Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 168 - 163: New Instance Opened

Chapter 168: Chapter 163: New Instance Opened

The Deputy General stopped persuading, for at this point, there was only one way left: to charge forward with single-minded determination.

Zhao Haiping held the reins in his left hand and the spear in his right, continually using his "Keen Observation" talent to look for weaknesses in the enemy formation.

This talent was indeed useful. Zhao Haiping could determine the status of the soldiers through their movements, expressions, and even subtle facial changes, then find the weak points in the formation and break through.

When encountering enemies who tried to block his way, he wouldn’t engage in a deadlocked fight, at most making feigned attacks or parries with the spear held in one hand.

The spear of the cavalry was long, which made it inconvenient to use with one hand. General Qin’s spear was even longer and heavier; most people would struggle to even hold it, let alone use it.

Fortunately, with General Qin’s extraordinary combat strength, even holding the spear in one hand was enough to scare off many adversaries in the chaos of battle.

But soon, Zhao Haiping began to encounter new problems.

He dashed left and right, quickly finding himself surrounded by enemies.

More enemy officers and soldiers kept closing in to battle him, and counterattacking with just the spear in one hand was becoming increasingly difficult.

Obviously, the opposing generals and soldiers were not incompetent—how could they possibly watch an enemy general slaughtering through their ranks without taking action?

Seeing various weapons thrusting towards him, Zhao Haiping had to temporarily give up his plan to continue charging forward. He tightened his legs around the horse’s belly and left the reins, using both hands to counterattack with the long spear.

This time, he was smarter. Instead of foolishly colliding with the charging cavalry as before, he maintained his balance as best as he could.

When facing an enemy’s attack, he would either dodge by maneuvering swiftly on horseback or use his spear to deflect the enemy general’s weapons.

When counterattacking, he used skillful techniques to knock the enemy general off his horse from the side, then switch his grip and stab the opponent to death with the spear.

A downward thrust was the safest attack when horseshoes were not yet in use, with no risk of falling off the horse.

Moreover, when thrusting horizontally, the method of exerting force was also important.

The moment of impact inevitably resulted in a certain amount of reaction force, so it was best to choose the right angle, allowing the shaft of the spear to slightly deform and absorb some of that force. One should also slightly loosen their grip at the moment of impact to reduce the force transferred to one’s body.

By letting their hands slide from the back to the front of the spear and regaining the grip while maintaining their posture, they could ensure that the enemy was knocked off the horse without falling themselves.

It had to be said, this was indeed a technically demanding move.

If applied to modern equestrianism, it would probably eliminate a large number of professional riders.

Zhao Haiping couldn’t master it perfectly, though. While the theory was solid, actual combat was another matter entirely.

Without stirrups, maintaining balance on a war horse was a delicate state; any external force could disrupt it.

Besides, the enemy generals were brave and skilled warriors. Zhao Haiping couldn’t just focus on maintaining his balance; he had to avoid or block the opponents’ weapons, otherwise, being knocked off his horse would mean the failure of the instance.

So, Zhao Haiping failed repeatedly, then restarted again and again.

With his "Keen Observation" talent, he continuously sought out the enemy’s weaknesses and committed them to memory. He also honed his combat skills on horseback using the talent "Spear Mastery."

Once he was proficient in both, he could try to use the "Aggressive" talent and see if he could make it to Gao Yi for an assassination attempt.

In any case, the difficulty of Trial Illusion far exceeded that of the previous four role instances.

Zhao Haiping was prepared to engage in this struggle for over a week.

...

At the same time, many players had already given up on opening new paths in the Cavalry Trial and entered the Return Order Fortress.

Li Hongyun was one of them.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be a cavalryman, but after trying it out, he realized that the difficulty of this trial instance was too much!

The key issue was that his incredible luck couldn’t be much of a factor here, which was troubling.

After all, whether one gets unhorsed or not depends entirely on physical laws, and even the most outrageous luck couldn’t influence that.

A game that didn’t rely on luck was not something a "king of Europe" would enjoy.

Of course, that didn’t mean Li Hongyun had given up on riding entirely.

After discussing with Chu Ge, he concluded that the difficulty of the Cavalry Trial was currently too high, and since there were no special rewards for being the first, it was better to earn money by doing tasks in the Return Order Fortress.

They would wait until some expert cleared the Cavalry Trial instance and then simply follow the video to copy the solution.

For Li Hongyun, finally having his own fief was certainly a cause for celebration.

Because this small piece of land in the fief was actually carved out and allocated to players from a slice of history.

Only players who had participated in the Return Order Expedition could obtain a fief.

Li Hongyun was one of the latest to join the beta players and hadn’t participated in the last Return Order Expedition, so even though he had opened the portal to his fief before, after passing through all he had was a little thatched cottage and nothing else.

Now, at last, he had his own fief.

Compared to before, some new content had been added to the fief. For instance, players could now hunt with muskets, and there were also new additions like a training ground and a shooting range.

In the training ground, there were various kinds of blades and crude wooden automatons as targets for training with different weapons; the shooting range was for practicing archery and shooting with muskets.

Even within the fief, an area resembling a blacksmith’s shop had appeared.

There were furnaces, anvils, hammers, and such tools. If one brought back coal and iron ore and other resources from the Return Order Fortress, it should be possible to forge weapons on one’s own.

Some players had already started to experiment with it, but Li Hongyun wasn’t thinking about it for the time being.

Because he didn’t understand much about the relevant knowledge.

In the game "Dark Sand," most of the gameplay was incredibly realistic, meaning that blacksmithing in the fief might be a tiny bit easier than in real life, but it certainly wouldn’t be much easier.

And at the moment, it seemed that doing one’s own blacksmithing would only save a little on processing fees and consume a lot of time. Ordinary players might as well buy the finished goods directly from a blacksmith shop.

Unless some uniquely talented players could use the blacksmith shop to create their own special weapons or if their forging skills were better than a blacksmith’s.

As for the Return Order Fortress, changes had taken place there as well.

The entire area of the historical slice had expanded further, and many new areas around it were now available for exploration.

Players began to explore these new areas, searching for new ore veins or hunting more demons that had strayed into this slice.

New equipment updates had also arrived at the blacksmith’s, and basically all the weapons and armor that appeared in the "Mastering the Realm" instance were now purchasable, including muskets and Sky Shattering Bombs.

The number of stone masons, carpenters, and other construction workers increased significantly, and the next building plan for the Return Order Fortress could continue.

Li Weiyi and other players had begun to get busy again, overseeing the construction of the two other walls of the Return Order Fortress on the one hand, and on the other continuing to survey the terrain of the entire historical slice, to further consider the defensive planning of these terrains.

In the previous battles, players had realized the importance of city defense works, so they also very much supported the work of Li Weiyi and others, striving every day to carry bricks to accumulate more construction points, to prepare for the upcoming fights.

...

Thus, a week flew by swiftly.

The construction at the Return Order Fortress was in full swing.

The Cavalry Trial Illusion still had not been cleared for the first time.

On the official forum, countless players had expressed their dissatisfaction.

Clearly, they went through stages similar to Zhao Haiping, from anticipation to confusion, then to shock, and finally to collapse.

The Cavalry Trial instance was just too difficult!

Playing General Qin to decapitate Gao Yi in battle? To recreate the historically unparalleled feat of "taking a general’s head from within an army of thousands"?

What were the designers of "Dark Sand" thinking!

Players complained that they just wanted to ride a horse in the game; why was it so difficult!

In other games, horses were basically given for free, a matter of pressing a button a couple of times. At most, it was about spending some money to learn advanced riding or spending some time to capture a wild horse and fit it with a bridle.

But in "Dark Sand," to become a Cavalry, one must first cosplay the ancient great General Qin.

Of course, the players complained, but "Dark Sand" officials remained indifferent as before!

After the players made a fuss without any results, they had no choice but to continue their tough battle with this highly difficult instance.

Of course, top players like Zhao Haiping, although they had not cleared the instance yet, had made no small progress within it.

Clearing it should just be a matter of time.

And today, the players’ attention was not on the Cavalry Trial instance.

Because "Dark Sand" had officially opened its new instance, "Heroic Spirit in a Boundless Land"!

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