I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 90

On the other side of the semicircular opening stood a tall, slender black mineral tribe member, his material exactly the same as that of the black building.

At this moment, he was raising his right hand, palm open, with magnetic field lines formed from black fragments extending from his palm all the way to the semicircular entrance.

Then, he waved his hand outward, signaling for Li Luo and Mo Ling to come in.

Go in?

Hesitating for a moment, Mo Ling still controlled the cube to float inside.

Once the two entered the stone pillar, the black mineral tribe member closed his open right hand, and the semicircular opening quickly healed, the scattered black fragments returning to the pillar.

The pillar’s wall returned to its ancient, unadorned appearance.

Perhaps seeing Li Luo’s confusion, the black mineral tribe member explained, “That’s magnetite. I’m from the Magnetite Tribe.”

Mo Ling suddenly understood. There were always some hard-to-understand types among the mineral tribes; it was hard to wrap your head around them.

“Hello, we’re here to see the village chief,” Li Luo said to the black mineral tribe member.

“You want to leave the Needle Stone Forest, right?” The black mineral tribe member guessed Li Luo’s intention directly. “I’m the village chief. You can call me Ci Xing.”

“Just so happens, I need a human’s help,” Ci Xing said bluntly.

“Need a human’s help?” Li Luo was puzzled.

What could possibly require a human’s help?

“This is a relic, right?” Ci Xing looked at the cube, thought for a moment, and asked.

“He could tell right away?”

Mo Ling had thought all these mineral tribes would treat the cube as a infected with the Vein Mutated Disease, no wonder this one was the village chief.

Li Luo was also surprised and was about to answer when Ci Xing cut her off, “Looks like it is, but this relic really looks like us.”

Then he muttered to himself, “How did I tell? He doesn’t have the magnetic field of a living being, no sign of life at all. Every living thing has that kind of magnetic field.”

Hearing Ci Xing’s self-talk, Li Luo was left speechless.

It seemed Ci Xing was answering every question she wanted to ask.

“This isn’t mind reading,it’s just that from your body’s magnetic field, I can guess your general thoughts. I’m not very familiar with human magnetic fields, so I might be off.”

Then he stared at Li Luo for a moment before saying, “Looks like I guessed right. Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you. I just prefer straightforward conversation.”

Li Luo’s look shifted from shock to suspicion.

Magnetic field mind-reading?

“Guess what I’m thinking now?” Li Luo suddenly asked Ci Xing.

Ci Xing’s deep gaze met hers. After a while, he answered helplessly, “You’re thinking about what I’m guessing.”

Ci Xing shook his head, as if many people had asked him this before.

“But I always feel it’s rude to pry into others,” Ci Xing said, reaching out his right hand, apparently wanting to shake hands.

Another mineral tribe member who knew human etiquette.

Li Luo hesitated, then shook his hand.

The atmosphere eased.

Then, to reassure Li Luo, Ci Xing explained his ability:

He could sense the general emotions of living beings from their body’s magnetic field, then guess their thoughts based on the logic of conversation,a rough kind of “mind reading.”

But this “mind reading” also let him make accurate judgments about someone as soon as he met them.

“That’s why they made me village chief, to greet new infected by the Vein Mutation Disease, to guide lost ordinary mineral tribes and other intelligent life,” Ci Xing said, sounding troubled.

“But once people know I have this ability, they’re always on guard, but I can’t help but guess,you understand, right?”

“Looks like you do,” he muttered again.

The good thing about talking to Ci Xing was you didn’t have to use your mouth.

After learning about his ability, Li Luo seemed to find it interesting and stopped talking, just letting Ci Xing guess.

So, the two stared at each other, neither saying a word.

Li Luo finally broke the silence, asking, “What do you want my help with?”

Ci Xing seemed to remember the favor and waved, “Come with me.”

He led Li Luo down the spiral staircase, explaining the stone pillar building as they went.

The pillar wasn’t big at first,Ci Xing had built it from magnetite for his own home.

But after he became village chief, people kept coming to his house to tinker with things.

Because magnetite could be reshaped after construction, his home kept getting bigger and bigger, eventually becoming a public building.

Ci Xing was clearly troubled by this.

Unlike the infected who made art, there were many in Neon Village interested in other things.

Many were bursting with curiosity and began researching the entire Needle Stone Forest.

These researchers gathered at his house, and eventually the pillar became a research institute, its interior totally different from its exterior.

At first, the researchers studied the environment and mineral tribes of the Needle Stone Forest, systematically classifying everything.

Thanks to the knowledge in their minds, they could judge and categorize things clearly.

But the Needle Stone Forest wasn’t big, and soon there was nothing left to study,except one thing: the cause of war.

That shadow hung over all mineral tribes.

Before getting infected by the Vein Mutated Disease, every member of Neon Village was trapped in endless war.

After catching it and gaining emotions, a new thing called “curiosity” appeared in their hearts.

They desperately wanted to know, why fight such a meaningless war?

That question soon became the focus of all the researchers.

At first, they thought the war had simply gone on so long that everyone forgot its origin.

So, they tried to trace it back and find the true source.

They wanted to ask long-lived, knowledgeable people, but the infected were shunned and couldn’t visit other mineral veins, let alone ask anyone.

Luckily, some very old mineral tribes had come to Neon Village, but even they didn’t know how the war started.

With no other choice, the researchers tried one last approach, archaeology.

Wars in the Needle Stone Forest left traces; if they could find the earliest traces, they could determine when the war began.

If they could fix the time, even without finding the origin, they could at least establish part of the history.

That was a good start.

Archaeology is never quick; it has to proceed slowly from the present into the past.

The researchers began digging.

They quickly found the earliest war ruins.

And from the mineral tribe remains left by the war, they determined when the war started.

But just as they thought they could move on to the next step and find the source of the war-

Beneath the earliest war ruins, they uncovered something that sent chills down every researcher’s spine-

A ruined civilization.