I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 166

Old Xu thought for a long time but still shook his head, indicating he had never seen such a situation before. It was as if his ability had malfunctioned.

His intuitive measuring stick seemed to bypass the Cube entirely, pointing directly at the surroundings.

It was as if some kind of magnetic field was blocking his perception.

“Even the air has a danger level, but this Relic doesn’t. How marvelous,” Old Xu said, actually sighing in admiration.

“This is the first time I’ve seen such a Relic. The Abyss truly contains everything.”

After observing for a long time, he finally sat back down and discussed with Li Luo about the recent anomalies appearing in Oasis City.

In Old Xu’s intuitive perception, the danger level of the entire Oasis City was rising sharply. Only certain things maintained negative values, which was why Old Xu thought there might be something wrong with his intuition.

Conversely, the fountain and certain Relics were beginning to decrease in danger level, with increasingly larger negative values.

“Could it be that Oasis City is about to face some kind of danger?” Li Xiangyi asked worriedly.

Hearing this, Old Xu’s expression became increasingly grave. “We should make some preparations.”

He looked at his teacup and murmured, “This teacup’s danger level has reached 11. If my intuition really isn’t malfunctioning, then this might be a huge crisis enveloping all of Oasis City.”

As he was speaking, Old Xu suddenly widened his eyes.

“12 now.”

“13…”

“……”

“109!”

Old Xu suddenly stood up, looking around and staring at everything in shock.

What was happening?

Just as they were puzzled, Old Xu suddenly shouted at Li Luo and Li Xiangyi, “Get out of here quickly!”

At the same time, he kept muttering, “It’s broken through 1000! How could this place reach 1000?”

Li Luo and Li Xiangyi instantly understood what Old Xu meant—the danger level of the area they were in was rapidly increasing.

Something was about to happen!

The group hurriedly ran toward the yard’s exit, but they had barely taken a few steps when they heard a tremendous noise.

A huge crack appeared between the tall buildings, instantly rushing toward them.

Was this an earthquake?

Not only that, the terrifying fissure kept extending. In just a few seconds it covered the entire yard, as if the soil had suddenly burst open.

The soft soil cracked rapidly like an ice surface. The fleeing group was instantly shaken down by the trembling, vibrating ground.

The fissure was rapidly growing larger, swallowing the fallen group.

This was bad!

Mo Ling quickly controlled the Cube to fly toward the bottom of the fissure, but the crack was too dark, he didn’t know where the fallen people had gone.

The surroundings continued shaking, with various objects falling from the fissure, tumbling down chaotically like rain.

With limited vision, Mo Ling could only keep descending until he saw the group that had fallen into a water pool.

They were lucky, aside from some fright, they weren’t injured.

The trembling continued. The huge fissure above kept shifting and actually began slowly closing, trapping everyone in the dim waterway.

It was too dark.

Just as Mo Ling was worried, he saw a yellow light shooting skyward. A glowing shuttle tumbled up and down in the sky, trailing a yellow light band.

This light band extended all the way to the group’s location, illuminating the water pool brightly.

Everyone quickly used the light band to swim to shore and gather together.

“This is my Relic, yellow silk thread that can emit sunlight,” Li Xiangyi explained embarrassedly, seeing everyone curiously looking at the light band.

“Good stuff,” Old Xu praised.

But soon, through the light emitted by the light band, they saw the scene above the water pool.

The fissure had closed completely without leaving any trace, as if the earthquake just now had only been an illusion.

“Where is this?” Li Xiangyi asked, looking around.

Old Xu looked around and answered with certainty, “This is an underground waterway. I didn’t expect the earthquake here to actually spread to Oasis City.”

“Where does this water come from?” Li Xiangyi asked in confusion.

“I don’t know. Oasis City has been established for so long, yet no one has ever figured it out.”

While absorbing water from his body with a special sponge, Old Xu recounted the history of Oasis City’s underground waterways.

……

When they first came to the oasis, the investigation team didn’t know these underground waterways existed. Because no matter how beautiful an oasis’s environment, it was still in a desert and wouldn’t have such abundant water resources.

It wasn’t until some team members accidentally entered underground while chasing oasis creatures that the underground waterways gradually became known to everyone.

The underground waterways extended in all directions. Initially, the investigation team wanted to use detection instruments to record the flow patterns of the underground waterways.

But they soon gave up.

Because the underground waterways here were changeable.

Every so often, the underground waterways would experience small-scale earthquakes. These earthquakes would renovate part of the waterway network and even form various peculiar terrains.

Such changeable flow patterns had no need to be understood, and since the earthquakes didn’t affect the Oasis Monitoring Station, research on the underground waterways was quickly set aside.

For the people of Oasis City, the underground waterways also meant danger. Many terrible oasis creatures lived here, including the Shell People.

Even now, the Shell People still hid in the underground waterways, launching harassment against Oasis City every so often with various conspiracies emerging endlessly. This was why Oasis City had built high walls.

So the Shell People would destroy farmland, greenhouses, and mechanical equipment outside the high walls, wrapping these things in shells so they could never be used again. The people of Oasis City were helpless against this.

Not only that, due to the waterways’ changes, these Shell People would also secretly infiltrate the city through certain sewer systems.

They were also very clever, they wouldn’t confront people directly or immediately expose their whereabouts, but would hide in corners throughout the city.

Once enough companions gathered, they would conduct secret destruction of the city, wrapping various facilities in shells. By the time people discovered this, it was already irreversible.

But the Shell People couldn’t be completely eliminated either. The entire underground waterway network extended in all directions, occupying the underground of the entire oasis, and no one knew how deep it went down. The purpose of these Shell People was completely unclear.

“I wonder if this earthquake was caused by them.”

Speaking of this, Old Xu was very helpless. He strongly suspected this earthquake that could spread to Oasis City was a Shell People conspiracy.

“They’ve done this many times!”

The initial shell dome was just one of them.

The Shell People had done many other outrageous things:

Digging tunnels to drill into the foundation of the high walls, replacing the entire interior of the high walls with shells, then eroding the entire high wall from inside out.

Destroying the entire Oasis Bridge, attempting to cut off Oasis City’s connection with the outside world.

They had even used some kind of birds to create a shell rainstorm covering the entire oasis, covering all of Oasis City with thick shells.

These behaviors made the people of Oasis City suffer greatly.

“It must be them!” Old Xu became angrier as he spoke.