Want to be human, but cube-like

Volume 1: Chapter 47 The Golden Palace

This scene is truly filled with stereotypes about the powerful and wealthy...

Following Alex, Xiangzi stepped off the tram, looked around at the scenery, and sighed inwardly.

They should have gotten off at the station, but the place where they were now looked like a palace.

Looking around, it was magnificent and resplendent, but all the decorative items were distorted and shapeless.

On the wall, one can vaguely make out irregular picture frames from the messy patterns, but the pictures are simply filled with many irregular blocks of color.

Even the chandelier above their heads looked like a strangely shaped blob.

It's even more perfunctory than a scene made by a 3D animation beginner.

Directly in front was a large door inlaid with various jewels, slightly ajar. Under the dazzling golden light surrounding it, the interior was pitch black.

They turned around and looked behind them.

The tram had vanished, and there was no trace of its tracks on the ground.

It was as if their experience of riding the tram just now was a complete illusion.

"...Can't we go back?"

Clutching Alex's slender fingers tightly, Xiangzi's voice trembled slightly, barely suppressed.

"They might have been teleported."

In contrast, Alex remained calm throughout. Apart from a brief moment of tension at the beginning when Xiangzi was no longer under her protection, she did not experience much negative emotion, even when she was forced into this strange space with Xiangzi.

"wait for me."

As she spoke, she took a workbench out of her backpack, slapped it on the ground to the side, and then made a sign, which she placed in the spot where they had just been standing.

She wrote three strings of numbers on the notice board, some positive and some negative, which Xiangzi couldn't understand at all.

"What are these numbers...?"

"These are our coordinates."

While answering Xiangzi's questions, Alex began to compare the signs with the coordinates on the minimap.

"The first line is our coordinates before we started walking forward in the tram, the second line is our coordinates before the doors opened, and the third line is the coordinates of our current position."

As she spoke, she stared intently at the second coordinate line, whose numbers were not only vastly different from the first, but also thousands of grids different from the third.

But they just got off the bus and walked only a few steps; it's impossible for them to have covered such a long distance all at once.

Thinking of this, Alex frowned slightly.

"By the way, the unit of coordinates is meters."

"rice……?"

Hearing this, Xiangzi was slightly taken aback. She looked at the three strings of numbers again, counted the digits, and mentally calculated them several times.

"Are we still in Tokyo?!"

The difference of over a million between the numbers on the first and second coordinates made Xiangzi exclaim in surprise.

"They must have been transported to another dimension."

Alex answered her question calmly.

"It's similar to that floating island world in the basement of the hamburger shop."

After briefly checking the items in her backpack, Alex dismantled the workbench and put it back in her backpack. Then, while carrying her stone pickaxe, she broke off a golden floor tile and said...

However, beneath the floor tiles lies gray reinforced concrete, which appears to be harder than the ground surface and feels somewhat similar to deep slate when tapped.

After digging down four or five more blocks, Alex didn't find any other changes, so she climbed back up with concrete and returned to Xiangzi's side, turning her attention to the surrounding walls.

As Xiangzi gradually calmed down because of Alex's calm demeanor, she was no longer as uneasy as before. She curiously followed Alex, watching her tap here and dig there.

"The blocky man's abilities are truly amazing."

With a soft sigh, Xiangzi reached out and stroked the wall where Alex had carved out a neat square grid.

There wasn't a single trace of being hit by a pickaxe; it was as if the two pieces of building material had been machine-cut. The areas that Alex had filled in were also smooth and without any signs of damage.

This wasn't the first time Shoko had seen Alex use her unique superpowers, but she still found it fascinating.

"By the way, Xiangzi, why don't you try picking it up and using it?"

Hearing Xiangzi's words behind her, Alex suddenly remembered something. She turned around and threw a few wooden planks out of her backpack.

She casually tossed a fist-sized cube to Xiangzi's feet, where it slowly spun and floated on the ground.

"Eh? Can I, too?"

Seeing Alex's actions, Xiangzi was taken aback. She concealed the slight interest that had risen between her brows and asked curiously.

Before she could finish speaking, Xiangzi had already squatted down impatiently. She curiously poked one of the floating blocks with her index finger, watching it slowly move a short distance like a small object floating on the water before picking it up.

“So light!”

Holding one in each hand, each block was about the size of a fist. Just one block filled Xiangzi's small hands completely. There were a few more on the ground, but she clearly couldn't carry any more.

Xiangzi tried to put the cube into her pocket, but as soon as she let go, the cube fell to the ground.

"Can I only take two blocks?"

Looking at the cube in Xiangzi's hand, Alex took a few steps closer, sucked the wooden plank on the ground back into her backpack, muttered something, and then continued.

"Try picking up a block and slamming it to the side."

As she spoke, she raised her hand and slowed down the movements to demonstrate to Xiangzi.

"Slam the block down where you want to place it, and release it at the same time."

With a hint of excitement in his eyes, Xiangzi imitated Alex's movements and successfully placed a cube with a "thud".

"Success!"

As he watched the block in his hand fall to the ground and instantly transform into a neat piece of wood about one cubic meter in size, Xiangzi's expression became slightly excited.

She never imagined that she could use such amazing abilities as Alex.

"What about this?"

Somewhat surprised, Alex tossed another stone pickaxe to Xiangzi.

"Let me try."

Seemingly having completely forgotten that the two were in an unknown area and could be attacked by familiars at any time, Xiangzi was immersed in the novel powers that Alex had given her.

"It's gotten bigger!... Hmm, but this is so heavy!"

But this time, the pickaxe he picked up was not like the block he had used before.

The stone pickaxe, which was originally only the size of a palm and floating on the ground, suddenly returned to its original size as soon as it landed in Xiangzi's hand. Its weight forced Xiangzi to slam the pickaxe to the ground.

It seems she can't use this anymore.

Taking the pickaxe from Xiangzi, who was barely holding onto the wooden handle, Alex removed the wooden plank that Xiangzi had just placed on the ground and threw it back to her.

"Take these two blocks. If you encounter a battle later, place one on the ground and then crouch behind it to hide."

Alex glanced once more at the minimap at the large cluster of red dots slowly approaching the gate and gave Xiangzi some instructions.

"Okay, I see."

Suppressing his excitement, Xiangzi nodded and replied earnestly.

There are quite a few enemies. If they are all those familiars that look like gold coins, I might not be able to protect Xiangzi's safety during the battle. The purpose of these two cubes... is better than nothing.

However, for now, we can take cover.

After knocking open the golden wall in front, she finally found Alex in another adjacent space. She widened the space by one block so that Xiangzi could follow her inside. Then she turned around and blocked the block behind her.

"boom!"

Just as Alex blocked the block, a loud crash was heard, the golden door was smashed open, and a group of golden monsters rushed into the hall.

But upon seeing the golden palace, riddled with potholes and completely deserted, they could only stare at each other in bewilderment.

Volume 1: Chapter 48 Rapid Pursuit

The walls between adjacent rooms are not far apart, only about three squares apart.

The outer layer is made of stone bricks with a golden coating, while the inside is gray concrete similar to that underground, and it is also mixed with steel bars.

Similar to the feel of digging on the floor, the outer layer is the hardness of ordinary stone, which can be knocked off with a stone pickaxe in a few strokes. The middle layer is a bit more difficult to break, as it is the hardness of deep slate, which is about twice as hard as ordinary stone.

After passing through one of the walls of the golden hall, the two arrived at a relatively small room.

The same magnificent gold and jade, in the same direction, also has a door, but it is tightly closed.

Unlike the previous halls, this room looks more like a lounge.

A long table, a sofa, and nothing else.

Alex glanced at the minimap. The room where the two of them had been was now crowded with a large number of red hostile creatures, probably all attracted by the witch's kiss on Xiangzi.

They are not safe yet. The familiar is in the next room and could find them again at any time, or even break through the wall at any moment.

At this moment, the surrounding black area was also detected and loaded on the minimap. Contrary to Alex's guess, the place they were in was not a dungeon maze, but a passage with no end in sight.

On both sides of the passageway were rows of rooms, some large, some small, and all different in shape.

It's a bit like how Alex and her mother used to dig fishbone mine tunnels, only digging in straight lines and not digging horizontally.

The two of them were currently in one of the small rooms on one side of this passage.

Alex moved gently and carefully pushed the door open a crack.

She peeked out and looked around.

What came into view was a dimly lit, deep tunnel. Traces of tracks could still be vaguely seen on the ground, but they seemed to have been trampled flat by some huge creature and sunk into the ground, thus losing their original function.

Just as Alex had seen on the map, there was a door at regular intervals on both sides of the tunnel, which should lead to various different rooms.

The area outside the room is not safe, although there are no hostile creatures visible on the minimap yet—they must be in the room they were in before they all rushed in.

But Alex could still vaguely see something wandering in the deep, dark openings at both ends of the tunnel. The distance was beyond the range that the minimap could detect, and she couldn't be sure if what she was seeing was real with her naked eye.

Without looking any further, she withdrew and gently closed the door.

"What should we do now?"

Xiangzi, who had been feeling uneasy ever since hearing a loud noise from the next room, finally asked in a low voice after Alex finished observing the situation outside.

"First, we need to find an exit and get out of here."

"Plant a torch in the ground as a marker," Alex replied.

If it were just her being pulled into this dimension, Alex would definitely explore the entire map first to see if there were any hidden chests to explore, and then find the BOSS, the Banker Witch, to see if she could defeat it.

Since I'm in survival mode where I retain my inventory after death, even if I can't win, run out of resources, or encounter any traps or accidents along the way, I'll respawn directly in the burger shop after death, without any loss whatsoever.

But Xiangzi is different; she cannot be brought back to life.

With her by her side, Alex couldn't explore the map or fight in peace. And if she died and resurrected back at the hamburger shop, leaving Xiangzi alone, how would she find the exit and get back on her own?

Fortunately, the buildings in this dimension are not indestructible. They can rely on Alex's blocky abilities to break through walls and avoid most dangers.

If it were anyone else, they would most likely have no choice but to walk into that obviously dangerous and deep tunnel.

Looking at her location on the minimap, she realized she had indeed moved a little closer to the second coordinate she had noted down. Taking advantage of the fact that her familiars were still gathered in the next room and there was no other movement, Alex knocked open a two-block-high hole in the wall again and led Xiangzi inside.

If this map does indeed have an exit, then it's most likely the second coordinate that Alex noted down on the tram.

If you can't dig it out by force, then you should leave the way you came in. Alex, who has explored countless dimensional dungeons, is very experienced in this.

They were quite fast; without stopping at all, the two of them had already passed through four or five rooms in half a minute.

Meanwhile, Alex kept an eye on the minimap to make sure she could quickly deal with any familiars she encountered when entering the next room.

Actually, the safest and most secure method would be to dig a few blocks underground, all the way to their destination, and then dig a staircase up to take Xiangzi up.

But as mentioned earlier, the buildings on this map, apart from the gilded stone bricks on the surface, are all made of reinforced concrete, with a hardness comparable to deep slate.