Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 42 - 38 All Trial Instances Broken

Chapter 42: Chapter 38 All Trial Instances Broken

Although Xue Tianba had already fallen, Yun Ying still dared not carelessly, and kept holding tightly to her Longsword, full of vigilance.

There was no helping it, she really had been fooled by this instance!

Previously it took her a great effort to brawl and defeat Xue Tianba, but then he immediately armed himself with a weapon and entered the second stage.

Just as the blade-to-blade combat seemed to be successful, he shamelessly called over several house servants with a yell.

What if there was another feigned death and entering the fourth stage?

Then, Yun Ying would have really needed to find the game’s designer and have a serious talk about life with him.

Fortunately, the worst scenario Yun Ying had imagined didn’t occur, because after all, this instance was based on a historical theme and not a fantasy theme, so there were no settings like feigned deaths or demonization.

With the fall of Xue Tianba, the interface for clearing the level also appeared in front of Yun Ying.

"Ranger Trial: Acting for the Heavens"

"Cleared!"

"Clearance Evaluation: After this simple trial, you should understand the difference between ’using martial arts to commit offenses’ and ’acting for the heavens’."

"’Ranger’ identity selection unlocked!"

"Ranger exclusive talent ’Hero Leaves No Trace’: Your movement technique is agile, giving you more opportunities to break through numerous enemies or find chances to escape even in the midst of many foes."

"Note: The exclusive talent will take permanent effect after choosing this identity. As your identity level increases, the talent can be enhanced. Please carefully match it with other optional talents for maximum effectiveness."

Only then did Yun Ying breathe a sigh of relief.

Finally cleared!

In fact, just two or three days ago, she felt that she was just one step away from clearing the game, but she never imagined that this one step would take such a long time.

She couldn’t count how many times she had been killed by Xue Tianba, nearly becoming numb to it.

She just didn’t know if this was the first clearance of the Ranger instance.

Yun Ying’s gaze first swept over the "Clearance Evaluation" section.

It seemed that the creators of "Dark Sand" really had a problem, as all four trial instances were marked as "simple" in their evaluation system.

How was that simple!

However, from the clearance evaluation, one could still discern some of the game designer’s philosophy.

Historically, rangers tended to lean more toward the concept of "using martial arts to commit offenses". Many famous rangers weren’t really good people, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say some were akin to the mafia.

But in the game "Dark Sand," the Ranger class clearly advocates the spirit of ’acting for the heavens.’

And from the arrangement of the entire instance, it seemed there was even more content that could be analyzed.

But Yun Ying was lazy to think about that; such matters were for players like Chu Ge to worry about.

What she cared about more right now was the exclusive Ranger talent she had just unlocked.

"Hero Leaves No Trace" can be seen as a buff in terms of movement technique.

"Agile movements, whether it’s charging through multiple guards to kill a target or breaking out of an encirclement, receive boosts.

"This means the Ranger class is kind of different from the assassin role.

"Assassins need to kill targets, making full preparations in advance and trying every means to infiltrate, and once the assassination is successful, they basically don’t consider a way out, while a Ranger goes in boldly and fights their way out.

"The combat of an assassin is life-risking mainly targeting important figures; meanwhile, the Ranger’s combat ability is a bit more versatile, mastering not just fists and swordsmanship but also other weapons, and their targets are mostly tyrants and villains.

"Yes, this identity is more suitable for me."

In fact, before this, Yun Ying had been hesitating over whether to choose the roles of assassin, soldier, or ranger, but after seeing the Ranger’s exclusive talent, there was no need for uncertainty.

Just then, Yun Ying’s vision was covered by a white fog, and she felt that today’s joy was coming to an end.

She was about to wake up in reality.

"Good thing I cleared it at the last moment, everything was just right."

Yun Ying exited the game contentedly.

...

Chu Ge also woke up in reality.

He took out his phone and, sure enough, like Zhao Haiping, he had also received the official message and the dungeon-clearing video.

"Congratulations! As the first player to clear the scholar trial instance, you will automatically get a verified account and a ’top player’ tag on the official website. Would you agree to share your dungeon-clearing video on the official website to discuss and learn with other players?"

Chu Ge didn’t hesitate to choose ’agree’.

Like Zhao Haiping, he was an active and hardcore player, so he couldn’t miss this opportunity.

Moreover, Chu Ge had already posted some strategy threads in the forum before. If he acted like a master sharing his insights widely, and then ended up with neither the clearing video nor the top player tag, that would be absurd!

This identity was a must to have, to get more viewers on his future strategy guides.

Then, Chu Ge opened the official website of "Dark Sand" to check.

To his surprise, the official website of "Dark Sand" had undergone some changes in such a short time!

Firstly, all four instances now had their first-clear videos, indicating that, so far, these instances that players found insurmountably tough had all been conquered.

The players who first cleared the infantryman, scholar, and ranger instances proudly revealed their identities, but the player who first cleared the assassin trial chose to remain anonymous, only releasing his clearing video.

Moreover, the official site of "Dark Sand" had added new sections, including a player forum and video features.

The announcement stated that any player who clears any instance can unlock video editing features, allowing them to edit and post clips of their instance-clearing experiences afterward.

However, this editing feature seemed rather rudimentary, not as finely tuned as the official edits, which could reach movie quality, and lacking some details.

As an analogy, the official videos were like the game’s beautifully crafted promotional CGs, whereas the players’ were their own clearing recordings.

Nevertheless, this was still great news for the players!

Chu Ge randomly clicked into the forum and discovered that many players were already discussing.

"I cleared the infantryman instance too! It was so thrilling! I used to think ’Dark Sand’ wasn’t fun, but now I take that back; I was just not good enough!"

"I’ve also cleared the infantryman instance, can only say, it was profoundly moving, a sense of achievement I’ve never felt in other games!"

"The clearing videos for the other three instances are up too? Just have to say the bosses are fierce, figuring out such complex mechanics and dominating them, totally invincible."

"Rushing to watch the clearing videos for the other three instances, aiming to clear one myself tonight!"

"It seems like seventy to eighty people have cleared the infantryman instance already, terrifying, the moment there’s a clearing video, a huge swarm of players follow. I guess by tomorrow, there should be quite a few people who’ve cleared the assassin, ranger, and scholar instances."

"That assassin instance boss was fierce, such acting, truly Emmy-worthy! Wonder what he does in real life? Such a low profile too, a perfect chance to show off, but he chose to remain anonymous."

"Could the boss be some professional actor?"

"Professional actor with those moves? Maybe a professional stunt performer?"

"This golden talent is so strong, feels like with the talent boost, hard power is enough! Too bad I’ve never seen it..."

"Sure enough, Chu Ge was the first to clear the scholar instance, awesome!"

"The latter half was mesmerizing. I thought the content in the instance would be stuff I could find in history books, but meeting Wang Chong and Emperor Weizhao, those events aren’t even recorded! And their ludicrous arguments are so misleading, I felt swayed by them..."

"Exactly, Wang Chong’s ’Save the officials to save the people’ and Emperor Weizhao’s ’Yangtze and Yellow River theory’ are just top-level sophisms. If you aren’t experienced, you’d have been sucked right into their rhetoric. Luckily, our boss was well-prepared, smacked them down on the spot!"

"Right, it was so satisfying! Such a villain like Wang Chong and a tyrant like Emperor Weizhao deserved a good scolding!"

"The part where they scrape the bone in the prison was also shocking. Although there’s no combat in the scholar instance, it’s still hardcore. I’d rather choose the ranger instance and fight Xue Tianba than have to cut flesh from my own leg with broken bowl..."

"The ranger instance is twisted too, got beaten up when I entered and gave up, only now realizing there are three stages? Xue Tianba with a weapon is ruthless, not playing by the rules at all!"

"But still got wiped out by the boss, feel like this boss must be some real pro in real life, probably a real fighter?"

"Are you talking about Boss Yun Ying? Indeed, he’s a master from a martial arts school in real life, he has posted on the forum before."

"But these clearing bosses all say, the game’s power-ups happen very quickly, as long as you adapt to the combat talent, you can quickly activate your body’s muscle memory and turn it into your own combat skills. So ordinary people shouldn’t be discouraged, just need to train more. Although they might not match up to these bosses, clearing is still possible."

"Seeing the bosses’ videos got me motivated again! Ah, why are there still more than ten hours before the server opens again, I can’t wait!"

Indeed, as the four trial instances were successively conquered and their clearing videos released, players’ enthusiasm was ignited once again.

Many players were also discussing the content of the three other instances, including the operational techniques in the assassin trial, the historical records in the scholar trial, and the combat in the ranger trial.

Players had realized by now, the content of this game was indeed profound, evident from just these four starter instances!

Chu Ge looked through and found that the discussions among players were still somewhat unstructured.

He had some insights and speculations during his process of clearing the scholar instance, and after watching the clearing videos of the assassin and ranger trials, these speculations were further validated.

This was a perfect opportunity to make a video, share his thoughts on clearing the scholar instance, and then combine it with content from the other instances to analyze the unique aspects of "Dark Sand"!

With that said, Chu Ge got to work, downloaded the video from the "Dark Sand" official website, imported it into the editing software, and began producing.

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