I'm Trapped in the Block

Mo Ling refused Martin’s invitation.

But Martin wasn’t disappointed. He said that being refused was also a matter of fate.

"Next time you want to do something like this, call me!"

No. 500 handed a small red button to Mo Ling, saying that the next time he needed him, he should press it, and all the Martins would come to his aid.

"This is our promise."

"Let me send you back first." No. 500 struggled to his feet and said with difficulty.

But the other Martins beside him immediately pushed him back down.

"I’ll send him. It’s fine," No. 736 said hastily.

He once again took Mo Ling’s arm and said to him, "This is the 499th floor. One more floor down, and you’ll be back to your original floor."

"Okay. Goodbye."

Mo Ling looked at No. 500 and solemnly said his goodbyes.

No. 500 placed a hand over his chest and bowed deeply to Mo Ling, the colors in his broken glass jar flickering faintly.

At the same time, Mo Ling suddenly felt his surroundings brighten.

’What’s happening?’

When he turned his head, he discovered that all the Martins present had bowed. The colorful tendrils inside their heads began to glow intensely, countless colored lights merging into an ocean that illuminated the entire space.

Countless Martins, shimmering with light, bowed toward Mo Ling.

One after another, they expressed their most sincere gratitude to Mo Ling, as if he had helped each of them personally.

It seemed this journey wasn’t just accompanied by No. 500, but that all the Martins had taken part in it.

The shimmering lights formed dazzling pixels, and a rain of color slowly drizzled down, covering them until the entire landscape was dyed in the colors of a dream.

The colors crept up the rock walls, spreading all the way to the top and enveloping the entire space. Mo Ling felt as if he were adrift in a colorful void, surrounded by vibrant, multicolored textures.

"It’s time to go."

No. 736 grabbed Mo Ling and leaped, landing on the colorful ground.

But there was no sensation of landing. The two of them seemed to plunge into an ocean, sinking into it and beginning to fall through its infinite waters.

As his vision shifted, the colorful patterns stretched into lines, some thick, some thin, extending between the sky and the ground. The two of them sank downward, following these fine lines.

"What are you guys going to do next?" Mo Ling asked curiously.

"We will continue to search for the truth of the world. No matter what it is, we will find out," No. 736 said resolutely.

"We need to find out why the relics appeared."

"Find out the source of our powers."

"For the people who died in the Cataclysm."

"For the people who died in the Abyss."

"For Anna."

...

"For everyone who is still alive..."

No. 736 was still speaking when Mo Ling noticed the colorful lines had reached their end.

At the bottom of their fall, the colorful lines suddenly bent at a right angle, forming a cube-shaped space.

At that moment, No. 736’s hand suddenly let go, and they were instantly pulled apart.

"See you next time..."

Mo Ling watched him grow distant as he himself fell straight into the cube-shaped space.

As the colorful lines around him slowly decelerated, Mo Ling found himself lying on a hard bed.

It was the very same bed belonging to Martin that Mo Ling had peeled off from Floor 0.

He was surrounded by familiar metal walls, and a constantly color-shifting button sat by his hand—the button Martin had given him.

The button that had just been red was now changing colors nonstop.

After observing it for a moment, Mo Ling turned his gaze outside the Block. No. 736 was standing in front of Li Luo, explaining something.

"I took it to go save someone. Thank you. We’ll meet again."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure blurred and he vanished into thin air, leaving a stunned Li Luo behind.

She hurried over to the Block to check on it, placing all sorts of food on top of it and asking with concern about Mo Ling’s condition.

After getting the "I’m fine" response, Li Luo was still worried and kept asking where Mo Ling had gone.

Mo Ling told her he had gone to a place like a prison and broken through a wall to save someone. After he explained it a few times, Li Luo finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Next time you run into a bad guy, just kill him," Li Luo said very seriously. She had been genuinely worried.

Mo Ling agreed, then asked, "How long was I gone?"

"An hour."

’Only an hour?’

’It seems like the rescue also took about an hour. Looks like the Martins really did synchronize the time. I have no idea how they did it.’

A moment later, Bai Zhou slowly walked over to Li Luo and started talking to her.

"Are you heading to Oasis City next?"

Li Luo thought for a moment, then checked the nearby monitoring stations on her electronic screen and nodded.

"Oasis City should be the nearest monitoring station. It’s also high-level, so they should have enough authority and manpower to handle the Black Tower incident. We have to go there and report what happened here."

Bai Zhou glanced at the bodies of the robed figures scattered about and agreed, "You’re right. This isn’t something the two of us can clean up."

He thought for a long time, then reached into his pocket, took out the old storage device where he kept his animation files, and handed it to Li Luo.

Li Luo didn’t take it, looking at him in confusion. "What is it?"

"You take this to Oasis City. I need to make a trip back to the 3rd Floor of the Abyss." Bai Zhou sounded a little weary. "I haven’t been home in a long time. I miss my Fishman brothers and those nagging Old Fishmen."

His eyes were full of longing.

"I want to swim. The 2nd Floor of the Abyss is all sand, and I can feel my skin getting worse day by day." Bai Zhou pinched the skin on his arm to show Li Luo.

Li Luo’s gaze grew stranger. She seemed to think for a long time about how to phrase her question before finally asking, "But... how can you go back, looking like you do now?"

Bai Zhou, however, wasn’t worried at all. "I might be a little ugly now, but my Fishman brothers won’t hold it against me. They’re all simple and kind-hearted. It’ll be fine."

He took Li Luo’s hand and placed the storage device in her palm.

"I’ve also fulfilled my promise to Dr. Li and finished the animation. The whole Black Tower is gone. I don’t want to stay here anymore."

As he said this, Bai Zhou seemed to grow sad.

From within the diving helmet that refracted the light, his rambling confession poured out.

"My colleagues, the people who showed me around the Black Tower... they’re all gone."

"All those familiar faces... once they put on those robes, they didn’t recognize me anymore. They chased me, tried to kill me. I could only hide in the sewers and finish the animation in secret."

"The old security guard at the hospital loved to talk with me about Fishmen. He said if he ever got the chance, he’d visit my home and asked me to show him the treasures of the Fishman Race."

"Sister Guo from the cafeteria was always asking me if the new fish she bought was fresh. But this is the 2nd Floor of the Abyss, where are you going to find that much fresh fish? But if I said it wasn’t fresh, she wouldn’t let me leave, so I had to lie."

"We Fishmen never lie. It’s you humans who corrupted me. I don’t think that’s a good thing."

"Dr. Li was supposed to take me out for a drink. He said he wanted to see how a Fishman reacts to alcohol. But the distortion came too fast... we never got the chance."

"Nurse Xiaozhou bought me a bunch of dried squid. She said it was a thank-you gift for the chocolate I gave her, but I haven’t even eaten it yet. I love squid, you know. I never thought I’d never get to eat it."

...

"Do you understand, Li Luo?"

"I’m so tired."

"I want to go home..."