I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 114

“Replaced by other words…”

Mo Ling thought of that Hunter’s speech earlier, indeed, some words had been completely replaced.

He could understand every word, but the sentences made no sense at all.

So strange.

“Did that Hunter absorb some Hieroglyph?”

But if it’s the cost of a relic, why run? The more Mo Ling thought, the more wrong it seemed.

Li Luo also started checking, but found no strange Hieroglyph on her body.

If the Hunter was right, this language disorder should be area-based, which doesn’t match the Hieroglyph.

Li Luo changed her search parameters, but still found no other matching relic phenomena.

Mo Ling thought again of the red headscarf ; its cost could override Li Luo’s language disorder and restore her to normal. Didn’t that prove the Black Tower was a kind of identity recognition distortion?

The more he thought, the more confused he became. Maybe I just don’t have enough information.

After searching fruitlessly, Li Luo led Mo Ling farther from the Black Tower.

However, even with the headscarf on, Li Luo still couldn’t leave the Black Tower’s range, the headscarf seemed useless against this looping phenomenon.

After thinking it over, there was only one option: head toward the Black Tower.

Since they were now immune to the distortion, it was better to go inside and investigate.

After discussing, the two decided to stop trying to escape and head for the interior of the Black Tower.

Soon, black towers resembling coral reefs appeared in Mo Ling’s vision.

Just like the pictures, the place was indeed full of life, with all sorts of plants growing in the holes.

Countless small animals darted through the gaps between the towers.

All these plants and animals looked perfectly normal, with nothing unusual.

Li Luo even pulled up the local biological database and compared each species near the Black Tower-everything matched in appearance and behavior.

“No effect on plants and animals?”

“Was this a distortion targeting only humans? Or perhaps any creature with language?”

With these questions, the two continued, weaving through the gaps between towers, soon arriving at a high wall.

“What is this place?”

Mo Ling’s vision was limited; he couldn’t see the wall’s edge, but saw Li Luo had already looked up.

This was the Black Tower!

Mo Ling suddenly understood-the Black Tower was so tall he could only see part of it, so he’d thought it was a wall!

The holes in the wall were also very spacious, extending deep inside.

“No wonder this could serve as a monitoring station-the interior space is huge.”

Mo Ling also saw signs of human activity: some silver-white metal steps were set up in the uneven holes, and ladders had been installed at holes with large height differences.

These were all for human convenience, but Mo Ling saw no humans.

There were also guardhouse-like structures outside the holes, and some hidden places had surveillance cameras, but the booths were empty and it was unclear if the cameras still worked.

“Where had everyone gone?”

Finding a wide hole, Li Luo climbed up the ladder.

Here, the signs of human construction were even more obvious-a broad walkway led deep inside, with rows of lights along the sides.

But apparently, with no one maintaining them, some of the lights were already broken.

Li Luo carefully walked along the path, finding that the deeper she went, the larger the space became.

As the holes grew bigger, the traces of human construction became more obvious-simple houses appeared on both sides of the road, apparently used as storage.

Some were for weapons, but all the weapons were gone, only some discarded parts remained.

Other houses seemed to be for food storage; the food was still there, piles of cans neatly arranged, all still unexpired and edible.

But some mushroom-like foods had completely rotted-these must have been picked from inside the Black Tower.

There were also storerooms for daily necessities, all untouched.

“Only the weapons are gone?” Mo Ling had a bad feeling.

That was a dangerous sign, it meant the people here had been in a hurry, only able to take weapons.

Or maybe they only had time to grab weapons to fight back.

But Mo Ling couldn’t understand, “if it was just language distortion, why would people take up weapons?”

“What were they planning to fight?”

Li Luo, very cautious, kept moving forward, reaching a wide intersection of holes, a hub connecting all the surrounding passages.

She opened her electronic screen; the map showed a plaza ahead, the original settlement site for the Black Tower’s inhabitants.

Sure enough, before reaching the center, they saw dense clusters of buildings, which, judging by the structure, were residential.

The outer walls of these houses showed signs of repeated expansion, likely converted from temporary shelters.

Inside, the facilities were complete-refrigerators, all kinds of kitchenware, even running water and central heating pipes, all apparently planned out.

Mo Ling even saw a sewer system, connecting natural holes underground.

This wasn’t a temporary camp at all, but an area built for long-term living.

Yet, the residential area was empty.

Inside the houses, food left on the tables had completely spoiled, as if the residents had suddenly left in a hurry, with no preparation.

The houses were all intact, never attacked.

“Where did they all go?”

The two wound through the alleys between houses, heading toward the plaza ahead.

Just then, voices came from up ahead.

Li Luo was very cautious, not rushing forward, but instead took out a probe device and carefully sent it ahead.

The probe slipped through a narrow alley and reached the plaza.

The scene on the electronic screen took their breath away.

“What are they doing?”

A large group of Hunters wore standard combat suits, but over them donned loose, uniform robes.

They could have used electric lights, but instead waved torches, bathing the plaza in red light, like some religious ritual.

A tall Hunter in a robe stood on a high platform, speaking animatedly, but the sentences, made up of familiar words, were utterly meaningless.

Mo Ling suddenly realized, their language was distorted!

Every time the robed figure on the platform spoke, the crowd cheered, waving torches in response.

Their responses were also incomprehensible. Mo Ling listened carefully and found the sentences were a jumble of words, each word understandable, but together making no sense.

Another language disorder.

But as Mo Ling watched the screen, he suddenly realized this language disorder might be completely different from what he’d imagined.

These robed people could actually understand each other!

That is, after the words were replaced, the substitutions were the same for everyone, so they were communicating with new words, but the meaning hadn’t changed at all.

If two people both used “towel” to mean “cell phone,”

Then there’d be no communication barrier between them!