Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 70 - 65 Meng Yuan’s Task (Extra - , Vote for More!)

Chapter 70: Chapter 65 Meng Yuan’s Task (Extra Chapter, Vote for More!)

In the true Return Order Space.

Meng Yuan walked out of the Trial Illusion.

Shenshan didn’t look at him but continued to focus on the players’ performances.

Not until the last player returned to reality did she turn and ask, "How is your progress?"

Meng Yuan considered his words carefully, "Not bad, I can at least perform in an opera for an hour without giving myself away."

Shenshan momentarily stopped her chip-munching hand and said with effort, "...Hmm, that’s significant progress."

With a wave of her hand, the countless Trial Illusions in front of her began to rewind, replaying the players’ performances from the night before in the Illusion Realm.

"It’s the second day already. The players have made progress, but it’s still not systematic.

"This instance is not like the previous trial instances with a clear main storyline; instead, many clues are intertwined.

"In the true historical slices, you can switch identities, and anyone can be subject to tampering, meaning the information that needs to be analyzed has grown exponentially compared to before.

"Even with the help of the talent of memory fragments, the difficulty has spiked.

"I wonder how many more days the players will need to break this Trial Illusion."

Meng Yuan took a seat on a stone chair, "The last thing we need to worry about in the entire process is the players.

"I think you should worry more about me, the legitimate Return Orderer.

"Like, maybe give me some special training or something."

Shenshan looked at him, "If I could, I would’ve offered you the special training long ago."

Meng Yuan felt a tinge of melancholy and asked, "I’ve always had a question, as a guide, what exactly are you?

"This Trial Illusion was created by completely replicating a historical slice through the power of a Return Orderer.

"So, theoretically, the original Return Orderers must have entered this historical slice before, right? As a guide, you should know the method to resolve this slice of history, shouldn’t you?"

Shenshan shook her head, "No, I don’t know.

"Every historical slice has a different situation. When demons tamper with history, it’s impossible for them to alter the same aspects each time.

"The so-called Trial Illusion is the complete replication of the historical slice using the power of Return Orderers, allowing them to thoroughly understand the status of the demons’ tampering. Then, we use the power of the Return Orderers to temporarily reverse the entire historical slice to the state of a demon invasion, changing everything from the very beginning.

"So each time a trip into the historical slice fails, we need a considerable amount of Return Orderer power to return to the starting point the next time. It’s very consuming.

"Of course, if it’s the same historical event, the true historical memories can indeed be retained. But my powers have been severely weakened, similar to how you did not inherit the original owner’s memories.

"Only when we correct this slice of history can we regain the true historical memory and solidify it."

Meng Yuan nodded, "Alright.

"It seems I need to step up my game so I won’t hold the players back..."

As the legitimate Return Orderer, Meng Yuan was destined to enter the historical slice with the players.

After all, his role was akin to that of a driver; without him, the others could not enter at all.

Meng Yuan was not confident in his combat ability. After some thought, he figured that among all the roles within the historical slice, the one that suited him best was probably Su Xianjun.

When the time came, he could rely on his "innate skill advantage" to play Su Xianjun and perform on stage without much trouble.

But another problem lingered.

Meng Yuan needed to figure out a way to get on the perfect clearance leaderboard.

Because the selection of players was fair, just, and open, each player would receive a comprehensive score after clearing the Trial Illusion.

Factors affecting this comprehensive score included the degree of restoration to history, the fit with the role played, the time taken to solve the Trial Illusion, and so on.

In short, the smoother the resolution and the closer to the true character, the higher the score.

Each player could see this score during the instance, and only those with the highest scores would enter the real historical slices to undertake the ultimate challenge with 100% pain sensation.

So the question was, what if Meng Yuan couldn’t get on that leaderboard?

He would have to resort to some behind-the-scenes manipulation...

That didn’t seem quite right.

After all, as the legitimate Return Orderer with access to the players’ strategies and an advantage in innate skills, if he still couldn’t beat the players, he might as well smash his head on a block of tofu.

As such, Meng Yuan hadn’t been idle these past few days, suffering in the Trial Illusion just like the other players.

Initially, he had been worried whether the players could adapt to the identity of a Return Orderer or bring their real strength to bear in the instance, so he had spent a lot of time with Shenshan, watching the players’ conditions.

Now that the players had proven their capabilities, Meng Yuan no longer needed to worry as much as before. He could focus more on himself.

"Hmm, let’s see if there are any new strategies from the players."

Meng Yuan began browsing the forums.

...

At that time, Zhao Haiping had just awakened.

The first thing he did after waking up was naturally to check the forum.

Clearly, after the fierce battle the previous night, most players, like him, were stuck on those two Shadow Servants.

The first post he saw was from Chu Ge.

"Major discovery regarding the theater storyline!

"Although I’m disappointed, after spending hundreds of identity points, I’ve finally confirmed that Wang Jinhui isn’t the altered one; he really is a coward.

"However, the effort wasn’t completely without gain.

"The history records state that Wang Jinhui died for his country in this battle. But I found that, strictly speaking, he didn’t die for the country; he was killed by an Eastern Barbarian Shadow Servant.

"This Shadow Servant had actually been watching the person fleeing from the backstage of the theater all along, mistaking Wang Jinhui for someone seeking help or conveying information, which is why he killed him.

"Meaning, there’s no way Wang Jinhui could have completed the plan to set the theater on fire.

"So, eliminating this distraction, the only remaining option, no matter how illogical, has to be the only answer.

"I speculate that the person who completed the plan to set the theater on fire is actually Yang Xinyan!

"However, this theory has its doubts, too, because the Yang Xinyan I saw in Su Xianjun’s memory fragments was not any kind of heroic figure; his fear of the bandits was not an act. It was real.

"This point really contradicts itself and initially caused me a lot of confusion.

"Anyway, for the next trial, I plan to impersonate Yang Xinyan and give it a try.

"This is all I gained last night; has anyone else figured out anything regarding the mole?"

Following that was a post from Huo Yunying.

"As of now, I’ve almost ruled out Gao Ze as the mole.

"My approach differs from others; I didn’t focus on the theater, but rather followed Gao Ze from the very beginning.

"He fought the bandits from start to finish, and in the end, he organized the local militia to attack the theater and died heroically.

"I’m more inclined to think that the mole is someone else among the militia.

"Another point is that these two Eastern Barbarian Shadow Servants have become our biggest obstacle to clearing the game.

"According to Chu Ge, one of the Shadow Servants leaves the theater to chase after those who go to inform or call for help, which might interfere with the recruiting of the militia; and I found that the other Shadow Servant keeps watch on the theater’s rooftop, ready to whistle and signal the moment they spot danger.

"I followed Gao Ze to attack the theater, hoping to catch the bandits off guard, but it seemed like they were already prepared, causing our mission to fail.

"As long as these two Shadow Servants are there, I fear that the plan to set the theater on fire will probably be impossible.

"Has any player tried to kill these two Shadow Servants?"

Other players expressed their admiration, amazed that the veterans had ruled out several incorrect options so quickly.

At the same time, while most players were still dying in Trial Realm, quite unsure about life, the veterans were already gradually finding their way.

As for the question Huo Yunying raised, no player was able to answer him.

Kill that Shadow Servant?

Setting aside the fact that the Shadow Servant himself was a formidable fighter and the odds of players losing one-on-one were extremely high, the key point was that he was always hiding on top of the theater. With so many tasks for the average player to do, there was simply no time to go and fight him to the death!

Players expressed their regret, wishing Huo Yunying had posted a day earlier; perhaps some players would have attempted it the previous night.

Now, it seemed they’d have to wait until tomorrow to find out the results.

But just as the players were about to discuss other topics, a reply reignited everyone’s enthusiasm.

"I killed him, but he didn’t drop anything useful."

Huo Yunying himself was taken aback. On closer inspection of the person replying, it was a female player named Xia Ruoling, with the assassin identity.

A female player?!

Huo Yunying couldn’t help but be surprised; who was this ultimate tough player?

Before he could ask, Chu Ge had already replied: "Didn’t drop anything useful? Does that mean he did drop something?"

Xia Ruoling: "Yeah, I found a City Defense Map on him, but the city has already fallen, so this thing definitely won’t be of any use now."

Huo Yunying also couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed; indeed, just a City Defense Map would not be of much help in the current situation.

If they’d only gotten it at the very start, if they’d been able to enter the Trial Illusion earlier, perhaps they could have checked the map for any unaddressed vulnerabilities to bolster the city defenses.

But obviously that was not possible.

However, Chu Ge replied, "No, this thing is not useless; it’s very useful!

"How did you kill that Shadow Servant? He was hiding on the theater roof; even for an assassin player, it would seem unlikely to succeed in his home territory, right?"

Xia Ruoling: "No, I watched him for a long time and found that he didn’t stay on the roof of the theater the whole time; he left at one point.

"I tried to trail him, but his vigilance was high, and he quickly spotted me.

"So I did the opposite and set up an ambush on the inevitable path back to the theater. It took me two tries to successfully kill him."

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