There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

"Bang!"

Accompanied by a loud collision, the door was shut.

Only a grim-faced Wen Ping was left standing alone outside the house.

Who could have thought that such a melodramatic incident would occur.

Now, the only thing to do was consider if there were any chances for redemption.

Like... bringing them back from the dead?

After all, when he killed that woman, he hadn't completely finished her off, and since he couldn't go to Blue Star Hell himself, just a trip there to find that woman would allow him to bring her back with the help of a return map.

But the problem was his current lack of strength. All his props and titles were restricted, and he only had some temporarily purchased props on this planet, which were nowhere near enough to bring someone back from a return map.

That was a secondary issue, however.

The main problem was that he couldn't even get to Blue Star Hell, as the hells of each planet were not interconnected.

Unless... unless he was willing to spend a large amount of Points to find a reliable mercenary squad on Blue Star, and then have their strongest player retrieve that woman from hell.

That might offer a glimmer of hope for redemption; after all, he had plenty of Points to spare.

But even so...

Wen Ping stood in place, his face dark. Even if he brought that woman back from hell, could that really mend his relationship with Little Miao?

Impossible.

Knowing that he had done such a thing would only make Little Miao despise him more.

Just as he stood there, breaking his head over the impossibility of finding any solution,

The door suddenly opened.

A haggard and red-eyed Little Miao stood at the door, looking at Wen Ping with tears welling up and said hoarsely, "I'm sorry, Uncle Wen Ping, I shouldn't have lost my temper at you, but... she really was my best friend."

"When I was going through the toughest times, it was her who stood by me."

"She had her flaws, but she was always nice to me, no matter what imperfections she had, they were not deserving of death."

"I shouldn't have lashed out at you."

"It's just, I can't imagine who this beast could be to act so cruelly. If I find him, I'll tear him to pieces!"

"Ah?"

Wen Ping was slightly taken aback, but quickly realized that Little Miao only knew that her best friend was dead and not that she had died at his hands. This meant that Little Miao hadn't watched the surveillance footage yet.

There might still be a chance!

Almost instantly,

Wen Ping's expression turned into one of natural complexity, tinged with regret as he hugged Little Miao and murmured, "It's okay, I don't blame you. It's my fault for being late. Maybe if I'd come sooner, the tragedy could have been avoided."

"Condolences."

And looking inside the house,

The body had already been placed in a body bag by Little Miao, and the bloodstains in the house were almost cleaned up. When Little Miao wasn't looking, Wen Ping swiftly put the room's camera into his pocket, ready to destroy all evidence.

Afterward—

After consoling her for a while, Wen Ping accompanied Little Miao downstairs to the residential complex, ready to bury the body in the backyard's abandoned garden.

No need to call the police.

There was a Law Enforcement Bureau, but it was practically useless. With the situation as it was, there was no point expecting anyone to come out to uphold justice. If you truly died, you'd crawl out from hell; if you couldn't crawl out, just settle down in hell.

...

The sky gradually darkened.

Standing at the simple grave in the abandoned garden, Little Miao wiped away tears from the corner of her eyes and leaned on Wen Ping's shoulder, whispering word by word, "Uncle Wen Ping, I believe she can crawl out of hell and come back to me."

"Don't you think so?"

"Hmm, yes."

Wen Ping nodded his head calmly, his heart set on spending money to hire someone to go to Blue Star Hell and silence that woman. As long as the woman was dead for good, everything could be as if nothing had ever happened.

But if by chance the woman managed to crawl out of hell alive, then everything would be exposed.

In these past few days, he wasn't sure if he had started to like Little Miao. He just felt like he was beginning to care about her opinion of him. Being with Little Miao made him happy, and he felt like he had become more cheerful.

Once a doctor had told him the best treatment for his condition was the love of a woman.

Now, he thought he might be starting to understand what that meant.

...

"Whew!"

Finally waking up, Chen Yi shifted his body, only feeling his bones aching all over. Just as he was about to move his feet,

He suddenly found himself standing on a metal plate, and his body felt so heavy that he couldn't even lift his feet.

"What's happening?"

"Brother Yi, you're awake?"

At this moment,

Tuberculosis Rabbit, who had been sitting aside in the wilderness grilling, saw Brother Yi waking up and hurriedly rushed over, excitement written all over his face: "Is it over? Many days have passed, Brother Yi, you've worked hard."

"Here, have a skewer of grilled tendons."

"..."

Chen Yi, still clueless about what had happened, saw a skewer of meat thrust in his face, retreating a bit and said with a touch of annoyance, "Take it away. I feel nauseated just looking at it."

"Why do you eat barbecue every day?"

"Don't you get sick of it?"

Immediately after, he noticed the public announcement for the January updates, which added a few game activities, introduced a new fusion feature, and unveiled a new monthly rule called 'One Step Ahead.'

It was akin to a global movement leaderboard on WeChat.

And since the rule was implemented, he had not moved from that spot, naturally landing him at the bottom of the leaderboard. The gravity burdening him now was so immense, he couldn't move at all.