I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 225

Several pseudo-mermen came near the bait boxes, summoned water currents, and with a forceful push from a distance, the bait boxes surrounded by white eels toppled over the edge.

Dense crowds of white eels followed the bait boxes, falling toward the sea surface.

Soon, the remaining white eels in the sky were also dealt with through everyone’s combined efforts.

After the last white eel was trapped in an Immortal Wood sphere, everyone present finally breathed a sigh of relief. Many pseudo-mermen leaned against boxes, collapsing from exhaustion.

They looked at the Cube and gauze in the air, showing expressions of relief.

After Li Luo called back Little Purple, she walked to the edge of the platform covered with spheres, picked up one sphere, and observed it curiously.

But she didn’t seem to see anything special.

“What exactly is this?” she asked Jeff nearby, whose gills were still constantly opening and closing.

Mo Ling heard this and also perked up his ears.

“These are cages, cages for catching Decay-eaters.”

“Decay-eaters?” Li Luo asked in confusion.

“Yes, that type of fish just now is called Decay-eaters,” Jeff said, leaning exhaustedly against a box while explaining.

Then he slowly began introducing them to Li Luo.

As the name suggests, Decay-eaters are creatures that eat “the old.”

Decay-eaters are very gentle creatures by nature. They don’t attack ships, nor do they hunt other creatures.

They only wander endlessly in the sea, eating rotting animal corpses and debris floating down from the sea surface.

There are many such creatures in the sea, and mermen didn’t have the mind to categorize them. They initially just thought these were ordinary fish.

The mermen noticed this type of creature very early because Decay-eaters always wandered around Merman Island in groups.

Decay-eaters traveled in groups around the edges of Merman Island, devouring those rotting plants and animal corpses swept down by the waves.

Until they discovered that the rotting animal corpses that were eaten had “come back to life.”

The original rotting flesh became fresh, could even produce conditioned reflexes, but was like a soulless shell, showing no response to anything in the outside world.

The debris eaten by Decay-eaters would also return to their original appearance, as if time had reversed.

It was also at this time that they realized these “ordinary” fish wandering near Merman Island were truly magical.

Only during the gradual process of using Decay-eaters did the mermen discover this type of creature could leave the ocean.

But why didn’t they come onto the island to forage?

Clearly there would be more resources on land.

The mermen were initially confused too.

Until they discovered that Decay-eaters seemed very afraid of Merman Island and didn’t dare easily come ashore.

“Because of the Immortal Wood on the island,” Jeff explained.

Life finds its own way. Under long-term erosion by the fog, creatures on Merman Island had more or less evolved some ability to resist decay, with certain plants showing particularly outstanding abilities.

A unique species even appeared—Immortal Wood.

This was a type of tree completely unaffected by the fog. It looked ordinary on the surface but could survive without concern on the decay-ridden Merman Island.

Its wood was very hard. Even after being cut down, it wouldn’t rot but would always preserve its original state.

Immortal Wood was very numerous and grew quickly, with extremely vigorous vitality. In certain areas of Merman Island, it was everywhere.

They were like banyan trees, with aerial roots spreading everywhere. You couldn’t tell where the source was, and if left unmanaged for a while, they would grow everywhere.

Because they were common and effective, Merman Ancient Texts chose to use this material for creation.

As for Decay-eaters, what they feared wasn’t anything else, but precisely the Immortal Wood that was everywhere on the island.

These Immortal Wood grew in the mountains, in rock crevices, by the seaside, extremely tenacious.

When Decay-eaters approached Immortal Wood, they would be absorbed into the wood and could never escape.

The mermen were initially surprised by this phenomenon too.

But in the ancient texts, they found the reason:

The feeding behavior of Decay-eaters didn’t occur the moment they entered their prey’s body, but the moment they left the body.

The ancient texts recorded that Decay-eaters stole something like “traces of time” from their prey’s bodies, which caused the decay to disappear.

This was a passive ability. Decay-eaters couldn’t control their own behavior, which was why the phenomenon of “accepting all comers” occurred.

They ate everything, with no choice.

As long as a Decay-eater entered and then exited, it would definitely complete its feeding.

But with Immortal Wood, Decay-eaters stumbled.

Because Immortal Wood had no “traces of time.”

Their method of resisting decay was to directly eliminate the concept of time, no backward, no forward.

Treating everything equally.

But it was exactly this simple and crude ability that made Decay-eaters who entered unable to escape ever again.

Traces of time were like magnetic poles, positive and negative.

Decay-eaters were magnetic creatures that could switch their own magnetic polarity, using attraction to enter prey bodies, steal the magnetism, then use repulsion to leave the prey.

After prey lost magnetism and was affected by repulsion, “reversal” would occur.

Any object had traces of time, like magnets all having magnetic poles.

But Immortal Wood was different.

It was just iron.

Once stuck, it could never come off again.

So these Decay-eaters, after suffering losses, didn’t dare carelessly come ashore. They only dared hide around Merman Island picking up garbage to eat.

Unless prey was only at the shoreline and the temptation was great enough, they would take the risk.

“So these spheres can be used as ‘cages,'” Jeff explained.

After hearing Jeff’s words, Mo Ling suddenly understood.

Although called “cages,” these spheres didn’t have any real capture function, but used the restraining relationship between the two.

Using magnets could capture iron; conversely, using iron could also capture magnets.

Too ingenious.

After listening, Li Luo also looked shocked, “How did you think of this?”

Jeff scratched his fish head, “Actually, the ancient texts record the characteristics of various creatures. Some are mentioned in passing, some don’t match reality. We just borrowed this knowledge.”

Merman Ancient Texts were indeed a treasure trove.