There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

And just then—

A notification sound suddenly rang in the ears of all players!

"Ding, an announcement to all players of the Ascension game!"

"Let us congratulate the players of Tenfold Planet, Desert Star, Blue Star, AR Planet, and other planets, who, under the leadership of Chen Yi, achieved an absolutely crushing victory in the Universal Competition of Life and Death."

"The deities are dead! The shackles have been broken!"

"A new world has finally arrived, to be written by all of us together!"

"We thank all players for their long-term companionship. As for whether the existence of the Ascension game was a boon or a bane, let posterity decide. This will be the final announcement to all players of the Ascension game; hereafter, the Ascension game will come to an end."

"Before the official end of the Ascension game, all the reserved divine power of the Ascension game will be expended to execute the following measures!"

"1: All planets that have been infiltrated by the deities and turned into their lackeys, shall be eradicated."

"2: All planets that have merged into the Starfield will revert to their planetary form and merge into the universe, canceling functions like the Starfield Shuttle. Henceforth, players will no longer be able to use this function to travel to other planets."

"3: All functions of the Ascension game will be canceled, retaining only basic features such as chat channels, friends lists, and inventory warehouses. Functions like the Star Map, prop mart, and mission list will be permanently closed, and all props, skills, and titles obtained by players will retain their effects."

"4: All maps will be closed, and players forcibly stranded in them will be sent back to their original planets in batches."

"5: For all players deep in the depths of hell, regrettably, these players have already truly died. They were only granted a sliver of divine power to retain a semblance of consciousness and to clear crises that arose during the operation of the Ascension game. However, the Ascension game will grant them a little more divine power, allowing the players serving as janitors in the depths of hell to return freely to their home planets for 7 days to see their homeland, after which they will die permanently."

"In 7 hours, the Ascension game will become history!"

"Thank you to all players for creating history together, and also to all who have made sacrifices in this process."

"A special thanks to players Chen Yi, Tuberculosis Rabbit, Jiang Chenglu, Sword Without End, among others."

"So let's say our goodbyes."

...

With the fall of that notification.

All players of the Ascension game stared blankly upwards at the sky above their heads. It's over? Did everything just suddenly end like this?

Are we at peace?

Players who were in the midst of life-and-death battles for a moment struggled to adapt to the peace that had come so quickly.

"It's over?"

Standing in the middle of the city's pavilion, Chen Yi, upon hearing the prompt by his ear, turned his head to the people beside him and raised an eyebrow, "The planets have returned to their original state, and the Starfield Shuttle can't be used anymore. I guess we probably won't be able to meet again. Our Blue Star technology hasn't even developed to the point where we can travel to other lifeforms' planets..."

"Actually, before the Ascension game arrived, we hadn't precisely discovered any planets with dense life activity nearby."

"We are the same."

The leaders of several Tenfold Planets exchanged glances and saw the sentiment and complexity in each other's eyes. The end of the war was good, but the thought that everyone might never see each other again filled them with an inexplicable rush of emotions.

"These years, we've been at odds with each other countless times. Now that we're suddenly parting ways, to be honest, I'm a bit reluctant to let you go."

"Tell me about it, I understand you guys better than my own wife. I even know that you wipe your ass with just your left hand when you go to the toilet. The thought of separating from you is a bit sad."

"Damn, how do you even know that?"

"Are you kidding? Our AR Star's intelligence infiltration has always been the strongest, okay?"

"Now that it's all ending, tell me, who around me did you plant?"

"The chef."

"The chef is your man?"

"Not him. Apart from your cook, everyone else is my man. I had a few others, but with a little manipulation, they all became my people."

"..."

After a long silence, a voice emerged faintly, "Does that mean it would have been easy for you to kill me before?"

"Indeed, it wouldn't have been very difficult."

"Then why didn't you do it?"

"Why kill you? I already understand you well. If you died and a new person took over, I'd have to start understanding them from scratch. Plus, it might cause severe conflict. It wasn't worth it."

"Thanks for sparing my life."

"Don't mention it."

"It's nothing, really. I forgot to tell you, your wife is one of my people; she's my cousin."

"Bullshit, my wife clearly belongs with me on AR Star. What does she have to do with you?"

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"Races can be changed, didn't you know?"

...

"Finally, we can go home."

Jiang Chenglu stood at the edge of the pavilion, his hands resting on the railing as he gazed toward the increasingly illusory horizon, a faint smile playing on his lips, "Once everything is over, what are you guys going to do?"

"I plan to open a martial arts school and teach people martial arts."

"Do you even know how to do that?"

Chen Yi, resting his arm on the railing, lit a cigarette and took a drag before handing another one to Jiang Chenglu, "I might just continue loafing around. I really enjoy those laid-back days. Either that or open a small clinic or something, be a doctor or something."

"You know medicine?"

"Not really, but with all these props on me, treating an illness is pretty trivial, right?"

"That's true."

Jiang Chenglu nodded and looked around at the others before suddenly smiling again, "In a few more hours, everything will return to normal, and then who knows when we'll see each other again. So how about it, let's have a drink together?"

Chen Yi, Tuberculosis Rabbit, and the other leaders from Tenfold Planet exchanged glances and all started laughing together.

"Of course."

...

"Cheers!"

Joyous celebration echoed within the pavilion in the city, as Jiang Chenglu raised his glass, devoid of his usual authority. Now that the war was over, he no longer needed to maintain that facade and could finally revert to his true self. Excited, he raised his voice.

"To celebrating our newfound peace!"

"Even though we won't see each other again after this, we still have the chat channel. Let's keep in touch regularly, share bits of our lives, and keep each other in mind. One day, once our Desert Star's technology has advanced enough to cross the cosmos, I'll come find you guys for another drink!"

"Damn, you guys. When it's time to disobey orders, just disobey. Why do you have to talk back? Several times, I almost couldn't hold back my laughter. I have a low threshold for laughter, okay? What if I burst out laughing? How could I lead the team after that?"

...

Soon.

Three hours had passed.

Everything had returned to how it was, and Chen Yi was back on Blue Star's familiar rooftop. Everything had come back, and Blue Star had detached from Annihilation Starfield, resuming its spherical shape again.

Blue Star's population had increased quite a bit.

Players from the depths of hell couldn't return, but players from Blue Star who were in hell were indeed forcibly relocated back.

This made Blue Star suddenly much livelier, as most of its players had been in hell.

And on the table next to the rooftop lounge chair,

there was a letter.

It was left by Li Yi, who evidently found it very difficult to accept that he was being forcibly sent back like this and that he might never see the others again, so he left behind a letter thousands of words long, expressing his reluctance and gratitude for this period.

Wang Qi left a VCR message as well, also to say goodbye.

And there were many messages from people in the chat channel.

Jiaye leaned against Chen Yi's chest, blissfully enjoying the silent moment.

Chen Yi stood quietly at the edge of the rooftop, looking down at the bustling Yancheng below. After a long while, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Tuberculosis Rabbit."

"Hmm?"

"Shall we play a game for a bit?"

"Heh." Tuberculosis Rabbit was momentarily startled before grinning, "Did your memories come back, Yi?"

Chen Yi smiled and didn't reply, just wrapped an arm around Tuberculosis Rabbit's shoulder and punched him lightly in the chest, "You've worked hard these years."

"Hey, we're all fucking brothers, there's no need for that talk."

The perspective slowly elevated.

Under the twilight, the laughter of Chen Yi and his companions standing on the rooftop gradually dispersed in the wind.

(The End.)

(The book is finished.)

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