Chen Li's eyes widened as he leaned closer to look. "Huh? It really is!"
"Why is your ring black?"
Lin Jie's ring glimmered with black light.
He shook his head. "I don't know either, but that doesn't matter anymore, does it?"
"Once we return to the real world, this ring will have nothing to do with us."
Chen Li nodded. "That's true. Those ring ratings are only useful to people who stay."
"For people like us, who choose to return to the world of the living, the rings aren't worth shit."
"All right, young man, I should head back. My wife should have dinner ready and be waiting for me at home!"
"If fate allows, we'll meet again in the world of the living!"
With that, Chen Li stepped into the portal.
Now, Lin Jie was the only player left in the room.
Lin Jie shook his head and started walking.
Fox was still trying to persuade him to stay. "Are you really not going to consider staying?"
Lin Jie waved a hand as though brushing off a salesman. "Sorry, no time."
Just as he was about to step inside, he heard Fox sigh again. "Fine. Once you're back, you're on your own."
Lin Jie warily pulled his leg back. "On my own? What do you mean by that? Won't stepping through this door just bring me back to life?"
Fox's mouth fell open in surprise. "Back to life? Who said you could come back to life? I only said that stepping through this door would give you-"
"A chance to start over."
Lin Jie was speechless. "Isn't that the same thing?"
He turned his head, his expression solemn.
Once he stepped through this door, Lin Jie would be able to return to reality.
He took a firm step forward, entering the door of nothingness.
"Beep, beep, beep, beep!!!!!"
"Alert! Intruder detected! Alert! Intruder detected!"
A shrill alarm woke Lin Jie.
He slowly opened his eyes and found that he had indeed returned to reality, but-
He was back in Zhou Lan's mansion!
"Damn it, Fox, did you set me up?"
Lin Jie remembered clearly that he had fled more than a dozen li away in reality. Why had he returned here after coming back to life?
No, wait. Why hasn't it gotten dark?
Lin Jie took out his phone to check the time.
It turned out he hadn't returned to the mansion!
Instead, time had gone back!
This was the exact moment when Lin Jie had first broken into the mansion!
[Who said you could come back to life? I only gave you a chance to start over.]
Fox's voice still echoed in his ears.
So starting over didn't mean coming back to life...
Instead, it meant returning to a point before his death?
Lin Jie sneered.
Still, this was fine too.
At least he was back. He had escaped that terrifying hell and returned to this familiar reality.
Moreover, since he retained his memories of what happened afterward, Lin Jie decided to seize this opportunity to catch the man who had shot him dead!
To do that, he first had to complete this theft according to his previous plan.
Drawing on his memories, Lin Jie felt around the safe.
"Ugh, to think someone in my 'respectable line of work' would have to run errands for rich people."
Just as Lin Jie was concentrating on cracking the safe's combination, a familiar female voice rang out.
The sound of high heels slowly drew closer.
Lin Jie hastily twisted around and hid in the shadows.
What's going on?
Why are things happening differently from what I remember?
In his memories, no one had come to disturb him before he opened the safe and packed up all the documents and money.
Lin Jie hid in the corner, quietly watching everything.
A disheveled woman entered the room, yawning and swaying her hips.
The woman had long, wavy hair and wore a red dress, with her underwear partially visible.
"What's all this about? Zhou Lan told me to come check what set off the alarm. But from the looks of it, there's no one here at all."
"It must just be a false alarm."
Lin Jie's eyes widened. This woman...
Why is it Li Xin?
The footsteps slowly approached, and soon Li Xin was about to reach Lin Jie's hiding place.
"There's definitely no one here either... Holy shit!!"
Lin Jie lunged out, drew his combat knife, and held it against Li Xin's neck, its edge less than a millimeter from her skin.
"Don't move!" Lin Jie barked.
"We meet again."
But Li Xin looked terrified. "Spare me, please! You've got the wrong person! We've never met!"
Lin Jie ordered her to crouch with her hands on her head, then withdrew the knife.
Still crouching, Li Xin relaxed when she saw that Lin Jie was no longer holding the knife at her:
"Hey, handsome, what's your name? Why become a thief when you're so good-looking?"
Lin Jie slid the knife back into its sheath. "Oh? You really don't know me?"
Li Xin lowered her head, thinking back. "Were you one of my old clients? No, that can't be right. I don't service minors."
Lin Jie was speechless. "I'm an adult, and I don't pay for sex. No, that's not the point."
It suddenly occurred to him that after he finished stealing, the person who came to check had been Liu Yunyun, Zhou Lan's maid.
But Liu Yunyun had already died in the Realm of the Dead.
So she hadn't been able to return to reality.
Based on their earlier introductions, Lin Jie remembered that Li Xin should have been "getting down to business" with Zhou Lan at this moment.
Was it because Liu Yunyun was gone that Zhou Lan sent Li Xin to check?
Lin Jie looked down and asked her, "Do you know Liu Yunyun? Mr. Zhou's maid?"
Li Xin's eyes widened in surprise. "Mr. Zhou's maid? But Zhou Lan clearly told me he'd never hired a maid for his home!"
Sure enough, because Liu Yunyun had died in the Werewolf game, her existence had been erased.
Still uncertain, Lin Jie asked another question. "Have you ever played Werewolf?"
Li Xin looked even more confused. "Werewolf? What does that have to do with anything? I've never played it!"
Li Xin's eyes were clear, and to Lin Jie, she didn't look like she was lying.
Could Li Xin have lost her memories of the game after starting over?
Then why do I still have mine?
Lin Jie shook his head. He wouldn't dwell on it. He was back in reality, anyway.
He would treat everything that had happened in the Realm of the Dead as a nightmare.
"Li Xin, look. What's that?"
"Where?"
The instant Li Xin turned to look, Lin Jie knocked her unconscious with a knife-hand strike.
She collapsed with a thud.
Li Xin lay sprawled on the floor. Combined with her nearly half-naked outfit, the pose was truly indecent.
Yet Lin Jie had no other thoughts whatsoever. After dragging her into the corner, he got back to business.
He cracked open the safe and saw a familiar sight.
Piles of red banknotes, along with stacks of gold bars.
But these were not Lin Jie's target.
He stepped inside the safe and went all the way to the back.
Then he picked up a crowbar and pried open the metal lining inside the safe.
Behind that metal sheet was yet another small safe!
Lin Jie entered the combination he already knew by heart, and the small safe clicked open.
Inside were several documents and photographs.
These were the records of Zhou Lan and Zheng Yi's "criminal dealings."
Having these was equivalent to having leverage over both of them.
After carefully putting them away, Lin Jie walked out of the safe.
Then he returned to the half-naked Li Xin.
"Since Liu Yunyun isn't here anymore, you'll do for the job."
Lin Jie crouched down and began taking off his shirt and pants.