Chapter 12-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Day two since the game's descent.
Lin Huijun was the first to wake, roused by her body's internal clock. The room remained dim with the windows sealed. The wall clock read 8 AM.
She moved the armchair blocking the window, drew the curtains, and warm sunlight immediately flooded in. She squinted—for the first time, she realized even the winter sun could be this blinding.
Bai Shan was woken by the noise. Normally she'd go right back to sleep, but now she forced her eyes wide open to jolt her brain awake, willing her legs to move. She was out of bed within a minute.
She went to the bathroom to wash her face. Spotting a pair of small scissors on the vanity, she picked them up and trimmed her hair even shorter, then shook her head to dislodge the clippings.
"It's quiet outside."
Lin Huijun walked in too, stepping up to the vanity mirror. She looked at Bai Shan's reflection and added, "Your dark circles are really obvious. Did you sleep at all last night?"
"Did you manage to sleep last night?" Bai Shan shot back. She glanced at Lin Huijun in the mirror and suddenly looked confused. "Lin Huijun, when did you cut your hair?"
"...What?"
"Don't tell me that from yesterday afternoon until now, you only just noticed I cut my hair!"
Under Lin Huijun's accusing stare, Bai Shan let out an "uh" and guiltily looked away.
Lin Huijun touched her fuzzy short hair. When the game descended, she'd been at the barber's getting a haircut. The hairdresser had panicked and botched the cut, so she'd just told him to buzz it all off.
Bai Shan immediately changed the subject. "Let's find something to eat here, then head back to my place to get the car."
They found frozen buns in the fridge. The power was still running, so they heated them in the microwave and had a warm breakfast.
Day two of the game. Most people didn't need to worry about food yet, but nobody knew how long the water and electricity would keep running.
Her RV had some supplies stockpiled—if those resources had transferred to reality along with the vehicle, she wouldn't need to scavenge for food and clothing outside.
The two left the apartment quickly. The moment they stepped out of the building, Bai Shan sensed eyes on them. Quite a few people were peering out from their rooms, watching the outside.
This complex seemed relatively safe for now. The surrounding monsters had apparently been cleared by the military. Yesterday, the army had already been sweeping near her own complex—she wondered if that tree was still there.
Bai Shan calculated. Although her own level was locked, her teammate Lin Huijun still had plenty of room to grow. Since they were setting out together, she wouldn't be stingy about helping her level up...
At this thought, Bai Shan suddenly realized she'd been overlooking something very important!
She asked in what seemed like a perfectly casual, offhand manner: "Lin Huijun, your car is wrecked. Why don't you ride with me instead?"
On the empty road, Lin Huijun was vigilantly scanning their surroundings. Bai Shan's sudden question caught her off guard.
"...Didn't we basically agree on that yesterday when we shared information?"
Lin Huijun found it a bit funny. Bai Shan's personality did have its endearing moments once you got used to it.
Hearing the answer, Bai Shan felt annoyed at herself for the unnecessary question. She shoved her hands in her pockets and turned to look elsewhere, as if she'd entered a state of serious reconnaissance.
The white sedan with its caved-in front end sat where they'd left it yesterday. The giant fish carcass on the bridge had fermented overnight into a terrible stench. The two hurried into the car, using the offline map to navigate to Bai Shan's home.
Bai Shan sat in the car observing the view outside, but her body kept bouncing and lurching. She couldn't even maintain a chin-in-hand thinking pose. After accidentally smacking her head against the window, she pressed her forehead and said, "Your driving skills are... quite unexpected."
She'd been thinking of having Lin Huijun teach her to drive. But this experience wasn't exactly reassuring.
From Rong City to Songjiang Province was roughly 3,000 kilometers. Mutations in plants and animals would make road conditions extremely complicated. Poor driving skills carried a genuine risk of death.
"It's not my technique! The road surface is way too bumpy!"
Bai Shan had been watching outside and had indeed noticed the road's transformation. The once flat, wide asphalt road had been heaved up by something, undulating irregularly like a crude miniature roller coaster track.
She'd taken this very road yesterday. In just one night, it had changed this drastically.
"We can't keep going this way."
Lin Huijun looked ahead. The road was getting more and more rugged. Her heart sank. Rong City was where she'd grown up, and after just one day, it already felt foreign.
It wasn't just the road surface. The sidewalks and shops on both sides had been heaved up too. Lin Huijun spotted something beneath the cracked asphalt—upon closer inspection, they appeared to be... tree roots?
This road was a famous commercial street. One more block and they'd reach Rong City's largest intersection, where a centuries-old banyan tree stood at the center. The entire area radiating from that ancient banyan was the city's most bustling district—every Rong City resident knew it.
Lin Huijun was about to turn the car around when her gaze suddenly froze. Her hands on the steering wheel went still.
Bai Shan also straightened from her slouch against the seat, eyes wide with astonishment at what lay ahead.
At the end of the road stood a tree. A tree with a cloud-like green canopy, thick sturdy branches, and little red lanterns hanging from it.
After a moment of processing, Lin Huijun recognized the tree. She slammed the gas and wrenched the steering wheel. The car shot forward. Only two words echoed in her mind—run, now!
Every year as Spring Festival approached, the ancient banyan at the intersection—the symbol of Rong City—would be decorated festively, welcoming and seeing off people from all directions.
But it should not be on this road!
The battered white sedan nearly flipped on the buckled road surface. Lin Huijun wasn't even sure whether the road had been this warped when they'd driven in. She focused every ounce of concentration on the treacherous road ahead, unable to spare even a glance at the rearview mirror.
Bai Shan looked at the right side mirror, staring fixedly at the tree reflected in it.
The car was clearly speeding in the opposite direction, yet the tree in the mirror remained perfectly still—as if printed onto the glass!
Bai Shan couldn't articulate the uncanniness she felt. She would rather face a grotesque, snarling monster than... this thing that seemed to warp everyday reality.
The car swerved sharply around a corner. The lantern-draped ancient banyan finally vanished from the mirror. Lin Huijun didn't dare relax for a second and kept driving.
After a long detour, the car finally reached smooth asphalt again. Bai Shan's heart was still heavy. When Lin Huijun finally pulled up to the familiar entrance of her residential complex, Bai Shan looked through the windshield and—
Her heart sank even further.
The banyan tree that had engulfed her building was gone.
The sky-blotting canopy, the countless branches wrapped around windows and balconies, the curtain-like hanging tendrils... all gone. Cracked marks remained on the walls, but the slightly aged high-rise stood there in quiet stillness.
If they hadn't just encountered that strange ancient banyan, she might have assumed someone in the building—or a passing military unit—had destroyed the tree.
But now, gazing at the familiar building, an indescribable premonition gripped Bai Shan's heart.
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