Chapter 33-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 33
That night, Bai Shan had a dream.
In the dream, she went back five months. Her mother, Bai Tianqing, was carefree as ever. After receiving the homeroom teacher's complaint call, she neither scolded Bai Shan for her wilfulness nor forced her to go back to school. She simply told her daughter she had to leave on a business trip and would not be back for a while. If anything came up, she could ask Auntie Zhou to step in.
"This is your test. Take good care of yourself, Bai Shan. I know you can do it. You've got this!"
That was more or less what Bai Tianqing had said — Bai Shan could not quite remember. Her tone and expression did not seem particularly special. She said her piece and dashed off in her usual whirlwind fashion.
It should have been a perfectly ordinary weekend afternoon. A parent leaving a few words of advice before a business trip, and a teenager habitually tuning out what the adults said.
Until Bai Shan found Tomorrow's Dominator on the computer. That was when the day became extraordinary.
The first time Bai Shan launched Tomorrow's Dominator on her PC, she was mauled to death by a mutated cat from the neighbour's house in under five minutes. She quickly started a second run.
Across the nine cycles of Tomorrow's Dominator version 1.0, [Tyrant] did not encounter a single person on her journey to the North Pole, yet she found scattered traces of humanity.
There were surviving diary fragments recording how six ordinary people in a university dormitory had outwitted mutated stray dogs across the campus grounds. There were roadside signs warning that mutated bears roamed the area and urging residents to stay far away. These remnants seemed useless at first glance — merely minor details to enhance the game's apocalyptic atmosphere and immersion, or small hints about where monsters lurked. But —
Reading between the lines, one could deduce that the people who had once fought mutated creatures on this land possessed no supernatural abilities. They were ordinary people struggling to survive in the apocalypse, and at some point they had simply vanished.
In Tomorrow's Dominator version 1.0, the only human being with a Talent ability might have been the Tyrant — in other words, the game's protagonist.
The 1.0 protagonist's setup was actually quite similar to Bai Shan's: similar age, similar family background, similar fashion sense, same habit of wearing headphones and listening to music. These details had given Bai Shan a strong sense of immersion when she played.
But since Tomorrow's Dominator 2.0 descended into reality and up to the present, Bai Shan's headphones had played nothing but her pre-downloaded music. Unlike the game protagonist, she had never heard a mysterious summons come through her earphones...
"All residents, please assemble at the basketball court at noon sharp! All residents, please assemble at the basketball court at noon sharp!"
The village loudspeaker blared Bai Shan fully awake, cutting through her half-dreaming thoughts.
A glance at the wall clock showed 9 a.m. She had gone to sleep around nine the previous night — twelve hours of sleep should have left her refreshed, but the fragmented dreams had lowered her sleep quality.
Bai Shan found Lin Huijun downstairs in the main hall. Lin Huijun had already boiled water for oatmeal and heated up some frozen buns. Thanks to her, Bai Shan — ever the lazy one — had a hot breakfast waiting the moment she woke up.
"The Phase Two rules are about to be announced. I wonder how high they'll set the level requirement this time."
Lin Huijun finished her breakfast quickly and could not help analysing: "If it's another seven days, I'd guess level 10 — 15 at most. Anything higher would be insane."
Going from 1 to 5, from 5 to 10, from 10 to 15 — the experience required doubled each time. The people who survived Phase One certainly had some ability, but facing even steeper demands in a short timeframe would undoubtedly cause many more players to be eliminated.
"Right now, the lowest-level human players are at 5." Bai Shan swallowed her last bun and chimed in: "And a large number of mutated creatures are also growing fast, offering richer experience rewards. The game also gave every survivor [A Bottle of Healing Mineral Water] — an A-tier healing item. Not bad at all."
"No matter how bad it gets, it won't be like Phase One." Which had wiped out 95% of humanity.
Hearing this, Lin Huijun relaxed slightly. "True."
Bai Shan added: "Besides, Phase Two's rules might not resemble Phase One at all."
Repeating the same gameplay would be boring. If this game had a competent designer, they ought to introduce something new.
At the basketball court, Bai Shan spotted Qin Zhen again. She had been assigned to the team handling parasitic fish lice the day before yesterday. Judging by her expression, the harvest had been good.
Bai Shan lowered her head slightly, deliberating. What would be the most natural way to make physical contact and check the other girl's level and Talent?
"Good morning, you two."
Qin Zhen took the initiative to greet them. Lin Huijun gave a polite nod. Bai Shan stood further back and offered no reaction whatsoever.
Qin Zhen was well aware the pair did not particularly care for her, so she kept a respectful distance without trying to be overly familiar. What she did not expect was for Bai Shan to walk straight toward her.
Bai Shan strode forward without so much as a sideways glance, bumping Qin Zhen's shoulder — not too hard, not too soft — and continued on. The startled Qin Zhen turned to look in Bai Shan's direction and saw the mayor had arrived at the basketball court.
She let out a quiet hiss. Was she really that unlikeable, or was Bai Shan the one who was habitually insufferable?
This was the most reasonable and simple method of physical contact Bai Shan could think of.
[Name: Qin Zhen Level: 14 Talent: Priceless True Love (A) Skill 1: True Martial The higher the value of the target destroyed, the stronger the weapon materialised. Materialised weapons can only be used five times. Skill 2: Unlocks at Level 20 Skill 3: Unlocks at Level 50 Skill 4: Unlocks at Level 90]
Bai Shan recalled that just a few days ago Qin Zhen had been level 10. Now she was already 14.
Since arriving in this town, Qin Zhen had been helping the mayor deal with troublesome mutated creatures. During the particularly chaotic first two days, she had likely seized the opportunity to farm plenty of "experience packs."
With the 99th-ranked player on the human leaderboard only at level 17, a level-14 player posting on the world channel would command considerable attention.
Bai Shan walked on with her head down. She was rather tempted by Qin Zhen's Talent, [Priceless True Love].
Skill 1, [True Martial], was a skill with an extremely low floor and an extremely high ceiling. If it belonged to a timid, cowardly player who only dared destroy safe, harmless things, they would never materialise a useful weapon, could never build momentum, and would only grow weaker over time.
But Qin Zhen was someone who dared to invest, dared to take risks. The powerful weapons she painstakingly materialised could only be used five times, yet she wielded them without the slightest hesitation.
Bai Shan rather admired Qin Zhen's boldness in that regard. She could not help wondering: if she herself possessed this ability, how many powerful weapons could she obtain?
Bai Shan certainly did not lack high-value targets to destroy. With the Position Swap mechanism in place, sooner or later someone else would come to challenge her. If she had [Priceless True Love], killing a challenger would not only net their Talent but also let her forge them into a weapon.
Truly wringing every last drop of value — perfectly efficient exploitation.
She needed to find an opportunity to make her move.
Bai Shan thought this as she walked straight into an S-tier [Extraterrestrial]... no wait, that was Mayor Zhong Xile.
This was bad. Right now, everyone she looked at seemed like a walking Talent gift basket.
"How did you sleep last night?"
Zhong Xile asked with a bright smile.
Bai Shan said: "Pretty well."
"So when are you two leaving, or would you consider staying a few more days? I'm hoping for the latter, haha."
Zhong Xile seemed to have pulled herself out from under the crushing pressure, her composure restored. Her face still showed fatigue, but her eyes were lively again.
"We'll leave this afternoon," Bai Shan replied. After a brief pause she prompted: "You still remember, right?"
"Of course. Once the noon business is done, drive over to the office to pick it up."
Having received a firm answer, Bai Shan nodded. Then curiosity got the better of her: "Gathering everyone here — is it to listen to the new game rules together, or does the town have some important announcement?"
Zhong Xile chuckled. "Both. And also to do a proper headcount."
She already had a rough idea: locals plus outsiders, roughly 500 to 1,000 people remaining.
Zhong Xile had already mapped out an area where she planned to consolidate everyone for easier unified management.
She had arrived at the basketball court early. The rest trickled in, but she had no intention of speaking ahead of time. With the game rules as an unknown variable, her plans could easily be upended. Better to wait until the rules dropped before addressing everyone with new directives.
Minutes ticked by. People milled about the basketball court, unable to keep still, whispering to each other in the local dialect, cursing the game. Others stood alone in corners, anxiously counting down the time.
Bai Shan leaned against her black RV. Lin Huijun kept glancing at the time. At last, the clock's hour and minute hands overlapped.
The game's mechanical voice sounded right on schedule:
[To survive, we evolve.]
[To see tomorrow, we reproduce.]
[To build civilisation, we transcend.]
[To dominate, we slaughter. Welcome to the continuation of our game — Tomorrow's Dominator!]
[As of February 4, 2026, 12:00, the real-time human player count is 457,381,736. Welcome to Phase Two of the game!]
[Phase Two (February 4, 2026, 12:00 — March 6, 2026, 12:00). Clearance requirements are as follows —]
Every corner of the world hit the mute button in that instant. Everyone held their breath, listening intently to every single word.
[Phase Two allows a maximum of eighty million human players to advance.]
[The actual number of advancing human players may be fewer than eighty million.]
[As of March 6, 2026, 12:00, the number of advancing human players must not exceed eighty million. If the surviving population exceeds eighty million, all human players will be eliminated.]
After the mechanical voice finished its last syllable, the people on the ground were silent for a long, long while. Even the wind fell still.
Zhong Xile stood beside the makeshift stage, frozen, unable to speak. When it finally sank in, a string of profanities poured out of her mouth. Her eyebrows shot up, her body burned with fury.
In one month — either only eighty million people would be left alive, or everyone would die together!
Eighty million out of four hundred million was a 20% survival rate.
If, over the next month, 80% of humanity perished at the hands of mutated flora and fauna, that would be the best possible outcome for the game. But if the deadline approached and the target had not been met...
What kind of game rule was this! If Phase One had merely used vague wording to hint and guide, Phase Two's rules were an open, brazen incentive for humans to slaughter one another — and they could even do so under the noble banner of "for the sake of all humanity"!
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