Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton
Chapter 1554 - 1115: Alright, the score is enough

Chapter 1554: Chapter 1115: Alright, the score is enough

What are trash questions? Trash questions are those that waste a tremendous amount of time, a significant amount of mental energy, and require painstaking effort to solve utterly trivial problems.

These questions are often devoid of technical content, lack innovation, and even after completing them, you gain no sense of accomplishment—like being made to run ten kilometers to fetch water or separate red beans from green beans.

The third question: Please use these sixteen hundred geometric shapes to form a square.

This question is the epitome of trash questions. The only way to solve it is through brute force—continuously assembling the pieces, repeatedly trial-and-error, until you manage to form a square.

It specifically asks for a square, meaning a square is mandatory. Rectangles and other shapes are invalid, which increases the difficulty by tens of times. And then there are so many pieces—a full sixteen hundred of them.

If it were only a dozen or dozens of pieces, you could just guess blindly. But sixteen hundred? Even in the next lifetime, you wouldn’t randomly put these together correctly. Just looking at so many shapes already made Xisluo’s head ache.

While he was wailing and grumbling, Negris had already begun arranging the shapes. First, Negris separated the pieces into different piles: triangles in one heap, squares in another, trapezoids in another, irregular shapes in yet another.

Negris then started combining them—two triangles to form a square, two trapezoids to form a rhombus, and so on. After assembling them, Negris took two steps back and stared intently at the shapes.

"You’re actually serious about this? Are you being targeted? You should go punch Kiliforte right now and demand he change the question for you!" Xisluo exclaimed, seething with indignation.

Negris ignored him and, after examining the shapes, shifted some of them around.

"You’re seriously calculating? What exactly are you trying to calculate?" Xisluo asked in disbelief.

Negris explained, "I’m calculating side lengths. Once I know the side lengths, I can calculate their areas. Once I know their areas, I can add them up to determine the total area. That way, I’ll know how large the square needs to be and how long its sides are. Then I just fill the pieces in."

"Them? Areas? All of them? You can remember sixteen hundred pieces?" Xisluo reacted as if he’d just heard some absurd ghost story.

"What’s there not to remember? It’s merely sixteen hundred—only idiots wouldn’t remember," Negris said matter-of-factly.

"You... I..." Xisluo was struck hard, stammering for a moment before muttering under his breath, "I’m not an idiot."

"Haha, I still need to calculate slowly. If it were Ange, he’d finish it in a minute—believe it?" Negris remarked.

Ange’s Ring of Balance doesn’t even require calculations. With just a glance, he’d know the total area and could effortlessly assemble the pieces.

Xisluo stood there, dumbfounded and speechless for a long moment. While he definitely knew Ange, was that wooden-looking guy actually more "intelligent" than Negris?

"Done." Negris announced. Xisluo snapped out of his trance and saw a complete square displayed in the projection, as the door on the other side slowly opened.

"Freak!" Xisluo muttered venomously. Compared to Negris, he felt his own "intelligence" was reduced to mere cleverness.

The group successfully passed through three staircases and entered another chamber, where they were greeted by a gigantic face. A massive statue stood within a sunken space, its face level with Ange and the others’ entry point, making the face the first thing they saw upon entering.

"Huh? Isn’t that Ursman? Why is it sunken in?" Negris exclaimed in shock and asked with wide eyes.

"That’s Lord Ursman’s Statue of the Sage. The Wise Man once said: ’To understand something, you must stand at the same elevation. Truth cannot be seen from above,’" Xisluo said reverently.

"Huh? Did you really say that?" Negris turned to the page where Ursman resided for confirmation.

Ursman had been fiddling with his White Crystal on a different page. This crystal was his very essence.

The Star God’s Body is a unique existence—it manifests directly from the White Crystal’s energy. If the crystal shatters, the Star God’s Body can reverse the manifestation and reform the crystal.

This mechanism differs from the Soul Fire of Undead beings, which can condense physical forms from the fire. Without the soul, there’s no physical form, and the form cannot regenerate the soul.

If it’s Skeleton Necromancers, they birth new souls—a behavior entirely unlike the White Crystal phenomenon.

This bidirectional manifestation mechanism was a novel discovery for everyone, and they were still exploring its intricacies.

Upon hearing Negris’ question, Ursman pondered for a moment. "I think so. I once said, ’If you stand at the same elevation, you can see the scenery others see.’"

"Makes sense. Truly deserving of the title ’Wise Man.’ I’ve always wondered why humans have so little hair. Then, after I shrank, I realized that it’s only at the top of their heads that hair is sparse—the surrounding area actually has plenty. It’s just a matter of perspective. Hmm? What’s wrong? You both look upset," Negris commented while musing, then noticed Ursman and Xisluo’s faces darkening.

The two glared at him before aggressively pushing their surrounding hair upwards. Was baldness unavoidable, even in the Consciousness Space?

Negris chuckled awkwardly and quickly changed the subject. "Now what do we do?"

Xisluo explained, "Around the sunken space are various circular platforms. Stand on them to view the questions. Red platforms display cutting-edge questions that are groundbreaking—the entire association’s members haven’t solved them yet, so they’re marked as red."

"Each solved question earns points. Accumulate enough points, and you can activate contracts to gain members’ cooperation."

"Yellow platforms contain questions that have been answered but are unverifiable—marked as ’pending’ until someone reproduces the results."

"Blue platforms represent bounty questions from association members. Solving these can earn rewards, though they won’t grant points. Stick to the red ones for now—old questions that have already been solved are stored on the lowest-level bookshelves."

Negris nodded. "Got it. I’ll focus on the red ones."

"I’ll check the bookshelves," Anthony immediately responded.

Silver coin said, "I’ll look into the yellow and blue ones."

The group scattered, leaving Ange behind. This was typical—small matters wouldn’t trouble Ange, and everyone handled them independently, only seeking Ange for unsolvable problems.

Standing still, Ange tilted his head at the statue for a moment, then motioned with his hand. Suddenly, a torrent of Faith Elemental Force surged towards Ange’s outstretched palm.

The Sage’s Home had accumulated an immense amount of Faith Elemental Force. Without God Status, it simply remained clustered around the statue, now effortlessly absorbed by Ange.

In the brief moment it took for Ange to beckon, Negris swooped back. "Done. I solved six questions—enough points acquired."

"Kvada, freak!" Ursman and Xisluo muttered in unison.