I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 80

“I can sense the feeling of material being replaced on you. Friend, are you a Sacrifice?”

The voice was faint, but Mo Ling heard every word clearly.

“Sacrifice?”

Mo Ling had always wondered why these mineral tribes, so different in appearance from the cube, always saw the cube as one of their own.

He was just a cube.

It seemed they didn’t care about appearance, but about material, and had an almost obsessive view of it.

But they didn’t see every roadside mineral as kin-such a strange way of judging.

And Shi Beng had said before that the cube felt like its material had been replaced. Maybe these mineral tribes had a unique sense for material.

“But what was a Sacrifice?”

Li Luo asked the ghost this question, and the ghost answered very gently, “A Sacrifice is one abandoned to end the war, one who is cast aside.”

“Abandoned?”

“What did that mean?”

Li Luo pressed further, and the ghost, like Shi Beng before, hid nothing, telling everything it knew.

It seemed these mineral tribes rarely lied.

Mo Ling had thought there might be a fight here, and was ready to get used to his enlarged cube space.

But unexpectedly, the ghost admitted everything they’d done right away.

……

The ghost was a member of the Natural Gas Tribe.

Their tribe was non-confrontational, living only in the fissures near their birthplace.

In fact, there were many of them, but as gases, they could also become liquid when compressed, and the stone pillar’s gaps were enough for them to live in-more than enough.

They didn’t expand tunnels like the solid mineral tribes, and the caves beneath the pillars were dug by the solid tribes.

They had no opinion about the wars of the solid mineral tribes.

Even if there was chaos below, it had nothing to do with them, let alone trying to stop the wars.

Since they stayed in the fissures, the solid tribes thought they were few, gentle, and never attacked them.

Not being involved in war was a great thing, since they were weak.

If they expanded, they’d become thinner and weaker, so hiding in fissures was best for their survival.

But things didn’t go as hoped.

When the nest is destroyed, how can any egg remain intact?

The great war in the Needle Stone Forest finally reached some Natural Gas Tribe pillars.

During the fighting, some mineral tribes broke open the passages connecting the pillars to the outside.

Some clueless Natural Gas Tribe members, when the passages opened,

Floated away.

Yes, they just floated away-their gas density was less than air, so those still gaseous just drifted out the openings.

At first, they didn’t understand why.

By the time they figured it out, many had already floated away as gas through the broken pillars.

That’s when the Natural Gas Tribe realized the destruction of war was unavoidable.

But they couldn’t think of a solution, so they tried to stay liquid and hide deeper in the fissures.

That was the first time they felt fear.

But as the war spread, the fighting beneath the pillars grew fiercer.

Once, when two mineral tribes were fighting below, a stone blade stabbed deep into a fissure.

A spark burst out.

With a bang, a flame raced through the fissure, filling the pillar and burning all the Natural Gas Tribe inside.

Some tried to turn gaseous and escape, but this only made the fire burn hotter; in a gas-liquid mix, the flames raged even more.

A whole pillar was destroyed.

News of this destroyed pillar threw the other Natural Gas Tribe into panic.

Once so peaceful, they now worried how to avoid the same fate.

They even considered joining the war to defend their pillars, but their weakness made them hesitate.

They were stuck.

In that extreme fear, a turning point came-one member suggested, “We don’t need to drive the enemy off ourselves; we just need to make them too scared to fight.”

Everyone agreed, but no one knew how to make the enemy afraid.

At that crucial moment, a Natural Gas Tribe member returning from the burnt pillar brought back an item.

At this, Li Luo couldn’t help but ask, “Was it a pair of gloves?”

“Gloves? You mean the things humans use to protect their hands? No, not that,” the ghost answered, puzzled.

“Not gloves?”

Mo Ling couldn’t help but doubt the ghost’s words. If it wasn’t the Midas Touch, how could it have such a powerful effect?

He’d guessed the Natural Gas Tribe, to end the war, used the gloves and their gaseous state to secretly create Vein Mutation Disease, plunging the mineral tribes into fear.

The logic made sense.

But now, they said it wasn’t gloves at all?

Li Luo was also confused. She took out her tablet and showed the ghost a picture of gloves.

“You’re sure it’s not this?”

“I know gloves, but our tribe doesn’t need them-only humans do,” the ghost explained patiently.

Li Luo was even more confused.

“So, what did you find?”

The ghost gestured to indicate a small area. “A piece of cloth about this big, a red cloth.”

This answer stunned Li Luo.

Why would it be a piece of cloth?

She quickly searched on her tablet, but no matter how many relics she browsed, she couldn’t find anything similar.

“What does the cloth do?” Li Luo asked.

“It can change the material of a Sacrifice, turning them into something else. That way, they think they’ve gotten Vein Mutation Disease.”

The ghost continued.

At first, they didn’t know what the cloth was for, but its red was so bright and strange.

It seemed to always draw the eye, impossible to look away.

They asked the member why he brought it back, and he said, “It was too eye-catching.”

Even these curious beings were fascinated by it.

Soon, the whole Natural Gas Tribe was drawn to the red cloth, gathering to study it.

Eventually, an accident happened-a member put the red cloth on his head and found it suddenly fused with him, the red vanishing, turning into transparent gas.

He could feel something on his head, but couldn’t see the cloth-only a mist matching his body.

The cloth adapted to his body.

Excited, this Natural Gas Tribe member touched a companion, and that part of the companion’s body solidified.

The solidified part kept spreading, covering his whole body, and soon he became a Fluorite Tribe  member.

But he could still move, now a complete Fluorite Tribe.

Not only that, this change could spread to others by touch.

This discovery delighted them.

“This is something that can cause panic!”

And so, a plague called “Vein Mutation Disease” began to spread through the Needle Stone Forest.