Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 55 - 51 New Version Operation Plan

Chapter 55: Chapter 51 New Version Operation Plan

Meng Yuan returned to the Return Order Space.

He needn’t worry about the event scene, as Dark Sand had smoothed over all the traces there and had recovered all the demons that appeared.

Matters such as martial law over the area would be dealt with by Du Gang and his colleagues.

As for whether the players would gather for a meal offline after the group activity or go their separate ways, or how they would discuss it online, it didn’t matter; he could just let them decide for themselves.

For Meng Yuan, there were more important things to do right now.

Seeing Meng Yuan, Dark Sand gave a thumbs-up, praising him, "Well done!

"I didn’t expect your plan to really work, and the incident of the demon invasion was resolved perfectly.

"Without your player training plan, it would have been more troublesome to resolve this incident.

"And your acting isn’t bad either, deliberately suppressing your combat strength to blend in perfectly with the players, without arousing their suspicion."

Meng Yuan fell silent for a moment, "Is there a possibility that it wasn’t an act, but my true strength?"

Dark Sand was at a loss for words.

Meng Yuan didn’t dwell on this issue, and after sizing her up, he said, "Didn’t you absorb some power? You don’t seem to have changed at all."

Dark Sand sighed softly, "The power I absorbed this time was only from a few demons in a minor historical fragment, hardly even enough to be considered a dessert. How could there be any noticeable change?"

Meng Yuan, "It feels like it was all for nothing."

Dark Sand shook her head, "It wasn’t for nothing. On the one hand, the invasion of demons into reality was prevented, but more importantly, we can use these demons that appeared in reality to trace back to that historical fragment, then use the absorbed power to create corresponding simulated trials, preparing to enter that fragment."

After a brief discussion with Dark Sand, Meng Yuan quickly determined the next target.

Generally speaking, although demon invasions through historical fragments have occurred in the past, this is the first occurrence in several hundred years.

The battle between the Returners and the demons is a tug-of-war; the Returners continuously clear historical fragments, advancing towards the domains occupied by demons in ancient times. The further they progress, the safer the real world becomes.

However, as history accrues, people’s collective memory of the ancient times becomes increasingly vague, the demons grow stronger, and their infiltration into reality naturally becomes more difficult to deal with.

In much older times, although demons also invaded reality, they were all appropriately resolved by Returners. With the underdeveloped communication of those times, at most, it would just leave behind a vague legend of ghosts and goblins, not exposing much.

But with modern technology’s development and the rapid flow of information, combined with the peak of demon power in several hundred years, the situation has become incredibly tricky.

If we still used the old methods, Meng Yuan could indeed concentrate all the Returner’s power on himself and clean up the demons one by one, but that would inevitably lead to exposure and could likely result in unnecessary casualties.

The original owner chose to go public with this information precisely because he was out of options.

Being a complete novice, Meng Yuan didn’t have to struggle with the question of whether to go himself. By disguising it as a game, he managed to solve the problem neatly.

Yet the current situation remained dire.

The players had only eliminated a few demons that came from that historical fragment.

As time goes on, that historical fragment will continue to overlap with reality, and more demons will come into reality.

If every incident is resolved in this manner, overturning would inevitably occur.

Thus, Meng Yuan’s next goal was clear: to organize players to attack this historical fragment, eliminate all the demons inside, absorb its power, and transform this historical fragment into a frontline bastion for the real world!

It sounds simple, but in practice, it’s far from easy.

Because the real world is equivalent to the home ground for Meng Yuan, a Returner, and the altered historical fragment is equivalent to the home ground for the demons.

It would be difficult for Meng Yuan to send all players bravely to face a head-on battle with the demons.

Dark Sand explained, "You can think of the historical fragment controlled by the demons as a hard walnut. If we were powerful enough, we could indeed shatter the walnut directly, but such a cost is too great, and we are not capable of doing that right now.

"So, we can only find a way to slip through the cracks of the walnut, locate its core, and attempt to dissolve it from the inside, creating a breakthrough. Then, we can send all the players in with a grand gesture.

"The shell is the twisted and altered history. Once its truth is discovered and restored, the power of the demons will be significantly weakened.

"According to the Returners’ usual methods, they first use the Returners’ power to create a Trial Illusion that simulates the corresponding historical fragment. After repeated attempts and when they are completely confident, they find a way to sneak into the demon-controlled historical fragment. They identify the key points that have been twisted and altered, correct them, and thus create a breakthrough. Then, using the Returner’s power, they clear out the demons inside."

Meng Yuan nodded, "Yes, we still have to follow this process, only now we’re guiding the players to complete it.

"First, we use the absorbed power to locate that historical fragment, copy, and create a new Trial Illusion for the players to challenge.

"Afterward, once the players gradually solve it, I will select those with the best simulated performance in the Trial Illusion, and send them into this historical fragment to dissolve the power of the demons from within.

"Once the twisted history is corrected, we can naturally open up a new battlefield, sending the players in en masse to completely sweep clean the demons of this historical fragment, and then turn it into our forward position.

"In gaming terms...

"After the warm-up event ’Demon Invasion’ for the offline activity, ’Dark Sand’ will launch a new historical line of solo instances. After players clear them, the top players on the leaderboard can be selected to challenge the ’Hell Difficulty’ of that instance.

"After the Hell Difficulty instance is also cleared, the network mode of this historical line will be opened, allowing a large number of players to enter the instance’s slice world, to experience multiplayer online team battle gameplay and other content.

""

"Hmm, this rhythm is perfect."

Meng Yuan felt that he was becoming more attuned to his role as the game’s operation manager.

Canopus warned, "However, there are a few things to watch out for. Once players enter the real historical slice, I can’t restrict their sense of pain anymore. In other words, the experience of battle in the real historical slice will be very different from fighting in the Trial Illusion for the players.

"Moreover, although there is a tolerance for error within the historical slices, each failure consumes a significant amount of energy to reset everything. So failing once or twice is manageable, but more than that becomes problematic.

"In addition, these historical slices, which have been occupied and altered by monsters, are mostly events that have no historical records. Even if there are records, they have been modified.

"Because the historical slices that people have a clear collective memory of are very difficult to invade, monsters find it easier to invade those forgotten by history.

"In other words, it will be difficult for players to find the standard answers by looking at historical materials. If they rely completely on historical records, they could even be completely misled.

"This means that the difficulty will surge in all aspects for the players.

"I’m not sure if they will be able to perform as well as they have been."

Meng Yuan confidently reassured, "You worry too much. As long as we write these settings into the game’s update announcement, players will naturally think of solutions.

"To the real hardcore players, this level of difficulty increase is nothing."

...

Evening.

Zhao Haiping, who had slept through the entire afternoon, got up from his bed feeling sore all over and ravenously hungry.

After ordering and devouring a high-calorie takeout meal, he finally felt his energy returning.

"Participating in an offline MR activity was more exhausting than three hours of workout at the gym. If we keep having activities like this, I’m afraid I’ll become a sports champion."

Sated and content, Zhao Haiping sprawled on the living room couch and checked out player discussions on the official Dark Sand forum.

Overall, the event was extremely successful and the response was enthusiastic.

The number of monsters that appeared in different offline event locations varied, and the players employed different strategies.

For instance, in the activity area where Yun Ying was, there were only six players, and one Eastern Barbarian Shadow Servant and two Eastern Barbarian thieves were spawned.

Yun Ying alone engaged the Eastern Barbarian Shadow Servant, and the other players coordinated well, concluding the battle without much danger.

By comparison, the activity area where Zhao Haiping participated had the longest battle duration because an Eastern Barbarian General was spawned, and the monster count was the highest.

Of course, from another perspective, their battle was also the most thrilling.

There were also players discussing how the MR effects were achieved. After all, they saw with their own eyes a player being launched into the air by the Eastern Barbarian General, when that player obviously should not have been able to fly, let alone tumble.

Including some players who valiantly fought covered in blood, rolling on the ground, and yet after leaving the game there wasn’t a speck of dust on them.

Some players speculated it might be because they were experiencing it under a connected consciousness state, meaning their in-game actions were different from their actual real-life actions. It’s just that the game officials, through some black technology, bridged the gap between reality and virtual space excellently - now that’s what you call true MR technology.

Of course, these were just speculations since the officials had never explained this, leaving players to fill in the blanks with their imagination.

Dark Sand was filled with incomprehensible black technologies, and players were almost accustomed to it.

A small number of players felt that the difficulty of the event seemed a bit low compared to previous Trial Illusion instances.

But most players didn’t see it as a problem; after all, it was just an offline event. If the difficulty was too high and players struggled or even failed, it would mean there was an issue with the game organizers’ arrangements.

A difficulty like this was just right.

In short, most players were satisfied with the event.

There was just one complaint: too few spots!

With so few players participating, other players couldn’t even view the scene’s recordings, left to imagine the battle scenario based on descriptions from the few who were there.

Players were clamoring for more of such events.

Shouldn’t every major first and second-tier city get a slice of the action, with at least a dozen participants per location?

Meanwhile, some players were more concerned about the promised increase in internal test player spots.

In a nutshell, if they can’t play, there’s no point in talking about game experience!

However, it wasn’t long before the topics being hotly debated on the forums shifted to something else.

Because soon after the "Monster Invasion" offline event, two significant pieces of news appeared online.

One was that following the warm-up of this event, Dark Sand would update the latter part of the Great Sheng Dynasty’s historical line - which meant actual game content, different from the original four Trial Illusions.

Of course, the previously promised increase in the number of internal test players would also be implemented.

The other piece of news was that TV stations and many official media outlets reported on Dark Sand, providing explanations for the groundbreaking technological principles used in the game!

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