I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 145

The Cult Leader didn’t continue to pay attention. He had been quite frightened by the dump truck just now.

“Keep waking up.”

He began constantly opening his eyes, but still hadn’t reached reality. The phone beside him kept glowing.

“Still the same call. How am I not there yet? Just how deep did I go this time?”

He couldn’t quite remember. When time passed too long in dreams, he would forget which layer he was on.

“This awakening seems to be taking a while.” The Cult Leader also realized something was wrong, but continuously opening his eyes didn’t require much effort. While feeling puzzled, he had already opened his eyes many times.

Open eyes, open eyes, open eyes…

Finally, when he opened his eyes again, there was no longer any phone light beside him.

“Am I there?”

He wiped his blurry eyes, only to discover that what was before him didn’t seem to be his familiar ceiling.

Where was this?

He found himself sleeping on a bed, with dense text covering the sky above.

“He found himself sleeping on a bed, with dense text covering the sky above.” He read this passage aloud.

“He read this passage aloud.”

The more he looked, the more horrified he became. The text above actually recorded things he had experienced. The distant text was too blurry to see clearly.

The Cult Leader discovered that his next actions were already recorded in that text.

“He panicked, his hand slipped, and he fell from the bed.”

Are these my next actions?

The Cult Leader slowly sat up, only then discovering that beneath this textual dome were countless beds.

On each narrow bed slept a different person. These people were peacefully dreaming, as if they would never wake up.

The text and beds were arranged densely, extending beyond sight.

The Cult Leader’s eyes widened. That layer of terrifying textual canopy seemed to be constantly descending, perhaps about to fall at any moment.

This was still a dream, right?

Looking at this bizarre scene before him, the Cult Leader felt he had mistakenly entered an unknown area of dreamland. He quickly closed his eyes, wanting to escape.

But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that the textual canopy that had been hanging far above was now pressed against his face, those terrifying giant characters pressed tightly against his nose.

Because it was so close, he couldn’t make out the content of the text, but he could see the gorgeous colored pixels on the characters.

These pixels flickered while emitting dazzling colored light.

He could even feel his breath being blocked by the textual canopy, with warm air currents circulating back to his face.

He panicked, his hand slipped, and he fell from the bed.

The Cult Leader didn’t fall onto the ground, but tumbled down into endless void.

The textual canopy and sea of beds spread high above, growing farther away as he fell, until both text and beds became invisible pixel dots.

The Cult Leader’s mind was now completely confused. He only felt that during his fall he passed through countless beds.

He could feel the sensation of lying on beds, yet also feel himself sinking into their interiors.

He didn’t know how long this cycle continued.

The phones around him kept glowing continuously, their successive flashes forming a white line extending to the horizon.

He felt like he was riding a rapidly descending elevator. When the light stopped flickering, he found himself lying on a bed in an upscale hospital, his body covered in casts.

The butler who had led him into the estate earlier was standing beside him, holding an identical confidentiality agreement.

“You managed to survive even this,” the butler said calmly while organizing things. “The master won’t kill someone twice. You’re really lucky.”

The butler took his immobilized hand, pressed it onto an ink pad, then stamped a handprint on the agreement.

Somehow his signature was already on the agreement.

Seeing his shocked gaze, the butler explained, “Your signature wasn’t hard to obtain.”

“Alright, your injuries aren’t too serious. You’ll be discharged in a while. From now on, just collect money every month.”

“If only you’d done this earlie,how nice that would have been.”

The butler carefully placed the agreement in a briefcase and walked out…

Some time later, the Cult Leader returned home, but everything at home shocked him even more.

The stockpiled kimchi had disappeared.

Only empty glass jars remained…

There was still one jar, placed in a conspicuous position, as if reminding him.

That jar had neither more nor less, and the seal at the mouth was perfectly intact.

“500g.”

The Cult Leader tremblingly picked up the kimchi jar, placed it under his pillow, then lay down.

His wounds hadn’t healed yet and were faintly aching.

The visualized black hole was etched in his memory.

He didn’t know what he was thinking about, perhaps his deceased father, perhaps his numb mother, perhaps his own novels, perhaps that speeding dump truck.

“Too absurd.”

His thoughts sank into the black hole.

Entering the dream.

So this was reality.

……

“This is what the Dream Cult Leader experienced. After this incident, he founded the Dream Cult, wanting to lead everyone to escape this world.”

“Because of that experience, his mind was already somewhat abnormal. He told everyone he met that this world was being toyed with by the Creator, that his life was controlled by the Creator, whether it was terminal illness, amnesia, or car accidents—all arranged by the Creator.”

Martin said slowly.

Mo Ling was somewhat puzzled. “How do you know about his affairs?”

“I had already joined the officials then. I was present when investigating this matter. We used a Relic that could extract memories from corpses to obtain this information, but this information couldn’t be made public and had to be hidden.”

“Actually, the officials have known about many things for a long time, but this information might cause panic or produce some kind of contamination, so it’s not released.”

“Some of our colleagues even speculated that knowing about this might attract the Creator’s attention—that’s the possible cost I mentioned to you.”

Martin explained seriously, as if everything he said could corroborate each other.

“Why would knowing the world’s essence attract attention?” Mo Ling asked.

“Other worlds wouldn’t, but the essence of our world is a book. The Creator likes people who see through the world’s essence, because these ‘characters’ have the potential to become heroes.”

“Just like how you also enjoy stories with twists and turns and characters who can break through worlds, the Creator is the same. Not only that, he’ll make your experiences even more turbulent, with ups and downs.”

Martin thought for a moment and gave an example. “For instance, if you go somewhere, you’ll definitely encounter a crisis. The crisis will definitely have a big boss that’s the hero and demon lord dynamic. He might even arrange a princess and companions for you, regardless of whether they’re useful.”

“In short, you’ll feel that your adventure is particularly exciting.”

As Martin spoke, he asked Mo Ling in return, “Do you feel like you’re being watched?”

“No, I think things are quite normal.”

“That’s good.” Martin’s hand relaxed slightly. “From when you few found me, I felt something was off, like everything became full of twists and turns…”

Mo Ling felt Martin was overthinking. He didn’t really believe what Martin said about the world’s essence, though it was interesting.

As for being watched, that was even more impossible.

“There’s no way a hero would be a cube, right?”