Chapter 66-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 66
Today was February 11th, the 16th day since the game's descent. The sun was warm and gentle.
The black RV moved farther and farther from human civilization. Trees and wild grass on both sides of the highway had grown explosively, spilling over the guardrails, their roots splitting apart the concrete surface. The once spacious road, squeezed between walls of rampant greenery, had transformed into something resembling a pleasant, tree-lined mountain path.
Setting aside the dangers lurking in the depths, the scenery along the way had a charm of its own. Lin Huijun drove with eyes full of admiration.
Layer upon layer of light and shadow shifted with the winding road, flickering across the young woman's face. Bai Shan's expression alternated between light and dark. She leaned back, her body melting into the small sofa, and slowly exhaled the gloom she'd been holding in.
Even if a Level 90 monster really had appeared in Hai City, it wasn't necessarily bad news for Bai Shan. She kept her journey's objective firmly in mind.
Kill five Level 90 Grand Overlords, unlock the title [King of Kings], then reach the Arctic Chamber that the mysterious voice had pointed to—and arrive at the truth of the game.
These were the completion requirements for Tomorrow's Dominator 1.0.
Bai Shan would have to face Level 90 mutants sooner or later.
But she still remembered: in the eighth playthrough of version 1.0, the [Tyrant] had challenged a Level 90 mutant jellyfish at Level 50. The jellyfish vastly outleveled her, and it was a sea battle—unsurprisingly, she was crushed, triggering the ninth playthrough.
Then in the ninth playthrough, after diligently grinding to Level 89, the [Tyrant] had already set foot on the frozen tundra when the game suddenly descended into reality, cutting her progress short and locking her Level 89 account.
If a Level 90 mutant really had appeared in Hai City, could she win at her current Level 50?
Recalling that devastating defeat in version 1.0, reason told Bai Shan not to throw herself against a wall. She wasn't using a string of data to challenge it now—she was risking her own life. Death meant death. Reality had no next playthrough.
But precisely because every miracle was something she had lived through in reality, she was even less able to restrain her urge to explore.
Bai Shan craned her neck to peek at the cab. In the rearview mirror, Lin Huijun seemed to be in good spirits—the sunlight had turned her fuzzy buzz cut a warm brown, like a roasted chestnut.
Lin Huijun had no concept of the danger they might be about to face—the blissfully ignorant and fearless type. Bai Shan found her own fretting rather amusing. After all that mental wrestling, they were still driving down the road that had been chosen in a moment of impulse.
Bai Shan turned to look out the window, facing the sunlight directly. Although she was Level 50 again this time, it was completely different from the Level 50 of the eighth playthrough.
She had grown considerably stronger.
The game panel popped up again.
[Name: Tyrant Level: 50 Talent: Tyrant's Grip (SS) Skill 1: Inspection Make physical contact with a target to view their talent. Skill 2: Tyrannical Command Control any object touched by the right hand within a 50-meter diameter. Skill 3: Admonition All who submit to the Tyrant become subjects. The Tyrant may unconditionally access subjects' talents. Skill 4: Unlocks at Level 90 All Items: [Rule Pen] [Fengdu Tiger Tally] [Inextinguishable Solar Flame] [Breathing Bracer] (click to see more) Active Buffs: Strength +400%, Agility +300%, Constitution +200%, Cold Resistance, Random Skill Enhancement (click to see more)]
Aside from the level-based buffs, which were constant, her skills and items were both stronger and more numerous than in the eighth playthrough.
Currently, her third skill [Admonition] had absorbed 9 talent abilities.
Among them, [Supersonic Movement], [Thermal Imaging], [Sand Lord], and [Frenzy Rhythm] were carried over from the previous version.
SS-rank talent [Blood Battle Echo], B-rank talent [Personal Domain], the plant-mutant-derived [Constant Moment], C-rank talent [Eagle Eye Wolf Gaze], and SS-rank talent [The Absolute Center] had all been acquired in just sixteen days.
On top of that, she had collected several useful items.
S-rank item [Breathing Bracer], A-rank item [Parasitic Tongue], SS-rank item [Revival Lottery Ticket], the enigmatic [Rule Pen], the item-replicating [A Furnace], and S-rank item [Lord's Crown].
Offense, defense, and area of influence were all well covered.
After taking stock of everything, Bai Shan shed the last trace of unease.
She was the top-ranked human player. There was no reason to lack confidence.
*
"Entering a high-accident zone ahead. Please drive with caution."
The car's navigation system spoke in its steady, dutiful tone, guiding the RV along its route. Its database contained pre-existing data; nowadays, any stretch of highway could be the site of a terrible incident.
Fortunately, an hour passed without any attacks on the RV.
The vehicle smoothly entered the next city: Yujing City.
Yujing City wasn't large. It was famous for its delicate Jiangnan water-town scenery—numerous classical gardens made it a well-known tourist destination, only an hour's drive from Hai City.
Lin Huijun had once visited Yujing City as a tourist. Returning now, she doubted she had come to the right place.
Was this really still a human city?
Trees laden with pink blossoms crowded both sides of the road. Pink-green petals flaunted themselves without restraint. The slender branches seemed unable to bear the weight of the heavy blooms, drooping onto the gray pavement. The hard wheels rolled over them, and the pink-green branches slapped indignantly against the car windows.
Lin Huijun drove onward. Bai Shan sat in the passenger seat. The pink road seemed to have no end.
In the old days, internet content creators would have swarmed here. Tree after tree of weeping crabapple blossoms clustered together, forming a lush sea of flowers—photogenic from any angle.
White walls and gray tiles, small bridges over green water—all hidden behind layers upon layers of flowering trees.
But neither of the two in the RV was in the mood to appreciate the view.
Nothing but flowers in sight. Besides flowers—not a single living creature!
Bai Shan recalled that weeping crabapples typically bloomed in March. It was barely mid-February, yet many plants seemed to have sprung into an early spring. Most of them were ordinary plants, not mutants.
Bai Shan had long sensed that the world's oxygen levels seemed to have risen.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, this planet had been in a high-oxygen era—an age of giants. Enormous insects roamed the land, plants flourished, and marine life exploded.
Of these crabapples that had overrun Yujing City, how many were mutants? How many were ordinary plants that had simply grown faster?
The window rolled down. Bai Shan leaned out to get a closer look.
She looked up and caught a sliver of blue sky squeezed between the pink-green branches. Her nose twitched as she sniffed lightly.
Then Bai Shan's nose wrinkled. She covered it, quickly rolled the window back up, her expression peculiar.
"Lin Huijun, head straight for Hai City. We won't find anyone here."
Lin Huijun let out a confused "Huh?"
Bai Shan reached up and patted her hair, then thought better of it. She left the passenger seat, went into the cabin, and opened a pack of wet wipes, cleaning the pollen from her hair and collar.
As she wiped, she called out to Lin Huijun at the front:
"Don't open the windows—the air outside is full of pollen!"
Once the pollen was cleaned off, Bai Shan returned to the passenger seat. She suddenly leaned forward, examining the windshield, and noticed it had already begun to turn gray—coated with a layer of pollen that was growing thicker by the second.
Lin Huijun noticed it too. She adjusted the navigation and set the destination to Hai City.
"Bai Shan, this pollen won't cause any side effects, will it?"
Lin Huijun shot a worried glance at Bai Shan.
Bai Shan wasn't sure. Lin Huijun's words reminded her. A bottle of healing mineral water appeared in her hand. Just in case, she tilted her head back and took a sip.
So far, these flowering trees hadn't launched any attack on them. The branches looked delicate and pretty, without a hint of aggression—compared to mutant banyan trees and mutant sea eagles, they were practically friendly.
But this dreamlike sea of pink was no place for humans to inhabit.
Even if the pollen was non-toxic, the sheer volume of it would constantly irritate the respiratory system. Prolonged exposure would cause skin allergies, headaches, and fatigue. People simply couldn't live in such an environment for long.
The same went for other animals. Excessive pollen falling into water would deplete oxygen and degrade water quality, driving away aquatic life. Perhaps only pollinating insects could coexist with the blossoms.
In Bai Shan's memory, weeping crabapples were low-pollen, human-friendly ornamental plants.
Yet now, with their overwhelming blanket of pollen, these crabapples had conquered the city "without drawing a single drop of blood."
The residents of Yujing City must have all evacuated to other cities.
Bai Shan thought.
If they were leaving, wouldn't Hai City be their first choice? It was nearby and a major metropolis—people would instinctively assume a big city offered better security.
The hard black roof of the RV bobbed in and out of sight amid the pink sea of flowers, mercilessly plowing through the romantic branches, gathering a coat of pollen as it barreled toward its next destination.
They were almost out of Yujing City. Bai Shan could see high-rise buildings in the distance, still standing defiantly before the flowering trees could engulf them.
Suddenly, Bai Shan narrowed her eyes.
On the exterior of a shopping mall, a phone advertisement billboard displayed a model's polished face—spray-painted over with a glaring red "SOS."
Had someone been trapped in the mall when the game descended and spray-painted SOS for help?
No—if they could spray-paint SOS on the exterior, they couldn't have been trapped inside.
"Lin Huijun, look to the right. See that mall?"
Lin Huijun turned her head and quickly spotted the mall emblazoned with the enormous "SOS."
Even though the person who had painted the distress signal might no longer be there, Lin Huijun immediately swung the RV around. What if someone still needed help?
The black RV cut swiftly through the sea of flowering trees and arrived at an open area. By now, the pollen on the windshield had built up enough to seriously impair visibility. Through the hazy glass, Bai Shan gazed at the mall in the distance and felt something was off.
"Stop the car, Lin Huijun. I'm going up on the roof to take a look."
The black RV stopped on the open ground—what appeared to have once been a sports field. Artificial turf surrounded by weeping crabapples pressing in from all sides.
Bai Shan dug out a long jacket, put on a hat and face mask, and opened the car door, leaping onto the roof.
She had bundled herself up tight, leaving only her eyes exposed.
Those eyes, upon taking in the sight before them, suddenly went wide—her dark pupils trembling.
A luxurious shopping mall rose above the dense flowering trees. Below the entrance marked No. 1, pink-green branches pushed upward. Above the entrance, the model with the red SOS sprayed across her face maintained her smile.
"...A mirage?"
The mall looked as though it had been grafted onto the flower trees from thin air. A closer look revealed it was an illusion.
Bai Shan could hardly believe it. A mirage, appearing here?
When light refracts through the atmosphere, it can project phantom images of distant places—that was what a mirage was.
She stared unblinking at the illusory mall and noticed its name: "Hengxin Shopping Mall."
A very familiar mall. Where had she seen it before?
Bai Shan jumped back into the RV. As she shut the door, it hit her in an instant.
Her mother had taken her to Hai City on business trips a few times.
There was a mall in Hai City called "Hengxin Shopping Mall."
That phantom image was an exact replica of Hai City's Hengxin Shopping Mall!
Comments
Post a Comment