I'm Trapped in the Block

Li Luo’s notes were very detailed, but there was one thing she hadn’t noticed.

In Mo Ling’s perception, deep inside the flesh of that last Vibrating Beast, there was a long, red worm.

The worm’s body wasn’t thick. It was as thin as a strand of hair, writhing within the Vibrating Beast’s flesh.

With every pulse of the Vibrating Beast’s flesh, the red worm also twisted its body, burrowing deeper and deeper.

The fangs on its head gnawed relentlessly at the flesh, which continuously healed.

’Did this healing ability also come from this red worm?’

Mo Ling couldn’t determine if the red worm was a parasite that naturally existed within the Vibrating Beast’s body, or if it was the cause of the beast’s abnormality.

He couldn’t operate the electronic screen, so he couldn’t look up specific information about the worm. It seemed he would have to rely on Li Luo.

’I have to find a way to alert her.’

The chunk of flesh Mo Ling had just teleported away happened to be the part where the worm was located.

Any living thing teleported by Mo Ling would be instantly extinguished.

After teleporting it, Mo Ling dropped the chunk of flesh containing the worm’s corpse in a conspicuous spot, but Li Luo didn’t notice it.

That Flesh Slime was just too eye-catching. Even Mo Ling’s own attention had been drawn to it.

The red worm was minuscule, and its color was similar to the flesh.

If not for his special perception, even Mo Ling would have had a hard time spotting it.

To say nothing of Li Luo, who was still completely in the dark.

’How can I get Li Luo to notice something so tiny?’

Just as he was thinking, another Vibrating Beast appeared in his field of view.

As his vision penetrated deeper, Mo Ling discovered the familiar red worm inside this Vibrating Beast’s flesh as well.

This Vibrating Beast’s senses were also exceptionally sharp, and it turned its body toward Li Luo and charged.

Perfect. Mo Ling decided to change his tactics.

Aiming at the upper part of the Vibrating Beast’s legs, Mo Ling activated his teleportation.

A smooth incision appeared at the base of its two legs, slicing the slender Vibrating Beast in mid-air.

The spherical metal mesh, now without support, flew through the air and rolled to a stop right in front of Li Luo.

Just like the first one, the spherical chunk of flesh from this Vibrating Beast continued to pulsate madly on the ground, even though it had no chance of winning.

If the metal mesh hadn’t restrained it, the flesh would have long since leaped out to attack.

Mo Ling tossed a leftover can onto the metal block.

A loud CLANG drew Li Luo’s attention.

He then struggled to shrink his teleportation frame to its absolute minimum, aiming for the area within the flesh where the red worm was.

When Li Luo looked at the can on the metal block, a bottle-cap-sized cube of flesh materialized inside it out of thin air.

’She should notice this time!’

Sure enough, Li Luo’s attention was completely focused on the can.

Mo Ling fixed his vision on the chunk of flesh inside the can and began an even more delicate operation.

He continuously cut along the edges of the worm, painstakingly carving out a long, strip-like shape.

Perfect!

Now, only a long strip of flesh remained in the can, within which a red thread was clearly visible.

It was the dead worm.

Seeing the change in the chunk of flesh before her, Li Luo’s eyes lit up.

She hurriedly aimed her recording device at the can and pulled out a pair of tweezers and gloves from the back of her vehicle.

Very carefully, she extracted the red worm from the scant remnants of flesh and preserved it in a transparent box.

After finishing, Li Luo gave the Block another meaningful look, apparently intrigued by its recent actions.

However, Mo Ling wasn’t worried.

He knew that such an obviously precise operation would definitely arouse Li Luo’s suspicion.

But on the contrary, this was a chance for him to test the attitude of this world’s humans.

But Li Luo didn’t seem to find it strange at all.

After taking off her gloves, she gently patted the metal block again, seemingly very pleased with Mo Ling’s recent actions.

"Not bad. What else do you want to eat?" Li Luo asked, looking as if she genuinely wanted to communicate with the metal block.

’Oh no, this is going in the wrong direction!’

Mo Ling quickly played dead and didn’t respond.

This time, even after Li Luo took out some food, he didn’t make a selection.

Instead, it was Li Luo who showed a disappointed expression when she saw the food didn’t disappear.

She took out her electronic screen, but instead of first recording the red worm, she opened a different logbook.

"Things the iron block doesn’t like to eat: wasabi crackers, herring-flavored potato chips, canned sweet-and-sour pig brains, Sichuan pepper-flavored gummy candies, snail shell powder, savory chicken beaks, Red Bull glutinous rice cakes..."

Li Luo recorded the names of all the food items she had just placed on the metal block.

Only then did she begin to search for information about the red worm.

Seeing that logbook, Mo Ling’s thoughts came to a halt.

’Am I supposed to be touched?’

...

As Li Luo searched, information about the red worm from the flesh appeared on the electronic screen—

Red Rope Worm.

During the Great Cataclysm, humanity discovered this creature on Earth for the first time.

At the time, it had escaped from the abyss and was parasitizing a sheep, which tried every day to find a way to escape its pen.

It even bashed itself until its head was bloody.

When the farmer noticed something was wrong with the sheep, he just thought it had some kind of disease and wanted to kill it.

But when the butcher’s knife came down, the sheep’s wound slowly healed.

The terrified farmer quickly called the police.

The Great Cataclysm was already beginning to show signs at that time, and this zombie-like, undead creature caused a great deal of panic.

The military surrounded the farm, cleared out all the other sheep, and then captured this one.

During their research, people discovered the worm inside the sheep’s brain.

The worm controlled the sheep, forcing it to constantly move in a single direction.

When it was struck by the butcher’s knife, the worm gave the sheep the ability to heal automatically.

When researchers tried to burn it with fire, the sheep gradually adapted to the flames and no longer feared high temperatures.

Confined within the research institute, the sheep grew stronger and stronger, one day even pushing open the steel plate that imprisoned it.

When deprived of food, the worm made the sheep start performing photosynthesis.

The sheep was evolving.

If it wasn’t allowed to move in the direction it wanted to go, the sheep would continue to evolve until nothing could stop it.

They tried to remove the worm, but after its removal, an identical worm appeared in the sheep’s brain.

The worm, too, was healed by the sheep.

Finally, the institute made a decision—to let the sheep go.

They wanted to see where exactly the sheep wanted to go.

The sheep was eventually placed on New Zealand North Island.

As soon as it regained its freedom, the sheep headed straight for the sea.

It jumped off a seaside cliff, nearly dying from the fall.

After healing, the sheep began to cross the Pacific Ocean, heading northeast.

After drowning in the sea, it learned to swim, and its body became more and more dolphin-like.

At first, it swam very slowly and was swept by the South Equatorial Current to the Solomon Islands.

It continued swimming, but halfway through, it was swept by the North Equatorial Current and the Kuroshio Current to Japan.

Then it swam faster and faster, and fins began to grow on its legs. It passed through the Bering Strait, entering Canada from Alaska.

Next, it entered the Arctic Circle, then traveled from Baffin Bay to Greenland.

Along the way, the sheep was hunted by all sorts of predators. It would just keep healing, only leaving after the predators had eaten their fill.

It arrived at the northern edge of Greenland, in the ice-covered waters.

There, in the vast white snow, it found a polar bear.

And climbed on its back.

...