I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 33

If no one had told Mo Ling about Theseus Cells, he would never have noticed such a tiny detail.

But now, the thing he dreaded most had appeared-

A human converted by Theseus Cells.

Before reinforcements could arrive, Mo Ling hurriedly sped the cube away from the soldier.

He still harbored a sliver of hope.

But the farther he went along the wall, the more that hope faded.

The entire perimeter was Theseus Cells!

Mo Ling even flew over the wall, circling it a few times.

All life outside lived normally-birds chirping, flowers blooming, everything vibrant-but without exception, all were Theseus Cells.

Mo Ling returned inside the wall, cautiously approaching the outpost.

His vision penetrated the ground-inside, the soldiers worked in perfect order, the layout just as he remembered.

But that was the scariest part.

Thinking of what the soldier had just said, Mo Ling confirmed his suspicion:

“This was a world of Theseus Cells!”

Here, normal cells were called anti-cells.

That’s why this area was sealed off, and why there wasn’t a trace of Theseus Cells inside.

Mo Ling had once wondered what it would be like if a world was entirely replaced by Theseus Cells.

He’d thought people would be miserable.

But he’d never imagined the concept would be completely reversed.

The minority would be called the anomaly!

The soldiers inside the outpost were alive and well-they might have been born entirely of Theseus Cells, with no concept of replacement.

These living Theseus-humans grew and died like anyone else.

Maybe, in their biology, Theseus Cells were the basic unit of life.

As Mo Ling watched the soldiers, someone noticed the cube.

“That cube went to the outpost! Stop it!”

A squad rushed over.

Mo Ling could have attacked, but looking at these Theseus-humans, he felt uneasy.

“It must be a self-aware relic. How did it get into the containment zone?”

“Anyone report a lost relic recently?”

“No, nothing from the monitoring station either. I checked, it must be an undiscovered relic.”

“All right, try communicating. It seems to need a cost to use its ability, and so far it’s not dangerous.”

“Are they really any different from ordinary humans?”

Mo Ling aimed the teleportation frame at the soldiers’ heads.

Then, suddenly, he moved it down, turning their weapons to scrap.

He floated the cube upward, quickly leaving the outpost.

He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

In a flash, Mo Ling was back at the Great Hollow Tree.

He parked the cube on a platform, leaning against the metal wall, breathing hard.

Just the outpost in this world had left him feeling suffocated.

Thinking about everything behind it-the monitoring station, the Abyss, Dawn City-he didn’t dare keep exploring.

“I’d better go back. I’m just too hungry.”

One reason he’d gone to the outpost was to find food.

But after seeing that strange scene, he knew that even if there was food, it was probably made of Theseus Cells.

It was all just protein and energy, but it made his skin crawl.

“If the Qifang Tribe knew their Holy Relic just wanted to eat, wouldn’t that be hilarious?” Mo Ling mocked himself.

After resting a bit, he slowly let the cube drop into the Great Hollow Tree.

He fell slowly, using the glow of the mushrooms to see the bottom.

It was a pool covered in glowing algae, the hollow’s deep roots twisting into the water.

Empty spaces between the roots supported a vast, hollow chamber.

Some small creatures, covered in glowing algae, lived peacefully here.

Though deep underground, damp and decayed, it didn’t feel lifeless at all.

Seeing this peaceful scene, Mo Ling’s mind was soothed after the shock of the Theseus Cell world.

He kept descending.

As he neared the pool, the glowing water slowly reached up like tentacles.

Mo Ling quickly stopped the cube in midair.

The tentacles waved, reaching out with little arms, probing under the cube.

Mo Ling tried putting the cube on top of the tentacles. The glowing water immediately clung to the metal wall.

The faintly glowing water crept higher and higher, until it engulfed the whole cube.

A thin film of water gently pulled the cube into the pool.

Thinking for a moment, Mo Ling let go of control, letting the cube drop like a stone.

The moment he hit the water, the familiar gravity reversal happened again.

Mo Ling felt the cube pass through a sheet of water, the whole world flipping over.

The cube shot out from the water curtain and landed on a pool.

Water splashed everywhere.

Inside, Mo Ling braced himself, nearly banging his head again.

“At least the drop wasn’t too high this time.”

When he sat up, he saw a wary figure beside the cube.

Her hair and clothes were soaked by the splash, droplets running down her smooth face-Li Luo!

Her expression shifted from wary to relieved. She walked up and patted the cube. “Where did you run off to?”

Then she seemed to remember something, took out an electronic screen, and put it on the cube.

Mo Ling teleported the screen inside, holding it, not knowing how to describe his experience.

“The world of Theseus Cells seems too terrifying for the humans here.”

After thinking a moment, Mo Ling wrote three words on the screen:

“I don’t know.”

He really didn’t know what that place was.

If it was just another dream, that would be a good thing.

Li Luo saw the answer and wasn’t angry, just circled the cube a few times, checking for damage.

She wiped the dirt from the cube.

“These past two days, after God’s Voice disappeared, I’ve been looking for you.”

Mo Ling finally noticed the dark circles under her eyes.

She’d been worried about him all along.

Mo Ling continued, asking on the screen, “Did God’s Voice really disappear? When?”

After Li Luo answered, Mo Ling did the math and realized the disappearance coincided exactly with when the Transforming Tree chieftain set down the spine.

What was the connection?

Mo Ling also learned that Li Luo had nearly finished exploring the bottom of the Great Hollow Tree.

It was just a huge hollow, nothing but a wide, shallow pool.

Creatures transformed by Theseus Cells fought each other here, but after God’s Voice vanished, things gradually returned to normal.

That’s why Li Luo could search the bottom.

“Really nothing else?” Mo Ling asked again and again, always getting the same answer.

He stubbornly probed with his vision.

Beneath the shallow pool was only muddy silt.

There was no portal of water between worlds at all…