No way, even when he was full of energy in the first phase, he could easily drop dead, let alone now. If he stubbornly charged forward to fight head-on, he’d probably be dead in no time.

At first, things went pretty smoothly. Although these Great Chu soldiers defending the city all seemed to be at the end of their rope, they still managed to unleash terrifying combat power in such a desperate situation.

Moreover, it seemed that as they aged, all the soldiers—including William Carter himself—had improved their combat skills.

William Carter could clearly feel that, although his body was weak, he could make up for it with technique.

“As expected, heaven always leaves a way out!

“I knew this game wouldn’t just give me a guaranteed death ending—there has to be a turning point somewhere.”

But he had barely started to feel happy when he realized he was wrong.

More Northern Di barbarians surged onto the city wall, completely surrounding the general!

A Great Chu soldier shouted anxiously, “Hurry, protect General Geng!”

But when William Carter looked, how the heck was he supposed to get over there? There were at least dozens of barbarians around the general, and only about a dozen Great Chu soldiers on the wall who could even try to help.

Was everyone supposed to take on ten enemies at once?

William Carter gritted his teeth and tried several times, but in his current state, fighting even two barbarians at once was his limit. He couldn’t get close at all—unless he wanted to throw his life away.

In the end, as the general let out an unwilling roar and fell beneath the barbarians’ blades, the situation on the city wall collapsed in an instant!

The remaining barbarians swarmed forward, hacking William Carter and the other surviving soldiers to death in a frenzy.

Game over!

……

He returned once again to the very beginning of the illusion.

But to William Carter’s surprise, it seemed this trial illusion allowed him to choose the phase.

He finally didn’t have to play through phase one again, but could start directly from phase two.

So what was there to think about? He immediately chose “Endure Hunger” and moved on!

After all, phase two started with a really annoying negative status—being extremely hungry and exhausted, making it impossible to fight at full strength. If he picked “Endure Hunger,” that negative status could be largely offset.

William Carter began the second phase of the trial once more.

However, the turning point he’d imagined didn’t appear. It was just countless deaths, over and over again.

Once again, he returned to the beginning of the illusion, and William Carter fell into deep thought.

“Something… still doesn’t feel right.

“Even though I picked the ‘Endure Hunger’ talent, it still doesn’t seem enough to clear the stage smoothly.

“The hunger at the start of phase two is much less, and my body feels a bit better, but now I don’t have any combat talents to boost me.

“If I just wanted to survive on my own, that wouldn’t be too hard. But the problem is, as the battle goes on, those barbarians will swarm the general and gang up on him.

“Once the general dies, it’s an instant collapse—the other soldiers all fight on their own, and the army falls apart in no time.

“Facing so many Northern Di barbarians, there’s nothing I can do alone—unless I cheat and go full ‘Musou’ mode on them?

“No, something’s off. I feel like there’s some game mechanic I haven’t figured out yet. If I keep playing like this, no matter how many times I die, it won’t help.”

William Carter once again ran into the same problem as in the “Assassinate the King” dungeon.

Stuck!

After dying countless times, he realized his raw strength just wasn’t enough to clear the stage. Even with decent talent skills, at best he could patch up one weakness, but there were still too many other weaknesses that would cause him to fail.

From what he could tell, the assassin’s trial was to successfully assassinate Emperor Yan Ling, while the soldier’s trial was to successfully defend this isolated city. Both goals were extremely far out of reach for William Carter.

Logically, this was a game.

Since it’s a game, they wouldn’t make a dungeon that’s literally impossible to clear just to mess with players, right?

So there must be a way to clear it—he just hadn’t found the right approach yet.

Just like with many difficult games, the first try is hard because you don’t understand the mechanics. But once you figure out the mechanics and find the best solution, the game suddenly becomes much easier.

“Dark Sand” should be the same. Once you figure out the mechanics, maybe you can’t clear it easily, but at least there’s hope of scraping by.

As William Carter racked his brains, he suddenly felt something strange—the world around him seemed to blur, and a mist enveloped him.

A moment later, William Carter woke up in the real world.

……

“Without realizing it, it’s already morning?

“But I’m not tired or sleepy at all—what kind of black technology is this!”

Once again, William Carter was amazed by this game.

He checked the time—it was exactly 6 a.m.

From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., he’d fought in the game for eight hours in real time.

But the amazing thing was, he wasn’t tired at all. In fact, he felt as refreshed as if he’d slept for eight hours!

The VR headsets in this world also have a built-in sleep mode, but in other games, sleep mode just means your brain is still active, so if you play for a long time, you still feel a bit fatigued.

But this game had absolutely none of those problems!