Chapter 13-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
The moment Bai Shan opened the car door, she caught a faint whiff of something foul. She gazed at the tightly shut iron doors of the residential building from a distance.
Walking up to the iron doors, she first noticed several faint streaks of blood on them. Bai Shan peered through the ornamental cutouts in the iron door, and her pupils dilated sharply.
The floor was filthy beyond recognition. Rust-colored footprints were stamped deep into the tiles. The walls and delivery lockers were spattered with brownish stains. A nauseating smell seeped through the door cracks and hit her nostrils.
She fished out her keys, swiped the access card, and kicked the iron door open. It groaned under the force, the sound piercing in the eerily silent lobby.
The two waited at the entrance for a moment. Not a single living thing's shadow could be seen.
Lin Huijun walked to the center of the lobby, examining every trace in disbelief. A fierce battle had taken place here. Judging by the color of the blood, it had happened roughly twelve hours ago—last night.
"What on earth happened here?"
Lin Huijun's voice trembled slightly.
"I don't know." Bai Shan replied, pacing back and forth across the lobby. Her steps were somewhat agitated. "No bodies. Can't even find a severed finger."
The once-pristine tiles had been stained deep brown by oxidized blood, congealed into clumps in the cracked seams. Bai Shan didn't know how many people would have to die to produce this much blood. Fighting back nausea, she pressed deeper inside.
Three elevators. Two were sealed shut. The last one had its doors open. Bai Shan leaned in and looked down—the metal elevator car had crashed to the bottom, reduced to a heap of scrap metal.
She looked up. The elevator shaft stretched thirty stories high, its cold terminus shrinking to a dark pinpoint.
The frigid shaft was empty, yet Bai Shan detected a heavy smell of blood. Had there been people inside when the elevator plummeted?
Bai Shan turned toward the stairwell. Lin Huijun followed. Their footsteps and faint breathing echoed in the dim corridor.
What had happened?
The walls and floors bore bloodstains and signs of destruction, but the only prints they found along the way were human footprints. That ruled out a massacre by Aberrant animals.
It didn't look like the giant tree's doing either. Bai Shan had seen firsthand how that tree hunted—wrapping prey in its branches and leaves, slowly consuming them. Not this bloody style.
That left only one answer.
Even though Bai Shan held a rather pessimistic view of human nature, the fact that this had happened overnight still struck her as unbelievable.
When she'd left yesterday, some people had smugly fallen for the game's little trap and clung to it, but most had been conservative, even timid. Bai Shan didn't like timidity, but timid ordinary people were still smarter than the self-appointed social Darwinists who went around preaching "no room for saints" and "the strong rule."
Bai Shan had estimated the worst-case scenario would unfold in the final day or two of the First Stage, when those who hadn't reached Level 5 would snap and turn their blades on the people around them.
Not on the very first night of the game.
The two climbed with heavy hearts to the 16th floor. The emergency exit on the 16th-floor stairwell landing was blocked with miscellaneous items. As they passed the barricade and were about to continue upward, they suddenly heard a sound.
Footsteps, coming from behind the blocked door.
In the stairwell, Lin Huijun whispered, "Someone's still here."
Bai Shan glanced at the "16" posted on the wall. She suddenly recalled someone in the lobby mentioning that a cat on the 16th floor had turned into a monster and taken over the entire floor. The emergency exit had been sealed to keep it from reaching other floors.
Bai Shan leaned closer, trying to hear more clearly, but the sounds inside had gone quiet.
Thud, thud, thud—she suddenly shoved the junk blocking the exit aside, grabbed a chair and hurled it down the stairs. The furniture tumbled down the steps with heavy crashes that reverberated through the dead-silent stairwell.
The noise was loud enough to make Lin Huijun tense. She pitched in to help Bai Shan clear the barricade.
Bai Shan's strength was impressive, Lin Huijun noted with quiet admiration. Back at school, Bai Shan had always been napping during free periods, showed zero enthusiasm for any activities, and always lagged behind during morning runs. Yet from yesterday until now, her physical abilities had proven even stronger than Lin Huijun's—and Lin Huijun was the class athletics star.
Had Bai Shan simply been lazy rather than lacking ability, just like with her studies? Or was it... because of the game?
Since reaching Level 5, Lin Huijun had felt a noticeable boost in her physical capabilities. Her panel showed a "Hunter" title under [Achievements], and under [Buffs]: Strength Enhancement 10%, Agility Enhancement 6%, Body Enhancement 5%.
If it was the game's doing, Lin Huijun estimated Bai Shan's level had to be higher than hers. Level 9? Level 10?
Yesterday afternoon, killing the giant fish in the river had jumped her from Level 5 to Level 8. Her buffs hadn't changed, so she guessed a qualitative shift only happened every five levels.
By that logic, Bai Shan was probably Level 10. Lin Huijun didn't have big data to compare leveling speeds, but she was certain of one thing—Bai Shan was formidable!
With a thud, the last sofa blocking the emergency exit was pushed down the stairs by both of them.
Something stirred behind the door. Bai Shan yanked open the fire door and stepped onto the 16th floor. Following the sounds, she turned to look—a fluffy gray tail vanished around the corridor corner.
The two gave chase immediately. Rounding the corner, they found a massive cat wedged at the end of the hallway, blocking the last two apartment doors. It had nowhere left to retreat. Its blue eyes glared at them fiercely.
"Um... a Ragdoll?"
Lin Huijun blinked. The big cat wore a ferocious expression, poised to attack.
But it was honestly kind of adorable. Its originally fluffy, well-groomed coat had been compressed into a rectangular shape by the narrow hallway. It couldn't even arch its back properly. It looked a bit pitiful, actually.
Bai Shan wrinkled her nose. "I don't like Ragdolls."
"Kill it." A red dart appeared in her palm.
"Wait! It—"
"Don't kill it!"
Two objections rang out simultaneously. Lin Huijun swallowed the rest of her words, staring in surprise as a girl with a mushroom-cut bob emerged from the big Ragdoll's voluminous fur.
"Cough cough—don't kill it." The girl repeated, still catching her breath after being smothered in cat fur.
Bai Shan recognized her. Yesterday in the lobby, this middle school girl had been one of the few with a brain, opposing the idiotic claims that you had to kill humans to clear the game.
"What are you doing here?" Bai Shan asked in surprise.
The 16th floor had been sealed off because of the mutated cat. How had this girl ended up here?
Bai Shan ventured a guess: "You live on the 16th floor? Is this your cat?"
"No, this wretched beast is mine, cough cough cough!"
Another person emerged from the Ragdoll's long fur. The old woman stumbled out, nearly tripping on the cat hair. Furious, she gave the big cat a hard smack.
"This stupid animal scares everyone it sees. Such a big lazy lump and people think it's so fierce. The moment there's real trouble, it runs to hide behind us..."
The white-haired old woman with short curly hair berated the big cat. It looked like she was scolding it, but Lin Huijun found the tone oddly familiar—like a parent rushing to scold their child first after they'd done something wrong, so the offended party would end up defending the kid instead.
The dart vanished. Bai Shan waved her hand. "Fine, I wasn't planning to kill it."
"We heard movement on this floor from the stairwell and came in to ask what happened, that's all."
Both the old woman and the girl visibly relaxed.
"So—what happened last night? Where did everyone else go?"
At Bai Shan's question, both their faces fell. The middle school girl clutched at the cat's fur, her eyes reddening.
A long silence followed. Lin Huijun's heart sank. She softened her voice as much as she could. "Don't be afraid. I'm Lin Huijun, and this is a resident of this building—you probably recognize her. We're not bad people."
"My friend wants to go back to her room to get some things. We didn't expect the building to be like this... If you could tell us anything, at least we'd be mentally prepared."
Bai Shan, meanwhile, was scanning up, down, left, and right. She was perfectly self-aware about her emotional intelligence and social skills. This kind of situation was best left to the class president.
Setting aside the cat hair on the floor, this level was clean—none of the faint blood smell that permeated the other floors.
The middle school girl couldn't hold back her tears any longer. She cried out, "Don't go any higher!"
The curly-haired old woman sighed too. "Just stay on this floor for now. They know there's a monster beast on this level. They won't come."
Bai Shan's gaze sharpened. "So you're saying you experienced something on another floor and fled to the 16th to hide."
"The emergency exit was sealed. You climbed in through the balconies from the floors above or below."
Lin Huijun tugged at Bai Shan's sleeve, signaling her to say less.
Just the ground-floor lobby alone was enough for Lin Huijun to imagine that something truly horrific had happened last night. She didn't want to force two survivors to relive their trauma.
The middle school girl turned away and buried her face in the Ragdoll's fur. The big cat let out a soft meow.
"Let me tell it." The old woman sighed, patting the girl's back. "Do you want to go inside the room first?"
The girl shook her head.
"This old woman wasn't caught up in last night's mess. I've been blessed with good fortune my whole life—anyone who tries to harm me ends up with bad luck. The fortune teller said I have some kind of special fate..."
The old woman's voice turned bitter: "Yesterday afternoon, me and Mochi got locked on the 16th floor. I told them Mochi wouldn't hurt anyone—it just got a bit bigger, that's all. But they wanted to kill even me!"
"Good thing Mochi suddenly got fierce. Old Li and his bunch got scared off, and they locked me and Mochi on this floor."
"I was thinking about taking the elevator down, but Mochi can't fit in the elevator. Sigh—if I abandoned Mochi, my daughter would throw a fit when she gets back from studying abroad. She video-calls every day just to see Mochi..."
Bai Shan listened patiently to the old woman's somewhat rambling account, then asked with a hint of urgency: "What happened to this young student here?"
The interrupted old woman opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words. The silent middle school girl lifted her head and took over:
"I'll tell it. Grandma Wu doesn't know those parts."
"My name is Tian Hui. I live on the 20th floor. Bai Shan... sis? I remember you."
Tian Hui lowered her head again, hiding her wrecked expression. Tears streamed down without stopping.
"I should have convinced my parents to leave yesterday—immediately, no matter where. Anywhere would have been better than staying in this building!"
"They went insane last night—every last one of them!"
Bai Shan and Lin Huijun's expressions jolted. Tian Hui's muffled sobs echoed through the corridor. No one spoke. After a while, Tian Hui steadied herself enough to continue:
"Bai Shan-jie, can I ask you something first?"
"Go ahead."
"The game rules say you can only level up by killing 'players.' Does 'player' include mutated animals and plants?"
Lin Huijun answered for Bai Shan, clenching her fists: "Of course it does. I killed several mutated animals and already earned the 'Hunter' title. I can prove it!"
Tian Hui's expression crumbled even further.
"But they said it doesn't count! You have to kill humans! Yesterday evening they went and killed the banyan tree on the rooftop and didn't get any experience!"
Bai Shan's eyes darkened. "Who are 'they'?"
"Old Li the security guard took five people up to the rooftop. That's what they said."
Bai Shan asked again, "Were they the ones killing people in the building?"
"...I can't remember clearly who was doing the killing. Originally everyone just wanted to get away from the electric catfish!"
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