There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

As the line of red characters on the wall disappeared,

a scene gradually emerged from the wall.

The perspective seemed to be from the sky, as if a camera had been mounted high above. Experience more on empire

Passing through the clouds, the buildings on the ground started to become distinct and visible, standing on the land like miniatures of a city.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

With the viewpoint swiftly advancing, a man standing on the ground also became increasingly clear.

"Charge, for fuck's sake!!!"

A piercing roar suddenly rang out in the scene, where a man with his upper body bare, covered in blood, was seen holding a large knife, standing amidst a sea of corpses, launching a final attack on the enemies surrounding him!

Under his feet lay countless human corpses.

And surrounding him were an innumerable amount of monsters, resembling praying mantises over two meters tall, their sharp arm blades casually swinging through the air, producing ear-piercing sounds as they sliced through it.

There were easily a few hundred monsters encircling this man, and the corpses beneath his feet testified to the many people who once stood here, yet now, he stood alone, the last one standing!

As that roar filled with despair and unwillingness to give in echoed, the man charged toward the closest monster for one last attack!

"Sizzle!"

Almost as soon as he had lifted his front foot, his body was instantly pierced by numerous arm blades, blood continuously streaming from his mouth, the glint in his eyes gradually fading, and the arm that held his knife aloft slowly fell.

Dead.

He died just like that.

"I... died in the future?"

A man inside the room looked at this scene, his eyes showing a trace of bewilderment, mumbling to himself dazedly, "Though in this shitty world, it's not unusual to die."

"It's just that watching oneself die is still kind of strange."

"I've never seen these kinds of monsters before, are they something that will appear in the future?"

The other players in the room heard the man's voice, their expressions complex as they looked toward him, seemingly recognizing the man in the scene.

This feeling, like watching one's future self in a cinema, was indeed odd.

-

The scene shifted once more.

"Hide the women and children, the rest of you, follow me!!"

A group of soldiers dressed in uniform, carrying firearms and looking anxious, crowded inside a supermarket, and a middle-aged man at the forefront was loudly giving commands while outside, it seemed like there were many monsters, with continuous firing and gunshot sounds.

Everywhere around were roars and the terrifying screams of monsters.

The people in the scene were hurriedly hiding women and children in the supermarket's fruit cooling storage, turning off the air conditioning, and securing the anti-theft steel doors.

After a hasty headcount of those remaining, they exchanged glances, and together they roared as they rushed towards the outside of the supermarket!

These people were clearly trapped by the monsters inside this supermarket, perhaps thinking of temporarily hiding the women and children here, then going out to find reinforcements before coming back for them.

Or maybe they thought of going out to attract the attention of the monsters so that the women and children could survive.

From the few short sentences, it was impossible to discern any specific information.

All one knew was that not long after those people rushed out, there was no more sound from them, followed by countless mantis-like monsters breaking into the supermarket doors and windows, swarming in.

In the end, they gathered around the fruit cooling storage door where the women had been hidden.

Supermarkets typically have cooling storages made of solid steel, considered one of the more durable places of refuge within them.

However...

Under the sharp arm blades of those monsters, it was easily breached, followed by the desperate cries of the women and the sounds of monsters feasting.

"That man in the front, that's me."

The man sitting on the far left spoke solemnly, "When does this future take place? At the very least, I should know the time of my death, right?"

No one responded.

The wall remained silent, with no blood-red lettering emerging.

-

The scene shifted once again.

"I'll do it."

At the edge of a city wall littered with monster corpses in one corner, a young man in a floral shirt and beach shorts, covered in blood, searched through his pockets for a while, then grinned at the middle-aged man beside him.

"What's with that look on your face?"

"It's nothing, without Yi, living doesn't hold much meaning for me."

"I've wanted to die for a long time, if it weren't for worrying that my death would reduce our fighting power and make everyone's situation even more critical, I'd have gone down to join Yi long ago."

"You don't understand, Yi would be very lonely without me."

"I'm out of cigarettes, give me one to smoke first. My biggest obsession in life has been making sure I have a cigarette before I die. For this, I deliberately practiced hard for a long time, so that my entire smoking process, from lighting up to taking a drag, takes only 0.7 seconds."

"Thanks."

Afterwards, the young man was seen taking a cigarette from the middle-aged man's hand, lighting it up in his mouth, and after taking a deep breath, looked into the horizon through the haze of the light blue smoke with a bloodied, distant expression.

After pausing for a while, he looked down and began to laugh.

"This presumptuous world, it's not quite likable."

The next second—

The young man in the scene suddenly burst into intense light, without a hint of hesitation, he leaped straight down from the city wall, aiming directly at the group of monsters gathered in the corner!

"Heavenly Split!"

Immediately following, the scene changed once again, presenting a new image.

Chen Yi, seated in the chair, had his pupils abruptly contract, his back rigid, a cold light continuously flashing in his eyes as he forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart.

The young man in the image, calling out for Yi, was none other than Tuberculosis Rabbit!

That floral shirt and beach shorts, he still remembered; it was a beach holiday set that Tuberculosis Rabbit had bought not long ago, and he was still wearing that outfit!

Only, Tuberculosis Rabbit in the image looked much older, his body covered in blood and scars, his figure emanating a sense of world-weariness and exhaustion.

Was Tuberculosis Rabbit destined to die in the future?

And what did that phrase in the image mean, mentioning something after Yi's death?

What did this mean? Was he destined to die in battle, to die before Tuberculosis Rabbit?

Chen Yi, his expression slightly ugly, sat in the chair without speaking.

In the image, Tuberculosis Rabbit had no title above his head; it seemed the titles above the characters' heads in the image were hidden, but the Claw Knife that Tuberculosis Rabbit was carrying before he jumped was all too familiar!

Just then—

A familiar voice from within the image snapped Chen Yi back from his drifting thoughts, prompting him to look up at the scene unfolding on the wall in front of him once more.

"Without me, Sword Without End, the path of the sword would endure an eternal night."

"That saying, it's really cool."

In the scene was a middle-aged man in green standing on some Wasteland, his head bowed in abstraction as he tenderly stroked the Three-Foot Qingfeng in his hand, with the gentleness of a bridegroom on a wedding night caressing his beloved bride.

The ground at his feet was a glaring, blood-red.

Around him were scattered corpses, carelessly strewn about, neglected by all.

Behind him, a large number of humans cried and screamed in fear as they ran backward, while in front of him loomed the over-two-meters-tall creatures of the Insect Race, their bodies covering the sky like mantises, carrying an overwhelming stench of blood.

A single glance.

They were as dense as the sea, matching the expanse of the Heavenly Water in their uniformity.

These pitch-black creatures seemed to blend into the night itself, rushing forward with a suffocating sense of terror.

"That's right."

"This is it, exactly."

As if suddenly awakened, a glint of clarity flashed in the eyes of the middle-aged man. He looked up, shifting his gaze from the Three-Foot Qingfeng to the swarm of creatures charging at him like a tide, and he chuckled lightly.

"This sword will be remembered by the world."

The next second—

The man's head was suddenly encircled by a mass of dark clouds, making the entire scene even more gloomy. Accompanying the middle-aged man's gesture of pointing the Green Peak toward the sky, countless Thunder Dragons surged madly within the dark clouds.

"Sword, come forth!"

As soon as the words were spoken—

The Thunder Dragons from within the dark clouds began converging into the Green Peak in the man's hand, with a torrent of lightning striking the sword like a downpour!

Immediately after—

A swath of Sword Qi, infused with thunder and lightning and extending tens of thousands of miles, shot rapidly into the crowd of creatures ahead!

The creatures that had been surging like a tide were now chopped into chunks of corpse, littering the ground, each severed at the waist; the countless blood painted the Wasteland beneath an even more vivid scarlet.

In one strike, the field was cleared!

But in just a matter of seconds, the horizon filled once again with an overwhelming number of creatures, charging towards the middle-aged man with frenzied speed atop the bodies of their kind.

"Hmm, not bad."

The man gazed at his handiwork with satisfaction, swayed unsteadily as if weakened, disregarding the onslaught of creatures rushing towards him. Instead, he turned to look at the crowd that had already run far away.

He propped himself up with one hand on the hilt of the Green Peak, planted in the ground, preventing his body from falling.

Taking out a cigarette from his bosom, he lit it and put it to his lips; after taking a deep drag, he exhaled a puff of smoke, then suddenly started laughing as if something came to mind.

"Come to think of it, some kid once said to me, something about having a cigarette before dying,"

"That it would make life perfect, like a complete ending."

"Makes some sense when you think about it."

"Really cool, it's a shame the kid didn't see this scene, kind of a waste."

The man flicked the cigarette butt away.

Before the glowing, blood-red ember of the cigarette butt could touch the ground, the emerging tide of creatures engulfed it.

-

"..."

Chen Yi stared emotionlessly at the scene on the wall without speaking. He knew the person in the image; it was Sword Without End!

The kid Sword Without End was referring to must have been Tuberculosis Rabbit, who had a fixation on smoking a cigarette before dying.

Though Tuberculosis Rabbit talked a lot, he wasn't the kind who couldn't keep his mouth shut about everything; not many people knew of this particular obsession, and it seemed that barring himself, no one else knew either.

That Sword Without End knew this detail meant—

Did it mean they would have more interactions with Sword Without End in the future, and that their relationship seemed quite good?

After all, if they weren't that close, Sword Without End likely wouldn't know about Tuberculosis Rabbit's little obsession.

But... had this person also died in the future?

So far, it appeared the scenes on the wall all ended in death.

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