I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 54

It was just like when the Transparent Tribe first discovered the Flesh Tribe.

Liang Zhi watched the green liquid drip to the ground, lingering for ages.

But unlike the Transparent Tribe, he didn’t think it was some “undying thing.”

In that world, biology hadn’t gone astray-normal cells had simply been completely replaced by Theseus Cells.

All the expected theoretical explanations existed; Liang Zhi just thought he’d found a new form of life.

He checked the database and found no records of creatures that secreted long-lasting green liquid after death.

He was delighted-such a strange creature had never been discovered, so he could earn a lot of points by uploading the sample.

Gradually, as he explored the area, he found more and more undiscovered creatures.

He checked the database again and realized these creatures were all recorded, but their post-mortem traits were completely different.

At the same time, Liang Zhi discovered that the only thing these creatures had in common was that their bodies didn’t turn transparent after death.

He grew interested, going deeper and deeper, until he reached the Transforming Tree habitat.

Following a group of confused Transforming Trees, he dodged many terrifying creatures and arrived at the Great Hollow Tree.

Then, he passed through the Great Hollow Tree and came to this world.

Hearing this, Mo Ling suddenly felt a chill.

“So he’s from the anti-cell world?”

Mo Ling suddenly understood. He should have realized-if he could travel to that world through the Great Hollow Tree, someone else could come here the same way.

When Captain Su and the others learned this, the atmosphere became even more tense.

Liang Zhi quickly told the surrounding soldiers to relax, saying he meant no harm.

When everyone had calmed a bit, he continued his story.

When he first came through the Great Hollow Tree, he didn’t realize he’d entered another world.

Everything was exactly the same.

Even the road back to the monitoring station was identical.

After emerging from the Great Hollow Tree, Liang Zhi hurried back to the monitoring station and submitted his sample.

He was promptly scolded by the researchers.

“Why are you bringing back such common bugs? You’re wasting our time,” a researcher said angrily, holding his sample.

He quickly explained, “But this bug secretes green liquid after death that doesn’t disappear. Look at the color in this sample-it’s completely opaque, like it’s still alive.”

“I suspect this kind of creature is a type of rebirth organism, using special means to fix the shape of its corpse, and after death, somehow reanimates it.”

Liang Zhi explained his theory earnestly, but was only met with strange looks.

“You mean zombies? I think you’re the zombie-your brain’s been eaten.” The researcher touched his forehead, telling him to see a doctor.

The argument went nowhere, and the researchers ended up laughing, joking with him: “Not just bugs-even humans become another kind of being after death.”

“This being is called a ‘jiang.’ Maybe it’s infected with resentment, or absorbed yin energy from the moon, so the corpse doesn’t rot and can move again after a while.”

“Depending on how long it takes to turn into a zombie, and the appearance and movement, they’re classified as ‘white jiang, black jiang, hopping jiang, flying jiang, ba, demon’-six levels. Your bug’s reached ba! I’ll call it bug-ba, what do you think?”

Because of the other world’s quirks, Liang Zhi had never heard such stories, so he was stunned, almost believing it was some hidden Abyss knowledge.

Soon after, Liang Zhi, still confused, took his sample back to the hunter’s rest area.

He still thought his sample was fine, so he kept looking up information with the rest area’s equipment.

That’s when he realized something was wrong.

“Did I cross over?”

Liang Zhi discovered that this world’s biology was completely different.

“There are so many kinds of cells?”

He flipped through the data in disbelief, reading for two days straight until he was dizzy with hunger, then cautiously went to the monitoring station’s cafeteria.

He found a rookie hunter like himself and struck up a conversation.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, pointing to the hunter’s arm, which was bandaged and scabbed with black-red blood.

“Yeah, got ambushed by a monster. The first layer of the Abyss is really dangerous. My companions all died,” the hunter said, looking very down.

But Liang Zhi didn’t care about his mood. While chatting, he carefully observed the hunter’s wound.

After eating, he returned to the rest area and experimentally cut his own arm.

Blood flowed, dried, turned into a black-red scab, then faded, finally becoming a transparent, glue-like solid.

Liang Zhi finally confirmed he’d come to a world with completely different biology.

He was the only outlier here.

Liang Zhi didn’t feel fear or discomfort. Instead, he kept learning about this world.

From cell classification and differentiation, to single-celled and multicellular organisms, to the taxonomy of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

It was like rediscovering the world.

He even joined this world’s research institute, becoming a member of the Seventh Monitoring Station’s research team, using its precious equipment.

At the same time, he used the institute’s equipment to study himself.

He’d often return to the Great Hollow Tree to study Theseus Cell life.

Before humans discovered Theseus Cell life, Liang Zhi was the person who understood it best.

He began researching the differences between the two types of life, integrating the biology of both worlds.

This led to frequent research results and rapid promotions at the Seventh Monitoring Station.

Liang Zhi didn’t see the two cell types as being in competition; he could accept both worldviews.

He never looked at things from a single world’s perspective.

Through his research, he developed a strange theory:

The relationship between the two cell types was like that between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

But their divergence happened much earlier than that of sapiens and Neanderthals.

It might go back to before cells even existed.

Maybe the two cell types were just different evolutionary paths of a primitive life form-one chose to keep evolving, the other to fix its form.

And these two similar biological units underwent convergent evolution, independently developing two entirely similar civilizations.

From the start, there was never any true right or wrong.