Chapter 1081: Alright, the Score is Enough

What is a "trash question"? A trash question is a trivial problem that requires wasting a massive amount of time, brainpower, and energy just to potentially complete.

These questions often lack any technical substance or originality, and completing them brings no sense of accomplishment. It's like being told to run ten kilometers to fetch water, or to sort red beans from green beans.

The third question: Please assemble these 1,600 geometric shapes into a square.

This question is a classic trash question. The only method is the brute-force approach: keep assembling, keep trying and failing, until the square is formed.

Since it specifies a square, it must be a square; a rectangle won't do. This increases the difficulty by dozens of times, and with such a large quantity—a full 1,600 pieces.

If it were just a dozen or so, one could guess blindly, but with 1,600, you wouldn't finish even if you guessed until your next life. Just looking at so many shapes made Xisilu feel his head swelling.

While he was there shouting, Negris had already begun arranging the shapes. It first separated them by different forms: a pile of triangles, a pile of squares, a pile of trapezoids, and a pile of irregular shapes.

Then, it assembled them separately—for instance, two triangles into a square, two trapezoids into a rhombus, and so on. After finishing the assembly, it stepped back two paces and stared at the shapes, lost in thought.

"Are you for real? You're being targeted! You should go out there right now, beat up that Jilifte, and make him change the question for you," Xisilu said, filled with righteous indignation.

Negris ignored him. After looking them over, it swapped the various shapes around.

"Are you actually calculating? What are you calculating?" Xisilu asked, bewildered.

Negris explained, "I'm calculating the side length. Once I have the side length, I can calculate their area. Once I have their total area, I'll know how big this square is and how long its sides should be. Then I just have to fill them in."

"Them? Area? All of them? You can remember 1,600 of them?" Xisilu sounded like he was hearing some wild, unbelievable tale.

"What's there to not remember? It's only a thousand," Negris said as if it were a matter of course.

"You... I..." Xisilu was crushed. He stammered a few times before muttering, "I'm not an idiot."

"Heh, it's only because I have to calculate slowly. If it were Ang, he'd be done in a minute, believe it or not," Negris said.

Ang's Scale Ring didn't need calculation at all; he would know the total area at a single glance and could just plug them in directly.

Xisilu stood there, stunned in disbelief, unable to speak for a long while. Of course he knew Ang—could that wooden, blank-faced guy really have more "wisdom" than Negris?

"Alright, done," Negris said. Xisilu snapped out of it and immediately saw a complete square on the projection; the door opposite them slowly opened.

"Mon-ster!" Xisilu muttered viciously. Compared to Negris, he felt his own "wisdom" was nothing more than petty cleverness.

Successfully crossing the three steps, everyone entered another room. They were greeted by a giant face; a statue stood in a sunken space, its face level with where Ang and the others had entered, so the first thing they saw upon entering was the face.

"Huh, isn't this Uersiman? Why is it sunken?" Negris asked, startled and surprised.

"This is indeed the Sage Statue of Lord Uersiman. The Sage once said: 'To see things, one must stand at the same height; one cannot see the truth from a high place,'" Xisilu said piously.

"Ah? Have you ever said that?" Negris turned to ask Uersiman, who was inside the book page.

Uersiman had been fiddling with his White Crystal on the other page of the book; this White Crystal was his true form.

The Star God Body is a very special existence. Its White Crystal is a manifestation of energy, and its body is a manifestation of the White Crystal. However, if the White Crystal is gone, the body can conversely manifest a new White Crystal.

It is like how the core of an undead is the soul fire, which manifests a physical form; but if the soul is gone, the form disappears—it is impossible to manifest a soul through the physical form.

If it were a skeleton lich, what would be birthed is a new soul, not like this White Crystal method.

This bidirectional manifestation mechanism was something everyone was seeing for the first time, and they were still exploring it.

Uersiman now imprinted his consciousness into the White Crystal, allowing him to manifest the Star God Body through it. But if the White Crystal were shattered, could he manifest a new White Crystal through his body?

Hearing Negris's inquiry, Uersiman thought for a moment: "I suppose so. I have said, 'Only by standing at the same height can you see the scenery others see.'"

"Makes sense. Worthy of being a Sage. I used to wonder why humans had so little hair, but after I became small, I realized they only have little hair on the top of their heads, while the surrounding circle is quite thick. That's a matter of perspective. Hmm? What's wrong? Your complexions don't look too good." As Negris spoke, it noticed that Uersiman and Xisilu's faces had turned black.

The two glared at it and forcefully combed the hair around their heads upward. It was so annoying—did they have to be bald even in the consciousness space?

Negris chuckled awkwardly and quickly changed the subject: "What do we do now?"

Xisilu introduced: "Around this sunken space, there are different circular seats. If you stand on them, you can see the questions. The red ones are the most cutting-edge questions—they are original, and they only turn red when all members of the entire society cannot find an answer."

"For every one you solve, you get points. With enough points, you can activate a contract and have the members assist you."

"The yellow ones are those that have been answered by someone, but because they couldn't be verified, they remain in doubt. Unless someone can reproduce the result, they will remain in doubt forever."

"The blue ones are bounties from society members. You can get rewards for solving them, but there are no points. So, you only need to look at the red ones. As for the questions that have already been solved, they are on the bookshelf on the lowest level."

Negris nodded: "Good, understood. I'll go look at the red ones."

"I'll go look at the bookshelf," Anthony responded immediately.

Silver Coin said: "Then I'll go look at the yellow and blue ones."

Everyone scattered, leaving only Ang in place. This had become a habit; for small matters, everyone wouldn't bother Ang and would discuss it among themselves. Only if they truly couldn't handle it would they look for Ang.

Ang stood where he was, tilted his head to look at the statue for a while, and then reached out and beckoned to it. A large wave of faith energy gathered toward Ang's hand.

The Sage's Home gathered a large amount of faith energy, but because there was no godhood, it could only gather near the statue. Now, it was Ang's gain.

Just in the time it took to beckon, Negris flew back: "Alright, I've solved six questions, the score is enough."

"Ku Ba Da, monster!" Uersiman and Xisilu muttered in unison. ===== CHAPTER 1082 =====