Chapter 51-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 51
The dark figure charging from across the lake was incredibly fast. Bai Shan narrowed her eyes slightly. Six machine guns materialized at her sides, their bodies shaking violently, the deafening roar accompanying a wall of bullets sweeping toward the approaching target.
Cheng Yue's feet touched the lake surface. With a light tap, she vaulted high into the air, dodging the dense hail of gunfire below. The missed bullets kicked up dancing splashes across the water.
Her lithe body spun in midair. Cheng Yue's eyes locked firmly onto the blue figure below. From their very first encounter, she had known — her [The Absolute Center] was completely useless against this person. The other's talent was even more domineering. Bai Shan gave no one the chance to manipulate her.
The Organization's intelligence indicated that Bai Shan's ability was telekinesis, somewhat similar to her own. Cheng Yue knew that only close combat could reveal an opening.
The dark figure landed nimbly before Bai Shan, agile as a swift — then immediately drove a powerful roundhouse kick at Bai Shan's neck!
Bai Shan merely raised her left forearm to block, absorbing the force. Her body swayed on the blue box, nearly tipping off the narrow surface, but she held her ground.
A flash of shock crossed Cheng Yue's eyes. Before she could think further, she retracted her leg and launched a barrage of rapid, ferocious punches. Her arms moved so fast they left afterimages, stirring up swirls of white mist.
In the past, a person's strength could be judged by physique. After the game's descent, strength was determined by game level.
The higher the level, the greater the boost. She had already risen to Level 25. In terms of raw power, she shouldn't lose to someone at Level 17.
Yet Bai Shan had neutralized her force with ease.
— There was only one explanation: Bai Shan was definitely not just Level 17!
Mist swirled around them, kicked up by the force of the punches. Facing the relentless fists, Bai Shan blocked and dodged while controlling the blue box beneath her feet to slide backward.
At first she seemed a bit overwhelmed, but she adapted quickly, her evasions and blocks growing more and more fluid.
Bai Shan's dark eyes were so pure that at first glance they seemed empty, her expression projecting an air of haughty indifference that could easily provoke anger and fear. But those who knew her well understood — she was simply deeply focused.
Cheng Yue, facing her head-on, stared at that expression. The chaotic, rampaging emotions receded.
Then, a wave of fury rose at being looked down upon — and threaded within the fury, a sliver of instinctive fear.
Who was this person? What gave her the right to wear that expression?
The punches grew even fiercer. Cheng Yue's facial expression twisted slightly — she had realized that Bai Shan was using her as practice, treating her like a sparring dummy. As if this weren't a life-or-death confrontation, but merely a casual bout.
But this world was no one's playground. Cheng Yue had had enough of this kind of dismissive, indifferent attitude!
In the past, every meal Cheng Yue ate had been precisely calorie-calculated. At 175 centimeters, she couldn't exceed 50 kilograms. She'd fly four flights in a single day only to collapse onto her bed at home — the premium mattress was soft, but her bones wrapped in a single layer of skin pressed down hard and numb. In the dead of night, she could clearly feel her protruding ribs rising and falling beneath the skin with each breath.
And then, overnight, a delicate, fragile ornament was suddenly expected to become a powerful warrior.
She cut off the hair that had been damaged by frequent perming and dyeing, no longer needed to wear skin-tight clothing. Her body felt lighter — yet before she could even take a proper breath, she was thrown into an endless battle with no end in sight.
Her company had once demanded she project sensitivity, tenderness, and kindness in front of cameras — then in the blink of an eye demanded she kill without mercy. Many had died by her hand, directly or indirectly, and she had no way to verify whether every one of them truly deserved the label of "dangerous individual."
Until one day she was forced to confront the dripping blood, and she realized she wasn't on a film set playing a character. They were living in a blood-soaked reality.
Cheng Yue knew she was neither strong-willed nor fiercely opinionated. She was just a reasonably resilient wire.
But a wire stretched, hammered, frozen, and scorched day after day — even the greatest resilience would eventually wear thin.
Until the wire snapped without warning. She abandoned every anchor from her past. Cheng Yue desperately wanted to change something, destroy something. The urge for annihilation made her want to burn everyone else — and herself — alive!
Fists roared through the air in a relentless stream. Bai Shan noticed a momentary disturbance in the surrounding airflow. Cheng Yue's face, inches away, suddenly became serene.
In that split-second lapse of attention, Cheng Yue's fist found an opening. Bai Shan dodged just in time — the fist barely grazed her waist.
The next instant, Bai Shan felt the world spin. Her body went top-heavy, a force yanking her downward. Her feet left the blue box entirely.
In that moment of falling, Bai Shan's eyes flew open involuntarily. She saw Cheng Yue standing upside down on the lake surface... no — it was her own body that had inverted... no, no, no — the entire world had flipped!
The hazy gray sky merged seamlessly with the boundless lake, making it impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Bai Shan strained to look upward, and the rippling lake surface was now suspended above her!
So the direction she was currently falling toward was... the sky?
The blue box fell alongside Bai Shan. Her heartbeat stuttered for just an instant before she reached upward, grabbing the door handle on the blue box.
[Name: Cheng YueLevel: 25
Talent: The Absolute Center (SS)
Skill 1: Fixed Center Position
Control gravity within a 100-meter diameter centered on yourself.
Skill 2: Reverse World
Deploy a subspace of inverted gravity centered on yourself, lasting 10 minutes.
Skill 3: Unlocks at Level 50
Skill 4: Unlocks at Level 90]
So this was Skill 2 — [Reverse World]?
From Cheng Yue's perspective, the world hadn't flipped at all. She still stood on the lake with her feet down and the sky above, feeling no discomfort whatsoever, as though nothing had changed.
The lake still appeared to be the same lake. Cheng Yue could see the endless white mist stretching into the distance, blurring the boundary between sky and ground.
This wasn't the real world. Cheng Yue could sense it — the small creatures beneath the water had vanished, and people farther away had disappeared too. This blank white world contained only her and Bai Shan.
Cheng Yue understood now. This skill couldn't control gravity in the real world — instead, it pulled people into a domain, a subspace, where she controlled gravity.
Cheng Yue looked up, staring in disbelief at the hazy gray sky above.
When Bai Shan had been pulled into [Reverse World], the inverted gravity had instantly dragged her toward the sky. She vanished in the blink of an eye. Cheng Yue thought she might have seen a tiny black dot plummet into the endless gray clouds — or perhaps it was just her imagination.
Where did the sky end? Where would Bai Shan fall to?
Confusion crossed Cheng Yue's face. This was her first time using [Reverse World]. She hadn't even had time to explore it before everything seemed to end abruptly.
...Had she killed Bai Shan?
The thought sent a jolt through her. She felt no joy of victory — only a hollow emptiness.
Cheng Yue scanned her surroundings. The gray expanse of sky and water held not a single speck of color. She stepped backward uncertainly, and her calf bumped against something solid.
She turned immediately — it was that blue box, floating quietly on the water.
Cheng Yue stared at it, uncertain. Did the inverted gravity only affect people?
In the next moment, the hesitation in her eyes turned to shock. She distinctly remembered — the blue box had fallen toward the sky along with Bai Shan. And she hadn't received any game system notification about experience or items!
When had this blue box silently returned behind her?
Bang — the blue box's door swung wide open. Cheng Yue's entire body tensed as she held her breath and peered inside—
Empty. Not a soul... so this box was a Portable Toilet?
"Ngh—!"
A pair of hands suddenly locked around Cheng Yue's neck from behind, squeezing with such force she nearly suffocated.
From behind, Bai Shan had climbed onto Cheng Yue's body, legs clamped around her waist, both hands locked in a rear naked choke — a technique Lin Huijun had taught her. Her face appeared like a specter at the side of Cheng Yue's head, close to her ear.
"Interesting ability."
Bai Shan's gravity was inverted. The pull constantly tried to drag her toward the sky, so she had no choice but to anchor herself to Cheng Yue.
Bai Shan laughed softly. She felt like an upside-down bat hanging from the eaves.
But she couldn't move as freely as a bat. [Tyrannical Command] could manipulate objects to resist gravity but couldn't manipulate her own body. One careless move and she would plummet endlessly toward the sky below.
[Reverse World] was a terrifying ability. If she hadn't happened to have telekinetic powers, she might have genuinely been done for.
The initial loss of control had rattled Bai Shan briefly, but once she worked out what had happened, the inverted world didn't seem so frightening anymore.
After grabbing the blue box's handle, she did a pull-up to climb inside, then used [Tyrannical Command] to float the blue box upward — back to the lake surface that was now inverted above her head.
Sensing Cheng Yue's approach, she activated Fatima's contributed Skill 2 — [Assassination Room] — holding her breath to conceal herself, then seized the moment to strike with the chokehold.
"Interesting ability." Bai Shan repeated, a hint of excitement in her tone. Then her voice shifted abruptly. "Cheng Yue, what happened during the Position Swap Battle?"
Bai Shan loosened her chokehold, replacing it with a red dart pressed against the side of Cheng Yue's neck.
"...You didn't kill me because you're curious about my Position Swap Battle?"
Cheng Yue said between gasps. She knew perfectly well — the moment Bai Shan had locked her throat, there had been plenty of ways to kill her. With their gravities opposing each other, if Bai Shan simply jumped out and grabbed her head, the combined force and reversed gravity could have separated her head from her body.
"I'm curious — you used to be such a boring person. Why did you suddenly become somewhat interesting?"
The choking arms shifted into an embrace. Bai Shan hadn't realized how much the pose resembled a koala clinging to a tree. Due to the gravity, her hair stood straight up toward the sky. If a third party had been watching, her appearance would have been rather comical.
Because of the position, Cheng Yue couldn't turn to see Bai Shan's expression. She lowered her gaze to the lake surface. The water was clear enough to reflect both of their figures.
Cheng Yue caught sight of Bai Shan's somewhat ridiculous appearance. She couldn't muster even a hint of a smile.
"Maybe because I met someone interesting."
Cheng Yue replied.
A flash of understanding crossed Bai Shan's eyes. She had guessed correctly — Camila was the reason this Position Swap Battle had become so enigmatic.
She was actually feeling a bit dizzy. This position was essentially a handstand for her, with blood rushing to her head — quite uncomfortable.
She was thinking of finishing her questions and then making her move when suddenly, another bout of vertigo struck. Gravity returned to normal.
[Reverse World] had been released.
Bai Shan quickly jumped off Cheng Yue and landed back on the blue box. Cheng Yue stood on the lake surface, making no move to flee or continue fighting.
"Kill me. My experience, my items — they're all yours."
Cheng Yue said suddenly, her expression exhausted — like spent fireworks.
What rank was she now? After killing Xu Hao and the others, perhaps she'd climbed to 50th?
She possessed power and fame, yet had never known how to wield either. Before, others had steered her. But now those people were gone, and someone who had been arranged and manipulated since childhood once again had no idea where to go.
Become a powerful figure who killed with abandon? She had no such ambition. She would feel guilt. She would feel weak.
Become a great protector? She had no such lofty aspiration, nor did she believe she had the ability.
A wordless silence hung over the lake. Bai Shan looked up at the sky, then fixed her gaze on Cheng Yue. She noticed that Cheng Yue's complexion was as gray and hazy as today's weather.
"Cheng Yue, I've realized — you really are the moon."
"A moon that can only reflect other people's light."
Bai Shan studied her for a long moment, then suddenly said with a smile.
"Has the light Camila gave you already burned out?"
The red dart she'd been toying with vanished. Bai Shan changed her mind. She had originally intended to kill Cheng Yue and harvest her abilities, but killing someone who wanted to die sounded terribly dull.
"You could consider reflecting my light instead."
Bai Shan leaned in close, as if worried Cheng Yue couldn't hear clearly. One hand reached up again, curling around Cheng Yue's neck, gripping the side of her slender throat.
Cheng Yue was forced to raise her head and look directly into a pair of eyes utterly unlike her own.
A pair of natural eyes, never modified by any external force. So pure and clear that for a fleeting moment they seemed like a bottomless abyss — and anyone who passed too close would be drawn in.
"Cheng Yue, bow before me."
Bai Shan extended her invitation.
*
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