PGVCW 56

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds

Chapter 56: The Arrival of Taibai

With the main army arriving and granting her plenty of leisure time, Xia Wang'an—who was happily utilizing those moments to study and practice her cultivation—heard a thunderous dragging noise coming from outside.

Stepping out onto the balcony, she spotted a woman single-handedly dragging a hundred-meter-tall octopus behemoth.

"Taibai!"

Cai Cai, whose face had been glazed over and eyes hollowed out from the torments of studying just moments prior, instantly snapped to full alertness: "Taibai?! Is Taibai here?!"

Scrambling on all fours, she sprinted to the balcony as well, gazing with starry-eyed yearning alongside Xia Wang'an toward the distant figure.

[Taibai] could well be considered the ultimate idol for all youths of the Xia Kingdom. As the sole Grade-9 Awakened human in the Xia Kingdom and across all of Blue Star, her legendary status extended far beyond mere strength.

The primary reason people revered [Taibai] harked back to fourteen years prior, during the height of the catastrophic alien beast surges. When the Xia Kingdom had been driven to exhaust virtually its entire weapons inventory, human safe zones retreated step by step until the original Five Districts were on the verge of collapsing into three.

Just at that critical juncture when nearly everyone assumed the Xia Kingdom was finished, Taibai awakened her transcendent powers, single-handedly holding back tens of thousands of mutant beasts. Over the ensuing decade, she remained steadfastly anchored at the borderlines. With Taibai standing guard, foreign beasts never again breached the Five Districts, granting the citizens of the Xia Kingdom a hard-won environment of peace.

Although times had remained tough due to food shortages prior to Xia Wang'an hauling supplies back from the Cangming world, compared to other nations overrun and slaughtered at will by beasts, they at least never had to worry about monsters abruptly materializing inside their homes.

Within that brief respite of relative peace, the Xia Kingdom seized its chance to recuperate, eventually rebuilding its stockpiles to finance the [Salvation Plan].

For once, Xia Wang'an felt a flutter of genuine excitement, leaning over the balcony railing like an eager fan: "It really is Taibai! She's here too." When she first transmigrated through spacetime in her previous life, she had frequently used Taibai as a mental benchmark to encourage herself—thinking things like, "If Taibai were here, she definitely wouldn't be crying."

Though standing far away, Taibai seemed to catch her gaze. Raising her head, the woman hidden beneath the pure white mask appeared to smile, lifting her left hand to wave back.

Meanwhile, her right hand continued dragging the colossal octopus carcass, projecting an aura of effortless, peerless cool!

"So cool!"

Both Xia Wang'an and Cai Cai were thrilled, their eyes sparkling with stars.

Cai Cai declared, "I'm going to model myself after her! I want to wear a mask too!"

Nodding in vigorous agreement, Xia Wang'an chimed in, "I'm going to model myself after her too!" She happily announced, "I'm going to beat up an octopus this big as well!"

Wait... hold on. She couldn't actually beat up an octopus that large.

Switching tactics seamlessly, she amended, "I'll start by imitating her mask!"

Yuan Ning ambled over, joining in with awe-filled, pseudo-analytical observations: "There's no ocean nearby, yet Taibai managed to drag back such a massive octopus. That's incredible—she must have brought it back specifically to intimidate the locals!"

Everyone knew that incoming medical seekers had been growing restless; if Lux hadn't possessed the ability to open a spacetime gateway, their original contingency plan had indeed involved staging a deliberate display of overwhelming force. Consequently, Xia Wang'an and her companions readily embraced Yuan Ning's hypothesis, nodding in synchronized agreement: "As expected of Taibai—she thinks just like us."

The Giant Octopus Feast

The residents of the magical world were indeed thoroughly intimidated. It was their first time laying eyes on such a colossal monster beast, and they could readily visualize how a single assault from it could reduce an entire city to rubble. Yet this apex predator was already dead, effortlessly dragged along by a single human.

"O Light God..." someone muttered in a daze, while others dropped immediately to their knees in prostration, evidently identifying Taibai as a descending deity. Though uncertain which divine pantheon she belonged to, offering a quick prayer carried zero risk.

Others mustered the courage to observe closely, gasping aloud: "She's heading toward the Xia Kingdom's camp! Someone is going out to welcome her!" "She's a citizen of the Xia Kingdom?!"

The onlookers—already shaken by the earlier deployment of the Xia army—were left entirely speechless. "Princess Wang'an can carve out an entire cliff with a single sword stroke, and now this woman single-handedly hauls a giant beast... Just what kind of terrifyingly powerful nation is the Xia Kingdom?!"

Paying no heed to the peering locals, Taibai waved casually to the youngsters on the balcony before continuing to drag the octopus toward the Xia camp, speaking casually into her communications earpiece:

"I hauled back an octopus. Get the fires burning; a beast this massive will feed everyone for several days."

The receiving team member standing at the camp entrance watched the colossal silhouette approach in utter disbelief: "...Boss, are we seriously going to eat this thing? Didn't you say it was thrown here by a contaminated entity? Won't it be toxic?"

"Relax, we just need to run it through diagnostic scans. Don't we have an ability-user whose power is food safety verification?"

Holding her mobile network console in her left hand while dragging the beast with her right, Taibai read aloud with robust conviction from an indexed digital file: "Octopus is rich in nutritional value; it enhances systemic metabolic rates, promotes digestion, replenishes vital energy and blood, and serves as an exceptional longevity health food..."

Hearing the term "longevity health food," the teammate instantly realized his bureau chief's decision was absolute and unalterable.

Few people realized that Taibai—the formidable, awe-inspiring Grade-9 powerhouse who single-handedly repelled tens of thousands of alien beasts—harored a quiet, domestic passion for Mahjong and calisthenics. Furthermore, due to the soaring casualty rates among frontline ability-users, Taibai had gradually cultivated an additional obsession: holistic wellness. She practiced health preservation religiously for herself and enforced it upon her teammates, investing hundreds of merit points into acquiring pre-cataclysm health manuals to mandate early bedtimes, daily exercise regimens, and optimized nutritional intake for her squad.

Clearly, Taibai had decided this newly harvested octopus represented the ultimate nutritional supplement for her troops.

Naturally, after undergoing rigorous multi-tier screening via diagnostic arrays, being verified safe by the [Ingestion] ability-user, and receiving complete pathogen neutralization from a [Purification] specialist, the giant octopus successfully entered the mess hall.

Sliced into manageable segments, military chefs armed with pre-cataclysm copies of One Hundred Seafood Recipes threw themselves into culinary combat. They boiled, braised, stir-fried, steamed, and pan-seared the meat, supplementing it with octopus fried rice, octopus stew, and charcoal-grilled octopus tentacles.

Teammates who initially harbored skepticism regarding alien seafood ended up burying their faces in their bowls, averaging eight helpings of rice per person.

The Five Tongs Squad joined the feast, accompanied by various other operational teams who had wrapped up their patrols and rushed back upon hearing rumors of gourmet food.

Meeting the Idol

Carrying her bowl with a poker face, maintaining an air of profound solemnity and deliberate pacing, Xia Wang'an shifted herself inch by inch until she slipped seamlessly into a seat beside Taibai.

Taibai had removed her mask, revealing the visage of a middle-aged woman—remarkably ordinary, the exact face one might encounter dozens of times inside any neighborhood Mahjong parlor.

Her dining habits were similarly unpretentious. Because tables and chairs were still scarce following the main army's arrival, she squatted on the ground, holding a bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, shoveling food into her mouth at high speed. Periodically, her chopsticks would dart across to purloin pickled mustard greens from a neighboring teammate's bowl. Her execution was so lightning-fast that aside from Xia Wang'an, no one else noticed.

Thrilled to be dining in proximity to her idol, the raven-haired maiden whispered proudly to 007: "Look, that's Taibai! My absolute idol!"

007 was equally thrilled; having heard Xia Wang'an rave about Taibai countless times, it enthusiastically transmitted a formal self-introduction: [Hello Taibai, I am 007.]

Xia Wang'an dutifully relayed the system's greeting aloud.

"Hello there," Taibai said with a warm smile, swallowing a mouthful of rice before reaching over to give Xia Wang'an's head a friendly pat. "Just call me Taibai."

Xia Wang'an instantly snapped to attention, offering her designated codename with formal military precision: "My operational codename is Qiming! Sister Taibai may address me as Qiming!"

Nodding approvingly, Taibai smiled: "Alright, little Qiming." She gave an approving thumbs-up. "I've reviewed your operational profile—you are truly phenomenal."

Hearing praise from her idol sent a blush flushing across Xia Wang'an's cheeks. Straddling a delicate balance of pride and overwhelming joy, she shed her customary aloof demeanor, cleared her throat softly, and demurred, "It's nothing special... just a tiny fraction of phenomenal."

"How could it be just a fraction?" Taibai countered earnestly. "You saved all of Blue Star. You're my idol."

Xia Wang'an: ! ! ! The raven-haired girl felt as though she were floating on air.

Observing how easily flustered her young admirer was by praise, Taibai wisely swallowed the words "You're so adorable". She scooped another helping of rice, filched two more strips of pickled mustard greens from a teammate, and slid one portion across to Xia Wang'an.

"Eat up," she instructed with seasoned authority. "Proper nutrition is essential for scaling up your combat power."

"Is that so?"

Xia Wang'an widened her eyes slightly, immediately diving into her meal with renewed dedication. Once she polished off her entire bowl, she leaned in to voice a question that had intrigued her for years:

"Sister Taibai, why do you always wear a mask?"

At that inquiry, members of surrounding operational squads instinctively pricked up their ears. They were burning to know the answer as well!

Taibai, currently working her way through her ninth bowl of rice, replied with a beaming smile: "Because I don't want people memorizing my face."

Xia Wang'an experienced an epiphany: "Is it to maintain a low profile?"

"Not quite," Taibai explained. "If people recognize my face, opponents at the Mahjong parlor will intentionally throw tiles to let me win. Mahjong loses its soul when people deliberately hand you victories, which is why I wear the mask."

Eavesdropping teammates nearby: "......"

Xia Wang'an, however, accepted the rationale with instantaneous fluidity, nodding sagely: "In that case, wearing a mask is indeed mandatory."

Other squad members: "......" As expected of transcendent powerhouses; their thought processes operate on an entirely unreachable frequency!

Pondering further, Xia Wang'an raised another query: "Wait, codenames are meant for active deployments. Shouldn't we use our real names in private? Why does everyone still call you by your codename off-duty?"

Taibai pilfered yet another strip of mustard greens. Chewing thoughtfully, she replied, "Because my legal birth name is Wang Tulum [Root of the Earth]."

Xia Wang'an fell silent. While her own standards for facial aesthetics were skewed, her appreciation for linguistic nomenclature remained thoroughly conventional.

Taibai, however, remained completely unperturbed. "You know how it is—naming conventions in our Xia Kingdom traditionally reflect historical eras. When I was born, surviving tree roots were scarce underground, so finding a living root intact was considered a tremendous stroke of luck. Naming someone 'Tulum' was meant as a blessing of longevity."

Glancing toward Xia Wang'an, she chuckled warmly, "You were named by the state, so your name turned out fine. But if you had been named by older relatives during the exact window when alien beasts were breaching the Five Districts, you probably would have been christened Xia Wuyi [Xia-No-Beasts]."

A young soldier buried in his food nearby abruptly jerked his head up: "Who called me?"

Taibai maintained a straight face: "Or perhaps Xia Sizhong [Xia-Kill-Beasts]."

A white-coated medical officer dishing out rice to her left shouted, "Present!"

A patrolling soldier sprinted over: "Did someone summon me?"

Xia Wang'an abruptly decided her given name sounded exceptionally melodious.

Psychological Evaluation

That evening, Xia Wang'an engaged in boundless conversation with Taibai, traversing topics from childhood monikers to academic days, hunting mutant beasts, and leading team logistics. She felt as though she had reverted to the unburdened state of her pre-transmigration youth—vibrant, talkative, and completely relaxed in the presence of her childhood idol.

For as long as she could remember, she had carried the psychological burden of being the protector. Even after returning home to comprehensive familial care, Xia Wang'an perpetually harbored the internal conviction that safeguarding everyone remained her sole responsibility. Whether it was her companions, the recorders, or national leadership, none possessed her raw magnitude of power; consequently, she unconsciously maintained her role as the ultimate shield.

Yet before Taibai—despite Taibai currently lacking Xia Wang'an's peak combat output—she experienced profound, unwinding peace.

This was her idol since youth. Following their conversation, Xia Wang'an's reverence deepened further. Taibai was truly astonishing—she could intuitively identify Mahjong tiles blindfolded, execute the eighth set of national radio calisthenics with absolute precision, and even demonstrate how to launch into flight by balancing atop a hovering drone.

Moreover, she maintained an unyielding bedtime schedule: lights out at 8:00 PM sharp, rising at 5:00 AM, guaranteeing a non-negotiable nine hours of sleep every single night.

Saturating her mind with wellness theory, Xia Wang'an obediently retired at 8:00 PM that very evening.

She slept like a log.

While malevolent wisps of dark miasma stealthily slithered toward her sleeping form, attempting to infiltrate her spiritual consciousness, they collided against an invisible barrier and slowly dissipated into nothingness.

What Xia Wang'an remained oblivious to, however, was that Taibai—who had maintained her rigorous 8:00 PM bedtime for over three decades—had made a rare, unprecedented exception that evening, sitting with knitted brows inside the temporary command conference room.

"Wang'an is overdue for a proper vacation."

Taibai had re-donned her pure white mask—primarily because several attendees in the briefing room were regular Mahjong opponents. State administrative personnel operated under chronic, crushing existential stress; Mahjong served as their sole viable outlet for decompression.

"Although she projects a facade of complete composure, I can perceive the crushing psychological weight she carries. It mirrors my own mental state after slaughtering mutant beasts continuously for six months, though her case is far more severe—she instinctively shoulders every single burden upon herself."

Fan Aimi nodded gravely: "Indeed, our psychological monitoring teams detected identical patterns, which is precisely why we requested your assessment."

Taibai invariably projected an aura of unshakeable strength; as long as she stood guard, terrifying alien beast tides were intercepted at the borders. Accustomed to operating as a solitary wolf due to her overpowering combat dominance, she rarely relied on teammates.

Few individuals knew that a decade prior, Taibai had suffered a minor psychological pollution event. At that time, three high-tier ability-users specializing in [Healing], [Purification], and [Empathy] had combined their powers to suppress her cognitive corrosion. With the Xia Kingdom in ruins and seven tenths of its technological infrastructure obliterated by mutant beasts, Taibai's outward discipline and flawless psychological reports had blinded command to her internal trauma. Fortunately, the corrosion had been mild, preventing catastrophic collapse.

Subsequent psychiatric evaluations revealed that relentless combat exposure had induced a specialized form of occupational psychosis in Taibai: she compulsively internalized all systemic failures, cultivated isolated coping mechanisms, and positioned herself as an unbreakable shield, maintaining an outward veneer of normalcy while experiencing severe mental strain.

That vulnerability was virtually undetectable until minor behavioral anomalies manifested. Since that episode, Taibai was assigned mandatory squad attachments and introduced to holistic recreational hobbies. Though her teammates lagged far behind her combat tier and invariably lost at Mahjong—blaming bad tiles, unfavorable hours, and clumsy shuffles while refusing to acknowledge their subpar strategy—Taibai's mental health steadily stabilized. Today, even during solo deployments, remote teammates maintained scheduled Mahjong sessions with her over the tactical network.

"Wang'an's condition is far more advanced than mine was back then." "She clearly detests handling trivial administrative burdens and welcomes our participation, yet whenever we intervene, she compulsively inserts herself back into the workflow."

Taibai furrowed her brow. Her own solo combat stretch had lasted merely two years, whereas Xia Wang'an had endured an isolated existence across alternate dimensions for a full decade. The horrors witnessed during those ten years remained largely undocumented, though evaluating the nature of the contaminated entities she faced provided sufficient context.

At that realization, Taibai's teeth ground in frustration: "It's infuriating—that contaminated entity self-terminated the moment it sought medical aid, denying us the opportunity to drag it back for intensive interrogation."

The strategy meeting concluded swiftly, establishing a definitive institutional mandate: Enforce comprehensive, mandatory rest protocols for Xia Wang'an.

The Fishing Competition

Consequently, when Xia Wang'an awoke at 5:00 AM the following morning, eager to lead a patrol sweep around the domain perimeter, she was informed that all field missions had already been claimed.

Her proposal to deploy the Golden Light Exorcism Incantation to purge atmospheric miasma and lower infection rates was similarly rebuffed with grandfatherly benevolence by a thirty-year-old staff member wearing an eighty-year-old's gentle smile: "That requires excessive exertion! Our medical task force is already fully deployed; overnight triage protocols successfully established quarantine wards, and treatment is underway. Thanks to prior clinical data, patient vitals are stabilizing rapidly."

"Yuan Ning and the others mentioned heading out for sport fishing—why don't you join them for recreation?"

Sensing Xia Wang'an's lingering hesitation, the staff member added a decisive incentive: "I hear there's an official competition with a merit certificate awarded to first place."

Xia Wang'an's eyes widened: "!? "

She blurted out with burning ambition: "First place belongs to me!!"

007 hoisted imaginary banners in her mind: [That's right! First place belongs to our Host! Our Host excels at everything, and fishing is an absolute breeze!]

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