I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 412: Chapter 409: Balloon and Its Brothers

”You should be able to see them now, right? The lines of hostility that are everywhere. They intersect and connect, like a great net blanketing the entire world.”

Balloon floated slowly out from the pile of rocks and said to Mo Ling.

”How did you find out?” Mo Ling asked in shock. The world in his eyes now looked exactly as Balloon had described: countless lines of hostility crisscrossing chaotically like a spider’s web.

”I’m just a little further along the path than you...” Balloon raised its sponge-like thread and plucked at the omnipresent net of hostility.

”At first, I was trapped in it too...”

...

Like many of its kind, Balloon was born in a hidden corner of the Volcano Plains.

It was very lucky. There were no Hunters around, nor any other dangers.

It was at the edge of an already cooled plain where the temperature had dropped quite low. Balloon lay on the shore, eating the impurities brought in by the ebb and flow of the tide.

Because it experienced no real stimulus, its thoughts remained muddled. The only thing it thought about each day was which impurities tasted best.

Of course, Balloon could sense hostility, but it was all very faint.

It might come from the small crabs on the beach or some of the larger waves. These things would harm it, but it recovered quickly and paid them no mind.

It was then that it grew interested in this strange perception of its.

The greater the hostility, the more damage it took.

Balloon wouldn’t dodge. It simply let the hostility wash over it.

Slowly, it learned to use the hostility to predict the size of the next wave.

A question formed in Balloon’s simple mind: ’Why do the waves have hostility towards me? Are they living creatures too?’

It could understand the hostility from the crabs, but it couldn’t comprehend the hostility from the waves.

”They strike me relentlessly, constantly, as if I am their eternal, unchanging enemy. I have no grudge against them. I’m even grateful to them for bringing me food, yet they still maintain their hostility towards me.”

Balloon even tried talking to the waves, asking them not to attack it.

”You can’t kill me, so go kill someone else.”

The waves, of course, paid it no heed, continuing to crash against it unchangingly.

Balloon never thought of killing the waves. It didn’t have the power, and it didn’t want to lose its food source.

So, Balloon could only offer its advice to the waves before each one arrived.

”Don’t hit me.”

”Go hit someone else.”

”Why don’t you go fight the crabs?”

”...”

At last, through Balloon’s tireless efforts, a wave finally listened to its advice. It changed course and crashed heavily onto a distant crab.

Watching the crab flip over and struggle, Balloon was incredibly excited.

”I did it!”

The wave had listened to its advice and transferred its hostility.

Because Balloon never dodged or fought back, it would always be attacked after sensing hostility. This time, however, the hostility from the wave completely vanished, and it wasn’t attacked.

Emboldened by its success, Balloon was invigorated and continued its efforts to talk to the waves.

”Don’t hit me! Go hit that seashell over there!”

The wave did a little flip and crashed towards the seashell.

”Stop, calm down. Why don’t you fight the wave behind you?”

The wave suddenly slowed, colliding with the surf behind it and slowly dissipating.

Balloon discovered its advice was becoming more and more effective, and the waves gradually stopped attacking it.

However, the waves still wouldn’t listen to some of its more absurd suggestions, such as:

”Wave, stop hitting me. Go hit the dark clouds in the sky!”

The waves would usually choose to ignore this kind of advice.

Balloon could understand. That was asking too much of a wave.

So, Balloon stopped making such requests after that.

And so, Balloon continued to lie by the sea, year after year, day after day, offering its advice to the waves.

Whenever any wave reached Balloon’s position, it would not crash upon it, instead turning to strike in another direction.

But the other creatures on the coast suffered for it. They were often attacked by sudden waves. Waves that had clearly been heading in another direction would abruptly reverse course and charge at them.

However, these simple-minded creatures couldn’t understand what was happening. They would just shake themselves off and scurry away.

Balloon’s control over hostility grew more and more masterful. It could even control the waves to sweep impurities from distant rock crevices over to its position.

It thoroughly enjoyed this life. It didn’t need to move; it just had to lie there.

But where could one find true peace on the Volcano Plains?

One day, Balloon suddenly felt the earth tremble, and a strange red glow seemed to appear at the peak of the distant mountain range.

The eruption period had arrived. All the volcanoes had become active.

Although the lava moved very slowly, it would soon flow across the plain to the sea, right to where Balloon was.

Watching the lava flow that crept closer every day, Balloon grew more and more worried.

’If I can persuade the waves, I should be able to persuade the lava too, right?’

Before long, Balloon sensed the lava’s hostility.

”Don’t hit me, go hit the crabs,” Balloon said to the lava.

And so, the scorching lava flowed toward the crabs.

A red light flashed, followed by the sound of cracking shells. When Balloon looked at its ”crab brothers” again, only a patch of scorched blackness remained.

”Where are the crabs?”

Balloon was a little sad. The crab brothers were gone.

’Now there’s no one to block the waves for me.’

After being sad for a few seconds, Balloon put the crab brothers out of its mind.

The lava was still spreading.

”Go hit the seashells. Don’t hit me.”

And then the seashell brothers were gone too.

As its brothers disappeared one by one, Balloon ran out of options.

”Why don’t you go have a fight with the waves.”

...

Finally, the lava flowed into the sea. After a burst of thick smoke, new land began to form.

Balloon was safe.

Having entered the sea, the lava cooled down. This wave of lava had bypassed it thanks to Balloon’s ”advice.”

But the crisis wasn’t over.

The volcano’s eruption came in many waves; the active period was not so easily weathered.

Balloon could see from afar that a new, even hotter flow of lava was slowly creeping down from the heights of the volcano.

”But all my brothers are gone.”

There was nothing left nearby to divert the hostility to.

Only the waves, which still surged up, wave after wave, washing over the newly formed land to reach Balloon’s side.

”Wave Brothers, you’re the only ones left.”

Watching the waves that still relentlessly crashed ashore, an idea suddenly sparked in Balloon’s mind.

It looked at the sea’s surface, then at the distant Volcano.

Then it turned its head and said earnestly to the sea:

”Wave Brothers, could you go and have a fight with the Volcano?”