I'm Trapped in the Block

Without an injection of energy, every world will eventually suffer heat death.

After the Creator vanished, the world began its march toward death. The process could be long or short; a world with a stable foundation would take longer to die.

Inferior worlds like this Sound World, however, would be destroyed very quickly. The constantly decomposing matter was proof of this.

"It didn’t even reach the stage where its foundation was evenly distributed," Martin remarked, watching the Sound World’s accelerated collapse.

Soon, everything in sight began to turn into nothingness. Even the ground and the oceans dissolved into drifting sound.

Not only that, but Mo Ling also felt his body become weightless. He gave a kick and found himself standing on empty air.

"Gravity has turned into sound, too," Martin said, also floating in the air.

The surrounding light grew dim. Everything that existed was fading, dissolving into pitch-black darkness.

"Visible light is disappearing. Hold on to me," Martin said, gripping Mo Ling’s hand tightly.

In the dimness, only sound remained perfectly clear. It was the one thing in this world that would not disappear—its very foundation.

Mo Ling was deeply shaken.

"Without a medium, how can sound exist?" he asked, unable to stop himself. His faint voice, carried by the cacophonous sound waves, scattered in every direction and became garbled before it could travel far.

Once most of the air had vanished, even the propagation of sound became difficult.

This was the very question on Mo Ling’s mind. ’Sound is just the vibration of an object. With no source and no medium, where is the sound coming from?’

Martin’s reply traveled up from their joined hands. "This world was built upon the foundation of our own. The sounds come from our side, too. Even if this world disappears, these sounds will still exist."

"We don’t belong here either, so we don’t need anything from this place. Look, do you still need to breathe?"

Mo Ling understood at once. The sounds existed on a higher dimension than this world; they didn’t need to rely on anything for their existence.

As the surroundings grew darker and quieter, the sensation of touch in Mo Ling’s hand became incredibly acute.

An immense fear took hold of him.

"Will our world end up like this, too? Eventually headed for death."

It was too quiet, so Mo Ling struck up a conversation with Martin to break the silence.

"No. The Creator of our world is still around. Haven’t you noticed that the relics have an infinite supply of energy?"

’That’s true,’ Mo Ling thought. ’But does the Creator really exist?’

Just then, Mo Ling suddenly recalled Martin’s earlier promise.

"Can you tell me now? What is it that forms the foundation of our world?"

As he asked the question, Mo Ling felt Martin’s hand tighten.

"What’s wrong?"

"It’s nothing..."

Martin fell silent for a long while, seemingly reluctant to tell Mo Ling.

"It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me." Mo Ling still hadn’t even figured out why he’d come to this world in the first place.

’If all these worlds were created, then maybe I can return to my original world.’

Martin’s tight grip slowly relaxed, and his voice traveled up his arm.

"I promised you I would tell you, so I will. Don’t worry."

"You can believe me, or you can take it as a joke. But once you know, you might have to pay a price. Are you willing?" Martin’s tone was unusually serious.

Mo Ling hesitated for a moment, then answered, "I am."

’I’m already trapped in the Block. What kind of price could I possibly be afraid of?’

"Knowing the truth of the world means you will have to bear a certain responsibility. It’s inescapable. Are you still willing?"

The more Martin spoke like this, the more curious Mo Ling became.

"I am."

As he answered, Mo Ling felt Martin’s hand tighten again. It trembled slightly, as if Martin couldn’t contain his joy.

A faint laugh reached him.

"Good! Now, everything I’m about to say, you must commit to memory!"

"..."

"The foundation of our world... is a novel!"

Martin’s words were shocking, and he continued on, speaking with a sudden rush of passion, "The Creator used a novel to form our world’s foundation, and then built our world upon that foundation!"

Mo Ling let out a laugh of exasperation.

"Isn’t that just the theory of the Dream Realm Sect?"

Martin, however, rejected Mo Ling’s sarcastic jab. "They’re just a bunch of cowards. After learning the truth of the world, all they could do was run away. Hiding in the depths of the dream realm is just burying their heads in the sand. It would be trivially easy for the Creator to find them; He just can’t be bothered."

He seemed furious about the Dream Realm Sect’s actions, relentlessly criticizing everything they did.

"The dream realm is one way to glimpse the world’s true nature. Their Sect Leader stumbled upon this fact, but instead of facing it, he led a group of followers to run away."

"You must have read the file on the relic ’Dream,’ right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t know about the Dream Realm Sect."

"Of course," Mo Ling admitted.

Martin continued his story, and when he realized Mo Ling didn’t believe him, he didn’t get angry. Instead, he patiently began to explain.

"Do you know why the price for ’Dream’ is a 500-gram glass jar of Korean kimchi? And why you can go deeper and deeper? It’s because the base dream depth the Creator set for us is 500."

Martin began to tell Mo Ling the little-known history of the Dream Realm Sect.

...

The Dream Realm Leader was the first person to discover the ’Dream’ relic.

He had specifically trained himself in the art of lucid dreaming. After entering a dream, he could quickly become aware that he was dreaming and could wake up at will.

But at first, the Sect Leader didn’t spread the word about ’Dream’ or create the Dream Realm Sect. Instead, he entered dreams to do all sorts of strange things.

He did whatever he pleased in the dream world, waking himself up the moment he was about to be caught.

The Sect Leader treated the dream world as his personal paradise and even figured out how to enter deeper layers of dreams.

He would often descend into the deeper layers of the dream world to wreak havoc, then wake up through the layers one by one, finally returning to reality.

As long as he didn’t commit any crimes in the real world, he remained a law-abiding citizen.

As the effects of the Great Cataclysm spread, the Sect Leader came to realize that the ’Dream’ he had discovered was likely a relic.

He had no intention of telling anyone. Whatever happened to the world was none of his concern.

’What’s so fun about reality compared to dreaming?’

Sleeping, dreaming, and waking up became his daily routine. He stockpiled a mountain of canned kimchi at home and even bought various sleep aids.

Soon, his savings ran out.

He was powerful in his dreams, but still poor in reality.

Without the help of medication and being fully rested, he found it difficult to fall asleep again. His only option was to descend into deeper layers of dreams each time he managed to doze off.

As long as he entered a dream deep enough, he would have enough time to indulge his desires. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

One time, however, amidst the constant shifting between dream layers, he suddenly forgot which layer he was on.

"How much kimchi did I use last time?"

"Was it 519? No, that’s not right."

"I think it was 521, maybe?"

"Ah, forget it. Who cares."

...

In the end, he made a decision:

"I’ll just keep waking up. Who cares how many layers there are."