I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 152

Mo Ling was so shocked he couldn’t speak.

These were all Martin!

He looked toward the Martin who had been accompanying him all along. His glass jar head was completely shattered, with only bits of kimchi able to seep out from inside. His body was swaying unsteadily, as if he might collapse at any moment.

“I’m Number 500. Let me reintroduce myself,” he mustered his energy to introduce himself to Mo Ling, his voice extremely weak.

“Are you alright?” Seeing his listless state, Mo Ling asked with concern.

“He’s fine, he just exhausted his energy. He’ll be better after resting for a while,” Number 736 beside them explained.

Several nearby Martins came over and helped support Number 500, seating him on a stone block nearby.

“Is it because of dream traversal?” Mo Ling was somewhat worried.

“Dream traversal doesn’t require much energy. The main reason he’s exhausted is because of time synchronization. If time isn’t synchronized, the time flow differences between dream layers can cause terrible consequences.”

“You didn’t stay long on Layer 1 and Layer 0, but after returning to Layer 500, decades might have already passed.”

So that was it, Martin had actually considered so much.

“Thank you for rescuing us from the Black Tower,” 736 thanked him again.

Mo Ling found this strange. “I only rescued Number 500, didn’t I?”

Number 736 shook his head. “No, your ability penetrated through the dreamscape and killed the Cores on all layers. That’s why 500 asked for your help with the rescue.”

All of them were killed?

Mo Ling didn’t know his teleportation had such an effect.

He had always thought the other dream layers also had identical Relic cubes, and that they had killed the Cores on other layers, rescuing these Martins.

The weakened Number 500 explained, “The moment the Black Tower’s seal was lifted, all the Martins reestablished contact. It was only then that I learned you only appeared on Layer 500.”

“You are unique,” he said with some emotion, unable to hide his excitement.

Number 736 excitedly explained that they had never encountered such a thing before.

Every layer of the dreamscape was exactly the same, this was the foundation that allowed Martin to stand out from the dreamscape.

At first, they all believed this to be true.

All the Martins had the same background, the same circumstances, even the same blood replacement abilities. They began establishing contact the moment they entered the dream.

Then, one by one, the Martins passed on the awakening flame, allowing all Martins to be reborn as a result.

But they were also pondering a question: where did the Martin on Layer 1 come from?

This was a huge variable.

Before this, some Martins had already understood the structure of the entire dream world. They discovered that those bodies on Layer 0 were all empty shells.

They were very hard, connected to the beds, completely lifeless objects no different from statues. But because of this, they gained the ability to resist the textual canopy.

The textual canopy was like seawater, it rose and fell. When the tide receded, it would crash heavily onto the empty shells, but couldn’t cause any damage to these stone-hard shells.

These empty shells had no thoughts and naturally wouldn’t dream down to Layer 1.

This would cause the dream world to be different, which was obviously completely unlike their initial understanding.

Unless there would be a “Number 0” who appeared out of thin air, he would also be unique.

After this Number 0 returned to Layer 0, when the textual canopy pressed down, only death awaited him. At that time, every layer’s Martin would die.

But all the Martins had been awake for a long time, yet they hadn’t died now, this was an established fact.

This meant Number 0 would continue to live well afterward.

Could it be that someone saved him?

They kept thinking, if someone really had saved Number 0, where was this “rescuer”?

It wasn’t until Number 500 notified all the Martins about Mo Ling’s appearance that they realized truly unique things did exist in the dreamscape. That ability to touch the essence of the world also delighted them greatly.

“This is a very shocking discovery!”

Only something unique could save the unique Number 0.

It was then that Number 0’s “rescuer” was confirmed.

When Martin asked Mo Ling if he could help him with a favor, he already knew the result—Mo Ling would definitely help.

No matter what he did, the final result would be a successful rescue.

The result had long been determined.

Just like at the beginning, when Martin escaped from the research institute and randomly selected a flower pot.

“Whatever I picked would definitely be muddy, and would definitely make that guard who fired slip and fall.”

The escape would definitely succeed too.

Just like that seemingly childish blood replacement formula, where all materials were in “appropriate” amounts, with processing methods according to one’s inner thoughts.

“Actually, my thoughts and choices were already determined, I just didn’t know it at the time.”

However, Martin could have “casually” brought Mo Ling along, but he still earnestly asked that question: “Can you trust me?”

He sincerely shared his experiences with Mo Ling, laid out all his abilities, making Mo Ling willingly help him.

After hearing everything Martin recounted, Mo Ling’s heart was tremendously shaken.

“It was already determined long ago?”

When he first heard Martin’s experiences, he hadn’t felt that sense of being controlled by fate, but after experiencing it personally and becoming one link in the chain, Mo Ling finally felt that sense of powerlessness.

“Don’t you all feel despair? Every Martin will awaken like this, then escape along the prescribed route, follow the same formula for successful blood replacement, without a single exception.”

Mo Ling looked at the countless Martins in the distance and asked worriedly.

Number 500’s voice was somewhat weak, but his tone was incredibly firm. “So what? Every step here was my choice.”

Number 736 beside him also added, “It was my choice to enter the dream.”

The countless Martins around them also spoke up in response.

“It was my choice to escape.”

“It was my choice to undergo blood replacement.”

……

“It was my choice to explore the truth of the world. Even though I’ve long been distorted by some Relic, this was still my choice.”

Each of their tones was incredibly firm, just like when they had told Mo Ling the truth about the world.

“Besides, don’t you think such a world better fits my speculation? The cause and effect of everything has long been determined, just like a novel.”

“You’ve also seen that textual canopy. Though it might all be illusion, the content on it can’t be faked.”

“Cause, process, result, forming our world in one continuous flow. Even if you erased all the previous content, the final result would still be written there completely.”

“Perhaps in the Creator’s mind, Martin is someone who would discover the world’s truth. Maybe this too is a result that was determined long ago?”

Despite talking about something quite chilling, Number 500 was unusually excited, then said something even more startling:

“Would you like to join me in tearing open a gap in the textual canopy?”