Chapter 18-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player

Inside the overturned RV, Bai Shan was the first to crawl out, in a sorry state.

The dizzying weightlessness and jolting had turned her brain to mush. She couldn't even remember whether she'd managed to use [Tyrannical Command] in time to cushion the impact of the fall.

Her limbs felt weak and rubbery. She stumbled, and as the memory of her heart nearly leaping out of her chest flooded back, she thought her own decision had been a little reckless—she'd rather not have another experience like that.

Then she remembered there was someone else in the vehicle. She turned around, and Lin Huijun was already poking her head out from the wreckage. Bai Shan quickly reached out and pulled her free.

"I thought I was dead..."

Lin Huijun said, pale-faced and dazed.

She steadied herself and stared at the black RV lying on its side, expression still disbelieving.

"What brand is this thing? It gets blown off the 25th floor and comes out without a scratch?"

World leaders would be lining up to buy one!

Bai Shan replied, "It's a game item. It looks fine, but it's about to fall apart."

"Its HP bar is down to 5%."

Bai Shan had a slight headache about that. This RV had accompanied her on long journeys back in Tomorrow's Dominator 1.0—it had leapt across collapsed bridges, tumbled off cliffs. When the game descended into reality, it had followed her over, its HP bar at 45%, exactly as it had been the last time she'd opened the game.

And now, after all that commotion, it had been whittled down to a mere 5%.

Once the HP bar hit zero, the item would disappear forever.

She'd been counting on it to carry them through the journey ahead—and now, before they'd even set off, it was already at 5%...

"Lin Huijun, we're going to have to take good care of it from now on."

Lin Huijun caught a strange note of deep, almost sentimental attachment in those words. She couldn't help but give a little shudder.

She looked around. She didn't know why the explosion had happened, but the dust and smoke it had kicked up hadn't yet dissipated. The area was swathed in a yellow haze, the streets and buildings all blurred and indistinct.

"Bai Shan, when we were falling, did you hear anything?"

Bai Shan pulled up the game panel—visible only to her—and asked absently, "Hear what?"

"You know, something like a kill announcement, the world channel... Tyrant?"

"Cough, cough!" The word "Tyrant" slipped out of Lin Huijun's mouth, and Bai Shan was caught completely off guard, nearly choking on the dust. Then she got a good look at the game panel, and she coughed even louder.

[Name: Tyrant Level: 20 Talent: Tyrant's Grip (SS) Skill 1: Inspection Make physical contact with a target to view their Talent. Skill 2: Tyrannical Command Control any object within a 50-meter diameter that your right hand has previously touched. Skill 3: Unlocks at Level 50 Skill 4: Unlocks at Level 90 All Items: [Breathing Bracer] [Resurrection Ticket] [A Diligent Hardworking RV] [Name Change Card] [100% Accuracy Dart] [Tracking Gum] (click to see more) Active Buffs: Strength +80%, Agility +50%, Physical Enhancement +40%, Random Ability Enhancement Achievements: Sole Player, Hunter, First Blood]

Wait—her panel had new entries?

Her second skill, [Tyrannical Command], had expanded its control range from a 10-meter diameter to 50 meters.

A new item, [Breathing Bracer], had appeared in her inventory. A new buff, [Random Ability Enhancement], had been added. And a new achievement—[First Blood].

Bai Shan fixed her gaze on the achievement and tapped it open.

[Achievement: First Blood Awarded to the first human player to kill a Level 20 player. Grants the buff Random Ability Enhancement and unlocks the World Channel.]

So the strangling fig had also reached Level 20? Her SS-tier item had been well spent.

She opened the new item that had appeared in her inventory, and Bai Shan found it had been more than worth it—it was an outright windfall.

[Breathing Bracer (S Tier) Effect: Wear it, and the forces of nature become one with you.]

The description was somewhat cryptic, but based on Bai Shan's knowledge of this game, the more opaque the description, the more powerful the item or ability. She had an instinct that this new item would pair beautifully with her abilities.

Combined with the expanded ability range from the Random Ability Enhancement buff, Bai Shan felt [Tyrannical Command] was about to make a qualitative leap.

Her dust-caked face broke into a smile—but what exactly was this business about unlocking the World Channel?

She tapped a new icon in the top right corner of the holographic screen. The screen immediately transformed into a wall of scrolling text, dense and endless, impossible to read at normal speed. She eventually found a speed control and dialed it down by a factor of a thousand before she could barely make out what the World Channel was saying—the game system had even helpfully translated everything into her native language.

And then she discovered the World Channel was absolutely packed with the word "Tyrant."

[Lv.5 Li Zhizhi: Who is Tyrant?? Two days into the game and already this OP, basically a superhuman! I think there's actually a surname Bao in our country?]

[Lv.3 William Johnson: How would "Tyrant" be a person's name—it's a monster's code name! Does anyone not know this? Those monsters are players too!]

[Lv.2 Jeanne Berry: Tyrant and the Strangler it killed both sound like terrifying monsters.]

[Lv.1 Kim Woo-dae: What a bunch of crazies, can't rule out it's someone from our country either—does the game default to real names?]

[Lv.5 Misaki Hakuma: Feeling a little uneasy. It's only day two of the game and there are already Level 20 monsters?]

[Lv.1 He Jia: It's obviously a real-name system in this cursed game. I believe Tyrant is human—otherwise why bother announcing it to us human players? And that Resurrection Ticket reward—what use would an animal or plant have for that?]

[Lv.1 Hu Weiwei: Can the Resurrection Ticket bring back people who have died?]

[Lv.10 Charlie Anderson: Killing someone lets you take their items—what a brutal game rule. May God bless you all.]

[Lv.3 Huang Yuci: Oh my lord, without you pointing it out, exactly zero people would have thought to kill someone for their loot. I wonder how a certain 10-level player got there—hard to guess~]

[Lv.8 Harpreet Singh: Can you level up by killing those monsters too?]

[Lv.1 Lai Lin: Does this game have a friend-adding function? I really want to add Tyrant (waving hands)]

[Lv.2 Ling Zihan: Tyrant killed a Level 20 monster, so their own level can't be below 20—but the game has only been going for 24 hours! How did they do it?]

[Lv.1 Kate Roberts: Tyrant, please look at me! Can you use your Resurrection Ticket to bring back my family? I'll pay any price!]

"Something huge must have happened while we were falling!"

Lin Huijun exclaimed. Noticing Bai Shan hadn't responded, she nudged her shoulder. "What do you think?"

"...Think about what?" Bai Shan snapped back to attention, her brows drawn low, looking slightly displeased.

"About the Tyrant the World Channel is discussing—do you think it's a person or a monster?"

Bai Shan said, "A person."

Lin Huijun wasn't entirely convinced. "I feel like 'Tyrant' sounds more like a code name—not really a person's name."

Bai Shan's eyes flickered. She was silent for a brief moment, then resumed her usual faintly teasing tone.

"I once saw someone online whose ID card listed their name as 'Bao Baolong.' Having someone named Tyrant seems perfectly reasonable."

"Fair point." Lin Huijun nodded. "Who Tyrant is has nothing to do with us anyway. What matters is that the World Channel is open—people can share game information now."

"...With that, at least something like last night's tragedy won't happen again."

Lin Huijun's voice dipped. Bai Shan held back the urge to burst her bubble—even with knowledge of how to level up by killing mutated plants and animals, plenty of people would still choose to kill other humans.

Some people in the World Channel had even set their sights on her already.

[Resurrection Ticket (SS) Effect: Revive any one player.]

Having obtained this item—destined to be coveted by countless people—Bai Shan's reaction was strangely flat. She found it, inexplicably, a burden.

Dead is dead. If life were given a second chance, it would somehow feel less precious. This item eroded the weight of life, treating it like building blocks that could be reassembled. Even gambling with your life would start to feel weightless and trivial. She didn't like it.

Once her strength had returned, Bai Shan used [Tyrannical Command] to right the overturned RV. She didn't rush to drive away.

The two of them walked to a nearby basketball court. The recent earthquake and explosion had driven many people out of buildings to take refuge in open spaces. Bai Shan immediately spotted a large cat that had claimed a patch of ground, with the crowd automatically giving it a wide berth.

She walked closer and saw an old woman and a young girl waving at them.

Tian Hui's eyes were red and puffy. As Bai Shan approached, she noticed the grief and fragility that had been there before were gone—replaced by a thread of stubborn, fierce resolve.

Tian Hui leaned in, her expression turning cautious. She whispered to Bai Shan, "Bai Shan-jiejie, did you manage to deal with... it?"

Bai Shan studied the girl for a moment, then said plainly, "Yes. It's been blown to pieces."

The system had already announced it to the whole world. No need for her to confirm anything.

"...Thank you. Both of you."

Tian Hui looked down, words failing her. Whatever she said felt small and hollow—if not for Bai Shan and Lin Huijun, she and Grandma Wu would likely have remained trapped on the 16th floor until they were eaten by monsters.

But gratitude wasn't the most genuine emotion Tian Hui felt. The realization that she could only survive by relying on others filled her with a suffocating dread—and that dread transformed into a deep, searing anger and longing.

The monster that had devoured hundreds of bodies clean. Bai Shan, who had dispatched it. The Level 20 monster broadcast across the world. The rising star who had made a name in a single battle—Tyrant. And the Resurrection Ticket reward.

She recalled how laughably naive her initial moral limit of "I will not kill people" had been. She could barely protect herself, yet she had clung to that hollow ideal.

Tian Hui kept her head down. All she could do right now was say thank you. She murmured again, "Thank you, both of you."

"Thanking Lin Huijun is enough—she's the one who brought you down." Bai Shan shrugged indifferently. "No need to thank me. I'm allergic to sentimental scenes."

"I don't owe you anything. Killing it was what I wanted to do. If anything, I should be thanking you for giving me a useful lead."

Bai Shan gave the girl an awkward pat on the shoulder, her tone blunt. "Thank you."

Tian Hui's head snapped up, eyes wide with surprise. She hadn't been treated like dead weight to be casually discarded by someone this powerful.

Her throat tightened. The self-respect and naive ideals that had been crushed under the heel of a brutal new reality—they showed the first faint signs of healing.

Lin Huijun stood nearby, listening quietly. A small smile passed through her bright brown eyes. Bai Shan was truly stubborn with her words. She could easily have kept her distance—they were leaving the city anyway, and the monster in the building had nothing to do with her.

Yet Bai Shan had gone in anyway. Perhaps even Bai Shan herself hadn't worked out exactly why; her body had moved before her mind could catch up.

Bai Shan finished speaking to Tian Hui and turned to look at Lin Huijun, who happened to be looking back at her at the same moment.

"Bai Shan, I want to—"

"No, you don't." Bai Shan cut her off at once, assuming Lin Huijun meant to bring extra people along. "The road ahead will only get more dangerous," she said, firmly against it.

"I know, that's not what I was going to say." Lin Huijun sighed and turned to Tian Hui. "Do you have any family?"

Tian Hui shook her head. "Yes, but they're in other places—we don't keep in close contact. My family came to this coastal city for work."

Before Lin Huijun could ask further, Grandma Wu had already launched into her story. "My husband passed last year. I finally got to the age where he was supposed to take care of me... and then something like this happens. I have a daughter abroad—hard to say when she'll be able to come back..."

Then, without missing a beat, Grandma Wu pulled Tian Hui close. "Perfect timing—I've been lacking a grandchild. If Tian Hui doesn't think this old woman is a nuisance, then I won't have to keep nagging my daughter to have kids and wear her out."

Tian Hui's eyes brimmed with tears again. She threw her arms around the old woman's waist and shook her head frantically. "No, no—I just hope you don't think I'm too childish and immature..."

The ragdoll cat Mochi padded over. The moment it stirred, the people nearby went tense—but it was only stretching with a long, lazy yawn.

Bai Shan wasn't about to take every stranger she met along for the ride—this wasn't a picnic, and even a picnic would be out of the question. Lin Huijun's abilities and character were reliable; Bai Shan was fine with her. The RV wasn't that large—two people was just right, three would be a squeeze, and four would severely compromise quality of life.

Bai Shan wasn't here to play savior. She just wanted to complete the game.

Taking in unrelated people out of a moment's soft-heartedness would only cause harm to both sides.

But out of a small sense of obligation, Bai Shan didn't hold back a warning. "You two—three—staying together, you can find a safe place in this city for a while. But don't stay too long."

"Rong City is too close to the coast."

Had Bai Shan not killed the mutated fig tree, it would undoubtedly have grown into the undisputed master of Rong City, preying on the entire populace at will. Unless some miraculous powerhouse happened to appear and deal with it, the tree would have had free rein for a long time—

Until the sea creatures came ashore.

Lin Huijun took a moment to process this, frowning. "You mean mutated marine life might invade the land?"

Bai Shan let out a nearly imperceptible sigh. "Haven't you noticed? Human players are the highest-value 'prey.'"

"Killing a Level 1 human gets you to Level 5. You said you killed a swarm of mutated rats to reach Level 5—how many exactly?"

Lin Huijun's expression grew grave as well. "Easily a hundred. They were crawling all over a convenience store—normal-sized rats, but everything they passed would instantly start to rot."

Bai Shan continued, "The stronger the creature, the richer the reward. As the apex of the food chain, humans should be worth the most."

"I used to think those mutated plants and animals attacked humans in large numbers simply because increased energy consumption meant they needed to feed. But that doesn't hold—the catfish sunbathing along the riverbank are more nutritious than me, yet the large fish in the water go to enormous lengths to hunt humans."

"Because they're players just like us. The experience reward for killing a human is the highest."

"They might even have KPI requirements just like us—fail to reach a set level and you get eliminated."

Within 7 days, reach Level 5 or be erased on day 7. In that kind of extreme environment, even humans would turn on other humans—let alone mutated creatures.

In the early stages of the game, the vast majority of people had near-useless Talents, while mutated plants and animals had gotten a head start on evolution, developing abilities that were typically highly aggressive. This meant killing humans was simpler than killing mutated creatures, with richer rewards to boot—the game's first phase was, to put it plainly, blatantly stacked against human players.

If the game's goal wasn't to wipe out humanity, then this design was in service of the "fairness" promised when the game descended.

As for the human players being suppressed in this phase—they couldn't exactly protest by quitting or going on a boycott. They could only grit their teeth and survive Phase One: watch for monsters, be wary of each other.

Looking at the grave expressions on the three faces before her, Bai Shan added reassuringly, "No need to panic too much. The really dangerous things are in the deep ocean—they won't make it to shore for a while. Just be careful of your immediate surroundings."

Tian Hui instinctively glanced over her shoulder at the large cat.

Grandma Wu's expression was one of vague, uncertain understanding. She stroked the lazily sprawled Mochi and sighed, "Things are tough for people and beasts alike these days."

"But animals will always be animals—and there are plenty of humans who aren't even as good as animals!"

Grandma Wu declared this with sudden force, and several people nearby shifted guiltily.

Tian Hui thought back to how Mochi had obediently lowered its tail and pulled her up, and the last traces of worry and wariness melted away.

Grandma Wu's words were rough but true. After the game descended, there was no longer a distinction between humans and monsters—only players and players: warm-hearted players, powerful neutral players, cold and ruthless players...

She had been both unlucky and lucky to have crossed paths with all of them.

"Thank you. We're going to live well."

For the first time since the game had descended, Tian Hui smiled—and this time, her gratitude was genuine.

Watching the old woman and the young girl both showing a will to keep going, Lin Huijun felt a great deal of relief. She knew there were so many people in this world struggling, more than she could ever save or had the ability to help—but she couldn't stop herself from reaching out a hand to someone drowning right in front of her.

She took a few things from her backpack and stuffed them into her coat pockets until they were bulging, then handed the whole bag—food, clothes, medicine and all—directly over to them.

Most of the people on the basketball court were venting their grievances. First an earthquake, then the monsters rampaging underground, then an explosion. The blast had taken out several surrounding buildings. Their homes, cars, savings, food, clothing, and everything else they'd left behind—there had been no time to grab any of it during the earthquake, and some had been planning to go back for their things, but then the explosion happened. Now no one dared go near that area.

Everything most of them had spent a lifetime building was gone in an instant.

"My apartment! My brand-new car! No more mortgage payments—but everything's gone too!"

"Building 2 just exploded for no reason. Did someone leave the gas on?"

"Is it possible someone blew the building up on purpose? There are all sorts of crazy abilities out there now. Someone might have snapped and decided to take it out on the world!"

"It was the monsters, surely—didn't you all hear it last night? I didn't sleep a wink. Building 2 across the way was screaming all night... I doubt there were many survivors by morning."

As soon as last night was mentioned, the residents of the surrounding buildings fell into a collective, telling silence. Under normal circumstances, someone might have called the fire department or the police—but last night... no one had dared step outside. Every door and window had been locked shut.

Bai Shan and Lin Huijun walked through the noisy crowd. Bai Shan felt absolutely no guilt about having blown up someone else's home—her own had gone up in smoke too.

Fortunately, no one connected the explosion to the [Tyrant] and [Strangler] announced in the game notification.

The mutated fig tree had concealed itself well, and she was just an unremarkable high school student.

[Tyrant], [Strangler]—no idea, never heard of them, nothing to do with her.

Watching Bai Shan and Lin Huijun leave, Tian Hui became acutely aware of the gazes around her growing bolder—some hostile toward Mochi, others likely eyeing her and Grandma Wu as easy targets.

Under ordinary circumstances, a little old lady and a middle-school girl would be textbook vulnerable individuals in need of society's care and protection.

In a world's end, it seemed they were simply supposed to accept their place at the very bottom—the first to be preyed upon.

But this was not a game of the strong eating the weak. Tian Hui had remembered that clearly from the very beginning of the game's descent.

This was a "relatively" fair game. Before the rules, all living things stood equal.

Perhaps because of that, neither she nor Grandma Wu had weak abilities.

Tian Hui—who had never dared raise her hand to answer a question in class—glared fiercely back at the hostile stares, holding each one until the person looked away in embarrassment.

Mochi crouched low. Tian Hui climbed on first, then pulled Grandma Wu up. The two of them gripped the ragdoll cat's now-grimy long fur, and the great cat shot through the ruined city streets.

It had all happened so suddenly. Their plan was to find a supermarket or shopping mall first to stock up on supplies, then look for a vacant apartment to settle in temporarily. There were plenty of unsold units in this city, and while they had no running water or electricity, the upside was that they were empty—which, in times like these, was actually quite safe.

Settle in. Then hunt.

Tian Hui hadn't forgotten the game rules. She and Grandma Wu were both Level 1, and within seven days—no, only six days left now...

The later the game went on, the more desperate those who hadn't met the requirements would become.

Six days. She had to reach Level 5.

No matter what.

Tian Hui's eyes were resolute. She pushed everything else out of her mind.

The small shops along the street had been picked clean. The road surface had been wrecked by rampaging roots and branches, reduced to rubble almost impassable by car. The great cat ran at astonishing speed across the broken terrain, and anyone lurking in the shadows who had ideas found themselves powerless to act.

*

Bai Shan and Lin Huijun climbed back into the black RV.

"Take a look around," Bai Shan said. "We'll be spending most of our time here from now on."

They hadn't had time or inclination to look around before. Now, climbing in for the second time, Lin Huijun finally took in the full interior. No garish colors—the same minimalist aesthetic as Bai Shan's bedroom. Everything was there, though: a kitchenette, a bathroom, a sofa, a table, a bed, storage cabinets, and a skylight overhead.

It was smaller than a typical living space, but Lin Huijun felt a surprising sense of contentment—even though the RV wasn't hers.

She moved through it with barely-concealed excitement, poking here and sitting there. Bai Shan followed with her own curious look, running a hand over the small bed.

Soft. The pillow and blanket were clean too.

In a computer game, the RV had been nothing more than a vehicle. In reality, it had become a home on wheels—and that gave Bai Shan a genuine sense of novelty.

Lin Huijun dug out some instant noodles and water from the storage cabinet, boiled water with an electric kettle, and the two of them ate steaming bowls of noodles. The clock on the wall read 1 PM—just barely making it to lunch.

After eating, they sat across from each other at the fold-down table, staring at one another.

Without the internet, the modern person was lost. Entertainment options were next to none. The RV did have a dedicated shelf of books in one cabinet, with some interesting titles—but neither of them had the patience for reading right now.

"Bai Shan, where do we head next?"

"I've mapped out a route. Take a look."

Bai Shan produced a paper map with a rough route marked out in black marker.

Lin Huijun took it and frowned almost immediately. She pointed at the marked route. "Bai Shan, this doesn't look right. To get to Songjiang Province, you just go straight in this direction—why does the route loop around in the middle?"

She reasoned it out. "If we take the national highway in a straight line, under normal conditions we'd drive four or five days to reach Songjiang Province. Given the current situation, double or triple the time—that's roughly two weeks."

"I don't think we need to worry about running into dangerous marine life along the coastal route. They shouldn't surface that fast in two weeks, right?"

Lin Huijun assumed Bai Shan was concerned about safety on the direct coastal road. Bai Shan stared blankly for a moment and realized she couldn't actually come up with a convincing reason.

The straight coastal highway was obviously the fastest. But Bai Shan had a special mission—her final destination wasn't Songjiang Province to find her mother. Songjiang was just one waypoint. Her true end goal was the Arctic, and not simply arriving there—it was far more complicated than that.

She had to kill five [Great Ruler]-class monsters, unlock the bombastic title [King of Kings], then reach a certain hidden chamber in the Arctic. That was her win condition as the "Sole Player" of Tomorrow's Dominator 1.0.

In the 2.0 version that had descended into reality, the mutated creatures didn't come with visible level tags and titles like they had in the computer game. But with nine full game playthroughs behind her, Bai Shan could roughly gauge their levels—the strangling fig, for instance, had been Level 20, given the sheer number of lives it had consumed.

The old woman's ragdoll cat hadn't seemed like a Level 1 creature. It had probably been quietly catching birds, bats, and rats while the fig tree was busy luring its own prey.

Both the strangling fig and the great cat fell into the [Hunter] tier.

In Tomorrow's Dominator 1.0, monsters were divided into four tiers: [Hunter], [Dominator], [Ruler], and [Great Ruler].

Levels 1 to 20 were [Hunter]. 20 to 50 were [Dominator]. 50 to 90 were [Ruler]. 90 and above were [Great Ruler].

[Great Rulers] weren't low-level mobs wandering everywhere. The locations Bai Shan had marked on the map were spots she had identified—drawing on nine playthroughs of accumulated knowledge—as having a relatively higher chance of spawning a [Great Ruler].

For instance, Caiyun Province, with its dense vegetation and pristine ecosystem, was an ideal environment for nurturing a [Great Ruler]. To complete her objective of killing five [Great Rulers], a trip there was necessary.

But how was she supposed to explain that to Lin Huijun?

She could fabricate something—her grandmother was on a trip in Caiyun Province, her aunt was stranded in some town in the southwest and desperately needed her—but that wasn't really the image she'd been projecting, was it?

Bai Shan was lazily mulling over the game's 1.0 lore, trying to think of an excuse, when her body—which had been lounging against the seat back—suddenly sat bolt upright. Lin Huijun stared at her from across the table, waiting for a response.

Bai Shan stared straight at Lin Huijun as though she'd seen a ghost—then flopped back down with a thump. Lin Huijun felt a chill run down her spine.

"Fine. We'll go straight."

Bai Shan said.

Lin Huijun looked even more confused at the definitive agreement. Ever since she'd known Bai Shan—since second year of high school—Bai Shan had always been something of a mystery. But since the game descended, there was an inexplicable sense of something not quite adding up about her.

The most obvious red flag: Bai Shan's strength exceeded the average by far too much. When Lin Huijun had only had a single B-tier item—the [Frozen Tilapia]—Bai Shan had apparently possessed some enormously powerful explosive item, plus this RV.

Maybe Bai Shan had stumbled onto something extraordinary on the very first day?

"Alright." Lin Huijun nodded. Everyone had secrets. If Bai Shan wasn't ready to tell her, she wasn't going to dig.

Besides, she had her own secret she hadn't told Bai Shan.

"The RV should have offline navigation," Lin Huijun said. "Our next stop—Nanjiang Province."

She moved to the driver's seat.

Bai Shan settled into the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt. She turned her head slightly; the window reflected a drifting silhouette.

In Tomorrow's Dominator 2.0, humans and mutated creatures alike were all players. Human players who reached Level 5 could unlock the [Hunter] title.

That meant the title system—Hunter, Dominator, Ruler, Great Ruler—applied to human players in 2.0 as well. At some threshold, perhaps Level 80 or 90, a human might unlock the [Great Ruler] title.

Her target pool had just expanded. She didn't need to fixate on monsters or go out of her way to justify a detour. People were everywhere.

The engine turned over. The vehicle began to move. Bai Shan watched Lin Huijun's hands on the wheel—driving wasn't that hard; once she learned, they wouldn't have to stay tied together.

The RV hadn't gone far before Lin Huijun's forehead broke into a light sweat. She realized she'd vastly underestimated the terrain. The road ahead looked like the aftermath of a chain-reaction pileup, completely blocked. She had to keep rerouting down different streets. Just getting out of Rong City was an ordeal.

Once they reached the highway, she found the road surface had been visibly torn apart. The guardrails on both sides were crushed flat, and several cars sat strewn across the lanes at odd angles—all apparently empty, their drivers seeming to have fled on foot.

If this RV still had 50% HP, Bai Shan would absolutely have sat back in comfort and coolly ordered "just ram through." But with only 5% left, that was out of the question.

So Bai Shan got out of the car and attempted to use her telekinesis to shove the obstructing vehicles out of the way.

One car lifted into the air and landed behind the RV. As Bai Shan placed her right hand on the next one, she caught a glimpse of her own wrist peeking out from her sleeve and suddenly remembered she'd acquired a new item.

[Breathing Bracer (S Tier) Effect: Wear it, and the forces of nature become one with you.]

Bai Shan tapped an icon on the game panel. A dark green bracer wound itself around her right wrist, wrapping around her thumb and covering half her palm, leaving the thumb exposed. At first glance, it looked surprisingly cool.

On second glance, it looked exactly like something you'd wear for a repetitive strain injury.

Bai Shan flexed her fingers and rotated her wrist. She ran her left hand over the bracer's surface—it felt paper-thin, with no sensation of wearing anything foreign at all.

She closed her eyes and tried to sense the "natural force" described in the item's effect. Her right hand clenched into a fist and spread open again, over and over.

In the distance, a blue sedan inched forward on its own.

Bai Shan's eyes snapped open. A flash of delight crossed her face. With the bracer on, her right hand seemed to dissolve into the wind, the air, the fragrance of grass and trees—as if the surrounding environment had been compressed into her right palm, everything within reach of a touch.

After testing it, she estimated the natural force extended about a hundred meters at its farthest. From a standstill, she could nudge flowers and grass a hundred meters away with a motion of her fingers, or push a car at roughly thirty meters.

The closer the object, the greater the force she could exert. This bracer was essentially an external telekinesis amplifier.

The natural force of the bracer could augment her [Tyrannical Command], letting her wield her ability with far greater ease when used in combination.

Most brilliantly of all: once the bracer was on, her right hand became one with the natural force, as if countless invisible tendrils had extended outward from it.

[Tyrannical Command]'s activation condition was controlling objects her right hand had previously touched. Now, with her right hand fused to the natural force, she could reach everywhere the natural force could reach.

This meant [Tyrannical Command] no longer required her to physically touch an object in advance. With the bracer on, she could directly control anything within a 50-meter diameter—just like that.

The cars blocking the highway were pushed effortlessly to either side by an invisible force. When Bai Shan got back into the RV, she was still excitedly playing with her right hand, looking at it from every angle with growing admiration.

Lin Huijun noticed the dark green bracer that had appeared around Bai Shan's wrist and said with concern, "Bai Shan, did you get repetitive strain injury?!"

All that gaming—its toll on her wrists was apparently even greater than that of a dedicated student in her final year of high school. You couldn't underestimate the effort and dedication Bai Shan poured into gaming just because it was gaming.

Bai Shan twitched. She hissed and said, "Lin Huijun, you're doing that on purpose to get at me, aren't you?"

The car started. Lin Huijun put on some music.

Driving rock blasted through the cabin. Bai Shan lost any desire to pursue the matter. She rolled the window down halfway—wind rushed in—and she gazed at the ever-changing scenery outside, humming along.

Just as Bai Shan's mood began to lift, Lin Huijun suddenly reached into her pocket with one hand and produced a crumpled sheet of paper, passing it to Bai Shan.

Bai Shan took it curiously. One look told her it was a written self-criticism.

Written in her own handwriting and voice. Bai Shan stared at it like she'd seen a ghost. When had she written this thing?

"I forged your handwriting," Lin Huijun explained. "I figured there was zero chance you'd ever write one yourself, so I did it for you."

"...Oh."

Bai Shan thought back to the events at school, and a sense of having lived another lifetime washed over her. She let out a short, scornful laugh. "Anyone who writes one of these things is an idiot."

"Lin Huijun, I've never met anyone as dumb as you."

Lin Huijun replied flatly, "Look who's talking—was what you did at school so clever?"

Thinking back to it, even Lin Huijun felt like it was a distant memory. All those things that had seemed so enormous and earth-shattering to a senior in high school—one or two months later, they'd become lighthearted stories to laugh about.

As soon as they'd entered their third year, the head teacher of the senior year had instituted a set of extremely strict rules to boost grades—including but not limited to: regulated meal portions, a twenty-minute lunch limit with anyone who ran over forced to eat standing up for the following week; one bathroom break per class period; chanting at morning runs at a decibel level mandated by a noise meter, or else re-running the entire thing...

As class president, Lin Huijun had raised the issue with the homeroom teacher and the head teacher multiple times to no effect. She was on the verge of giving up—until the incident happened.

Bai Shan, who had been hovering in the middle of the class rankings, made a sudden leap this semester and topped the entire class in the midterm exams. The head teacher reviewed the examination and confirmed there had been no cheating; by the rules, this dark horse was invited to deliver a speech at Monday assembly to inspire the whole school.

And Bai Shan proceeded to read a speech before the entire school that left everyone present speechless.

She lavished praise on the head teacher as "a thriftiness so refined it has secured him a spot among next year's Nobel Peace Prize nominees," "a great observer of bladder function," and "a conductor tragically sidetracked by physics," among other such epithets.

Before she even finished, the head teacher—enraged enough to rise from his receding hairline—yanked her offstage. During the struggle, it was hard to say whether Bai Shan intended it or not, but she stumbled and shoved the frail middle-aged man to the ground.

So Bai Shan was duly awarded a suspension.

The unfinished speech became a sensation throughout the school—endlessly quoted and savored, along with nicknames like "the bladder observer." The head teacher achieved a kind of fame that extended beyond their school, with posts on social platforms racking up thousands of reposts.

Thanks to the ensuing spectacle bringing such embarrassment to the school, all the head teacher's rules were revoked. But naturally, Bai Shan—who had caused the whole mess—didn't fare well either.

"I also wrote a letter," Lin Huijun said. "Every student in the class signed it. Everyone was grateful for the treatment you fought for, and they wanted the suspension lifted. The head teacher caved to the pressure and grudgingly agreed to let you come back—but demanded you write a three-thousand-word apology letter."

Bai Shan looked at the forged "Bai Shan's Self-Criticism" Lin Huijun had produced and laughed and laughed. She tore the page—stuffed full of insincere words—to shreds and tossed it out the window.

The scraps of paper fluttered backward like snowflakes, disappearing from view in a moment, leaving only a laughing, carefree face in the side mirror.

Lin Huijun watched Bai Shan casually discard the little document she'd worked hard to write and protested, "Could you at least pretend to be touched?!"

"I wasn't fighting for anyone," Bai Shan said. "I just couldn't stand someone and acted on it. You're the ones who got sentimental about it—but fine, I'll be moved too."

The tires rolled over cracked asphalt. The silent car filled with laughter and banter as Rong City fell further and further behind them, and they pressed onward toward the next stop.

Day two of the game's descent. 128 hours remained until the end of Phase One.

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