Chapter 63-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 63
The second-ranked Charlie Anderson had revealed he had superiors behind him; the eightieth-ranked Camila had been besieged by a mysterious faction. What kind of forces were lurking in the shadows, stirring up the world?
Had they already set their sights on the [Tyrant]?
Bai Shan fixed her gaze on Cheng Yue and asked again, "Think once more about that place. Besides the colorful slums and the cable cars, were there any other landmarks?"
"What else..." Cheng Yue's face twisted in concentration. Then, suddenly, she recalled the hilltop above the slums—there was a rock spray-painted with colorful letters, spelling a word she didn't recognize.
"H, O, L, A—I think that's how it was spelled..."
Cheng Yue was lost in her memories, blurting out a random word out of nowhere.
"Hola?"
Bai Shan produced the precise pronunciation.
She paused for a moment, then swept the stray hair from her forehead, her pale face breaking into a cold laugh. "Hah, I know where that is."
"Castilian—the third most spoken language in the world. And the colorful architectural style... The place you went to was the Southern Continent."
"The Southern Continent?"
Cheng Yue frowned and repeated the words.
She had devoted herself to entertainment industry work since childhood, with little time for studying. Her academic credentials were only convincing to her fans. While she couldn't recognize Castilian, she had at least heard of the Southern Continent—a place said to be rather poor and underdeveloped, with a low profile on the world stage.
"So Camila was from there..."
Cheng Yue sighed with a wistful smile. From now on, the Southern Continent in her mind would be a place of colorful houses and passionate vitality—no longer the one-dimensional image of poverty and backwardness that others had described to her.
Beside her, Bai Shan was utterly unaffected by Cheng Yue's sentimental mood. She paced through the [Reverse World], her raised brows radiating a barely concealed excitement.
"Good—that narrows the range. Tracking down whoever killed Camila isn't out of the question now."
"Cheng Yue, do you want to avenge Camila?"
Bai Shan suddenly turned, her eyes blazing with intensity as she looked at Cheng Yue.
Cheng Yue's expression froze. She found it somewhat absurd—what kind of bond did she and Camila share that was worth risking her life? She had only just learned what continent the girl was from.
If the game had never appeared, Cheng Yue would have been on the other side of the world doing concert tours, bathed in a sea of lights; and Camila would have been attending middle or high school on the opposite end, weaving through colorful streets under the blazing sun. Their paths would never have crossed.
A moment of silence.
"I want to kill that person."
Cheng Yue made her choice honestly. She was getting better and better at this.
Whether it was out of admiration for Camila, or because she desperately needed a new purpose to keep going, Cheng Yue wanted to avenge Camila. That was the voice in her heart.
Bai Shan curled her lips in an entirely unsurprised smile.
"From now on, keep a close eye on the leaderboard. The person who took Camila's experience and items may not have made it onto the leaderboard immediately, but given their ruthless methods, the likelihood of them entering is high."
"Some Castilian names include accent marks. If a name with accented Latin letters appears on the leaderboard, there's a chance they could be the killer."
"Even if they aren't the one who directly killed Camila, they very likely belong to the same organization."
"And you still have a Position Swap Order in your possession."
Bai Shan leaned against the windowsill, lifting her habitually half-lowered eyelids. Her sharp dark eyes looked even larger and more piercing, fixed on Cheng Yue with a quiet intensity.
Who Camila was didn't really matter. For Bai Shan, she was far more curious about the faction capable of mobilizing people to hunt down a top-100 player.
She didn't have an item like the Position Swap Order, so she could only let Cheng Yue take the initiative.
Bai Shan wasn't just trying to satisfy her curiosity. As the [Tyrant] reigning over all players, she was no longer the carefree ordinary high schooler she once was. Since her existence could influence the global situation, she had to understand the global situation in return.
This was objective reality. She couldn't remain uninvolved.
The [Tyrant] held the throne. Anyone could challenge her for it.
"Alright. If a suspicious name surpasses me on the leaderboard, I will absolutely initiate a Position Swap."
Cheng Yue clenched her fists, veins visibly bulging on her lean arms. The fierce, battle-hardened aura she had cultivated in barely two weeks clashed with the sky-blue jacket she was wearing.
She had already walked into blood and fire. There was no returning to the beautiful stage wreathed in flowers and applause.
The [Reverse World] dissolved, and the two returned to reality.
Compared to before they vanished, Bai Shan carried a touch more contentment, while Cheng Yue looked several shades more solemn.
Watching the two disappear and reappear, Huang Yuci scratched her head, thinking this must be what high-level players could do. The teleportation ability she only used in dire emergencies—these two had just burned it on a chat.
Sigh, sigh, sigh—she groaned internally.
But that frustration was quickly swept away. Being connected to people like this meant she was, by rough estimation, a big deal too!
"Bai Shan, Lin Huijun, I honestly didn't expect the Xu family to actually fall!"
"Although it seems like it didn't have much to do with you two, ahem, but still, thank you. You were both fighting the mutant birds last night, right?"
Lin Huijun smiled a bit shyly in response.
Huang Yuci smiled too, but as she did, her gaze drifted toward Bai Shan, already having arrived at a certain answer in her mind.
Based on the information she had gathered, last night's mutant birds had all converged toward the Jiang'an District. Someone had discovered massive numbers of mutant bird corpses near the construction site by Wan'an Mall—the scaffolding outside the building had even collapsed, with steel pipes impaling mutant birds. The fighting must have been incredibly intense.
Huang Yuci had seen descriptions of the battlefield remains in related posts. The scattered scaffolding immediately pointed her toward Bai Shan and Cheng Yue—only they had that kind of telekinetic control.
She had witnessed Cheng Yue in action up close. The battlefield style didn't match Cheng Yue's. Therefore, Huang Yuci guessed that last night's mutant bird incident was primarily Bai Shan's doing.
Bai Shan's eyes rotated as if glancing over. Huang Yuci immediately averted her gaze, expression straightening.
Huang Yuci thought to herself: sooner or later, she would see Bai Shan's name on the leaderboard. Absolutely.
"You two probably aren't staying in Nanzhou, right? Where are you headed next?"
"Not trying to pry—I'm very well-informed, you know. Maybe I can give you some useful intel."
Huang Yuci wanted to do them a favor. Even if they left and she probably wouldn't see them again for a long time, who knew when a favor might come in handy?
Hearing this, Lin Huijun glanced at Bai Shan. Seeing no objection, she said, "We'll probably be passing through Hai City next."
Hai City was the most economically prosperous city in China and very close to Nanzhou—a stop along their northward route to Songjiang Province.
Besides, Lin Huijun figured that such a thriving metropolis would surely offer more opportunities and challenges to help them grow stronger faster.
"...Uh, where did you say you're going?"
Huang Yuci's confident expression instantly crumbled.
"Anywhere but Hai City..."
Bai Shan spoke up. "What's wrong with Hai City?"
Hearing Bai Shan's rather indifferent tone, Huang Yuci's hands gestured frantically in the air. "Have you heard about the situation in Hai City?"
Lin Huijun thought back and shook her head. "I don't think I've heard much."
Bai Shan raised her forearm and chimed in, "People in Nanzhou are saying Hai City has been overrun by mutants."
Huang Yuci nodded, then shook her head, her tone turning cryptic.
"If you frequently follow the national channel, you'll notice there's almost no discussion about Hai City. And if you switch the channel range to Hai City specifically, you'll find something even more bizarre—absolutely no one is posting there!"
Bai Shan and Lin Huijun both looked startled. They immediately opened their game panels.
[A couple more mutant birds spotted in Jiang'an District—everyone be careful]
[Do those two outsider sisters need more teammates?]
[When is Cheng Yue going to come out and say something?]
[Good morning, everyone!]
Bai Shan switched the channel range from Nanzhou to Hai City.
The previously lively channel went completely blank—nothing but the pale blue glow of the screen.
Bai Shan then switched the message board from Nanzhou to Hai City.
Not a single post.
Empty and desolate, as if a bug had appeared out of nowhere.
"Nanzhou is close to Hai City. A lot of people here have friends and family there. From what I've learned, since the day the channel function was unlocked by the [Tyrant], not a single person has posted in the Hai City channel."
"And that's not all. If you mention Hai City on the national channel, or even here in Nanzhou..."
"I've observed that a flood of other messages immediately appears, drowning out any mention of Hai City."
Huang Yuci's voice grew quieter as she spoke, but in the cramped room, it was more than clear enough—and riveting.
"What does this mean? The situation in Hai City may be so terrible that it can't be made public. One mention would severely damage everyone's morale and cause panic."
"And even the capital is powerless to do anything about it for now."
"I've privately taken to calling Hai City the 'Devil's City.' There might not be a single living person left!"
"You'd better take a detour. I still want to see your names show up on the leaderboard."
Lin Huijun's expression grew grave. She had never imagined such an eerie situation—the Hai City channel completely silent to this day. Could an entire megacity have been destroyed on the second day of the game's descent?
"I understand."
Bai Shan said flatly, neither confirming nor denying whether they would go.
"Do you have any other exclusive intel? You seem quite good at gathering information."
At the mention of exclusive intel, Huang Yuci's eyes sparkled. Setting aside the question of where they were headed, she thumped her chest proudly. "Nothing really 'exclusive'—it's all collected from various channels. I just happen to know a little about everything from as far as the Northern Continent to as close as the next city over."
On the day the internet was lost, Huang Yuci had felt cruelly abandoned by the world.
When the game channel function launched the next day, Huang Yuci came back to life. Although the skills she once relied on for a living—aggregating and leveraging information—could no longer serve any practical purpose, she could at least treat it as a post-apocalyptic hobby to relieve stress.
"Those names on the leaderboard—do you know about all of them?"
Bai Shan asked with interest.
"The regulars—I know a bit about everyone except the Tyrant."
Huang Yuci replied with a smug look.
Beside her, Cheng Yue stifled an itch in her throat, silently looking away and staring intently at the windowsill as if something terribly important were there.
"Well, the leaderboard's been changing faster and faster lately. Some people I'd just learned about are already dead. Luckily, there are plenty of long-timers on the list, and the gossip is juicy."
As she spoke, Huang Yuci actually turned around and pulled a small notebook out from under her mattress.
Huang Yuci had just produced her compilation book when a hesitant voice suddenly broke the silence in the room.
"...Qin Zhen?"
Cheng Yue, who had been staring toward the windowsill, wore an expression of shock, murmuring the name aloud.
"What?"
Bai Shan immediately looked toward the window. From the windowsill, she could see the mottled exterior wall of the building across the street, its windows shut tight.
Cheng Yue snapped out of it and said, "Open the leaderboard—Qin Zhen's name just appeared at rank 96!"
A pale blue screen popped up. There it was—a new name on the leaderboard.
Qin Zhen had successfully entered the top 100!
Bai Shan raised an eyebrow. That figured—Qin Zhen must have killed quite a few of the Xu family's experience fodder.
Just like back in Qianxi Town, she always managed to find opportunities. She was a patient hunter.
Her sudden entry into the leaderboard was likely because Qin Zhen had broken through to Level 20, finally unlocking the second skill of her [Priceless True Love].
"Qin Zhen? The one from out of town?"
Huang Yuci had a vague impression of the name, but not much. The person didn't seem very active—just an ordinary outsider player who had joined an organization.
Judging by the reactions of the other three, it was indeed the Qin Zhen she was thinking of.
"Fine, I need to add another page to my book."
Huang Yuci muttered, thinking that Nanzhou really was a place of hidden talents—two leaderboard players coming from here...
The familiar mechanical voice rang in their ears.
[Player Cui Yuxuan has used a Position Swap Order!]
[Player Cui Yuxuan challenges Player Qin Zhen!]
The expressions in the room, having just settled, were thrown into turmoil again.
Huang Yuci heard the global broadcast and gaped. "Cui Yuxuan, rank 97, challenging the newly ranked 96th Qin Zhen?"
She excitedly slapped Lin Huijun's shoulder—the smack was startlingly loud.
"That Cui Yuxuan is so underhanded!"
Someone who had just surged to rank 96 had clearly just been through a battle and was partially spent.
Even with a newly unlocked second skill, there would be no time to get familiar with it before being dragged into a new battlefield. The mental toll alone could easily throw someone off.
What's more, the gap between the two was only a single rank.
Bai Shan thought: swap in someone with average mental fortitude, and they would very likely crumble—becoming the first person to lose a Position Swap.
Too bad Cui Yuxuan's luck wasn't great. He had run into Qin Zhen.
*
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