I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 68: Chapter 67: Thorn Stone Forest

Mo Ling was still clutching his head, dazed from the sudden flip that had slammed him around.

Once he was sure gravity had stabilized, he calmed down and recalled the recent ordeal.

’It seemed to be a flip with no buffer.’

’Unlike the gradual change others experienced, my own gravity shift seems to have been instantaneous. It reversed direction directly, with no zero-gravity transition.’

Although he had a rough idea of what had happened, Mo Ling still didn’t understand the principle behind it.

Not only that, but something even stranger had occurred.

The Block... had gotten bigger.

The moment the flip happened, after Mo Ling finished tumbling, he noticed something was off about the space inside the Block.

Now that he had recovered, he was finally certain: the Block had grown larger.

Stretching his limbs, Mo Ling reached out to his side. The metal wall was now much farther away.

Looking up, he saw the distance between the top and bottom walls had also increased.

Mo Ling quickly stood up.

He hadn’t stood up in so long that his bones let out a series of cracks.

Fortunately, he was young and his body was fine. After a good stretch, Mo Ling began to walk around inside the Block, starting to measure the space.

It was still a perfect cube, but the space was much larger, roughly 2m x 2m x 2m.

’It doubled?’

All the side lengths had doubled, while the volume had increased eightfold, becoming eight cubic meters.

Mo Ling quickly checked the metal walls again. They were still perfectly seamless, exactly the same as before.

’What’s the principle behind this?’

Suddenly, Mo Ling thought of something.

’Is it because I’ve reached the 2nd Floor of the Abyss?’

After walking a few circles inside the Block, he expanded his vision outward, penetrating the metal walls to see the exterior.

His field of vision had also doubled—not to 22m, but to 21m.

Mo Ling stared in confusion at the Block in the center of his vision.

That Block... was still one cubic meter in size...

This conflicting perception took Mo Ling a long time to get used to. He had experienced this kind of disparity between internal and external perception on Flipping Mountain as well.

’It looks smaller from the outside than it is on the inside?’

’How did this extra space appear?’

Mo Ling was bewildered. He carefully scanned his surroundings once more, confirming that his perceptions were indeed correct.

’The Block must have undergone some kind of change because of the shift in the Abyss’s floor level,’ Mo Ling guessed.

’If I go to the 3rd Floor of the Abyss, will the space expand again?’

’The fourth floor, the fifth, even higher floors... will the Block keep getting bigger indefinitely?’

Mo Ling suddenly recalled the boundless space from his dream, the one containing the mountain of pickles. ’Will it become like that?’

As he was pondering this, the Block’s rate of descent outside began to speed up. It seemed it was about to land.

But at that moment, Li Luo deployed her parachute and began using jets to buffer her descent.

’What’s happening?’

As his vision drew closer, Mo Ling realized that the environment below seemed off.

They hadn’t reached the ground yet, but he could already see massive, yellow, cone-shaped stone spikes extending straight up into the sky.

These menacing, needle-like stone pillars pierced through the thick fog like stone towers, standing tall amidst sand dunes.

’This terrain is impossible to land on!’

Mo Ling hastily began to control the Block. The change in his field of vision made his control a bit sluggish, but he quickly adapted.

The Block halted in mid-air, then accelerated toward Li Luo. Only after picking her up did it begin to descend slowly, coming to a rest on a stone platform shrouded in thick fog.

’What is this place?’

’Weren’t there supposed to be sand dunes? Why isn’t there any sand at all?’

Only a towering Stone Forest that pierced the sky.

During the descent, Mo Ling had roughly estimated the height of the stone pillars. Nearly every one was several hundred meters tall.

Now, looking up from the bottom, Mo Ling’s vision could only take in the thick bases of the stone pillars.

The bases supporting these towering pillars were like inverted funnels, interconnected and locked tightly together.

Probing downward with his vision, he saw that beneath these bases was also solid bedrock, without a single crack. It was like one enormous, complete stone, with only some intersecting crevices between the rocks.

’No wonder those pillars can reach the sky.’

’What a peculiar landform.’

Li Luo opened the image recognition function on her electronic screen and began to determine their current location.

The camera focused on the stone pillars that soared into the clouds. The topography here was very distinctive, and the database quickly returned an accurate location.

—Thorn Stone Forest.

This was a forest of stone composed of needle-like pillars, a very unique landing zone. Many Hunters who landed here died because they failed to open their parachutes in time and were impaled on the pillars.

The area wasn’t large, but because obstructive stone pillars were everywhere, the path out was exceptionally complex.

Moreover, the pillars frequently collapsed, causing the terrain to change, so even now, the map was incomplete.

Even if they managed to land safely, many Hunters couldn’t find their way out of this area and could only starve to death here.

Fortunately, there was a monitoring station near the Thorn Stone Forest. It wasn’t far, so as long as they found the right direction out of the Stone Forest, they could reach it quickly.

Seeing this, Mo Ling quickly surveyed the surroundings.

This Stone Forest looked almost identical in every direction. It was impossible to tell which way led out.

Many areas were also completely impassable, where the bases of several pillars merged and extended like a massive stone wall, blocking the way.

Not only was there a risk of getting lost, but the database also alerted Li Luo that a type of mineral-based lifeform lived within the Thorn Stone Forest. They were highly intelligent, some were hostile to humans, and it was recommended to avoid them on sight.

’Mineral-based lifeforms?’

Just as Mo Ling was thinking about it, a glimmer of light appeared in his vision.

Amidst the earthen-yellow Thorn Stone Forest, a jarring color suddenly appeared.

A creature whose appearance was completely different from its surroundings flashed past.

When the creature appeared again, Mo Ling finally got a clear look at it.

’So green.’

’It’s so incredibly green.’

Mo Ling almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. How could such a conspicuously colored creature exist in this Stone Forest?

The creature looked like a rock that glowed green all over. Its body was translucent and reflective. It was humanoid but had four arms, and it was enormous, standing over three meters tall.

Its four arms were also made of glowing green stone. Although their surfaces were covered in dust, they still constantly reflected light.

The interior of its stone body was extremely dense; it didn’t look like a living being at all.

But Mo Ling soon realized he was wrong. Ripples suddenly appeared inside the creature, accompanied by the faint, crisp sound of DING DING DING.

Then, the crisp sound began to rebound within the dense stone, suddenly transforming into a deep, metallic clang.

DONG!

Along with the stony ring, a powerful vibration sent the stone creature into motion. It suddenly accelerated, charging toward Mo Ling.

In the blink of an eye, the creature was in front of Mo Ling, its two right arms lashing out.

Seeing this, Mo Ling quickly ascended, letting the incoming fists strike the stone pillar behind him.

Two large craters were punched directly into the stone pillar.

But the stone creature’s two arms also shattered on impact. Translucent, crystalline fragments scattered everywhere, mixing with the surrounding rocks as they fell.

’A suicide attack?’