Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 160 - 155: Movie Premiere

Chapter 160: Chapter 155: Movie Premiere

"Dark Sand, come quickly to see the movie we starred in together!"

Li Hongyun called out eagerly.

"Coming, coming."

Dark Sand pulled up a chair and joined Li Hongyun to watch the online instance of "The Reluctant Marquis."

The graduate dormitory at Tiandu University had relatively good living conditions. Li Hongyun had also bought a large widescreen monitor in his room, which was ideal for watching movies.

It was only after moving his chair over that Dark Sand realized, "Hey, shouldn’t we be watching this in the cinema?"

They had indeed gone to the cinema to watch the last instance, "A Fate Settled but Sealed by the Coffin."

The big screen at the cinema really made a vast difference compared to the small computer screen in front of them.

Li Hongyun naturally said, "Of course, we watch the online version first and then watch it again in the cinema! My heroic appearance in the instance deserves to be admired multiple times.

"If we watched the cinema version first, what point would there be in watching the online version?"

Dark Sand was momentarily speechless.

You make a good point!

Well, after all, this was Li Hongyun’s first time participating in the ultimate trial, his first time playing a key role in such a big movie, so a bit of preening was understandable.

The two of them opened the online movie "The Reluctant Marquis" and started watching.

...

Beyond the border, the yellow sand filled the sky.

A lone figure dragged his weary body toward the Sheng Army camp.

With a clang, the soldiers at the camp gate crossed their spears to block his path.

"Entry into the camp without permission is punishable by death! Do you wish to die?"

The man, dressed in rags and with a gaunt face, looked like a beggar who had been begging along the way, but he spoke with neither obsequiousness nor arrogance, clearly not an ordinary person.

"Please send a message, just say an old acquaintance has come to visit, with an important matter to discuss with General Deng..."

The two soldiers frowned, "Where did this beggar come from, claiming to have connections with General Deng! Move along, move along!"

...

Watching this scene, Dark Sand and Li Hongyun were both stunned.

To start from here?

But they quickly realized, this movie was edited in reverse order!

Indeed, the following content showed Mr. Xu finally meeting General Deng, the two discussing past events of Governor Lin Xiangmin, and Mr Xu advising General Deng to consider his future and preserve his strength.

General Deng was silent; he couldn’t immediately respond to Mr. Xu’s words.

Before General Deng could give his final answer, the screen went black.

Clearly, this was a prologue, using a flashback approach to lead into the entire story.

It also directly hinted at the meaning of "The Reluctant Marquis" and created suspense for the upcoming plot.

Dark Sand couldn’t help but admire, "This start is great!

"I thought they were going to start with the first encounter General Deng had with bandits.

"This start takes the first half of the ending, leaving suspense and hinting at the plot to follow, quite interesting."

Li Hongyun nodded, "Yes.

"And I must say, the attention to detail is really on point.

"Back in the game, I was just thinking about how to clear the levels and barely paid any attention to these details.

"But now, from the perspective of the movie, I realize how accurately they’ve portrayed the characters’ costumes, armor, even the expressions on the faces of each soldier."

Dark Sand chuckled, "Why do you always speak glaring truths? This is actual historical memory, how could it not be detailed?

"To be honest, I’m more worried about my performance. After all, the characters we acted alongside are real historical figures.

"Lin Xiangmin is my role, and although I’m quite confident in my acting skills, I still wonder whether it will satisfy the audience."

Li Hongyun wasn’t bothered by this; "No worries, our plot is all in the last half hour anyway."

The two continued watching.

...

The screen shifted, and the movie’s plot advanced anew.

This time, the scene introduced an entirely different battlefield.

In the southeast, bandits wreaked havoc, burning, killing, and looting, while the young General Deng led his soldiers in combat, repelling the bandits’ attacks numerous times.

During that period, there was an exceptional display known as "Three Arrows Settle the Universe."

To Li Hongyun’s surprise, the battle scene turned out to be the players’ performance in the ultimate trial!

Li Hongyun’s mouth hung open, completely not expecting his own scenes to appear so soon.

As bandits charged, the garrison soldiers crumbled without a fight, but Fan Cun, Zhao Haiping, and Li Hongyun, playing against the odds, remarkably assisted General Deng in reversing the situation.

During this, the trio each demonstrated completely different styles of combat.

Fan Cun was fierce, wielding sword and saber unabated like a warrior of old facing thousands alone; Zhao Haiping showed exquisite combat skills, a rattan shield in one hand and a saber in the other, combating numerous adept bandits without showing any signs of weakness.

As for Li Hongyun, he exhibited an unexpectedly imaginative and downright bewildering style of fighting, continuously picking up the fleeing soldiers’ long spears and hurling them, complementing the trio’s ranged combat capabilities while adding a dramatic effect to the entire battle.

Under their protection, General Deng decisively won the battle with his three crucial arrows.

...

Li Hongyun watched, dumbfounded.

"Although I appeared early, something seems a bit off..."

Of course, he hoped to have more screen time in the movie, but wasn’t the initial one and a half hours supposed to focus on the actual historical events, and only the last half hour to feature the thrilling performances of the players?

This left Li Hongyun slightly panicked, as if the previous agreement was just to casually play a minor role, so he was excited but not pressured.

Now suddenly finding after the movie’s release that he had a considerable part, he was pleasantly surprised but also a bit worried, fearing that a poor performance might lead the movie astray.

Chuge analyzed, "It seems each movie chooses a completely different way to edit?

"Compared to the two instances, the instance ’Though Affairs are Settled, the End Comes with Death’ highlighted the optimal ways to clear the instance with players cooperating, which actually strays quite far from the original history, and the movie also includes many memories from Su Xianjun’s childhood. The original history was already thrilling.

"So they put the historical content first, and the players’ performances were just supplementary.

"But this time it’s different, the criteria in ’Ennoblement was Never My Concern’ give a significant position to acting, so the players’ performances also perfectly replicated historical figures, with little deviation from real history.

"So, they started with the players’ performances and then the actual historical footage?

"The ambiguity is quite strong, I wonder if regular audiences can distinguish it. They might really think these scenes existed in history."

After a brief chat, they continued watching.

...

Chuge made his appearance shortly after.

In the film, he still retained his true appearance, albeit heavily made up, like in many movies and TV series.

Thus, one could only vaguely recognize him, but he perfectly replaced Lin Xiangmin.

His conversations with Mr. Xu and his staff, as well as the subsequent contemplation, every move of Governor Lin was brought to life by him.

Of course, the online version of the movie also had the option to toggle comments on and off, and in the comments and discussion sections, the audience started to fervently discuss.

Though many players had seen Chuge’s playthrough videos and knew what he looked like, among the online movie viewers, many were solely spectators.

They hadn’t seen the videos nor knew Chuge, but they felt that this Governor Lin’s portrayal was seamless, just like the earlier General Deng, appearing more like actual historical figures.

"Blind guess: Governor Lin is a critical character!"

"Isn’t that obvious when a player is portraying them?"

"Ah? A player is playing this role? Isn’t this genuine historical footage?"

"That’s Chuge, I recognized him."

"But in previous movies, wasn’t it only in the last half hour that the players’ footage was shown?"

"This is too impressive; it completely blurs the lines between reality and fiction!"

"If no one had told me this was portrayed by players, I really couldn’t have noticed..."

"This acting skill truly outshines all the young stars."

"’Dark Sand’ players really are hidden dragons and crouching tigers; their acting is indeed indisputable!"

But clearly, it wasn’t over yet.

Soon the players’ expressions shifted from surprise to amazement, and finally to total admiration.

Because the crucial scene between Lin Xiangmin and the Emperor was up next!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.