Seeing these two ssages, Hai Ping’s spirits imdiately lifted.
"Wow, that’s so efficient updating!"
After all, "Dark Sand" used an epoch-making VR technology that had never appeared before, so players had no way to estimate how much work it would take to develop an instance.
What if the previous four Trial Illusions were the result of several years of hard work by the "Dark Sand" developnt team?
Then who knows how long it would be until the next update.
Fortunately, the official "Dark Sand" support was very reliable; they never delayed releases. Right after finishing the offline activities for this MR mode, they imdiately updated the version.
Hai Ping hurriedly clicked to view the new version’s update announcent.
"Dark Sand New Version Update Announcent:
"In this update, "Dark Sand" will open up new content for all players to enjoy, with details as follows.
"One, launch of the basic feature ’Historical Lines’.
"Historical Lines are a fundantal chanic of ’Dark Sand’, connecting ancient tis with the present, the closer to ancient tis, the rarer collective mory becos, and the stronger the power of demons. Therefore, as Return Order players enhance their strength, the Historical Lines will unlock from near to far and from easy to hard.
"Current open Historical Line phase: the middle and late period of the Great Sheng Dynasty.
"Unlock Trial Illusion: Even the Settled Affairs Await the Closing Coffin.
"Two, launch of the advanced feature ’Ultimate Trial’.
"On top of the standard Trial Illusions, we will unlock the hell difficulty Ultimate Trial Illusions.
"Compared to standard Trial Illusions, the hell difficulty Trials will have the following enhancents: pain sensation increased to 100%; enemy AI elevated to the highest level; minor changes in content possible relative to standard Trials; only one chance to challenge.
"Only the most outstanding players in the standard Trial Illusion will have the opportunity to enter the hell difficulty Trial Illusions. Depending on the Trial, the system will automatically select 1 to 5 players to enter together and cooperate to solve the Illusion.
"After clearing the hell difficulty Trial Illusion, the system will automatically edit it into a film to be presented to the public through movies and other diums.
"Three, launch of the advanced feature ’Return Order Expedition’.
"After the successful players complete the Ultimate Trial, that historical snapshot’s barriers will be broken, allowing other players to enter the fragnt to clear out demons through networked team play, modifying the historical snapshot.
"Four, Beta Player Credential Distribution.
"This phase will distribute an additional 10,000 beta credentials.
"In the first batch of beta credentials, players who have yet to clear any Trial instance will have their beta credentials automatically revoked.
"The revoked beta credentials will be distributed together with the new ones, with the drawing rules unchanged."
The update announcent was lengthy and packed with solid content.
Hai Ping read it through carefully twice, afraid to miss any detail.
"So, the newly unlocked Historical Line is the ga’s official content? Those four trial identities from before were just a tutorial.
"This Ultimate Trial is quite interesting, but the restrictions are quite harsh. Out of the 20,000 beta players, only 1 to 5 can participate, and they only have one chance to challenge?
"And the difficulty of this instance is downright terrifying. What does 100% pain sensation even an? If one is really stabbed, unless one has a special talent, isn’t one going to lose combat ability right away?
"It’s forcing players to be unhurt, right?
"Moreover, the enemy AI will be even more powerful.
"With the AI of regular instances already being so exaggerated, if it’s enhanced further, won’t they beco extrely cunning?
"And there’s only one chance, which ans you must repeatedly clear the regular Trial Illusions, thoroughly understand all the details, and be able to adapt to various unexpected situations.
"It’s practically a thin line between life and death.
"However, the reward after clearing it is indeed very generous. The official production of a movie from the experience is a great opportunity to show face in front of global players; moreover, whether the Hell Difficulty Trial is cleared directly determines whether the ’Return Order Expedition’ instance can be opened."
"If the player chosen for the hell-level trial fails, does that an all internal beta testers worldwide won’t be able to access this networked gaplay? A significant portion of the ga just won’t be open to players?"
"That’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. How could there be such an absurd ga developer!"
"But..."
"Looking at it from another angle, isn’t this precisely the ultimate dream of all hardcore gars?"
In previous gas, there were settings like "Expert Mode" where characters had only one life—if they died once, the save file was imdiately trashed and all the previous effort went down the drain.
Only players who thoroughly understood the ga chanics and had utmost confidence in their skills dared to attempt such difficulty levels.
And this "ultimate trial" of Dark Sand would be like playing on Expert Mode.
The difficulty was even close to real historical challenges, except players could repeatedly practice simulated trials in advance to gather so intelligence (though there might be slight variations under hell difficulty), and they could enhance their abilities using the "Return Order" powers—other than that, the difficulty was entirely consistent with real history.
Moreover, taking on this difficulty level would subject players to imnse psychological pressure.
On one hand, knowing they only had one shot and absolutely could not fail, and on the other hand, because their performance would directly determine whether other players could experience a very important part of the ga.
If they failed, wouldn’t they get blasted by gars worldwide?
Just thinking about it felt super thrilling.
This kind of pressure was even higher than that of so major global esports championships.
But for true hardcore gars, this was indeed an excellent stage. Success ant instant fa and adoration from countless people!
Of course, thinking so far ahead was useless now, as the opportunity to take on this challenge had to be fought for.
You’d have to deliver your best performance in the regular Trial Illusion instances to possibly be selected by the system for the ultimate challenge.
The number of internal beta testers had doubled this ti, increasing to twenty thousand. Whether new or old players, they were mostly gaming experts or had special real-world professions. After fierce internal competition, who would land those few spots was anyone’s guess.
Zhao Haiping could only silently resolve to grind!
First to set a small goal: achieve First Clear in the ordinary Trial Illusion, then strive for a No-Damage run.
This update’s instance was nad "Even With Destiny Fulfilled, One Still Awaits the Closure of their Coffin," it could only be confird to be a historical slice from the middle or later periods of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Moreover, it likely wasn’t any significant historical event but a minor incident in a local area.
As for the enemies, they were probably the sa monsters fought in the offline event, the Eastern Barbarian brigands.
Nothing more could be gleaned, and the rest would have to wait until entering the ga after 10 PM tonight.
On the forums, players were also wildly discussing the new content of Dark Sand, and of course, many were making wishes, hoping to be the lucky ones to secure a spot in the internal beta.
Missing out on this, who knew when the next internal beta expansion would be—it was natural to feel anxious.
The scarcity of internal beta spots even gave rise to services for proxy playing.
Although no one knew the exact selection criteria for the Dark Sand internal beta, many speculated that having extensive experience with action VR gas might improve the chances of being selected.
Since Dark Sand used brainwave-pattern recognition, internal beta spots couldn’t be bought or sold, but if you hired soone to improve your action VR ga history on your gaming account, might that increase your selection probability?
Many people tried just that.
Unfortunately, their hopes were bound to be disappointed.
...
While players had boundless anticipation for the new content of Dark Sand, the dia’s coverage of the ga’s cutting-edge consciousness connection technology also sparked a great deal of discussion.
Although many players had previously speculated about the technological principles behind Dark Sand, those were, after all, just speculations.
There were still countless mysteries about the company that were yet to be unraveled.
But this ti, several authoritative state-run dia outlets in the country had also spoken up, reporting quite high-profile on the epoch-making consciousness connection technology of Dark Sand!
The reports weren’t particularly detailed but did manage to clear up so of the players’ confusion.
After all, this could involve crucial comrcial secrets, and it was understandable that many things could not be discussed in detail.
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