I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 135

Deciphering the entire language system wasn’t difficult for the Lord of True Speech. He had already studied many languages and it didn’t take him long.

The hardest part was that some words’ pronunciations didn’t follow the system.

That required long-term study, and the Lord of True Speech didn’t think he could ever fully grasp those obscure pronunciations.

So he went to the core again and asked, “How much of the correction have I completed? How much is left?”

Originally, the Lord of True Speech just wanted to get a sense of his progress, about how many more words he needed to learn to meet the core’s “correction” requirement.

But the core shot a beam of light at him, scanning for a long time, and then said something that surprised him greatly, “Correction complete.”

Correction complete?

So, it wasn’t necessary to understand every word completely-just reaching a certain level counted as passing.

This delighted the Lord of True Speech, and he quickly asked, “I’ve completed the correction, so you can let me out now, right?”

But the core’s next words plunged him into despair.

“When all humans inside the Black Tower have completed correction, the Black Tower will open.”

Hearing this, the Lord of True Speech realized that his own correction was only a partial success.

This made him even more hopeless. For everyone to complete correction-how long would that take?

He thought of the ignorant robed figures and sighed helplessly.

The Lord of True Speech conversed with the core, and because he had learned the twisted language, he quickly figured out the core’s standard for “correction complete.”

The core’s requirements weren’t high; it didn’t need a huge vocabulary, but cared more about the standardization of pronunciation, the power of the shadow had to reach its peak.

In the core’s view, the twisted people in the Black Tower all had sufficient vocabulary, but their pronunciation was not standard. Most couldn’t even summon a shadow.

This twisted language was a symbol of power: as long as you pronounced it, power would be produced. But because the robed people’s pronunciation was extremely nonstandard, they could even use this language for conversation.

These conversations made their pronunciation even less standard, and everyone’s accent was thrown off.

The Lord of True Speech also understood this. After he corrected his own pronunciation, he couldn’t casually speak this language anymore, if he could still speak, it meant his pronunciation wasn’t correct.

So, when communicating with the robed figures, he would deliberately distort his pronunciation so as not to summon a shadow.

“Language is power, not a means of communication,” the core stated mechanically.

If you want to communicate, you lose power; if you want to keep power, you must forbid communication.

You can’t have both.

At this, the Lord of True Speech seemed to understand the core’s goal: it wanted to turn humans into a race that used language as power.

“Why do you want to correct humans?” the Lord of True Speech asked in confusion.

“Because you have gone astray, wasting powerful language,” the core replied flatly, his voice without any emotion.

“Weren’t you the one who led humans astray? Wasn’t it you who created the distortion?” The Lord of True Speech was even more confused.

Hearing this, the core paused. It flickered with purple light, brightening and dimming like breathing, as if it were thinking.

The Lord of True Speech was shocked, this was the first time he’d seen the core pause. Before, it always answered quickly, like a machine.

The purple light slowly brightened. The core shot another beam of light, scanning the Lord of True Speech repeatedly.

After scanning, the core paused again. After a while, it returned to normal, and that faint mechanical voice sounded again,

“You… forgot?”

……

Humans didn’t have language from the beginning.

At that time, they only used strange cries, facial expressions, and gestures to communicate.

When angry, they bared their teeth; when happy, they laughed; when sad, they cried; when hurt, they wailed.

When they saw prey, the human leader would wave a hand, and the companions behind would raise their weapons and charge, shouting their fighting spirit.

Simple and crude.

One day, a very close friend came to the core and said she wanted to grant humans a kind of power-humans were too weak.

So she came to the core, hoping to borrow the power of language.

The power of language didn’t require a strong body or much training. As long as you could speak, you could summon powerful shadows. This was perfect for weak humans.

“Your power is tailor, made for them. Don’t you want to see what your power will become in their hands?” The friend persuaded the core, wanting him to pass on the power of language to humans.

The core didn’t care how humans developed, nor did he care if others learned his power. He only knew he liked this friend.

Liked her very, very much.

The core also knew this friend loved humans deeply, almost to the point of obsession.

So, he agreed and came to Earth, passing on his power of language to the still,ignorant humans.

At that time, humans regarded the core as a god and saw this language power as a divine gift.

The core didn’t care about this. He only knew that because of this, his friend came to see him much more often.

“Look, they’re using this power to hunt! Those weapons, they made them. Why don’t they just use the power to create cooked food? So silly.”

“They’re even using the power to move stones. Looks like they want to build a tower, but why not just create the stones directly? So cute!”

The friend happily watched the humans’ childish behavior, while the core happily watched her.

“Do you think they’re cute?”

“Cute.”

“Great! Finally, someone who thinks like me! In the whole Abyss, only you understand me.”

Hearing her praise, the core felt a joy he’d never known.

Humans placed their hunted prey on a triangular stone tower, making childish offerings to the core.

Those little people neatly arranged all sorts of items, wearing fancy clothes and making clumsy gestures.

“Praise the gods!”

The core felt nothing.

But the friend exclaimed “So cute!” and even wanted to rush over and pinch the little people, but finally restrained her excitement.

The core didn’t know what it meant. He just answered her questions absentmindedly, always agreeing with her.

He didn’t care about humans at all, nor did he have any opinion on these silly, childish acts.

“See, even after they die, they put them in the tower, then build more towers. Humans care a lot about ritual, it’s awe of nature and respect for ancestors.”

“Humans are weak, but they keep trying to live. They use your language power well, so great.”

“You think they’re amazing too, right?” the friend asked the core.

“Yes, amazing.”