I'm trapped in a block

Chapter 1240 The Method of Creating the Unique

After explaining his thoughts to Martin, Lu Youqi coughed violently again; he couldn't hold it in anymore after saying so much.

"Are you okay?"

Martin quickly stepped forward, wanting to pat Lu Qi on the back, but was stopped.

"It's okay... I haven't finished speaking yet."

Lu raised his hand and said weakly.

"I'll take it slow..."

He leaned against the table, breathing heavily. His breathing sounded unusually rough, as if something was stuck in his throat. He had to open his mouth and desperately inhale the outside air into his lungs.

"Okay, let's continue."

After a while, he broke the silence with a hoarse voice.

"Just now, we were talking about creating the only one..."

He picked up the white paper on the table.

"All we need to do is find something that doesn't belong to a deck of cards, then 'fold' it into the shape we want, and it can serve as a container."

“We’re looking in the wrong direction… We shouldn’t be looking in this deck of cards. We should be looking elsewhere. Anything found outside the deck will be unique to these cards.”

"Martin," Lu Youqi suddenly called out to Martin.

"Well, what happened?"

Martin's attention was still focused on Lu Qi's body, and he hadn't been listening carefully to what Lu Qi was saying. It was only when he was shouted that he came to his senses.

"Do you know how we get outside the playing cards?"

Beyond playing cards?
Martin carefully recalled what Lu Qi had just said.

"Playing cards" represent the myriad parallel worlds connected by the abyss.

Does "outside of the playing cards" mean a world outside of parallel universes?
"A world not connected to the Abyss?"

That is...

A world without the abyss?

A picture appeared in Martin's mind:
A perfectly normal human world, never invaded by the abyss, never possessing any strange powers, without relics or abyssal creatures, where humanity steadily developed its technology along the purest path...

Because there was no abyss, this world didn't become a set of identical playing cards like those worlds where abysses exist.

It exists in isolation, far from the deck of cards. It could be a pen holder in the distance, a pen in the pen holder, a light on the ceiling, or a broom outside the room.

If the abyss had not descended, anything would have been possible.

Martin suddenly understood Route's idea.

Since they couldn't find a unique existence in the playing cards, they didn't look for it in the playing cards. The arrival of the Abyss connected the worlds, and countless parallel worlds were bound together by the same fate. It was because of the Abyss that they assimilated.

Mo Ling's "uniqueness" was only revealed after the abyss descended.

This uniqueness did not exist before the abyss descended.

"Because everything is unique; no two leaves in the world are the same, and no two cards in a deck of cards are the same..."

The original "blank sheet" was no different from the other cards when placed in a single deck. It was only because several decks of cards were mixed together that the unique "blank sheet" became visible!
Martin instantly understood, and he followed the same line of thought as Lu Qi's question...

"How do we get outside the playing cards?" This question stumped Martin. All his power was built upon dreams, and dreams only appeared after the Abyss descended. It could be said that without the Abyss, there would be no dreams.

Those layers upon layers of colorful illusions are ultimately branches of the power of the abyss, an anomaly brought about by the descent of the abyss.

The reason why Lu Qi resisted Martin's treatment so much was because he hated the power from the abyss.

Now, he's trying to use the power from the abyss to go to a place "without the abyss"—how could that possibly be possible?

He couldn't even search for those places. In the dream network, places not covered by the abyss "do not exist." Those places were nothingness to him; he didn't even know if they existed.

The method of routing sounds simple: find a blank sheet of paper, fold it into the shape of a playing card, and create a unique one.

But the problem now is that they don't even know where the blank paper is.

Martin pondered for a long time but still couldn't come up with a solution.

"I can't find anywhere outside of poker."

“I understand, your power is limited by the abyss.” Lu Youqi immediately guessed Martin’s predicament.

For Lu Luqi, who has been constantly fighting against and studying the abyss, this is not something that is difficult to understand.

As someone who plays poker, there's no escaping the world of poker.

Whether it's the Queen, the King, or the Jokers, their power is always based on the rules of playing cards. It is the rules of playing cards that allow the face cards to be superior to the number cards, and it is also the rules of playing cards that allow the Jokers to "transcend" and become the top of the deck.

However, what's the use of being powerful within the rules?
Their problem wasn't with the card game.

Regardless of what's printed on the card, outside of the rules, it's just an ordinary piece of "paper." Without the meaning given by the rules, "paper" is nothing.

Things have reached an impasse.

They wanted to find the only one as soon as possible, which meant finding a world without the abyss, but they didn't have that ability.

"Luo Luqi, I finally understand you."

"What do you understand?" Lu Youqi asked in return.

"Didn't you always say that we shouldn't rely too much on the Abyss? Now I understand..."

"You're overthinking it. I only said those things to you because I hate the Abyss. We're able to travel between so many worlds thanks to your power."

"If we don't rely on the power of the Abyss, can we find a world without the Abyss on our own?" Martin asked earnestly.

At this point, he could only place his hopes on Lu Youqi.

However, Lu Qi still shook his head: "No, it won't work on our own. We can only rely on the power of all humanity, using purely human technology, to create a 'time travel machine' to go to those worlds without the abyss..."

"This..." Martin found Lu Qi's statement somewhat absurd.

A time-travel machine? Humans can't possibly create something like that.

Moreover, modern human technology has long been infiltrated by Abyss technology. No world can find a "pure" human civilization. To create a time-traveling machine without being mixed with Abyss power is simply wishful thinking.

“This is a bit difficult… perhaps we should try a different approach,” Martin suggested tactfully.

"Indeed, this path is a dead end..."

Even Lu Qi, who is usually optimistic, felt that this path was somewhat unrealistic.

(End of this chapter)