Chapter 2475: Repaying a Favor
Jiangnan, who had been sent flying again, shamelessly came back over, circling around Zhong Yingxue, and even shoved his face right up to hers!
(˵ಡꇴಡ)"Nah~ nah nah nah~ What about that kiss with the strawberry mark you mentioned? I pulled through, didn't I? Weren't there supposed to be a reward?"
"You can't go back on your word, oh!"
Zhong Yingxue's cheeks flushed with two red clouds. With so many people around, how could she kiss him?
Those Dark Cosmos Entities were all watching from the sidelines, weren't they?
(⑉͡°﹏͡°)"Go go go~ Go be a murderer or something! I'm not kissing you!"
With that, she closed her eyes and turned her head away, trying to bluff her way out of it!
The smile on Jiangnan's face gradually twisted into a teasing grin:
(˵ಡ̫ಡ˵)"Jealous, huh? Xuexue is jealous, isn't she? How about for fairness' sake, I become a murderer on your side too?"
"I'm especially good at this!"
[From Zhong Yingxue's Resentment Value +666!]
Good grief, he wants to have it all, doesn't he?
Seeing the cheerful atmosphere around Jiangnan and his group, completely unfazed by what had just happened with Innocent...
Jiangnan even played the role of a murderer. Was he doing this just to change the subject, ease his own guilt, and give them a way out?
Who would've thought the Jiang Devil could be so gentle?
Still, it was true that they had caused trouble for humanity!
Ye Yuanwei took a deep breath and bowed her head toward Jiangnan and the others.
"Sorry! We caused you trouble. We didn't mean to lead the disaster south. Maybe we had that idea at first, but we never actually intended to do it."
"Who knew that just by talking about it, we'd run into you... I'm sorry!"
They had managed to force Innocent back, and it was a happy outcome. But if they hadn't, humanity would have suffered!
Xia Yao wiped the cold sweat from her forehead: (•́ω•̀٥)"Actually... it's not entirely your fault. Xiao Nan bears the main responsibility!"
Everyone had just seen how unlucky he looked. It was probably another case of his reverse word spirit going off, attracting Innocent here, right?
Jiangnan put his hands on his hips: (◕ˇ～ˇ◕)"Hmph? What does it have to do with me? It's their fault! How dangerous was that? You should be grateful and thank me!"
"Save the thanks, I don't need it. Just transfer me tens of thousands of billions after we get out, that'll be enough!"
Ye Jinshe was stunned: (๑•̌～•̑)ˀ̣ˀ̣"Eh? Tens of thousands of billions is enough? That's doable!"
Jiangnan: ∑(°口°๑)?
Huh? That easy? Did I ask for too little?
Could these two be little rich ladies?
Unbeknownst to him, as the third sequence of the Dark Cosmos race, with industries spanning the starry sky, resources were plentiful for leading figures like the Ye sisters from their clan!
Tens of thousands of billions in star source points really weren't much to them!
Zhong Yingxue, however, changed the topic: "Speaking of which, what exactly happened? The Dark Cosmos race is the third sequence, not weak in strength. Even if you couldn't beat the Bose race, you should have been able to escape, right?"
"How did you end up with so few people?"
At this, everyone's expressions turned serious. To nearly wipe out the third sequence and cripple them like this?
That wasn't something ordinary methods could achieve!
Ye Jinshe gritted her teeth: (งᵒ̌皿ᵒ̌)ง"The Bose race and the Silicons joined forces. They heavily wounded our warriors. We almost got left behind. Innocent is too strong!"
She roughly recounted the story of how they were besieged. The remaining few hundred Dark Cosmos warriors clenched their fists, their eyes filled with humiliation and dimmed with gloom.
Jiangnan listened, stunned. The Bose race and the Silicons had allied?
That was truly rare. He thought the Silicons would be more ambitious, uniting the lower races against the Bose race. Instead, they'd done the opposite?
Was it another 0 and 1 theory? He had no idea what those iron heads were thinking.
Jiangnan clicked his tongue: "Being hunted down by the first and second together, it's impressive you managed to escape!"
Ye Yuanwei was taken aback: "Speaking of that, there's something suspicious. We were doomed to be wiped out in the formation, but for some reason, a big hole suddenly appeared in the tightly guarded energy matrix."
"That's how we managed to escape. Given the Silicons' style, there's no way there could be a technical error!"
Ye Jinshe nodded repeatedly:
(*⁰̷̴◠⁰̷̴)"Exactly! Also, when we counterattacked in the formation, those Bose bodies and mechanical soldiers seemed blind, completely unable to sense our presence!"
"That allowed us to launch a counterattack and kill a few hundred Bose bodies. If it weren't for that, my sister and I would have been killed by Innocent long ago!"
The other Dark Cosmos entities quickly chimed in:
"Really, I felt it too. Suddenly, they couldn't see me. It was strange!"
"It wasn't just that they couldn't see us. It was like they couldn't sense our existence at all!"
Ye Yuanwei said seriously: (#ᵒ̴̶̷◠ᵒ̴̶̷)"There must be some behind-the-scenes big shot secretly helping us, unwilling to reveal their identity!"
"They saved our lives. If not for them, we wouldn't have escaped at all, and we wouldn't have run into you!"
Jiangnan was completely baffled:
Σ(°Д°;)"Huh? A hidden big shot from the starry sky? Even you sisters and Innocent couldn't detect them? Secretly helping you?"
"Who is it?"
Was there really such an existence among the contestants in the Chuangjie Daxu?
Wang Youzhi put his hands in his pockets, looking perfectly natural:
ʅ(･´‸･｀)ʃ"Who else? It's humanity! Your own people! Don't you remember?"
At this moment, not only Jiangnan, Zhong Yingxue, and the others were stunned, but the Ye sisters were also shocked!
∑(°口°๑)"What? You're saying that the identity-concealing, unwilling-to-reveal mysterious big shot is human?"
Jiangnan swallowed hard:
Σ(°△°|||)"How come I didn't know there was such an awesome existence in the team?"
Wang Youzhi rolled his eyes:
(꒪ͦ～꒪ͦ❢)"I already said! There's a non-existent person in the human team. There are 398 human contestants total."
"When we first entered the arena, the spiritual group chat only had 397 people. Isn't that obvious? It was them who helped Ye Yuanwei and the others escape!"
"Ah, forget it. Anyway, even if I tell you, you won't remember. You just need to know that you have a teammate who doesn't exist—the legendary behind-the-scenes big shot!"
Jiangnan was completely bewildered. He did remember Black God mentioning a non-existent teammate.
But was this one so powerful that they could break the joint siege of the Bose race and the Silicons?
And it was one of their own?
Ye Yuanwei said excitedly:
(งᵒ̌﹏ᵒ̌)ง"Nan Shen! After this, I must meet this behind-the-scenes big shot. I want to thank this existence in person!"
"If not for them, we wouldn't have been able to save so many lives!"
Jiangnan scratched his head: ୧(๑⁼̴﹏⁼̴)"I'll... I'll try to find an opportunity. I'll look for them!"
I don't know who it is, so how can I arrange a meeting, dammit!
Wang Youzhi snickered. As if you could ever meet them!
Jiangnan then looked toward the Dark Cosmos team and raised an eyebrow:
(๑◔～◔ิ)"What are you planning to do next? The sharp battle period is already in the middle to late stage. The major sequences are colliding, reducing each other's numbers, and fighting over the food."
"In your current state, you probably won't be able to get a piece of the last cake, right?"
Ye Yuanwei took a deep breath and bowed to Jiangnan again, pleading.
"Please, will you let us cooperate with humanity? I know that to get a high score, humanity wouldn't choose to ally. Any ally is just a burden that divides points."
"But even reduced to this, we still have residual value. We can help humanity fight against other sequences, against the Silicons, even against Innocent!"
"I can also guarantee that in the subsequent sequence offensive and defensive battles, the Dark Cosmos race will be humanity's most loyal ally. We can also provide resource support!"
"Please help us. We won't take too many points. It's just... we can't fall too hard. If we do, my sister and I would be the sinners of our race!"
Even though the Dark Cosmos race's point ranking was still third, they had already fallen behind other sequences.
They had lost the capital to compete and couldn't efficiently earn large amounts of points. The Cosmos Grand Hunt was far from over!
It was foreseeable that the Dark Cosmos' points would eventually be caught up. If they fell out of the top five, that would be absolutely unacceptable for the Dark Cosmos race.
And for now, she could only swallow her pride and ask for an alliance with humanity again!
But even if Jiangnan didn't agree, she wouldn't blame him. Humanity had its own considerations.
In the struggle between races, personal favors couldn't come into play!
Ye Jinshe also patted her chest:
(ง⁰̷̴◠⁰̷̴)ง"We... we're very useful. My sister and I together have strength comparable to a Star Devourer. We also know Innocent's methods. Our cosmic arts can handle the leaders of other sequences with ease!"
"If we ally, we'll definitely be helpful!"
With that, the two sisters looked at Jiangnan with anticipation.
And everyone's gaze turned to Jiangnan as well.
The final decision rested with him!
To be honest, Jiangnan hadn't planned on forming an alliance at first. Humanity's point-gaining efficiency wasn't high compared to other races.
If they split points with an ally, they'd struggle to reach a high position.
But after fighting this far, Jiangnan had gradually changed his mind.
Could humanity, with just over three hundred people, really withstand a joint siege from the major races?
The Dark Cosmos race had been beaten like this by the Bose race and the Silicons!
And in this wave, while humanity had gained a large number of points through group operations, many had been eliminated.
After this battle, it would be tough if there were even three hundred people left in the arena. They would still have to collide with the major races to compete for the final cake.
At this stage, the major races would no longer care about the reputation of the Fifth Natural Disaster.
After all, it was time to go all out. Whether they wanted to provoke it or not, they had to.
If the major races jointly targeted humanity, their limited manpower would really be in trouble!
Even if they could hold out, they'd lose a lot of people and still lose competitiveness when fighting for the final cake.
As his eyes flickered, Jiangnan already had a plan for the next moves.
He smiled at Ye Yuanwei: "You're right. From humanity's perspective, we don't need allies. But given the current situation, fighting alone will make it hard to maintain competitiveness to the end."
"To be honest, if we're talking cooperation, the crippled Dark Cosmos race isn't the best choice. The Kill Starting Horse Legion of the Apocalypse race and the Gamma race would be more powerful allies!"
Ye Yuanwei's eyes dimmed: "I... I see..."
Jiangnan changed his tone: "But... humanity can cooperate and ally with you. We'll help you maintain competitiveness in the subsequent conflicts."
"And we'll also share points with the Dark Cosmos race, trying as much as possible to help you keep the third position without affecting humanity's own score!"
As soon as he said this, Xia Yao and the others' eyes widened. Even Ye Yuanwei was stunned.
Σ(っ°⌂°;)っ"You... you're not joking with me, are you? Really?"
Not only would they ally, but they'd also share points and help the Dark Cosmos race hold onto the top three?
Jiangnan spread his hands and smiled: ╮(•́ω•̀)╭"Do I look like I'm joking? To be honest, I didn't aim for humanity to climb too high at first. I just wanted a spot in the top ten sequences, to have a voice in the starry sky, to enter the center of power."
"I know exactly how deep humanity's foundation is. Ranking too high isn't necessarily a good thing. I wasn't planning to fight for the top three. Humanity isn't ready yet."
"If the foundation isn't stable, the building will surely collapse. Of course, within acceptable limits, the higher, the better~"
"Let me make this clear: I'm taking the top spot on the Star Hunt List. Don't compete with me for it!"
Ye Yuanwei swallowed: "Is... is this your reason for helping us?"
Jiangnan shook his head: "Of course not. I'm not some saint."
"Back then, when humanity won the Star Ruins War and was about to enter the sequence, the Silicons betrayed us. The myriad races spat on us. Everyone called us uncivilized wild monkeys."
"Looking around, every being wanted to push humanity into the abyss. Only Noah extended a helping hand to me."
"Even though he had his own considerations, schemes, and wanted to use me to stir up the situation, he still helped me. Because of that lifeline, the Thousand Stars Catastrophe happened, humanity entered the starry sky sequence, and we have today."
"I'll remember that favor for life. I'll make Noah know that back then... he made the right choice. He didn't misjudge the person!"