I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 459: Chapter 456: Mirror Square

”The synchronization rate is different for each species. We have to calculate all of them.”

”Achieving absolute accuracy is impossible... Injuries will be unavoidable. All we can do is ensure everyone has personal protection.”

”Stop getting hung up on the synchronization rate. As long as your body is tough enough, you can prevent injuries.”

”It’s easy for you to say that when your species is so physically strong! You need to pay attention to the weaker species. They’re the key!”

”I’m sorry. It was my oversight...”

...

Among these phantoms, there were harmonious discussions as well as heated arguments.

But no matter what, they didn’t escalate into greater conflicts.

It seemed they had more important things to do.

There were far too many phantoms in the square. Mo Ling could only extract useful information from the bits and pieces of their conversations.

The phantoms would dissipate and then coalesce again. After several cycles, Mo Ling finally began to understand just what it was they were building.

A synchronization device—some kind of apparatus that could send living beings to the 4th Floor of the Abyss.

They were a coalition of species from the Sea of Creation that had organized spontaneously. They had excavated this square for the sole purpose of building this device.

...

A long, long time ago, before humans arrived in the Abyss, the 3rd Floor didn’t have so many passages leading to the fourth.

But even then, the Sea of Creation was already widely renowned.

Many species came here, hoping to petition a god and have their wishes granted.

Among them were even beings from the 4th Floor of the Abyss.

They might have successfully petitioned a god, or they might have gained nothing at all, but in the end, they all faced the same problem: how to get home.

The passages they’d used to arrive had closed. Due to a lack of information, they didn’t know where the entrances on the 3rd Floor were, so they could only wander the Sea of Creation, gathering information about new passages.

And so, gradually, a group of species with the same goal banded together. They excavated this space, planning to build a device that could send all of them home.

This was that synchronization device.

’If we can’t find a passage, we’ll build one ourselves.’ That was their thinking at the time.

After learning everything from the phantoms’ conversations, Mo Ling finally understood why Olive had brought him and Li Luo here.

’I just don’t know if this ancient device still works,’ he thought.

When Li Luo first entered the square, she was still a bit cautious, but after discovering the phantoms weren’t real, she grew bolder.

While wandering around the square, listening to the phantoms’ conversations to gather information, she took out her electronic screen and started looking up information about the passages.

Sure enough, almost all the files mentioned the term ”synchronization rate.”

”A living organism must be synchronized with the fourth floor to enter the fourth floor...”

Li Luo scrolled through the files. Most of them were filled with extremely complex formulas and descriptions, until she found a more accessible popular science article.

After a quick scan, she came over to the Block and held the electronic screen up to its center.

Mo Ling immediately understood and began to read.

...

”Synchronization, in principle, is actually very simple.”

”If a person wants to catch up to a high-speed train, they first need to synchronize their speed with the train’s.”

”A person can’t change the train’s speed, so there’s only one way to synchronize: accelerate. The person has to accelerate to the same speed as the train. Once the two are relatively stationary, the person can easily jump onto the train.”

”Even elementary school textbooks teach that the flow of time is related to an object’s mass. Different rates of time flow can also cause a ’train’ effect. An object with a low rate of flow colliding with an object with a high rate of flow would also be smashed to pieces.”

”Space is the same. If an extremely chaotic space collides with a stable one, a terrifying collision will occur because their ’spatial velocities’ are different. It could even annihilate them both.”

”The speeds of the 3rd and 4th Floors of the Abyss are different—and completely, utterly different at that. Their motion velocity, rate of time flow, spatial velocity... all of it is completely different.”

”The 3rd Floor is low-speed, while the 4th Floor is high-speed. A being from a low-speed world will maintain its low speed due to inertia. If it suddenly arrives in a high-speed world, a terrible impact will occur, causing instantaneous annihilation.”

”It’s like someone riding a bicycle trying to suddenly jump onto a supersonic jet. They would just be crushed to pieces.”

”Therefore, synchronization is the process of accelerating a being to the speed of the 4th Floor, matching its rate of time flow, and making its body ’chaotic’ to adapt to the space of the 4th Floor... After this series of operations, the being is qualified to jump onto that high-speed train...”

...

After reading the popular science article, Mo Ling instantly understood the meaning of ”synchronization.”

Not only that, but he was also amazed by the author’s ability to explain complex concepts.

Although Mo Ling still didn’t grasp the specific details, he at least understood the general principle.

”Most of the passages from the 3rd to the 4th Floor now were made by humans,” Li Luo added after she finished reading the article.

’So that’s how it is.’

While being influenced by the Abyss, humanity had also completely changed it.

Although the bizarre and motley rules of the Abyss dealt a massive blow to humanity’s technological systems, humanity, in turn, was also using the Abyss to verify and correct its own path.

This was also the reason for humanity’s explosive technological advancement after the Great Cataclysm.

As he marveled at this, Mo Ling sized up the ancient synchronization device.

From the phantoms’ conversations, Mo Ling understood that this entire square was part of the device.

Because of the temporal distortion caused by synchronization, these strange phantoms were left behind. They were completely harmless and could even serve to guide those who came later.

Looking at the dense crowd of phantoms in the square, Mo Ling silently offered his thanks.

The Olive flew around the square for a while before slowly drifting to the center and stopping there.

The ground in the center of the square seemed different. The worn, mirrored surface had been polished smooth again and was covered in intricate patterns.

The phantoms next to the patterns were discussing how to engrave them.

The reason they had chosen to build the device near the junkyard of the Sea of Creation was that only here would the mirrored surface not repair itself automatically.

Upon reaching the center of the intricate patterns, the Olive suddenly sank downward, struck the very center of the design, and vanished.

”Is the guidance over?”

Li Luo walked to the center and crouched down.

After examining it for a moment, she turned to Mo Ling and said, ”This is a button.”

It turned out the mirrored surface at the center of the patterns had been cut into a hidden button.

It seemed that pressing this button would activate the device, which was why the Olive’s guidance ended here.

Mo Ling controlled the Block to float over to the center. Looking down at the patterns on the ground, he discovered that the intricate design actually depicted an eye.

Strange vines were entwined around the eye, and these vines were covered with smaller eyes. And on those smaller eyes, even thinner vines were entwined... and so it continued, in an endless cycle.

”What is this thing?”