I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 16

After explaining his plan to the girl once more, Mo Ling walked up to the cage.

He didn’t know if this would work, but he had to try.

Selecting the entire cage, Mo Ling activated teleportation, and the Dream Qilin instantly vanished before his eyes.

Mo Ling hurried into the kimchi space.

At this point, the Dream Qilin was already motionless.

Its entire body’s colors had dulled, the glow faded, and the color began to drain from the outside in.

The dazzling skin slowly faded to black, the speed of the change extremely fast.

The Dream Qilin grew darker and darker, until finally it became like the Black Horn-absolute blackness.

In a blink, the cage was empty.

He quickly returned outside and told Li Luo what had happened.

“We can wake up now.”

Li Luo nodded.

……

Mo Ling opened his eyes; it was still the familiar metal wall.

He habitually stood up, stopping just before hitting his head.

His legs were sore, so he stretched.

“How long had it been?”

Looking outside, Li Luo was also checking the time.

Ten minutes.

In all the time they’d spent in the dream, only ten minutes had passed outside.

Though he’d known time felt faster in dreams, the “one day in heaven, one year on earth” feeling still left Mo Ling dazed.

Li Luo turned around, apparently wanting to talk.

But when she saw only a lifeless metal cube instead of a person, she froze.

Mo Ling tossed a can outside.

The clang of metal snapped the girl back to reality.

There were more important things to do.

Listening closely, the dull vibrations had returned.

Mo Ling looked at the Black Horn inside the cube.

The Black Horn was still there, meaning something else had attracted the Oscillation Beasts’ attention.

He teleported the Black Horn to the ground in front of Li Luo.

This time, the flood of Oscillation Beasts didn’t surge over; judging by the fading sound, they seemed to be moving to the other side of the valley.

Li Luo picked up the Black Horn, listening intently to the sounds in the valley.

After confirming, she put the Black Horn back on the cube, and Mo Ling retrieved it.

At this moment, words weren’t needed-they both understood.

Li Luo got in the car and headed in the direction the Oscillation Beasts were moving.

From the direction, the Dream Qilin that had come to reality and the Black Horn found earlier weren’t in the same place.

Mo Ling was a bit worried.

“If his guess was right, where would it appear?”

Fortunately, the car hadn’t gone far before Li Luo found where the Oscillation Beasts were gathering.

She took out her recording device and began documenting the scene.

In the distance, the Oscillation Beasts were attacking their companions like mad.

A sea of red flesh slimes swept over, swallowing every isolated Oscillation Beast in its path.

Everything that had happened in the pit during the Black Horn struggle was happening again.

Whether it was because the Black Horn was gone or because the Dream Qilin’s true body had appeared, the Oscillation Beasts’ reaction was even more intense this time.

The tide of flesh slimes grew larger and soon underwent even stranger changes.

Oscillation Beasts caught in the tide abandoned their bodies, breaking free from the metal mesh and joining the wave.

To avoid being drowned, they all chose to become flesh slimes.

Soon, all the Oscillation Beasts in the wave were nothing but empty shells, no longer struggling.

The limbs sank, leaving behind an even more terrifying sea of slimes.

Not only that, but at the very front of the slime tide, a transformation began.

At first, you could still see the outline of individual slimes in the surging wave.

But gradually, the gaps between them were squeezed shut, the outlines blurring.

The slimes stuck together.

With the constant pressure, eventually, they had no space left to jump.

Countless slimes were compressed to their smallest form.

As the tide crested a hill, it actually stopped.

The slimes at the front were packed together by those behind, unable to move forward.

The once-bouncing flesh was forcibly suppressed, unable to move.

Mo Ling stared at the recording device, dumbfounded.

Too insane!

They’d been suppressed for too long.

The Red Rope Worm still drove them forward.

Finally, evolution began.

The flesh slimes, squeezed together, began to fuse.

It started at the very front, then spread backward.

Soon, the edges between slimes vanished, and a huge, wriggling creature slowly emerged.

All the slimes’ vibrations merged into one, instantly unified-a heavy, rhythmic tremor echoed through the valley.

It no longer stalled but moved forward slowly.

Finding its speed too slow, its rounded edge sprouted a tail, which swung to push it onward.

Then, like a tadpole, it grew four limbs and began crawling on the ground.

But its uncontrollable vibrations made its movement lurch and wobble.

So it changed tactics.

Jumping.

With each vibration, it leapt. After each leap, its forelimbs shrank, shifting power to its hind legs.

Soon, only two hind legs remained.

But each jump ended with a crash, the force injuring it.

So its ever-strengthening hind legs grew unsatisfied with mere jumping; it stood up, the hind legs lengthening and bending into the most shock-absorbing shape.

One step, two steps, three steps…

By the ninth step, this giant beast of flesh had become what it was at the start.

A massive Oscillation Beast was born.

Two unbalanced limbs alternated as it moved.

The limbs stabbed deep into the ground, and with each pulse of flesh, the cycle repeated, sending vibrations into the earth.

Its head was a bright red orb, blood gathering and darkening.

Below, as the blood drained, the limbs hardened, turning metallic.

It searched for ways to release its vibrations, finally evolving this form.

Seeing this Oscillation Beast appear, Mo Ling was filled with awe.

“So that’s how Oscillation Beasts evolved.”

He’d thought their bizarre shapes were just random.

But the first Oscillation Beast had always had uncontrollable vibrations.

No wonder they were so sensitive to vibration, so averse to it, even to the point of attacking their own kind.

From birth, these creatures had fought against their innate power.

They gained the power of vibration, but also suffered the pain it brought.

That is the cost!