I'm Trapped in the Block

Without waiting for Jeff’s command, the Fake Fishmen had already begun setting up.

They carried the bait boxes to the edge of the platform, then spread out the boxes of Immortal Wood Balls, placing them within arm’s reach.

Most of them even took a few balls from the boxes and tucked them into their pockets.

Li Luo watched the Fake Fishmen’s activities with a look of utter confusion, standing rooted to the spot, unsure of what to do.

"Just watch from the back for now. You can help once you’ve learned how it’s done." After leaving him with that remark, Jeff joined the group arranging the boxes.

Soon, all the boxes were in place.

"Ready!"

At Jeff’s shout, everyone spread out, standing guard near the boxes of Immortal Wood Balls.

The Shrimp-headed Man walked to the edge, took a packet of rotten food from a box, and tossed it into the sea below.

The packet of food quickly fell into the dense fog below, light as a feather, making no sound.

The Shrimp-headed Man stood cautiously at the edge and waited, but a long time passed with no result.

"Keep going," another Fake Fishman beside him prompted.

So, the Shrimp-headed Man grabbed another packet of rotten food. This time, he didn’t just drop it; he tore open the packaging before repeating the same action.

The bait vanished into the fog, and it was impossible to tell if it had even reached the sea.

Another long wait followed. The Shrimp-headed Man continued to toss out bait at regular intervals, his movements growing increasingly cautious. He was extremely wary each time he neared the edge.

"Should be soon now. Be careful."

The Shrimp-headed Man no longer approached the edge. Instead, he unscrewed a spice jar and flung its contents toward the sea from a distance.

After he repeated this several times, a disturbance appeared in the fog. Something was crawling out of the sea.

Within Mo Ling’s field of vision, several strange, white silhouettes appeared.

They were some kind of long, slender creature floating in the air, like long eels. Small, white, flaky fins grew from their sides.

But their movements were bizarre. They didn’t move like fish at all, but rather like writhing snakes; their fins seemed to serve no purpose.

As more and more of the white eels filled his vision, Mo Ling noticed something even stranger: the creatures were composed entirely of stone.

Their surfaces were rough, white stone skin, and their insides were stone as well. Yet this stone was clearly layered; distinct textures separated what looked like bone from muscle, and even the organs had discernable shapes.

They were like completely petrified organisms.

’Are these... fossils?’ Mo Ling suddenly realized they weren’t simple chunks of rock.

On closer inspection, the white eels did indeed share many characteristics with fossils.

’But how can a fossil move? How can it float in the air?’

Besides, fossils only preserve hard parts. Soft tissues like skin and muscle should have decayed and vanished long ago; they shouldn’t exist.

While Mo Ling was lost in his confusion, the white eels had already writhed their way to the edge of the platform.

The Shrimp-headed Man spotted the white silhouettes churning in the fog and instantly recoiled, moving far away from the edge.

"They’re here!"

Everyone on the platform watched the approaching white eels with wary eyes.

"Let them revert first!" the Shrimp-headed Man shouted as soon as he reached a safe position.

At his command, the Fake Fishmen held up hard, rotten, black lumps and hurled them at the white eels in the air.

Then, Mo Ling witnessed a scene that left him utterly stunned.

The white eels, which had been drifting slowly through the air, shot forward the moment they saw the rotten lumps, like sharks that had caught the scent of blood.

A white silhouette flashed past. The eel passed straight through the airborne bait like a speeding needle.

’It passed right through?’

It happened in a flash, but Mo Ling saw it clearly.

The white eel hadn’t bored a hole through the bait. Instead, like a ghost, it had merged into it and then emerged from the other side.

This fossil-like creature... it had no solid body!

’No wonder they can float in the air.’

But that wasn’t all. The next scene left Mo Ling even more dumbfounded.

The rot on the surface of the black lump that the eel had passed through was slowly fading away!

The change in color started from the spot the white eel had passed through, spreading outward. The black lump gradually reverted to its original, unrotten state.

It was a hamburger!

First, the vegetables and meat patty in the middle returned to their original state, followed by the buns on either side. In the blink of an eye, a fresh hamburger simply materialized in midair.

The scene unfolded so quickly that the hamburger hadn’t even had time to fall.

’It can reverse the decay of food?’ Mo Ling thought, startled.

Looking back at the fossilized white eel, the stone flakes on its body began to slough off, revealing a clean, transparent, reflective gel.

It turned and shot toward another piece of bait, passing through it as well.

Another restoration occurred. This time it was a bunch of rotten vegetables, which the white eel rendered perfectly fresh in an instant.

The gel on the white eel’s body expanded rapidly, beginning to replace its original, fossilized form.

After repeating this a few times, the white eel had become completely transparent. It looked like a long, wobbly strip of jelly—soft, pure, and beautiful.

"Quick! Grab it now!"

Someone took advantage of the white eel’s distraction and threw an Immortal Wood Ball at it.

The white eel was clearly still focused on the bait being thrown out, and the Immortal Wood Ball hit it dead on.

Unexpectedly, the ghostly white eel was powerfully drawn to the ball as if to a magnet. Its long body was instantly sucked into the sphere, disappearing inside.

Seeing this, Mo Ling suddenly understood.

’So that’s what the ’cages’ are for!’

The Immortal Wood Balls seemed to have a powerful binding effect on the white eels in their transparent state, allowing them to be captured and trapped inside with ease.

’You really can’t apply normal logic to these Abyssal Creatures.’

After capturing the white eel, the ball dropped to the platform with the force of its momentum. But none of the Fake Fishmen present moved to pick it up; they remained vigilant, watching the continuous stream of white eels surging toward them.

Their numbers grew. Those that failed to snatch the bait in the air were drawn to the food boxes at the edge of the platform.

After passing through the contents of the boxes a few times, they would turn transparent and be captured by the thrown balls.

The Fake Fishmen had clearly worked out a system for dealing with these creatures.

However, there were always a few that slipped through the cracks.

After consuming the airborne bait, one white eel didn’t head for the food boxes. Instead, it targeted a Fake Fishman who was holding more bait.

It was one of the Seal People, a portly Fake Fishman with a seal’s head and a body covered in mottled patterns.

The white eel was incredibly fast, weaving and dodging through the air. In a flash, it was about to slam into the Seal Person.

"Watch out!" his companions shouted.

His eyes widened, and he quickly threw an Immortal Wood Ball.

However, the white eel hadn’t fully transformed yet. The ball struck its stony exterior and bounced right off.

The Seal Person tried to dodge, but there was nowhere to run.

A white streak flashed past, and he froze in place.

Then, his body began to shrink rapidly...