I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 15

Looking at the blurry rainbow mass in the cage, Mo Ling marveled at the wonders of the Abyss.

But he still felt something was off.

“It’s missing its horn,” Li Luo reminded him.

Mo Ling suddenly understood.

This obedient Dream Qilin didn’t have the single horn described in the records-the swirling colors had made him almost miss it.

Once he realized this, he immediately thought of something.

“That Black Horn outside!”

Though one was pure black and the other was rainbow, they shared a common trait:

That weird, glitched-out color.

Li Luo must have noticed too.

Mo Ling leaned in close to the Dream Qilin to compare.

The thin Black Horn’s length really did match this Dream Qilin.

“If it really was the Dream Qilin’s horn, why had it gone to the real world?”

Mo Ling was baffled.

Then he remembered what Li Luo had said about the Red Rope Worm.

So he peered into the Dream Qilin’s body.

Still endless color.

The Dream Qilin was like a creature made of paint, with no flesh or normal biological structures.

The kimchi it ate turned into colored light as soon as it entered its mouth, merging into its body.

Soon, amid the swirling rainbow, Mo Ling found that abrupt red rope.

A huge Red Rope Worm was hiding inside the Dream Qilin.

It kept gnawing at the Dream Qilin, so much so that its whole body glowed.

This giant Red Rope Worm matched the description of a mother worm-much bigger than the male.

Those Oscillation Beasts outside were searching for this Dream Qilin!

Mo Ling quickly told Li Luo what he’d found via the electronic screen.

This confirmed Li Luo’s theory.

A bunch of male worms in reality were searching for a female worm living in the dream!

But they could never find her.

Mo Ling fell into thought again.

“Why hadn’t the Dream Qilin’s horn healed?”

Then he thought of the nature of the worm.

All evolution was to let the two meet.

In other hosts, the healing ability evolved so the infected creature could reach its target.

But this broken horn had instead created a chance for them to meet.

The horn, caught between dream and reality-two worlds that could never meet-became a bridge.

So the Red Rope Worm didn’t see this as an obstacle, and didn’t make the Dream Qilin evolve healing.

That’s the rule of the Red Rope Worm.

Though the Oscillation Beasts outside couldn’t enter the dream yet,

Maybe one day, they’d evolve the ability to do so.

Then they’d find the Dream Qilin.

And at that point, the worms and Oscillation Beasts would die off, and the Oscillation Beast anomaly would end.

“Is that the only way?”

Round and round, back to the “let it rot” method.

Mo Ling still thought the horn that went to reality was the key.

But first, he had to be 100% sure the Black Horn was connected to the Dream Qilin.

Mo Ling picked up the electronic screen and asked Li Luo, “Do you have any weapons?”

Li Luo was startled, but quickly handed him a handle.

With a twist, a sharp spike extended from the handle, and she handed it to Mo Ling.

Under Li Luo’s shocked gaze, Mo Ling raised the spike and stabbed the Dream Qilin.

Rainbow-colored blood gushed from the wound.

The paint-like blood hit the floor, gradually lost its color, and turned pure black.

Exactly the same as the Black Horn in reality.

Once it turned black, it quickly vanished into the air.

The blood’s transformation made Mo Ling even more certain of his guess.

The Dream Qilin, after being attacked, thrashed around the cage, unable to escape.

Mo Ling kept attacking, poking many holes in the Dream Qilin.

The Red Rope Worm quickly did its job.

The Dream Qilin’s wounds kept healing.

Mo Ling’s attack made the Dream Qilin evolve healing.

Phew-

After all that, Mo Ling breathed a sigh of relief.

It was a risky move, since he didn’t know what else the Dream Qilin could do.

After all, there was little research on this creature.

After the Dream Qilin evolved healing, a short horn suddenly sprouted from its head, then grew longer.

With healing, the broken horn quickly regrew.

It worked!

Mo Ling looked at Li Luo and handed the spike back.

“Switch to a knife-the sharpest you’ve got.”

Li Luo quickly found him one.

Taking the knife, Mo Ling chopped off the Dream Qilin’s horn.

The Dream Qilin collapsed in pain, struggling on the ground-it made Mo Ling feel sorry for it.

He picked up the horn and watched it turn black, finally becoming identical to the Black Horn in reality.

Then the Black Horn vanished.

Seeing Li Luo’s puzzled look, Mo Ling explained on the electronic screen, “Once it leaves the Dream Qilin’s body, it goes to the real world.”

That was just Mo Ling’s theory, but it fit reality best.

And previous experiments confirmed it.

“If we can’t send the Oscillation Beasts into the dream, then let’s send the Dream Qilin into reality.”

Mo Ling had his next step ready.

“Now we just need to remove every part of the Dream Qilin’s body.”

In other words, instantly kill the Dream Qilin!

Mo Ling told Li Luo his plan.

Li Luo was surprised, then fell into thought.

After a moment, she asked, “Do you need a nuke?”

Mo Ling quickly waved his hands-he already had an idea.

He told the girl to wait, then went to the balcony, found a bug in a flowerpot, and used teleportation.

Then he entered the kimchi-filled space and found the now-dead bug on the ground.

This was Mo Ling’s idea for instantly killing the Dream Qilin.

He planned to teleport the Dream Qilin into the kimchi space and kill it instantly.

Before, Mo Ling didn’t know why teleportation killed living creatures.

The first possibility: any creature entering the cube dies, so the Dream Qilin would still be alive in the kimchi space.

If that were true, Mo Ling planned to teleport the Dream Qilin out and throw it into all kinds of extreme environments.

But that might just make the Dream Qilin keep evolving.

But it didn’t look like that was necessary.

The second possibility: anything teleported by him dies instantly.