Chapter 2099: Great Change!

Ranking closed.

Inside the underground space, Lin An suppressed the surprise in his heart, his eyes full of strangeness.

He could understand a large score gap, but he never expected that the current first place would be a zombie mutant. Or rather, he never imagined that zombies would appear in the Star Radiance War!

In his fixed mindset, he had always thought that zombies and mutants were nothing more than low‑difficulty apocalypse products, a kind of NPC.

But soon Lin An recalled the corpse emperor he had once encountered. If we set aside prejudice, those zombies thrown in as disasters are indeed an excellent 'species'. If it weren't for the many forces on Earth, the corpse emperor's ability might not be unable to occupy the planet and form a special civilization. Not to mention distant things, the radiation‑energy races on the ancient stellar battlefield might have been a failed human civilization transformed.

"Triple virus mutant..."

"What is its ability? Does it spread viruses? Or is it similar to the Body System? Like a tank‑type mutant with extraordinarily strong flesh?"

With too little information, Lin An could not determine what abilities this mutant, who had risen to the top by overwhelming force, actually possessed.

Even Mo Ling on the surface had not seen him along the way. The Star Radiance Battlefield is simply too vast; according to Gao Tian's speculation, this mutant should have entered the battlefield in the final round, then came from the opposite side of the Eternal Summit and fought his way all the way here.

Based on the score increase, he had likely already rushed to the fourth layer, leaving even the fastest space travelers far behind.

After noting this anomaly, Lin An didn't think further. Yet for some reason, deep down he felt as if he had recalled something, though he had no memory of it at all.

Outside the Star Radiance Battlefield, the Creator Alliance.

Enormous, a giant light curtain tens of thousands of meters high was projected above the planet, drawing countless Awakened Ones to watch.

Standing in the crowded square, Qing Kai stared fixedly at the three black‑clad enforcers beside him.

Although he was in the noisy centre of the square, his area seemed isolated, quiet and somewhat oppressive.

Seeing the alliance enforcers who had 'invited' him back, Qing Kai finally could not help but coldly question them:

"Sirs, you summoned me back just to have me stand here and look at rankings? Frankly, I still have missions to carry out—I don't have that much time to pay attention to these! Delaying alliance tasks will also cause you trouble!"

After his words fell, Qing Kai pretended to be irritated, flicked his pass, and eyed the other side warily.

However, faced with Qing Kai's warning, the three enforcers in black armor merely gave a light chuckle, looking at him with deep meaning.

"Lord Qing Kai, you really aren't paying attention to these?"

"As far as I know, you are not only closely tied to the Red Armor side, but among those sent in this time, it seems your own people are included?"

"Especially the information of that batch of war slaves—it isn't even in the alliance at all. The so‑called list is merely a temporary addition!"

As his words fell, Qing Kai's pupils contracted sharply; a chill shot from his spine to the top of his head in an instant. He had thought his methods were sufficiently covert, but hearing their words, the Fifth Stage operative helping him might already have been captured!

Damn it! His and Lin An's affair has been exposed!?

Fully aware of how severe the alliance's punishment for traitors is, in less than a second Qing Kai's heart surged with a tremendous sense of despair and a death wish!

Concealing information, colluding with foreign tribes, betraying the alliance, tampering with the list—any one of these would be enough to doom him forever!

However, before Qing Kai could even think of lashing out, the three enforcers, as if they hadn't noticed his abnormality, spoke again:

"Lord Qing Kai, if nothing unexpected happens, you must have placed your bet on the Red Armor lineage, right?"

"The commander has noticed—among the war slaves you arranged, do you have your clansmen? Let us guess: is it your direct line behind you? Well done; it looks like you are fully intending to assist that person."

"You claim the points from your last mission were used up—I suppose they were spent on that highness, right?"

Hearing the questioning that seemed to have guessed his thoughts, Qing Kai's heart suddenly relaxed, and the cold sweat on his back vanished instantly.

How quick his reaction was—looking at the three high‑ranking enforcers, he instantly realized that these people, no, the Black Armor Commander behind these three enforcers had misjudged his situation.

Suppressing the fear in his heart, Qing Kai gave a cold snort and simply went along with their words:

"So what if it is, so what if it isn't?"

"Betting? No, that person is also a descendant of the alliance's high leadership—I'm merely helping the alliance with my work!"

"How so? Is it because the figure behind you has bet on someone else, and that's why you've come to cause me trouble?"

Qing Kai fired back, he didn't care at all about factional struggles; for him, he only wanted to earn points to survive. Yet he couldn't fathom why, now that everyone had gone in, they would still come to bother him—he couldn't even contact the so‑called direct line!

This was beyond Qing Kai's expectation.

All that could be seen was that, in response to his counter‑question, the three enforcers looked at him with pity.

"Alliance? Trouble? No, it doesn't matter who you and the forces behind you are betting on. Our superiors simply think you're not bad, so they had us remind you specially."

"However, it seems the commander guessed correctly. If that's the case, then we have nothing more to say."

"The alliance... might soon cease to be an alliance..."

When the words fell, the three turned and left, leaving only a bewildered Qing Kai standing there.

Watching the three's retreating backs, Qing Kai frowned tightly, feeling that their words were deliberately obscure, leaving him unable to grasp their meaning at all.

"The alliance isn't an alliance? Could it be that they're vying for power?"

He chewed over that strangest sentence for about half a minute, then Qing Kai irritably shook his head, utterly unable to judge.

However, just as he was about to leave the square, a series of strong spatial undulations suddenly came from the distant star gate.

Only to see at the continually flashing star gate, tens of thousands of Awakened Ones drenched in blood, like a swarm of bees, desperately pouring out of the transmission gate.

In an instant he sensed several familiar auras, but a few seconds later, the originally dazed Qing Kai's face suddenly changed drastically, and a terribly shocking thought flashed through his mind.

"Those few auras...!?"

"Damn it! They're coming back from the front line!?"

"The army has collapsed!?"