Chapter 16-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 16
Around the start of winter, Lin Huijun's grandmother would make lots of cured sausages. The pounded meat filling would be stuffed into casings, then hung up to dry.
The long, gray elevator shaft before them looked like a washed casing. Limbs and flesh, blurred beyond recognition, were piled in the narrow shaft, becoming indistinguishable filling. The shaft, with no visible top, looked like a sausage half-stuffed.
It also looked like half-digested vomit.
The corpse piled on top barely retained a human shape. Black uniform fabric with a badge sewn on the shoulder hung on the body, but Bai Shan couldn't recognize which person she had once passed by in this building.
She closed her eyes. The metal elevator doors slammed shut with a bang, sealing away the hellish sight.
Her nearly stopped heartbeat was jolted by the sound of the closing doors and gradually began to beat again. When Bai Shan pulled Lin Huijun back into the corridor, her mind was still blank.
Seeing them return, Tian Hui asked nervously, "Did a monster come?"
The two teenagers' complexions were visibly terrible. Bai Shan already had cold, pale skin that usually gave off an unapproachable distance. Now she stood there silently like a cold ice sculpture.
Even the other, usually considerate older sister wasn't speaking. This made Tian Hui even more uneasy, and she carefully observed their expressions.
After a long while, Bai Shan finally spoke, her tone unprecedentedly heavy.
"You need to leave this building as soon as possible. The farther, the better."
This building had been turned into a food storage by the mutated banyan tree. It had dragged all the unabsorbed corpses into the elevator shaft—perhaps for storage, or perhaps to create the illusion of a safer environment to attract more prey.
"It's more dangerous here than outside—" Bai Shan stopped mid-sentence. She had wanted to say this building was more dangerous than outside, but from what they'd encountered along the way, the outside was also full of dangers.
Bai Shan's hands went from her pockets to crossed over her chest, then back to her pockets. Many thoughts surged up, crashing around in her restless mind.
After a while, as her emotions gradually calmed, Bai Shan said firmly:
"Yes, that's right. You must leave this building."
"If you can, notify other survivors in this building, and the two buildings next door."
Lin Huijun, Tian Hui, and Grandma Wu all stared at Bai Shan in confusion. Bai Shan had already shed the last trace of hesitation and said resolutely:
"Because I'm going to blow up this building."
The three immediately widened their eyes. The large ragdoll cat, curled up, let out an uneasy meow.
"What do you mean blow up this building? Where would we even get explosives?"
The old woman, realizing what Bai Shan was saying, showed a panicked expression.
Since the game began, Grandma Wu hadn't left this building. This building was the place she was most familiar with and felt safest in her entire life. Her daughter grew up here, and she grew old here. No matter how the world changed, she had long been prepared to die here.
"You all go. Tian Hui, take Mochi with you. These old bones of mine won't be making the trip."
Hearing this, Tian Hui anxiously tried to persuade the old woman not to give up on herself. But Bai Shan's face turned cold, and she said bluntly, "If you want to die, die somewhere else. Don't get in my way."
The old woman gasped, nearly choking. Lin Huijun, having recovered emotionally, patted the old woman's back to help her breathe. Looking at Bai Shan's unmoved expression, she actually felt a strange sense of security.
"Bai Shan, what do you want to do?"
Bai Shan glanced at Tian Hui and Grandma Wu. Lin Huijun understood that some things weren't suitable for them to know.
Lin Huijun supported the old woman and turned back to Bai Shan. "I'll take them out of this building first and find a safe place."
"Okay," Bai Shan said. "Take them first, then come to Room 2503 on the 25th floor."
Bai Shan took out a key from her pocket and tossed it to Lin Huijun, continuing, "Just wait for me in the RV in the room."
Lin Huijun nodded and led the old woman and the young girl downstairs. Entering the stairwell, she suddenly felt something was off. The RV... in the room?
Why would there be an RV in a room? Why would an RV be in a room on the 25th floor?
Lin Huijun quickly turned back to ask for clarification, but Bai Shan had already run upstairs—not even a shadow remained.
"Sister, what exactly did you two encounter when you left earlier?"
Tian Hui asked carefully while walking, looking up at Lin Huijun. She saw Lin Huijun's lips press together, as if holding back difficult words.
Lin Huijun didn't answer. The closer they got to the first floor, the more nervous Tian Hui became. Thinking about her mother still lying in the lobby, she could barely breathe.
But when they reached the first floor and pushed open the fire door, there wasn't a single corpse in the lobby.
*
Bai Shan ran upstairs, from the 16th floor to the 30th, and pushed open the rooftop door.
The rooftop was empty. Dead leaves covered the gray cement floor, and her black sneakers made a clear crunching sound as she stepped on them.
Bai Shan ran to the railing. The height of 30 floors was enough to overlook most of the city. Her gaze quickly locked onto a main road—the banyan tree hung with red lanterns had somehow advanced to a spot not far from her.
She walked around the rooftop railing and found that the roads everywhere had been pushed up by tree roots, seemingly centered around this building.
These mutated banyan trees could move flexibly.
Bai Shan frustratedly ran her fingers through her bangs. She should have been more vigilant.
The animals and plants had started "playing the game" before humans!
She had clearly discovered the mutated banyan tree on the rooftop over a month ago, but her subconscious had been avoiding these counter-intuitive anomalies. After that night, she never saw that huge banyan tree again, so she had reasonably assumed the property management had removed it.
It had known to hide itself a month ago—this fact chilled Bai Shan more than the corpses hidden in the elevator shaft.
Was this a new instinct triggered by the game, or did it have a certain intelligence—something like human intelligence?
Bai Shan already had her answer.
"It's intelligence."
She let out a heavy breath, talking to herself.
Yesterday, the security guards and their group failed to kill the mutated banyan tree. It hid and deceived them, lying in ambush in this building.
If it were just that, it couldn't be called intelligent.
Bai Shan wasn't sure if the sudden electric catfish disaster was an accident or related to it, but she was certain that the two doors sealed in the lobby last night were its doing!
From Tian Hui's description, she had seen slender shadows behind the fire door. The door wasn't blocked by something—it was sealed by branches.
Bai Shan remembered it also had the ability to lure creatures. Perhaps it could influence people's emotions. It used this method of fanning the flames to make people fight among themselves. Once enough people were dead or injured, it dragged them into the shaft to slowly digest.
It was even possible that last night, the first to strike wasn't either of the arguing groups... it was the tree.
Just thinking about how this monster had been in the same building as her for over a month made Bai Shan's scalp tingle.
At least yesterday at noon, the banyan tree's attack power wasn't strong. When Bai Shan left, it could only attract and digest some ordinary birds—at first, it couldn't even stop the mutated bats.
But she wasn't sure—after last night, what level had this tree reached?
The players of "Tomorrow's Dominator" weren't just humans. Even though Bai Shan had known this all along, it wasn't until this moment that she truly understood what it meant.
Creak—
Behind Bai Shan, the rooftop door was pushed open by some force.
"Hiding for so long, you finally dare to come out?"
Bai Shan turned around, staring at the tree trunk extending from the dark stairwell, her tone mocking.
"Can you understand what I'm saying?" Bai Shan asked curiously.
The branches extending from behind the iron door were still like any ordinary tree. The wind blew through its leaves, which swayed naturally.
"Then can you read the game panel?"
A pale blue light screen popped up. The panel was only visible to the player themselves, so Bai Shan generously read it aloud:
"[Name: Tyrant, SS-tier talent, Level 20... probably the highest level among human players right now.]"
"The stronger the player you kill, the faster you level up. We play the game the same way, don't we?"
The rooftop fell silent for a moment. Bai Shan's smiling tone faded into the dying breeze. The cement floor of the rooftop cracked, and the entire building began to tremble!
On the street opposite the residential complex, Lin Huijun was helping Grandma Wu adjust the speaker she usually used for square dancing. Grandma Wu was holding the microphone, about to announce an evacuation for the area, when Mochi, who had been lying down, suddenly arched its back in alarm.
The ground suddenly shook violently!
An earthquake? The three steadied themselves against Mochi. Lin Huijun watched in shock as thick tree roots writhed and twitched in the cracks of the road and sidewalk. Patches of asphalt rose or collapsed like waves.
People kept running out of the surrounding buildings in panic, tripping on the undulating ground, then quickly getting up to keep running.
The roots churning underground showed no aggressive behavior. They passed by these people, like snakes and rats summoned by a piper, surging purposefully in one direction.
Lin Huijun reached into the air and grabbed the item [Frozen Tilapia]. She broke into a run toward the same direction!
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