Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 86 - 81 Why are the natives so formidable this time?

Chapter 86: Chapter 81 Why are the natives so formidable this time?

"What a massive battle scene...

"This could really be called ’tens of thousands on the same screen, a battle of nations,’ right?"

A soldier player looked down at the vast thief army below and couldn’t help but whisper such a lament.

Most players naturally fell silent, a bit like in many team games, where everyone could chat and laugh before starting the boss fight, but as soon as it was time to engage, only the voice of the commander remained in the voice chat, and most players would consciously shut up and focus on their actions.

That was the situation now; the players were all ready for battle.

And indeed, under the atmosphere of the demonic army bearing down upon the city, the players truly felt the pressure!

If this were a real battlefield, many might have gone weak in the knees under such pressure, or even thought of running away.

But these players had all been through the wringer, having been toughened up by countless trials in the Trial Illusion, and they firmly believed it was just a game, so there were no signs of cowardice; on the contrary, they were boiling with excitement, looking forward to the impending war!

"Get ready, draw bows!"

On the eastern city wall, a player acting as the Chiliarch gave the command, and the soldier players behind him uniformly drew their bows and nocked their arrows without releasing, aiming at the thieves approaching below.

The scholar-type players in the teams chanted poetic lines like "When drawing a bow, draw fully; when choosing arrows, use the longest," buffing their fellow soldier players.

As the thieves entered the range of the bows, the player gave the command, "Release arrows!"

The sound of the whooshing arrows filled the air relentlessly, even merging into a continuous buzz, as hundreds of arrows rained down on the thieves!

Archery was basically a required skill for soldier players; after all, to clear the soldier trials, one had to adapt and master the "proficient in bow and horse" talent.

This volley of arrows struck right at the thieves’ vanguard who were preparing to attack the east gate of the county town!

Many of the thieves fell to the ground after being hit, but there were also many in the front ranks who quickly raised wooden shields to block the incoming arrows.

A second volley of arrows quickly followed, and more arrows slipped through the gaps in the shields, bringing down more soldiers, but this Eastern Barbarian thief contingent pressed on resolutely, with no signs of retreat whatsoever!

Soon, many of the thieves were also drawing bows and shooting back at the city!

A few players yelled out in surprise, obviously hit by arrows. They seemingly didn’t expect the thieves to shoot from so far away and were caught off guard.

Logically, since the players were on the city walls and the thieves below, the players should naturally be able to shoot much farther due to the advantage of higher ground.

Yet the range of these thieves’ bows exceeded the players’ estimations.

Seeing this, Chu Ge’s brow furrowed slightly.

"Have these thief soldiers become significantly stronger after being controlled by demons?

"Not only have their strength, speed, and vitality been enhanced, but the key point is that they have no fear, know no fatigue, and will continually attack.

"The bodies of the thieves who died from arrows didn’t disappear, which means that these thieves are different from the ’Demon Invasion’ live event before; they are not projections but some kind of entity created by the demons?"

As Chu Ge and other players were analyzing the strength of the demons and contemplating strategies, both sides had already completed several rounds of shooting at each other.

Many thieves were shot dead, but the players’ side also started to suffer casualties.

Some soldier players were unjustly killed, simply showing their heads atop the city walls and not even having shot their arrows before a perfectly timed arrow from below struck them, sending them to meet their makers.

All you could say was, it was bad luck!

Those players were all frustratingly annoyed; they hadn’t had their fill of the fight, hadn’t had their three-hundred rounds of battle with the thieves, and to die before achieving anything was outrageous, wasn’t it?

Indeed, the battlefield was merciless; to die this easily was just... too simple...

Fortunately, after they died, they simply turned into Spiritual Body state and reappeared in the center of the county town, immobile, with a special page in front of them.

[Remaining resurrection counts: 0/1, resurrection countdown: 29:59]

Seeing this page, the fallen players felt somewhat relieved; at least they had a chance to be resurrected!

Even though they could only resurrect once and had to wait for 30 minutes, it was much better than no chance of resurrection at all.

They would have to be more cautious with their next life and couldn’t afford to die as senselessly.

Those who hadn’t died also learned their lesson, not daring to rush in recklessly anymore, but instead treasuring their own life even more.

Soon, the thieves had already rushed to the bottom of the city walls, and using wooden ladders, they began to scale the walls!

This was just a small county town after all; the earthen walls weren’t very high, and there were many breaches, while the thieves came on fiercely, and close combat ensued between the two sides quickly!

The soldier players on the city wall immediately discarded their bows and arrows for shields and spears, wildly stabbing at the thieves trying to scale the walls.

There were also some soldier players who pulled out long sabers and engaged in passionate slashing battles with the thieves.

The situation instantly became extremely chaotic, but luckily, most of the soldier players had already experienced this kind of siege defense in the soldier trial instance, so they adapted quickly and withstood the first wave of the enemy’s assault.

Zhao Haiping, leading two or three squads, blocked the breach in the city wall, using long spears to knock down the bandits attempting to climb through the gap one by one.

The players had already discovered that under the Return Order Expedition gameplay, they could obtain cold weapons such as long knives, long spears, shields, and bows and arrows without any restrictions, just as they had been able to do in the previous "Demon Invasion" offline MR event. Therefore, the clever moves they had executed during the offline event could also be used now!

In desperation, many players simply started throwing their spears like javelins, switching to long knives after the enemy got close.

Soon, cries of battle could be heard from other directions of the county town.

At the location of the city gates, "thud," "thud" sounds of heavy impacts resounded—those were the bandits ramming the gates!

The thousand-man team responsible for coordination in the city immediately met the challenge; a few players rushed to brace the gate, but were left reeling from the impacts of the battering ram.

"Quick, tear down the houses over there, bring stones and timber to block it!"

The leading player had a flash of inspiration and called for the players to source materials locally; a small part of the thousand-man team continued to brace the gate, while others hurried about like ants, tearing down nearby houses and piling up the timber and stones at the entrance.

Under the "Return Order Expedition" mode, although the setting was still that of the small county town, the buildings seemed to have been eroded by time, becoming much more fragile.

The players were not afraid to damage the long knives and long spears they held, which they could keep getting unlimitedly. They got to work with gusto, and soon amassed a good amount of wood and stone to blockade the town’s gates.

But just then, someone shouted loudly, "The north gate has been breached! We need reinforcements!"

The defenses of the little town were originally quite weak, and the north gate was the most fragile. The players also didn’t have much time to prepare.

On that side, some players were attempting to block the gate with materials from houses, but before they could complete the barricade, the bandits had already broken through the gates and swarmed in!

The few players who had been using their bodies to hold the gate were sent flying by the force. As they struggled to get up and continue the fight, they were impaled and sent flying by a lance with a cross-shaped head!

Leading the bandits, the commander with eyes emitting a sinister black light scanned the inside of the town, "Find that Return Order Expedition member, kill him a thousand times, ten thousand times, until he exits this place!"

...

At this time, Meng Yuan was fighting on the city wall alongside other players.

Seeing the demons’ aggressive approach, Meng Yuan himself was quite shocked.

After all, this grand scene of defending historical slices and eradicating demons was something he had never seen since he became a Return Order Expedition member.

"I don’t know if we can successfully defend, but at this point, we can only choose to trust the players.

"Those demons probably still think these are just illusions of the native inhabitants, right? This information gap is to our advantage."

While Meng Yuan was fighting hard like the other players, he didn’t expose himself.

After all, as a Return Order Expedition member, the power at his disposal was actually quite limited after he had shared it with the players.

Previous Return Order Expedition members were able to stabilize historical slices and face tens of thousands of demon-controlled bandits on their own mainly because of two abilities.

First, a Return Order Expedition member could create illusions of native inhabitants to help defend the city, and second, by focusing all their power on themselves, they could truly leverage the crushing effect of their attributes to unleash unrivaled fighting prowess.

For the demons, to retake a historical slice, the most important thing was to find the Return Order Expedition member among countless native illusionary figures and at all costs, eliminate them repeatedly, weakening the Return Order Expedition member with a sea of demons tactic, no, a sea of monsters tactic.

Once the power of the Return Order Expedition member was insufficient to continue staying in that historical slice, it would mean that the demons had regained control over that slice.

But this time was obviously different.

Because Meng Yuan, the genuine Return Order Expedition member, had not summoned illusions of native inhabitants but had summoned players instead, distributing all of the Return Order Expedition member’s power, thus giving the players strength far surpassing that of native illusions!

As a result, although Meng Yuan could no longer charge recklessly into the demon pack to unleash his full power, he had overall enhanced the strength of his side and created more confusion for the demons.

Of course, that was predicated on the seamless cooperation of the players, bringing out the level of performance expected of them.

Sensing the north gate had been breached, Chu Ge immediately commanded, "Thousand-man assassin team, prepare for the ambush! Thousand-man Ranger team, exit from the south of the city and attack the bandits’ flank!"

...

At this time, in the northern camp of the county town, where the Eastern Barbarian bandits were stationed.

An Eastern Barbarian General surrounded by heavy black miasma was swinging an iron fan, commanding the bandits to attack.

Next to him stood a very tall Monk Soldier, with a white cloth wrapped around his head, wearing a Kasaya on the outside and armor underneath, holding a large polearm. This was a special weapon with a handle about the same length as the blade, somewhat similar to a guandao or a brow-top knife.

The Eastern Barbarian General swinging the fan was somewhat puzzled, "Strange, why are the native illusions summoned by the Return Order Expedition member this time so formidable? Not only are they well-organized, well-trained, and unwavering, but they also possess a special ability to summon weapons out of thin air!

"What’s even stranger is, why does the Return Order Expedition member choose to hide among the illusions of native inhabitants instead of taking action himself?

"Could he be expecting these native illusions to defeat us?"

The Monk Soldier spoke in a deep, resonant voice, "No matter, we will dig three feet into the ground and wipe them all out; we will eventually drag that Return Order Expedition member out!"