I'm trapped in a block

Chapter 1194 Yuan Tie Experiment
The photos on the large screen kept changing. This unprepared demonstration went very smoothly thanks to Director Wang's skillful handling.

The conference room lights shone on the smooth tabletop, where several middle-aged men in formal attire sat upright. They made no comment, simply watching the stage quietly, just as they had said before, that they were only there to supervise.

However, Director Wang kept glancing at those people, seemingly very concerned about their opinions.

The photos on the big screen continued to switch, eventually stopping at an aerial view of the entrance ninety years after the Abyss invasion. At this point, various human facilities had appeared on the mirror-like Abyss Iron layer.

"Although the Abyss has been closed, our research on the Abyss and Abyssal Iron has not stopped. On the 90th anniversary of the Abyss invasion, which is also the 10th anniversary of the Abyss's closure, we are still monitoring the dynamics of the Abyssal Iron layer and paying attention to the impact of the Abyss..."

"Over the past decade, the Abyss Iron layer has continued to thicken at a steady pace, reinforcing the seal on the abyss. During this decade, we have been exploring the origin of this Abyss Iron, and many people have put forward possible conjectures."

"But none of these conjectures can explain one thing: why is Yuan Tie full of goodwill towards humanity?"

"This seal is more like a form of protection... The Abyss Iron protects humanity from the harm of the Abyss, freeing humanity from the Abyss's shackles."

"Separating the surface from the abyss is a simple and brutal method, but it is also the most effective one. Moreover, the Abyss Iron also blocks the influence of the abyss, preventing relics and abyssal creatures from appearing. In our view, this isolation is very successful."

"In order to verify the origin of the Yuan Iron, we conducted several 'human experiment' experiments on the samples."

“We used the iron sample as a transmission medium, inputting a vibration signal into it at one end and placing an annihilation device at the other end. If the vibration signal can be transmitted, the annihilation device will kill the prepared mice.”

"The choice of the Yuan Tie sample surprised us; it chose not to transmit vibration signals."

"It saved the mice inside the annihilation device..."

"In order to better understand the 'humanity' exhibited by Yuan Tie, we upgraded the experiment. We still used the sample to transmit vibration information, but the annihilation device on the other side was replaced with a blind box. From the sample's 'perspective,' it did not know what was inside the blind box."

"But the results of the experiment were still beyond our expectations. The Yuan Tie sample still did not transmit vibration signals. It seemed to know what was in the blind box and what the result would be if the signal was successfully transmitted. It seemed to have a certain 'predictive ability'."

"To verify this feature, we replaced the trigger mechanism of the elimination device inside the blind box with: if no vibration signal is received, the mouse will be killed."

“We conducted another experiment on the sample, and this time, the sample transmitted the vibration signal without hesitation.”

"It saved the mice once again. When the eradication device received the vibration signal transmitted from the sample, it stopped the eradication process."

"Yuan Tie truly possesses some kind of precognitive ability!"

"It clearly knows what's in the blind box, even though no one has ever told it."

"We conducted several more experiments, placing the annihilation device on the other side of the earth, burying it thousands of meters underground, and launching it into space using a spacecraft... No matter where we placed the annihilation device, as long as the iron sample served as the medium for transmitting signals, it would choose to save the mice."

"It will not be misled by the traps we set, nor will it be deceived by false signal sources and device triggering mechanisms. Its predictive ability is result-oriented; it will choose whichever method can save the mouse."

"We later changed the triggering mechanism of the device: regardless of whether a signal was received, the mice would be killed immediately."

"When conducting the experiment again, the samples are ignored in the face of such an absolute failure."

"Its predictability even allows it to foresee this doomed outcome and then choose to ignore it." "After numerous experiments, replacing the organisms inside the annihilation device with various other objects, we finally determined that the Abyss Iron possesses 'humanity'."

"It makes decisions based on human notions of good and evil, and will make choices that lean towards goodness when it is within its power, but at other times it will exhibit some wicked quirks that only humans possess..."

When Director Wang finished speaking, he paused for a moment. He looked at the people sitting there, then at Fang Kuai, swallowed hard, and looked conflicted, as if he was considering whether or not to say something.

But in the end, he took a deep breath and continued speaking.

“When we replaced the object in the annihilation device with a cockroach, the sample would choose to kill the object without hesitation, which contradicted the previous experimental results. The sample showed absolute ‘evil’ when faced with this creature.”

"However, this only proves that it has 'humanity'."

"Only humans would hate cockroaches so much."

"Although these experiments cannot directly prove the origin of the Abyss Iron, they remind us that since the Abyss Iron possesses humanity, does that mean its creator also possessed humanity? Was this Abyss Iron brought by some pioneer who entered the Abyss?"

"The pioneer discovered Abyssal Iron somewhere in the abyss and used it to seal the abyss, but he could not return... This can explain the Abyssal Iron's act of sealing the abyss, as well as its goodwill towards humanity, and it also matches the results of our experiments."

"After arriving at this conjecture, based on our previous research on Yuan Iron and various experiments, we analyzed a probability report and submitted it to our superiors."

"The superior department replied that although the probability is high, there is no conclusive evidence, so it can only be regarded as a conjecture with great verification significance, and cannot be regarded as a definitive conclusion."

"But soon, we found the decisive evidence..."

Director Wang increased the scrolling speed, and the pictures on the screen slid by one after another. Most of these pictures were experimental results about the samples, interspersed with some periodically taken aerial views of the entrance. Apart from the difference in dates, these pictures were all very similar and nothing special.

But as the date on the photo kept moving, it gradually came to the 90th anniversary of the Abyss invasion, which was also the 10th anniversary of the Abyss's closure. Only then did Director Wang's scrolling speed slow down.

He didn't continue speaking, and the conference room fell silent, with only the sound of fingers tapping on the electronic screen remaining.

The middle-aged men in formal attire, along with the other researchers who had accompanied Director Wang to the conference room, all stared at the screen at the same time, holding their breath, waiting for Director Wang to present the "decisive evidence."

The screen scrolling speed gradually slowed down, eventually stopping on a unique photo.

It's not an image recording of an experiment, nor an aerial view of the abyss entrance, but a slightly blurry still life photo that looks like it was casually taken by a tourist on the iron layer.

The photo appears to be somewhat distorted and blurry, likely due to the photographer's trembling hands.

However, if you look closely, you'll soon understand.

The content of the photo is very simple:
A smooth layer of abyssal iron... with a strange cube placed on top of it.

(End of this chapter)