I'm Trapped in the Block

"Not bad, eh?"

Martin looked at the footage he had just recorded and asked Li Luo.

"It’s great. Much more detailed than what Dr. Li did."

"I filmed the whole thing. You can edit out the parts you don’t need," Martin added.

"I’m going to check on the Black Tower’s lockdown." As he spoke, Martin’s figure vanished.

A moment later, he reappeared. "The lockdown outside has been lifted. You can leave whenever you want."

"The Black Tower’s distortion needs to be handled by official personnel. You can go to the nearby Oasis City and report the situation."

Martin was very clear and methodical, seeming to have a great deal of experience in handling distortions.

"Aren’t you going?" Li Luo asked.

"I can’t. I’m wanted by the officials," Martin said, dropping a bombshell.

Just as the two were about to ask, Martin interrupted them. "You could also report me to the officials. Tell them you found me in the Black Tower. There might even be a reward."

Martin laughed self-deprecatingly. "I’m someone who can help the Core accelerate the Correction Protocol. Do you think I’m some kind of good guy?"

He seemed to be deliberately emphasizing this point.

Just then, he slowly walked over to the Block and shouted to Li Luo, "Let me borrow your relic!"

Then, before Li Luo’s shocked eyes, he placed his hand on the Block. After a brief blur, he vanished, taking the Block with him.

Mo Ling didn’t have time to react before he was instantly pulled by Martin to a strange place.

This was also the Black Tower, but the bodies of the robed figures were gone.

"Where is this?" Mo Ling’s wristband spoke again.

"This is a dream," Martin answered from the side.

Upon hearing Martin’s words, Mo Ling’s memories flooded back, and he quickly became aware of the difference in his state of being.

It was then that he felt he could wake up at any time.

But Mo Ling wasn’t in a hurry to wake up. Instead, he turned his head and asked, "How did you bring me here?"

Mo Ling’s heart was filled with shock.

He was very familiar with the relic, Dream. To enter it, one first needed a means of communicating with the dreamscape, such as the black horn of a Dream Qilin, meditating on a black hole, or some other medium.

Not only that, but a price had to be paid. Although the price for this relic—500 grams of Korean kimchi in a glass jar—was easy to obtain, it was difficult to find at a moment’s notice.

But Martin had actually brought him in just by touching him.

Mo Ling had also never heard of someone being brought into a dream by another person.

"How did you do that?"

Mo Ling looked at Martin in shock. The man was shrouded in too many mysteries, as unfathomable as his empty body.

Martin didn’t answer Mo Ling, asking a question instead:

"Can you trust me?"

His tone was extremely serious, just like when he had been explaining the nature of the world earlier. It seemed this was a matter of utmost importance.

Mo Ling was taken aback by the question. He didn’t know if he could trust him either.

From the moment he met Martin, the man’s background and motives had been a complete mystery. His actions walked the line between good and evil; he was utterly indifferent to the distorted humans, yet his attitude toward Li Luo and Bai Zhou was excellent.

After discovering Mo Ling’s Block body, he had also been consistently helping him.

’Can I trust him?’

"Understanding is the foundation of trust," Mo Ling could only reply.

Hearing Mo Ling’s answer, Martin was stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Of course. What do you want to understand?"

Since he was willing to talk, Mo Ling decided to directly ask the question that was weighing most on his mind:

"Why are you wanted?"

Martin’s body stiffened before he slowly answered, "Because of entering dreams."

...

After the incident at the sanatorium, Martin joined the officials. Using his medical abilities and his special blood-transfusion power, he became a special researcher.

Although he wasn’t as free as when he was the sanatorium director, Martin was very grateful for the opportunity to learn about so many strange relics and Abyssal Creatures.

His actions were monitored and his travel was restricted, but he was still very satisfied with his work and life.

The incident with Anna had left a deep shadow in his heart. Martin understood that an unregulated power could never guarantee that an accident wouldn’t happen one day.

Even the most seemingly useless relics could lead to terrible consequences, not to mention the prices of many relics were little-known.

As a researcher, Martin participated in many relic incidents. Dream was one of them.

At that time, after Martin’s team used the Sect Leader’s memories to discover the secret of the world’s nature, not many people paid it any mind.

It was just the manifestation of a relic; many relics had this kind of hidden ability.

For example, there was a relic that could create infinite spaghetti. Its price was that the user would dream of terrifying, indescribable spaghetti creatures roaming the universe.

As long as you chose not to believe it, this price would only cause the user to be slightly fatigued the next day from dreaming.

If you did believe it, you would be tormented by these visions every day.

There was another relic that could grant the user abilities you’d only find in video game glitches, like clipping through walls, invincibility, or seeing through objects.

But the price of this relic was that the user would see data streams everywhere in their daily life.

In the user’s eyes, walls were rows of data streams, and even their own family members were just strings of 0s and 1s.

This relic would lead the user to believe the world was made of data and that humans were just NPCs created by some other being, which would make the user cold and ruthless.

If you firmly refused to believe it and saw everything around you as normal, then the relic’s benefits would far outweigh its drawbacks, and the price could even be considered negligible.

As for the Sect Leader, the so-called truth of the world he saw through Dream didn’t cause much of a stir. At the time, everyone else on the team thought it was just one of Dream’s hidden prices.

No one would believe the worldview presented by a relic.

However, this kind of information about the "nature of the world" could easily mislead others, so this type of content was generally not recorded.

Even if it were to be recorded, a specific note would be made stating that it was merely an illusion presented by a relic and not to be trusted.

After Martin’s team dealt with the Sect Leader, they also rushed to the homes of some cult members who hadn’t yet entered the dream, erased their memories of the matter, and destroyed the black hole flyers.

Then, they discovered the Madman, Zhou Ming, who had returned from the dreamscape.

It wasn’t until the information about the relic was confirmed that the entire incident was officially closed.

As the discoverer, Zhou Ming was invited to the research institute, where Martin communicated with him about the wrap-up procedures.

It was after this conversation that Martin became interested in Dream.