Chapter 5-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
[Name: Tyrant Level: 89 Talent: Tyrant's Grip (SS) Skill 1: Inspection Make physical contact with a target to view their Talent. Skill 2: Tyrannical Command Can manipulate any object touched by the right hand within a 10-meter diameter. Skill 3: Admonition All who bow before the Tyrant become subjects. The Tyrant may unconditionally access any subject's Talent. Skill 4: Unlocks at Level 90 All Items: [Hunting Arrow] [Fengdu Tiger Tally] [Delusional Dream Realm] [Inextinguishable Sun Flame] (click to see more) Buffs: Strength Enhancement 1000%, Agility Enhancement 800%, Night Vision, Cold Resistance, Double EXP (click to see more) Achievements: The Sole Player, Master of Zero-Cost Purchases, Stubborn Wild Donkey, Ruler (click to see more)]
Her game data had been loaded into reality along with the game!
After all the twists and turns, Bai Shan wanted to throw her head back and laugh. All those days of effort hadn't been wasted—starting at Level 89, she could rampage through the mutated world.
The triumphant grin had barely settled on her face when the text on the blue holographic screen suddenly warped and blurred. The familiar panel shook violently, as if being torn apart by an invisible force.
Bai Shan's heart leapt into her throat once again.
The mechanical voice that had resounded across the Earth stuttered for a moment, then formally announced the game rules.
[Welcome, 8,036,428,192 human players of Earth, to the game "Tomorrow's Dominator." First, please review your Talent abilities!]
[The universe holds no "absolute" fairness. This is a game of "relative" fairness. Before the rules, all living beings are equal.]
[Next, I shall announce the rules for the game's First Stage!]
Down in the lobby, over twenty people stared dumbfounded at the panels that had suddenly materialized. Faced with a power beyond comprehension, most didn't dare move rashly. Some had even lost the ability to process what was happening and were screaming uncontrollably where they stood.
The more perceptive ones forced themselves to stay calm, committing every word of the mechanical voice to memory.
In the center of the lobby, a white-collar worker clutching a briefcase was typing rapidly on his phone. In a corner, a teenager who looked to be in middle school was jotting down key points with pen and paper—she drew a large exclamation mark after "First Stage."
[First Stage (January 27, 2026, 12:00 — February 3, 2026, 12:00). Requirements for clearing are as follows—]
[Within the 7-day deadline, reach Experience Level 5. Level 5 automatically unlocks the "Hunter" achievement.]
[Method of gaining experience: Kill players.]
[Players who fail to unlock the "Hunter" achievement by the end of the First Stage will be erased.]
Upon hearing "kill players," nearly everyone who had been taking notes froze for a moment. By the time they wrote down the word "erased," their handwriting had become an illegible, trembling mess.
Kill players—wasn't that just killing people?!
The game's rule was: kill or be killed?
The mechanical voice was clearly devoid of emotion, yet many heard deep mockery and malice lurking beneath its flat tone.
Some stared at those around them in utter shock, while others kept their heads down—either thinking, or already feeling guilty.
Bai Shan felt like she was losing her mind, struggling to digest two bombshell revelations at once!
She was essentially a beta tester for Tomorrow's Dominator. The game content had changed this drastically and nobody had bothered to notify her? A single-player game had suddenly become a brutal PVP game?
Even more outrageous—her account, which had been nearly maxed out, had been suppressed to Level 20.
[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 Can manipulate any object touched by the right hand within a 10-meter diameter. Skill 3: Unlocks at Level 50 Skill 4: Unlocks at Level 90 All Items: [A Diligent Hardworking RV] [Name Change Card] [100% Accuracy Dart] [Tracking Chewing Gum] (click to see more) Buffs: Strength Enhancement 80%, Agility Enhancement 50%, Body Enhancement 40% Achievements: The Sole Player, Hunter]
She'd been suppressed to Level 20. Not only had she lost the Skill Admonition, but items rated A-Tier and above also had level requirements for use. For example, [Fengdu Tiger Tally] required Level 50—she couldn't use it at all now.
Item storage had a capacity limit. To make room for high-tier items, she'd discarded many lower-tier substitutes, leaving her with only ten usable items—including the utterly useless [Name Change Card].
For the love of—what state of mind had possessed her to keep that Name Change Card?
And the buffs unlocked through achievements had vanished along with the achievements, leaving only the strength and agility enhancements that came with her level.
Bai Shan's feelings were complicated. This wretched game had been jerking her emotions up and down. She didn't know whether to be happy or regretful about the current outcome.
If she was the only one among eight billion people who had played Tomorrow's Dominator in advance, then without question, even at just Level 20, her advantage was enormous.
But once she calmed down, Bai Shan couldn't help wondering—what was the point of this game?
Bai Shan didn't enjoy competitive games. Not because she was some paragon of kindness and peace, but because she couldn't understand what pleasure there was in "defeating others." What good did it do her?
Defeating others could be a means to an end, but it could never be an end in itself for Bai Shan.
Based on the First Stage objectives the game had announced, Bai Shan had already reached Level 20 and unlocked the "Hunter" title—she'd met the conditions to clear the First Stage.
While most others might slaughter each other to reach Level 5 and unlock the "Hunter" title, all she needed to do was avoid getting killed. Surviving until the game's Second Stage would be effortless.
Wait—titles?
Bai Shan pulled up her panel again. The once-crowded title section now showed only two remaining.
One was "Hunter," automatically unlocked at Level 5. The other was "The Sole Player."
Across nine runs, Bai Shan had unlocked countless game achievements. But every single run had included "The Sole Player"—it unlocked automatically the moment she created a character and entered the game.
Bai Shan decided to call the game that had invaded her computer Tomorrow's Dominator version 1.0, and the one that had officially invaded Earth, version 2.0.
Version 2.0 had suddenly added eight billion players. She was no longer the sole player. Yet while all other achievements from version 1.0 had disappeared, "The Sole Player" had been specifically retained.
If "The Sole Player" still held meaning in the new 2.0 version, then could the exclusive main questline that had belonged to "The Sole Player" also find its answer in the new version?
The secret—the secret hidden in the Arctic chamber—might very well still be waiting for her!
Where there is existence, there is meaning. Bai Shan wanted to find out why this game called "Tomorrow's Dominator" had descended upon Earth, and why she was the special "Sole Player."
Just like every detective novel she'd ever read, every puzzle game she'd ever played—giving up before reaching the truth was never an option, whether for the protagonist within the story or for her on the other side of the page or screen.
The RV that had appeared out of thin air occupied nearly the entire room. Bai Shan jumped out of the vehicle. The room's window had been completely destroyed, and the foliage that had blocked her view had been pierced through by the monster that crashed in, allowing her to see the sun once more.
The mutated bat's corpse lay still on the floor, its seeping blood staining the ground black.
According to Tomorrow's Dominator 1.0 rules, mutated creatures had a small chance of dropping items when killed. That was how she'd obtained all her items.
Any kill yielded experience rewards, with stronger targets giving richer rewards.
The bat had been killed by her RV, so Bai Shan should have received experience—but her experience bar was locked at Level 20.
Bai Shan had two theories about this. First, the First Stage might have a level cap, and her suppression from Level 89 to Level 20 meant that 20 was the First Stage's maximum level.
The other possibility was that Tomorrow's Dominator 2.0 differed from 1.0—only killing "players" would yield experience rewards.
And the mutated bat she'd killed didn't fall under the category of "player."
Bai Shan could hear commotion from the floors above and below. She certainly wasn't the only one in the building attacked by monsters. Someone must have managed to fight back and kill one—she wondered if they'd received any experience.
After some thought, Bai Shan decided that simply calling the mutated creatures "monsters" wasn't quite right. What was the difference between them and all the humans who had received special abilities?
Looking at the First Stage rules the game had announced, the most critical point was: "Only killing players yields experience rewards."
But the game had not yet defined what a "player" was.
*
"Old Li, is this young man really going to make it? He... he seems completely unresponsive!"
Down in the lobby, the crowd had automatically cleared a space. The blood-covered man lay on the floor, eyes shut, his breathing so faint it was nearly imperceptible. An old man in a security guard uniform had his hand pressed against the injured man's chest.
"Stop bothering me! At my age, I don't understand any of this game or rules nonsense. You're the ones who said I have some ability that can heal people!"
"If I mess this up, don't you dare blame me!"
Nearby, the old woman holding the baby murmured with half-closed eyes, "Such a shame he's too hurt to even speak. Otherwise, I could've led this child to receive the Holy Lord's blessing..."
The group appeared to be fearfully silent, yet everyone was nervously watching each other and their surroundings. Having suddenly acquired strange abilities, most didn't dare use them carelessly, nor did they dare reveal them in front of others.
Even those too panicked to comprehend the situation had their survival instincts to help them decode it. From the moment the game descended, everyone had been thrown into a hunting ground—they could be the hunter, or they could be the prey.
The young white-collar man standing at the edge of the crowd curled his lip in disdain. Typical—it was these old fossils jumping out to make targets of themselves.
He raised his wrist, his gaze fixed on his watch with a mix of tension and anticipation, silently counting down.
15 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 60 seconds—12 o'clock sharp!
January 27, 2026, 12:00—the game's official start time!
Right on cue, the mechanical voice sounded.
[Tomorrow's Dominator First Stage has officially begun. Duration: 7 days. All players, please strive to meet the clearing conditions!]
[Tip: The "Channel" function requires players to unlock it through achievements. Please explore diligently!]
[The Level Leaderboard will be available when the game's Second Stage begins in 7 days. The top 100 players worldwide on the Level Leaderboard will receive SS-Tier item rewards. All players, please level up diligently!]
The young man typed "Level Leaderboard" and "SS-Tier item rewards" into his phone, his face alight with excitement. So his years of hitting dead ends weren't because he was born in the wrong era—his era had only just arrived!
Up in her room, Bai Shan let out a soft scoff.
How stingy of the game—even a basic feature like channel chat required players to unlock it themselves.
No, wait. "Stingy" wasn't the right word. "Insidious" was more like it.
Bai Shan stood with her back against the wall. Her current dilemma was: how on earth was she supposed to get this massive thing out of her room?
The RV was a special item that couldn't be stored in her inventory space.
Was she supposed to just drive it straight off the 25th floor?
That was one approach, but the more serious problem was that she couldn't drive at all—let alone drive all the way to the Arctic!
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