I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 351: Chapter 348: Coal Ball

At first, Li Luo thought she was imagining things.

Amidst the hard coal, she had touched something as soft as a sponge. It was squishy.

After poking it a few times, Li Luo realized it was definitely something out of the ordinary.

Brushing aside the surrounding coal, Li Luo reached in and dug the soft object out.

The object was the size of a soccer ball, bigger than the surrounding chunks of coal. Stranger still, it was extremely soft. No matter how she squeezed it, it wouldn’t break, just like a highly resilient sponge.

Through the thick black cloth, Li Luo could barely make out the object’s shape.

It looked like a ball of coal—round and plump. It would spring back whenever she pressed on it.

It felt so good in her hands that Li Luo couldn’t resist squishing the coal ball into various shapes. But as soon as she let go, it would bounce back to its original form.

”What is this thing?”

Holding the soft coal ball, Li Luo grew even more confused.

’If the coal chunks are the source of memory fragments, then what is this coal ball?’

Just as she was lost in thought, the coal ball in her hands suddenly began to struggle.

’This thing is alive!’

Li Luo instinctively wanted to throw the coal ball away, but the thought that it might be a once-in-a-lifetime clue made her grip it tightly instead.

The coal ball wasn’t very strong, but it kept bouncing around, incredibly agile. Gritting her teeth, Li Luo hugged the coal ball tightly to her chest.

”Jin Lou, come help!”

Jin Lou had been looking around and surveying the environment, but it immediately rushed over upon hearing Li Luo’s voice.

”What is this?”

Jin Lou ran up to Li Luo, deploying four mechanical arms and shooting out several iron chains to bind the coal ball securely.

The coal ball bounced around in the cage of chains. When it realized it couldn’t escape, it squeezed itself into a small lump and huddled in a corner.

Jin Lou lifted the cage, glancing at it with curiosity.

”Where did you find this guy?”

”Under the coal. Not deep,” Li Luo said, kicking at the ground as she tried to catch her breath.

The coal ball wasn’t strong, but it was impossible to get a grip on. It was slippery and had been constantly struggling in her arms, trying to escape. It had taken a great deal of her strength to hold on to it.

”An undocumented life-form,” Jin Lou said helplessly after observing it for a moment. ”I’ve never seen anything like it on Hell Island, either.”

”They must live on top of this black dome,” Li Luo guessed.

Jin Lou poked the coal ball with a stick. The coal ball wriggled its body, shifted position, and curled up into a ball again. Like an ostrich, its round body remained incredibly conspicuous no matter how small it tried to make itself.

”Seems like a harmless creature.”

Li Luo quickly checked herself over as well.

’In the heat of the moment, I just grabbed the creature and held it. Only now do I realize how reckless that was.’

Fortunately, she felt no ill effects.

The coal ball creature seemed completely harmless.

Jin Lou carried the cage to one side and began rooting around with the stick. Before long, it had found another one.

This coal ball seemed a bit smarter. Upon being discovered, it twisted its body and tried to burrow underground, squeezing its soft form into the crevices between the chunks of coal.

However, after it managed to hide half of its body in a crevice, its rear end was left sticking out—an incredibly conspicuous hemisphere.

Every time Jin Lou poked it with the stick, the coal ball would twitch. It looked ridiculous.

”What a dumb creature,” Jin Lou couldn’t help but remark.

Looking at the hemispherical backside, Jin Lou stopped poking and retracted its stick.

But just then, the coal ball in the cage began to struggle violently again. It curled itself into a tight little ball and started bouncing around the cage, as if it had sensed some kind of danger.

”What’s going on?”

Jin Lou was still wondering what was happening when it suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

The ground... seemed to be shaking.

The coal on the ground vibrated, rising slightly before settling back down.

”Over there!”

Jin Lou instantly locked onto the direction.

In the distance, a giant, wreathed in white light, was slowly walking across the land.

It carried a massive stone on its shoulder, which also glowed with a brilliant white light.

”It’s a Constructor! A white Constructor!”

The towering white Giant God strode toward them, step by step. The tremors grew more and more violent, shattering the black coal into dust that flew into the air.

Jin Lou’s mechanical legs locked onto the ground. The terrified coal ball began to tumble around in its cage.

Li Luo was shaken so badly she could barely stand, forcing her into a half-crouch.

The black ground beneath the Giant God’s feet cracked and burst under its immense weight, sending black fragments flying everywhere. Some of the coal balls that had been hiding underground were flung out with the debris, rolling away in a panicked scramble.

The tiny creatures could do nothing but flee from the Giant God.

Li Luo and Jin Lou tried to flee, but found they couldn’t move. The violent tremors were causing the coal beneath their feet to crumble and give way.

In just a few moments, Li Luo had already sunk ankle-deep into the coal, making it difficult to even keep her balance.

Jin Lou had no choice but to activate its jets again. It retracted its mechanical legs, leaped to Li Luo’s side, and pulled her free.

”Hold on tight!”

Jin Lou planned to escape by leaping away with Li Luo.

Li Luo quickly grabbed onto Jin Lou’s mechanical arm.

Jin Lou shook its frame to adjust its posture, secured the cage containing the coal creature to its body, and leaped away in the opposite direction.

However, the Giant God moved incredibly fast, catching up to them in no time.

It grabbed the huge white stone, hurled it with the force of a shot putter, and the terrifying boulder flew toward them like a missile.

Fortunately, Jin Lou had been watching their back. Seeing the boulder approach, it reversed course, leaping with Li Luo in another direction and narrowly avoiding the terrifying projectile.

The great stone slammed into a hill of coal with a thunderous CRASH, sending countless black shards flying. Fortunately, the shards vanished quickly; otherwise, they would have inflicted fatal injuries if they had struck the pair.

Jin Lou’s arm was trembling uncontrollably.

But it knew this was no time to back down. As soon as the aftershocks subsided, it picked a direction and prepared to flee again.

However, as the black debris settled, the sight that appeared before them forced Jin Lou to a halt.

The white boulder had, at some point, transformed into a massive, high wall, blocking their escape route.

The great wall continued to extend into the distance, stretching all the way to the far side of the hills.

At the same time, countless spikes began to sprout from the wall.

The top of the wall writhed, and human-like figures began to rise from it.

The figures also appeared to be made of white stone. Once formed, they fixed their dead stares on the two people below.

And that wasn’t all. With a rumbling sound, more walls suddenly rose up from the inside of the existing ones, extending perpendicularly. Not far away, they made sharp right-angle turns before meeting up behind them.

In the blink of an eye, thick, high walls had completely surrounded them.

All along the top of the walls, more Stone Men rose into view.

However, it wasn’t over yet.

The spikes on the outside of the wall grew longer, and watchtowers began to jut out from the high walls.

Cannon-like weapons were swiftly mounted on the watchtowers, their muzzles all aimed at the two people trapped within the walls.

The tremors continued, forcing Jin Lou to keep leaping around the center of the enclosed space to avoid sinking into the crumbling ground.

Before long, however, a figure suddenly appeared in the sky, blotting out everything.

It was the Constructor!

It floated in midair, raising its two giant hands in front of it to form a square gesture.

A deep voice boomed from its mouth:

”Construct: Urn!”