I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 14

As expected, the dream is connected.

He found Li Luo in this world.

They had arrived in the same dream.

Thinking this, Mo Ling moved closer to Li Luo and typed two words on the electronic screen.

“Wake up.”

He knew that Li Luo was already aware this was a dream and could wake up at any time.

But the girl shook her head.

“Not yet. I can’t wake up now-the investigation mission isn’t over.”

She then explained to Mo Ling.

Those Oscillation Beasts controlled by the Red Rope Worm weren’t trying to fight over the Black Horn, but all wanted to use the Black Horn to come to this world.

But for some reason, they couldn’t get here.

Maybe the dream didn’t accept them, or maybe they couldn’t pay the cost.

In previous records, there had never been any case of other creatures entering the Dream relic.

As for why Mo Ling and Li Luo could come to the dream without paying a cost, perhaps they had triggered some mechanism that let them bypass the payment.

Mo Ling suddenly realized he hadn’t paid any cost, and had even stolen all the kimchi that was supposed to be the cost.

He had a strange thought.

“I brought the kimchi from that weird space into Dream Dawn City, but isn’t this still inside the dream?”

“Left hand to right hand-does that count as stealing?”

Mo Ling couldn’t figure it out, so he emptied his mind and kept listening to Li Luo’s explanation.

“The Red Rope Worm can only parasitize living creatures, and there’s only one kind of creature that can live inside the dream.”

Li Luo took out the electronic screen and typed a word-Dream Qilin.

She handed the screen to Mo Ling.

……

It was a creature discovered in the Abyss First Layer.

When people first entered the Abyss, they hadn’t seen this creature.

It had no physical form, or at least no one had found a physical body yet.

At the time, Hunters were just starting to explore the Abyss.

Because Hunters faced all kinds of strange creatures every day, even if they dreamed of such a creature, they didn’t find it odd.

They just thought it was “daytime thoughts, nighttime dreams.”

No one mentioned it to others.

At most, companions would chat and suddenly realize they’d both dreamed of the same-looking creature, one they’d never seen in real life.

But even then, no one paid much attention.

Until one day, a Hunter came to the hospital at the First Monitoring Station, stammering to the doctor about his injury.

When the doctor asked how he got hurt, he finally told the doctor about the strange creature he’d met in a dream.

That night, the Hunter had drunk a lot of water.

So in the middle of the night, he dreamed he was driving, and halfway there, suddenly needed to pee.

He parked by the roadside and found a hidden bush.

Just as he pulled down his pants, he saw a colorful creature in the bushes.

The creature looked like a horse, but much smaller, maybe only a meter tall, with a single horn on its head.

It hid in the roadside grass, its whole body dazzling with light, colors swirling like a rainbow.

In the darkness, it was so bright, like a blurry rainbow texture, making the Hunter’s head spin.

He didn’t know why, but his brain glitched.

He peed on the rainbow creature.

Then he was kicked on the spot and woke up in pain.

Not only was his bedding wet, but the pain from the dream showed up in his real body.

And the injured spot matched exactly with the dream, so that’s why the wound was in such a weird place.

The doctor looked at his swollen injury, holding back laughter as he applied medicine.

This Hunter’s story was so funny, it spread widely-even from the monitoring station to Dawn City.

That was the first time people discovered traces of the Dream Qilin.

After that, people became curious about this creature.

Being able to live in dreams was just too strange.

Many researchers eagerly studied it.

But since the Dream Qilin only appeared in dreams and had no physical body, research quickly hit a wall.

Still, people gradually learned its habits, and it became a famous Abyss creature.

Later, other Hunters also found Dream Qilins in their dreams.

It wasn’t harmful-if you didn’t bother it, it would ignore you.

But if you provoked it, it would attack you directly.

Most people would wake up from the pain.

Then they’d find that the place attacked by the Dream Qilin in the dream was injured in real life.

Some people were even gored to death by its horn in their dreams.

When their companions found them, they were clutching their necks, which had a hole straight through.

Mo Ling was puzzled.

“How could someone get stabbed in the neck by such a short creature?”

There were lots of records about the Dream Qilin, because it was so eye-catching.

Its rainbow-colored skin was hard not to notice.

Although it could harm people in bizarre ways, officials still classified it as a harmless creature.

After reading the records,

Mo Ling wrote his question on the electronic screen.

“Can this creature also be parasitized by the Red Rope Worm?”

Li Luo nodded and said, “Yes, as long as it’s a living creature.”

Mo Ling was still wondering how to find the Dream Qilin in Dawn City-such a small creature.

But Li Luo had already made a call, and soon got a reply.

After a few words, she turned to Mo Ling and said, “Found it. Just wait a bit, they’re bringing it over.”

Mo Ling marveled again at how money really could do anything.

“So efficient.”

Soon, a group of people in black brought a caged Dream Qilin to Li Luo’s house.

Mo Ling walked to the cage and examined the Dream Qilin.

It really did look like a rainbow pony, its skin like spilled paint.

The colors glowed, constantly swirling over its skin.

Every part of it was covered in flowing color, its outline blurred, with no visible eyes or details.

Its appearance was completely different from the surrounding environment, like a texture error in a video game.

The Dream Qilin didn’t resist, just stayed in the cage and obediently ate food.

Looking at the bowl, it was Mo Ling’s familiar kimchi.

That’s right, the Dream Qilin’s favorite food was kimchi.

When the Dream Qilin was first discovered, a Hunter in a dream found it stealing kimchi from their home.

Once researchers learned that the Dream Qilin loved kimchi, they naturally linked it to the Dream relic.

Some even said there was no Dream relic at all.

It was the kimchi that attracted the Dream Qilin, which then brought people into dreams.

But this theory didn’t hold up, since it couldn’t explain the glass jar and the weight requirement.

Not to mention, the Dream Qilin would show up in people’s dreams on its own.

In the end, people could only treat it as a coincidence.

Maybe kimchi and dreams just had some mysterious connection?