I'm Trapped in the Block

The Sheep-headed Man stared at its rack, its expression blank.

It didn’t seem to understand what had happened either.

The people behind it no longer dared to move forward, whispering among themselves in the rear.

"What happened in there?"

"It seems to accelerate the life process."

The leader’s fate made everyone present halt in their tracks.

But the acceleration phenomenon had no effect on the Sheep-headed Man.

Observing the flora and fauna within the area, Mo Ling had a theory. ’Does the acceleration only affect Theseus Cells?’

He tried piloting the Block into the area and stuck his finger inside.

Nothing happened.

As the entire Block entered, Mo Ling felt no discomfort. It was no different from being outside the area.

He flew back outside the area and told Li Luo what he had discovered.

"An acceleration zone that targets Theseus Cell Life?" Li Luo read the words on the electronic screen and, without any doubt, walked directly into the area.

She strode right into the zone and, as expected, was not accelerated.

The Sheep-headed Man to the side seemed to have accepted the leader’s disappearance and continued walking deeper into the area.

But after just a couple of steps, it stopped again, staring intently ahead.

What was happening now?

Soon, a figure appeared ahead.

It was a child of the Transparent Race, running in terror toward the outside of the zone. But as he ran, he grew older.

After just a few steps, his age increased rapidly, and he became a young man.

Seeing that familiar face, everyone’s eyes widened.

It was the leader.

Although the appearance of the Transparent Race was different from humans, their humanoid facial features were still somewhat distinguishable.

It was indeed the leader, only younger.

However, he wasn’t young for long. As he ran, he quickly returned to his middle-aged appearance.

The rapid aging of his body also caused his running to become increasingly slow.

By the time he reached the crowd, he had become a decrepit old man.

He fell heavily to the ground, unable to get back up. He could only stretch out his hands and crawl forward, desperately trying to leave the area in terror.

But things didn’t go as he wished. Everything that had happened before repeated itself.

Decay and rot descended once more.

His outstretched hand turned into a skeletal claw, slamming weakly against the ground.

As a gust of wind blew past, the resurrected leader vanished from Mo Ling’s sight once again.

The Sheep-headed Man walked over to where the leader had disappeared, grabbed a handful of dirt, and sprinkled it onto its rack.

’More strange behavior.’

Mo Ling didn’t try to understand the Sheep-headed Man’s actions any longer, because at that moment, another Transparent Race child came running out from the depths of the area.

’It’s a loop!’

The Sheep-headed Man was smarter this time.

It didn’t wait for the child to grow old. Instead, it rushed forward, intercepted the leader who had already become middle-aged, and seized him, putting him on the rack.

With a few deft movements, the Sheep-headed Man cut the leader apart again and tied him to the rack.

Apparently satisfied with the speed at which it had tied him up, the Sheep-headed Man even let out a couple of bleats.

The leader struggled, his mouth opening in despair, but still no sound came out.

Before long, he turned into a pile of dry bones, and the rack was empty once more.

The Sheep-headed Man wasn’t discouraged. It had figured out the pattern of the leader’s appearance.

It kept moving forward, and the leaders it captured for the rack were progressively younger.

Although every captured leader would quickly dissipate, the Sheep-headed Man remained tireless, enjoying the process of catching them.

It planted its rack in the ground, lying in wait for the next leader to rush out from the depths of the area.

But things didn’t seem to be that simple.

As time went on, the Transparent Race child running out became increasingly strange.

First, its limbs began to regress. Its muscles grew dense and firm, and its body became shorter and smaller.

After a few cycles, the leader’s appearance was no longer recognizable.

His face became more angular. His nose and ears disappeared. His eyes grew darker, deeper, and more piercing, and the arrangement of his facial features became increasingly bizarre.

Most importantly, his brain was constantly enlarging. His forehead bulged, the back of his head began to expand, and his chin consequently looked sharper and sharper.

Not only that, but the leader was able to exist for longer and longer periods.

His lifespan was increasing!

Mo Ling grew a little worried. Things seemed to be developing in an uncontrollable direction.

The Sheep-headed Man, however, was still quite happy. No matter how the leader changed, it would catch him, tie him to the rack, and then watch him rapidly turn to dry bones.

The leader continued to change. His cranium kept getting bigger, leading to the development of many structures to protect the brain.

Meanwhile, the rest of his body became more and more streamlined. To support the brain, his limbs became short and delicate, yet extremely strong.

Mo Ling stared at the leader in disbelief.

’Is that... a Little Grey Person?’

Mo Ling almost thought he was watching an alien movie.

At this point, the leader had completely transformed into the image of a Little Grey Person from Mo Ling’s memory. There was no trace of the original Transparent Race Person left.

’Is this not just acceleration, but evolution?’

Even though he now had the appearance of a Little Grey Person, the leader still wanted to escape the area and continued to repeat the act of running.

But the Little Grey Person had short legs and an clumsy gait, making its run look quite comical. With the Sheep-headed Man constantly blocking its escape path, it was caught as soon as it ran out.

His appearance kept changing, but his fate of being tied to the Sheep-headed Man’s rack did not.

Not long after entering the Little Grey Person form, after a few more cycles, the leader’s appearance changed again.

He continued to change, becoming a spherical creature with only a brain and atrophied limbs.

A giant head, struggling to crawl on the ground, began to gradually lose its ability to move.

Its lifespan also continued to increase, and the speed at which it dissipated became slower and slower.

The Sheep-headed Man was not happy about this. The leader’s body was no longer humanoid, making it difficult to arrange in the shape of the Vitruvian Man.

Once the leader became a writhing, advancing head, the Sheep-headed Man ignored it, picked up its rack, and prepared to go deeper inside.

The head was still trying to move outward, but its speed was too slow. The distance it could travel grew shorter and shorter.

Finally, Mo Ling could no longer see any sign of it. He stared into the depths for a long time, but the leader did not appear again.

’Vanished?’

Mo Ling quickly piloted the Block to follow the Sheep-headed Man, heading into the dense vegetation.

The people behind them were also absorbed in the leader’s recent transformation.

"Was that the course of evolution? What did he turn into in the end?" a soldier asked.

No one answered.

No one knew. They could only pick up their recording instruments and head deeper inside.

The deeper they went, the more the wonders of this area were revealed.

The animals were all caught in constant loops of reappearance. The plants, however, thanks to their longer lifespans, could exist for extended periods, but their growth was also visibly rapid.

As a result, the area seemed to be alive, constantly twisting and transforming.

They hadn’t walked for long before they saw the giant head the leader had turned into earlier.

By now, it was unable to move. It twisted and grew in place like a stone, reappearing out of thin air in the same spot after its life cycle ended.

No one knew what it would ultimately become.

After observing for a while, the group continued deeper.