Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

For instance, the essence version of the video for the character "Li Hao" takes place during the Jingping Rebellion. He first navigates the perilous waters of the capital's bureaucracy, aids Li Boxi in resisting Jin, then gets captured and returns to Qi Dynasty, saving General Han Fuyue and blowing up Emperor Gaozong of Qi on a ship, and so on.

Choosing this essence version of the video means players don't have to consider these complicated options. It's just like watching a movie, viewing the entire process of a complete storyline.

"... There's no dialogue section this time?"

Hai Ping still felt a bit disappointed.

Because the previous two instances, Emperor Taizu of Sheng and Wang Wenchuan, both had dialogue sections. And indeed, conversing with historical figures does give a fresh perspective.

However, upon reflection, this instance wasn't really suitable for that.

General Han Fuyue was a rather straightforward person, unlike Emperor Taizu of Sheng and Wang Wenchuan who were more complex; dialogue... wouldn't really reveal much.

For players to fight alongside General Han Fuyue, to help him change his fate in the Trial Illusion Realm and fulfill his unachieved ambitions, was already like fulfilling a dream.

All in all, this interactive video demonstrated some innovation in form, allowing players who haven't experienced this instance to fully realize the impact of different actions taken by characters of different identities during the historical period of the Jingping Rebellion.

However, the content hasn't seen much innovation, still primarily based on the operations carried out by players in the game.

This too is good, it's a rather stable choice.

It allows those who haven't been able to enter Dark Sand to try their hand at plot-solving and to better appreciate the charm of Dark Sand and its historical content.

…

10 p.m.

Another group of players entered the world of Dark Sand with excitement.

This time, Dark Sand opened up fifty thousand slots for beta testing, although, in reality, far more players were let in.

These players still had to go through a selection process to secure an official slot.

However, the players selected this time were certainly different from the initial batch.

They had long been looking forward to Dark Sand, watched many walkthrough videos, and had memorized various strategies, just waiting to clear the four Trial Illusions once qualified.

Thus, the acquisition of trial qualifications became increasingly competitive.

That's normal, after all, that's how games are—the first batch of players often get beaten senseless, but as more and more players join and veterans thoroughly understand the game mechanics, newcomers tend to progress faster.

But in this increasingly competitive scenario, some players needed to think outside the box to obtain beta-testing slots.

Luo Ying, in Return Order Space, incredulously looked at his hands.

He turned and jumped, just like a normal person.

"This… this game is really miraculous…"

Tears nearly spilled from Luo Ying's eyes.

In real life, he suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and his condition had become quite severe.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease that leads to the gradual death of certain nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord; these motor neurons normally control muscles, allowing the body to move, but were now damaged, causing muscle weakness and stiffness, almost as if frozen.

For Luo Ying, this was clearly a nightmarish experience.

In the first two years, he still managed to play some not-too-complicated games with his hands, but gradually, he couldn't even hold chopsticks.

After learning about Dark Sand, Luo Ying had been eagerly awaiting the chance to enter the game.

And now, today, he had finally gotten his wish.

Before him were Trial Illusions of four basic identities: soldier, scholar, assassin, and ranger, as well as three derivative identities: knight, Divine Machine, and commoner.

New players could freely choose any instance they liked to challenge, and the final selection outcomes were calculated based on a variety of factors.

Generally speaking, players preferred the four basic Trial Illusions because they were overall less difficult and had richer strategies.

But from another perspective, these were also more competitive.

After all, everyone had seen the strategies, so it was hard to say who would stand out.

For Luo Ying, compared to a normal player, he clearly had no advantage.

After all, he was almost forgetting the feeling of body movement, and regaining control over his strength required retraining. Moreover, he hadn't watched that many strategies, nor had he done any specific research.

So, after some simple consideration, he stepped into the exclusive instance for "commoner."

Perhaps in such a newly opened Trial Illusion, which no one had experienced before, he might stand out among the novice players?