I'm Trapped in the Block

Mo Ling was too stunned to speak.

They were all Martins!

He looked at the Martin who had been accompanying him. The glass jar on his head was shattered, the pickled vegetables inside slowly oozing out. His body swayed, looking as if it could collapse at any moment.

"I’m Number 500. A pleasure to properly meet you." He pulled himself together and introduced himself to Mo Ling, though his voice was incredibly faint.

"Are you okay?" Mo Ling asked with concern, seeing his weakened state.

"He’s fine. He just exhausted his energy. He’ll be okay after he recovers for a while," Number 736 explained from the side.

Several nearby Martins came over, helped Number 500 up, and sat him down on a rock to the side.

"Was it because of the dream travel?" Mo Ling asked, a little worried.

"Dream travel doesn’t require much energy. The main reason he’s exhausted is because he had to synchronize time. If time isn’t synchronized, the different rates of time flow between two dream layers can lead to horrifying consequences."

"You weren’t in Layer 1 and Layer 0 for very long, but back in Layer 500, decades could have passed."

’So that’s what happened. To think Martin considered all of that.’

"Thank you for rescuing us from the Black Tower," Number 736 said, thanking him again.

Mo Ling was a little confused. "But I only rescued Number 500, didn’t I?"

Number 736 shook his head. "No. Your ability penetrated the dreamscape, killing the cores on every layer. That was the real reason Number 500 asked you to help with the rescue."

’Killed them all?’

Mo Ling hadn’t realized his teleportation had such an effect.

He had assumed that the other dream layers had identical relic Blocks, and that those were what killed the other cores and saved all these Martins.

The weakened Number 500 explained from the side, "The moment the Black Tower’s seal was broken, all the Martins were able to reconnect. It was only then that I learned you had only appeared in Layer 500."

"You are unique," he said, his voice full of emotion, unable to hide his excitement.

Number 736 excitedly explained that they had never encountered anything like this before.

Every layer of the dreamscape was completely identical, which was the basis for how the Martins were able to emerge from the dream in the first place.

At least, that’s what they had all thought at first.

All Martins shared the same origin, the same circumstances, and even the same blood-transfusion ability. They began to form a connection the very instant they entered the dream.

Then, one by one, the Martins passed down the flame of awakening in a relay, allowing all Martins to be reborn.

But they were also pondering a question: Where did the Martin on Layer 1 come from?

He was a major variable.

Before this, some Martins had already come to understand the structure of the entire dream world. They discovered that the bodies on Layer 0 were all empty husks.

They were extremely hard, connected to the beds, completely inanimate objects no different from statues. But because of this, they gained the ability to withstand the Celestial Curtain of words.

The Celestial Curtain was like the sea; it ebbed and flowed. When the tide receded, it would crash down heavily upon the husks, but it couldn’t do any damage to their rock-hard forms.

These husks had no minds, so naturally, they couldn’t enter the dream on Layer 1.

This would cause the dream world to be different, which was completely at odds with their initial understanding.

Unless... there was a "Number 0" who had appeared out of nowhere. He, too, would be unique.

After this Number 0 returned to Layer 0, when the Celestial Curtain descended, only death would await him. When that happened, every Martin on every layer would die.

However, all the Martins had been awake for a long time, and they weren’t dead. This was an established fact.

This meant that Number 0 had to have somehow survived.

’Did someone save him?’

They had been wondering, if someone truly had saved Number 0, where was this "rescuer"?

It wasn’t until Number 500 notified all the other Martins of Mo Ling’s appearance that they realized something truly unique existed within the dreamscape. They were also pleasantly surprised by his ability, which seemed capable of touching the very essence of the world.

"This was an absolutely shocking discovery!"

Only someone unique could save the unique Number 0.

And that was when Number 0’s "rescuer" was identified.

When Martin asked Mo Ling if he could do him a favor, he already knew the outcome. Mo Ling would definitely agree to help.

No matter what Mo Ling did, the end result would be a successful rescue.

The outcome was already set in stone.

It was just like when Martin first escaped the research institute and randomly picked a flowerpot.

"No matter which one I picked, it was guaranteed to be full of muddy water, and it was guaranteed to make the gun-wielding Guard slip."

The escape was also guaranteed to succeed.

It was just like that ridiculously simple blood transfusion formula, where the amount for every ingredient was "a suitable amount" and the procedure was simply "follow your heart."

"The truth is, my thoughts and choices were already set. I just didn’t know it at the time."

However, Martin could have just "casually" brought Mo Ling along, but he still earnestly asked him, "Can you trust me?"

He sincerely shared his experiences with Mo Ling and laid all his abilities on the table, making Mo Ling want to help him of his own free will.

Mo Ling’s world was shaken after hearing everything Martin had to say.

"It was all determined from the start?"

When he first heard Martin’s story, he hadn’t felt the sensation of being manipulated by fate. But now, having experienced it firsthand and become a link in the chain, Mo Ling finally felt a sense of powerlessness.

"Don’t you all feel hopeless? Every single Martin awakens in the same way, escapes along a predetermined route, and successfully performs the blood transfusion with the exact same formula. Not a single one is an exception."

Mo Ling asked worriedly, looking at the dense crowd of Martins in the distance.

Number 500’s voice was faint, but his tone was unshakeably firm. "So what? Every single step was my choice."

Number 736, standing nearby, added, "It was my choice to enter the dream."

The dense crowd of Martins all around them began to respond in turn.

"It was my choice to escape."

"It was my choice to perform the blood transfusion."

...

"It was my choice to seek the truth of the world. Even if I was twisted by some relic long ago, that, too, was my choice."

Every one of them spoke with absolute conviction, just as they had when they told Mo Ling the truth about their world.

"Besides, don’t you think this kind of world better fits my theory? The cause and effect of every event is already set in stone, just like in a novel."

"You’ve seen the Celestial Curtain of words, too. Even if it’s all just an illusion, the content written there can’t be fake."

"The beginning, the middle, and the end, all seamlessly woven together to form our world. Even if you erased everything that came before, the final result would still be written there, perfectly intact."

"Perhaps in the Creator’s mind, a Martin was always destined to be the one who discovers the truth of the world. Maybe that, too, was a foregone conclusion?"

Despite talking about something so chilling, Number 500 was strangely excited. Then, he dropped another bombshell:

"Do you want to join me in tearing a hole in the Celestial Curtain?"