Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 40 - 36: The Martial Arts Expert’s Gaming Experience

Chapter 40: Chapter 36: The Martial Arts Expert’s Gaming Experience

At that time, many other players were suffering in the Ranger’s trials.

Meng Yuan and Yun Ying were particularly focused on one of them.

However, his style of playing the game was completely different from Chu Ge’s.

In fact, all four trials in "Dark Sand" were tough, each with different excruciating details.

But if one had to choose the most torturous, it would definitely be the Ranger’s trial.

The assassin’s trial was harsh, getting ruthlessly hacked by Red Armor Guards upon exposure, but there was a lengthy narrative part during the journey to the Great Hall and dialoguing with Emperor Yanling.

The soldier’s trial also was tough, having to face endless Beidi barbarians, but one could somewhat slack off and tough it out during the first phase.

Not to mention the scholar’s trial, where the physical suffering involved was more of a test of willpower; enduring it was generally feasible as long as one clenched their teeth.

But the Ranger’s instance was different, lacking any means to mitigate the suffering.

It started off by directly facing the final boss, Xue Tianba, and other than fighting him head-on, move by move, there were no other options!

It could also be said that the Ranger’s trial held the highest demands on a player’s combat skills, hence it remained unconquered till now.

However, it was nearly there.

Yun Ying returned to the very beginning of the instance, briefly summarized his previous mistakes, and started reselecting his talent skills.

His eyes swept over three talents that had been retained after many refreshes.

[Gui - Proficiency in Fist Techniques (Blue): Your fist technique level is accordingly enhanced.]

[Ren - Proficiency in Weapons (Blue): Your level in the eighteen types of weapons is accordingly enhanced.]

[Ren - Precision Strike (Blue): Your attacks aimed at enemy’s weaknesses are more likely to inflict additional damage.]

After a moment of contemplation, Yun Ying chose "Precision Strike."

These three talents were meticulously selected after countless deaths.

Even for someone like him, skilled in real-world martial arts and combat, he had to honestly choose combat-related talents in the game, otherwise the difficulty would steeply increase.

When Yun Ying first saw the talent "Proficiency in Weapons," he wondered where weapons were even used in this instance as both the player and Xue Tianba fought bare-handed.

Later, he realized he had been naive.

Just like in the soldier’s and assassin’s instances, grabbing combat talents quickly activated the muscle memory of this body, rapidly enhancing one’s combat capabilities.

Now, Yun Ying felt his combat memory was almost fully activated, so he picked "Precision Strike" to further enhance his combat effectiveness.

Because Xue Tianba was extremely tough, with a high resilience to blows, taking this talent was crucial to avoid futile efforts.

With all preparations complete, Yun Ying began the trial anew.

The instance officially started, and Xue Tianba assumed a provocative stance against Yun Ying, just as he had against Chu Ge.

For Yun Ying, who could now reliably push Xue Tianba into the third phase of the combat, these moves were all too familiar, no longer surprising; after posing, he slowly approached Xue Tianba while tentatively making attacking moves to provoke him.

Both were cautious, neither entering the other’s striking range, and continued using feints to lure each other into making a move.

Suddenly, Xue Tianba charged aggressively, lunging out with a heavy punch after a feint!

Yun Ying, fully prepared, rapidly dodged in a focused state, then launched a counterattack.

Their fight, much like many martial arts films, was truly a feast for the eyes.

Yun Ying was a martial arts expert in reality, and he didn’t just practice fixed routines; he was also versed in various combat techniques.

So for Meng Yuan, "Dark Sand" carried a very unique meaning compared to other players.

For other players, fighting Xue Tianba was purely masochistic, since the gap between them was too great.

Even if one could master some techniques through the muscle memory of their avatar, finding joy in this kind of combat remained difficult.

But for Yun Ying, he had always been able to feel this enjoyment from the beginning.

Kung fu is a lethal skill, and while many look down on traditional martial arts due to scammers posing as masters, in reality, traditional martial arts aren’t just empty forms—they’ve only turned into that during peacetime.

The various schools of traditional martial arts have survived the intense scrutiny over long periods, and impractical schools have long disappeared into the annals of history. Only truly effective and powerful martial arts have been passed down to this day.

Some martial arts techniques might seem impractical, but they could be designed to better train disciples’ power delivery or to handle special circumstances; essentially, they all have their significance.

However, with humanity entering an era of peace and prohibitions against fighting and brawling, even sparring couldn’t aim to kill and was only done to make contact. Consequently, the practicality of martial arts was significantly reduced and shifted towards performance.

Moreover, many inheritors of traditional schools no longer face the same threats from challengers as before. Just by living off their predecessors’ achievements, they can do quite well, naturally resulting in a lack of motivation to pass on and enhance these martial arts.

Thus, many people disdain traditional martial arts.

But Yun Ying didn’t see it that way; he always believed that traditional martial arts could still be applicable in real combat.

The reason he studied various schools of martial arts, as well as modern combat arts, was to enhance his combat abilities as much as possible.

Although, in a peaceful era, these abilities were mostly redundant, pursuing greater strength had always been a martial artist’s goal.

But the biggest problem was that he hardly found opportunities to break through his limits in reality.

The reason was simple: martial arts were meant to end lives, and real-life sparring always involved holding back, never truly reaching the lethal potential of these arts.

Thus, Yun Ying always felt his improvement was too slow in the real world.

But now, with the game "Dark Sand," everything had changed.

Xue Tianba himself was a martial arts master. He was not only physically strong and highly skilled, but he would also use every means possible to kill you!

Many current action games, no matter how well made, ultimately still have flaws.

This boils down to the enemies not being intelligent enough.

Of course, this might also be to spare players’ feelings. If the enemies were too intelligent, many players couldn’t handle it.

Take the simple command reading – if monsters attack immediately when a player drinks a potion or plans to use an item, or counterattacks as the player makes a move, many players feel overwhelmed and claim the game is unplayable, as if the boss were cheating.

Therefore, combat mechanics in regular games generally adapt to player habits and lower the difficulty.

But with regular combat mechanics, Yun Ying could never gain any improvement from the game. The issue wasn’t just about the difficulty being too high or too low – the difference from reality was just too vast.

But "Dark Sand" was completely different.

It seemed not to have considered any difficulty settings at all. Many settings that were criticized by players in other games were not only unaltered here but intensified!

If one had to summarize it in four words, those would be "Aiming for Pure Realism!"

Just take the boss Xue Tianba.

What’s command reading? Xue Tianba not only observes what you’re doing, hitting your weak points when you’re distracted, but he also feints and uses devious tactics, employing many underhanded fighting techniques.

In short, he fights in whatever way makes it most difficult for you!

It’s like an incredibly high-IQ adult shamelessly bullying an elementary schooler.

But for Yun Ying, this was exactly what he had longed for.

Because in this game instance, he could truly experience something he never had the chance to in real life – a battle of life and death!

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