Chapter 9: The Whole Night Unawares

Zhao Haiping didn't dare to think about what exactly was in that torn bag, nor did he have the courage to take it and look inside.

He could only silently push it away when other soldiers passed the torn bag to him.

He might as well continue to be thirsty and hungry!

The feeling of waiting was indeed torturous, but fortunately, Zhao Haiping noticed that the flow of time in the Trial Illusion seemed to have been specially adjusted. The time he had experienced while waiting felt like only a few minutes, but it actually spanned a complete sunrise and sunset, from day to night, and then back to day.

And his fatigue and hunger felt even more intense.

Now Zhao Haiping understood why there was a talent choice for "enduring hunger" at the beginning—it was obviously meant for this stage!

But he hadn't chosen that talent, so the decline in his physical condition was quite significant.

After waiting a while longer, Zhao Haiping licked his cracked lips and looked towards the Beidi barbarians outside the city.

He really wanted to ask, "When the hell are you going to attack?"

Just be a person!

But it was better not to look; this glance nearly drove him to his last gasp.

Those Beidi barbarians had actually set up many large pots outside and were cooking meat!

While cooking, they were also singing and dancing!

The soldiers of Great Chu on the city wall all stared at the Beidi barbarians, their faces pale with hunger, but they still tightly gripped the handles of their swords, showing no sign of weakness.

Finally, the Beidi barbarians outside the city began their attack again!

Compared to the last time, the difficulty had increased sharply.

On one hand, the defensive implements on the city walls were old and mostly broken, making it almost impossible to cause massive casualties to the enemy early in their attack as they had done before with fierce oil and rockets; on the other hand, the city's defending soldiers were severely weakened by a lack of food and water.

But by this point, Zhao Haiping had no other choice but to grit his teeth and face the battle.

He still used his previous method of fighting, avoiding directly engaging whenever possible and retreating while fighting.

There was no help for it; he had easily died from exhaustion even when he was full of energy in the first stage, let alone now. If he recklessly charged forward to confront them, he would likely be finished quickly.

At first, things went quite smoothly. These defending soldiers of Great Chu, though looking like they were at their last gasp, still unleashed an incredibly ferocious fighting power under these desperate circumstances.

Moreover, it seemed that, with age, the combat skills of all the soldiers, including Zhao Haiping himself, had improved.

Zhao Haiping could clearly feel it; although his body was weak, he could compensate by relying on his skills.

"Indeed, there's always a way out!"

"I said this game couldn't just lead me to a dead end; there had to be some turning point."

However, his relief was short-lived as he realized he was wrong.

More Beidi barbarians surged onto the city head, surrounding the general tightly!

One Great Chu soldier yelled anxiously, "Quick, go protect General Geng!"

But Zhao Haiping saw that it was impossible to get through—there were at least dozens of barbarians around the general, and only about ten Great Chu soldiers on the city head could extricate themselves.

Each one had to fight off ten enemies?

Zhao Haiping gritted his teeth and tried several times, but given his current state, fighting two barbarians at once was his limit; getting any closer was suicide.

Finally, as the general let out a reluctant roar and fell under the barbarians' blades, the situation on the city head collapsed instantly!

The remaining barbarians surged forward and slaughtered Zhao Haiping and the other surviving soldiers.

Damn it!

…

He was back at the initial state of the Illusion Realm.

However, to Zhao Haiping's surprise, the Trial Illusion seemed to allow the choice of stages.

He finally didn't have to go through the first stage again and could start directly from the second stage.

What else was there to say? He immediately chose the "enduring hunger" talent!

After all, the second stage started with a very annoying debuff; fighting power was hardly exertable in a state of extreme hunger and fatigue. If he chose the "enduring hunger" talent, this negative state could be well counteracted.

Zhao Haiping began the second stage of the trial once more.

However, the anticipated turning point did not occur, and he died countless times again.

Once again, back at the initial state of the Illusion Realm, Zhao Haiping fell into deep thought.

"It seems... something is still not right.

"Even though I chose the 'enduring hunger' talent, it seems that it's still not enough to smoothly pass the stage.

"The sense of hunger at the beginning of the second stage was greatly reduced, and my physical state had improved somewhat, but this came at the expense of combat-related talents.

"If I just wanted to save myself, it wouldn't be too hard, but the problem is that as the battle progresses, the barbarians will swarm and attack the general.

"Once the General dies, it will immediately be like an army collapsing, and the other soldiers will basically just fend for themselves and soon become disorganized.

"Facing so many barbarian soldiers from Beidi, what can I do alone unless I cheat and annihilate them?

"Something's not right, I always feel like there's some mechanic in this game that I haven't grasped, and playing this way, dying any number of times is useless."

Zhao Haiping encountered the same problem again as with the "Assassin's Martyrdom" instance.

Stuck!

After dying many times, he realized that his own abilities were simply not enough to clear the instance. Even with good talents, it would at most make up for a shortcoming, but there were still many shortcomings that would lead to failure.

From what he could tell, the assassin's trial was to successfully assassinate Emperor Yanling, while the foot soldier's trial was to successfully defend the isolated city, and both objectives were very far from Zhao Haiping's reach.

It's supposed to be a game.

Since it is a game, there couldn't possibly be an instance made just to amuse players that is completely impossible to clear, right?

There must be a way to clear it, he just hasn't found the right method yet.

Like many challenging games, they are difficult at first because of unfamiliarity with game mechanics, but once the mechanics are understood and the optimal solution is found, the game becomes much easier.

"Dark Sand" must work the same way; finding the right game mechanics should at least give a glimmer of hope for barely passing.

While Zhao Haiping was pondering deeply, he suddenly had a peculiar feeling, the world around him seemed to gradually blur, and fog enveloped him.

Moments later, Zhao Haiping woke up in the real world.

…

"Unknowingly, it's already morning?

"But I'm not tired or sleepy at all, what kind of black technology is this!"

Zhao Haiping was once again astonished by this game.

He checked the time, and it was exactly 6 AM.

From 10 PM to 6 AM, the time he had fought in the game was eight hours in reality.

But amazingly, he didn't feel sleepy at all; instead, he felt as refreshed as if he had slept for eight hours!

The virtual reality game helmets in this world also come with a sleep mode, but other games' sleep mode keeps the brain active, so playing for a long time still leads to some fatigue.

But this game doesn't have that problem at all!

Zhao Haiping couldn't help but be amazed, could this game also enhance the consciousness connection hardware of the virtual helmet? Or does the original virtual reality technology inherently support such mechanics, and other games just haven't fully utilized the capabilities of the equipment?

As for how long Zhao Haiping actually spent in the virtual world, he couldn't really say.

In this game, time seemed to stop when he kept dying, sometimes flowing very quickly, experiencing a whole day and night within a few minutes.

He found himself extremely focused while playing this game, even achieving a state of total immersion.

Logically speaking, players should get tired and fatigued from gaming, and no matter how entertaining, playing a game intensely for several hours usually requires a break, especially in such a tortuous game of constant death.

But Zhao Haiping didn't feel tired at all and even felt like he could continue fighting.

It was as if every instance restart also cleared his mental fatigue.

Even now, looking back, he seriously suspected that the time he had experienced in the game was much longer than eight hours.

But when he tried to put on the gaming helmet again to enter the game, he couldn't access it, seeing only a scene like a temporal chaos and a line of text: "Maintenance time from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily, please moderate your game time, real life is equally exciting!"

Zhao Haiping exclaimed in amazement.

So, this punishing game has an anti-addiction system, huh?

Well, that arrangement does have its benefits, at least it won't cause burnout.

Some games when newly released let people with free time play intensely for two to three days to complete it, while those with little time must endure spoilers and lag behind, taking a leisurely month or two to finish.

"Dark Sand" arranges it so most people can start on an even footing, since everyone essentially has the same eight hours at night to sleep, except for those with special night shift jobs.

Of course, Zhao Haiping did not know that the real reason for such long daily maintenance was not anti-addiction, but because fighting in the Trial Illusion was a significant drain, and Meng Yuan, even with the ability of the Reorganizer, could only ensure a time flow speed of 3:1 and a trial time of eight hours a day, equivalent to 24 hours; any longer and the players would suffer from excessive exhaustion, which wouldn't be beneficial for improvement.

And so, the first day of gaming ended like that.

Zhao Haiping still felt somewhat unsatisfied.

He had a love-hate relationship with this game; on one hand, he found the difficulty too high and suffering too much, but on the other hand, its groundbreaking virtual reality technology and 100% realistic game experience made it irresistible.

Zhao Haiping got up, washed up, then took out his smartphone to start searching for discussions related to "Dark Sand."

He had only managed to experience the assassin and foot soldier instances and had no clue about the methods to clear them.

He figured, since the beta testers were carefully selected, there must be some puzzle-solving experts among them.

Maybe other players had found a way to clear the instances?

Even if not, reading other people's complaints after suffering would make him feel a bit better.

Surely, I can't be the only one being randomly killed by NPCs in the instance?