I'm Trapped in the Block

This was a large house with a garage.

The room was clean and tidy, with a comfortable layout. You could even see the jungle outside through a curved glass window on one side.

The house was fully furnished and had a cozy, lived-in feel, making it hard to believe this was a room in a Hunter monitoring station.

’But why is there a swimming pool?’

’Are we here to explore the Abyss or on vacation?’

If he didn’t have to explore the Abyss, Mo Ling would have been tempted to just slack off here forever.

’It’s great to be rich.’

Li Luo opened the refrigerator. It was already stocked full of food.

"What do you want to eat?"

With that, she took out the food, placing it piece by piece in front of the Block.

After Mo Ling chose his food, Li Luo took out an electronic screen and placed it on the table. "You should know how to use this, right? You were able to in the dream."

Mo Ling pulled the electronic screen inside and wrote a single word on it: "Yes."

Li Luo’s face lit up as she looked at the screen that teleported back out.

"Then we can use this to communicate!"

Li Luo took out another electronic screen and tried to have Mo Ling send a message out from inside.

Mo Ling then discovered that the metal shell of the Block seemed to block all signals.

From inside, he could neither receive nor send messages with the electronic screen; the only way to communicate with Li Luo was to write on it.

Mo Ling suddenly realized his plan to bring Li Luo’s cart-controlling wristband inside was a bust. He’d been thinking he could control the cart himself and go for a spin.

But at least they could communicate now.

Using the electronic screen, Mo Ling told Li Luo about the abilities he currently possessed, but all from the perspective of a relic.

Only after they talked did Mo Ling realize just how big Li Luo’s misunderstanding about the Block had been.

To this day, Li Luo still believed the Block was a relic—a sentient one.

So Mo Ling continued to hide his true circumstances, not telling Li Luo the fact that he was trapped inside the Block.

’I can’t let her know I’m not a relic.’

’Our partnership is going pretty well right now. I can keep this up for a while. I just have to keep hiding for a bit longer.’

Li Luo was visibly thrilled after learning the principles behind Mo Ling’s abilities.

Mo Ling was a little confused.

’Are there really that many relics that can communicate?’

Mo Ling did not ask Li Luo this question, fearing it would arouse suspicion. It seemed he would have to find the answer himself.

After they finished discussing his abilities, Li Luo grew exceptionally curious about the ’cost’ of using the Block.

"What kind of things do you like to eat? Can you write it down?"

Mo Ling wrote down a few of his favorite foods on the electronic screen.

"That’s it?" Li Luo asked, bewildered. "Will eating these upgrade your abilities?"

"Also, what flavors do you like?"

"And the trash? Where does it go?"

"If you ate more, could you teleport farther?"

"..."

Watching Li Luo go on so enthusiastically about food, Mo Ling seriously doubted she was the same cold Young Lady he had first met.

Time passed quickly.

For the next few days at the monitoring station, Li Luo was surprisingly well-behaved. She didn’t take on any new missions; she didn’t even leave the room.

She lounged around the room as if on vacation, simply ordering food to be delivered whenever she got hungry.

The Young Lady’s only daily activity was scrolling through information on various relics and Abyssal Creatures on her electronic screen.

That, and tirelessly talking to the Block, mostly about food.

She was clearly more interested in the cost than the principles behind the Block’s abilities.

Mo Ling desperately wanted to press the Young Lady on when she was going to take another mission.

’Weren’t you in a hurry to get to the 2nd Floor of the Abyss?! What about your points?!’

Mo Ling soon ate his words.

Over the next few days, the data and biological samples Li Luo had uploaded were approved one after another, and her electronic screen constantly refreshed with new notifications.

[Vibrating Beast video data review complete. Reward: 300 station points.]

[Red Rope Worm Parasitism video data review complete. Reward: 500 station points.]

[Dream Qilin video data review complete. Reward: 500 station points.]

[Dream Qilin biological sample review complete. Reward: 500 station points.]

...

All sorts of miscellaneous notifications popped up on the screen as Mo Ling watched Li Luo’s point total skyrocket.

Finally, after all her submissions had been reviewed, Li Luo’s points reached 5,000.

Even Li Luo herself seemed not to have expected this outcome. She couldn’t contain her joy, staring at the screen each time it refreshed.

Mo Ling was just as surprised.

’It seems getting station points isn’t just about completing missions,’ Mo Ling thought. ’The data you collect along the way is the real prize.’

’The rarer the data, the more points you get. After all, the whole purpose of the monitoring station is to study the Abyss.’

The huge bonus this time was simply because the data Li Luo uploaded filled several crucial gaps in their knowledge.

With the points for all her mission data tallied, it looked like Li Luo was finally ready to take on a new mission.

She opened her electronic screen and started looking through the latest missions.

Just then, a message suddenly came in.

Station Chief Liang: ’Li Luo, please come to the research institute when you have a moment. There’s an issue with the Red Rope Worm parasitism sample you submitted.’

After receiving the message, Li Luo headed for the research institute with the cart.

...

Inside the research institute, Station Chief Liang was explaining to Li Luo what was so odd about the biological sample.

"You might not be able to see it clearly on a macroscopic level."

"But when our institute analyzed the cells, we discovered a major problem."

The Station Chief led Li Luo to a monitor, which displayed the parasite sample at a microscopic level.

Mo Ling stared for a long time but couldn’t see anything wrong.

Li Luo looked equally confused.

Station Chief Liang quickly pulled up some images to explain.

"These images show normal Red Rope Worm cells and Vibrating Beast cells. However, the cells currently on the monitor are neither of those."

"Throughout the entire parasite sample, we found two types of cells. One belongs to the Vibrating Beast, and the other is this unknown cell you see here."

"And it is not a Red Rope Worm cell."

Station Chief Liang asked grimly, "Li Luo, are you certain the sample you submitted was from a Vibrating Beast that died from a Red Rope Worm infestation?"

Li Luo nodded with certainty.

"Then this is a huge problem," he said. "I recall from your report that the cause of the Vibrating Beast anomaly was a large-scale Red Rope Worm infestation, correct?"

Li Luo nodded again.

After receiving her answer, Station Chief Liang thought for a moment and said,

"Red Rope Worms don’t typically infest on a large scale—that was a discrepancy you noted in your report as well. But if this is the case, then it would all make sense."

Station Chief Liang led Li Luo to another piece of equipment in the institute. Pointing at the screen, he said, "Those unknown cells in the sample... we researchers are very familiar with them. Look, it’s this."

Mo Ling looked at the screen. On it was a mass of constantly writhing, transparent cells.

They lay quietly in the culture medium, not looking particularly strange.

Mo Ling compared this type of cell to the unknown cells from the parasite sample and confirmed that they were indeed one and the same.

’How could this have happened?’

’He had watched with his own eyes as Li Luo encapsulated the infected Slime.’

’The capsule had been in the storage compartment the whole time, right in his line of sight. There was no way it could have been swapped out.’

’Could it be... that they were these unknown cells from the very beginning?’