Thriller Paradise

"Ah… that was better than nothing…" The Spirit of Mimicry made a show of digging his nose (even though it had no nostril) and used a rather disinterested tone to say, "After all, it's hard to hear any ghost stories on the island. It has been… a few weeks since the last time I heard that."

"But that was not too long ago!" Atobe was quick to point out.

"Well, there appears to be quite an influx of visitors from the other worlds recently…" Feng Bujue probed in an unreadable expression.

"No, not all the visitors were like you people." The Soul of Mimicry added, "There were humans from the main universe, and… other lifeforms." It paused. "Hmm… but that is not the point." It seemed to realize the man was drawing him for information so it quickly caught itself and changed the subject. "No matter what, the deal has been completed. So… gentlemen, please come over to me and place your hands on my arms." The Spirit of Mimicry said as it took a step forward and opened its arms. After exchanging a look with one another, the players walked forward and placed their arms on the shadow.

"Hmm… and I thought there would be a sticky feeling, but it feels just normal…" Atobe commented as if to himself. The other three players had the same thought as he was. Before they had physical contact, they all thought the Spirit of Mimicry's body was made up of something like rubber but after touching it in person, they reason… the entity's body surface was very smooth and dry, it also had very low body temperature, like a piece of leather that had just been brought out from the fridge.

"What is so surprising about that? Adjusting the internal body temperature, moisture and strength to match the surroundings… that is very common homeostatic mechanism." The Spirit of Mimicry said in a haughty tone. "Basically all the highly evolved creature, even some of the common creatures had this kind of ability. Of course, that includes you humans as well, but your mastery of this ability is surprisingly weak, that is all…"

Suddenly, the scenery around the players changed. The four heard the system announce at the same time. "Main quest completed."

In the blink of an eye, they moved from a dark, enclosed stone room to a big hall that was as wide as a football field and the domed ceiling was about 20 metres off the ground. At the front of the hall, there should a sacrificial area that was shaped like a Chinese royal crown. Inside the hall, a dark brown stone path split the hall into two sides. Both sides of the halls were lined with circular columns around 5 metres all and they were arranged irregular. At the end of the hall was a circular door that was 10 metres tall and the lower rim of the door was joined to the stone path.

On the surrounding walls of this hall, they were carved with multiple murals that were made up from smaller geometrical shapes. These murals were like constellations in the sky… They each occupied a corner but they were somehow conjoined together; at the centre of every mural was encased a glowing gem. It was these thousands of gems that lit up this majestic hall, forming a breath-taking scenery.

"Ah~ But this is not your fault, after all… in terms of biological make up, you human's evolution history can only be described as a tragedy." The Spirit of Mimicry was still hung up on the previous top. Even after the teleportation, it continued like usual. "Your appearance already possessed all the properties of an intelligent lifeform but your inside is such a mess. From the perspective of my race, about 80 percent of your internal organs are unnecessary drawbacks, their flaws far outweigh their utility. That is why you have such short life span and will be tormented repeatedly by various illness and disease." At this point, it put down its arms and the players also pulled their hands back.

"In this universe, that are many races that have similar intelligence as yours but they have far less internal organs. Normally speaking, they only need 2 to 3 organs to complete all the necessary biological processes. Things like digestive, respiration, hormonal balance, immune system… are all handled by these few organs and the quality, intensity and strength of these organs are something you humans can't even begin to fathom or emulate." Spirit of Mimicry continued, "If one has to find an analogy, your body is like an old personal computer, it is stuck with many obsolete, out-dated hardware, and their body is like an unified super photon computer. After 10 years, when your hardware start to fail, they have not even expired their warranty period. Even if you take care of you body, and use it carefully, you are only delaying the inevitable scrapping date. And other people's parts… they will not have these natural deficiency that you humans suffer from no matter how they use them.

"To drive the point home, you human's ability to adapt to your environment and your resistance against disease and other dangerous events are too weak."

The Spirit of Mimicry was enjoying himself with the lecture, but… the only one really listening to him, understanding him and processing his words… was only Feng Bujue. The others' attention was basically distracted. Either they were inspecting their quest tab or they were admiring the hall. Even though Brother Jue had also done both of them… he was a unique exception. He was someone who was used to doing many things at the same time to keep his brain active and busy. In fact, that would help him focus even more.

"Hmm… I get it now…" After hearing what the spirit had to say, he quickly added, "Actually I am not satisfied with the current evolution bottleneck that human beings have themselves stuck in. I've always thrown my support behind bionic engineering, mechanized body or transferal of human consciousness into a virtual world. Even though these are not part of the nature's path but an evolution propounded by technology… but it is undeniably still a kind of evolution. As long as the cycle of life is changed, it will naturally bring change to human's competition for the dwindling natural resource and it will greatly extent our lifespan while eliminating most innate prejudice that comes with identifiers like race and sex."

"Oh? Your thought is quite interesting." The Spirit of Mimicry added with interested. "But among your peers… someone like you will be considered a radical thinker, right?"

"Being radical… is better than being dumb. In my world, many clever people are being labelled 'radical'. They are so brilliant, so ahead of their times, but they are ostracized because of it. They are called heretic, madmen, idiots or even killed." Feng Bujue explained evenly, "Reality proves that the stupid will always win because they are the mass majority. They include actual idiots, cowards who did not dare to say anything and thus align with the idiots, and a small part of clever anarchists and leaders. They have slaughtered heroes, killed great scientist, captured and fired teachers who inspired their students. There was even a race who tried to demolish their own culture… and that caused cultural treasures like history and literature that had been passed down for thousand of years… to be decimated to nothingness.

"But many years later, this bunch of people are the one who are enjoying the fruits of success and knowledge left behind by the 'radicals' and views them as common knowledge and something to be accepted naturally and look down on those who are ignorant to not even know these common sense. However, at the same time, with envy and fear within them, they denounce those who they deem to have a greater consciousness than them, and label them as… the radicals."

"Your wanton presumptuous and stubbornness inspire me…" The Spirit of Mimicry said with a laugh. "Ha… But I have to admit, it was interesting."

At the same time, on the other side…

Uncle Worthless, Atobe and Ambitionist had wandered more than 10 metres away. On the surface, it looked like they were exploring the map, but in reality they did not want to get involved in the conversation between Brother Jue and the Spirit of Mimicry… so they wandered away and pretended not to hear them.

"Hey… do you guys understand what those two are saying? It sounds impressive even though I have no clue what they're talking about…" Atobe commented.

"It's humanity contrarian course 101, the topic is ambivalent and the perspectives are not supported… it's better if you do not understand it." Ambitionist pushed on his glasses and said.

"We better pull our focus back to the scenario." Uncle Worthless wiped away the cold sweat and changed the subject. "No matter what, we are in quite a positive circumstance. Like how Brother Jue analysed earlier, we have already completed the mission. The time limit for the elimination has been removed and the next main quest has not appeared in the quest tab. Therefore… we can leave this place without worry and return to go search for Pegasus."

"Why don't… the three of us go and do that now?" Atobe turned back to take a glance at the altar. He saw Brother Jue was still deep in conversation with the Spirit of Mimicry so he added. "We will leave the two of them here to chat, perhaps Feng Bujue might be able to get more information out of that spirit."

"Hmm, that is not a bad idea actually." Ambitionist replied. "After all, we have to leave someone behind, just in case Pegasus arrived here while we are gone."

"I agree with that." Uncle Worthless concurred.

Then, the three of them turned around to shout at Brother Jue and explained their plan of movement. Feng Bujue was in such inciting and arresting conversation with the Spirit of Soul that when he heard his three other teammates volunteered to do the footwork and leave them be, he naturally accepted their offer with open arms.

Therefore, the four parted at this place once again and went their separate ways to fulfil their own mission…