If no one had told Mo Ling about Theseus Cells, he would never have noticed something so subtle.
The thing Mo Ling had found hardest to face had appeared—
Humans converted by Theseus Cells.
Before reinforcements arrived, Mo Ling hurriedly controlled the Cube to accelerate away from the soldier.
He still clung to a sliver of hope.
But the farther he traveled along the high wall, the more completely that hope shattered.
The outskirts were filled with Theseus Cells!
Mo Ling even went over the wall and circled around outside several times.
All life was living normally—birds sang, flowers bloomed, everything was full of vitality—yet without exception, they were all Theseus Cells.
Mo Ling returned inside the wall and carefully approached the Outpost Station.
His vision penetrated the ground. The soldiers inside were working in perfect order, and the layout of the various facilities was no different from the first time Mo Ling had seen them.
But that was precisely what made it so terrifying.
Thinking of what the soldier had said earlier, Mo Ling confirmed his suspicion:
This was a world of Theseus Cells!
In this world, normal cells were called anti-cells.
That was why this region had been sealed off separately, and why there was no trace of Theseus Cells to be found within it.
Mo Ling had once wondered what it would be like if an entire world were replaced by Theseus Cells.
He had thought the people in that world would suffer terribly.
But he had never considered that their beliefs could be completely reversed.
The minority would be called the aberrations!
The soldiers existed vividly within the Outpost Station. Perhaps they had been made entirely of Theseus Cells from birth; there had never been any such thing as replacement for them.
These living Theseus humans grew normally and died normally.
Perhaps in their biology, Theseus Cells were simply the basic units that made up living organisms.
While Mo Ling was still observing the soldiers, someone noticed it.
"That Cube went to the Outpost Station! Stop it!"
A squad gave chase.
Mo Ling could have dealt with them, but looking at these Theseus Cell humans, he felt strangely unsettled.
"It should be a Relic with independent consciousness. No idea how it got into the Sealed Area."
"Has anyone reported a missing Relic recently?"
"No. There's nothing from the Monitoring Station either. I checked—it should be an undiscovered Relic."
"Fine. Try communicating first. It has to pay a price to use its abilities too, and so far, it doesn't seem very dangerous."
Were they any different from ordinary humans?
Mo Ling aimed his Teleportation Frame at the soldiers' heads.
Then he jerked it downward, turning all of their weapons into fragments.
Mo Ling controlled the Cube to float upward and swiftly leave the Outpost Station.
He still could not bring himself to do it.
In the blink of an eye, Mo Ling returned to the Great Tree Cave.
He guided the Cube onto a platform, then leaned against its metal wall and panted heavily.
The Outpost Station in this world alone had already left Mo Ling feeling oppressed.
When he thought about everything behind it—the Monitoring Station, the Abyss, Dawn City—he no longer dared to keep exploring.
"Let's go back first. I'm starving."
One reason Mo Ling had gone to the Outpost Station in this world was to find something to eat.
But after seeing the bizarre scene there, he knew that even if there was food, it was probably made from Theseus Cells. Maybe it would even be transparent.
They were both just protein and energy, but Mo Ling found the thought deeply revolting.
"If the Metamorphic Trees of the Cube Tribe knew their Holy Object only wanted to eat, wouldn't that be ridiculous?" Mo Ling mocked himself.
After resting for a moment, Mo Ling controlled the Cube and slowly descended into the Great Tree Cave.
The descent was very slow. By the fluorescence of the glowing mushrooms, Mo Ling finally made out the bottom of the Great Tree Cave.
It was a pool blanketed in glowing algae, with the Great Tree Cave's deep roots twisting down into the bottom.
The gaps between the roots stretched into the distance, supporting an immense, empty space.
Small creatures covered in glowing algae lived peacefully in that space.
Though it was deep underground, damp, and decaying, it did not feel lifeless at all.
Looking at the tranquil scene, Mo Ling's mind, shaken by the world of Theseus Cells, eased slightly.
He continued descending.
Just as Mo Ling was about to fall into the pool, the glowing water slowly stretched upward like tentacles.
Mo Ling quickly stopped the Cube in midair.
The tentacles swayed constantly in the air, sprouting several smaller tendrils that kept reaching up beneath the Cube, probing and grasping.
Mo Ling experimentally set the Cube atop the tentacles. The glowing tendrils that touched it hurriedly clung to its metal walls.
The faintly luminescent water crept higher and higher up the vertical surfaces until it swallowed the entire Cube.
A thin film of water gently pulled the Cube into the pool.
After thinking it over, Mo Ling released his control and let the Cube smash into the water like a stone under the pull of gravity.
The instant it entered the water, the familiar gravity reversal appeared again.
Mo Ling felt the Cube pass through a curtain of water, and the entire world flipped over.
The Cube burst out of the water curtain and landed on another pool.
Water splashed everywhere.
Inside the Cube, Mo Ling braced himself with both hands and nearly bumped his head into another lump.
"Good thing the drop wasn't very high this time."
Once Mo Ling sat upright, he noticed a wary figure beside the Cube.
The figure's hair and clothes had been drenched by the water splashed up by the Cube. Droplets of water, whether from the pool or sweat, slid down her smooth cheeks.
It was Li Luo!
Her expression slowly changed from wariness to relief. She walked over and patted the Cube. "Where did you run off to?"
Then she remembered something, took an electronic screen from her bag, and placed it on the Cube.
Mo Ling teleported the electronic screen into the Cube. Holding it, he found himself unable to describe what he had experienced.
"The matter of the Theseus Cell world seems far too horrifying for the humans here."
After thinking for a moment, Mo Ling wrote three large words on the electronic screen:
"I don't know."
Mo Ling truly did not know what that place was.
What if it was another Dream?
If it was a Dream, that would actually be a good thing.
Li Luo did not get angry upon seeing the reply. She merely leaned close to the Cube and circled around it several times, checking whether it had been damaged.
As she wiped the dirt from the Cube, she said:
"Ever since the Voice of God disappeared two days ago, I've been looking for you."
Only then did Mo Ling notice the dark circles beneath Li Luo's eyes.
So she had been worried about him all this time.
Mo Ling continued asking on the electronic screen, "Has the Voice of God really disappeared? When did it happen?"
After receiving Li Luo's answer, Mo Ling calculated carefully and discovered that the Voice of God had disappeared at exactly the time the Metamorphic Tree leader set down the spinal column.
What connection could there be?
Mo Ling also learned that Li Luo had nearly finished exploring the bottom of the Great Tree Cave.
It was simply a vast hollow space, with nothing but a broad, shallow pool.
The creatures transformed by Theseus Cells attacked one another here, but after the Voice of God disappeared, the creatures here had gradually returned to normal as well.
That was why Li Luo had the chance to come down to the bottom and search.
"There really isn't anything else?" Mo Ling confirmed it again and again, but every answer was the same.
Unwilling to accept it, Mo Ling sent his vision underground.
Beneath the shallow pool was nothing but murky silt.
There was no water curtain capable of crossing between worlds at all...
Before you continue