I'm Trapped in the Block

Old Xu led the Shell-People into a circle, squatting by the yet-to-erupt fountain and extending their hands into the pool.

Shells flowed down the Shell-People’s arms and into the water, quickly reaching the bottom of the pool.

The pool wasn’t deep. The shells spread continuously along the bottom until they had covered it completely.

The shells also burrowed toward the bottom of the pool, beginning to fill the crevices in the rock.

The hard rock crevices crushed some of the shells that delved too deep, but the resulting fragments plugged the gaps completely.

The ever-spreading shells compacted the fragments, pressing them deeper into the rock.

Soon, all the rock crevices were covered by branching patterns of shells.

The Shell-People all looked exhausted. Even just squatting, some began to sway as if they were about to collapse, their strength failing them.

Creating the dome had already consumed much of their stamina. Each Shell-Person could only produce a finite number of shells, and now the flow sealing the fountain spring was becoming sporadic.

Yet the Shell-People persevered, with Old Xu constantly urging them on.

"Keep pushing! If we destroy this fountain, those who come after us will never have to do this again!" Old Xu shouted encouragingly.

Hearing this, the Shell-People worked even harder.

Some Shell-People collapsed, but even on the ground, their hands remained in the water, their arms still sporadically releasing shells.

"Even if we don’t make it back this time, we have to destroy this fountain!"

Old Xu seemed determined to wring out every last ounce of their strength.

But the Shell-People didn’t question him. They followed Old Xu’s commands unwaveringly, paying no mind to their own lives as, one by one, their bodies began to give out.

More and more Shell-People collapsed, but they all fell toward the water, using their own bodies to continue blocking the spring.

These Shell-People, having lost control of their bodies, tumbled into the water like puppets. Shells spread across their entire forms, mingling with their flesh.

For a moment, it was impossible to distinguish the Shell-People from the shells they produced.

The sound of shells clicking against each other echoed continuously.

It was their form of conversation.

"Brothers... hold the outsiders fast..."

"Agreed."

"Agreed."

"Agreed..."

Old Xu was still relentlessly hyping up the Shell-People.

The Shell-Person who had answered Old Xu’s question earlier was squatting off to the side, his body slumped against a nearby railing.

He looked at Old Xu, and the sound of his shells clicking together rang out.

"Why must we do what our ancestors did? Is there any meaning to our actions? Even if we immobilize all the outsiders, will that really save our God?"

He threw the very same question Old Xu had asked him right back.

Old Xu, who had just been rallying the others, froze when he heard the question.

"You’re asking me?"

"Yes," the Shell-Person replied weakly.

’This Shell-Person was actually still thinking about my question,’ Old Xu thought, shocked.

"I don’t know. Can you tell me?" Half of the Shell-Person’s body had already slumped into the water, but he was still pressing for an answer.

He clearly doubted everything, yet he hadn’t stopped producing shells, a fact that made his voice even fainter.

"I couldn’t find the answers to these questions in the teachings our ancestors left behind. I’ve been thinking and thinking, but I still don’t understand. You asked me this before, so you must know the answers, right?"

Old Xu listened to the Shell-Person’s explanation, but he couldn’t utter a single word.

The man who had been spouting one line after another to rally the Shell-People now stood frozen, completely tongue-tied.

The Shell-Person’s faint voice sounded again.

"Since I was born, all I’ve known is eating and wandering. Then the ancestors appeared and told me what I should do, so I did it. But as for *why* I should do it... I don’t understand at all."

"They told me what to do, and I did it. They told me to save our God, but I don’t even know what God looks like. Is it really our God? What even is a God? I don’t understand."

"The ancestors also told me to use shells to immobilize outsiders, to avoid the core area, avoid the high walls, and avoid the Guards. They told me to hide. But I don’t understand why."

"And you said destroying the fountain would wipe out all the outsiders, so I’m doing as you say. Because my companions are all doing it. Even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t know what else to do."

"I don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about your question for a long time. I’m not very smart, though, so I couldn’t figure it out."

"Can you tell me... why?"

"I feel like... I don’t understand anything."

"I don’t understand anything at all..."

As he spoke, the Shell-Person could hold on no longer. His body slid into the pool and plunged into the water.

Old Xu instinctively reached out to grab him, but his arm froze in mid-air.

The CLICK-CLACK-CLICK of the Shell-People’s conversation continued all around them. They encouraged one another, spreading their shells ever downward, forcing them into deeper crevices.

In the darkness and silence, these Shell-People, born less than a day ago, fell one by one into the pool to meet their end.

From birth, to confusion, to death.

The puppet-like corpses of the dead Shell-People floated in the pool, bobbing in the ripples caused by the shells.

The still-spreading shells jostled their masters’ bodies, tossing them about like duckweed on the water’s surface.

Old Xu was speechless.

He squatted silently by the edge, watching the spreading shells.

Beneath the dome, there was only the faint sound of flowing water and the gradually fading clicking of shells.

In the blink of an eye, very few Shell-People remained. After exhausting their strength, they all let themselves sink into the water, allowing their bodies to contribute one last time.

After one last, sporadic pulse of shells, the bodies in the water went still.

Soon, the only ones left on the shore were the three Shell-People who had once been human.

In the distance, the Shell-People maintaining the dome also collapsed beside the shell wall, having exhausted all their strength.

This generation of Shell-People had all died for the very same reason.

This time, no one would be returning to the graveyard.

The dome they had painstakingly created had become their own tomb.

Li Xiangyi watched everything unfold. Once she was sure all the other Shell-People were dead, the shuttle on her back flew out once more.

As the shuttle spun, white threads began to materialize around the three of them.

The shuttle gathered the threads, and the three of them reverted to their human forms.

She then summoned a yellow shuttle, which once again cast a dazzling band of light.

The devastating scene within the pool was once again laid bare before them.

Old Xu was still staring blankly at the corpses in the center of the pool, his gaze vacant and lost in thought, until Li Luo broke his reverie.

"This is just what you wanted, isn’t it?" Li Luo said, looking from the dead Shell-People to the shell-covered fountain. "Mutual destruction."

But Old Xu didn’t answer. His hands trembled slightly...