I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 96

It was a mineral tribe member with a yellow-white body, its skin oily and smooth, resembling a river-polished pebble.

Mo Ling couldn’t tell what kind of mineral it was, but it was clearly coming for Shi Beng.

This mineral tribe’s body had changed shape-its eight arms had become spider-like jointed limbs, long and extending to the ground, looking rather eerie.

Even its movement was supported by those limbs, crawling along the rock wall into the Basalt Vein  where Shi Beng was.

When the spider mineral tribe saw Shi Beng, it bent its limbs, then suddenly sprang forward, launching its body toward Shi Beng.

While still some distance away in midair, the ends of its arms transformed into round hammerheads, spinning and swinging as it flew.

“It can even morph into the hammer-type weapons that deal the most damage to mineral tribes,” Mo Ling thought, surprised.

It seemed this spider mineral tribe had hunted many enemies-its combat instincts were highly developed.

Facing the oncoming enemy, Shi Beng didn’t meet it head-on. Instead, he extended a spear from his arm and hurled it at the spider mineral tribe.

But the spear had little effect, easily batted aside by the spider mineral tribe’s swinging arms.

As the hammerhead was about to land on Shi Beng, he jumped to the side, letting the spider mineral tribe fly past under its own momentum.

Once the spider mineral tribe landed, Shi Beng dashed forward, attacking it as it hit the ground.

Shi Beng seemed to have learned the blunt weapon trick-his four fists extended into round hammerheads, smashing down hard on the spider mineral tribe’s back.

The spider mineral tribe tried to bend its arms backward to block, but the thin joints became a weakness, snapping under the hammer blows.

Shi Beng’s heavy punch struck the spider mineral tribe’s back, instantly opening a crack.

It seemed the spider mineral tribe’s body wasn’t yet tough enough to prevent injury, but the crack healed rapidly.

So, Shi Beng pressed the attack, landing several more blows on the same spot.

Only when the spider mineral tribe shattered and stopped moving did Shi Beng slowly stand up.

The rapid flurry of blows had even heated Shi Beng’s body, smoke rising from his arms.

Mo Ling stared, dazed.

“This simulated battlefield, whatever else, has a really good physics engine.”

Mo Ling had noticed before: though the simulated battlefield looked shoddy, the participants’ bodies felt very real.

Fighting enemies was all solid blows, as if the focus was on combat feedback.

“I wonder what the point of bringing people here is.”

Mo Ling felt this battlefield had some unknown guiding purpose.

Whether it was the addictive feeling of power or the ever-present sense of crisis, everything seemed to drive one to keep fighting.

“No wonder Ci Xing always thought this was the source of war. If you’re influenced by this kind of signal all the time, wanting to fight when you leave is inevitable.”

“If the signal was strong enough, would the fighting spirit in ones infected by the Vein Mutation Disease never fade, until they lost control?”

Mo Ling didn’t dare think further, so he kept watching Shi Beng.

After defeating the spider, Shi Beng paused, and Mo Ling guessed he was checking the foggy map.

Sure enough, after a while, Shi Beng set off in another direction, and Mo Ling hurried to follow.

Not long after, Shi Beng found the yellow-white mineral vein of the spider mineral tribe, went up, and wiped it out.

Then, Shi Beng set out again, searching for enemies around the Basalt Vein.

Some veins still had ongoing internal struggles, with battles raging.

Once Shi Beng joined in, it became a one-sided slaughter.

As this went on, Shi Beng’s strength kept increasing-eventually, he could smash an entire mineral vein with a single punch.

Mo Ling had felt it himself: this power boost was all-encompassing, even agility and perception improved drastically.

At first, you felt as slow as a snail, but later as swift as a cheetah, making you dread returning to your original state.

This anxiety about losing power would keep growing as the battlefield got tougher.

For Shi Beng, it meant fear kept piling up.

Mo Ling watched Shi Beng with some concern.

But Shi Beng was doing fine,just like when he first entered, he still defeated an enemy, adapted to the power, and advanced methodically.

“So steady.”

Shi Beng didn’t choose to change his body shape like other mineral tribes; he remained the armored strongman from the start.

This meant some enemies were even several times his size, like a human fighting a giant beast.

But it also meant he didn’t need to readjust to his body,Shi Beng just used his precise, armored form to beat each enemy.

His intricately structured armor was effective-many fierce-looking enemies couldn’t even break his defense.

Along the way, he kept learning new combat techniques and tried out various weapons.

He no longer relied on morphing his body into blades or spears, but created weapons externally and picked them up.

So, in every clash, others took bodily damage, while he just broke weapons.

Mo Ling suddenly understood Shi Beng’s earlier talk about “dead things” when making armor.

Among mineral tribes, it seemed to be a higher level of power usage.

Not only that, Mo Ling noticed Shi Beng’s weapon use wasn’t shallow; he seemed to have a training system and was getting more skilled with each fight.

“It’s that ability he mentioned before,turning fear into knowledge!” Mo Ling realized.

Gradually, the enemies who only relied on brute force and had no technique were completely helpless against Shi Beng, getting taken out easily.

As more veins were destroyed, Mo Ling grew more anxious.

“That thing is coming.”

Sure enough, after the last vein was destroyed, a familiar tremor began, and the tunnels started collapsing.

Shi Beng, seeing this, did what Mo Ling had done,he smashed through the rock wall, ran upward through a breach, and reached the surface of the Needle Stone Forest.

The giant mineral tribe with countless arms once again climbed up from deep underground, glanced at Mo Ling floating in the sky, its eyes full of exhaustion and helplessness.

This time, the giant mineral tribe seemed different-there were no floating objects around it.

Then, the giant mineral tribe turned its gaze to the surface, to the only surviving fighter-Shi Beng.

Its huge eyes regarded the tiny black-armored knight on the ground, expression unreadable.

Shi Beng looked up at the colossal being standing on the earth, unmoving.