, also falling into thought.

He felt there might be some sense in what Su Chengbai was saying.

"But how can you prove that the ’historical memories’ in ’Dark Sand’ are all fake? I’ve been following this game too, and up to now, it seems that there’s been no mistake...

"Instead, Mr. Su, some of your previous online comments have been brought up, which don’t align with historical records...

"Of course, I know this was mainly for the ratings of the show, but we are ultimately at a disadvantage in public opinion..."

In fact, Bai Yuanteng said this to save Su Chengbai’s face.

For the ratings?

That was certainly one aspect, but there was also much content that indeed reflected Su Chengbai’s genuine personal opinions.

Due to biases against Huaxia’s history and a skew in values, he naturally bent the interpretation of historical content in a different direction.

Mr. Bai was vaguely aware of this as well.

But what then? To Yuanteng Entertainment, Su Chengbai was an influential cultural icon, whose culture-related shows had a pretty high heat index, and as long as there were ratings to be made, all these could be overlooked.

However, seeing Su Chengbai now wanting to directly confront ’Dark Sand’, he began to feel uneasy.

Su Chengbai confidently said, "Don’t worry, I’ve found a fatal flaw in the game!

"Look at this, a memory fragment discovered by some players! Check out this video!"

As he spoke, Su Chengbai opened a video on his laptop.

Bai Yuanteng leaned in curiously and saw that it was a walkthrough video from a ’Dark Sand’ player. There was a section at the end when meeting General Deng, where a memory fragment was obtained.

And this memory fragment was about General Wang Zongchang, who defended Nanhe City!

In the memory fragment, because of his meritorious defense against bandits, Deng Yuanjing received an imperial reward, which naturally included other fallen soldiers who died in the suppression of bandits.

Among them was Wang Zongchang.

As Wang Zongchang had made a key contribution in defending Nanhe City, the imperial rewards were quite generous, with more than ten pieces of gold alone!

Of course, these details flashed by quickly and were mixed in with others, without much description.

Su Chengbai had visitor access, so each day, he entered the game from the first act and kept getting killed by bandits, but during the daytime, he could still watch other players’ completion videos.

Bai Yuanteng was puzzled, "Mr. Su, what does that prove?"

Su Chengbai was brimming with confidence, "Hmph, this is clearly a huge oversight, because historical records state that this Wang Zongchang was a famously upright official, and he had no money for a lavish funeral after his death, and was ’buried wrapped in a straw mat!’

"If that’s the case, how could he possibly have received more than a dozen gold artifacts as a reward?

"Clearly, ’Dark Sand’s’ officials didn’t do their research properly and forced a relatively good ending for Wang Zongchang!

"Just keep hammering away at this point, and ’Dark Sand’s’ claim of being true historical memory will naturally collapse on its own!"