I'm Trapped in the Block

"It’s almost over."

The world of sound was dying fast, and the surroundings grew silent. Only the faint sound of Martin’s voice carried from his arm.

The surrounding light vanished, plunging him into a darkness so absolute he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.

In the silence, all Mo Ling’s non-existent ears could perceive was the sound of static, a ZZZZZ that was piercingly clear in the darkness.

It made no difference whether his eyes were open or closed; all he saw was endless darkness.

"Close your eyes," Martin advised. "Be careful when you open them in a bit. It might be too bright."

Mo Ling obediently closed his eyes.

Martin, meanwhile, began to count down softly.

"Ten."

"Nine."

"Eight."

"..."

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

Mo Ling sensed a trace of light. When he opened his eyes, he was standing among metal walls again, as if nothing had happened at all.

Martin was no longer by his side. Instead, he was standing some distance away, outside the Block, his mouth agape as if about to speak.

The Purple crystal was nowhere to be seen. Bai Zhou and Li Luo stood off to the side, looking confused. Both of them turned their gazes to Martin.

"What just happened?"

The two of them had also been pulled into the world of sound, but they didn’t know the location of the purple tower. After wandering on their own for a while, they saw the world begin to collapse, and then, amidst their confusion, they were back in reality.

Martin explained what had happened, taking all the credit for destroying the core. It seemed he was trying to cover for Mo Ling.

After listening to Martin’s explanation, Bai Zhou sighed in relief. "So that’s what happened. For a second there, I thought I’d been swallowed by a Leviathan. I felt everything around me disappearing."

"You’ve been swallowed by a Leviathan?" Martin was surprised.

"Yes."

At this, Bai Zhou began to recount one of his dubiously authentic-sounding experiences, not forgetting to praise Martin for a job well done.

Martin then told Bai Zhou that the core had been a Sea Siren, a piece of news that made Bai Zhou quite happy.

"Sea Sirens are not benevolent creatures. If the Fishmen weren’t immune to their allure, we’d probably be on their menu too. It’s better to have creatures like that wiped out."

As the two of them talked, the initial wariness between them dissipated.

Li Luo, on the other hand, walked over to the Block, inspecting it carefully and asking in a quiet, concerned voice, "Are you okay?"

"Of course I’m fine."

’It’s just... that whole journey was completely overwhelming.’

Once everyone had snapped out of the daze from their bizarre journey, Martin suggested they go and check on the distorted, robed figures.

They climbed the stairs. The church, built from sound, hadn’t vanished; it was just as it had been when they first arrived.

The group slowly walked out of the church, only to find the robed figures outside strewn haphazardly on the ground.

Bai Zhou immediately rushed forward to examine them.

"It’s cardiac arrest."

He flipped one of the robed figures over, checked the body, and quickly reached a conclusion.

Then he took out his camera again and began to narrate.

"Hello everyone. This is Bai Zhou, an intern doctor from Black Tower."

"The source of the distortion in Black Tower has been dealt with, but all the subjects of the distortion are now deceased. Preliminary cause of death is cardiac arrest." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

He took out a scalpel and, ignoring the others, immediately began to perform a dissection right where he stood.

"The anomalous organs in the brain and heart have vanished. I hypothesize the cause of death was the cessation of all heart activity due to the sudden absence of the anomalous cardiac organ."

Bai Zhou had Li Luo hold the camera as he dissected several more of the robed figures’ bodies, yielding the same results each time.

Neither of their faces showed any particular emotion; this outcome was not a good one.

The best outcome, of course, would have been for everyone in Black Tower to return to normal. But that seemed impossible; reversing and curing this kind of organic distortion is extremely difficult.

When the distortion vanished, it was followed by the unknown consequences of missing organs. For these robed figures, that consequence was death.

Bai Zhou took off his gloves and covered the dissected bodies with their own robes, his face filled with regret.

"Everyone in Black Tower who was affected by the distortion probably died the same way."

He looked at Li Luo, who quietly turned off the camera.

Bai Zhou was deeply dejected. He lamented, "Some doctor I am... I couldn’t save a single patient."

Gazing at the bodies strewn across the castle hallway, Bai Zhou’s hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Humans are just too fragile," he sighed. "If only you all were immune to these distortions like the Fishmen are. That would be so much better."

Seeing this, Martin walked over and patted Bai Zhou’s shoulder. "You did your best. No one could have done anything about this. These people were already dead the moment they were distorted. Just treat them as if they were monsters all along."

He, in contrast, was perfectly calm and accepting of the situation. From the very beginning, Martin had never considered these robed figures to be human. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have directly helped the core accelerate its ’correction plan’.

"In the abyss, you must constantly face death and distortion. Humans are the purest form of life, which is both our greatest strength and our greatest weakness."

"Perhaps humanity has been facing all sorts of distortions for a very long time, influenced by powerful relics and creatures."

"But none of that matters. Humanity excels at turning those influences into tools for its own use, and it is precisely by using those tools that our civilization has flourished."

"But one thing will never change: if you make yourself an enemy of the entire human race, you forfeit your right to be human."

Martin spoke slowly, as if from deep understanding.

"You’re trying to finish an animation, aren’t you?" he suddenly asked Bai Zhou.

Bai Zhou looked at him in surprise and nodded.

"Let me help you."

Martin led Bai Zhou to an open space in front of the castle. He then told Bai Zhou to take out his camera and point it toward the sky.

"Where are we picking up from?" Martin asked.

Bai Zhou took out his digital screen and showed Martin the most recent segment.

Martin nodded. "Alright, next up should be the situation in the robed figures’ village."

"First, the scene."

Martin began humming a tune at the sky, and a cartoon-style model of Black Tower materialized in the air.

He pointed, and the Black Tower slowly grew, the perspective zooming in to focus on the village of the robed figures.

As the song continued, cartoonish robed figures appeared, bustling about the village. As they began to move, they were filled in with vibrant colors.

Next came the bizarre blood-exchange ritual. The cartoon animation gave it a bizarrely cultish feel. Martin even added pages from the ritual book as supplementary text.

One robed figure successfully completed the ritual, its body transformed, and it entered Black Tower City.

Upon reaching the cartoon Black Tower City, the perspective shifted again, moving to the core inside its cave.

Then came the core’s story. Through Martin’s animation, the reason it had distorted all of Black Tower became perfectly clear.

The final scene transitioned to the world of sound, where the core died and the world itself fell into silent oblivion.

And with a field of absolute black, the animation came to a close.