I'm Trapped in the Block

The enormous monster egg was like a natural petri dish.

Countless primordial cells writhed inside it. The tiny blocks looked clear and transparent.

Simple and beautiful.

Liang Zhi ravenously recorded the cells’ activity, his eyes bloodshot.

Captain Su walked up to him and asked doubtfully, "Are these really the common ancestor of all cells?"

But Liang Zhi was focused on the electronic screen and only answered after a long while, "I know they are."

It was another cryptic answer, offered without any evidence.

"And why are they square? You have to give me some basis for me to believe you. For all we know, this is just a special life-form, maybe not even a cell," Captain Su said, still skeptical.

But Liang Zhi ignored Captain Su again, engrossed in recording the activity of the Block cells.

Captain Su stepped forward, examining the image on the screen carefully and peppering Liang Zhi with questions about the cells.

He still didn’t respond, as if possessed.

As Captain Su continued his questioning, Liang Zhi’s expression grew more and more twisted—a bizarre mix of excitement and confusion.

It was as if he was doing something he enjoyed while simultaneously doubting his own actions.

’Why is he acting like this? Has he realized something?’

While working, Liang Zhi muttered to himself in a low voice, "No, that’s not right... Why do I know so much about this?"

"This is something I’ve run through in my mind countless times. These are indeed the primordial cells." His words seemed to be answering Captain Su, yet also affirming his own actions.

But his voice was very quiet, filled with a lack of confidence.

His movements became sluggish. He would work for a moment, then freeze, standing there blankly as if lost in thought.

Just then, the container filled with the liquid flowing from the monster egg.

Liang Zhi subconsciously moved the container aside and took out sealing tape to cover the slit cut into the egg.

But his palm was already covered in the transparent mucus. He stared at his hand, stunned.

He no longer cared about the primordial cells he had so desperately pursued. His eyes widened, and he stared blankly ahead.

Then, he slowly stood up, holding out his hands with a baffled expression.

"What’s wrong?" Captain Su took two steps back, sensing something was amiss.

The initial excitement on Liang Zhi’s face was gone. He frowned, scanned his surroundings, and his gaze fell upon the monster egg once more.

「For a long moment.」

Clarity suddenly returned to his dazed eyes. He looked at Captain Su with a hint of apology.

Then he said apologetically, "I’m sorry for causing the outpost so much trouble, and for getting so many people killed."

Captain Su was extremely confused but replied seriously, "The authorities will judge your actions in due time. I trust there will be a fair verdict. You don’t need to apologize to me here."

"If you were truly doing this to explore the abyss, it’s a loss we can bear."

Liang Zhi shook his head. "The Red Rope Worms were unnecessary. The chaos was unnecessary. Those soldiers shouldn’t have had to die."

He looked at the Sheep-headed Man, who was still on the ground picking up vertebrae, and gave a bitter smile.

"It was unnecessary too. All that talk about mutations, guided evolution, the ’ugly duckling’ phenomenon... it was all just my wishful thinking."

The Sheep-headed Man didn’t react at all, completely ignoring him.

Liang Zhi’s increasingly bizarre behavior made the surrounding soldiers wary, and they aimed their weapons at him.

"Whatever you have to say, you can say it when we get back to the monitoring station. Finish your research first. I will report everything you’ve done truthfully," Captain Su said solemnly.

"Thank you." After thanking Captain Su, Liang Zhi turned back to the monster egg, his expression no longer one of manic fervor.

Gazing at the monster egg, he suddenly asked a question:

"Why are you doing this?"

As Liang Zhi’s words fell, the monster egg actually trembled slightly.

The growth rate of all flora and fauna in the entire accelerated zone abruptly quickened.

Plants flourished and then rapidly withered. Tiny insects shot through the area like shooting stars, born and gone in an instant.

The ball of flesh that was once the leader of the Transparent Race also began to cycle endlessly between dissolution and regeneration.

The Sheep-headed Man suddenly stood up, staring intently at the monster egg.

Everyone immediately went on high alert.

The transparent liquid inside the monster egg suddenly swirled into a vortex, and strangely shaped bubbles began to appear.

The bubbles slowly changed and twisted, taking the shapes of different creatures.

First, round cells appeared, followed by soft coelenterates, which writhed slowly inside the egg.

Then they began to shift between the forms of long flatworms and roundworms, before suddenly expanding into the shapes of mollusks and echinoderms.

Just as everyone thought the bubbles would continue to morph along the path of evolution...

...it abruptly jumped to the form of a stationary fern.

Countless biological images appeared in the bubbles’ performance.

Vivid and lifelike.

Even some never-before-seen creatures appeared, including species from within the abyss.

Mo Ling even saw a Vibrating Beast among them.

Birds, mammals, arthropods...

The changes came faster and faster, then stopped in an instant.

It was a human.

A very standard human. Average build, average face, nothing special at all.

Seeing the human figure appear, Liang Zhi asked again:

"Why are you doing this?"

Hearing Liang Zhi’s question, the bubble-figure looked at him and began to slowly approach the inner wall of the egg.

It reached out its hand. Its arm touched the monster egg’s soft shell, pressing a handprint into the gelatinous exterior.

The Bubble Man’s arm slowly extended, actually pushing the shell outwards.

The shell became a thin film of water, enveloping the Bubble Man’s arm and taking the shape of a hand.

The film of water flowed, forming a humanoid vesicle.

As the Bubble Man continued to push outwards, the film enveloped more and more of it, until finally, it spat the Bubble Man out completely.

’This is... exocytosis!’

The term flashed through Mo Ling’s mind.

He suddenly realized that the giant monster egg was also acting just like a cell.

The film of water encasing the Bubble Man slowly detached from the monster egg. The Bubble Man, like a substance outside a cell, was enclosed in the watery vesicle, floating in the air.

The sight left everyone stunned and motionless.

The Bubble Man was still adjusting to floating, but Liang Zhi had already stepped forward.

"I should have thought of this sooner."

He circled the floating bubble-figure, then returned to the monster egg and felt its gelatinous shell.

He knocked on the monster egg, which produced a dull thud. Then, Liang Zhi pressed his eye to the shell, peering through it to observe the inside.

After a moment, his expression grew even more solemn.

He suddenly turned to the Bubble Man. The confusion on his face was gone, replaced by resolve as he said firmly:

"Those little Blocks were never the primordial cells. You are!"