Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 180 - 175: Void Seal (Extra - for Votes 4)

Chapter 180: Chapter 175: Void Seal (Extra Chapter for Votes 4)

Yun Ying and Lu Heng were somewhat surprised.

"How so?"

"You guessed that too?"

Chu Ge explained, "Actually, it’s not hard to guess.

"Looking at the Trial Illusions prior to ’Dark Sand,’ their difficulty tends to fall within a specific range.

"They are not too simple to let players pass through at once, at least they have to suffer repeatedly, meeting certain conditions; but also not too hard, not requiring players to 100% accurately replicate the historical figures’ actions, otherwise, all players would be stuck.

"So, starting as the ’Rebel Army’ could mean it’s a developmental challenge.

"Historically, early battles between the Rebel Army and the Northern Barbarian Army were indeed easy because the cavalry of the Northern Barbarians had become corrupt and degenerate, to the point where many Northern Barbarian nobles couldn’t even ride horses well anymore.

"So, according to actual circumstances, the initial combat for the Rebel Army was not difficult, the challenge was how to develop and expand your forces as much as possible. Because Emperor Taizu of Sheng felt, after a while in the Rebel Army, that it had no future, so he broke off and did his own thing.

"If you cannot pull together a sufficient team and gather enough strong talents within the allotted time, then most likely, you will still be deemed a failure."

Yun Ying: "Hmm... that’s true."

Chu Ge continued, "There’s another thing to note, pay attention to the rebels around you, if there’s someone named Gu Yuan. If there is, you must cling to this great ’gold leg.’

"For according to historical records, this founding hero and the most trusted Great General of Emperor Taizu of Sheng met during his time in the Rebel Army."

Yun Ying showed approval: "Okay, I’ll go look for this person tonight!"

Chu Ge added, "As for Lu Heng, my guess is that playing the role of a beggar could likely be a game mode full of randomness.

"You also said that so far, you have fully experienced ’a lifetime,’ but the overall process was far different from that of Emperor Taizu of Sheng.

"The years when natural disasters happened, corvée labor, and even getting married and having children, all differed greatly from the experiences of Emperor Taizu of Sheng.

"So, my speculation is that the ’beggar’ role isn’t about reenacting Emperor Taizu’s experience exactly.

"Because Emperor Taizu’s experience during that time wasn’t actually that difficult, it was just about enduring hunger and struggling to survive. For players, that’s actually not too challenging to set as an obstacle.

"So, this role should be a composite of the common experiences of beggars, the poor, and tenant farmers of that time. The events that occur are very random.

"What you need to do is struggle to survive. Maybe after meeting certain conditions, the opportunity for the Rebel Army will come."

Lu Heng: "Like what?"

After thinking for a moment, Chu Ge said, "For example, you’ve gone through a certain number of life cycles, or you’ve managed to survive until the end several times in a row."

Lu Heng: "... feeling cheated again!

"But if it’s really like you said, then the beggar role would indeed be relatively low in technical content, just tough it out to pass...

"Alright, I’ll go research, see if there are any special tricks that ancient famine-stricken people had to survive..."

...

The four of them began to look up the relevant information separately.

Although they weren’t yet certain of the exact way to pass, they at least had a general direction.

On the forum, players also began to discuss widely.

Obviously, the unique mode of the instance "Embracing the Heroic Spirit of the Grassroots" had made it impossible for players to use their previous methods of conquest, inadvertently raising the difficulty level but also adding some novelty.

...

At 10 pm, Chu Ge once again entered the Trial Illusion.

After resting for a day and researching, he was back in a refreshed state.

He turned his attention again to the mountain of memorials before him.

"Well, let’s go through them one by one.

"On the bright side, I have it easier than the real Emperor Taizu of Sheng.

"I can rest, but he couldn’t; I’m playing a game, but he was really governing a nation; I can at least guess what these major cases are, whereas he was completely in the dark; after I take action, I can infer the problem based on how much the nation’s lifespan decreases, but he couldn’t see how many years his nation had left."

Originally, Chu Ge, who found his situation rather dreary, stopped feeling so after putting himself in the shoes of Emperor Taizu of the Sheng.

He flipped through the memorials some more.

"It’s no wonder ancient emperors had such a tough job," Yun Ying thought to himself. "They had to know everything and be adept at everything. Once they encountered something they didn’t understand, it was likely they could be easily duped by those beneath them."

"Especially when it came to ancient numerical records, which could truly make one feel like vomiting blood."

Among the memorials that Chu Ge handled were many account books, which, without exception, were filled with various dense and numerous figures.

At this moment, he profoundly missed Arabic numerals.

At first, he had verified the figures somewhat diligently, but after running through a few simple numbers and finding no issues, he had to set them aside for the time being.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t really the emperor’s job. If the emperor occupied himself with checking these ledgers, there would be no time left for other memorials; there simply weren’t enough hours in the day.

Such matters were the responsibility of the Ministry of Revenue.

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue labored from dawn till dusk to arrive at these figures. If the emperor could find a discrepancy with just a cursory glance, that would truly be unreasonable.

"Hmm?

"Wait a second."

Chu Ge had already picked up the next memorial but suddenly thought of something and put it down.

He turned back and started re-examining the account books.

Upon closer inspection, the figures still appeared to be correct.

The figures reported from the most basic level, from county to prefecture, then to the Government Affairs Department, and finally to the Ministry of Revenue, the audited financial revenues and tax records all matched. No discrepancy could be detected.

If one only looked at the figures on the account books, there clearly would be no issue. The Great Sheng Dynasty’s financial revenues and expenditures were quite normal. Although the expenses were significant, the income was also adequate, all within a normal range.

Even some players not sensitive to numbers would probably have tossed it aside already, too lazy to take a closer look.

Initially, even Chu Ge did not realize anything was amiss, nor did he spot any errors.

However, when he saw the account books, he naturally associated them with a major case during the era of Emperor Taizu of Sheng, so he was a bit more cautious.

"But... the timing of this case seems a bit off.

"According to the game’s timeline, this case should have occurred more than a decade ago, totally unrelated to the Southern and Northern List case..."

The major case Chu Ge was thinking of was the very famous "Blank Seal Case."

However, the timing seemed inconsistent. During the late years of Emperor Taizu of Sheng, the Blank Seal Case had long been resolved.

Chu Ge considered for a moment and still did not dare to neglect it. He was aware that in this Trial Illusion, many events’ timelines were jumbled, and many known conditions had become somewhat unreliable.

It was definitely not possible to copy the answers from history outright.

With this in mind, he felt it necessary to investigate further.

"Come."

With a single summons from Chu Ge, the attending eunuch hurriedly replied, "Your servant is here."

Chu Ge pondered for a moment: "Go find the supervisory officials and have them investigate these account books. Especially with regards to how the seals were used on these ledgers."

The eunuch accepted the order and hurried off.

The Great Sheng Dynasty had established special agencies to supervise officials and provide the Emperor with intelligence. The supervisory officials were the predecessors to such an agency.

To look into this matter, expecting action from the run-of-the-mill bureaucrats was wishful thinking. It required professionals.

Meanwhile, Chu Ge continued to review the memorials.

After all, this was just a game, not real history, and soon after, the supervisory official arrived at the imperial palace to make a report.

He presented a special ledger.

Chu Ge flipped through the ledger, his expression growing increasingly solemn.

Indeed, as he had suspected, this was an empty ledger.

Yet, it was not entirely empty, for it bore official seals.

Meaning, the seals on this ledger had already been pre-stamped; it could be filled in with whatever content one wished to write.

Chu Ge couldn’t help but feel a bit melancholic.

It seemed that he was going to start burning brain cells again.

The only question was whether the situation he now faced would be consistent with the historical records.

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