William Carter couldn’t help but be shocked. Could this game actually have enhanced the consciousness-linking hardware of the virtual helmet? Or was it that the original virtual reality technology already supported such a mechanism, but other games simply hadn’t fully utilized the device’s capabilities?

As for exactly how much time William Carter spent in the virtual world, he really couldn’t say for sure.

Because in this game, he kept dying over and over, and sometimes time seemed to stand still, while at other times it would flow rapidly, with an entire day and night passing in just a few minutes.

He found that when playing this game, his focus was extremely high, to the point where he was completely undistracted.

Normally, players get tired and fatigued from gaming; no matter how fun a game is, after playing for several hours straight, you’d need a break—especially in a punishing game like this, where you die in all sorts of ways.

But William Carter didn’t feel tired at all; in fact, he felt like he could keep going.

It was as if every time the instance restarted, his mental fatigue was wiped away as well.

Thinking back on it now, he seriously suspected that the time he spent in the game was much longer than eight hours.

But when he put the helmet back on and tried to enter the game again, he couldn’t get in. There was only a scene resembling a chaotic time-space vortex and a single prompt: “Game maintenance hours are from 6:00 to 22:00 every day. Please play in moderation—real life is just as wonderful!”

William Carter couldn’t help but exclaim, “Good grief.”

A game this punishing even has an anti-addiction system?

Alright, this kind of arrangement does have its benefits—at least there’s no need to grind endlessly.

When some games first come out, people with lots of free time will marathon them for two or three days straight and finish, while those with less time have to endure spoilers and falling behind, taking a month or two to finish at a slow pace.

With this setup in “Dark Sands,” most people are on the same starting line. After all, everyone is basically equal during those eight hours of sleep at night.

Except for certain special professions that require working night shifts.

In any case, the first day of gaming ended just like that.

William Carter was still left wanting more.

His feelings toward this game were truly love-hate: on one hand, he thought it was too difficult and punishing, but on the other, its revolutionary breakthroughs in virtual reality technology and 100% realistic gaming experience made it impossible to put down.

William Carter got up, washed up, and then took out his phone to start searching for discussions related to “Dark Sands.”

William Carter had only managed to experience the “Assassin” and “Warrior” instances, and he had no clue how to clear them.

He figured that since the beta testers were all carefully selected, there had to be some puzzle game experts among them.

Maybe other players had already found ways to clear the instances?

Even if not, reading other people’s complaints after suffering in the game would at least make him feel a bit better.

Surely I’m not the only one getting slaughtered by NPCs in the instance, right?

Chapter 10: Players’ Heated Discussions!

A casual search confirmed it—many gaming forums had already been flooded with posts about “Dark Sands”!

Although there weren’t many beta testers, at this hour, the ones awake and posting were basically all beta testers.

Because most other players were still asleep at 6 a.m.

After experiencing the game, this group clearly had a strong desire to discuss, and immediately flooded the forums.

On many forums, the sections dedicated to “Dark Sands” had just been idle chat among onlookers the day before, but now had instantly turned into intense discussions about the game’s content.

“This game is absolutely insane! I never expected the official website’s claims to be true—it really is 100% realistic! I was completely blown away when I entered!”

“Yeah, it’s so real, I almost thought I’d traveled to another world. So this is what it feels like when the protagonist transmigrates in web novels!”

“The NPCs in this game are all about realism too. I thought those guards standing on either side were just for show, but when I went up and kicked one, I was immediately taken down…”

“Dude above, you’re way too bold. These NPCs look just like real people—how could you even bring yourself to kick them?”

“I think these NPCs could easily pass the Turing test. The game’s freedom is off the charts! Even a tiny facial expression can trigger a different reaction from an NPC. No wonder the beta tester recruitment notice said acting skills were required!”

“Yeah, I suffered for not being able to act. The moment I entered the main hall, I was exposed…”

A large portion of the posts were expressing shock at the game’s realism.

Some players were speculating about how the game could possibly be this realistic, saying it was like a product from a completely different era compared to other virtual reality games.

Yet they were all using the same virtual reality equipment.

Some people with knowledge of virtual reality technology also offered some guesses, saying that the current neural-link technology actually has a very high theoretical ceiling, but software developers are usually cautious, afraid of causing even minor brain damage, so other companies’ VR games are relatively restrained.

But this game likely used some powerful technical methods to push the current limits of virtual reality technology much further.