I'm Trapped in the Block

The authorities were highly efficient. The very next morning, they issued a notice permitting people to go outside, though they still reminded residents to be mindful of their safety.

So, Li Xiangyi started dragging Li Luo around Oasis City again, wandering aimlessly.

Mo Ling knew that Li Xiangyi was weaving a web throughout Oasis City.

The empty shuttle behind her spun ceaselessly, laying down invisible threads that covered every place she walked.

"How did you find my room?" Li Luo was also puzzled. First thing in the morning, Li Xiangyi had knocked on her door.

Even though their rooms were just across the hall from each other, someone with as bad a sense of direction as Li Xiangyi shouldn’t have been able to find it.

Li Xiangyi didn’t hide it, pointing to the constantly spinning shuttle behind her and explaining, "I used my threads to mark the places I want to go. I just have to follow the threads to find them. It’s the effect of my relic."

"So I came looking for you as soon as I woke up. It’s not too early, is it? My sense of time isn’t very sharp either."

"It’s fine," Li Luo said, her eyes still heavy with sleep.

Oasis City had already resumed operations. Some shops had even opened, selling their goods while still cleaning up.

Li Xiangyi was like a curious child, having to duck into every place she saw and take a look around.

"I have to go in and mark this place. I might need to come here later."

She even tried to slip into a shop’s storeroom, which nearly got her thrown out by the owner. In the end, she had to hurriedly explain her relic and apologize profusely.

After that, she wanted to run into an office building but was stopped for not having an employee ID.

"You can’t just go in here. If you’re here to sightsee, please go elsewhere." The staff at the entrance blocked the two of them.

However, just as the two were about to leave, they were called back.

"I was just about to notify you to come over. What a coincidence."

The two turned around and saw that it was the man in the suit and glasses they had met when they first arrived in Oasis City.

"Come in with me first. I’ll inform you of the investigation results from the Black Tower."

It really was a coincidence.

Li Luo and Li Xiangyi exchanged a glance and followed him.

Only after entering the office building did they realize that every staff member inside was incredibly busy. The crisis in Oasis City had far-reaching consequences, and it seemed the aftereffects would last for a long time.

This time, the man in glasses led them directly to a small conference room.

"As you know, there’s been too much going on in Oasis City recently. But fortunately, our investigation team had already set out for the Black Tower. These are the findings."

The man in glasses didn’t beat around the bush, directly handing two electronic tablets to Li Luo and Li Xiangyi.

The tablets mostly showed the current situation at the Black Tower, confirmation of Li Luo’s report, and of course, various video and image files.

"The cleanup over there will still require a lot of manpower, but Oasis City is also short-staffed right now. The follow-up procedures will take a very long time."

"But you can rest assured, the corresponding reward will be sent directly to your identity account. Or if you have any other requests, I can also help you apply for them," the man in glasses said patiently to Li Luo.

Li Luo thought for a moment before answering, "Can I ask for a ship ticket?"

"You want a ship ticket?" The man in glasses was taken aback by Li Luo’s request.

"Yes."

Hearing this, the man in glasses, who had been so crisp and direct, now hesitated. He stared at Li Luo with a hint of suspicion for a long time.

"Did you hear some kind of inside information?"

His question left Li Luo stunned. "Inside information?"

"You don’t know?" The man in glasses was incredulous. "If you don’t know, why would you ask for a ship ticket?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Don’t you need a ship ticket to get to the 3rd Floor of the Abyss?" Li Luo said, confused.

"You just want to go to the 3rd Floor of the Abyss, that’s it?"

"Of course," Li Luo said, now even more bewildered.

The man in glasses stared at Li Luo’s perplexed expression for a long while before finally sighing in relief.

"It seems you really don’t know. I thought the news had already gotten out. The authorities don’t want this to escalate too quickly, especially since Oasis City just survived a crisis."

He picked up his own tablet and transferred a file to both of their devices.

"See for yourselves. Don’t spread this around."

As he spoke, the man in glasses walked over to the conference room door and closed it.

Li Luo opened the file from the man in glasses:

"Notice Regarding the Opening of the Oasis City Port."

’A port?’

Watching from the side, Mo Ling was completely baffled by the document.

’What does Oasis City have to do with a port?’

’Are they going to build a port on that salt lake outside? What’s the use of that?’

But soon, the contents of the file cleared up Mo Ling’s confusion.

...

There are many ways to get from the 2nd Floor of the Abyss to the 3rd Floor of the Abyss.

Some ruins connect the two floors; passing the trials within these ruins allows direct passage to the third floor.

Alternatively, one can traverse certain bizarre zones to cross the barrier between the floors.

One could also use certain relics to enter the third floor directly...

But these methods were often too dangerous and unpredictable. Some only allowed for a single person to pass through, while others were too resource-intensive. They could only serve as a means for a small number of people to reach the 3rd Floor of the Abyss.

In the early days of exploring the Abyss, these immature methods of crossing floors led to many unnecessary sacrifices.

Thus, after gaining a better understanding of the Abyss’s properties, people created a safe and fast method of crossing floors—

The sand ship.

After studying the 2nd and 3rd Floors of the Abyss, researchers discovered that the two are inextricably linked.

Like the relationship between the sea and a beach.

The two are "interlaced."

Sometimes the waves cover the beach, and other times the beach emerges from the water.

The barrier between the 2nd Floor of the Abyss and the 3rd Floor of the Abyss is not that great.

Researchers initially believed that to get from the second floor to the third, one simply had to find a location that would be covered by waves, and then follow the tide back out to sea after it washed ashore.

It sounds simple, but such locations are very difficult to find.

Although the sea and beach analogy is used to describe this interlacing phenomenon, the actual spatial relationship between the two is not so simple.

The "coastline" is not an actual "line," but a "plane" that is evenly distributed and jumps throughout space.

It can appear anywhere on the 2nd Floor of the Abyss, perhaps inside a ruin, or maybe within a monitoring station.

And these monitoring stations that can connect to the 3rd Floor of the Abyss came to be known as "ports."

In the initial hypothesis, it was thought that these ports would be swept by the waves into the 3rd Floor of the Abyss, and at other times, they would surface and return to the 2nd Floor of the Abyss.

But that wasn’t actually the case.

For many years, the locations of these ports never changed.

This baffled the researchers for a long time.

Finally, after continuous trial and error, they gradually figured out why.

The reason was simple:

When waves and a beach interlace, the waves are on top, and the beach is on the bottom.

But in the Abyss, it’s the other way around. The 2nd Floor of the Abyss is the sand, and the 3rd Floor of the Abyss is the sea.

The sand is on top, and the sea is below.

Therefore, they had been wrong from the very beginning about what each represented.

To descend to the 3rd Floor of the Abyss, one shouldn’t wait on the beach for the waves to wash in.

Instead, one must ride the sand waves and charge into the ocean!