Chapter 90-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 90
The Southwest Dam spanned a magnificent river — 2,300 meters long, 190 meters tall — like a colossal reinforced-concrete beast lying dormant in the gorge's deep waters. It was the most spectacular hydraulic engineering project on the planet.
The power plant was embedded inside the downstream dam body. The portion protruding from the dam was the plant building, housing the central control room. Below the building lay the core power-generation machinery — generators and turbines. Each unit was precision-engineered and extremely valuable.
If the equipment were destroyed, it would deal a devastating blow to the power station.
At this moment, the heavy factory gate was pried open by a thick gray tail. The gates flew apart with a boom, and a round, blunt gray head wearing its smiling lip-line pushed inside.
Its mouth was clearly pressed into a smile, yet a shrill, piercing roar instantly blasted through the entire plant!
Instrument gauges trembled. Crisscrossing cables swayed precariously. The lights that had only just come on flickered between bright and dark. Incandescent bulbs swung overhead, light and shadow alternating across every terrified face. Everyone instinctively covered their ears.
"Quick — stop it!"
The chief snapped back from his terror and shouted immediately. As his vocal cords vibrated, the taste of rust surged up his throat. Dark blood flowed from his lips, covering his chin.
He wiped his chin and stared at the blood on his palm in disbelief. Had even Wu Xinyou and Theodore failed to hold this monster back?
If those two were powerless, who in this building could stop it?
No — he shouldn't have brought everyone here immediately. Having attracted it here made everything worse!
"It's not that one... it's another! There's more than one!"
The middle-aged woman beside the chief suddenly cried out, her face filled with disbelief.
She'd formerly been a tour guide. Days ago, she'd served as Tang Long's local guide, leading him and his teammates to find the gray monster — only for the 28th-ranked Tang Long to die underwater.
She'd been standing far away on the mountain path at the time, unable to see clearly. She only remembered that Tang Long had severely wounded the creature before it fled into the water. Then it seemed to hide and mimic a human voice, misdirecting Tang Long before ambushing him and dragging him under.
Up ahead, several people had already charged at the intruding gray mutant. Before they could get close, sound waves blasted everyone in the vicinity away. Over a dozen people lay on the ground — blood streaming from mouths, noses, ears, and eyes — bodies convulsing.
The rest witnessed this and dared not approach.
Someone climbed atop a heavy machine, rubbed an electric sphere between their palms, and hurled it at the monster. The gray creature's four limbs flexed powerfully, launching itself to the center of the plant — effortlessly dodging the attack.
Then it pounced forward. The person atop the machine jumped down in panic. The instant they turned, they were flattened by crushing weight.
A stench hit. Blood flooded their vision. They lost consciousness entirely.
Everyone watched helplessly as the gray monster opened its maw full of tiny pointed teeth — the gaping mouth occupying nearly two-thirds of its head — and swallowed a living person whole.
The bloody stench spread instantly. Seeing the headless corpse, even those who'd arrived full of passion instinctively stepped back.
The gray mutant closed its blood-soaked mouth, restoring the smiling arc. It was no longer in a hurry to feed. Slowly turning around, its truck-sized body rose and fell gently with each breath. It had no eyes, yet everyone present felt themselves being appraised — like a predator with assured victory sizing up the choicest cut of lamb.
The chief slowly backed away, not daring to breathe loudly for fear of attracting the monster's attention. Suddenly, someone seized his arm.
"There are three! Wounded one, voice-mimicking one, ambushing one — there are three!"
The middle-aged woman gripped the chief's arm with uncontrolled force. She recalled the scene from before — two inconspicuous ripples on the river surface. Tang Long's speed and reflexes were exceptional. It had taken at least three to pull off the trick of dragging him underwater.
All along, because of the Smile Killer's special ability, the townspeople had immediately fled the moment they detected it. Thus no one had realized there was more than one of these unique monsters!
The chief's head spun from this news. Before he could digest it, another report came from behind him.
"The intake gate is broken!"
A woman in a hard hat stood on the metal staircase, reporting with a pale face.
"Wha— AAH!"
A massive shadow swept over the chief's head. He ducked behind a machine in fright. The gray monster sailed overhead, pouncing on another person who'd attacked it. Blood and flesh sprayed in all directions.
"What gate?"
The chief asked in a small voice from behind the machine. His undergraduate degree was in history — he understood nothing about power station operations.
The hard-hat woman sprinted to his side, speaking urgently:
"The intake gate! It's upstream on the dam. The control room says the dam may have been damaged — the gate won't close!"
The chief's voice trembled: "What happens if it won't close?"
The engineering-major woman said frantically: "Tens of billions of cubic meters of upstream water will keep flooding in here — non-stop! It'll drown us all!"
"...What do we do?" the chief asked blankly. The two stared at each other.
Despair welled up in his heart. Theodore was presumably dead. Wu Xinyou's fate unknown. Langsa Meiduo was guarding the Liujia Dam Converter Station — status unknown. The people in the plant couldn't do a thing about that beast.
"Restrain it!"
Nearby, five people surrounded the gray mutant at a careful distance, keeping it penned in. A woman with massive arms hoisted an enormous bronze cauldron, bellowed, and hurled it. The bronze cauldron expanded several times its size mid-air and slammed down — perfectly trapping the gray mutant beneath it.
"Got it!"
The S-tier item had confined the monster. The sound waves that had been constantly assaulting everyone's bodies finally stopped. Those closest wiped blood from their faces and exchanged relieved smiles.
However, sharp-eyed observers quickly noticed the bronze cauldron gently vibrating — hairline cracks appearing on its outer wall.
"Not good! It's breaking free!"
Everyone stepped back in unison. Piercing sound waves leaked through the cracks — the dizzying hum returned, hammering at raw, fragile nerves, eroding body and spirit.
The chief huddled to one side, clutching his head, pain and regret written on his face. If he'd known, he would have refused this impossible mission no matter what. At a time like this, they could barely protect themselves — how could they possibly spare effort for people a thousand li away?
Hai City's citizens were precious — but did that mean Wanxia Town's people should be sacrificed?
This operation was riddled with holes — practically dragging them along as burial offerings for Hai City! He would retreat. Before everyone was killed, he'd abandon the power station. Leave immediately!
The portly chief suddenly stood, waving his arms, the word "retreat" already on his lips — when a figure suddenly stepped onto the machine beside him, whooshing past like a blood-scented gale—
The green-buzzcut woman leaped atop the shaking cauldron, single-handedly holding down the monster trapped within. The bronze cauldron stopped rocking.
She punched clean through the cauldron — only half her arm remained visible outside, her hand and forearm entering the cauldron's interior. The surrounding crowd gasped.
Wu Xinyou landed a vicious punch on the monster inside. The sound waves stopped leaking from the cracks. Then she pulled her intact hand out and stood up.
"Wu Xinyou? You're alive? Alive is good — alive is good!"
The portly chief ran over, looking up at Wu Xinyou standing atop the cauldron, his expression overjoyed.
Then he glanced around and lowered his voice: "Where's Theodore?"
At that name, Wu Xinyou's face darkened. She stomped the cauldron hard — it produced a heavy, muffled sound. "That bastard Theodore attacked me!"
She'd accidentally pulled at the wound on her side — barely healed with a recovery item, it tore open again, blood seeping through.
"Where is he? Is he hiding in here?" Wu Xinyou narrowed her eyes, scanning the plant, trying to spot that damned blond head.
The nearest young man answered: "We haven't seen Theodore, but his name has disappeared from the Leaderboard..."
"Disappeared?"
Wu Xinyou frowned, sensing something was off. She muttered to herself: "He can't be dead, can he?"
"That doesn't make sense — he runs so fast. Even that monster couldn't have..."
The cauldron beneath her feet began vibrating again — the monster she'd punched had apparently recovered, struggling defiantly. The cracks in the bronze cauldron grew wider.
From the moment Theodore had attacked her, Wu Xinyou had lost track of the situation. She'd used her ability to evade Theodore, recovered somewhat with healing items, then immediately went to settle the score — only to find the underground factory completely empty. Wu Xinyou hadn't even found a single monster.
Theodore wasn't the priority right now. Wu Xinyou shook her head, raised her fist, ready to deliver another blow to the creature inside — when a sudden scream erupted.
Everyone in the plant went on alert, looking around. Eventually they realized the screaming seemed to come from below.
Below housed the generators and turbines.
The young woman in the hard hat went pale. This time she announced to everyone: "The intake gate is broken!"
"It was fine when we checked earlier — someone or some mutant must be deliberately sabotaging it!"
From another side, the middle-aged woman also shouted a reminder: "There are three! Three of these monsters!"
The chief wiped his blood-smeared face. His flat features were smeared into a comical red plane. Things had come to this — staring at all those bloodshot eyes, he could only grit his teeth: "Go — check what's happening below!"
His voice was weak and strained. People in the plant either stared at the floor or at the cauldron, still processing the latest bad news. This night seemed endlessly, impossibly long.
The hard-hat woman clutched her pounding chest, then suddenly shouted: "Hold the power station!"
Her voice snapped the dazed, frozen crowd back to attention. Remembering why they'd come, emotions ignited instantly. Those around her joined the cry: "Hold the power station!"
"Hold the power station!"
The sound carried beyond the plant. Atop the dam, Bai Shan caught a hint of activity from inside the building.
Under bright moonlight, Bai Shan squatted casually on the dam, staring at the dark water surface. She held a flashlight, looking as vacant as someone who'd fallen asleep with their eyes open.
The next moment, a faint ripple disturbed the surface. The flashlight beam immediately swept over — a shadow flickered beneath the water.
"Found you."
The third gray monster. It had been damaging the dam.
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