I'm Trapped in the Block

"He’s just an ordinary person."

The investigator’s words still echoed in Mo Ling’s mind long after leaving the interrogation room.

’Liang Zhi is just an ordinary person?’

’Then were the experiences he talked about before real or fabricated?’

’And where did he get all that knowledge about the Anti-Cell World?’

Mo Ling recalled his own trip to the Anti-Cell World, and his thoughts were now a tangled mess.

It was all too bizarre.

Lost in this fog of confusion, Mo Ling followed Li Luo back to their residence.

But despite his confusion, the journey into the Abyss had to continue.

After returning to their quarters, Li Luo, having finally accumulated enough points, eagerly began reading the files on the 2nd Floor of the Abyss.

...

When the exploration of the Abyss first began, people didn’t know it had a second floor. They assumed the first floor was all there was.

But after some investigation, researchers concluded the first floor wasn’t deep enough to be the Abyss’s true extent.

This led some to speculate that there was something deeper beneath the first floor.

After extensive measurement and calculation, people confirmed the existence of deeper levels. Thus, the search began for an entrance to the second floor.

The first floor of the Abyss is not uniform. It has mountains, hills, and massive chasms and rifts.

These chasms, rifts, and other low-lying areas became the primary targets for Hunters, who explored ever downward along their depths.

Although they found no entrance, these efforts greatly expanded the known map of the first floor, allowing people to begin precisely demarcating its various regions.

These explorations also provided a wealth of data on the Abyss, making subsequent investigations much more convenient for humanity.

The relics discovered during these expeditions also enhanced the strength of many Hunters.

As the various regions of the Abyss were further developed, the entrance to the second floor was finally discovered.

To everyone’s surprise, the entrance was not located in a chasm or a rift, nor was it in any other low-lying area.

It was on a tall mountain.

A mountain with a noticeable gravitational anomaly.

At the time, a Hunter Squad decided to explore this mountain. Their original plan was to find some rare biological specimens and, while they were at it, document this unvisited peak.

But just as they reached the foot of the mountain, the gravity shifted.

The squad members suddenly found their steps becoming effortless, as if they were in a descending elevator. Their bodies felt like they were about to float.

Their packs also felt exceptionally light, their weight having dropped so much that they could carry them without any strain.

It was only after they had walked some distance up the mountain that they confirmed it: gravity had decreased. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The Hunter Squad believed such an environment would surely give rise to rare creatures, so they continued their ascent.

The higher they climbed, the more pronounced the change in gravity became.

What began as a slight feeling of weightlessness soon turned into effortless movement after just a short climb.

A single, light leap could send them soaring a great distance, just like what you’d see in movies about the Moon.

The squad members began to enjoy themselves, playing around tirelessly on the mountain and using their recording instruments to document its strange conditions.

Further up, the forms of the mountain’s flora had already begun to change.

They grew exceptionally short and stout, with massive, dense root systems anchoring them firmly in the mountain soil.

Tall trees gradually disappeared, leaving only low-lying shrubs and weeds that could survive in this environment.

Although the plants’ forms had changed, tests by the squad members revealed them to be common species; the environment had simply caused their strange appearance.

Additionally, the squad members examined the animals they found on the mountain, which also turned out to be ordinary small creatures.

The low gravity had made them fat and bloated, as they didn’t need much strength to get around.

In fact, they took advantage of the low-gravity environment, hopping and bouncing around the mountain and living quite comfortably.

Carnivorous animals, however, were extremely rare.

The squad members guessed that this was because hunting was too difficult in such an environment, leading to the gradual disappearance of carnivores.

Although they hadn’t found any rare species, the squad members decided to press on and continue documenting the mountain’s peculiarities.

They soon reached the halfway point of the mountain, where the gravity had dropped by roughly half.

The flora and fauna grew increasingly sparse, with only some small insects and weeds remaining.

These weeds were of a particularly resilient type.

Because of the gravity here, the soil had become very loose, and only weeds with exceptionally tough and dense root systems could survive.

As for the small insects, they lived among the root systems of these weeds, feeding on the nutrients in the soft soil.

Past the halfway point and higher up the mountain, there were no living things left. The peak became exceptionally desolate.

The squad members were initially puzzled by this, as the environment wasn’t so harsh as to be completely uninhabitable.

They figured there should still be some life.

Before long, they had their answer.

One member suddenly collapsed, his entire body turning purple. The other members also began to feel dizzy, their consciousness fading.

It was oxygen deprivation!

Once they realized this, the members quickly took out their oxygen apparatuses.

Fortunately, because they were exploring a high mountain, they had habitually brought oxygen gear. They just hadn’t expected to need it so soon.

They soon figured out why.

The weak gravity had led to air loss.

Without gravity, there would be no air.

The squad members were no longer in a playful mood. They continued upward for a while, but the air had all but vanished.

Seeing that they could go no further, the Hunter Squad hastily returned to the monitoring station and reported the mountain’s situation in full.

Shortly after, a professional team equipped with spacesuits arrived to explore the mountain.

Passing the altitude where the air disappeared, the researchers continued their ascent. Here, there was no life, only loose soil.

With the help of professional equipment, the researchers soon reached the summit.

The gravity here had vanished completely. For the final stretch, the researchers were practically floating to the summit, as if in outer space.

But what no one expected was what happened the moment they stood on the summit.

Gravity became negative.

A force began to push the researchers upward, away from the mountain. One researcher who couldn’t react in time was carried directly into the sky.

The anti-gravity force kept increasing, and the researcher’s ascent grew faster and faster.

Just as the researcher thought his life was over, he suddenly fell onto a sand dune.

The soft sand cushioned his fall completely. As he tumbled down the dune, he realized he had arrived in a vast desert.

This desert was what would later become known as the 2nd Floor of the Abyss—the Chaotic Sand Dunes.