I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 42: Chapter 41: The Undying Thing

A soldier walked up to Captain Su and asked in a low voice, ”Captain, these are all creatures made of Theseus Cells. Shouldn’t we kill them?”

Captain Su slapped the soldier on the back of the head and cursed, ”If you’re so good at killing, how come I didn’t see you wipe out all the creatures in the blockaded area?”

”But the creatures on the surface aren’t intelligent. If these intelligent beings develop for a few more thousand years and discover the surface world, won’t a war break out then?” the soldier said earnestly, rubbing his head.

”They’re still in the middle of a war. They might even have a technological explosion and master a whole arsenal of military tech,” the soldier added.

Captain Su gave him a strange look. ”Have you been reading *The Three-Body Problem* recently?”

The soldier nodded.

”The Dark Forest theory, right?”

The soldier’s eyes lit up. Just as he was about to ask more questions, Captain Su kicked him away.

The atmosphere relaxed slightly.

The bodies of the soldiers who had been sacrificed in the previous battle were collected.

The Transparent Race People were also gathering the clothes and weapons of their kin. When they first encountered the soldiers cleaning the scene, they kept a wide berth.

But after realizing the soldiers were paying them no mind, they slowly lost their fear. The two groups moved past each other throughout the area.

Mo Ling, however, was still lost in thought about the battle with the Sheep-headed Man.

He realized the Sheep-headed Man’s current pattern of behavior didn’t seem to fit either the Ugly Duckling Phenomenon or the Red Rope Worm.

It wasn’t mindlessly slaughtering Broken Tree Sheep, nor was it heading in a single, fixed direction.

’Why would it come here to kill the Transparent Race People?’

Mo Ling couldn’t understand.

Captain Su also walked over to the Block to discuss the Sheep-headed Man’s behavior with Li Luo.

”It seems to be moving nonstop in one direction now, slaughtering indiscriminately as it goes. Sometimes it even doubles back suddenly. There’s no logic to it,” Captain Su said, perplexed.

Li Luo thought for a moment before replying, ”He’s not acting without logic. His behavior is consistent with the Ugly Duckling Phenomenon.”

Captain Su was confused. ”How is it consistent?”

Li Luo explained, ”He has already discovered his race of origin is not the Broken Tree Sheep, but the Theseus Cells.”

”He probably discovered this after escaping back to this Underworld. That’s why he’s no longer obsessed with returning to the surface, and has instead chosen to slaughter the Transparent Race everywhere.”

”And he’s getting smarter. He knows that we will constantly obstruct him here, so he has chosen to avoid battle. It’s not that he doesn’t want to kill.”

”He must understand that this Underworld is full of creatures made of Theseus Cells, so he isn’t lacking for them here.”

After hearing this, Captain Su stood there stunned. He pondered for a moment, then said, ”So you’re saying we don’t need to bother with it? Just let it keep killing here?”

Li Luo fell silent. It seemed she had no solution either.

Inside the Block, Mo Ling was also filled with helplessness after hearing the explanation.

’An immortal body from the Red Rope Worm infection, growing stronger with every fight... the only option was containment, but now it’s reached a point where it can’t be contained.’

’It’s getting smarter and has even learned to avoid battles.’

’There’s no way to restrain a life form like this.’

Captain Su called his second-in-command over again to assess the danger posed by the Sheep-headed Man, seeming to hesitate over his own decision to forcefully pursue it.

The second-in-command told Captain Su that the Sheep-headed Man’s threat level had reached a terrifying point.

Although it currently posed no threat to humanity, no one could predict the future development of a life form created from the combination of a relic phenomenon and Abyssal Creatures.

”I said we’d take it one step at a time, but I never thought things would get this serious so quickly. So many of our brothers were sacrificed in vain,” Captain Su said, blaming himself deeply.

After a long discussion, Captain Su still decided they couldn’t just let it be.

”First, change the plan. We’ll continue to track it, but this time, our main goal is observation. If an opportunity arises, we’ll try to guide its behavior. We can’t go head-on anymore.”

Captain Su had his second-in-command relay the orders to all the soldiers.

He sighed and said, ”Even if we can’t eliminate it, we can at least gather some data on the Theseus Cells and the relic phenomenon to take back. We can’t return empty-handed.”

In the abyss, there were always trade-offs. The second-in-command nodded bleakly and turned to leave.

A short while later, the elder of the Transparent Race People returned. When Captain Su asked him about the direction the Sheep-headed Man was heading, the elder’s face suddenly filled with terror.

”What’s wrong?” Captain Su asked, confused by the jumpy old man.

”That place... that’s the direction of our village!”

After answering Captain Su, the elder hurried back to his companions and began speaking urgently.

The Transparent Race People no longer bothered gathering the scattered clothes and weapons on the ground, instead hastily packing their belongings.

Seeing this, Captain Su had his men follow him and approached the Transparent Race People.

”If you don’t mind, we could set off together. We’re not familiar with this area and need someone to guide us,” Captain Su said sincerely.

The Transparent Race People looked at each other. After a heated debate, they agreed to Captain Su’s request.

On the way, the elder of the Transparent Race People began to recount the history of the Underworld to the group:

”A long, long time ago, this place was home only to the Transparent Race. There were no wars; everything was very peaceful. We lived a life isolated from worldly strife.”

”But one day, strange caves suddenly appeared everywhere. Inside these caves were white, oval-shaped pellets of flesh that wriggled constantly and would try to devour anything that came near.”

”That wasn’t even the most terrifying part. One of our ancestors cut off a piece of that flesh and discovered that it didn’t turn into a transparent liquid!”

”After leaving the cave, that piece of flesh would stop moving, but it wouldn’t disappear. It would continue to exist in this world forever.”

”At that time, there was a powerful Prophet among our ancestors. He proclaimed that this was an extremely terrifying ’imperishable thing’ that would bring disaster to the world, but some people didn’t believe him.”

”Unsurprisingly, just as the Prophet had foretold, disaster struck not long after. All sorts of ’imperishable things’ began to pour out of the ’imperishable caves’.”

”At first, it was just things like branches and leaves. Later, creatures came to this place. These creatures began to occupy our world and slaughter the Transparent Race.”

”When these imperishable creatures die, they don’t turn transparent like the Transparent Race. Instead, they exist forever in the world as flesh and blood, forcefully occupying this world’s space!”

At this point, the elder became agitated, his eyes turning red.

”Back then, our ancestors were all shocked. Flesh that doesn’t disappear! If enough of it accumulates, this world will be completely filled. When that happens, there will be absolutely no space left for life.”

”It will occupy the ground, occupy the water, occupy the air, until the entire world is filled with imperishable flesh!”

Hearing this, a soldier couldn’t help but laugh. He asked, ”How long have these imperishable things been in this world?”

The elder couldn’t quite understand the soldier’s laughter, but he answered politely, ”A very long time. For more than ten generations.”

”So, have the imperishable things filled up any place yet?” The soldier still couldn’t suppress his smile.

The elder finally got angry and said loudly, ”Not yet! Do not question the great Prophet! Just because it hasn’t been filled yet doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future!”