I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 378: Chapter 375: Moral Blackmail

It’s difficult for different cultures to truly understand one another.

Many behaviors that seem perfectly normal to humans can be seen as provocations by other races. This is especially true in a sacred place like the Sea of Creation, where many actions are magnified infinitely.

For instance, if a human saw someone relieving themselves in public, they might choose to look the other way, thinking it’s best not to get involved.

However, if they saw someone doing the same at the foot of a deity’s statue in a temple, the culprit would get more than just a simple beating.

In the Sea of Creation, these ”uncivilized” behaviors are magnified into acts of ”blasphemy,” making them completely intolerable.

Moreover, these races came here seeking the gods’ favor, making them extremely sensitive to such behavior.

The data from the terminal emphasized this point. As if to grab Li Luo’s attention, it went on to detail the events humans encountered when they first arrived at the Sea of Creation:

Humans had not been in the Sea of Creation for long.

Being at the far end of the known travel routes, its discovery was relatively recent.

However, despite the short time, humans had already suffered many setbacks here.

The first human expeditionary vessel to enter the Sea of Creation was attacked by a strange race before it even reached the solidified zone.

This was a race with four wings on their backs and thick fur, resembling long-haired cats with wings. The moment they saw the human vessel, they launched a furious attack.

They would pluck off their own wings and throw them onto the ship. The wings would then spin like chainsaws, destroying the facilities on board.

Their wings would then slowly grow back, and once fully regrown, they would launch another round of attacks.

Fortunately, there weren’t many of these Winged Cats, and the expeditionary team was strong enough to handle them. The team quickly subdued the strange attackers without suffering any casualties.

Even after being captured and brought onto the deck, the Winged Cats continued to struggle, baring their teeth as if they wanted to eat the humans alive.

The expeditionary team was also perplexed as to why these assailants had attacked their ship.

At first, they thought something on the ship had attracted the Winged Cats, but there were too many items on board for the team to check one by one.

Fortunately, one team member noticed that the ”MEOW MEOW MEOW” sounds from the Winged Cats’ mouths seemed to have a logical structure, so he took out a translation device.

Soon, they had deciphered the Winged Cat language...

”Why did you attack us?” a team member asked.

”MEOW MEOW MEOW! You’re committing blasphemy! You’re a bunch of ill-mannered, uncultured barbarians! Your bald bodies are like white seashells, fit only to lie foolishly in filthy mud!”

One Winged Cat furiously hurled insults at the team member, snapping its jaws and trying to pounce on him. But since it was tied up, all it could do was squirm on the ground.

”You will surely incur the god’s wrath! You bald, filthy creatures! I curse you to never catch a single tasty fish jerky in the Sea of Creation!”

It struggled on the deck, all the while assailing the expeditionary team member with what it considered the most ”vicious” insults.

Despite being a captive, it refused to back down.

Nevertheless, the team member managed to glean some information from the Winged Cat’s words.

So, he continued to question the Winged Cat:

”What blasphemous act did we commit? Will it truly bring down the god’s wrath in the Sea of Creation?”

Having just entered a new region, the team member was eager to understand the local ”rules.”

”You bald, filthy creature! I’m too ashamed to even speak of what you’ve done! You will definitely be punished by the god!”

”No fish for you! No fish for you!”

The Winged Cat grew more and more agitated, eventually refusing to answer the team member’s questions at all, simply cursing him with ”no fish to eat.”

The team member was at a loss, so he had no choice but to switch to another Winged Cat and start the questioning anew.

This one was a Winged Cat lying off to the side, looking utterly dejected and listless, as if it had lost the will to live.

”It’s all over... Our actions have brought down the god’s wrath. We’re going to be killed by the bald, filthy creatures, and we’ll never eat fish again...”

It lay motionless on the deck, muttering to itself.

This cat wasn’t as agitated; it seemed like one they could reason with.

”What is the god’s wrath?” the team member asked.

”Not getting to eat fish,” the dejected Winged Cat replied, its voice devoid of life.

The team member paused for a moment, but still recorded this piece of information.

”Why did you bring down the god’s wrath?”

”Because we were on the coffin, too...”

”Coffin?” The team member was utterly confused and quickly asked what it meant.

Although the dejected Winged Cat spoke weakly, it answered every question thrown at it, responding to all the team member’s queries between despairing sighs.

Once he understood everything, the team member finally had an epiphany—

This group of Winged Cats had mistaken the human vessel for a ”coffin.”

This was a part of their race’s culture.

The Winged Cats considered any hollow object capable of holding many things to be a ”coffin” for burying their dead, and they believed such objects were extremely filthy.

To them, these coffins represented rot, stench, disease, filth, and death...

They abhorred death, and they abhorred these ”coffins.”

So, when they saw humans piloting a ”coffin” into the Sea of Creation, their anger instantly boiled over.

”What a jinx!”

It was as if a human had seen someone drag a filthy, reeking coffin to the foot of a god’s statue and then proceed to dance with it. There was no way the Winged Cats could tolerate such a thing.

They even felt that failing to stop this act would also be a great disrespect to the god, which was why they had attacked.

But now, not only had they failed to stop this ”bald, filthy race” from dancing with a coffin at the foot of a god’s statue, but they were also standing on the coffin themselves, becoming part of the blasphemy.

That’s why the dejected Winged Cat believed its own race would now incur the god’s wrath.

”No more fish to eat...”

It muttered this over and over, even starting to bang its head against the deck.

Having understood the reason for the incident, the expeditionary team released the Winged Cats.

After a bit of ’persuasion’ from the expeditionary team, the Winged Cats didn’t dare attack the ship again. They flew off into the distance, hurling ”MEOW MEOW MEOW” insults as they went.

When it came to a choice between their god and their own lives, they chose their lives.

The expeditionary team didn’t release the Winged Cats out of kindness, however.

They had planted trackers and surveillance devices on the Winged Cats, following them into the depths of the Sea of Creation, all the way to that solidified continent.

As it turned out, the Winged Cats did not suffer the god’s wrath as they had feared. They flew along, happily catching and eating fish.

The expeditionary team’s worries slowly began to subside.

’So much for the god’s wrath.’