I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 382: Chapter 379: A Not-So-Peaceful Morning

Li Luo pressed herself against the porthole, her eyes shining as she gazed at the sparkling sea.

It was hard not to be captivated by the glittering spectacle.

The Sky-Shuttle broke the sea’s tranquility, tossing the brilliant diamonds into the air.

In its wake, a radiant river flowed behind the ship, the churned-up crystals glittering brilliantly. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight.

The sun gradually rose, and as its light grew more intense, the sea’s surface shone even brighter.

Meanwhile, Mo Ling was squatting on the ground, studying the strange crystals.

He couldn’t suppress his curiosity and had ”stolen” some of the seawater into the Block.

The viscous seawater was filled with countless shimmering crystals.

Mo Ling picked out a few and squeezed them in his hand.

To his surprise, the crystals all had distinctly different textures.

Some felt like sand when squeezed—very hard—which matched Mo Ling’s initial guess.

Others shattered into fragments with the slightest pressure, extremely brittle, like some kind of fragile glass.

With another, Mo Ling felt something was off the moment he squeezed it.

”Soft.”

It was like some sort of gel; when he squeezed hard, it broke into a pile of jelly-like pieces.

And another type, though also soft to the touch, couldn’t be crushed at all. It was like a piece of resilient rubber.

Mo Ling pinched the small, rubbery crystal with his fingernails and pulled. It stretched into a long strip. When he let go, it snapped back to its original shape without any deformation.

Mo Ling was baffled.

’They all look like the same thing, yet they have so many different physical properties.’

Mo Ling hadn’t teleported much seawater, nor had he been selective, but the crystals within it were all bizarre and unique.

After studying them for a long time, Mo Ling still couldn’t figure out what they were.

He wasn’t a robot with a built-in analysis function. He couldn’t determine the substance’s origin, so he had to turn his attention back outside.

Just then, an announcement started playing over the broadcast system:

”Dear passengers, your breakfast has been delivered via the transfer chute. Please retrieve it promptly.”

”The Sky-Shuttle has now entered the Sea of Creation. Please adhere to the ship’s regulations...”

”In a short while, music will be heard outside the Sky-Shuttle. This is a normal phenomenon in the Sea of Creation. Do not be alarmed.”

”Additionally, playing the following types of music on board is prohibited: heavy metal, whistling, highly repetitive children’s songs...”

For some reason, the broadcast kept repeating the notice about prohibited music, as if to strongly remind the passengers.

Li Luo listened attentively to the entire broadcast, then walked over to the transfer chute, where an indicator light was flashing, and pressed the button.

The chute’s opening slid open slowly, revealing a steaming meal of fish and rice.

Li Luo carefully took out the meal and placed it on the small table.

The fish emitted a strange aroma. Although it showed no signs of being fried, it gave off a delicious, charred fragrance.

It was white and tender and looked very plain, yet it had a barbecue-like flavor. Li Luo studied it for a long time but couldn’t figure out how it was made.

The aroma was overwhelming. She swallowed and picked up the provided utensils to begin eating.

Meanwhile, inside the Block, Mo Ling smelled that peculiar charred fragrance and felt a sense of familiarity.

He caught a scent he recognized but couldn’t recall where he’d smelled it before.

His thoughts leading nowhere, he followed the transfer chute to locate the kitchen.

There, a chef robot was still processing food waste.

The moment he saw the scraps, Mo Ling instantly understood where the smell was coming from.

’The Sound Sharks from last night...’

The fish and rice meal was actually made from Sound Sharks.

Mo Ling never would have guessed that the nauseatingly smelly sharks could be turned into such an aromatic dish.

’Who on earth came up with this?’

Mo Ling was filled with admiration for the culinary pioneer who developed this recipe.

He even started to suspect that these ”Abyssal Gourmets” would taste any and every creature just to see if it was edible.

’Humans really will eat anything,’ he mused, before shifting his view back to the room.

Li Luo was eating quickly; the breakfast clearly tasted good.

Watching her made Mo Ling hungry, so he grabbed a can of food and started eating.

Just as Mo Ling was thinking it would be a peaceful morning, a strange sound came from outside the porthole.

It was a dull, percussive sound, like a drumbeat.

The sound immediately captured Mo Ling’s attention.

It didn’t sound naturally produced; it was very distinct and attention-grabbing.

’Is this another strange phenomenon?’ In this shimmering sea, nothing would surprise Mo Ling anymore.

Mo Ling looked toward the source of the sound and found it was coming from a patch of seawater.

In one area, the crystals were being struck by the currents, colliding with each other to produce the noise.

Just as Mo Ling was studying the origin of the drumbeat, an even more peculiar sound arose from another area.

”Strings.”

It was like a mixture of countless string instruments, yet it wasn’t chaotic. It rose and fell with the waves, somehow matching the rhythm of the previous drumbeat.

Compared to the tight percussion, the string section was exceptionally long and harmonious. The crystals here seemed denser, creating a very coherent sound that ebbed and flowed with the waves, never ceasing.

Once the strings joined in, the entire sea suddenly came alive with activity.

Not far off, some short, sharp sounds also began to emerge.

Flutes, piccolos, clarinets...

These sounds began to weave themselves in, like embellishments to the existing music, adding a jolt of ”the unusual” to the somewhat rigid waves.

This special impact brought the previous sounds to life, making them incredibly lively. The crystals in the seawater began to leap and dance to the music.

The sea was alive, no longer just a field of shining diamonds.

The Sky-Shuttle cut through the water’s surface, and a beautiful sonata began to rise around it.

The sonorous notes began to reverberate within the cabins, spreading to every corner of the Sky-Shuttle.

Li Luo, of course, also heard the beautiful music gradually welling up, but she only paused for a moment, hummed along softly for a few notes, and then went back to enjoying her delicious meal, paying it no further mind.

The broadcast had already made it clear this was a phenomenon of the Sea of Creation and no cause for alarm, so Li Luo naturally didn’t worry about it.

After a period of echoes, a new sound joined in—

Brass instruments.

Tubas, trumpets, French horns...

The surging waves crashed against the sea’s surface—waves stirred up by the Sky-Shuttle. The crystals within them collided violently, emitting a high, soaring vibration.

The sudden arrival of the brass propelled the previously calm sonata to a new crescendo.

The sea’s surface was no longer calm. The Sky-Shuttle’s arrival had broken the original equilibrium, bringing ”change” to the silent sea.

And these ”changes” formed notes, high and low, performed by the collisions between crystals of different properties.

The Sea of Creation was responding to the Sky-Shuttle’s arrival in its own unique way.