I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 242

“Did it succeed?”

“It succeeded.”

The discussion voices of the mermen researchers echoed in the fish swarm.

Mo Ling listened to their exchange and felt dizzy.

“What does it all mean?”

Not only those discussing researchers, but other mermen hearing those strange terms and “operation” methods also nodded from time to time.

Like classmates in a classroom, after the teacher announced free discussion, they all joined heated debates. Only Mo Ling was stunned in place, looking blank.

“What is the method of immortality?”

Mo Ling felt he had understood, but also seemed not to understand.

Soon, those heatedly discussing “classmates” reached an answer.

“General, we request to conduct testing.”

The mermen consciously made space for that researcher who requested testing.

“Agreed, pay attention to safety.”

“Just like this, start testing?”

He hadn’t expected that the mermen race, having just mastered immortality not long ago, would directly begin experiments.

What surprised Mo Ling most was that they actually conducted personal testing rather than first using some other creatures.

He and his assistant moved away from the crowd and stood on an open area, surrounded by many flying components.

“They’re not afraid of losing their bodies and becoming like what those Chali tribe members are now?”

“Creatures without bodies can only act on instinct. Aren’t the mermen afraid?”

These components constantly touched various parts of the researcher’s armor like dragonflies touching water. Each time they touched a place, runic fluctuations would spread across the armor surface like ripples.

“Begin.”

“Okay.”

This process continued for a long time. The researcher raised his hand to signal, and the assistant beside him retreated backward.

Following the researcher’s command, his body also began to expand and stretch like those Chali tribe members. In a short while, he became a tree.

Mo Ling looked at that rapidly generated Immortal Wood, somewhat surprised.

The tree’s appearance was roughly the same as the Immortal Wood that the Chali tribe had transformed into, just not as tall and appearing somewhat malnourished.

At this time, the transparent eel fish in the sky hadn’t completely dispersed. These creatures had completely lost the appearance of intelligent beings, seeming just as that Chali tribe member had said: only instincts remained.

Mo Ling, who had been watching that mermen Immortal Wood, soon discovered something wrong.

After waiting a long time, until that Immortal Wood stopped growing and completely entered a death state, no “soul” like those of the Chali tribe appeared on the tree.

“Where’s the soul?”

It seemed that was as far as it went.

“Experiment failed?”

Mo Ling felt that the mermen race couldn’t possibly master immortality technology so quickly, nor could they completely replicate the Chali tribe’s methods.

Logically speaking, the “treasure” that the Chali tribe desperately protected at any cost shouldn’t be so simple.

This touched upon the essence of life and death mysteries.

Although the principles that Chali tribe member described were easy to understand, the technical details and key points within couldn’t possibly be so simple to master. They would definitely need constant attempts to determine the conditions for triggering immortality.

Soon, Mo Ling, who had been paying attention to that mermen Immortal Wood, discovered something wrong.

“Sure enough, it won’t be so simple.”

At this moment, Mo Ling was like that poor student who didn’t believe other classmates could solve difficult problems. He was also quickly proven wrong.

The armor on the merman who had transformed into Immortal Wood gradually separated from his body after the merman’s body expanded, and like the surrounding components, flew into the sky, circling around the tree continuously.

After the tree stopped growing, those components that formed the armor slowly gathered into a human shape beside the tree, except this armor was completely empty inside.

The runes glowed faintly. Under Mo Ling’s shocked gaze, the unmanned armor raised its hand and placed it on the tree bark.

Immediately, the runes on the armor suddenly began moving, spiraling up the arm like a tornado.

The runes climbed to higher places. The back of the hand should have become empty, but at the junction between the palm and tree bark, some strange and mysterious glowing runes appeared out of thin air, quickly climbing up the armor along the palm’s edge.

From afar, it looked like the armor was extracting a line of runes from the tree.

When those runes reached the armor, the armor lowered its hand. The components on its body quickly began changing, switching positions. Each component began alternating and covering each other, and the armor changed appearance as a result.

The transformation process didn’t last long. After it ended, the armor stood in place for a while. The joints on its body trembled slightly from time to time, and some noise appeared in the fish swarm’s communication channel.

That noise was like some kind of machinery simulating various merman language pronunciations, occasionally popping out one or two familiar words, but most of the time it was meaningless radio sounds.

The fish swarm also instantly quieted down, carefully listening to that vague voice.

That voice was like the Chali tribe member when previously reciting Wandering at Ease, seeming to have very confused consciousness, always wanting to convey something but always finding wrong words, confused word order, and extremely weak voice.

“Tree… immortality… eternal death…”

“Found one or more multiply defined symbols…”

“Import module… object failed…”

“Invalid key or index used in mapping or sequence…”

…

What were all these?

Mo Ling could understand some at first, but the later vocabulary made him increasingly dizzy.

Not only Mo Ling, hearing these strange words, the mermen also began whispering among themselves.

After a while, these sounds not only didn’t become normal but began repeating, constantly echoing in the fish swarm. That armor standing on the open ground also trembled repeatedly, as if something had gone wrong.

The mermen discussed among themselves. They also seemed unable to figure out what problem had occurred:

“Wasn’t there no problem when running it the first time?”

“Yes, no errors before.”

“Then what’s happening now, so many problems? Did he operate irregularly?”

“No, checked the logs,normal operation.”

“Did the Chali tribe do something? Hide something we don’t know about?”

“That’s even more impossible. If they really hid something, there would have been risk warnings long ago. It’s impossible for problems to only appear now.”

The mermen chattered about various possibilities, their argument voices even drowning out that armor’s noise.

But various possibilities were denied one by one.

…

“What do we do now?”

The mermen looked at each other, staring at that armor in its strange state, helpless. Turning their heads, they all looked at Jeff in unison.

Facing everyone’s gazes, Jeff still had that calm and composed appearance. He had never joined the discussion, just silently watching everything happen from the side.

At this moment, the pressure came to him again.

Jeff’s gaze kept circling around that armor.

After a long time, he finally spoke:

“Just restart it.”