I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 218

“Great Chieftain, how many more days until the Sea Moon Ceremony?” Jeff asked curiously.

“Five days. Our time is very tight, the Moon Altar needs to be set up quickly,” the Great Chieftain said with worry. “You came back just in time. Call some more people to help.”

Then he looked at Li Luo again, “Friend, if you don’t mind, you can stay here first. Just don’t damage these ancient texts.”

Seeing this, Li Luo could only nod.

These mermen had already done everything they could, even trusting humans to live in the place where they stored their ancient texts.

Hearing the Great Chieftain’s words, Jeff didn’t move but stood in place, wanting to speak but hesitating.

“What’s wrong?” Seeming to see that Jeff had something to say, the Great Chieftain inquired.

Jeff was silent for a moment before speaking, “Great Chieftain, let me call those pseudo-mermen to help.”

“No!”

The Great Chieftain was like he had heard something terrifying and harshly refused.

But Jeff didn’t give up and continued persuading, “Great Chieftain, there’s not enough time. The village is short-handed. Most people still need to maintain the village operations. Only those pseudo-mermen are free.”

“If the Moon Altar setup can’t be completed, the entire Sea Moon Ceremony will be affected.”

The Great Chieftain originally prepared to continue refusing, but when the words reached his mouth, they were pushed back by Jeff’s reasoning.

He seemed very defensive against the “pseudo-mermen” that Jeff mentioned.

Jeff seemed to completely ignore the Great Chieftain’s status and stubbornly confronted him.

He lowered his head in deep thought for a long time, unable to find any other viewpoints to refute Jeff. He could only helplessly nod, the wrinkled merman face becoming even more tired, his whole body radiating powerlessness.

Even his speech was somewhat weak, “Fine, but you must stay away from them and avoid unnecessary contact.”

Hearing the Great Chieftain finally relent, Jeff quickly nodded.

“I’ll go then.”

Li Luo on the side had been listening with a confused face.

“Do you need help?” she asked Jeff with both puzzlement and curiosity.

Jeff was quite direct, “Sure, one more person is always good. Come with me to find the pseudo-mermen first.”

Saying this, he hurriedly led Li Luo away from the “library.”

Their conversation left Mo Ling completely confused.

Li Luo, who had been listening the whole time, was also full of confusion.

“What were pseudo-mermen?”

Jeff and the Great Chieftain seemed to have two different views about pseudo-mermen.

Once outside, Li Luo couldn’t wait to ask, “Are pseudo-mermen other mermen races?”

“They’re not mermen.”

Hearing this question, Jeff nodded, then shook his head, as if he couldn’t be certain either.

Were these another group of mermen?

“Then what are they?” Li Luo pressed.

Jeff fell into thought again, then answered after a moment, “Everything.”

Everything?

Such an answer made Li Luo even more confused.

“What they are isn’t important. I think they’re quite good. They taught me many things, my human language was taught by them. But everyone in the tribe doesn’t accept them,” Jeff said somewhat dejectedly.

Jeff’s words revealed a trace of helplessness.

“When you see them, you’ll understand…”

Walking past the clusters of mermen stilt houses, Jeff led Li Luo across the muddy ground to the foot of a low hill.

“They’re up there.”

The hill’s entrance had a straight upward mountain path, laid with layers of stone steps.

The stone steps seemed to have been very finely processed, square and neat, nothing like the chaotic architecture of the mermen village.

There were actually rows of street lamps on both sides of the mountain path, illuminating the upward road clearly.

At the foot of the mountain stood a road sign with standard merman language written on it, indicating place names in various directions.

This road sign was also very exquisite, like a road sign specially made for a scenic area. It had even been painted all over with brownish-red paint, with a spotlight set up at the top, particularly conspicuous in the fog.

Mo Ling looked at this scene as if he had returned to human society.

“Was this made by mermen?” he somewhat couldn’t believe it.

This was obviously human handiwork.

Sure enough, on this mountain path, Mo Ling saw a figure.

That wasn’t a merman, nor was it a human, but someone with a human body, complete clothing, and a shrimp head with tentacles.

Most strangely, this shrimp-headed person’s neck was bound with a very heavy metal collar. The collar’s material was very similar to the components in the mermen’s cargo earlier.

It was a kind of very old metal, covered with rust stains, with some hidden carvings of runes that glowed faintly.

This shrimp-headed person was sitting on the stone steps, swaying his head. Beside him was a plastic toolbox from which he kept taking out various tools, but most of these tools were already rusted.

After discovering the tools were rusted, the shrimp-headed person shook his head and put them back, very troubled.

Soon, he noticed the light from Jeff’s flashlight and looked curiously toward the foot of the mountain.

After seeing that the visitor was Jeff, the shrimp-headed person shot up and rushed down the mountain path.

But the stone steps were slippery, and the shrimp-headed person didn’t stand steady, rolling down from the mountain path and falling flat on his face.

After rolling to Jeff and Li Luo’s feet, the shrimp-headed person got up again without concern and said excitedly, “Jeff! Come to play with us again?”

Jeff’s arrival seemed to make him very happy.

“Aren’t you going to set up for the Sea Moon Ceremony?” The shrimp-headed person seemed to know about the Sea Moon Ceremony. Right after greeting them, he curiously asked Jeff.

“Getting ready to go. We’re short-handed, so I planned to ask you all to help,” Jeff said somewhat embarrassedly.

“No problem!” The shrimp-headed person was very enthusiastic, patting Jeff’s shoulder.

But while patting, the shrimp-headed person asked worriedly, “The Great Chieftain won’t say anything, will he? We can’t get too close to the village.”

“I’ve spoken with him,” Jeff answered.

Hearing such an answer, the shrimp-headed person was obviously very surprised, “The Great Chieftain actually agreed? And for something as important as the Sea Moon Ceremony, really?”

An incredulous voice came from the swaying shrimp head.

“Really. We don’t have enough people, so he had no choice,” Jeff confirmed.

The shrimp-headed person nodded, “It seems really urgent. The Great Chieftain even thought of us guys.”

These two strange humanoid creatures just started chatting like this…

From their words, it could be learned that the Great Chieftain’s attitude toward these pseudo-mermen was very poor, he wouldn’t even let them approach the village.

This led most mermen to also start excluding them.

Only Jeff didn’t care at all and even often came here as a guest.

Li Luo listened on the side in bewilderment and couldn’t help but interrupt, “Is your race called pseudo-mermen?”

Only then did the shrimp-headed person notice Li Luo behind Jeff and looked at her.

Two small black shrimp eyes gleamed with pure light.

“No.”

“I’m a merman.”