Chapter 400 - 397: The Great Vortex

Chapter 400: Chapter 397: The Great Vortex

"They didn’t mean it. The things you described were just too much for them to handle," the Kindness Stone consoled him.

"It’s okay." Mo Ling didn’t blame the Stiffrocks.

They hadn’t truly experienced that silent, dead universe yet, nor had they witnessed the end of a world. Of course they couldn’t empathize.

It was a matter of experience, something that couldn’t be changed.

Mo Ling found it rather tragic. The petrification they pursued their entire lives would only lead to oblivion, turning them into thoughtless stones.

All he could do now was try to persuade them gently.

"Don’t continue your petrification. Just enjoy this world," he said earnestly to the Kindness Stone.

The Kindness Stone froze for a moment, then fell silent.

After a long while, it answered apologetically:

"I... still want to continue my petrification."

"Don’t you believe me?" Mo Ling asked, confused.

"It’s not that. I just want to see it for myself. I think that’s more meaningful than just wandering aimlessly at the bottom of the sea."

The Kindness Stone spoke with a hint of yearning:

"The destruction of a sun! The extinction of all life! How magnificent must that be?"

"If I don’t petrify, I’ll never get to see such a sight, even if I live out my entire lifespan."

"I don’t want to see nothing but gray forever. I’m sick of this dim seabed. If I could just witness the colorful nebulae of the cosmos with my own eyes, it would all be worth it."

"But all of that is fleeting," Mo Ling said with a touch of resignation.

He knew the Kindness Stone couldn’t comprehend that kind of nothingness. In the whirlpool of time, such beauty was utterly insignificant.

What difference was there, really, between a gray seabed and a brilliant nebula?

"Besides, once you’ve seen it all, you’ll regret it," Mo Ling advised. "You’ll wish for everything to go back to how it was. You’ll want to turn back time. You’ll miss this gray seabed."

Mo Ling had personally witnessed the Kindness Stone’s despair; he knew how much pain it would be in when that time came.

However, despite Mo Ling’s persuasion, the Kindness Stone was unwilling to change its decision.

"If I give up on petrification and spend my whole life shrouded in this gray dust, I’ll regret that too."

Listening to the Kindness Stone’s stubborn words, Mo Ling finally understood that he couldn’t change its decision.

Ultimately, he couldn’t change the minds of any of the Stiffrocks.

In fact, the scenes he described might even become their motivation to strive for petrification.

Dust from the vortex continued to settle. The Stiffrocks began to gather in groups again, creating whirlpools. With Mo Ling as their role model, they now understood how to gather dust quickly.

The Kindness Stone was also itching to join them.

"Go on," Mo Ling said faintly, seeing what it wanted.

"Alright. Take care." The Kindness Stone drifted with the current toward the vortex, without a hint of hesitation.

Mo Ling sank to the seabed, alone, and watched the vortex re-form.

Countless Stiffrocks were drawn in, becoming part of the vortex.

The Kindness Stone’s silhouette overlapped with those of the other Stiffrocks and vanished into the swirl.

The dispersed dust was gathered once more, and the vortex imperceptibly returned to its original state.

Mo Ling let the current wash away the stone shell from his body, revealing his original carapace and jointed limbs.

As the heavy burden fell away, Mo Ling instantly felt much more agile.

’So much lighter.’

Mo Ling crawled to a high spot far from the vortex, grabbed a few handfuls of dried shrimp, found a rock, and flopped down softly on it, munching on them with a CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

The dust was being gathered by the distant vortex, and the sea above Mo Ling, usually a murky gray, became unusually clear. A ray of sunlight pierced through the clear water and shone on his head.

There were no dying stars, only warm sunlight.

There was no demise of civilizations, only the demise of dried shrimp.

As Mo Ling lay there, he unexpectedly felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him.

And so, the round little roly-poly, lying on the rock, fell asleep, its jointed limbs still clutching tightly to the dried shrimp, unwilling to let go...

When he suddenly awoke with a start, he found himself lying in bed inside the Block.

’What was I doing? How could I have dared to sleep in a place like that?’

He suddenly realized his behavior had been far too relaxed.

During his time as a Stiffrock, he’d had no sense of danger at all, as if he were truly one of them.

He even ended up flopped on a rock, munching on dried shrimp...

’Is it because Stiffrocks don’t have brains? Was I being influenced by their bodies?’

Mo Ling suddenly remembered what the Lego Man had said before:

"Stiffrocks don’t have brains."

It seemed that was indeed the case.

After returning to the Block, Mo Ling felt his thoughts instantly become much clearer, and many forgotten things resurfaced in his mind.

’Crap, the god is still descending!’

His mind now back to normal, Mo Ling quickly extended his vision outward.

The Block was still encased in a thick stone shell. Mo Ling hurriedly shattered it and piloted the Block into the air to escape.

The sky was still a murky gray, but something was now there that hadn’t been before.

It was a—vortex.

A gray vortex, with countless motes of stone dust twisting and turning within. The surging dust particles clumped together, forming flocculent spiral arms that swayed with the vortex’s rotation.

A web of dust blotted out the sky, spreading wantonly from the vortex’s center. In its reflection on the mirrored surface, it resembled a monstrous beast.

That terrifying gaze came from the omnipresent web of dust. It was as if every single mote of dust had its own consciousness, all of them staring intently at the Block, as if wanting to devour it whole.

Beneath the slowly rotating vortex, Mo Ling felt a terrifying pressure. He looked up at the sky as if staring up at a pitch-black storm cloud, expecting a downpour to begin at any second.

However, the downpour never came. Instead, the gazes suddenly grew gentle.

Amidst the encircling dust, a perfectly clear, spherical region suddenly appeared around the Block.

There was no dust within this pure region; it was like a deliberately created space.

Not knowing the purpose of this space, Mo Ling quickly piloted the Block to escape, but he found that no matter where he fled, the clear space followed the Block.

"Wait..."

Just as Mo Ling was about to flee again, he suddenly heard a familiar sound. ℯℯ𝘭.

It was the scraping sound of some kind of chitin, like jointed limbs striking one another.

Mo Ling recognized this sound. It was the language of the Stiffrocks.

Hearing this familiar language, Mo Ling stopped trying to flee.

’It wants to communicate with me?’

Realizing this, Mo Ling looked at the terrifying vortex in the sky and slowly calmed down.

The sound was intermittent, as if it were trying different speeds. Sometimes it seemed to be deliberately slowing down, and other times it would suddenly speed up, becoming an incomprehensible static.

Finally, after listening carefully, Mo Ling was able to make out the meaning the sound was trying to convey:

"God, please wait for us..."