Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

In Chang'an, spots of light began to appear one by one.

Upon closer inspection, these lights were attached to ordinary people.

He saw points of light among the Imperial Guardsmen at the Xuanwu Gate and in the residences of various meritorious civil and military officials around Chang'an, even among the ordinary citizens.

As for the imperial palace, the points of light were even denser.

On either side of the Liangyi Palace were Chengqian Palace and Wude Hall, which were the residences of Lord Qin and Prince Qi, respectively.

And in the east at Lizheng Hall and Cheng'en Hall were the Eastern Palace, the residence of the Crown Prince.

A huge number of points of light together wove the broad stage for the Xuanwu Gate Incident. The collective attitudes of these characters would ultimately determine the direction of the entire empire for the next hundred years.

Often, history demonstrates its inevitability;

but sometimes, history is also filled with contingencies.

For instance, the character of a dynasty often highly aligns with its founding monarch. If the founding monarch makes a critical mistake at a key juncture which results in another founder taking power, then the history of the next hundred and more years may be completely altered.

As Li Hongyun wondered how he should begin this challenge, a book appeared before him.

More precisely, it was a collection of historical records.

Densely packed with traditional characters, thankfully, they translated themselves the next second, allowing him to read them without any difficulty.

"This is... related historical records of the Xuanwu Gate Incident?"

Li Hongyun realized that many of the entries came from various sources.

For example, he recognized the Records of the Founding, Old Liang Book, New Liang Book, and Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance, along with many other titles he had not heard of, which might have been sources that had existed before but were now lost.

In ancient times, books were extremely precious and scarce resources, particularly historical texts, which were not frequently preserved in large quantities, and less important histories even more so.

During turbulent times, warlords often liked to burn things, storerooms and cities were often reduced to ashes and many priceless historical materials were lost in the process, never to be seen again.

Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance is an important source for studying the history of the Liang Dynasty, precisely because Wen Jun was able to view many now-unseen sources outside of the Old and New Liang Books when he was writing it.

And Wen Jun had synthesized these records, checked them, and then incorporated them into Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance.

Thus, the part of Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance that deals with the Liang Dynasty is not merely a reproduction of the Old and New Liang Books, but has its unique historical value.

The numerous records and the names of many sources made Li Hongyun's head spin.

Then, his objective appeared before him.

"[This stage's Chang'an is a distorted, altered Chang'an.]

[Players may judge the authenticity of the historical materials by themselves, once determined, the situation in Chang'an will change according to the players' judgments of these materials.]

[Select a point of light to observe from that character's perspective and potentially obtain memory fragments.]

[Strive to restore the original appearance of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, a completion rate of over 70% is considered passing.]

Seeing the objectives, Li Hongyun felt a bit surprised.

Because this mode of passing was entirely different from previous ones.

There are two key points: first, everything that happens here could be distorted or altered, such as a character not matching their historical counterpart, or the development and direction of an event diverging from historical reality.

And Li Hongyun needed to judge the authenticity of historical materials himself, once decided, those materials would solidify certain elements in this world.

For example, if a record stated that the Crown Prince was brilliant and strategically talented, and Li Hongyun believed it, then the Crown Prince in this world would indeed become brilliant and strategically talented.

Conversely, if a record described the Crown Prince as reckless and foolish, and Li Hongyun believed it, then the Crown Prince in this world would truly become useless.

Second, he could experience any perspective, control these characters to do certain things, or peek into their memories.

But this was still based on the first point.

That is to say, the memory fragments he saw could be corroborative of the historical materials, but they could also be completely incorrect.

From a superficial view, directly trusting materials that described the Crown Prince, Prince Qi, and Emperor Gaozu of Liang as incompetents would make Lord Qin's victory seem even less suspenseful.

But if this trust conflicted with historical reality, it would cause the scene Li Hongyun recreated to deviate too greatly from actual history and also fail to pass.

In summary, Li Hongyun needed to distinguish the relatively correct historical materials from the vast sea of real and false records, to preliminarily correct the altered Chang'an. He would then role-play various characters guiding the development of events, and strive to restore the true face of the Xuanwu Gate Incident as much as possible.