I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 51

The sheep-headed person looked at its frame, expressionless.

It seemed not to understand what had happened.

No one behind dared to go forward anymore, whispering among themselves.

“What happened in there?”

“It seems like it can accelerate the process of life.”

The leader’s fate made everyone stop in their tracks.

But the acceleration phenomenon didn’t affect the sheep-headed person at all.

Observing the plants and animals in the area, Mo Ling had a guess: “The acceleration seems to only affect Theseus Cell life?”

He tried flying the cube into the area and stuck a finger inside.

Nothing happened.

As the whole cube entered, Mo Ling felt no discomfort at all; it was no different from outside the area.

He flew back out and told Li Luo about his findings.

“An acceleration area targeting Theseus Cell life?” Li Luo read the words on the electronic screen, didn’t doubt, and walked straight into the area.

She stepped right in and, sure enough, wasn’t accelerated.

The sheep-headed person seemed to accept the leader’s disappearance and continued deeper into the area.

But after a few steps, it stopped and stared ahead.

“What happened now?”

Soon, a figure appeared up ahead.

It was a Transparent Tribe child, running in terror toward the edge of the area, but as he ran, he grew up.

After just a few steps, his age increased, and he became a young man.

Seeing that familiar face, everyone’s eyes widened.

It was the leader.

Although the Transparent Tribe’s appearance differed from humans, their humanoid faces were still somewhat recognizable.

It was indeed the leader, just younger.

But he didn’t stay young for long. As he ran, he quickly returned to middle age.

His rapid aging slowed his run.

By the time he reached the group, he was already an old man.

He collapsed heavily to the ground, unable to get up, and could only reach forward, crawling in fear, desperate to escape the area.

But as before, everything repeated itself.

Aging and decay descended again.

His outstretched hand turned to bone, weakly striking the ground.

With a gust of wind, the resurrected leader once again vanished from Mo Ling’s sight.

The sheep-headed person walked to where the leader disappeared, grabbed a handful of dirt, and sprinkled it on the frame.

Another strange action.

Mo Ling didn’t try to understand the sheep-headed person anymore, because just then, another Transparent Tribe child ran out from the depths of the area.

It was a cycle!

This time, the sheep-headed person got smart.

It didn’t wait for the child to grow old in place but rushed over, grabbed the now-middle-aged leader, and put him on the frame.

In no time, the sheep-headed person had cut the leader up and tied him to the frame.

Apparently satisfied with its speed, the sheep-headed person bleated twice.

The leader struggled, mouth open in despair, but still couldn’t make a sound.

Soon, he turned into a skeleton, and the frame was empty again.

The sheep-headed person didn’t get discouraged. It had figured out the leader’s pattern.

It kept moving forward, and the leaders it caught and tied to the frame grew younger and younger.

Though each bound leader quickly vanished, the sheep-headed person enjoyed the process of catching them.

It planted the frame in the ground, waiting for the next leader to rush out from the depths.

But things weren’t so simple.

As time passed, the Transparent Tribe child running out grew stranger.

First, his limbs regressed, his muscles became denser and tighter, and his body grew shorter and smaller.

After a few cycles, he no longer looked like the leader.

His face became more angular, his nose and ears disappeared, his eyes grew darker and deeper, and his facial features became increasingly odd.

Most importantly, his brain kept growing, his forehead bulged, his occiput swelled, and his chin grew sharper.

Not only that, but the leader could exist longer.

His lifespan increased!

Mo Ling grew worried; things seemed to be spiraling out of control.

The sheep-headed person, however, was still happy. No matter how the leader changed, it would catch him, tie him to the frame, and watch him quickly become a skeleton.

The leader kept changing, his brain growing larger, developing more protective structures.

His body became more streamlined, his limbs shorter but stronger to support the brain.

Mo Ling stared in disbelief.

“Was this… a little gray alien?”

He almost thought he was watching a sci-fi movie.

By now, the leader looked exactly like the little gray aliens in Mo Ling’s memory, with no trace of the original Transparent Tribe.

“Was it not just acceleration, but also evolution?”

Even as a little gray alien, the leader still tried to escape the area, repeating the running behavior.

But with short legs and clumsy steps, his escape looked ridiculous, and the sheep-headed person always blocked his path, catching him as soon as he appeared.

His appearance kept changing, but his fate on the frame never did.

Not long after entering the little gray alien form, after a few cycles, the leader’s appearance changed again.

He kept evolving, becoming a ball-shaped creature with only a giant brain and shriveled limbs.

The massive head struggled to crawl, gradually losing all mobility.

His lifespan kept increasing, and he decayed more and more slowly.

The sheep-headed person was now unhappy, because the leader’s body was no longer humanoid and couldn’t be posed like the Vitruvian Man.

As the leader became a wriggling brain, the sheep-headed person lost interest, picked up the frame, and moved on.

The brain kept trying to crawl out, but was too slow, and could escape less and less each time.

Eventually, Mo Ling could no longer see him. He stared into the depths for a long time, but the leader never reappeared.

“Gone?”

Mo Ling quickly piloted the cube after the sheep-headed person, heading into the dense plants.

The others were still absorbed in the leader’s transformation.

“Was that the course of evolution? What did he become in the end?” a soldier asked.

No one answered.

No one knew, so they picked up their recording devices and headed deeper in.

The further they went, the more bizarre the area became.

Animals kept cycling, while the longer-lived plants persisted, but their growth was visibly rapid.

The area seemed alive, constantly twisting and changing.

Not long after, they saw the giant brain the leader had become.

He could no longer move, writhing in place like a stone, and after his life ended, he would reappear in the same spot.

No one knew what he would ultimately become.

After watching for a while, they kept moving deeper.