81: Chapter 81 Unexpected Ranking

Just as the regional channel was thoroughly boiling over that invitation letter to "Sky City," City Lord Zhao Tianyu's glittering golden ID appeared once again, adding a nonchalant remark.

[Tianqing Guild Leader City Lord Zhao Tianyu]: "After the third regional grand settlement at midnight tonight, I will wait at the central coordinates for another three days. Within these three days, all aspiring individuals are welcome to bring their vehicles and join in building this miracle. After three days, I will wait no longer."

These words were like a raging fire, thoroughly igniting the emotions of the survivors who had been suppressed for over two months, forcing everyone to make a fateful decision within this final window of time.

In the second-floor living room of the Cloud Top Fortress.

Luo Ning and the others sat on the soft leather sofa, enthusiastically scrolling through the chat channel.

The two and a half months of thunderstorm weather had almost crushed everyone's psychological defenses. Now that such a big piece of entertainment had finally appeared, the "fun-loving" trait in Luo Ning's bones completely erupted.

At this moment, the channel had already clearly split into three major factions:

"Long live Tianqing! I've had enough of this damned rainy season and the tentacle monsters flying everywhere! I want to go to Sky City and live a stable life!"

"Wake up, you idiots! City Lord Zhao Tianyu is just farming slaves!"

"Fight! Hurry up and fight! Where is Guild Leader Lin Xiaotian of [Divine Domain Guild]? Where is Scar of [Blood Blade Guild]? Hurry up and come out to state your positions!"

Time flew by amidst everyone's arguments, anticipation, and anxiety.

11:55 PM.

Ten thousand meters above the ground, inside the "Shenguo Ship" of the Tianqing Guild.

City Lord Zhao Tianyu wore a luxurious custom suit, standing before the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

His gaze pierced through the gradually dissipating rain curtain, looking at the faint glimmer appearing on the distant horizon.

"Guild Leader, the public opinion of the entire region has fermented to its peak. Approximately thirty percent of the lone wolves and small-to-medium-sized factions are currently converging toward the central coordinates."

The assistant, Shadow, stood respectfully behind him and reported.

"Don't worry about those guys for now. What I want is the attitude of those few."

City Lord Zhao Tianyu gently swirled the red wine glass in his hand, the crimson liquid tracing a graceful arc on the glass wall.

"The third grand settlement is almost here. The first place this time has absolutely no suspense. Once the leaderboard is out, I will use the absolute gap in our foundations to thoroughly awe them! I will make them obediently bow down and submit!"

The moment the holographic clock on the wall ticked to 00:00.

"Hum—!"

A synthesized system sound rang out!

[Regional Announcement: The Third Regional Survival Grand Settlement has officially begun!]

[Core Weighting for this settlement: Comprehensive score of material foundation plus individual combat power score]

[Generating regional top 100 leaderboard...]

At this moment, almost everyone held their breath, staring intently at the massive golden light screen that had unfolded out of thin air in the sky.

The rankings on the light screen quickly scrolled upward starting from the 100th place. Only when it reached the top ten did the scrolling speed deliberately slow down, as if intentionally keeping everyone in suspense.

[Seventh Place: Zhou An (Lone Wolf)]

[Comprehensive Material Score]: 360 million

[Comprehensive Combat Score]: 85 million, top of the regional individual combat power leaderboard!

"What the f*ck?! Combat power of 85 million?! Is this lone wolf cheating?!"

"Single-handedly taking on an entire heavy fleet?!"

Countless survivors who saw this scene gasped.

But soon, everyone's attention was diverted, because Zhou An's "mere" 300+ million material score was clearly left with a huge gap in total points compared to the real major guilds.

The light screen continued to scroll upward, and the true overlords began to appear one by one.

[Sixth Place: Alliance Leader Wu Feng (Leader of the Lone Wolves Alliance)]

Material Score: 2.1 billion | Combat Score: 32 million

[Fifth Place: Minister Su Hongye (Leader of the Hongyan Pavilion)]

Material Score: 6.2 billion | Combat Score: 38 million

[Fourth Place: Guild Leader Qian Wanguan (President of the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce)]

Material Score: 6.5 billion | Combat Score: 19 million

[Third Place: Guild Leader Lin Xiaotian (Leader of the Divine Domain Guild)]

Material Score: 6.8 billion | Combat Score: 55 million

"Here it comes, here it comes! The top two are about to appear!"

"It's definitely City Lord Zhao Tianyu in first place! The resources in his hands are definitely bottomless!"

Inside the "Shenguo Ship," City Lord Zhao Tianyu watched the leaders of the four major guilds who had already been pushed below him, and the smile on his lips widened even more.

He slowly raised his wine glass, preparing to once again welcome his own highlight moment.

However, when the name of the second place leaped into view, the smile on City Lord Zhao Tianyu's face instantly froze.

[Second Place: City Lord Zhao Tianyu (Leader of the Tianqing Guild)]

[Material Score]: 7.6 billion | [Combat Score]: 61 million

"Snap!"

The wine glass in City Lord Zhao Tianyu's hand was crushed to pieces by him! The crimson wine mixed with blood dripped down through his fingers, but he was completely unaware.

"Impossible! How could I be second?!"

City Lord Zhao Tianyu's eyes were splitting with rage, staring intently at the light screen in the sky, "Who is first?!"

The entire District 997 also fell into a deathly silence at this moment. City Lord Zhao Tianyu, who was riding high and claiming he would build Sky City, was actually not first?!

Just then, at the very top of the light screen, the dazzling golden light symbolizing the supreme throne exploded! A name that everyone found unexpected, accompanied by a string of terrifying numbers that made one's scalp tingle, slowly appeared!

[First Place: Scar (Leader of the Blood Blade Guild)]

[Comprehensive Material Score]: 10.5 billion!!!

[Comprehensive Combat Score]: 78 million!

"Boom—!"

After a brief deathly silence, the entire public channel completely exploded!

"Scar?! How could it be Scar!!"

"Over 10 billion in material score?! Where did he get so many resources?"

...

Inside the fortress.

"Boss! Look, look! I made it into the top 500!"

Luo Ning excitedly pointed at the row of small text at the very bottom of the golden light screen, so excited that she almost jumped up on the sofa.

As Zhou An's chief employee, although her comprehensive material score appeared pitiful because the bulk of the resources were under Zhou An's name, her individual combat score was terrifyingly high!

[489th Place: Luo Ning (Lone Wolf)]

[Comprehensive Combat Score]: 60 million!

"60 million in combat power, just a little bit lower than yours!"

Luo Ning proudly lifted her chin, hands on her hips.

"How about that? With my current firepower, I can be considered to be firmly standing in the first tier of this region, right!"

"Not bad, didn't waste that set of legendary-grade top-tier equipment you have."

Zhou An smiled and gave a compliment, then immediately turned his attention back to the settlement rewards the system was distributing across the region.

[System Announcement: Third Regional Survival Grand Settlement rewards are being distributed...]

[Congratulations to the leaderboard leader 'Scar', for obtaining the exclusive regional first-place reward: Unique Divine Authority Gift!]

Seeing this regional announcement, there was another round of wailing and shock in the channel, but Zhou An didn't pay much attention to it. Soon, his share of the rewards was quietly distributed into his system backpack.

[Congratulations to the seventh place 'Zhou An', for obtaining the settlement reward:]

[Moon-Glitter Grade Material Treasure Chest] x1

[High-Level Material Selection Privilege] x1

"Come on, let's see if this so-called selection privilege can directly give me a [five-source power core]."

Zhou An rubbed his hands together full of anticipation and opened the selection list provided by the system.

However, when he had flipped through the ten-plus pages of the top-tier material list up and down, carefully and thoroughly, for a full three times, the smile on his lips gradually disappeared, and his face suddenly darkened.

Not to mention an LV5 upgrade core, there wasn't even a slightly rare cross-tier blueprint or wondrous item; all of them were just conventional high-level metals, polymer fibers, and energy blocks.

"What a f*cking stingy system."

Zhou An couldn't help but curse under his breath.

Having no choice, Zhou An had to settle for the next best thing. He scrolled the list to the last line, selected the material that looked the rarest, and maxed out the quantity.

[Selected: Astral Meteorite Gold 50,000 units!]

After selecting the rewards, Zhou An was about to close the panel.

Suddenly, a very faint, unusual sound came from the fortress's external armor. It was no longer the dull sound of rain violently battering the metal, but... the long-lost, gentle sound of wind.

"Beep—"

EVA's electronic voice sounded exceptionally pleasant in the quiet night: "Regional climate alert has been lifted. Current external environment: Clear."

Zhou An raised his head and looked toward the panoramic porthole.

The lead-gray, thick clouds that had been oppressive for two months were dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Although it was still deep in the night, a huge, bright, and even somewhat unreal silver full moon was slowly rising from the gaps in the clouds.

The cold, soft moonlight once again bathed the gray-foggy sky that had been ravaged by thunderstorms.

"The rain has finally stopped." Zhou An let out a long, heavy breath.

Just then, a cheer that could not be suppressed erupted from the living area on the first floor.

"It stopped! The rain really stopped! Thank heavens!"

"Hahaha! We'll finally be able to see the sun tomorrow!"

Old Zhang was even more excited and incoherent: "Boss! I'll prepare a good meal for everyone tomorrow morning! Let's celebrate!"

Listening to the cheers of his teammates who had survived the ordeal, Zhou An's mood also completely relaxed.

"EVA, reduce the fortress's speed to the minimum, maintain a cruising state of 10 km/h. Deactivate the force field barrier on the upper deck."

Zhou An dropped this instruction, pushed open the cabin door, and climbed onto the observation deck at the very top of the fortress.

The long-lost fresh air rushed toward him, no longer carrying that pungent smell of ozone and the corrosive scent of acid rain.

Zhou An lay flat on the wide, flat deck, hands behind his head, quietly watching the huge full moon overhead, greedily enjoying this hard-won tranquility.

Not a few minutes later, a light sound of footsteps came from behind him.

Luo Ning had climbed up at some point. She walked to above Zhou An's head, bent down, and with her quirky face upside down, looked down at him: "Yo, Boss, so elegant, enjoying the moon in the middle of the night?"

Zhou An didn't get up, just reached back and took out a soft cashmere blanket from the system space, handing it over: "Sit on this, it's been raining for two months, the metal deck is cold."

Luo Ning curled her lip, unappreciatively sitting her butt directly on the cold, damp armor plate.

"Who are you looking down on?"

Luo Ning proudly swung her fair calves, "This girl's mortal body is at least a solid Tier 4 life form now, okay! What's this little bit of temperature?"

Zhou An heard this and raised his eyebrows in surprise: "When did you break through to Tier 4? I thought you were just busy upgrading your mecha in the lab these past few months, and your physical body was still Tier 3."

"Nonsense." Luo Ning rolled her eyes dramatically, "Don't you look at what kind of heavenly food our fortress eats every day? Epic-grade spirit wheat to our heart's content, plus Old Zhang's cooking—even a pig eating here every day would have ascended and broken through to Tier 4 by now!"

Zhou An nodded in deep agreement: "Hmm, you have quite a lot of self-awareness."

"Bang!"

Luo Ning unceremoniously kicked Zhou An on the shin, annoyed: "You're the pig!"

Zhou An laughed out loud and didn't dodge. The two of them just stayed like that, one lying down and one sitting, on top of the slowly moving fortress, blowing in the night wind and watching the bright moon overhead.

After a while, a gentle breeze blew by.

Zhou An's nose suddenly caught a scent of extremely fresh lemon. The smell was very pleasant, not like that kind of inferior industrial perfume, carrying a very clean, clear feeling.

"Smells good, right?"

Luo Ning keenly caught Zhou An's sniffing action, slightly turned her head, and her big eyes flashed with a teasing light.

"It's alright, pretty fresh."

Zhou An nodded and asked casually, "Did you change to a new body wash? This scent smells much better than the previous one."

"What body wash."

She stretched out her fair, slender hands and waved them forcefully in front of Zhou An: "This is the smell of dish soap residue from when I was washing the beakers for canned goods in the lab downstairs just now! Hahahaha!"

"..."

The smile on Zhou An's face instantly froze.