Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 174 - 169 Beggar

Chapter 174: Chapter 169 Beggar

Meanwhile, Lu Heng had also begun his role-play as a "beggar."

Before starting the trial, he purposefully acquired the talent for "enduring hunger."

Although he did not yet know the specific difficulties he would encounter in the Trial Illusion, he could roughly guess that it definitely involved starvation.

Since he was a beggar, he certainly wouldn’t be eating anything substantial.

Thus, acquiring the talent for "enduring hunger" was a necessity.

Of course, Lu Heng also remembered to refresh those less useful talents each time he restarted, in hopes of obtaining something more beneficial.

For example, the ability of "Fasting."

If there were any higher-tier talents that could substitute "enduring hunger," he would have chosen them without hesitation.

When he first entered the Illusion Realm, a system prompt appeared before Lu Heng.

[Your current identity role-play involves a degree of randomness and will not strictly follow actual historical events. Please consider "survival" as your only goal.]

Upon seeing this prompt, Lu Heng’s expression grew more solemn.

What did it mean by a degree of randomness?

Clearly, the events within the instance would not follow the script of Emperor Taizu of Sheng.

For instance, Lu Heng knew that the Emperor lost his family to famine and plague during his youth, became a monk, and later, due to a letter from a fellow townsman, by chance joined the Rebel Army.

So if everything followed the original script, Lu Heng’s task was actually quite clear: make it until he became a monk and received that letter, and that would be considered passing the level.

After all, "Rebel Army" was the next identity to assume, the part that Yun Ying needed to play.

But the system alert made it clear from the start that the events happening in this Trial Illusion would not strictly follow true historical developments.

In other words, the Emperor Taizu that Lu Heng played could die at any moment from a variety of causes, or he might find himself several years overdue without receiving the letter.

And the goal of this role-play was not to join the Rebel Army, but to survive.

As long as he survived, it seemed to matter little whether he joined the Rebel Army or not.

"Indeed, the difficulty is quite high...

"But no matter, it’s quite challenging for me too."

Lu Heng didn’t particularly resent the beggar identity.

He understood well that with Dark Sand’s nature, the difficulty of the four identities should be similar, each with its own challenges.

The hardship regarding sustenance would undoubtedly be greater for the beggar identity, but on the flip side, it meant the difficulty in other areas must be lower.

Chu Ge was playing the emperor, Zhao Haiping the commander; their basic living needs were certainly secured, but they would definitely have other challenges requiring creative solutions.

So once Lu Heng selected the talent for "enduring hunger," he formally began his role-play as a beggar.

...

The Trial Illusion officially started.

Lu Heng found himself in a dilapidated thatched hut.

It had no tiles above to cover his head, no place even for a needle on the floor.

The thatched roof had many gaps, clearly leading to torrents of rainwater in a downpour.

The floor of the hut, of course, had no wooden boards but rather was dirty, damp earth crawling with insects. There was no wooden bed either, as he could never afford a carpenter.

He slept on a mud brick kang, which was messily piled with straw and interspersed with a worn quilt. Or rather, to be more precise, it was not so much a quilt as it was a few pieces of torn cotton batting.

Actually, this was not too bad; at least there was a kang, so there was no need to sleep on the ground.

Shortly after, he smelled an odor.

Given such sanitary conditions, forget bathing—the ability to even wash up was a luxury, let alone cleaning the room. So, the smell inside the thatch hut was certainly far from pleasant.

However, Lu Heng quickly adapted, probably because the body he controlled was already accustomed to it.

In the straw piles and torn cotton batting on the kang, a few people were nestled.

These people were practically naked, as there were not enough clothes to go around; they only dressed when going out for errands.

The farming father, with unkempt, filthy hair clumped together, scratched his head and snagged a louse, popping it into his mouth with a crisp "crack."

Lu Heng silently closed his eyes again.

In such a situation, it was better not to look; watching too much could easily lead to a breakdown.

He knew that in this era, this was all basic behavior. For he had read in some ancient texts that brothel madams and big bosses, while idly chatting, would pluck lice from their bodies and toss them directly into their mouths.

As a middle-class figure in society, a brothel madam was still in a profession that dealt with reception and farewells, valuing personal hygiene and image, yet she would still "supplement" her diet this way. It went without saying how much more so for these lower-class impoverished farmers.

But hearing about something and witnessing it with one’s own eyes were two completely different concepts.

Lu Heng could only try to adjust his mindset, making himself adapt to all of this as much as possible.

Fortunately, he had seen even more brutal scenes than this in the Soldier instance and the Scholar instance in the past, so he managed to adjust his mentality rather quickly.

"Wu! Get off the kang."

His father called out. Seeing that Lu Heng did not react, he reached out and gave him a pat.

It was then that Lu Heng realized he was being addressed and crawled down from the kang.

It was after getting down that Lu Heng realized how frail his body was. He looked to be only in his early teens, severely malnourished. His arms and legs were thin like sticks, and his ribs were visibly protruding.

"From today on, you’re going to herd cattle for the landlord."

Upon hearing his father’s instructions, Lu Heng learned what his next task would be.

Herding cattle for the landlord.

Many literary works described someone’s childhood as being particularly miserable, and herding cattle was often mentioned.

Of course, there were also poetic lines like "the shepherd boy points to Almond Flower village from afar."

Mainly, it was because these children were rather frail and couldn’t possibly do fieldwork. Herding cattle required no particular skill or physical strength, and since draft cattle were an important means of production in ancient times, it was common for children to be tasked with herding them.

Lu Heng thought to himself, "Herding cattle? It seems that different statuses come with different difficulties. As a beggar, the tasks involve things that aren’t highly skilled.

"Perhaps the main challenge of this identity lies in enduring hardship? As long as one can tolerate hardship, they can pass through.

"This shouldn’t be too difficult for me. After all, I’ve done things like scraping bone to heal wounds during the Scholar’s trial. Here, at worst, it’s just about suffering from hunger or a beating once in a while. It shouldn’t be a big problem."

In Lu Heng’s mind, the image of a shepherd boy riding a green ox and leisurely playing a flute naturally emerged.

That didn’t seem too bad?

He put on the only set of tattered clothes his family had, tied up his pants, which could fall off at any moment because they were too big, with a hemp rope, then followed his father to the landlord’s cattle shed. They led the old ox out and headed to the outskirts of the village to graze it.

His father kept talking about precautions as they walked towards the fields, ready to start the day’s work.

But Lu Heng was not listening at all; his mind was filled with just one thought: hunger!

Indeed, he had the "Endure Hunger" talent, but even with this talent’s boost, he could still feel the hunger, which affected his focus and concentration.

It was not hard to imagine what it would be like without this talent.

For a poor family, breakfast was out of the question.

Even the old landlord at the top of the village only managed two meals a day.

As for the poor, it was considered good to have a bowl of thin rice porridge each day. If they were truly starving, they might eat insects, worms, and rodents found in the fields.

Lu Heng once again felt fortunate for choosing the "Endure Hunger" talent in advance.

Upon reaching the edge of the village, father and son headed in opposite directions.

Lu Heng felt his legs were weak and found it hard to keep walking; he took the broken basket from his back and placed it on the ox’s back. Then, with a leap, he sat down on it.

Well, sitting on the back of the ox was not exactly comfortable, but at least he didn’t have to walk and could save some energy.

However, his comfort was short-lived as he suddenly heard the sound of hurried footsteps.

Immediately after, a large hand grabbed his collar and yanked him down from the ox’s back.

This was followed by two harsh slaps.

"You little rascal! Did you take all that your dad just said as a passing breeze?

"How dare you ride on the landlord’s ox, have you grown sick of living?

"If other villagers see this, not only will the grain you earn from herding cattle be gone, but even I won’t be able to work for the landlord anymore!"

Enraged, his father pounded on Lu Heng.

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