I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 71

After some time, Shi Beng finally calmed down under Li Luo’s persuasion.

But he still remained wary of Mo Ling, not wanting the cube to come near.

Li Luo explained repeatedly that the cube was just a relic with self-awareness, not a living being, and had nothing to do with Vein Mutation Disease.

But Shi Beng still refused to believe it, seemingly obsessed with the matter of Vein Mutation Disease, preferring to misunderstand rather than risk contact with the cube.

Mo Ling decided not to provoke him for now.

Once Mo Ling piloted the cube back into the sky, the twisted ripples on Shi Beng’s body gradually subsided, and the sound of metal and stone faded away.

“Now can you tell me about Vein Mutation Disease?” Li Luo asked.

Shi Beng’s trembling body slowly calmed. He glanced at the cube in the sky and finally relaxed.

Leaning against the stone wall, he slowly sat down.

As his fear faded, Shi Beng returned to that void state. He nodded to Li Luo and began to speak.

……

No one knows how Vein Mutation Disease started.

It is a contagious disease that ravaged the mineral tribes.

The first time this disease was discovered was during a massive war.

One day, when Iron Tribe  soldiers went to the mineral vein to wake up some newborns lost in the void, they found a strangely shaped newborn.

He was supposed to be an ordinary Iron Tribe newborn, but his body was dotted with tiny red lights.

These red lights, like grains of sand, speckled his surface, making him stand out.

Not only that, sand-sized red crystals even protruded from his skin, forming shiny crystal clusters.

Although the mineral tribes only felt fear, their innate knowledge included a sense of aesthetics.

This newborn could only be described with one word, ugly.

Such impurity-filled mineral tribes were not only unwelcoming among the Iron Tribe, but were also subject to prejudice throughout the Needle Stone Forest.

Impure mineral tribes did appear from time to time, but ones with so many impurities-not even as byproducts-and such a strange appearance were very rare.

However, war is fair.

No matter how strange you look, cannon fodder is cannon fodder; this newborn was sent straight to the battlefield.

But what no one expected was that this battle was a rare mineral tribe conspiracy. They’d ambushed many troops in nearby hollows, forming a pincer to wipe out the common minerals’ main force from the flank.

Sure enough, the flank attack caused huge losses to the common minerals. When they tried to retreat, a surprise force cut them off from behind.

They were surrounded.

At this point, all the common mineral tribes could do was fight to the death, desperately trying to take down as many enemies as possible under the pressure of fear.

Just then, the newborn filled with red crystal impurities displayed unparalleled ability.

Those red crystals, under his control, became needles that darted through the battlefield, harvesting enemy lives.

And his recovery speed was incredibly fast; by comparison, his iron body was nothing special.

After wiping out the enemies in one direction, he made the red crystals burst into a sea of clusters on the ground, completely blocking the pursuing enemies.

Thanks to this, the main force of the common minerals successfully retreated.

After falling back to a nearby mineral vein stronghold, this newborn was no longer the same as when he was first conscripted.

He was now tall and thin, his whole body covered in large, sharp red crystals embedded in iron skin.

Red ripples surged across his body, hard to calm, as if he was in an extremely unstable state.

The red crystal veins kept spreading into the iron body, seemingly about to take over entirely.

This even uglier appearance made the other mineral tribes even more afraid.

No one dared approach him.

But as a war hero, the general of the stronghold received him.

But when the general saw him up close, he attacked immediately.

“That’s ruby!”

It turned out the red crystals embedded in the iron body were rubies!

Iron ore and ruby ore, two minerals that should have nothing to do with each other, appeared in the same mineral tribe’s body.

When attacked, the strange mineral tribe reacted instantly, turning his arm into a ruby spike and pinning the general to the ground.

Then he made crystal clusters erupt everywhere, surrounding the area, dug a hole at the pillar’s edge, and escaped.

By the time others broke through the crystal wall, he was gone, leaving only the general struggling on the ground.

After rescuing the general, he quickly asked who had conscripted that strange mineral tribe.

After much questioning, it was confirmed he was born from an iron vein.

The general was baffled.

But those were definitely rubies, after fighting rare minerals for so many years, there was no way he’d mistake them.

The general ordered his men to investigate, fix the pillar, and went on with other matters.

But soon, the most terrifying thing happened.

The general found that the wound in his abdomen from the strange newborn began to show blue-green spots.

And, he began to feel emotions other than fear-he felt “curiosity” about what was happening to him.

As time passed, the spots spread, invading his body.

This time, he recognized the blue-green spots.

Turquoise!

The moment he recognized it, he ordered trusted subordinates to lock him up and began to study his own changes.

The turquoise spots gradually spread over his body, forming blue-green veins, and the general felt a powerful force brewing within.

After a while, these blue-green veins swelled and thickened, forming large patches covering his whole body.

Not only that, the general’s body began to change.

His already strong frame grew even more exaggerated, his arms wrapped in swollen, river-like patterns, with inner ripples.

These ripples made the turquoise veins pulse with life.

As his body grew, he was moved from one prison to another.

As he changed, his subordinates no longer dared approach, knowing he was infected and fearing him.

The general watched his own transformation and recorded the entire process.

This endlessly growing power finally terrified his subordinates-they plotted to kill him.

Time passed, and as turquoise covered him, the general’s original stone was completely replaced, his form now fierce and imposing.

The turquoise lines flowed like water ripples, his whole body smooth and dense, with a waxy sheen.

The general looked at himself-he was nothing like before.

Now, he was a pure Turquoise Tribe  member.

At the same time, emotions beyond fear filled his mind.