I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 79

“Shi Beng, based on your understanding of the Needle Stone Forest, who do you think could do something like this?” Li Luo asked.

Shi Beng was still jumpy, leaning against the wall and answering cautiously, “No one would do something like this. Spreading Vein Mutation Disease  might end up affecting themselves.”

That made sense; the self-serving mineral tribes wouldn’t do something that could harm themselves.

Fear wouldn’t allow them to do it, either.

Li Luo thought for a moment and asked, “Could it be someone from the rare mineral tribes, trying to turn you all into rare minerals?”

“Unlikely. Their tribe members have also gotten Vein Mutation Disease and turned into common minerals,” Shi Beng thought for a bit and shook his head.

“Then who has the ability to do it?” Li Luo was puzzled.

Hearing this, Shi Beng seemed to fall into thought. After a while, he answered, “There is one kind of mineral tribe that could do it.”

“Which one?”

“The Natural Gas Tribe.”

Shi Beng’s answer stunned Li Luo.

Mo Ling was also shocked.

“Natural Gas Tribe? How could there be such a tribe in the Needle Stone Forest? He almost thought he’d misheard.”

But thinking carefully, it made sense.

If solid minerals could be born from the stone pillars, then maybe gaseous minerals could appear too.

With such a completely random, bizarre phenomenon, nothing was impossible.

Li Luo snapped back and asked, “There’s natural gas? Then do you also have petroleum?”

“Yes.”

It turned out their understanding of the Needle Stone Forest was still too shallow.

All the mineral tribes they’d met before were solid, so their thinking was limited.

Who would have thought that even a Natural Gas Tribe could be born from these pillars?

Shi Beng explained, “They’re a non-confrontational tribe, very few in number, and their stone pillars are all small and hidden, with very narrow cave fissures.”

“They don’t participate in our wars, are very friendly to other mineral tribes, and just stay curled up in their little fissures inside their stone pillars. You rarely see them.”

Mo Ling began to have some ideas. If they were gaseous, they really could touch Vein Mutation Disease patients without anyone noticing.

And it wouldn’t trigger any alarms.

But if it really was them, why would they do it?

“Have any of them ever gotten Vein Mutation Disease?” Li Luo asked.

“Never heard of it. I’ve only heard of it happening among the solid mineral tribes.”

Shi Beng’s answer made Mo Ling start to suspect, maybe it really was them.

“There’s a Natural Gas Tribe porous rock layer nearby. The path to the exit goes right past it, and it’s very narrow.”

So, there was one nearby? Mo Ling grew even more suspicious.

They even had the opportunity-only the motive was unclear.

“Let’s go take a look,” Li Luo said to Shi Beng.

Shi Beng, however, was now scared and didn’t want to go. He might not have emotions, but he wasn’t stupid.

After their conversation, he’d basically guessed that the Natural Gas Tribe was very likely behind the Vein Mutation Disease.

He agreed out loud, but his legs were shaking and he couldn’t move.

Mo Ling found it funny.

“No wonder he’s a deserter, to be this timid.”

He could imagine Shi Beng running from the battlefield, probably fleeing in terror while his companions grew braver through fear.

Everyone reacts differently under fear.

“If you’re scared, you don’t have to go. Just tell us the way,” Li Luo said helplessly.

“I’ll go, just let me wait a bit, I’m scared right now,” Shi Beng replied, trembling and patting his chest to calm himself.

Mo Ling suddenly thought Shi Beng was more interesting in a state of fear than when he was cold-faced.

But he also wondered,if Shi Beng was so scared, why was he still willing to lead them?

Maybe he still didn’t fully understand fear.

After a while, Shi Beng finally got himself together and stopped shaking all over.

But the ripples on his body still betrayed him.

“I’m ready, let’s go,” he said, still full of fear and stammering.

Under Li Luo’s doubtful gaze, he walked ahead, his steps stiff.

Just then, a stone fell from the cave wall in front.

Shi Beng was so frightened he darted behind the cube, only coming out after seeing it was just a loose rock.

He walked to the front again.

You had to admit, though his steps were stiff, his escape speed was really fast.

But after being startled, his fear lessened and his steps became lighter.

Following Shi Beng forward, they soon reached a passage with porous walls, making it look like it might collapse at any moment.

But in Mo Ling’s vision, the rock layer was clearly much denser than before, very solid and tightly packed.

Li Luo noticed too. She crouched and examined the hard rock at the cave’s base, asking Shi Beng if they were close.

“A bit further, we’re almost there.”

Now the ripples on Shi Beng’s body began to surge again, but he quickly calmed down.

Soon, they arrived at a round clearing.

Shi Beng pointed up. “That’s the Natural Gas Tribe’s stone pillar.”

Mo Ling floated upward.

It was a huge curved dome, with dense rock walls cleverly forming an arch that supported the open space.

There were deep, bottomless pores in the rock, extending inward and branching off in all directions.

The largest was only the size of an arm, impossible to pass through. Some were very damp, but Mo Ling couldn’t tell if it was water.

“Did the Natural Gas Tribe really live in there?”

As Mo Ling observed, a puddle of water suddenly flowed out from a pore, oozing out like slime.

Mo Ling quickly dodged, and the puddle fell from the high dome to the ground.

The sound of water startled Shi Beng, who hid at the edge, watching the puddle.

Li Luo wanted to approach, but the water began to swell, rising up from the ground into a figure.

As it swelled to half a person’s height, you could just barely make out its shape.

It seemed to mimic Li Luo’s form, turning into a woman, its body gradually becoming misty.

It kept growing, until it was as tall as Li Luo, and the mist thinned out.

When it stopped swelling, the figure circled Li Luo a few times, trailing smoky phantoms behind it. Though humanoid, its movements were completely inhuman, more like a ghost.

After curiously examining Li Luo, the ghost drifted over to the cube, circling it.

It even leaned in close, and in Mo Ling’s vision, it was like a swirl of mist rushing over-an odd sensation.

Then, a faint whisper came, as soft as wind through leaves.

“Friend, are you a Sacrifice?”