Chapter 17: The Direction of Reinforcements

"Whoosh!"

Zhao Haiping released the bowstring in his hand, and the arrow immediately flew, shooting a Beidi barbarian soldier off his horse from behind.

The suffering practice of the third stage progressed faster than he had expected.

It might have been because the suffering he had endured before had laid a solid foundation, especially since his archery skills were quite remarkable, so after entering the third stage and acquiring the talent for "proficiency in horse-riding and archery," he adapted quickly.

But soon Zhao Haiping encountered a new problem.

Even though his riding and archery skills were exceptional, allowing him to shoot down pursuers on horseback or even shake off their chase, he still couldn't pass the level.

Because he rode for half a day in the blinding snowstorm without finding any sign of reinforcements!

His best attempt was when he rode for a long time toward the southeast, and finally, he vaguely saw a lone city through the snowstorm.

But just as Zhao Haiping was overjoyed and shouting, he saw barbarian soldiers dressed in Beidi attire on the city walls, greeting him with a barrage of arrows and a sortie from the city.

Zhao Haiping was utterly frustrated.

What a trap this was!

Indeed, the city where General Geng Zhong and his men were, was the only one nearby still holding out, while all other cities and strongholds had long since fallen.

Under such circumstances, where on earth were the so-called reinforcements coming from?!

Zhao Haiping was completely bewildered, running around like a headless fly in the heavy snow for several rounds, but with his energy depleting and the relentless pursuit of the Beidi barbarian soldiers, he soon could only fail.

At that moment, his vision gradually fogged over, the feeling of waking up loomed again, signaling that his night's enjoyment was about to end.

Moments later, Zhao Haiping woke up in reality.

"Sigh... Three days have gone by before I knew it.

"I'm finally close to grasping the threshold of clearing the level.

"But... where the hell are the reinforcements?"

Zhao Haiping quickly got out of bed and freshened up.

After playing this game, he found that his biological clock had actually become regular.

Before, he used to be woken by an alarm clock just in time for work, but now, he went to bed at 10 p.m. and woke up at 6 a.m. every day, with good sleep quality and full of energy.

Every day at 6 a.m., it became the time for the internal testers of "Dark Sand" to frantically share their experiences.

Zhao Haiping immediately found Chu Ge in the chat app and described the problems he encountered in the third stage.

He knew Chu Ge must be online, because at 6 a.m. all players were kicked out of the game uniformly, and so far, every player who got into the game had become deeply engrossed.

As expected, Chu Ge replied quickly.

"Really...we need to find the reinforcements ourselves...

"It seems that the difficulty is higher than we initially estimated.

"Wait a moment, let me check some information."

A few minutes later, Chu Ge responded.

"According to historical records, at that time, the Chu Army had mobilized troops from the surrounding four counties, totaling over six thousand men to attack Chehe City, slaying over three thousand enemies. The Beidi troops in the city fled in complete disarray.

"After taking Chehe City, a heavy snowfall came. The Chu commanders were worried about ambushes, reluctant to push deeper, but one military officer who had once served under Geng Zhong insisted on going for the rescue.

"The Chu Army gave him two thousand men, who took the route from North Mountain to the rescue.

"If it's as you deduced, and this military officer role is yours too, then you should not head southeast but rather northeast, taking the route of North Mountain towards Chehe City.

"General Geng Zhong probably thought that Chehe City was still occupied by the Beidi, but in reality, the Chu Army had just taken it while you were besieged."

Zhao Haiping couldn't hide his elation, "Got it!"

Chu Ge was reliable indeed.

He had quickly found the relevant information.

But this clearly wasn't enough. Even though he now knew the general direction, what exactly was the "route from North Mountain"? Which way should he run after getting on the horse?

These were still issues.

Chu Ge dove back into research, laying out for Zhao Haiping the rough direction and route he had deduced, approximating the locations with current satellite maps.

Zhao Haiping silently memorized all this information.

The preparation was nearly complete, but in the game, within the blinding snowstorm, he supposed it would still be somewhat of a guessing game.

Regardless, he still had an infinite number of opportunities to try.

Zhao Haiping asked, "How's your scholar instance going?"

Chu Ge: "There has been progress, I estimate one more day or so before I can clear it."

Zhao Haiping asked, "Where's the main difficulty in the Literary Official instance? I'm thinking if I get through the Soldier instance, I could also try out other trial instances."

Chu Ge replied, "It's not something that can be explained in a few words. In short, you have to figure out how to use the ideas of that era to refute the officials and even the emperor who come to question you. Not only do the contents need to be meticulously researched, but the expressions must also be genuine and heartfelt..."

"In short, the requirements for acting skills are no less than those for the assassin instance.

"However, for instances like this, once you clear them once, you should be able to roughly work out the strategy. With the script in hand, as long as you memorize it and practice more, you should be able to clear them.

"What's more painful is the process of pioneering.

"But that's also where the most fun lies."

Zhao Haiping: "OK, then I'll just wait to copy the homework."

...

At 9 a.m., Zhao Haiping arrived at the company on time.

Ever since he started playing "Dark Sand," it felt as if he had magically gained an extra two hours. He spent these two hours, from 6 to a little past 8 every morning, studying the strategies of "Dark Sand."

No, to be precise, it was almost like gaining nearly a full day's time, considering the time normally spent sleeping at night was like traveling to another world and experiencing another life.

He quickly reviewed all the work he needed to handle, making sure he hadn't missed anything. He was just an ordinary office worker, and his workload wasn't heavy, otherwise, he wouldn't have had so much time to play games.

He opened the forum again to check on the situation of other players.

"Dark Sand" had officially been in closed testing for three days, and discussions among netizens were also heating up. Before, the closed testing qualification for "Dark Sand" was hyped to sky-high prices on the internet, but some players found out after trying to trade that these qualifications simply couldn't be traded!

Even if they bought and sold accounts, other people couldn't log in!

No one knew how "Dark Sand" officially managed to identify different players logging into the same account, but considering the game officials had so much black tech in consciousness connection, identifying players through brainwave patterns didn't seem so far-fetched.

Scalpers thought they had found another lucrative opportunity with the popularity of "Dark Sand," but to their surprise, their expectations were dashed.

As closed testers racked their brains to clear the levels, the content of the four initial instances had been basically leaked online, and players without testing qualifications were also offering various suggestions. But until now, not a single player had cleared any of the newbie trial instances.

However, there was progress.

For example, in the assassin trial instance, someone had successfully earned an opportunity to present a treasure to Emperor Yanling by continuously honing their acting skills. Unfortunately, their operation was too poor, and they were counter-killed by Emperor Yanling before they could even draw the treasured sword.

Zhao Haiping searched for the Soldier trial instance and found that the vast majority of people were still stuck at the second stage, getting chopped by the Beidi barbarians until they doubted their own life, not even realizing that the start of the second stage was related to the first stage.

This made Zhao Haiping even more eager for his first clear.

...

At 10 p.m., Zhao Haiping couldn't wait to enter the world of "Dark Sand" once again.

As before, he went straight to General Geng Zhong as soon as the game started, volunteering to go for reinforcements.

So, amid the falling snow, Zhao Haiping once again set out from the city all by himself.

At this point, the Beidi barbarians also began their siege.

General Geng Zhong was commanding the battle on the city walls, all the while looking in the direction of Zhao Haiping.

A few barbarians noticed the Deputy General and immediately gave chase.

All the soldiers on the city wall clenched their fists in tension, but then they saw Zhao Haiping turn around, draw his bow, and shoot those few Beidi barbarians off their horses!

"Good!"

The morale of the soldiers couldn't help but soar.

Yet, just before Zhao Haiping disappeared into the vast snow, one soldier exclaimed in shock, "General! The direction he's heading... it's not southeast!"

At his words, the glimmer of hope that had just been kindled in the eyes of these battle-hardened veterans began to fade once again.

Although they all knew that in such weather, it would be difficult to break through the encirclement of the Beidi barbarians, and even if they broke through, it would be hard to get reinforcements, and even if they got reinforcements, they might not arrive in time...

But deep down, they still harbored a sliver of hope.

But now, seeing Zhao Haiping heading not southeast but towards Chehe City, which seemed to have been occupied by Beidi barbarians, everyone felt a chill in their hearts.

It seemed the snowstorm made it difficult to distinguish directions.

General Geng Zhong also turned his head and stopped looking. He had been through life and death with this Deputy General for decades and had developed feelings, but he also knew that once they parted this time, it would likely be a farewell forever.

But at this moment, there was no other way but to resign themselves to fate.

He fiercely drew his longsword and shouted loudly, "Soldiers of Great Chu!

"Follow me, to kill the enemy!"