Chapter 55-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 55
Bai Shan gazed at the white chess piece in her palm and let out a short laugh. Was it really that easy to guess?
The only questionable point was her fight with Cheng Yue. But at the time, no one had been nearby. Moreover, the decisive moment had taken place inside the subspace [Reverse World]. Anyone watching them suddenly "make peace" would naturally assume they had reached a truce, or that Cheng Yue had regained her composure and held back.
She guessed Qin Zhen might possess a scouting item similar to her own [Inspection], one that had detected something back in Qianxi Town. Combine that with a few suspicious clues, and a bold conjecture followed.
But whatever Qin Zhen's scouting item revealed, the information must have been limited. Otherwise, she would have known that the best way to show loyalty to the Tyrant was to "bow."
To this day, Bai Shan had not received any notification of Qin Zhen bowing to her.
Until Qin Zhen offered up her [Priceless True Love], Bai Shan's stance would not waver. She would never trust someone like that.
Would there be a next time?
The next time they met — no matter how it happened — she would claim Qin Zhen's [Priceless True Love]!
Bai Shan clenched the white king in her fist. She was the king — but not a king at the mercy of the board.
Her wandering gaze refocused. Bai Shan looked at the iron furnace. She had to admit one thing: this furnace was an exquisitely chosen gift.
The furnace couldn't be stored in game space, but fortunately Bai Shan had her [Personal Domain]. The half-height furnace just barely fit inside, with the remaining corners stuffed with firearms and ammunition — she had confiscated over twenty more guns from this underground stockpile. Bai Shan felt she was well on her way to becoming an arms mogul.
Unfortunately, one cubic meter of space was still too small. Though she could later move the furnace into the RV, the one-cubic-meter limit was becoming increasingly inadequate as her inventory grew.
The furnace — impossible to store in game space — suddenly vanished from the spot. Cheng Yue showed no surprise whatsoever. Too much had happened today. After guessing the identity of the young person beside her, was there really anything left in the world that could shock her?
With the furnace stowed away and the white king piece tossed casually into a jacket pocket, Bai Shan surveyed the packed parking area. By rough estimate, two to three hundred cars were parked here.
One B-tier item required 10 cars — about a dozen tons of metal. Given the game's fondness for doubling the required materials with each tier, Bai Shan intuited that replicating an A-tier item would take roughly 50 to 100 cars — hundreds of tons of metal.
An S-tier item would need at least several hundred cars, approaching a thousand tons.
And for an SS-tier item — or something with a mysterious special rating like the [Resurrection Ticket] — the metal required could reach tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand tons, enough to build a landmark skyscraper.
Bai Shan walked to the center of the parking area. The furnace reappeared from her personal space and was set down before her.
She flipped her palm upward. A bottle of mineral water with no label appeared.
[A Bottle of Healing Mineral Water (A-tier)
Function: Can heal bodily wounds, cleanse toxins, and boost immunity.]
This was the reward given to all players who cleared the first phase of the game — and for most, the highest-tier item they possessed.
Whether in Tomorrow's Dominator version 1.0 or the current 2.0, healing-type Talents and items were exceedingly rare. Even Bai Shan had only this one healing item.
She hadn't used it yet. With the Tyrant's level of strength, very few things could actually injure her. And if something truly could, life and death would likely be decided in an instant — making this bottle of water inadequate for that caliber of confrontation.
But for the vast majority of people in the world, this item could be a lifesaver.
The mineral water bottle was tossed into the furnace. Bai Shan stepped back two paces. Her right hand, wrapped in a dark green bracer, reached forward, fingers closing around the hood of a car in a phantom grip.
Bai Shan's hand moved through the air with the subtle, controlled gestures of a conductor. The parking area erupted with an unbroken chorus of whooshing sounds as cars surged toward the furnace one after another in orderly succession.
Worth 500,000... worth 3 million... worth 10 million... Cheng Yue watched car after car be devoured by the furnace. She felt as though she were watching mountains of banknotes go up in flames — even though they had been no better than wastepaper since the day the game descended.
The furnace's square mouth glowed a bright red, as if something inside was burning. Standing behind the furnace, Bai Shan felt the ambient temperature climbing steadily. A bead of sweat formed on her forehead.
On the 309th whoosh, the final car thundered gloriously into the furnace's embrace under Bai Shan's direction, leaving the parking area completely empty.
The furnace shuddered violently. After a long moment, the first bottle, second bottle, third bottle, and fourth bottle of water tumbled out of the square mouth.
Bai Shan crouched down and picked up one bottle, storing the game item in her game space.
Then she picked up the remaining three.
[A Bottle of Healing Mineral Water (Replica)
Function: Can heal bodily wounds, cleanse toxins, and boost immunity.]
She had guessed correctly. A B-tier item required roughly ten tons of metal. An A-tier item required about a hundred.
Two replica bottles of healing mineral water were squeezed into the last remaining corners of her personal space. Bai Shan held one replica and twisted off the cap.
"Cheng Yue, try it."
Bai Shan's gaze drifted downward. She had noticed during their fight at South Lake — Cheng Yue's tattered, blood-stained pant legs. Likely injuries from the Position Swap Battle.
"Me? No need — I still have half a bottle of healing mineral water left..."
"I've never used one before. Help me test the difference between a replica and the original."
Bai Shan commanded.
Cheng Yue murmured a quiet "thank you." She took the replica, rolled up her pant legs, and exposed the gruesome wounds on her ankles and shins.
Camila's [Blood Thorns] had punctured several large holes through her legs. With her level-ups boosting her physical stats significantly, one or two wounds had already scabbed over, while others still oozed blood.
Cheng Yue carefully poured the mineral water into the bottle cap and dripped it, drop by drop, onto the most severe wound. Bai Shan watched her every move with intense focus, as if overseeing a rigorous experiment.
The seemingly ordinary water dripped onto the raw, bleeding flesh. In less than five seconds, a scab formed. Cheng Yue continued dripping. Bai Shan watched the scab fall away and new flesh grow in its place. Less than a capful of water was enough to completely heal a wound the size of a coin.
"I think the effect is about the same as the real healing mineral water."
Cheng Yue deliberated for a good while before solemnly delivering her verdict.
Seeing how practiced Cheng Yue's technique was, Bai Shan knew she had used it many times. Her assessment should be quite accurate.
The healing effect was even better than expected. Bai Shan suspected that in places with harsher survival conditions, people might deliberately kill for more healing mineral water.
Bai Shan took back the capped replica from Cheng Yue. The bottle was 550ml. From appearance to efficacy, the replica was indistinguishable from the original.
In fact, it was even more precious than the original — because it could circulate freely!
[A Bottle of Healing Mineral Water] was not the only A-tier item Bai Shan possessed. She had used all available materials to replicate this one precisely because of its extraordinary value.
In any era, countless people were willing to spend fortunes to extend their lives. In a crisis-ridden apocalypse where human anxiety had regressed to the most basic concern of personal safety, Bai Shan was certain this healing mineral water could become the world's hardest currency!
And with the furnace in her possession, she essentially controlled an incredibly valuable means of production.
If anyone else had this furnace, the slightest leak of information would invite deadly covetousness from all directions.
Bai Shan wasn't worried about that at all. She already had something like the [Resurrection Ticket] — one more rare and unique item was hardly going to weigh her down.
Once again, she realized just how shrewdly Qin Zhen had chosen her gift.
"Let's go."
Bai Shan stowed the furnace. She walked back through the empty lot, then suddenly remembered something and glanced sideways at Cheng Yue, who trailed a step behind.
"I'm heading back to find my friend. Where are you planning to stay afterward?"
Cheng Yue paused, taken aback, and murmured, "I have a place to stay..."
She stopped mid-sentence. She remembered that her mother also lived there. With everything that had happened today, she didn't know how to face her mother — and didn't want to, for the time being.
"Forget it. Come with me for now. There's still plenty to discuss about the Position Swap Battle."
It hit Cheng Yue suddenly — the person in front of her was the only one in the world who might understand her, who might understand that battle. As someone who had lived through it, Cheng Yue's own mind was a tangled mess of thoughts about Camila and the Position Swap Battle, desperately in need of unraveling.
The two walked out of the castle. After a busy half-day, it was nearly six in the evening. The horizon was tinged with orange-red, the slanting glow casting its last brilliance over the white manor.
Cheng Yue located the car they had driven here. Bai Shan was in no hurry to get in. She walked to the edge of the road instead.
After a fruitful expedition, Bai Shan leaned against the guardrail of the mountain road. From halfway up, she could take in most of Nanzhou City — buildings tall and low, crisscrossing roads, all laid out beneath her feet. A surge of grandeur welled up in her weary body, and she lingered for a moment.
Her relaxed gaze drifted from the city surface to the farther, higher expanse.
Suddenly, a line of birds swept across the sky above the city, becoming a string of black silhouettes against the sunset, casting a dark stain on the brilliant evening glow.
Bai Shan stood at the summit of the city. Warm golden light caressed her face, yet at that moment her expression changed. Her eyes grew colder and colder in the fading light, lending a chill even to the mountain breeze.
The red sunset on the horizon abruptly became a signal of unease.
Bai Shan saw it in the distance — the dark patch hidden within the evening glow was growing larger and closer, threatening to blot out the entire skyline.
Like an army lurking in the darkness, gradually seizing the skies above Nanzhou City.
— It was the mutated birds from the Wetlands!
Cheng Yue spotted them too. She ran from the car to the guardrail, gripping it tightly with both hands, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"It's those birds from the Wetlands. Occasionally one or two would stray into the city. But why are there — so many?"
Cheng Yue suspected they had emptied the entire nest!
"Let's go."
Bai Shan turned and strode quickly toward the car.
"Go? Where are we going?"
Cheng Yue called from behind. If they intended to fight these birds, their current position halfway up the mountain was perfectly suited.
The Organization had previously discussed the mutated birds at the Wetlands. Their numbers were massive — in the Organization's eyes, they were a mountain of experience packs piled together. But after sending teams two or three times, they gave up.
The reason: too troublesome. Individual birds offered meager experience, their natural air superiority made them extremely difficult to deal with, and they excelled at swarming. Fighting them was a hassle with poor returns.
The Wetlands were some distance from the city center. The occasional bird that flew over and snatched a person or two wasn't considered a major threat, so the Organization had shelved them.
But now, gazing at the dense black mass stretching across the horizon, Cheng Yue thought that if those Xu Family leaders were still alive, they would absolutely regret underestimating those birds!
They were dead. Yet Cheng Yue still bore the responsibilities they had imposed on her. Out of inertia from her role, out of conscience — she could not stand by and let monsters wreak havoc on Nanzhou City!
The car door swung open. Bai Shan took the driver's seat. Cheng Yue climbed into the passenger side, her face taut with tension.
Bai Shan listened to the engine's hum, expression blank, and floored the accelerator.
"Bai..." Cheng Yue no longer knew what to call the person beside her. Sensing something off about Bai Shan's reaction, she asked cautiously, "Are you planning to fight them?"
The car scraped perilously close to the guardrail. It was Bai Shan's first time driving on such a winding road. Her expression didn't change. "I need to find someone."
Find someone? Cheng Yue knew who Bai Shan was looking for. She gazed outside, hearing screams and cries for help drifting up from the city below.
Outside the car window, the scenery flew backward. Bai Shan gripped the steering wheel, a pale blue holographic screen to her right scrolling text furiously.
[Don't go outside! Don't go outside! If your Talent is B-tier or below, stay home!]
[A-tier shouldn't go out either — these birds are insanely fast. Get snatched into their main flock and you're dead!]
[They're pecking at my door! What do I do?!]
[What kind of day is this? People AND birds have all gone insane?]
[Weren't they supposed to be the comic relief that just pooped everywhere? (stunned)]
[People living near the Wetlands have been shouting about this in the channel forever. All you ever said was "move to the city center" or "take a mission and handle it yourself." Well now — who's handling it?]
[I said it in the channel three or four hours ago — several mutated birds were circling the city! Barely anyone cared!]
[Who could have predicted? Cheng Yue returning from the Position Swap Battle, Cheng Yue going on a rampage slaughtering Xu Family members — that was explosive enough. And now there's MORE?]
[What exactly happened between Cheng Yue and the Organization? Will she still protect Nanzhou City?]
[What about those two active out-of-town girls?]
[This afternoon I saw the black RV — it seemed to be chasing a mutated bird, but I don't know where they are now]
[Seriously, I just risked a peek outside — the sky is FULL of birds! Even several Cheng Yues couldn't handle this, right?]
[I heard some cities including Hai City next door have already been overrun by mutated creatures. Is it our turn now?]
[You're joking — a city the size of Hai City couldn't handle the mutated creatures?]
[Try to hide in underground spaces! I saw a bird peck straight through a wall!]
Knowing Lin Huijun's personality, if the Xu Family members didn't provoke her first, she wouldn't have gotten involved. Since the game's descent, Lin Huijun had never killed a person.
Barring the unexpected, Lin Huijun should have been watching her and Cheng Yue's fight. That she had left midway meant something urgent had come up — somewhere else needed her more.
They had visited the Wetlands before and had fairly extensive dealings with those mutated birds. There was a good chance Lin Huijun had noticed them.
Why had the Wetlands' mutated birds suddenly surged out en masse?
Ruling out coincidence, Bai Shan could think of only one possibility: their intelligence had grown high enough to understand that Nanzhou City was in the middle of internal turmoil — the perfect moment to strike!
"Cheng Yue, post in the channel."
"We need leads on the black RV. Useful tips rewarded. False information punished by death."
The black RV was a highly unique game item — independent, just like the replicas. Nanzhou City was enormous; finding it would be a real hassle.
She hoped Lin Huijun hadn't battered the RV's health bar too badly.
*
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