Chapter 11
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
This chapter is edited by Cthulhu. Thank you for your contribution!
Chapter 11: A Video of Babel Tower
‘Is it a silly clip, a trailer, or a promotional video for a game in 2077?’ Bai Yan wondered. Whatever it was, he didn’t care about it. He swiped it away and logged into Babel Tower again to continue his game.
The screen popped up again.
“Damn it!” Bai Yan let out a deep sigh and swiped away the pop-up ad once more. “Give it up! I won’t watch this ad today, even if you put a spinning fan on Nightsaber’s nipples.”
Bai Yan unconsciously avoided using his name. It would be better to put the paper version of “him” at risk.
He tried to log in again, and the ad reappeared.
Bai Yan took a deep breath. ‘Calm down! Don’t get mad, don’t get mad.’
He tried a fourth time. As expected, the fancy ad appeared again. It seemed someone was forcing Bai Yan’s hand by making the ad persist.
‘Calm down! Don’t get mad, don’t get mad… Oh, fuck it!’
“Fine, I’ll watch it,” he yelled at his phone. Then, calming himself, he added, “It’s just a little time wasted.”
His first glimpse showed terrified people running from a giant black monster in the middle of a street in broad daylight. Looking closer, he spotted a girl in a black coat wearing a white mask and carrying a huge black sword shaped like a cross. She was confronting the giant monster.
Bai Yan wasn’t impressed by the video. ‘Everything is chaos,’ he thought. ‘The masked girl should be the focus, but she carries the same visual weight as everyone else in the scene.’
It was true that the video was poorly made. It was difficult to even spot the masked girl, who should have been the protagonist, among the rushing crowd.
When the monster began attacking people with its tentacles, the masked girl dashed forward and severed them with her huge sword. Her movements were splendid, and the special effects were not only impressive but convincing, stopping the monster’s assault.
Blood sprayed from the severed tentacles, looking remarkably lifelike.
The camera work, however, never focused on the girl. It didn’t resemble a promotional video for a film or game, but rather amateur footage of a real incident. At least, that’s what Bai Yan thought.
The monster finally fell, emitting black fog that shrouded both the casualties and the girl. Despite the terrible camerawork, the fight and special effects seemed incredibly real and impressive.
‘The production team is skilled,’ he thought. They deserved a better director.
He glanced absently at the uploader’s name. In that moment, his heart jolted. He froze, his mouth falling slightly open.
The account was named Babel Tower. The location: Central Avenue. A girl in a black coat with a massive sword, a giant monster, and Babel Tower… All these familiar elements combined were telling him something, and he had a sense of what it meant.
“Impossible.” He began to sweat and instinctively denied it. But in the next second, he realized he couldn’t. These factors appearing together in a random video couldn’t be coincidental. He needed more information. Biting his lips, he swiped to read the comments beneath the video.
Hejizi: Wow! It looks so real! Like it actually happened!
Qimixuanjun: Really amazing! It seems real, but it can’t be, right?
Saltedfishleap: No, it’s just a movie promo. The director already denied it on TV.
Preoccupiedbyfantacies: Use your brain. It can’t be real. If it were, it would’ve been deleted already.
Qimixuanjun: Yeah, but it just seems so authentic…
The comments were filled with debates about its authenticity. Most people believed it wasn’t real, despite its convincing appearance. Their reasoning was that it would have been removed if it were genuine.
‘But there might be some force preventing its deletion.’ Bai Yan shook his head as soon as the thought occurred to him.
“Calm down,” he told himself. “I’ve just been overthinking this so much that I imagine I’ve seen this before.”
He tapped into the Babel Tower account to check their other videos.
There were only a handful. The first showed the girl in black fighting a many-tentacled monster on a rainy street at night. In the second, the girl in black stormed into a church and methodically eliminated cult members. The scene was violent yet strangely serene.
As he watched each video, Bai Yan’s composure gradually crumbled. He could no longer convince himself that these elements had combined by chance.
Similar authenticity debates appeared in the comments under these videos. Some speculated that Babel Tower must have powerful backing to freely post such violent content.
“Yes, it’s real,” Bai Yan murmured. “The monsters and Cult members appeared in the real world because of me.” But after reflection, he reconsidered, “Wait! Maybe they were already here, regardless of whether I played the game. Maybe I’ve saved many lives by defeating those monsters and the Cult in-game.”
He logged back into the game. “95 days until the first Doomsday Crisis,” read the countdown in the corner.
“What? Are you kidding me?” Bai Yan exclaimed. “Thirteen years after I arrived in this world, now you’re telling me I’m here to save it?”
The situation seemed absurd. He’d spent his first year searching for a game mode, finding nothing. During those early years, he’d hoped to live an ordinary life. But he’d abandoned that dream long ago, accepting that he’d simply been transported to another mundane world. But in this world, could video games affect reality?
“Did I save people by defeating monsters through cultivating and summoning Nightsaber?” Bai Yan asked himself. “What if I hadn’t achieved a perfect playthrough on the second round and just played casually?”
Obviously, many would have died. Though he knew none of them, the thought troubled him.
“Why was I chosen to save this world?” he exclaimed again. “Couldn’t I just play some easy modes where I win effortlessly?”
Suddenly, he realized thousands of lives rested on his shoulders. It infuriated him. He’d never wanted to be a savior, but he also couldn’t bear the thought of others dying because of him.
He sighed, clearly remembering all the bad endings from the Doomsday Crises during his first playthrough.
Now he understood he couldn’t lose. If he failed the main Doomsday Crisis story, this world would end—and he would die with it.
“Hoo!” After venting his complaints, Bai Yan let out a deep breath and felt his excitement rise.
He’d become increasingly invested in video games for many reasons. One was his lack of family and connections in this world. To him, such a world felt empty.
He’d often asked himself if he would choose to come here given another chance. The answer was no. These thirteen years without family and friends had felt meaningless.
But from this moment on, this world transformed.
Bai Yan looked through the window at the students and said, “Good news is there’s finally an interesting and meaningful game for me.”
It was the same game, but now Babel Tower could affect reality. This excited him and made this boring world suddenly worthwhile.
“My goal is to achieve a perfect playthrough!” He opened the operator list and selected the sole core operator – Nightsaber. “You’re the only one I can summon, Nightsaber.”
He began contemplating how best to utilize his operator.
Rqthll
Damn. 🔥🔥