In the midst of howling wind and snow, the white-haired old soldiers comnced their final bloody battle against the Beidi barbarians.
They had defended this city for over forty years, slaughtering countless Beidi barbarians. Wave after wave of the Beidi enemy was always the cream of their youth, while these old soldiers had long since grown white-headed and breathless.
Yet even so, they never retreated half a step.
As soldiers, dying on the battlefield was an inevitable fate but also the highest glory!
General Geng Zhong, drenched in blood, was used to fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Deputy General, but now he fought alone, the pressure suddenly mounting.
But no one thought of anything else. All the warriors of Great Chu were seeing red, none believing they would survive—killing a few more barbarians before death was enough!
In the vast snowstorm, it was visible that the Beidi army kept moving but had not all engaged in the siege. A small detachnt had left, most likely in pursuit of the Deputy General.
This, in turn, sowhat relieved the pressure on the frontline.
General Geng Zhong knew all too well that the Beidi barbarians hated them to the bone, seeing them as thorns in their side, daggers in their flesh.
The heavy snow continued to fall. The Beidi barbarians believed the city was within sure grasp, and so they split their forces to pursue the Deputy General, determined to leave no stone unturned, absolutely not allowing any fish to slip through the net.
Thereby actually lessening the pressure on the frontline.
Large swaths of blood stained the pristine snow on the city walls red. The remaining old soldiers began gathering towards General Geng Zhong. More and more Beidi barbarians were climbing the city, constantly reducing the Great Chu warriors' range of movent.
General Geng Zhong looked around to discover that there were only sixty or seventy of these white-haired Great Chu soldiers left.
At this point, no extra words were needed; everyone was prepared to die!
The sky gradually darkened, relying on the reflection off the snow to barely make out the enemy.
Everyone knew they probably wouldn't live to see the sun rise tomorrow.
And the Beidi barbarians assaulting the city had also suffered heavy casualties. They appeared ferocious and evil but were also worn out.
Perhaps these barbarians, too, couldn't understand why these white-haired old soldiers had managed to defend a city for decades, only to be finally overrun today!
After a brief respite, a Beidi warrior charged forward holding high his curved sword and shouting as he rushed into battle!
And the soldiers of Great Chu prepared to et them head-on.
Just then, a commotion suddenly arose from below the city, followed by the sound of troops!
The sound of horse hoofs ca through, and in the sweeping snowstorm, a cavalry unit seed to be struggling to approach through deep snow. Then ca the sounds of clashing weapons and the screams of Beidi warriors.
An uproar swept through the ranks of the barbarians!
In the blinding snowstorm, nobody would have believed that a surprise force would appear out of nowhere, yet it did, like heavenly soldiers descending to earth!
The Beidi barbarians were thrown into utter chaos in an instant; their formation below the city crumbled, and those above panicked.
From below, soone shouted loudly: "General! Great Chu's reinforcents have arrived!!"
A look of salvation in the face of doom finally appeared on the faces of these white-haired old soldiers.
In disbelief, they looked down to see that amidst the Beidi barbarians, it was indeed a unit of Great Chu cavalry in armor, and leading them, appeared to be the Deputy General who had earlier broken through the encirclent?
"Long live!"
All the white-haired Great Chu old soldiers were moved to tears, their morale soaring as if endless strength had reignited within them, and they charged at the climbing barbarians!
Below, Zhao Haiping had never killed with such relish.
From the start of this trial instance, he had been suffering.
Tortured in the first stage, tortured in the second stage, and still tornted in the third!
Every ti the form of torture was different, but the manner of suffering remained constant. Aside from never personally tasting what horse manure juice was like, as a soldier, he had pretty much tasted all the bitter and harsh realities life had to offer.
Having killed countless Beidi barbarians, he didn't know how many tis he'd been killed by the Beidi barbarians in nurous ways.
But the mont he had battled through the storms and found Great Chu's reinforcents to return, he knew it was all worth it!
The piercing cold wind dried the tears that involuntarily sprang to his eyes, but even so, in the midst of the sweeping snowstorm, he looked up towards the direction where General Geng Zhong was.
And General Geng Zhong happened to be looking down.
Zhao Haiping couldn't help but silently exclaim to himself, "Brother, I finally managed to save you!"
He couldn't rember how many tis the ga had failed due to General Geng Zhong's death, but now, he had finally fought to the end as a Deputy General alongside General Geng Zhong.
Strangely, he had developed a profound sense of brotherhood with the NPCs in the ga.
The Beidi barbarians had started to flee, and in the sweeping snowstorm, it was not suitable to give chase.
What followed was the arrival of Great Chu's reinforcing troops, who would take away General Geng Zhong and all the old soldiers.
Yet upon the reunion, Zhao Haiping found himself at a loss for words.
He didn't know what to say anymore.
Before, when trying to persuade the General to dig wells and kill horses, to leave the city in search of aid, he had prepared many argunts, but now, he was at a loss for words.
"General..."
Just as Zhao Haiping was about to speak, he found that a thick fog suddenly enveloped everything around him.
His consciousness seed to float out of his body like a soul ascending to midair, while the body of the Deputy General he had possessed began to move on its own, eting up with the reinforcents along with General Geng Zhong.
Everyone embraced each other, weeping bitterly.
Then, as if ti fast-forwarded, by the next morning, this group of cavalry was escorting the more than seventy white-haired veterans marching eastward to return to the territory of Great Chu.
It took Zhao Haiping a long while to finally realize, "So, the ga cut straight to the victory CG?"
"I was freaking thinking about what to say to the General!"
"Damn it!"
"I've slogged through all the hardships, but they won't let enjoy the mont of triumph!"
"The designers of this ga are absolutely heartless!"
Zhao Haiping was speechless, feeling like a stand-in who had solved all the hardest problems on a test, only to have the original person co back for the awards ceremony.
It was infuriating!
But then, Zhao Haiping thought it over and realized that, according to actual history, this Deputy General had actually perford even better than he did.
After all, Zhao Haiping could afford countless mistakes, could review the historical records with Xin, do his howork using various thods and then clear the instance, while in real history, the Deputy General had but one life, surviving against all odds to achieve this outco.
Thus, Zhao Haiping ca to terms with it.
These historical figures were the real heroes, and although he had also put forth substantial effort and achieved sothing to be proud of, in the end, he had simply recreated the standard operations of these heroes.
In the midst of a blizzard, soldiers of Great Chu marched forward slowly.
At the sa ti, lines of text appeared in Zhao Haiping's field of vision.
"General Geng Zhong defended the border city alone, facing the onslaught of the Beidi, against tens of thousands, for more than forty years, exhausted in heart and soul.
"Carved a mountain to make a well, boiled crossbows for food, facing an expectation of death without a single chance of survival, he inflicted several thousands of casualties on the vile enemies, and his loyalty and valor remained intact to the end.
"Such loyalty and righteousness are unparalleled in ancient and modern tis, an arduous and bitter dedication to duty, truly impossible to sustain!"
Then, a special victory screen appeared.
[Soldier's Trial: One Man Makes a Difference]
[Cleared!]
[Clearance Evaluation: After this simple trial, you must now understand the true aning of the 'Soldier' role more clearly.]
['Soldier' role selection unlocked!]
['Soldier' role-exclusive talent "Valor in Desperation": The more desperate the situation, the stronger the burst of combat power.]
[Note: The exclusive talent will take effect permanently once the role is selected. The talent will continue to be enhanced as the role advances, so please choose wisely in combination with other selectable talents to maximize effectiveness.]
Seeing the victory screen, Zhao Haiping instantly got excited.
"Cleared, actually cleared!
"I can choose the Soldier role, and this exclusive talent sounds pretty good—straightforward and to my liking!
"But...
"What does this clearance evaluation an?
"What do you an 'this simple trial'? You call this simple??"
Zhao Haiping was nearly choked with frustration, nearly suffocating himself.
He had played this instance trial for over three days, and although he was not sure about the exact ti in the ga, he estimated by feel that it must have been forty to fifty hours.
In other ordinary gas, that would be enough ti to complete a first playthrough!
Yet in "Dark Sand," it was rely the completion ti for a "simple" beginner's trial instance.
Unbelievable!
Zhao Haiping didn't even want to imagine how twisted the content of this ga would be later on.
But no matter what, he had finally cleared it.
Clearing such an ultra-high difficulty ga brought an unsurpassed sense of achievent!
Things had gone relatively smoothly for the third stage, so Zhao Haiping still had so joy left over tonight, it wasn't ti to wake up from the dream yet.
So he decided to give it so thought and considered heading back to the assassin instance for another try.
He pondered whether, with his current battle power, he could just blaze through and clear this instance in unstoppable fashion.
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