Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 56 - 52 Update Announcement

Chapter 56: Chapter 52 Update Announcement

Seeing these two messages, Hai Ping’s spirits immediately lifted.

"Wow, that’s some efficient updating!"

After all, "Dark Sand" used an epoch-making VR technology that had never appeared before, so players had no way to estimate how much work it would take to develop an instance.

What if the previous four Trial Illusions were the result of several years of hard work by the "Dark Sand" development team?

Then who knows how long it would be until the next update.

Fortunately, the official "Dark Sand" support was very reliable; they never delayed releases. Right after finishing the offline activities for this MR mode, they immediately updated the version.

Hai Ping hurriedly clicked to view the new version’s update announcement.

"Dark Sand New Version Update Announcement:

"In this update, "Dark Sand" will open up new content for all players to enjoy, with details as follows.

"One, launch of the basic feature ’Historical Lines’.

"Historical Lines are a fundamental mechanic of ’Dark Sand’, connecting ancient times with the present, the closer to ancient times, the rarer collective memory becomes, and the stronger the power of demons. Therefore, as Return Order players enhance their strength, the Historical Lines will unlock from near to far and from easy to hard.

"Current open Historical Line phase: the middle and late period of the Great Sheng Dynasty.

"Unlock Trial Illusion: Even the Settled Affairs Await the Closing Coffin.

"Two, launch of the advanced feature ’Ultimate Trial’.

"On top of the standard Trial Illusions, we will unlock the hell difficulty Ultimate Trial Illusions.

"Compared to standard Trial Illusions, the hell difficulty Trials will have the following enhancements: pain sensation increased to 100%; enemy AI elevated to the highest level; minor changes in content possible relative to standard Trials; only one chance to challenge.

"Only the most outstanding players in the standard Trial Illusion will have the opportunity to enter the hell difficulty Trial Illusions. Depending on the Trial, the system will automatically select 1 to 5 players to enter together and cooperate to solve the Illusion.

"After clearing the hell difficulty Trial Illusion, the system will automatically edit it into a film to be presented to the public through movies and other mediums.

"Three, launch of the advanced feature ’Return Order Expedition’.

"After the successful players complete the Ultimate Trial, that historical snapshot’s barriers will be broken, allowing other players to enter the fragment to clear out demons through networked team play, modifying the historical snapshot.

"Four, Beta Player Credential Distribution.

"This phase will distribute an additional 10,000 beta credentials.

"In the first batch of beta credentials, players who have yet to clear any Trial instance will have their beta credentials automatically revoked.

"The revoked beta credentials will be distributed together with the new ones, with the drawing rules unchanged."

The update announcement was lengthy and packed with solid content.

Hai Ping read it through carefully twice, afraid to miss any detail.

"So, the newly unlocked Historical Line is the game’s official content? Those four trial identities from before were just a tutorial.

"This Ultimate Trial is quite interesting, but the restrictions are quite harsh. Out of the 20,000 beta players, only 1 to 5 can participate, and they only have one chance to challenge?

"And the difficulty of this instance is downright terrifying. What does 100% pain sensation even mean? If one is really stabbed, unless one has a special talent, isn’t one going to lose combat ability right away?

"It’s forcing players to be unhurt, right?

"Moreover, the enemy AI will be even more powerful.

"With the AI of regular instances already being so exaggerated, if it’s enhanced further, won’t they become extremely cunning?

"And there’s only one chance, which means you must repeatedly clear the regular Trial Illusions, thoroughly understand all the details, and be able to adapt to various unexpected situations.

"It’s practically a thin line between life and death.

"However, the reward after clearing it is indeed very generous. The official production of a movie from the experience is a great opportunity to show face in front of global players; moreover, whether the Hell Difficulty Trial is cleared directly determines whether the ’Return Order Expedition’ instance can be opened."

"If the player chosen for the hell-level trial fails, does that mean all internal beta testers worldwide won’t be able to access this networked gameplay? A significant portion of the game just won’t be open to players?"

"That’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. How could there be such an absurd game developer!"

"But..."

"Looking at it from another angle, isn’t this precisely the ultimate dream of all hardcore gamers?"

In previous games, there were settings like "Expert Mode" where characters had only one life—if they died once, the save file was immediately trashed and all the previous effort went down the drain.

Only players who thoroughly understood the game mechanics and had utmost confidence in their skills dared to attempt such difficulty levels.

And this "ultimate trial" of Dark Sand would be like playing on Expert Mode.

The difficulty was even close to real historical challenges, except players could repeatedly practice simulated trials in advance to gather some intelligence (though there might be slight variations under hell difficulty), and they could enhance their abilities using the "Return Order" powers—other than that, the difficulty was entirely consistent with real history.

Moreover, taking on this difficulty level would subject players to immense psychological pressure.

On one hand, knowing they only had one shot and absolutely could not fail, and on the other hand, because their performance would directly determine whether other players could experience a very important part of the game.

If they failed, wouldn’t they get blasted by gamers worldwide?

Just thinking about it felt super thrilling.

This kind of pressure was even higher than that of some major global esports championships.

But for true hardcore gamers, this was indeed an excellent stage. Success meant instant fame and adoration from countless people!

Of course, thinking so far ahead was useless now, as the opportunity to take on this challenge had to be fought for.

You’d have to deliver your best performance in the regular Trial Illusion instances to possibly be selected by the system for the ultimate challenge.

The number of internal beta testers had doubled this time, increasing to twenty thousand. Whether new or old players, they were mostly gaming experts or had special real-world professions. After fierce internal competition, who would land those few spots was anyone’s guess.

Zhao Haiping could only silently resolve to grind!

First to set a small goal: achieve First Clear in the ordinary Trial Illusion, then strive for a No-Damage run.

This update’s instance was named "Even With Destiny Fulfilled, One Still Awaits the Closure of their Coffin," it could only be confirmed to be a historical slice from the middle or later periods of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Moreover, it likely wasn’t any significant historical event but a minor incident in a local area.

As for the enemies, they were probably the same monsters fought in the offline event, the Eastern Barbarian brigands.

Nothing more could be gleaned, and the rest would have to wait until entering the game after 10 PM tonight.

On the forums, players were also wildly discussing the new content of Dark Sand, and of course, many were making wishes, hoping to be the lucky ones to secure a spot in the internal beta.

Missing out on this, who knew when the next internal beta expansion would be—it was natural to feel anxious.

The scarcity of internal beta spots even gave rise to services for proxy playing.

Although no one knew the exact selection criteria for the Dark Sand internal beta, many speculated that having extensive experience with action VR games might improve the chances of being selected.

Since Dark Sand used brainwave-pattern recognition, internal beta spots couldn’t be bought or sold, but if you hired someone to improve your action VR game history on your gaming account, might that increase your selection probability?

Many people tried just that.

Unfortunately, their hopes were bound to be disappointed.

...

While players had boundless anticipation for the new content of Dark Sand, the media’s coverage of the game’s cutting-edge consciousness connection technology also sparked a great deal of discussion.

Although many players had previously speculated about the technological principles behind Dark Sand, those were, after all, just speculations.

There were still countless mysteries about the company that were yet to be unraveled.

But this time, several authoritative state-run media outlets in the country had also spoken up, reporting quite high-profile on the epoch-making consciousness connection technology of Dark Sand!

The reports weren’t particularly detailed but did manage to clear up some of the players’ confusion.

After all, this could involve crucial commercial secrets, and it was understandable that many things could not be discussed in detail.

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