Chapter 2098: Three-Type Mutation

p; ^'"Thud..."'

"Thud...!!"

The dull, chaotic knocking sounds rose and fell, as if in a huge room someone kept banging their head against the wall.

His whole body was wrapped in an "eggshell" made of Faith Power; Lin An silently dodged the fishing-net-like blood vessels ahead, and the bloodshot veins in his eyes were frighteningly red.

He ignored the source of the sound; he knew it was the sound of corpses hitting the rock wall.

"Four days have already passed."

He habitually glanced at the system timer; Lin An muttered under his breath, brows furrowed.

Although he hardly encountered any danger during these four days, he just hurried on with his head down.

But as he stayed longer in this underground space, Lin An still noticed that his body—no, his mind—was beginning to have problems.

About 16 hours ago he saw a hallucination; 7 hours ago the skin cells on his fingertips actually began to escape, as if his limbs thought his body was dead and were preparing to break free from the trunk and run.

Just as fingers turn white after soaking in seawater for a long time, this sea of corpses will likewise rot a person alive.

A mass of residual "consciousness" from the corpses formed a death stance akin to a meme, making living beings trapped within feel that they too should die.

No life, only absolute death and oppression.

Lin An had no doubt that the area where that artifact was located would be terrifyingly highly contaminated.

"Nightmare-tier artifact.."

"It surely isn't some kind of meme prop, right?"

"Or could it be forming a similar field effect, assimilating others into me?"

Who knows how many times he's pondered what the thing from 77 really is; Lin An gave a wry smile, and as his time here lengthened, he increasingly realized that thing was probably very weird.

All signs indicate that the entire Starlight Battlefield is like a petri dish meticulously prepared by someone.

He suppressed his speculation.

After detouring around a vascular region several kilometers long, seeing the passage ahead finally somewhat empty, Lin An stopped thinking further, simply topped up a bit of Faith Power and then accelerated his flight.

Time was short; following the route map given by 77, the time left for him was tight.

But the only thing that eased Lin An's mind was that he had unexpectedly mastered another use of Faith Power.

By combining Faith Power with the Repulsion Rule, he could simultaneously shield against contact with matter and will, as if wrapped in an insulator; even mental force could not penetrate the Faith Layer.

Not only does it shield against the contamination here, but in combat it also has considerable clever use; after a few quick experiments, Lin An realized this technique could simulate a stealth-type rule.

"After high rank, battles are either beyond visual range or close-quarters ultra-speed combat."

"For most Rule System users, their naked eyes can hardly keep up with ultra-speed combat; shielding their detection methods is enough to turn them blind..."

"Faith Void," that's the name Lin An tentatively gave this ability.

Although he had mastered few rules, Lin An had already thought of several ways to strengthen this technique.

If it weren't for lack of time to study, he would still very much like to deduce it further.

Half an hour later.

Accompanied by the familiar prompt, a somewhat weary female voice suddenly sounded.

"Lin An, we've changed locations. I'll send you the specific coordinates later; many insects have come to the place we previously occupied."

"The last two members who virtually entered the team are dead; these insects seem to have had their eye on this for a while."

The voice came from Mo Ling.

Looking at Mo Ling's situation report sent every 12 hours, Lin An raised his eyebrows and his gaze suddenly locked on the image sent by the squad.

All that could be seen was, beneath a silver-white cliff like the world's edge, crimson blood splashed like paint at the bottom, while a large mass of green insects gathered together, constantly surging upward to form a huge hive.

Such a scene clearly showed that many teams unable to escape in time were slain by the insect clan, and their corpses were also used by this swarm as nutrients for building nests.

"Are they the Void Insect Clan or some other insect clan?"

"Never mind; just protect yourselves—if you're going to give up, then give up."

The image was too far away to tell which insect clan had taken Mo Ling's turf; but Lin An didn't care much, merely catching a fleeting glimpse in his mind of that insect mother.

The place previously occupied by Mo Ling and the others was something he had planned in advance.

It was the spot nearest the exit, and moreover located far from the center of Eternal Summit; logically, not many teams would pay attention to it.

But if it's been taken, it's been taken; Lin An wasn't afraid of running straight into those insects when he came out.

The only thing that concerned Lin An was that these insects inexplicably came here to climb upward; could they have been drawn by some underground 'aura'? Did they come on instinct?

"I know, you don't need to worry about us."

"Oh right, there's one more thing. Xiong Hanzi and Gao Tian have markings on them; I guess the system automatically marks them after their score exceeds a certain threshold."

"That silly bear is now glowing all over, visible from several kilometers away."

Below the boundless Eternal Summit, Mo Ling helplessly glanced at Zhang Tie, whose whole body glowed white; beside him, Gao Tian also had light on his head, making the two look like light bulbs.

According to Lin An's intention, they could have relied on her ability to continually hunt other teams, appearing and disappearing unpredictably.

But with both of them so conspicuous, often before she could activate her ability to teleport someone over, the other side would already be on guard, making it hard to strike.

Seeing Mo Ling give him an annoyed glance, Xiong Hanzi could only sheepishly rub his head, feeling wronged.

"Good grief! I'm not intentionally kill‑stealing! That bunch of idiots always likes to focus fire on me! I didn't even lift a hand!"

"Oh right, Lin Dui! I'm ranked really high now! If by chance old Zhang accidentally gets first place, don't blame me! You've fallen so far you're not even ranked!"

While Xiong Hanzi was speaking he looked somewhat aggrieved, but deep down he was actually quite pleased with himself.

Whether it's an instinctive reaction or not, most Fifth Stages seeing him Blink in have as their first reaction to kill him, just like a mage seeing a berserker and fearing close combat.

Yet the more this happens, the faster those teams die; even with self‑destruct power maxed out, Zhang Tie couldn't spare time to split kills with others.

After these battles, aside from Gao Tian managing to snag a few points, over half the participants were killed by his explosions; no one expected that, though Zhang Tie was a meat shield, he'd become the strongest damage dealer.

"System marked? Falling behind?"

Hearing the noisy chatter over the comms, Lin An burst out laughing and instinctively opened the rankings.

He hadn't paid much attention to the rankings, but only now did he discover that Zhang Tie's score had already broken through seventy points; among all participants, he had shockingly already surged into the top eighty thousand. Such performance had already attracted considerable attention from outsiders.

As for him, his rank wasn't even displayed; he was at the very bottom of the bottom.

It's fine; if hunting other teams doesn't work out, it's no problem—aren't there plenty of special creatures spawning on the battlefield?

First, let's practice on those monsters; rankings don't matter, and this little score is nothing.

He paid no attention to these; after saying that, Lin An directly opened the top ten rankings.

Having decided from the moment he entered to sweep through the entire battlefield, he simply didn't care how far behind he was.

Although his current rank is low and he has little time left, to Lin An, the points others are now holding are merely being kept for him.

Just after casually glancing at the rankings, Lin An's gaze suddenly froze.

The reason was simple.

All that could be seen on the system ranking was that the score gap among the top ten was astonishingly large, even appearing eerily strange.

Third place: Prayer, current total score: 312 points.

Second place: Spatial Walker, current total score: 611 points.

First place...

Type-III virus mutant, current total score... 2190??

This guy... is actually a zombie?!