I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 426: Chapter 423: The Tireless Kinsfolk

”If I had to describe them, I’d say ’machines’ is the most fitting word.”

The Little Elf’s ethereal voice echoed through the dim seawater as it slowly began to tell Mo Ling what happened when it first arrived at the Sea of Creation...

...

After arriving on the 3rd Floor of the Abyss, the Little Elf began to search for the meaning of its existence.

It was free, no longer living for the wishes of others. But more often than not, all it felt was an endless emptiness.

”I thought I had escaped a dominated fate, only to fall into an even more chaotic void.”

Without a purpose, the Little Elf began to wander the 3rd Floor of the Abyss.

Until it came to the Sea of Creation.

As soon as it entered this sea, it sensed the presence of countless members of its own kind, which greatly excited the lonely creature.

After passing through innumerable mirrored surfaces, the Little Elf found where its kin were located.

They were hiding in a concealed sea, fulfilling the wishes of other races through the mirrors.

The moment it arrived in this sea, before it even had a chance to greet its kin, the Little Elf was taken to participate in a ”divine sacrifice ritual.”

As one of them, the Little Elf quickly understood the operating principles of the Sea of Creation.

Its kin in the Sea of Creation employed a very clever method. They didn’t grant creatures’ wishes directly; instead, they used ”gods” as vessels.

They would gather the wishes of an entire race, place them into a container, and then use that container to birth a ”god.” It was through this god that they fulfilled the race’s wishes.

In reality, this god was a relic they had created.

This way, they could completely detach themselves from the wish-granting process, acting as a hidden third party.

The process only involved the creatures making the wishes and the god that was created; it had nothing to do with them.

This was a very efficient way to conserve their power, and it also ensured their safety.

This sea of golden light was hidden beneath layers of mirrors, making it hard to detect. They didn’t have to worry about greedy creatures coveting their power.

The divine objects and the divine sacrifice rituals set a certain threshold, making those creatures restrain themselves.

The creatures would believe it was a ”god” that granted their wishes. They would maintain their reverence and not become too indulgent or make unreasonable demands of the god.

After completing a few divine sacrifice rituals with its kin, the Little Elf was filled with admiration for this method of granting wishes.

’If only I’d known about this method sooner, I wouldn’t have been trapped by wishes, nor would I have been troubled by all those unreasonable requests.’

Moreover, its kin in the Sea of Creation seemed exceptionally diligent, tirelessly rushing between different Divine Sacrifice Sites every day to grant the wishes of other creatures.

Furthermore, the mirrors didn’t just show things within the Sea of Creation; they could also connect to some strange places.

These places were the various famous wishing spots within the Abyss.

The Wishing Pool, the Wishing Statue, the Wishing Tower...

A portion of its kin were specifically responsible for the wishes made at these locations.

Granting a wish was simple, but sending the relics to the wishing spots consumed a great deal of energy. That’s why these places could only be opened periodically, to prevent an excess of wish-makers from depleting their energy.

When it first came to the Sea of Creation, the Little Elf was curious about everything. It often ran around exploring, only to be caught by its kin and put to work granting wishes.

Through their unified efforts, the scope of the wishes they could grant became vast, and the power of the wishes grew immense. This made the Little Elf admire its kin here even more.

However, the Little Elf soon discovered that these ”diligent” kin seemed a bit *too* hardworking.

No communication, no rest, no thought... Every day was nothing but work, work, work, rushing between the various wishing spots.

They were not only responsible for the wishes within the Sea of Creation but also for those in faraway places. Every day, its kin worked themselves to utter exhaustion. Only when they had depleted nearly all their energy would they stop to recover.

Watching these kin who worked as if their lives depended on it, the Little Elf felt that something was increasingly strange.

”Why are you so tired?”

The Little Elf asked one of its kin, who had lost almost all its energy and could only drift helplessly in the sea.

That elf just glanced at it before continuing to drift away with the current. Once its energy was fully restored, it would start working again right where it was. Wherever it drifted, it worked.

The Little Elf asked many of its kin in succession, but the result was always the same.

The exhausted ones didn’t even have the strength to respond.

And those who still had energy would simply drag the Little Elf off to work, completely ignoring its refusals.

If the Little Elf ran away, the others wouldn’t bother it.

In their eyes, it seemed work was the most important thing. Rather than chasing the Little Elf, it was better to use that time to work.

After realizing this, the Little Elf even deliberately provoked some of its kin, trying to get them to chase it. But they remained steadfast, always putting work first and completely ignoring its provocations.

The Little Elf made other efforts as well.

It tried taking some of the exhausted elves away from the Sea of Creation, fleeing to a place far away.

However, once these kin recovered their energy, they would hastily return to the Sea of Creation and throw themselves back into their work. They worked even harder, as if to make up for the time lost traveling.

They tirelessly fulfilled the wishes of other creatures, without a single complaint.

”Aren’t these just machines?”

The Little Elf had spent a long time in human society. The more it watched, the more it felt that its kin were just like the machines from the human world.

Inflexible, incredibly rigid, knowing only how to work, not how to think.

Their work was both outstanding and efficient, but they had completely lost the freedom a living being ought to have.

Looking at its kin, who were like machines, the Little Elf felt a growing sense of dread.

Moreover, its kin were beginning to affect it.

As long as it stayed in the middle of the Golden Light Sea, it would inevitably be dragged off to work.

After being press-ganged into labor several times, the Little Elf finally couldn’t take it anymore. It hid alone in the deep sea, continuing to observe its kin while trying to figure out a way to save its mechanical brethren.

”They want you to teleport the relics to the Wishing Tower. They must have discovered your teleportation ability. It would save them a lot of energy,” the Little Elf said to Mo Ling.

”Are they being lazy?”

”No, they’re incapable of being lazy. Saving energy only means they’ll use it for other work. Even if you helped them teleport all the relics, they would just lift the restrictions on the wishing spots and make you keep teleporting nonstop.”

The Little Elf said, its tone somewhat serious, ”You might not understand. They don’t have a concept of ’work saturation.’ As long as you keep increasing the workload, the work is never saturated.”

”As long as you keep working, there will always be more work, right up until you can’t work anymore!”