I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 275

Mo Ling sat dazedly at the table, looking at the Great Chief who had collapsed on it.

The person who had just been chatting with him had vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

“Did they really go back?”

Mo Ling pulled out the merman ancient text that was pressed under the Great Chief’s hand and moved it in front of himself.

The merman language on it still hadn’t changed. A little small fry swam around, shuttling between various characters, still vivid and lifelike.

He still couldn’t believe that the fish swarm had disappeared so easily.

“What are you looking for?”

A voice suddenly sounded behind Mo Ling.

Bai Zhou!

Mo Ling instantly turned his head to look, but still couldn’t see where he was.

Just like outside the library, he could clearly hear the voice but couldn’t see any figure.

“Where are you?”

“Here.” A short black shadow suddenly jumped onto the table.

That was a root carving figurine, its entire body entwined by tree roots, with both arms embracing itself.

The figurine jumped onto the table, bent over to cushion its landing, then straightened up and looked up at Mo Ling.

“Long time no see.”

Seemingly seeing Mo Ling’s confusion, the root carving figurine examined its own body.

“I put my soul inside this. This Relic is quite useful…”

Mo Ling asked in surprise, “It can be used like that?”

“Of course.” The figurine nodded.

“Why do you want to stay inside this?” Mo Ling was very puzzled.

“To prevent falling asleep,” the figurine explained. “I still have important things to do and can’t sleep, so I need to hide. This place can let me hide for a long time.”

The figurine also looked at the merman ancient text in Mo Ling’s hands, “What are you looking for?”

“Fish swarm. Did they really go back?” Mo Ling pointed at the characters in the ancient text and asked.

Hearing Mo Ling’s question, the figurine shook its head.

“How could they go back? World traversal isn’t that simple. They came to reality through dreams and must also find a medium to return. Account deletion is complete death.”

“Then why did they have me delete all the accounts?”

“You try controlling those components now and you’ll know,” the figurine answered.

Hearing the figurine’s words, Mo Ling immediately began trying to control the components.

Sure enough, he quickly discovered something was wrong.

The current fish swarm system responded very slowly, operating with great sluggishness, very high latency, and occasional freezing.

Not only that, but the freezing was continuously worsening, and some functions could no longer be opened or used.

“What’s going on?” Mo Ling hurriedly asked.

The figurine spread its hands, “Because the authority of ‘Swarm’ has already disappeared. You’re not a character creature, so you can’t use those authorities and can’t manage through the ‘Swarm’ system, which is why this is happening.”

“Swarm disappeared?”

“Yes. After deleting the accounts, swarm is gone, isn’t it?”

Hearing this, Mo Ling suddenly understood.

“So they just wanted to make it so I couldn’t use the authorities?”

“Yes.”

“Everything Jeff said just now was to deceive me?” Mo Ling asked in disbelief.

The figurine thought for a moment and shook its head, “Most of it was true—half truth, half lies. You also know what the highest authority means to the fish swarm. They wouldn’t let the highest authority fall into an outsider’s hands.”

“The fish swarm was originally a race that existed to pursue ‘freedom and carefreeness.’ If the highest authority was in someone else’s hands, it would mean the entire race would forever be subject to others, which they couldn’t accept.”

“But aren’t the authorities still on me?” Mo Ling still didn’t quite understand.

Although the authority of “Swarm” had disappeared due to account deletion, the other authorities were still there. Although Mo Ling couldn’t use them now, weren’t there other ways to mobilize these authorities?

However, the figurine’s simple rhetorical question instantly dispelled Mo Ling’s doubts.

“Are you a fish?”

Mo Ling froze.

He silently looked at the little small fry on the ancient text’s characters.

“The reason you could control those authorities before was because the fish swarm still existed. Only when there are ‘fish’ can authorities be triggered. Now that the ‘fish’ are gone, the authorities will all completely disappear.”

So that’s how it was.

After understanding all this, Mo Ling wasn’t very dejected.

The highest authority had originally been something he picked up. If it was gone, it was gone. He just felt sorry for the fish swarm.

In Mo Ling’s view, the fish swarm could have had better ways to solve their racial crisis, but since they chose the path of invasion, they would inevitably face backlash one day.

They had become accustomed to conquest when they were in the character world, and this racial characteristic continued into reality, showing no mercy toward other races in the Abyss.

Even when finally facing their own race’s survival, they still put “freedom” above “life,” choosing to end themselves.

Such a race would only make Mo Ling feel fear along with his regret.

“When merman language has more and more characters, won’t the fish swarm really make a comeback? Once again killing their way out of the character world with an even more powerful stance, trying to conquer this boundless world.”

Mo Ling looked at the characters in the merman ancient text, his heart becoming conflicted again.

But just then, the figurine walked to the ancient text, bent down, and directly closed it, interrupting Mo Ling’s thoughts.

“You’d better quickly take off that armor, or it’ll be fixed in place soon,” the figurine said, pointing at the armor on Mo Ling’s body.

Only then did Mo Ling realize that the armor on his body had unknowingly become heavier and heavier, his movements were becoming sluggish, and the sound of component friction was coming from the joints.

It seemed that due to the disappearance of authorities, this armor was slowly becoming scrap.

So he quickly stood up and began removing the armor piece by piece from head to toe. His smooth metal head was exposed once again.

Looking at his newly bare hands, Mo Ling was also puzzled about why he could maintain his cube-head form for so long this time. Ever since falling into that moonlight, he had been in this state continuously.

Unfortunately, he still didn’t know how to control this form change.

The figurine also stood on the table, carefully examining Mo Ling.

After Mo Ling’s leg armor was completely removed, the figurine jumped and stood on Mo Ling’s shoulder.

“While your authorities haven’t disappeared yet, help me with something.”

“Alright, let’s hurry.”

“Go this way.” The figurine pointed toward a corner of the library.

This way?

Mo Ling looked at that pitch-black corner, somewhat puzzled. Wasn’t that a dead end?

But he still walked over with some doubt.

However, after walking toward that corner for a long time, Mo Ling never saw the edge. Instead, the fog around him became thicker and thicker, and the space seemed to gradually become more and more open, as if he had passed through a door and arrived at a huge underground plaza.

It seemed the figurine really wasn’t giving random directions. Could there be other things hidden in this library?

“Now turn left ninety degrees and walk forward ten steps.”

“Okay.” Although he didn’t know where the figurine wanted to take him, Mo Ling still turned around as requested and continued walking forward.

He still didn’t see any edge, it was still a vast expanse of fog.

“Turn left ninety degrees again and walk forward ten steps.”

Mo Ling turned again.

After reaching the designated position, he stopped.

“What next?”

“Then turn left ninety degrees again and walk forward ten steps,” the figurine said slowly beside his ear.

“Okay.”

But Mo Ling hadn’t taken two steps before he stopped.

“Wait, are you sure?”