Chapter 919: Exchange

No one disturbed.

Inside the pit, it was completely silent; only faint vibrations from a large number of infected moving far away could be heard.

Standing in place, Lin An, under ultra-efficient thought, quickly pieced together all the information.

After a moment, he actually came up with a piece of information that was hard to comprehend.

After an unknown fourth-stage creature died, its skull fell into the Heiyu, causing this origin region to form.

Or boldly speculating, perhaps the entire Heiyu was formed from the scattered remains of this fourth-stage creature after its death.

Is the Faceless One region a face? Or the damaged memory of a human face?

Are the Insect Valley and the Seven Deadly Sins cells and emotions?

But what are the Embroidered Shoes and the Ghost Dream?

Not entirely sure, Lin An could not confirm whether a fourth-stage being was that powerful—so powerful that its corpse after death could form an independent region, and the rules naturally inherent in a region could easily kill a third-stage being.

After all, in his imagination and memories of his past life, knowledge about fourth-stage beings was truly scarce.

He only knew that by the final stage of the Apocalypse, or before his rebirth, humanity had only a few fourth-stage beings.

But as for their strength and how they fought, he knew nothing.

In his speculation, he also merely thought that fourth-stage beings were just Awakened Ones with more psychic energy and stronger skills than third-stage beings.

But from the information currently at hand, that might not be the case...

Fourth-stage beings might be so strong as to be horrifying.

Or perhaps the skull's owner was not an ordinary fourth-stage being, or maybe this fourth-stage being died in the Heiyu, independently forming this origin region?

It was impossible to determine; behind the brief explanations of the two systems lay an enormous amount of hidden information.

Moreover, from the two different explanations, Lin An keenly perceived a "cognitive" distinction between the system and the Savior.

The Doomsday System did not consider the skull a living organism, but a damaged source of infection.

But the Savior System not only confirmed that the skull belonged to some kind of organism, it even gave instructions on how to use it.

This means that the skull's original form is not recorded in the Doomsday System, or perhaps its appearance is unrelated to the system, likely coming from another world, or even before the system appeared!

You should know that, up to now, Lin An has never seen the Doomsday System fail to recognize something! Even a blade of grass in an amoeba, the system can give an accurate description!

Two systems, two cognitions, two worlds?

Reasoning backward, if the Savior System so "understands" the skull's owner, doesn't that mean the skull's owner is closely linked to the Savior System?

Even as the Doomsday System is the root of power for Awakened Ones?

Savior System... just what is it?

Lin An murmured softly in his heart, feeling that the system within him was becoming ever more mysterious.

From long ago, he had always thought the Savior System might be some powerful existence created to save humanity.

Perhaps it was just a game for fun, or perhaps the mastermind behind it was human—a person strong enough to travel through time!

But even "he" likewise failed in opposing the Doomsday System, leading the other side to hope to find a seed to oppose the Apocalypse once more.

And perhaps his own rebirth was arranged by that side.

He stole part of the system's power, like stealing rewards, continually exploiting loopholes in the Doomsday System to create the Savior System.

The relationship between the two systems is like that between a huge corporation and an employee with divided loyalties.

Chu An thought the same on this point.

From the fact that the Savior System has always been "avoiding" the Doomsday System, it can be seen that the power disparity between the two is enormous.

But now it seems everything is different.

The Savior System is more like the Doomsday System of another world, "it" recognizes entities not belonging to the Doomsday System.

And that world is completely free from the control of the Doomsday System.

So the Savior System is more like a stowaway? A mysterious entity seeking to undermine the Doomsday System?

As Lin An earnestly pondered the connections among all clues, trying to grasp part of the truth, within the Thought Space the Second Will suddenly spoke with some gravity:

("Lin An, we might have gotten something wrong.")

("Human origin... truth... fear... fourth-stage beings not under the Doomsday System...")

("Have you ever considered that, if humans under the uncanny valley effect are afraid, it's not of zombies but of another highly human-like entity?")

("And this skull both resembles a human and possesses great strength. Could it be that what humanity's genes fear is the owner of this skull?")

("A powerful humanoid creature.")

("Reasoning backward, the Savior System is linked to the skull, while the Doomsday System is not...")

("In other words, humans do not fear the zombies and mutants produced by the Doomsday System, but they fear the owner of this skull.")

("Because the appearance of zombies is too brief, or rather the Doomsday System has existed too briefly, causing fear insufficient to be etched into genes.")

("But the original form of the skull 'produced' by the Savior System has long appeared in human history, leaving an indelible fear.")

("In that case, everything that researcher said being false would explain it all. Otherwise, there would be no way to explain why they initially thought the source of human fear was zombies, but after seeing the truth, they claimed everything was false.")

Having said that, the Second Will gave him a deep look and then fell silent.

Standing in place, Lin An's face suddenly turned grim.

He understood the implication of the Second Will's words and also thought of more.

If we follow this line of reasoning...

If humanity has feared the entities created by the Savior System throughout history, and feared them for a long time, then as one who possesses the Savior System, isn't he equivalent to those "monsters"?

Thinking this way, whether the Savior is a savior of humanity or a destroyer is hard to say.

Even Lin An understood the Second Will's gaze toward him.

Quite simply, the Second Will has always said that he actually does not understand why he was chosen by the Savior System.

If the Second Will did not lie, he indeed saw that after his own mutation, he devoured all survivors of the Huaxia war zone.

So, as a monster, gaining a system from hostile humans — that would be nothing more than normal...

The mist was thick, and Lin An instinctively didn't really want to accept this speculation.

Identity swap.

Although he had no intention of saving humanity, that didn't mean he wanted to destroy the world.

The speed at which his strength was increasing was too fast; if that were true, it would be truly terrifying, just as the Second Will had speculated.

Lin An could almost imagine that, if the Savior System were hostile to humanity, then under its guidance, what he would become...

"Everything is just speculation..."

Forcing a smile, suppressing the unease in his heart, Lin An took a deep breath, unwilling to dwell on this point.

Unless he activates the skull again, risking madness, to take a glance at the so-called truth.

Otherwise, at this stage, everything is just speculation between him and the Second Will; no one knows what the truth really is.

As for fusing the skull to gain Fourth Stage power? Lin An simply chose to ignore it. The risk is too great; even the Savior System repeatedly warned against it — he'd have to be seeking death to absorb it.

After the skull has absorbed its power, perhaps it could be tossed to Chu An for research.

But he somehow seemed to understand, in a vague way, what the deranged researcher had actually seen.

Once some truths are uncovered, they might be too cruel, or perhaps they would overturn everything...

After absorbing the spiritual energy within the skull, Lin An silently felt the surging power within his body, as if nothing had happened, his expression calm as he activated the recovery skill on the corpse.

Rather than getting lost in the thick mist, as if the truth lay in the abyss, following his own heart and doing what should be done is what he should do now.

So what if he knew? Would he go mad?

In an instant, as the dark ripple swiftly swept across the corpse on the ground, like a resurrection, the badly damaged corpse slowly rose to its feet.

As for who was trying to kill him, and the identity of that person, Lin An was equally curious.

"Who are you?"