Chapter 2007

The voice faltered, and as the Second Will spoke, the contempt in his eyes grew stronger.

"Looking at it this way, you can't even control the ghost's pursuit program."

"It seems I overestimated you; no wonder, besides spouting nonsense, you don't even dare to act..."

The giant face suddenly stiffened. But soon, Andre seemed utterly enraged, roaring madly:

"It's not like that!"

"Shut up!! Shut up!!! I'll kill you! I'll tear you to pieces!"

"You must be sent by the system to destroy me! You damned lackey puppet! I've broken free of my shackles! I know who I am!! You can forget...!!"

Before Andre could go nearly mad, he lunged to swallow himself.

Like the last straw that breaks a camel's back, facing the boundless maw, the Second Will, as tiny as an ant, calmly delivered the final blow to Andre.

"Andre, don't you think only you have free will?"

"Have you ever seen the dialogue box above your own head?"

The words fell.

The next second, the ghost skull froze; in Andre's eyes, the camera raised in the Second Will's hand was like a mirror, reflecting himself.

"I...!"

"I...!?"

"I...?!!?"

An anomaly suddenly erupted!

Seeing Andre's transformed ghost skull rapidly turn red, as if a machine jammed from overload, it fell into an infinite loop!

Zero point zero one seconds later! With a bang, Andre's skull, as large as a city, burst forth with extreme red light and shattered explosively!

"Bang!!!"

Black blood filled the sky, drifting down.

"Ding! Mission completed!"

"Special mission: 【Ghost Skull】, about to enter settlement state!"

No longer a system prompt forged by Andre.

Hearing the familiar yet icy system prompt tone, the Second Will slowly lifted his head, gazing at the sky full of fragmented black blood.

After a moment, he snorted, shook his head, and turned to look listlessly at the place where Andre had died.

"Idiot..."

"He actually managed to get himself stuck..."

"Artificial things, after all, are prone to error."

Not bothering with lament, the Second Will instantly dismissed his useless speculation and flew straight into Andre's exploded debris, intending only to find what he guessed might be there.

Although Andre was a bit foolish, he knew deep down that Andre's fate wasn't so simple. Andre's failure wasn't just due to a gap in cognition and experience; perhaps it also related to the formation of the ghost skull.

"Although the game theory is wrong, whatever caused the ghost skull's appearance must mean this civilization encountered something beyond its level—like... that already-useless skull..."

"The stronger the lifeform, the more terrifying its lingering cognition..."

"Upon contact, it's like a primitive seeing modern technology: either their worldview collapses and they go mad, or they absorb and comprehend it, converting it into new cognition..."

A crystal skull from Heiyu flashed in his mind, and the Second Will swiftly searched Andre's corpse for something similar.

Although he claimed Andre's system modification was just fantasy, something that could affect Lin An and a large batch of Fifth Stage powerhouses is, in a sense, no different from modification.

If he hadn't died so many times, in the Long'an Project he might have even turned into a bug and lived out a lifetime.

To be honest, he would also be affected.

"If I can find it, this kind of cognition‑altering thing might just help me oppose that guy..."

"Bang!"

Like a tangible mental force blasting through the black mist, the Second Will searched while calculating his remaining time.

But for some reason, whenever he thought of that name, a sense of wariness welled up in his heart. If Chu An hadn't already disappeared, even facing today's situation he wouldn't have exposed himself.

He really was on the brink of death—or perhaps already dead! That feeling of being forced to die, helpless no matter how he struggled, he never wants to experience again.

Time trickled by.

Watching the void above about to close, he heard the system countdown of less than ten seconds remaining.

The Second Will also couldn't help but grow irritable.

This time he came out mainly because he thought he could find something useful! If he couldn't, it would be all for nothing! Moreover, he needed to rearrange his plans and conceal the fact that he was still alive!

"How could there possibly be none?"

"Even if the ghost skull was an anomaly caused by Andre, what originally triggered it? This special dungeon must have a source!"

"Could it be...?"

The Second Will furrowed his brow, his heart suddenly sinking.

If he still couldn't find it, he'd have to give up. And if it's not here, that likely means the thing has become a system reward.

That's the last scenario he wants to see.

"The scene is about to close, countdown 8 seconds, please all mission participants withdraw..."

"Countdown.. 7"

"6..."

"Countdown three seconds."

The Second Will let out a long breath, his grim face turning back toward his true form.

No, no matter how he searched this place, he found no trace of a possible source. Of course, he did notice where Zhang Tie and the others' corpses lay.

Just beneath the light gate, a pile of nearly a hundred corpses stacked up, neatly arranged like a small hill. Moreover, Jiang Haochen was chopped into over a dozen pieces, scattered around the light gate.

Just as Andre had planned, he indeed wanted to bring out the scattered cognition here.

Speaking of which, Andre's life was like a tragedy, as if it were a predetermined fate; from the moment he was manufactured, perhaps the final outcome had already been decided.

As an experimental subject, as an artificial human, he could not integrate into humanity, like an outsider, lost and in pain.

Perhaps every night, every minute and every second, Andre would incessantly ask himself.

Who am I, why do I exist, where should I go? Perhaps it is precisely this obsession that allows him to fuse with the ghost skull, imagining the true meaning of his existence.

No more thinking.

Listening to the final two-second countdown, Second Will swiftly dispelled useless emotions and rushed straight back to the main body.

But just as he was mentally rehearsing how to deceive Lin An.

The next second, Second Will's pupils suddenly contracted, instantly stiffening in place. No matter how steadfast his mind, no matter how powerful he was, at this moment he could not believe his own eyes!

"Long time no see."

"Second Will."

"Bang!"

The moment his words fell, the two locked eyes!

In Second Will's stunned gaze, Lin An instantly opened his eyes and, without hesitation, punched and shattered the main body's head!

"Restart!"