Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

Upon seeing the mission objective, Li Hongyun's eyes went blank in an instant.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Kill Lord Qin?"

Although Li Hongyun felt pretty good about himself and thought he was strong, that was only when the game's difficulty was reasonable and he was blessed with golden talents and incredible luck.

Killing Lord Qin as Prince Qi was akin to playing on hell mode.

First off, Lord Qin was a flawless hexagon, a cheater from any angle, with top-notch abilities in all areas—even his luck was better than Li Hongyun's.

And Prince Qi?

Though historical records indicated that Prince Qi was also a man of decent Combat Power, it was merely "decent."

Prince Qi was skilled with a horse lance, but when he competed in martial arts with Yuchi Jingde, he was defeated three consecutive times; Prince Qi was skilled in archery, but against Lord Qin, he couldn't pull the bow fully three times in a row.

As for wisdom or strategies, these were completely absent.

Although Li Hongyun, as Prince Qi, could somewhat compensate for his lack of intelligence and correct some of his basic mistakes, it wasn't particularly meaningful.

Because Prince Qi's shortcomings hadn't really affected him historically.

He indeed messed things up and lost Jinyang, and he achieved nothing in his southern and northern campaigns, merely going through motions, but none of that stopped Emperor Gaozu of Liang from promoting him rapidly as if on a rocket.

Right after Emperor Gaozu took Chang'an, he granted him the title Duke Qi, general over the Fifteen Counties' military, General of Northern Defense, and marshal on Taiyuan Road. After the establishment of the Liang Dynasty, he was further promoted to Prince Qi and given the charge of Bingzhou State.

So, this indicated one thing: Emperor Gaozu's trust in his family was above everything else.

Even if Prince Qi caused massive problems, he could still rise up the ranks and hold various powers; if he were steady and made no mistakes, the powers he held would still be the same, showing no substantial change.

Hence, unless Li Hongyun, as Prince Qi, could perform as shockingly as Lord Qin, history wouldn't change substantially.

But by then, perhaps he and Lord Qin would both fall under Emperor Gaozu's suspicion.

All in all, Li Hongyun felt that the mission objective was completely unreasonable.

But just then, another prompt appeared in his vision.

"In this challenge, each milestone achieved grants an opportunity to select a talent skill. Selected talent skills will be retained and have a cumulative effect."

Upon seeing this prompt, Li Hongyun's eyes widened, filled with shock.

"Can it really be like this?

"Then I would be unbeatable!

"Lord Qin, wait for it!"

Li Hongyun was suddenly wide awake.

This was the first time he had encountered such a good situation.

Previously in trials, usually, after choosing a talent skill at the beginning, it was used until the end, only able to be changed upon death. At best, a talent could be chosen at each stage, but the previous talents would then deactivate.

But this time, a talent skill could be chosen at each stage and also add up?

He was truly unbeatable now.

Li Hongyun was already imagining what kind of absurd chemical reaction could occur if he managed to get three battle-related golden talents while also carrying his fixed and affiliated talents.

Like certain popular games, stacking multiple talents can exponentially increase combat power.

With this in mind, Li Hongyun felt much more confident about playing as Prince Qi and killing Lord Qin.

First, he looked at the initial three talents.

"[Wu·Leadership Charm (Blue)]: Your leadership is outstanding, making people naturally believe and follow you."

"[Wu·Divine Archery (Gold)]: Your archery skills are significantly enhanced."

"[Ding·Tactical Formation (Gold)]: You naturally master basic military formation strategies, matching a veteran general's level of managing troops."

Li Hongyun pondered for a moment.

All three skills were useful, but the order of choosing them definitely mattered.

The key was to see what Prince Qi's main task was at this time.

According to what Li Hongyun knew, at this stage, Emperor Gaozu, the Crown Prince, and Lord Qin had already moved to Chang'an, while Prince Qi's task was to defend Jinyang.

In the second year of Wude, Liu Wuzhou led five thousand cavalry to attack Yellow Snake Ridge, and Prince Qi forcibly ordered General Zhang Da, with only a hundred infantrymen, to scout; Zhang Da felt the force was too small and was reluctant, but Prince Qi forced him to proceed and, as expected, the whole force was annihilated.

Then Zhang Da, angry, served as a guide for Liu Wuzhou to conquer Yuci County and advance on Bingzhou.

Prince Qi panicked and tricked Sima Liu Dewei into defending the city, claiming he would go out to battle with strong soldiers. Instead, he took the opportunity to flee back to Chang'an with his wives and concubines, and Bingzhou quickly fell.

All in all, reviewing Prince Qi's actions, one could only say they were highly imaginative.

Even if he did nothing and handed over all military and political power to his subordinates, simply holding the city honestly to wait for reinforcements from Emperor Taizu (specifically Lord Qin), he wouldn't have sabotaged the situation this much.

Prince Qi's actions clearly made him the enemy's sixth man.

Emperor Gaozu was furious when he learned of this, saying that Prince Qi was young and unfamiliar with military affairs, so he assigned Dou Dan and Yuwen Xin to assist him. Resulting in several tens of thousands of robust troops and nearly a decade's worth of military rations, the cradle of their campaign was lost in the blink of an eye.

Thus, he was furious and wanted to execute Yuwen Xin, but was eventually persuaded by his ministers to spare him.