Chapter 1954: The Ghost Skull Mystery 15

Have you guys encountered this kind of monster?

"Good heavens, that thing is truly a great artist. Is it dead? If it isn't, we're willing to spend...!"

Following behind Zhang Tie, Golden Robe instinctively praised, but before he could finish speaking, he saw Xiong Hanzi glare at him angrily. A chill ran down his neck, and Golden Robe sensibly shut his mouth, giving an embarrassed laugh.

Setting aside identity, an "artist" skilled at depicting life and death is worth a fortune.

Just as people observe physical phenomena to discern patterns, as a special-type life-and-death rule, the Indestructible Asura's depiction of life and death will surely drive fellow fifth-stage powerhouses mad!

"It's dead."

Gao Tian spoke coldly, having to admit that Brother Zhang's dislike of these guys is correct. These people from the Creator Alliance are truly hateful.

After a slight pause, Gao Tian didn't care whether Zhang Tie understood these. Actually, he hadn't figured out how this thing relates to the Ghost Skull; he just instinctively felt this information might remind Lin Dui of something.

However, contrary to his expectations, Zhang Tie turned his head and suddenly posed a thoughtful counter-question to him.

"Gao Tian, although I didn't hear clearly, but according to what you said, could I understand it as different people seeing different worlds? The Ghost Skull in the mission should be a head, right? Then what it sees would be even more different from ours."

"I heard you talk about piecing together cognition; does that mean we need to understand the world as it sees it? After all, only by understanding can we know what it actually is."

"If that's the case, then this ghost thing wants people to understand it, right?"

"But why does it have to kill us? I always feel weird... it's like... it's like..."

Scratching his bald head, Xiong Hanzi, going by intuition, felt this mission was indescribably awkward—not the peculiarity and defiance of logic unique to special events, but an ineffable sense of dissonance.

Gao Tian froze upon hearing it, the others in the squad also froze for a moment; although Zhang Tie didn't say anything new, it still made them feel something was off.

"I don't know, Brother Zhang; maybe there's something else we haven't thought of...?"

"No! I've figured it out! Damn it! Your friend is absolutely right!"

Without waiting for Gao Tian to frown, the giant demon hoisted on his shoulder suddenly shouted excitedly; at this very moment, he was so excited he even wanted to kiss Zhang Tie's bald head.

"Why kill people!? Because the Ghost Skull killing people is how it expresses its understanding!"

"Killing is art! Heads are art! It's demonstrating what its art is! Actually, it doesn't matter if we die; as long as the survivors see its 'work'!"

Incoherent, the giant demon panted heavily, his eyes seeming to glow:

"Everyone, do you still remember? There's one utterly unreasonable piece of information in the system: as long as one person completes the mission and gets out, we will be revived! This condition is too merciful! Given the system's cruelty, how could it possibly give out a task for an immortal?"

"Then the answer is simple: either this mission will most likely result in a total wipe, or revival comes with conditions!"

"Where would we revive? Inside the mission or outside? By reasoning backwards, we can draw a conclusion: reviving inside the mission isn't really revival—it's actually cruel! Only reviving outside the mission counts as true revival! That fits the mission's difficulty! Given this, we can further infer a crucial piece of information..."

"Damn! I know it too!"

Almost as the giant demon excitedly voiced the conclusion, Golden Robe beside him turned pale, clenching his fists in regret.

"Damn! I should have thought of that! Giant demon, I get what you mean! You're saying we must bring out the dead's heads to revive them!"

"Moreover, the dead brains also contain cognition, which is the closest to the world as seen by the Ghost Skull!"

"Each of us participants is like a storage device (USB drive); only by taking out all the data can we meet the system's requirements!"

"This also explains why those paintings first devour the heads of the red-robed! Why the paintings are full of heads! Head completion, cognitive revival..."

"Damn! This is practically spelling it out for us!"

Clenching his fists in anger, Golden Robe felt his heart bleed after speaking; if he had realized this earlier, he would have done anything to snatch back the red-robed's head!

"The logic is correct!"

The atmosphere suddenly brightened; the other giant demon hoisted on Zhang Tie's shoulder nodded in strong agreement. But soon he frowned again, looking worried:

"If we follow this logic, it can also explain the meaning of that line from the system."

"The so-called total revival is not just a favor—it's a restriction. Either everyone dies, or everyone lives. The previous batch likely didn't realize this, resulting in nobody bringing out heads. Perhaps due to selfishness, or perhaps due to lack of time. In short, relying solely on the living makes it impossible to piece together the Ghost Skull's cognition."

"But if we think this way, we've already lost a head—doesn't that mean our mission has already failed?"

With grim expressions, as the giant demon's words were spoken, it instantly doused everyone with cold water.

But soon after, Gao Tian stared blankly at Zhang Tie, then uttered each word with disbelief:

"No, this point isn't actually something to worry about!"

"We don't necessarily need to bring out heads; bringing part of a corpse is enough! Even bringing out fewer heads would work!"

"Think carefully! The system requires only minimal cognition! Us lacking a part is fine—otherwise the system would say it's complete cognition!"

Having said that, Gao Tian took a deep breath, without giving others too much explanation for why heads aren't necessarily needed.

He merely indicated vaguely that human memory isn't necessarily stored in the brain; the body also has 'memory', even deeper!

He dares to be so certain because he clearly remembers...!

When Brother Zhang revived, he had no head!

(Flowers will bloom brightly on the corpse...)

(Bring it back!)