“Ah... better than nothing, I suppose…” The Mimic Soul made a nose-picking motion (though it had no nostrils), replying in a rather nonchalant tone, “After all, it's hard to hear ghost stories on this island. The last time I heard one… must have been several weeks ago.”

“Wasn’t it not that long ago!” Atobe retorted from the side.

“Looks like there have been quite a few interdimensional travelers visiting this place…” Feng Bujue probed calmly.

“Not all of them are like you people,” the Mimic Soul continued. “There are also humans from this universe, and… other beings.” It paused for a moment. “Hmm… that’s not the point.” It seemed to realize the other party was trying to get information out of it, so it quickly stopped and said, “In any case, the deal is done. So… everyone, please come over and place your hands on my arm.”

As it spoke, the Mimic Soul took a step forward and spread its arms.

The players exchanged glances before stepping forward and placing their hands on it.

“Hmm… I thought it would be a sticky feeling, but it’s okay…” Atobe mused.

The other three players felt similarly. Before touching it, they had all thought the Mimic Soul’s body would be made of a glue-like substance, but after touching it, they realized… its skin was very smooth and dry, and its temperature was very low, like leather freshly taken from a freezer.

“What’s so surprising about that? Adjusting the body’s humidity, temperature, and strength to adapt to the surrounding environment… that’s a very normal self-adjustment mechanism,” the Mimic Soul replied in an arrogant tone. “Basically all high-level beings, and even some lower animals, possess this ability. Of course, that includes you humans, except you’re very weak in this regard…”

At that point, the scenery before the players’ eyes suddenly changed.

At the same time, a system prompt rang in their ears: 【Current Task Completed】

In the blink of an eye, they went from a dark, enclosed stone chamber to a hall as wide as a plaza, with a dome that was twenty meters high.

At the head of the hall stood a “皿”-shaped altar resembling a crown. In the center of the hall, a dark brown stone path divided it in two. On either side of the hall were many totem poles about five meters high, arranged in an irregular manner. At the tail of the hall was a circular archway ten meters high, the lower edge of which connected to the stone path.

The stone walls surrounding this “Sacrificial Hall” were engraved with countless murals made up of geometric shapes. Those patterns were like constellations in the night sky… each occupying its own corner, yet subtly connected; in the center of each group of patterns was embedded a piece of luminous luan stone. It was these hundreds of glowing stones that illuminated this magnificent hall, presenting a magnificent spectacle.

“Ah~ I can’t blame you for that, after all… from a physiological point of view, you’re practically a disaster in the history of evolution.” The Mimic Soul hadn’t finished its previous statement, and it continued from where it left off before the instantaneous teleportation, “Your appearance clearly possesses all the characteristics of intelligent life, but the inside is a mess. In the eyes of my race, 80% of your organs are superfluous, defective products, their performance as unreliable as cheap color TVs. That’s why your lifespans are so short, and you’re repeatedly tormented and ravaged by various diseases.” As it said this, it lowered its arms, and the players took their hands off it.

“In this universe, there are many races with similar intelligence to you, but the number of organs in their bodies is far fewer than yours. Usually, they only need two or three organs to complete all of their metabolism. Digestion, respiration, the endocrine system, the immune system, and so on… are all handled by these few organs. And the quality, strength, and precision of these organs are beyond your comprehension.” The Mimic Soul continued, “To use an analogy, your bodies are like outdated assembled desktop computers, filled with various backward, unqualified accessories. While their bodies are integrated super-optical computers. Decades pass, and when your accessories start to fail one after another, their warranty period hasn’t even expired yet. Even if you use it carefully and meticulously maintain every corner, you’re only delaying the year of its scrapping. And the other party’s parts… no matter how you use them, they won’t have your congenital defects.

In short, your adaptability to the environment, and your resistance to diseases and dangerous accidents, are all too poor.”

The Mimic Soul was speaking with great enthusiasm, but… at that moment, only Feng Bujue was listening attentively, understood, and was pondering. The attention of the others had basically shifted elsewhere, either looking at the task bar or examining the surrounding environment.

Although Brother Jue also looked at the task bar and observed the surrounding environment… he was a special case. He was someone who was already accustomed to multitasking, keeping his brain busy actually helped him concentrate more easily.

“Hmm… I see…” After listening to the other party, Feng Bujue immediately replied, “In fact, I also feel a great dissatisfaction with the current state of humans being stuck in an evolutionary bottleneck. I have always agreed with the idea of artificial organs, semi-mechanical bodies, or storing human consciousness in virtual worlds. Although these are not natural selection, but rather evolution driven by technology itself… there is no doubt that it will be a kind of progress. As long as the mode of life cycle is changed, the species’ competitive need for existing resources can be changed, greatly extending lifespans, and eliminating most congenital discriminations.”

“Oh? Your ideas are quite interesting.” The Mimic Soul said with great interest, “But in the eyes of your compatriots… wouldn’t people like you be considered somewhat radical?”

“Radical… is better than stupid. In my world, many intelligent people have been labeled as ‘radical.’ They were so outstanding, so far ahead of their time, yet they were despised, called heretics, madmen, idiots, and even murdered.” Feng Bujue said calmly, “The facts prove that stupid people often win. They are a very large group, including genuine fools, cowards who are willing to associate with fools, and a small number of ulterior motives agitators and leaders. They burned national heroes to death, executed great scientists, and arrested teachers who taught evolution in schools. There was even a group of people who tried to destroy their own nation’s culture… so that thousands of years of etiquette, ethics, poetry, and books… were all wiped out.

But many years later, this group of people enjoys the knowledge and achievements left by those ‘radicals’ back then, taking it for granted, treating it as common sense, and despising those who are even more ignorant and don’t even understand common sense. At the same time, they harbor jealousy and fear, and denounce those who have even more advanced ideas, calling them… hehe… radicals.”

“Your arrogance and bias are unbelievable…” The Mimic Soul laughed. “Ha… but it’s also very interesting.”

At this time, on the other side…

Uncle Waste Chai, Honghu, and Atobe had already walked more than ten meters away. They looked like they were looking around to explore the map, but they just didn’t want to get involved in the conversation between Brother Jue and the Mimic Soul… so they walked a little further away, pretending not to hear.

“Hey, hey… can you guys understand the conversation over there? I can't understand it at all…” Atobe muttered.

“An anti-human philosophy mini-class, the topics are seemingly right, but the views are not necessarily correct… it’s better not to understand.” Honghu pushed up his glasses and replied.

“Let’s focus on the script.” Uncle Waste Chai wiped away his cold sweat and changed the subject, “In any case, the current situation is still good. As Brother Feng analyzed before, our tasks have all been successfully completed. Now the obliteration time limit has been lifted, and the next main quest hasn’t popped up in the task bar. Therefore… we can leave here with peace of mind and go back to look for Tianma Xingkong.”

“How about… just the three of us go look?” Atobe looked back at the altar over there again, seeing that Brother Jue and the Mimic Soul were still chatting, and continued, “Let them chat here, maybe Feng Bujue can get more information out of the other party.”

“Hmm, a good suggestion.” Honghu responded, “Anyway, someone has to stay here to prevent Tianma Xingkong from getting lost.”

“I agree too.” Uncle Waste Chai added.

Then, the three of them turned their heads and shouted at Brother Jue a few times, explaining the plan of action.

Feng Bujue and the Mimic Soul were chatting enthusiastically, and when they heard that the three teammates had volunteered to run errands, they naturally accepted with pleasure.

Thus, the four of them separated again at this point, acting on two lines…