At this point, many other players were also suffering in the Rogue Trial. One of the players that Meng Yuan and Can Shang were particularly focused on was Huo Yunying. However, his approach to the game was entirely different from Chu Ge's.
In fact, all four trials in Dark Sands were grueling, each with its own particular brand of torment. But if there had to be a "most torturous" trial, it would undoubtedly be the Rogue Trial.
The Assassin Trial was tough; once exposed, you would be slashed to death by the Red Armored Guards. But at least there was a long dialogue sequence on the way to the throne room to talk to Emperor Yan Ling. The Soldier Trial was grueling as well, with endless hordes of Northern Barbarians to face, but you could still scrape by if you played cautiously, holding back a bit in the first stage.
The Scholar Trial was mainly a test of willpower; if you gritted your teeth and endured, you could get through it. The Rogue Trial, however, offered no such reprieve. You faced the final boss, Xue Tianba, right from the start, with no way to lessen the difficulty. The only option was to engage in a grueling, blow-for-blow fight.
It could be said that the Rogue Trial demanded the highest level of combat skill from players, which was why it hadn't been fully cleared yet.
But it was getting close.
Huo Yunying restarted at the beginning of the trial, briefly analyzing his previous mistakes before selecting his skill. His eyes lingered on three meticulously selected skills that he'd honed through countless retries:
Gui: Master of Fist (Blue): Increases your proficiency in hand-to-hand combat.
Ren: Weapon Mastery (Blue): Improves your proficiency with all eighteen types of weapons.
Ren: Strike Weakness (Blue): Attacks targeting the enemy's weak points are more likely to deal extra damage.
After a moment of consideration, Huo Yunying chose "Strike Weakness."
These three skills were the result of countless deaths and careful selection. Even a player like him, who knew martial arts and had combat experience in real life, had to rely on combat-focused skills to survive in the game. Otherwise, the difficulty would skyrocket.
Initially, Huo Yunying was puzzled by the "Weapon Mastery" skill, wondering where in this instance he'd find weapons to use—weren't both he and Xue Tianba fighting bare-handed? But he soon realized he'd been too naive.
The Rogue Trial, like the Soldier and Assassin Trials, required a combat skill first to awaken the body's muscle memory, boosting one's combat effectiveness quickly.
Now that Huo Yunying felt his combat memory was sufficiently activated, he chose a skill to further enhance his strength—"Strike Weakness." Xue Tianba was simply too tanky, with an insanely high damage tolerance. Without this skill, taking him down would feel like chipping away at a stone.
With everything ready, Huo Yunying began the trial once again.
The instance started, and, just as he had done with Chu Ge, Xue Tianba adopted a provocative stance toward Huo Yunying. But having reached the third phase of the battle with Xue Tianba several times, Huo Yunying was no longer fazed. Taking his stance, he cautiously approached Xue Tianba, testing with feints to provoke a reaction.
Both of them were being cautious, staying just out of each other's range, each throwing fake attacks to bait the other into striking first.
Suddenly, Xue Tianba launched a feigned attack, following it with a powerful punch aimed at Huo Yunying! Huo Yunying, already prepared, dodged swiftly and countered immediately.
Their combat was as breathtaking as the best action movies. Huo Yunying, being a martial artist in real life, didn't just practice flashy moves but had experience with various fighting techniques.
Dark Sands held a unique allure for him that other players didn't share. For most players, fighting Xue Tianba felt like pure punishment, given the massive skill gap. Even if they could pick up some techniques from muscle memory, finding joy in this kind of combat was nearly impossible.
But Huo Yunying had felt the thrill from the very start.
Martial arts are, at their core, killing techniques. Although many look down on traditional martial arts due to charlatans posing as "masters," traditional martial arts are far from mere performance arts. They only became that way in peacetime, as practitioners shifted from combat to form.
Traditional martial arts schools have survived through history because they're effective, while impractical techniques have faded away. Some moves might look less useful, but they often serve a purpose, like training specific power movements or preparing for unique situations.
As society moved into an era of peace, brawling and fighting became outlawed. Even friendly sparring could never be taken to lethal extremes, reducing martial arts to demonstrations.
Over time, martial arts became more about performance than practical fighting. With few challengers, martial arts practitioners could rely on their status without ever pushing their skills to real-world application.
But Huo Yunying didn't see it that way; he always believed that traditional martial arts could still be effective in combat. That's why he studied various styles of traditional and modern martial arts, aiming to maximize his fighting capabilities.
Though he lived in peaceful times, where such skills were rarely needed, his pursuit of strength was unwavering.
The biggest issue he faced was that there were few opportunities to truly test his limits in real life.
After all, martial arts are lethal by design, and real-life sparring always had limits. His training partners would hold back, making it impossible to experience the "kill techniques" fully.
Now, with Dark Sands, everything was different.
Xue Tianba, the boss, was a martial artist himself. Not only was he physically imposing and highly skilled, but he also actively tried to kill you, using every trick in the book.
Many action games, even the best ones, have limitations. Their enemies lack true intelligence, partially to avoid frustrating players too much. For instance, if enemies attacked the player whenever they tried to heal or time their strikes perfectly to exploit every vulnerability, many players would rage-quit, calling the game unfair.
Most games adjust their difficulty to suit the player's habits, making combat manageable.
If Dark Sands followed typical game design, Huo Yunying wouldn't be able to gain any real improvement from it. It wasn't about difficulty alone—the difference from reality would be too vast.
But Dark Sands was different. It seemed to disregard any concern for difficulty settings. Features that other games avoided were not only included here but taken to the extreme.
To sum it up in four words: "Realism Above All Else."
Take Xue Tianba, for example.
Reading moves? That was the least of it. Xue Tianba would not only monitor your actions and punish your weak spots the moment you let your guard down, but he'd also feign attacks to bait you, using underhanded tactics whenever possible.
His approach was like that of a high-IQ opponent bullying a novice.
Yet for Huo Yunying, this was exactly what he had longed for.
In this instance, he could finally experience a life-or-death battle that he could never encounter in real life.