Chapter 76-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 76
Omniscient, omniscient... Ever since entering Hai City, that word had appeared with alarming frequency.
Bai Shan certainly didn't believe in any Omniscient God, let alone a deity trendy enough to send private messages to followers through a game. She suspected Liu Chaoyun had been deceived. With four hundred million players came four hundred million abilities, plus countless bizarre items. If someone's ability happened to be "omniscience," Bai Shan wouldn't be surprised.
Using the game to send private messages wasn't inconceivable either — it could be achieved through an item or by unlocking some special achievement.
Liu Chaoyun had joined the cult two years ago. As far as Bai Shan knew, the Omniscient God Cult was a cobbled-together patchwork religion — borrowing the Western Holy Trinity to create its own Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then blending in Buddhism from next door and native Daoism.
The resulting Frankenstein concept was this: the Omniscient God perceived all suffering in the world and dispatched Three Saints to preach among mortals. He would deliver all beings to salvation, leading the faithful to immortality and divine ascension.
The fabricated deity even had a comically long name. Bai Shan remembered the original full title was "Great Compassionate Sacred Love Primordial Unity Omniscient God." Apparently, even the cult members found it too much of a mouthful and eventually dropped "Primordial Unity."
The whole operation gave off an amateurish, slapdash vibe. Bai Shan initially couldn't believe anyone would fall for something so crude. After learning about similar scams, she had an epiphany — it was a form of reverse screening. Normal people were filtered out early; those who could be taken in by such a transparent con were exactly the cult's target demographic.
Once inducted, the cult would bleed its members dry with every excuse imaginable — miracle water at sky-high prices, plastic jade pendants costing tens of thousands, divine statues worth hundreds of thousands, "blessed" rice sold at extortionate markups...
They didn't just drain the believers' wallets. Through threats and coercion, they pressured members into recruiting friends and family — a structure eerily similar to a pyramid scheme.
The moment a believer's funds ran dry and their alienated loved ones refused to contribute further, the cult would turn on them instantly, fabricating reasons to push them to the margins.
Why did Bai Shan know all this so well?
Liu Chaoyun had been pulled into the cult about a year ago. Before that, she had merely been a somewhat sharp-tongued old woman who liked giving people sideways glances.
After joining the Omniscient God Cult, she became unhinged. Even Bai Shan was spooked. For a long stretch, she dreaded going home, because she'd inevitably run into Liu Chaoyun in the corridor — that forced smile leaping out at her without warning.
Eventually, Liu Chaoyun's daughter intervened. Mother and daughter fought day and night — screaming, smashing things. The noise frequently kept Bai Shan up.
During that period, Bai Shan felt utterly drained — school was already annoying enough!
Later, the neighbors and the property management joined the crusade. Liu Chaoyun's daughter sent apology gifts to the neighbors, smoothed things over, then cut off her mother's living allowance and even had her reported to the police, where she spent a few days in custody. After that, Liu Chaoyun was forced to behave and toned things down.
Eight months ago, Liu Chaoyun's deadbeat son dumped Chen Xinyi on her doorstep. He'd rushed into a marriage and rushed right back out, leaving the child with his mother before disappearing off to enjoy himself elsewhere.
With Chen Xinyi around, Liu Chaoyun quieted down considerably. But Bai Shan could tell she found the child annoying. She only agreed to look after the girl because her daughter, feeling sorry for Chen Xinyi, had doubled the monthly living allowance.
"The game is just a game. It can't possibly be your Great Compassionate Sacred Love Primordial Unity Omniscient God."
Bai Shan rattled off the full name without pausing for breath.
"You've been tricked. Someone used that title to manipulate you into coming to Hai City."
"Impossible! Only the Omniscient God possesses such magnificent power! This game is a trial He set for you!"
Seeing Liu Chaoyun's stubborn expression, Bai Shan decided further argument was pointless.
Her gaze sharpened. She thrust the arrow forward. The arrowhead pierced through the embroidered cotton jacket and was about to touch skin when Bai Shan felt a sudden resistance.
Liu Chaoyun was unperturbed. She glanced down and said, "Bai Shan, did you think I'd come here unprepared? I'm not that senile yet."
The moment she finished, the arrowhead pressed against Liu Chaoyun's chest suddenly erupted in flame, igniting the embroidered jacket.
"What about this?" Bai Shan asked. "Is your defensive item S-tier? SS-tier?"
"Don't be too confident, Protector Liu."
Searing heat spread from her chest across her entire body, incinerating the cotton jacket and the soft armor beneath, reaching vulnerable skin. Liu Chaoyun grabbed Bai Shan's arrow-holding hand. Veins bulged across the wrinkled back of her hand, her face contorting.
"Bai... Shan. I'm giving you one last chance to join us. Together, we'll liberate Hai City."
"Otherwise — be our enemy forever!"
The old woman's furious, resolute voice rang through the mall. The middle-aged woman nearby, along with believers on every floor, stiffened in unison. Hostile eyes locked onto Bai Shan as one, glaring as though they wished to tear her to shreds.
Bai Shan was utterly unfazed. She shrugged and said without a shred of sincerity, "Sorry. Once Inextinguishable Sun Flame starts burning, it doesn't stop."
"We're already enemies. And you're about to be a dead one."
Liu Chaoyun clung to her hand, as if intent on dragging Bai Shan into the inferno with her. Bai Shan found the old woman's grip shockingly powerful. She wrenched her hand free with effort and found bruises on her wrist.
"You vicious little beast! I never wronged you!"
"You're truly heartless!"
[Inextinguishable Sun Flame] had already consumed Liu Chaoyun. Through the roaring blaze, half a face and a pair of eyes emerged. Every trace of warmth and gentleness had been burned away, leaving nothing but raw hatred. She thrust both hands forward — the arrow still embedded in her chest — summoning every last ounce of strength to lunge at Bai Shan.
Bai Shan stepped back twice. Liu Chaoyun managed only a few steps before her burning body crumpled to the floor.
Bai Shan's mind drifted for a split second.
Apart from disrupting Bai Shan's daily life, Liu Chaoyun had also shown the concern of an elder at times. Once or twice when Bai Shan forgot her keys and her mother happened to be on a business trip, it was Liu Chaoyun who called the locksmith and let Bai Shan do homework at her place, even sharing dinner.
During Spring Festival, she would send homemade cured sausages and braised meats to Bai Shan's family — though after she joined the cult, they no longer dared accept.
Liu Chaoyun might truly have had no intention of killing her. But they were no longer ordinary people. Each carried an identity too significant to ignore. Unless one side was willing to bow, she and Liu Chaoyun were destined to be incompatible in Hai City.
Clearly, neither of them would compromise.
Bai Shan turned away and didn't look back at Liu Chaoyun lying on the ground. She walked past the flames, which were already shrinking, collapsing inward with the body as it crumbled to ash.
"See you next time... Bai... Shan."
A low, curse-like whisper drifted from behind. Bai Shan froze, then whipped around.
The last flicker of flame wavered on the floor for a moment before dying out. The mall's floor was clean and spotless. Nothing remained.
Bai Shan looked at the middle-aged woman nearby. She was staring at Bai Shan intently — with hatred, with fury, but with no grief or panic. As if Liu Chaoyun's death was of no great consequence.
"Bai Shan, you have made an enemy of the Omniscient God. No matter where we are, we will never let you go!"
As she spoke, a dark figure suddenly vaulted over the railing beside her — splash — and plunged into the water below.
Before Bai Shan could even get a look, believers on every floor began throwing themselves over the railings like dumplings into a pot, their bodies plummeting into the flooded ground floor without the slightest hesitation. The scene was utterly grotesque. Several mutant fish leaped excitedly from the water, welcoming the sudden all-you-can-eat buffet.
Bai Shan's expression was one of genuine shock, her eyes wide.
"With the Protector's departure, the plan to save Hai City has failed."
The middle-aged woman who had been seething moments ago walked to the railing, her expression eerily serene.
"This place has been abandoned by the Omniscient God. Destruction is imminent. Better to become part of the four-fifths now."
"What four-fifths?"
Bai Shan heard her own voice floating out of her throat. She truly couldn't comprehend what these people were doing.
"We refuse to be killed by heretics like you. We will only die for the Omniscient God — that is the path to paradise..."
The middle-aged woman was deaf to Bai Shan's words. Muttering to herself, she suddenly swung over the railing and sank beneath the water.
As the last believer hit the surface and the splash settled back to stillness, the entire mall fell into a deathlike silence.
The survivors on the upper floors couldn't believe it. These lunatics had been executing people just moments ago, and now — already — every last one of them was dead?
Bai Shan mulled over "four-fifths." It quickly clicked — the game's second-round rule allowed only eighty million players to advance. Compared to the first round's four hundred million, that was one-fifth surviving and four-fifths dying.
A wave of intense absurdity crashed over Bai Shan. These people genuinely worshipped the game as their Omniscient God. Even the decree that four-fifths must die — they followed it willingly!
Outside the silent mall, another round of thunder and lightning rolled across the sky, unrelenting.
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