Keep Moving Forward (The Chessmaster) Chapter 37: Deathmatch in the Fog City (Season One)

Li Xiaojing opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by dense fog.

A new game had begun.

“Sister, can you hear me?”

The first voice she heard was not a system prompt, but her sister’s. It seemed their telepathic connection truly transcended the boundaries of the game.

Moreover, the time within this game appeared to match the outside world. She remembered reading on the forum that not every game paused real-world time.

“I can hear you. But, hmm…” Li Xiaojing felt that her sister’s ability to communicate wasn’t all that useful. Neither of them was particularly more capable than the other.

“I’m going to find Wu Hui,” Li Xiaoyue said. “If you run into any problems, we’ll help you from here.”

“Alright.” Li Xiaojing nodded and began to read the system prompt.

“In this city shrouded in fog, the sun will never rise. Weapons and tools are scattered throughout. Find your opponent. Kill him. Achieve victory.”

Him—it must mean a single person… Only one adversary?

So, it seemed she would have to kill someone. She had seen on the forum that although gladiator-type games were player-versus-player, sometimes victory could be achieved without killing, and players could even be resurrected after being killed.

Unfortunately, this was not one of those games.

She could see only a few meters ahead in the mist. She had borrowed some items from Wu Hui, but even with the glasses, her vision didn’t extend much further.

Her sister said she was going to find Wu Hui and Ren Yin. When needed, they could offer advice.

For now, it was best to scout the area.

The foggy city seemed to be Evergreen City—a place Li Xiaojing frequented. Yet, blanketed in mist, even familiar locations felt strange. It was as if everything had become unfamiliar.

Suddenly, a voice sounded in her ear.

“The campus is the cradle of growth.”

What was that about?

Li Xiaoyue relayed her sister’s confusion to Wu Hui and Ren Yin, who discussed several possibilities before passing their analysis to Li Xiaojing.

“It’s likely the opponent triggered something, perhaps by entering a school-related area,” they explained.

Li Xiaojing nodded and took a few steps forward, only to find the layout differed from her memory of Evergreen City: “Turning here… Why am I here so soon?”

The roads seemed much shorter, with several originally distant places now joined together.

Ren Yin and Wu Hui analyzed further: “With only two players, the map can’t be too large, otherwise neither could find the other. So part of the city may have been deleted.”

Although their analysis helped, truthfully, it didn’t mean much in such a situation. In a one-on-one duel where a meeting meant a fight to the death, there was no third party to manipulate events. Intelligence and strategy had limited value.

“It’s a bit like a battle royale…” Li Xiaojing, wearing the glasses she’d borrowed from Wu Hui, entered a small house and found a handgun, several bullets, and a black ball.

The ball vanished in her hand upon contact, and words appeared in her field of vision.

“Challenge: Kill ten gray rats 0/10. Reward: Level 1 Shadow Split Technique.”

“There’s this kind of mechanic…” Wu Hui pondered outside. “So it’s not just enemies; there are other monsters and dangers in the city.”

Li Xiaojing soon spotted a gray rat, about the size of a medium dog. She killed it with a baseball bat near a sewer, watched her challenge progress tick up by one, and saw the body disappear, leaving behind a tooth.

Rat tooth: Use to gain dark vision for ten minutes.

So, she could see clearly in the dim mist for ten minutes. Not as good as sunlight, but still useful.

“There are likely other monsters—be careful,” Wu Hui’s warning, relayed by Li Xiaoyue, reached her.

Li Xiaojing acknowledged.

The fog-shrouded city was eerily silent, making it hard to focus and bringing a strange sense of dread. Without someone to speak to telepathically, she wasn’t sure she could withstand it.

“Central Hospital, not open to the poor.”

“Uh…” Li Xiaojing heard another system report. Did that mean the opposing player had gone to the hospital?

By this point, she had killed nine gray rats and had several teeth in her pocket, needing only one more to complete the challenge.

The city was smaller, but its layout unchanged. She knew where the hospital was.

Not wanting to encounter her enemy too soon, she headed in the opposite direction. Along the way, she finally killed the last gray rat, completing the challenge.

“Try out the new ability!” Li Xiaoyue was even more excited than Li Xiaojing herself.

Li Xiaojing activated the Shadow Split Technique. From her shadow, a strange creature formed from darkness crawled out. It didn’t seem to have any combat ability—one touch and it scattered, useful only for reconnaissance.

It couldn’t stray too far, and had a limited duration, requiring her to focus to control it. First-level ability… not impressive.

But the shadow uncovered a new challenge for Li Xiaojing.

“Challenge: Kill a horned beast. 0/1. Reward: Three coins.”

“What do the coins do?” Li Xiaojing wondered, continuing to search the city for items. She found several grenades and a submachine gun.

Now it really felt like a battle royale.

But with only two players, unlike the hundred-player games where only one survives, this had to be at least level five or six in difficulty, right?

“Level one games have a death rate of about fifty percent, but that’s not absolute. Death rate and difficulty aren’t directly correlated,” Wu Hui said to Ren Yin outside. “According to my data, at least half of level one players die before reaching level two.”

“Fewer die moving from level two to three. Maybe it’s because players start adapting at that stage.”

“From level three to four, the death rate stays about the same. After level five, you can choose not to play—the number dying in games drops, but those killed by other players in reality increases.”

Ren Yin adjusted his glasses. “What organization did you join? How do you get so much information?”

Wu Hui replied, “I haven’t formally joined yet, but I have some connections with senior members. The specifics of the organization still need further observation.”

He was a cautious person, always gathering information and considering every possibility.

Ren Yin was similar.

Du Ziming, their companion, had a different style—an adventurous thrill-seeker. He hadn’t been seen for days, but was probably alive; Wu Hui had spotted his latest social media post.

Meanwhile, Li Xiaojing in the game finally encountered the horned beast required for the challenge.

“It’s pretty big,” Li Xiaojing remarked, noting the creature was as large as a regular rhinoceros, but reptilian and crowned with a horn. She reached into her pocket for a grenade.

Hiding in a corner, she clumsily pulled the pin and threw it at her target.

P.S. Some readers may find this familiar. My tabletop role-playing scenario, Mist City Deathmatch, is quite similar to this, isn’t it? Of course, there are plenty of differences. I’ll bring over many elements from those scenarios in the future, but not necessarily the process itself.