I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 172

The Relic carrying golden light slowly descended, and Shen Ping watched this scene with delight.

He could actually trigger this blue olive’s Relic-granting function!

Could this also be a mechanism?

“Can it be triggered repeatedly?”

For a moment, countless thoughts flashed through Shen Ping’s mind, and he became even more convinced that buying information about this island was indeed a wise decision.

The golden light slowly descended. Shen Ping had already raised both hands in a cupping gesture, planning to catch this Relic.

As the Relic gradually approached, he could see its appearance through the golden light.

It was a bronze cup, exquisitely crafted, like some kind of wine vessel. It looked very ancient and elegant, clearly not an ordinary object.

The bronze cup was at Shen Ping’s face in the blink of an eye. He carefully positioned himself and reached up to catch it.

However, the expected tactile sensation didn’t appear.

The bronze cup passed through his hands and fell to the ground.

The surrounding lamplight was also becoming blurred.

“Might as well make some antique money.”

As the morning mist dispersed, the illusion was collapsing.

Soon, he was back downstairs again. Shen Ping searched the area carefully, this ruin was completely empty, with nothing at all, only some wooden tables and chairs, and some carved utensils.

Many collectors liked to collect various cultural artifacts from the Abyss. They would spend a lot of money buying these items that had no value to Hunters.

Shen Ping took out his recording equipment, planning to record the process of the illusion’s collapse as well.

Everything around became blurred again, first becoming unclear, then turning into rainbow light, getting fainter and fainter until it became thin mist.

Looking up again, the blue olive had disappeared, apparently having completed its task.

Shen Ping’s hands were still raised, and he suddenly felt like an idiot.

In the empty, deserted pavilion, the lights were still bright.

Shen Ping stood there with his hands raised, stunned.

Some rainbow lights appeared in the starry sky, breaking through the night.

The stars outside the windows were still twinkling, but Shen Ping keenly noticed that the starry sky was slowly deteriorating.

Although this trip hadn’t yielded much, it was enough to pay off his loan. The Relic data he had filmed earlier should also sell for some money.

“Let me first see what I can find.”

A sudden ray of sunlight shot in like a bullet, shattering the fabricated space and returning the entire world to its original form.

For a moment, his emotions were mixed, he felt like cursing but had no target for his abuse.

“What am I doing? How did I get so immersed in it?” he smiled bitterly.

After packing some easily portable utensils into his backpack, Shen Ping decided to leave the pavilion.

Shen Ping decided not to waste any more time and began searching around the pavilion. Because of those illusions, this pavilion was very bright, making exploration very simple.

He took out his Relic again to check his body, everything was still normal.

Before long, Shen Ping watched the brightly lit, clean and tidy pavilion become dilapidated. Sunlight streamed in through holes in the pavilion and unshielded windows. The woody fragrance from before had become the smell of rotting wood.

There was no strange musical sound either, only the chirping of birds outside.

The illusion had ended.

Shen Ping quickly took out the antiques he had just collected.

What patterns were there? Only rotten, tattered wood.

“Now even my haul is gone.”

However, Shen Ping had already found peace amid these ups and downs. He planned to be satisfied just earning some small money by uploading the data this time.

He searched around again. Now the pavilion was even cleaner, there was nothing except various pieces of rotten wood.

“Sigh, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.”

He was about to return to his ship just like that, but when going downstairs, Shen Ping saw something covered in dust and cobwebs in the center of the pavilion.

“What was that?”

He walked over, crouched down, and took out lighting equipment to carefully clean away the grime.

However, what lay before his eyes made his heart skip a beat.

It was a bronze cup.

A familiar bronze cup…

Shen Ping’s eyes widened, his emotions a jumbled mix.

He poked it with a tree branch—the hard texture instantly made Shen Ping’s mind unable to think.

This was real? Not an illusion?

“Did that blue olive really respond to my gesture and actually give me a Relic?”

“Why would things from the illusion respond to me?”

“Were those immortals real?”

The more he thought about it, the more his hair stood on end. Shen Ping immediately threw away the branch he had used to poke the immortals, took out a sealed capsule to store the bronze cup, then turned and ran toward the exit.

Only then did he notice that this pavilion’s main door had long since disappeared due to decay.

There was no door at all!

Shen Ping hurriedly rushed down the stone mountain, ran back to his ship, and returned to a nearby island base without stopping.

“I need to report important information!”

He turned over everything he had recorded to the authorities, including the bronze cup.

Because of this experience, Shen Ping felt the cup was somewhat eerie and didn’t dare use it himself.

After some time, an official in a suit found him…

“Mr. Shen Ping, we’ve watched your recordings repeatedly and gained quite a lot, but there are still some things we need your cooperation with.”

The official took out an electronic screen and began playing the footage Shen Ping had recorded of the blue olive distributing Relics.

“We’ve seen many of these Relics before.”

He paused while pointing at those Relics in the golden light.

“This one was discovered in the Contracting Sea two years ago…”

“This one was found on Spike Island not long ago…”

“This one has been in official use, discovered in the Confinement Waters ruins five years ago. We recently used it to anchor islands when sirens appear. Very useful…”

“This one is…”

The official patiently explained each Relic that appeared, though a large portion were still unknown.

“What does this mean?” Shen Ping was very confused.

After learning these things, besides being more shocked and puzzled, he couldn’t think of any other explanation.

The official looked at Shen Ping and said very seriously, “The illusions you saw were not false, nor were they fabricated from nothing.”

“They were all real?” Shen Ping asked in disbelief. “Impossible, those were all illusions! I tested them myself.”

But the official’s words, like a thunderclap, left Shen Ping stunned in place.

“Those were all things that really happened, remnants of history.”

“Remnants of history?” he murmured.

“Yes, the immortals you saw were real, and the Relics were real too. It’s just that the illusion recreated everything that had happened before at a certain moment,” the official explained earnestly.

Shen Ping suddenly understood, but he was still somewhat puzzled. “If they were remnants of history, what about the bronze cup? Why did I also receive a Relic?”

Hearing Shen Ping’s confusion, the official didn’t answer immediately but opened a box beside him, inside which lay the bronze cup from before.

Looking at the cup, he said somewhat gravely, “Because you communicated with history. By following those immortals’ methods, you established a connection with some existence and participated in their Relic-distribution ‘ritual.'”

“Unknowingly, you had already joined them, so this Relic was originally meant to be granted to the future you.”

The official carefully picked up the bronze cup and placed it on the table.

“It slept in the pavilion for endless ages before coming before you…”