Chapter 47-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 47
Three days later, February 10th — the sixth day of the game's second phase.
A gray gecko clung to the wall of a rundown old apartment building, its four legs braced against the vertical surface, its flat head poking through a window. Its long, slender tail swept back and forth across the ground below, and before long, it slipped inside.
"It got away again!"
A group of people stood panting at the base of the building, staring helplessly upward — men and women, old and young alike. They had finally tracked down the gecko's daytime hideout, only to watch it wriggle into the dense cluster of apartment buildings, like a fish slipping from their grasp back into the ocean.
Geckos had once been beneficial creatures, helping humans exterminate mosquitoes and insects. But Mutated Geckos were clearly unsatisfied with such a diet. With their agile bodies, they came and went freely in the night, effortlessly breaking into human dwellings, swallowing their prey in a single gulp before slipping away without a trace.
Because of the Mutated Geckos' appearances, the residents of this area had nailed all their windows shut.
Yet the wall-climbing geckos could still pop out from some corner, leaving people unable to sleep in peace.
The Mutated Gecko's destructive capability was relatively low, rated as a low-level mission by the Organization — no threshold, any ordinary player could take the challenge. The Contribution Points reward was pitiful, yet the harm it caused to the surrounding residents was greater than some Special-Class Missions.
"Forget it, let's just move. There are plenty of empty houses now. Even Cheng Yue would have trouble catching this gecko."
"That apartment cost our family tens of millions over two generations — it's a school district property! How can we just leave?"
"Other areas have their own problems too. Let's just not sleep too deeply at night. This gecko isn't that hard to deal with."
"Not hard to deal with? The day before yesterday it snatched away a Level 10!"
"Then you go ahead. Our family is going back!"
The hastily assembled resident squad began to argue. A young girl who looked like a lower-grade elementary student was holding a water gun, looking around curiously.
She suddenly poked her parent with the water gun, then pointed it at the sky and said, "Someone's flying up there!"
The old apartment buildings stood pressed tightly against one another, framing the blue sky in narrow gaps between them. A figure suddenly flashed across one of those gaps overhead, and shoes adorned with feathers landed steadily on the rooftop of the opposite building.
The gecko hiding inside the apartment building sensed the commotion. It immediately flipped from inside the building onto the outer wall. Its slender body darted to another apartment building several meters away in the blink of an eye, its gray form vanishing into an empty room, the tip of its tail disappearing at the windowsill.
Almost simultaneously, a cold, sharp weapon was hurled through a window of the opposite building, followed by a loud yelp from inside.
The Frozen Tilapia had pierced the gecko's tail. The gecko twisted its body and fled, leaving behind a two-meter-long severed tail lying in a room plastered with award certificates.
Following the arc of the Frozen Tilapia's trajectory, Lin Huijun leaped into the room right after, her silhouette disappearing behind the fluttering curtains.
Down below, the elementary student with the water gun let out a "wow," excitedly firing her gun in the direction the gecko had vanished. The stream of water transformed into icicles that smashed against a nearby wall. She broke free from her parent's grip and chased after the disappearing figure.
Inside the cramped apartment building, Lin Huijun chased the gecko relentlessly. With the item [Light Feather] boosting her, her agility was no less impressive than the Mutated Gecko's.
The gray gecko slid down the wall, nearly becoming a gray blur. Lin Huijun vaulted over the staircase railing, dropping straight from the third floor to the ground level. The tailless gecko was even more slippery now, scrambling on all fours at breakneck speed.
A black RV drove along the street that hugged the residential area. Bai Shan sat atop the tall vehicle, cradling a rifle.
From a distance, she spotted Lin Huijun's figure, herding the gecko in this direction as planned.
The gecko had entered her hundred-meter firing range. Through the [Heat Imaging Sensing] ability, Bai Shan could track its movements through the walls.
Holding the rifle, Bai Shan was at a bit of a loss for where to start. The buildings here were too densely packed — the gecko darted in and out of buildings, sometimes climbing the outer walls, and even with [Tyrannical Command] boosting her, hitting it was difficult.
And the [100% Accuracy Dart] lacked sufficient killing power, with barely enough range.
Bai Shan thought for a moment, then stood up on the RV's roof with the rifle in her arms. She traced the gecko's movement path with her finger, forming a rough plan in her mind, and jumped off the vehicle.
Huang Yuci, behind the wheel, felt the roof shake. She glanced out the window and caught only a flash of blue streaking past — so fast she wondered if her eyes were seeing double.
On a certain street, the swift shadow appeared at the next intersection in an instant.
The relentlessly pursued gecko had just crawled out of a building and leaped onto the street. It had barely reached the opposite block when it was kicked into the air, its body slamming into the sign of a small shop across the way before sliding down.
Lin Huijun, who had been tracking the gecko, poked her head out from an upper-floor room of the shop, gasping for breath. Her eyes went wide as she looked down.
The Mutated Gecko opened its jaws wide and lunged upward, seemingly fed up and ready to fight back. Lin Huijun watched the pink maw grow closer and closer — she could almost see the gecko's tiny teeth. Her hands grew hot, ready to strike—
A long spear struck the gray, flat head. The gecko, clinging to the wall, was knocked hard to the ground, landing on its back with all four legs in the air.
Before it could flip over and use its toe pads to escape, the barrel of the gun was already pressed against the soft, loose skin of its throat. The expected gunshot never came — the long gun had become a long sword in Bai Shan's hands. She gripped it with both hands and thrust downward, the barrel piercing through the gecko's throat!
Bai Shan was a lazy person when it came to physical activity — the type who would never stand if she could sit. She also had no interest in physical contact or physical confrontation.
The abilities she currently possessed suited her comfort zone perfectly. [Tyrannical Command], [Bloodshed Resonance], [Soil Lord], the items [Inextinguishable Sun Flame], [100% Accuracy Dart], and others allowed her to deliver killing blows from a distance.
But not every situation was suited for ranged attacks. To prepare for increasingly complex challenges ahead, Bai Shan had been consciously training her close-combat abilities.
She had [Assassination Room], [Supersonic Movement], and [Rhythmic Frenzy] — these abilities gave her the potential for melee combat.
Just now was her first time using [Rhythmic Frenzy]. This ability had been collected during Version 1.0, straightforward and simple — it could dramatically enhance physical strength, letting her wield a gun barrel like an iron pillar.
[Rhythmic FrenzyFrom a certain ill-tempered rabbit who has already bowed — who says a rabbit can't rule the world? The world looks down on me, so I'll smash, smash, smash, smash, SMASH!
Using this ability, your physical strength will be doubled. The angrier you are, the greater the enhancement — and there is no upper limit to either anger or strength.]
This ability came from a Level 90 Great Ruler-class wild hare. The angrier one got, the stronger the offensive power. Bai Shan felt this ability didn't suit her very well — she wasn't someone who got angry easily. Her emotions ran flat, so the strength boost from [Rhythmic Frenzy] was also flat.
But "flat" was relative to a Great Ruler-class ability. [Rhythmic Frenzy] couldn't achieve the kind of qualitative leap in speed that [Supersonic Movement] gave Bai Shan, but doubling her strength under normal circumstances was still quite substantial.
Lin Huijun flipped down from the window and landed in front of Bai Shan. Huang Yuci drove the RV over as well.
The two of them got into the vehicle. Huang Yuci eyed the gecko's corpse on the street with envy. She knew the two of them surely wouldn't bother with such scraps, even though this gecko was worth 50 Contribution Points — enough to claim a week's worth of drinking water and food.
Huang Yuci sighed, but she couldn't just get out of the car and publicly associate herself with two "dangerous individuals."
Although most ordinary people in Nanzhou City didn't buy into the Organization's "dangerous individuals" narrative — over the past three days, the channel had been flooded with posts like "Dangerous individuals, please DO NOT come to Block X, Street X, No. X near my house to steal X mutant" — this kind of tongue-in-cheek praise had practically become a new meme in Nanzhou City.
But to be safe, Huang Yuci didn't want to burn her bridges with the Organization. If the Organization was petty enough, the bridge she burned might be the one keeping her alive.
So she could only meet with the two in secret, like a spy.
But Bai Shan and Lin Huijun had zero awareness of being spies. They rolled down the windows without any caution and even waved to people outside.
Lin Huijun noticed a little girl leading two middle-aged people over to the gecko's body. The girl aimed her water gun and made "pew pew pew" sounds, but her water gun was no toy — the icicles it fired pierced through the gecko's corpse.
The two middle-aged people pulled the girl behind them and cautiously approached the body to confirm it was dead.
"This gecko is really dead? Who did it?"
"No idea, don't see anyone nearby—"
"Heheheh!"
The little girl let out an excited shriek. Following her waving hand, the two middle-aged people looked over and saw the black RV raising its windows, concealing whoever was inside.
Their voices cut off instantly, and they watched in silence as the RV drove away.
"Were those the two who've been all over the channel? But I heard their car was white."
"It's definitely black!"
The middle-aged couple's bickering and the student's shrieks faded far behind the RV.
"By the way, how does the Organization verify who killed a mutant?" Lin Huijun asked from the passenger seat, turning to Huang Yuci at the wheel.
"Everyone operates in teams. After killing a mutant, one person goes to the nearest Organization outpost while the rest guard the body. The Organization sends someone to verify, and then the team divides up the Contribution Points among themselves."
Lin Huijun nodded. "That process seems pretty exploitable — easy for some shady situations to arise... Also, it's not very friendly to solo players like Bai Shan, haha."
Bai Shan shrugged noncommittally. Huang Yuci laughed and said, "Exactly. In Nanzhou City, you have to team up to survive. But it's the apocalypse — this model really is the safest."
"Aren't you two the same?"
In Huang Yuci's eyes, both Bai Shan and Lin Huijun were the type who could live comfortably on their own in the apocalypse — strong abilities and relatively mature mindsets. Teaming up was the surprising part, especially for Bai Shan.
Lin Huijun didn't want to say too much. She just chuckled twice.
"Speaking of which, when do you two plan to leave?" Huang Yuci suddenly asked.
"After all, you didn't come here for Nanzhou City."
The relatively safe Nanzhou City had attracted quite a few outsiders, but ever since Cheng Yue entered the Position Swap Battle and there had been no news since, the number of newcomers had noticeably dropped.
Cheng Yue wasn't just a name on the leaderboard. If something happened to her, there would definitely be a major upheaval within the Organization, which could easily affect all of Nanzhou City.
Three days had passed, and the two had only grown bolder in Nanzhou City, showing no restraint at all, yet the Organization hadn't responded. This made Huang Yuci uneasy — she had a feeling the Xu Family was brewing something big against them.
"I'm waiting for Cheng Yue to come back."
Bai Shan suddenly spoke.
It wasn't just about Cheng Yue. Three days ago, she had extracted information about Xu Group's chairman Xu Hao's ability from one of the Xu Family members — his talent for replicating game items was enticing. But the Xu girl had said she didn't know where her grandfather usually was, only providing the location of a regular Xu Family meeting.
The old man was a core figure of the Organization. Learning of someone like Bai Shan, he would surely hide himself well.
Bai Shan had been roaming freely for three days, yet the Organization had been as quiet as a quail. This disappointed her. She had hoped the Xu Family would send the small fry first, then the bigger fish, and finally the old man himself... delivering themselves to her doorstep one after another.
Forget sending anyone — the Xu Family members had stopped going out entirely. Even the cannon fodder she'd encountered at the ginkgo tree three days ago had become a collector's edition.
But Bai Shan was certain: as soon as there was any news about Cheng Yue — dead or alive — the Organization would make a major move. She was biding her time for that moment.
At the mention of Cheng Yue, Huang Yuci's expression turned subtle. Bai Shan sat in the back of the RV and caught the shift in Huang Yuci's expression through the rearview mirror, so she spoke up with mischievous intent:
"I bet Camila wins. Lin Huijun bets Cheng Yue wins. What about you, Huang Yuci?"
"...Me." Huang Yuci began slowly, "I think this Position Swap Battle is strange. Don't you two think so?"
Lin Huijun looked at Huang Yuci with a curious expression.
This one's obviously changing the subject, Bai Shan thought — but as she said, this Position Swap Battle was indeed strange.
Seeing that neither of them spoke, Huang Yuci continued, "Think about it — normally, you initiate a Position Swap Battle for the generous rewards."
"If I were ranked 80th, I wouldn't challenge anyone beyond five ranks above me. The difference in rewards between someone ranked 79th and someone ranked 61st isn't that much, but the risk skyrockets."
"Of course, I'm not a strong player. I'm just trying to analyze it from a normal person's perspective — plus, Cheng Yue has an Eastern name. Generally, people tend to pay more attention to those who are similar to themselves, right? Cheng Yue is a celebrity in China, but Wolf at 75th is a globally famous sports star whose information has been dug up inside out."
Lin Huijun offered a possibility: "Maybe Camila knows Cheng Yue's abilities and feels confident her own abilities have an advantage."
Huang Yuci nodded. That possibility was indeed plausible, but something still felt off to her.
"If Camila really was that confident, this Position Swap Battle wouldn't still be unresolved today."
Bai Shan chimed in, "Your premise is based on the idea that Position Swap Battles are about generous rewards. But what if that's not Camila's goal?"
Huang Yuci's body shot up from the backrest. She turned around and looked at Bai Shan with an expression of sudden enlightenment.
"Yes, that's exactly where my unease comes from!"
She was excited for a moment, then returned to a puzzled expression.
"The problem is, aside from profit, the only thing I can think of is a personal grudge. But Cheng Yue has no reason to offend a foreigner — barely anyone overseas watches her TV dramas..."
Bai Shan had a vague guess forming in her mind, but she couldn't reveal it to the two people in front of her.
Only those who had participated in a Position Swap Battle would know — the rules actually left quite a bit of room for interpretation.
For example — it was a deathmatch, with no time limit. Killing the opponent meant victory.
And another — once the challenged party arrived, the battleground would no longer allow any player to enter or exit in any form.
Put these two rules together, and an intriguing possibility emerged.
As long as both parties were willing to coexist peacefully within the designated area, the Position Swap Battle's arena could become the safest place in the world!
Bai Shan recalled that the area within thirty square kilometers of the challenger's location served as the battleground — roughly the size of a small town.
Three days had already passed. Could Cheng Yue and Camila actually be getting along and vacationing together?
Bai Shan shook her head. Setting aside Cheng Yue, Camila definitely hadn't initiated the challenge for that reason.
Because using the Position Swap Order meant putting your life on the line.
A weak-willed person would never bet their life on the possibility of getting along with their opponent, and someone bold enough to stake their life would never settle for a quiet corner.
But Bai Shan soon thought of a new possibility, and her eyes slowly changed.
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