I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 196

When Mo Ling bid farewell to the little sprite, it was still reluctant to part.

But the humid mirage vapor constantly reminded Mo Ling that he had to find a way to leave the virtual image.

“See you in the future.” After dropping this line, Mo Ling floated toward another rainbow light curved surface again.

“I wonder where I’ll end up this time.”

An even more distant past?

The oasis at that time should have just been a deserted desert with no human traces.

This rainbow light curved surface seemed somewhat peculiar, constantly moving in the air, as if something was continuously impacting it.

The mirage vapor on the other side was unusually turbulent.

Mo Ling gritted his teeth and drilled in.

But as soon as he entered, he saw an incredibly shocking scene.

This was a sea.

An endless sea.

This was the deep sea where sunlight couldn’t reach.

Some indescribable strange black shadows began circling around Mo Ling. These black shadows were covered with fin-like scales that emitted a faint glow, like rotating nebulae in the universe.

Whether their gazes were fixed on Mo Ling or they were unconsciously glancing over, Mo Ling only felt that he was exposed among a field of spikes.

That was the feeling of being watched, a feeling that strongly stimulated Mo Ling’s desire to hide.

Heavy sobbing sounds came from the bottomless abyssal trench, unclear whether they were the calls of creatures or the summoning of the abyss.

Everywhere was the same—more and more gazes, and the heavy, dense water flow began to roll, as if some colossal creature was unconsciously stirring it.

Those blurry water flows contained countless massive creatures wandering about.

That was a cold from within the heart.

Even though this was just a virtual image, it made Mo Ling feel an indescribable sense of suffocation, as if water was violently rushing into his lungs.

Suffocation.

Obviously they were in a desert, so why would a sea appear?

Was this still the Abyss Second Layer?

Just as Mo Ling couldn’t catch his breath, a faint rainbow light flashed not far away.

Mo Ling, like grasping a lifeline, immediately rushed over, drilled into the rainbow light, and arrived in a garden.

This was Oasis City’s garden.

Warm sunlight shone down, but the cold on Mo Ling’s body didn’t disappear.

“Was that just now the deep sea?” Mo Ling still hadn’t come back to his senses.

Mo Ling gasped for breath and looked around. Oasis City’s greenery was very well done, with green trees providing shade. Though it was just a monitoring station, the park was built like a people’s park in a metropolis on Earth.

Black shadows flashed by his side. Mo Ling instinctively thought they were some creatures from the deep sea, but when he looked over, he discovered they were just some passing pedestrians.

They strolled leisurely back and forth in the park. Some elderly people were practicing strangely postured fitness exercises.

Their swaying arms made Mo Ling feel dazed, as if he saw the fins on those strange black shadows from the deep sea.

Some elderly people held reflective “swords” in their hands. The unsharpened swords radiated brilliant light, making Mo Ling dizzy.

A sob came through as wind blew past the tall buildings nearby. Between the two tall buildings was a bottomless trench, and also an endless blue sky overhead.

Mo Ling felt dazed for a moment—the deep sea and Oasis City overlapped in this instant.

He suddenly realized that he was still standing at the junction of different concentrations of mirage vapor!

That wasn’t an illusion!

Underwater volcanoes suddenly erupted, and scorching hot lava tore through the darkness. Glowing rock fissures spread across the seafloor.

At the same time, Oasis City’s ground suddenly cracked open, and a fissure approached the park from the distance.

The earthquake had begun.

Large amounts of volcanic debris stirred up sediment that had accumulated on the seafloor for years, churning and eroding the already murky sea.

From Oasis City’s fissures, mud and dust also began to rise. The shell dust buried at the bottom of Oasis City inadvertently came near the surface.

The black shadows in the deep sea began to flee in panic. Those creatures—whether fish or mollusks—avoided the swirling volcanic ash.

The crowds in the park also began scattering in all directions, fleeing from the fissures. In the dispersing smoke and dust, they too became swaying black shadows.

Swaying hands and fins—indistinguishable.

Swords fell to the ground, their light dimming. The stars on the fish fins were also extinguished.

Mo Ling simultaneously fell into the swirling volcanic ash and the smoke and dust overflowing from the fissures.

He grabbed with both hands—there was no seawater, no particles of smoke and dust, only humid mist.

No warm sunlight, no cold seawater, only slightly cool stickiness.

“What do you want most?”

Just as Mo Ling was dazed by that wonderful sensation, he suddenly heard such a voice.

This voice was clear and gentle.

It was the little sprite!

Mo Ling quickly looked and discovered a little sprite with an expectant expression, looking at an Oasis City resident hiding under a park bench.

“What do you want most?” The same voice rang out from the pitch-black deep sea.

An identical little sprite was floating on a rock at the bottom of the sea, asking a woman who was crouched beside the rock, trembling.

Looking at that woman who was unaffected in the deep sea, Mo Ling suddenly realized this was an Oasis City resident trapped in a historical virtual image!

It seemed that because he was standing at the boundary of rainbow light, there was a problem with the mirage vapor’s illusion construction, allowing Mo Ling to see those active people.

“Don’t lie,” both little sprites warned simultaneously.

“Okay, okay,” both people answered fearfully.

Sure enough, the little sprite hadn’t disappeared but had hidden itself. Sealing the fountain couldn’t cause it much impact.

However, the current little sprite seemed to still be following its duty as a Wishing Fountain, continuously asking residents about their wishes.

“Has it been fulfilling wishes all along?”

During this period of mirage vapor spreading, perhaps the little sprite had fulfilled many people’s wishes in other places Mo Ling couldn’t see.

And it seemed there were no restrictions on the targets for wish fulfillment—whether children or adults, the little sprite accepted all comers.

The woman trembling beside the rock, urged by the little sprite, said shakily, “I want to escape from here.”

She probably didn’t know this was a virtual image brought by mirage vapor and just felt she had been pulled into some bizarre space.

Hearing the woman’s “wish,” the little sprite’s face instantly turned cold.

“You’re lying! This isn’t what you really want.”

“What you really want is for the companion who came with you to the Abyss Second Layer to be revived. He sacrificed himself in the mission to save you, and your heart is tormented. This is what you desire most—you even dream about it.”

“Why are you lying to me?”

The little sprite’s tone was cold and calm. As it spoke, the woman also began to shed tears, murmuring, “Stop talking, stop talking…”

But her quiet pleading had no effect. The little sprite continued reciting, “You want to live happily with him in Oasis City, to stroll leisurely with him in the park.”

“You want to watch old movies from before the Cataclysm with him in Oasis City’s cinema, to eat delicious food that doesn’t exist on Earth together.”

“You want to watch the first ray of sunlight in the Abyss Second Layer with him from Oasis City’s monitoring tower, to lie at home with him watching the sunset fall outside the window.”

“You want to take his hand and stand on the high walls overlooking the entire beautiful oasis.”

“You want both of you to find jobs that don’t require going out, to spend the rest of your lives peacefully in Oasis City…”

The woman was already in tears, but the little sprite remained pitiless.

“Why lie?”