I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 137

The Lord of True Speech’s words left everyone frozen in place.

Martin?

“Why are you here?” Bai Zhou couldn’t help asking.

“Who says I can’t be here?” Martin’s retort left Bai Zhou speechless.

Martin continued talking about his book.

He had studied his own power deeply and knew how to use books to trigger the criteria for Blood Replacement Therapy.

When robed figures exchanged blood with their companions, the distortion created by the Core in their bodies would deepen, making them feel their pronunciation was more standard and letting them master more knowledge.

The plants recorded in the book each had their own effects.

Some could make the robed figures physically stronger, some could clear their blood, and there was a special kind of leaf that could help them find the stone door and understand how to open it, and so on.

Martin wrote all these plants into the book.

He had the robed figures of Black Tower City copy and spread the book themselves, distributing this “textbook.”

Afterward, exhausted in both body and mind, he pretended to be sick and hid, pestering the Core every day.

“I didn’t know they’d changed my book like this. No wonder the correction progress has been so slow lately. The success rate of Blood Replacement Therapy must be too low,” Martin said, shaking his head helplessly.

So that’s how it was, the robed figures had altered Martin’s book without permission, causing problems with his Blood Replacement Therapy, which led to those self-harming robed figures.

Only a few lucky ones could accidentally trigger the criteria for Blood Replacement Therapy and successfully find the stone door.

Martin said helplessly, “Now there are two of you in the Black Tower who can’t be distorted. The correction plan definitely can’t be completed. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Wait!” Bai Zhou called after him. “Didn’t you try other ways to get out? Why do you have to help the Core?”

Martin shook his head. “Of course I tried. The Black Tower’s ghost walls are a kind of spatial overlay. The Core used sound to create many identical spaces, wrapping the Black Tower layer by layer like an onion. Unless he opens it himself, there’s no way out.”

“I even tried to kill the Core, but I couldn’t hurt him. He used the same trick to wrap himself up, and I couldn’t break through his protection.”

“What else could I do?” Martin spread his hands. “If you want to try, go ahead.”

Martin walked toward a hidden small door at the back of the chapel, behind which a tunnel stretched downward.

“The Core is down here. If you trust me, follow.” Martin looked unconcerned, walking down on his own.

Bai Zhou hesitated a moment, but followed.

The tunnel was extremely dim. Martin summoned that strange black light to illuminate the surroundings.

Bai Zhou and Li Luo followed him cautiously, still suspicious of Martin.

Mo Ling’s vision penetrated Martin’s body, but as always, it was empty, like a hollow shell.

He had inexplicably appeared in the Black Tower, completely unconcerned about human distortion, as if standing apart from it all, and even helped the Black Tower complete the “correction plan,” yet was very friendly to the two of them.

From previous records, Martin had shut down his sanatorium after discovering the phenomenon of his own Relic, which showed he still had a conscience.

“Why had he become like this?”

Not only that, Martin seemed to have acquired many strange abilities: a virtualized body, and the ability to move freely in the Black Tower.

What exactly had this “senior” who obtained Relic abilities at the start of the Cataclysm experienced?

As he was pondering, a dazzling purple light appeared ahead.

A huge purple crystal floated before them, quietly suspended in the air, with a white point of light at its center, bouncing continuously inside the transparent crystal.

When it noticed their arrival, the white point suddenly gathered at the front like an eye, staring intently at the newcomers…

“Core, I brought people to kill you!”

Martin, upon arriving, suddenly shouted this at the crystal, then jumped aside as if watching a show.

Bai Zhou and Li Luo instantly went on guard, staring warily at the Core.

But the white point inside the crystal didn’t react, just quietly watching the two of them.

Next, a cone-shaped beam of light shot from the white point toward Li Luo and Bai Zhou, scanning the two of them.

After a moment, the white point bounced up again, darting around inside the crystal.

A mechanical voice came from within the Core, its tone as crisp and hard as glass marbles dropping to the floor:

“Uncorrectable targets. Not included in the correction plan.”

Everyone present was stunned.

Martin, realizing what this meant, was clearly excited. “I thought you two would stall the correction plan.”

He pointed at the Core and said to Bai Zhou, “You can try killing him. He won’t resist.”

After saying this, Martin picked up a stone from the ground and threw it. The stone cracked the crystal shell, but the Core just stayed there, unmoving.

“He only answers questions and scans humans. That’s all he does. You can do whatever you want.”

Martin walked over to a tea table not far away, sat down, and started making tea, watching the two with interest.

There was hardly any dust in the teacup-it looked like he came here often.

“When you’re tired of playing, come have some tea with me. If you need combat support, just call me.” Martin leaned back in a comfortable chair and even closed his eyes.

Bai Zhou didn’t attack the Core as he suggested, but started talking to it, trying to persuade it to stop the correction plan, reasoning with it in every way.

But, as Martin had said, the Core was completely unmoved, always sticking to its own ideas.

“I must complete the correction plan. Once it’s done, she’ll come to find me.” No matter how Bai Zhou argued, the Core’s answer was always the same.

Bai Zhou was at a loss. After a moment of silence, he asked, “If I kill you, will the distortion stop?”

“Yes,” the Core replied with certainty.

“How can I kill you?”

The Core seemed not to hide anything, casually listing all sorts of strange ways, and kept going:

“Use the Relic ‘Suicide Technique’ to lock onto me and make me kill myself.”

“Put me into the ‘Proliferation Forest’ on the first layer of the Abyss and let my proliferating bodies kill me.”

“Use ultimate power to shatter my sound protection and kill my true body.”

……

The Core calmly described its various methods of death, but most of these were impossible to achieve.

To kill the Core, you’d need certain special Relics, or access to some strange regions within the Abyss, or absolute power.

None of these conditions could be met inside the Black Tower.

Still, Bai Zhou found a few possible breakthroughs. After thinking for a long time, he asked, “Where is your true body?”

The Core’s crisp voice echoed again:

“In sound.”