Chapter 1462: Doubts Piled High

Lin An examined closely and found no similarity between the "Mutant Emperor" and Chu An.

In the image, all that could be seen was a researcher with his head down, wearing an ill-fitting white lab coat, standing stiffly.

He actually looked a bit like Deng Xiang from the Weapon Research Institute.

This was the scene where the Annihilator had only ever seen the "Alien Species Emperor" once.

By contrast, Chu An obviously carried a military air from start to finish. Rather than saying he was a researcher type, it would be better to say he was a staff officer stationed in the rear.

However, even if he doesn't resemble a person, Chu An's suspicion cannot be ruled out.

Changing bodies, disguising oneself—this kind of thing is too easy...

Carefully sensing the Annihilator's spiritual fluctuations, Lin An frowned slightly, confirming that the other party was likely not lying.

Of course, he would later capture a few more Overlords to verify.

Suppressing the slight irritation in his heart, Lin An could only continue analyzing other information.

The first mutant, he instantly thought of Anna.

Someone familiar to Long An? Corpse... being divided...

With a thinking speed approaching that of a demigod, Lin An quickly connected all the clues; in his mind he had roughly reconstructed what had happened in the Alien Species world initially.

"After the Alien Species world erupted in an apocalyptic crisis, the people here, relying on their innate powerful mental strength, could quickly match the mutants. But because of the 'limitation' of mental strength, their upper limit ended up very low, and they could not for a long time give birth to a superpower capable of ending the apocalypse."

"Or rather, because the original humans were generally strong in power, the number of deaths remained low. Consequently, the civilization could not give rise to a Perfect One..."

"And in the prolonged conflict, the mutants gave birth to a new species within themselves: the Alien Species. If nothing unexpected, the emergence of the Alien Species is likely due to the special nature of this world's Awakened Ones; the monsters they transform into after death possess a certain intelligence. Over time, no matter how great the human advantage, Awakened Ones would keep dying. Thus, after accumulating a large number of 'Alien Species', humanity faced a new crisis."

"With the crisis, massive human deaths, yet at this time it gave rise to the Perfect One Long An."

"And with Long An's rapid rise, the original human Awakened Ones began to resent him, choosing to ally with the Alien Species and betray Long An."

Rapidly simulating this world's history in his mind, for Lin An, a civilization's history of resistance had great reference value for him.

Upon careful thought, this world's humans choosing to betray Long An largely had to do with the apocalypse being overly prolonged.

Long-term under the apocalypse, the pursuit of strength gradually became the norm of this civilization.

Lin An could easily imagine that during this period, human society in this world had probably already formed a new social structure, with each faction having its own interests.

Long An's appearance not only broke the balance, but also "harmed" everyone's interests.

After all, to the people of this world, they might no longer feel that the apocalypse is an apocalypse, but rather think the world ought to be this way, having lost their sense of crisis about the apocalypse.

"The mutants were almost wiped out by Long An, and the Alien Species didn't seem too difficult to handle. Therefore, under various factors, when humanity betrayed Long An, they would probably think that even if Long An died, it wouldn't be a problem, and they could continue to live well afterward."

"Even, the Alien Species at that time, in order to survive, agreed to many conditions from the human side, such as distributing Long An's corpse...."

"After killing Long An, both sides got what they wanted. But humanity never expected that the Alien Species had hidden trump cards, or rather, their speed of strengthening far exceeded their imagination."

"Therefore, when the Alien Species suddenly turned hostile, humanity kept retreating. The Annihilator, representing the Fourth Stage, joined the Alien Species to save their lives."

"And then, at the final moment, the Mutant Emperor suddenly appeared..."

"From then on, the original humans barely survived, while the mutants and the Alien Species opposed each other."

"As for the original humans' great hostility toward the mutants... it is very likely that the original humans who ultimately survived were actually Long An's 'confidants'. They knew what had happened back then... they knew that the so-called mutant power was actually obtained from Long An's corpse..."

After filling in the history, Lin An fell slightly silent.

The last point is his guess, based on speculating Anna's identity.

It's a very simple logic.

If the same history also occurred on Earth, then the humans who ultimately survived would certainly be his people.

Just like Zhang Tie, Gao Tian, and others. Their strength among humans actually counts as among the top tier. Lin An will look after those he values, and Long An will naturally do the same.

Likewise, after his death, the people of Long An Base would naturally also survive to the end.

If his corpse were also used by others to gain power—even if used to 'protect' them—people like Zhang Tie would probably only resent those individuals.

Even the fact that original humans have managed to survive to this day, Lin An seriously suspects, is actually related to Anna—or rather, to some of the mutants who feel guilty.

Anna's identity might be similar to the role of Wen Ya by his side.

Assuming "Wen Ya" became a mutant for power, she would certainly also protect those companions who once did not wish to become mutants.

"But thinking like this..."

"First assuming Chu An is not the 'Mutant Emperor', it is still impossible to determine who exactly the Alien Species that traded with Chu An at that time was."

"Why trade? To resurrect Long An? Among the batch of humans who joined the Alien Species as traitors, some felt guilty and decided whether or not to resurrect Long An?"

"Or rather, do these traitors realize they are constantly targeted within the Alien Species, thus realizing that even as traitors they could not fare well under the Alien Species? Sooner or later they would die? So they hope to resurrect Long An to fight the Alien Species anew?"

Mysteries piled up.

Key information remains missing.

Deep in Lin An's heart, even he himself hasn't realized that he is striving to find the possibility that Chu An is not the Mutant Emperor.

He would rather that his merging with Long An's corpse was merely a coincidence, and everything ends here...

"All we can do is go back and talk about it later?"

"What awaits me..."

Suppressing the irritation in his heart, Lin An simply gestured for the Annihilator Overlord to continue answering questions.

"Long An's corpse—do you know who took it away?"

"What's the deal with the Bronze Gate?"

"For these two questions, don't tell me you don't know!"