I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 272

“Get ready. We’re going out.”

The little small fry’s firm voice spread throughout the entire giant dragon, reaching every dragon scale.

The replicas’ responses came one by one.

The little small fry recognized each replica’s voice, gently reciting their names in its heart.

It suddenly looked at Zero One again.

“Zero One, if I told you now that I want to become that giant dragon soaring through the sky, what would you think?”

Zero One paused for a moment, then its voice came again.

“You don’t need to ask me.”

It was still like this.

The little small fry didn’t make things difficult for Zero One anymore. It controlled the giant dragon and once again touched the membrane leading to reality.

This time, it didn’t hesitate again. The giant dragon’s body slowly merged with that membrane, gradually fusing into it.

In the process, it enthusiastically greeted every replica, as if getting to know them all over again.

But just then, the little small fry said something strange.

“What do you mean?”

Zero One’s confused voice had just fallen when the little small fry’s vision underwent a strange change. It seemed to instantly distance itself from the dragon’s head, slowly retreating along the giant dragon’s body.

Just like this, the little small fry slid toward the dragon’s tail while distributing its authorities, until it broke away from the giant dragon’s body.

“One-Three-Zero, you always move things from ruins for me and built me a dragon palace. Let me think—I’ll give you a transportation authority…”

“Two-Nine-Seven, when we used to race swimming, you always swam faster than me, making me so angry I used authorities to trap you in place. Now I’ll give you all the authorities controlling movement…”

“Zero Two, you always pestered me talking about research on various authorities. You must be able to manage the authority of knowledge well…”

…

After losing all authorities, the little small fry’s vision also became increasingly blurry. It seemed unable to control its body anymore, falling downward.

It left itself within the membrane.

The giant dragon beyond the membrane quickly turned back, swaying its dragon body, trying to find the little small fry’s shadow, but seemed unable to see that membrane so close at hand.

It seemed that once they reached reality, this membrane was no longer visible.

The giant dragon’s figure grew more and more distant, and everything before its eyes slowly became dim.

Until it fell into endless silence.

Only the little small fry remained here alone, looking up with longing.

“Zero One, help me go look at the moon…”

It stayed in place like this, watching the giant dragon slowly rise higher, cross the membrane, and fly into the sky.

In the flickering moonlight, everything around returned to silence once again.

In the darkness, moonlight once again fell on the little small fry. After abandoning everything, its body seemed much lighter…

…

Darkness and the flickering light within the armor alternated. Mo Ling felt like he had had a dream, somewhat unable to distinguish whether the popup window before him was real or fake.

“End sharing.”

The large characters in standard merman language instantly pulled Mo Ling back to reality.

Jeff’s words also came slowly, “This is its final scene. We don’t know what happened after that.”

It?

That little small fry?

Mo Ling hadn’t recovered from the perspective change and was stunned for a long time.

Before he could react, that scene abruptly ended.

What about the story after the fish swarm came to the real world?

Shouldn’t the little small fry have controlled the giant dragon to go look at the moon in reality?

How did it suddenly end?

“Why did it leave the fish swarm?” Mo Ling was very confused.

“Because that was the price,” Jeff answered somewhat helplessly. “The strokes of characters don’t disappear out of thin air.”

“In the process of conquering the world, the fish swarm also gradually became part of the character world. While obtaining authorities, they also replaced those strokes, becoming more deeply connected to the characters.”

“For the fish swarm to escape that world would mean removing all the fish-shaped strokes from the characters, which was obviously impossible. There had to be a ‘fish’ in these characters.”

“When it touched the membrane, it knew this, so it left itself behind, making itself become the ‘fish’ within the characters. From then on, all the little small fry in merman language are it…”

After hearing Jeff’s explanation, Mo Ling instantly understood everything while also being shocked by the little small fry’s decision.

“Why didn’t it just leave behind any replica?”

“I don’t know. That was its choice.”

The armor on Jeff’s fingertips slowly retracted. He sat up straight, quietly waiting for Mo Ling to digest the information.

“You should know what the highest authority represents now, right?”

Mo Ling didn’t speak. He opened the merman ancient text on the table and pointed at the little small fry on it.

“You understand.”

Seeing Mo Ling’s action, Jeff nodded.

“After it left the fish swarm, it gave me the highest authority, but that wasn’t pure highest authority—at most it could be considered an empty shell, with only management rights, no control rights.”

“What do you mean?” Mo Ling didn’t quite understand.

“Because when parting, it distributed the specific character authorities to other replicas. There was nothing in the highest authority, so I can only manage other authorities as the highest authority, without actual control rights.”

Jeff raised his hand, placing his finger on a character in the ancient text.

“Swarm.”

“I possess the authority of swarm. I can use the swarm authority to manage other replicas, then control other authorities through these replicas, rather than directly controlling the authorities themselves. That’s the difference.”

He looked up, staring seriously at Mo Ling.

“And you now are the true highest authority. All authorities—their actual control rights are in your hands. The fish swarm only has usage rights to these authorities.”

“In other words, the entire fish swarm is now at your disposal.”

Hearing Jeff’s words, Mo Ling was stunned. Only now did he truly understand the real meaning of the highest authority.

However, Mo Ling still didn’t understand.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

Why did Jeff take him through the little small fry’s experiences and seriously explain the meaning of the highest authority?

They should be enemies. Wasn’t Jeff worried at all?

Telling Mo Ling the true meaning of the highest authority—wasn’t that like handing over his vital weakness for others to control?

“Even if I didn’t tell you, you would learn all this sooner or later.”

Jeff slightly raised his head, reaching out to grab some of the fog around him, but the fog seemed to avoid him, not touching his body at all.

“Although I don’t remember what happened on this island or why we spent so much time forgetting a skill, no matter what, the reappearance of the highest authority is a good thing.”

He lowered his arms, placing them properly on the table, then looked seriously at Mo Ling again.

“I have a question for you.”

“Do you want to completely kill the fish swarm?”