Humans Shrunk 100 Times

After a great battle, everyone was exhausted, but the entire Qiming team couldn't sleep much in the second half of the night.

After some time passed.

A thunderous sound rumbled outside.

Then heavy rain poured down.

For some reason, the sound of rain surprisingly relaxed everyone's nerves. Perhaps subconsciously, they felt that the enemy wouldn't attack in such heavy rain.

Chen Mu had been keeping his eyes closed, but it wasn't until the rain stopped and the outside started to brighten that he finally fell asleep for a while.

Morning came.

Everyone woke up early.

They all had dark circles under their eyes to varying degrees.

Chen Mu led Wei Dalei and the others outside.

The stone sphere was still in its original position, and the plastic balls on the ground were still emitting light dutifully. However, the brightness was not as strong as before, and due to the rain, a large part of them had been washed away. Only a few remained at the entrance.

During the critical moment last night, Dong Junwei had used up all her strength, so the brightness and duration of these plastic balls were stronger than the ones made before.

But now, it was already bright outside, so it was hard to tell.

Chen Mu walked to the side of the stone sphere. Last night, he didn't have much thought about it, but now, upon careful inspection, he realized that the stone sphere was not only huge but also exceptionally smooth. It looked somewhat like a marble that had been polished by a machine.

"What kind of ability could this be?" He turned to look at Tang Jing.

"Perhaps it's the ability to make surfaces smooth?" Tang Jing said, "But it probably took quite some time to create such a large stone sphere."

Chen Mu wondered, "If it's just for making the flame effect look real, wouldn't it be a bit wasteful?"

"Perhaps this stone sphere has other uses?"

"Should we bring it inside?"

"What's the use?" He Ying asked, "Chen Mu should be able to make such a large stone sphere easily."

"Making a stone sphere isn't difficult, but it's impossible to make the surface so smooth and suitable for rolling." Chen Mu smiled. "As for its purpose, I haven't thought of it yet, but since someone spent so much effort making it, we can't just let them take it back."

The rain last night was indeed heavy, and the bloodstains on the ground were washed away. There were hardly any traces of last night's battle left.

Because they didn't sleep well last night, Dong Junwei asked everyone to take turns going back to their rooms during the day to rest, but some follow-up repairs still couldn't stop.

Especially the observation tower.

After the test of the battle, its effect was not very good, mainly concerning issues with night observations and message transmission.

"Last night, I couldn't sleep, and I thought of a way for us to communicate up and down."

"Oh?"

"Use stainless steel to make a hollow pipe, connecting the upper and lower parts, and make both ends like horns. Would that allow us to communicate?" Chen Mu gestured with his hands to illustrate his idea.

"Primitive telephones, huh?" Tang Jing smiled. "It seems feasible."

"Then I'll make it now."

The problems exposed during the battle needed to be resolved immediately.

The attack from "Yizhong" last night doesn't seem to be a bad thing; it at least increased everyone's sense of urgency and made them more proactive in their actions.

Dong Junwei suddenly said, "I'm curious about how they discovered us. We haven't gone out for days."

"Perhaps they have some kind of reconnaissance ability?"

"For example... thermal imaging? Or something like Sun Yuan and Zhao Xiaoyan's enhanced senses?"

Chen Mu replied, "It's possible. When we returned here initially, they might have followed us secretly but didn't dare to enter, thinking of waiting until we left to take action."

"But we haven't gone out for so many days." He Ying smiled, but she also felt a shiver down her spine, knowing that she used to do morning exercises near the entrance every day.

Although the water source was no longer a big problem now, He Ying still insisted on collecting dew from outside every morning. Everyone preferred using dew water for washing, as it not only felt cleaner but also seemed more refined.

Dong Junwei sighed, "In any case, we are now officially at odds with Yizhong, and they have found our location. If they come again next time, it probably won't be as easy to deal with."

Dong Junwei didn't say this to everyone; she waited for everyone to be busy with their own tasks and then called Tang Jing, He Ying, and Chen Mu individually to discuss their future strategy.

Chen Mu nodded, "This time, we won easily because of the hand grenades, but next time, I expect they'll be better prepared."

Tang Jing said, "Don't be too pessimistic. They suffered some losses this time, so they probably won't retaliate so soon. Besides, Yizhong also needs to be vigilant against Qingbei and won't invest too much power in our area."

"Although that's true, I still want to find an opportunity to investigate them. Last time, we obtained many supplies, but we gained no information."

"Shall we go to the canteen again?" He Ying suddenly became energized.

"Let's wait a few days." Chen Mu nodded. "Let's get the house in order first."

Tang Jing opened her mouth as if to say something but hesitated, ultimately smiled and nodded without saying anything.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the communication pipeline in the observation tower was completed.

The diameter of this communication pipeline was nearly 1 centimeter, which indeed increased Chen Mu's workload. Tang Jing had requested it, claiming it was the optimal result after calculations, but she didn't take the opportunity to share any knowledge with others as she did before.

Since noon, Tang Jing hadn't been in a good mood and often seemed absent-minded, as if pondering something.

Chen Mu rarely saw her like this and was about to ask a few questions.

However, he thought that if even Tang Jing couldn't solve the problem, he probably didn't need to ask.

After the completion of the communication pipeline, it aroused everyone's interest, and everyone came over to try it out.

Today, it was Chang Junyan's turn for duty during the day, so naturally, he was the first to experiment after the completion of the pipeline. He cleared his throat and then loudly sang the national anthem. The sound traveled through the pipeline and came out of the speaker below, a bit distorted but still clear enough.

Chang Junyan was tone-deaf, to be honest, and his singing was quite unpleasant, but everyone still stood and listened until he finished singing before approaching the speaker to talk to him.

After confirming that they could hear clearly from above, it was nearly four o'clock.

Chen Mu didn't go to rest.

Last night's main consumption was physical, and he hardly used any ability. At seventeen or eighteen years old, staying awake for one or two nights wasn't much of a problem.

The main reason was that he had too much to do.

...

The stone sphere rolled back and was placed next to the water tank.

Under Chen Mu's command, Wei Dalei effortlessly pushed the stone sphere to the designated position and was then called away by Dong Junwei.

As soon as Old Wei left, Gu Yinglong approached with a curious expression and reached out to touch the stone sphere.

Seeing her tiny stature, Chen Mu felt as if she could be crushed by the stone sphere. He thought for a moment and created a raised barrier on the ground to prevent the sphere from rolling.

The two, one large and one small, stood by the stone sphere.

Chen Mu suddenly realized something and turned to ask, "Have you seen this stone sphere before?"

"Yes," Gu Yinglong nodded, still looking at the stone sphere with curiosity.

"On Yizhong's side?"

"Yes, on Yizhong's side," the little girl nodded again.

In the past few days, Dong Junwei had told Gu Yinglong about the basic situation in the school and also informed her that the people who initially imprisoned her were from Yizhong.

With Dong Junwei's personality, she didn't want to speak ill of others behind their backs, even if they were enemies. However, out of concern, she feared that Gu Yinglong might not be vigilant against those people, so when she told her about these things, she did so with obvious implications - those from Yizhong were all bad people, and she shouldn't have anything to do with them in the future.

Gu Yinglong nodded, indicating that she understood.

However, she seemed to hold no resentment towards Yizhong.

In fact, when Gu Yinglong first arrived, she never displayed any emotions on her face, even when she was kept in a cage, she didn't seem to feel anything was wrong.

According to Tang Jing, because she had no memory of "being human," she didn't know what a normal human life should be like. In her world, there was no goodwill or oppression, and human emotions were like a blank canvas to her.

After spending time together during these days, Gu Yinglong became noticeably more cheerful than before. At least, sometimes she would smile.

The other girls were sympathetic to her experience and took special care of her. Dong Junwei also didn't assign her any specific tasks, but Gu Yinglong always wanted to help with something.

She would often run around the busy crowd with her short legs.

However, it was evident that there were very few things she could actually help with, and sometimes she would just get in the way.

Over time, Gu Yinglong's enthusiasm took a hit, and now most of the time, she would sit by and watch others work.

And her favorite thing to watch was Chen Mu using his abilities to transform objects.

Whether it was metal, plastic, wood, or stone, these originally lifeless things transformed in Chen Mu's hands.

In Gu Yinglong's eyes, it was probably like witnessing magic.

So, it seemed like Chen Mu had a regular audience. Whenever he was working or training, Gu Yinglong would bring a small stool and sit not far from him, propping up her chin and watching him.

At first, this made Chen Mu a bit uncomfortable, but as time passed, he didn't mind anymore.

At this moment, Chen Mu thought that since Gu Yinglong had spent some time in Yizhong, she might have seen this large stone sphere. However, judging from her curious expression, she probably hadn't observed it up close.

"When you were in Yizhong, did you see this big stone sphere?"

"Yes," Gu Yinglong nodded her head.

"Where did you see it, in the canteen?"

"Yes, in the canteen, there were many."

"Many?"

"Yes, thirty-three."

"You actually counted them?"

"Uh-huh," Gu Yinglong continued to reply with her signature nod and "uh-huh."

Chen Mu was momentarily speechless but figured that she was probably locked in an iron cage with nothing much to do, so she counted things for fun.

"Are all those stone spheres the same size?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what they are used for?"

"I don't know," Gu Yinglong shook her head.

Chen Mu asked some more questions, but it seemed that Gu Yinglong was more like a tool on Yizhong's side and probably wasn't allowed to roam freely, so she didn't know much.

But with so many stone spheres, they were unsure of what Yizhong was planning to do with them. According to Chen Mu and Tang Jing's guess, even if there were relevant ability users, it wouldn't be easy to polish such a large stone sphere smoothly.

"What are you chatting about?"

Tang Jing approached with a smile, her absent-mindedness from the afternoon seeming to have disappeared, and she appeared as the confident Tang Jing once again.

Seeing that they seemed to be about to talk, Gu Yinglong quickly and self-consciously moved her little stool away.

"You tell me, how did Gu Yinglong get captured by the people from Yizhong? And how did they know about her special ability? Based on their past behavior, shouldn't they have attacked as soon as they saw her?"

Chen Mu asked all the questions he had accumulated about Gu Yinglong at once.

Tang Jing replied, "I don't know either."

"Are there things you don't know too?" Chen Mu chuckled.

"I'm not a fortune teller," Tang Jing shrugged. "But don't you find it strange about Gu Yinglong?"

"Everything about her is strange. Which part are you referring to?" Chen Mu asked.

"How tall do you think she is?" Tang Jing asked in return.

"Uh... 1.4 meters?" Chen Mu took a bold guess.

"I think that's about right," Tang Jing smiled.

"She is indeed quite short."

"Not just 'quite,' she's way too short," Tang Jing said. "In high school, the average height for girls is 1.6 meters. Look at Dong Junwei; she's already 1.7 meters tall. Zhao Xiaoyan is considered one of the smallest in our class, and she's 1.52 meters. Even if Gu Yinglong is a freshman, she shouldn't be this short."

"Perhaps she has some medical condition?" Chen Mu asked.

"Maybe, but that's not the main issue. If there was such a short girl in school, she should have attracted a lot of attention. But now, not just us, even her classmates like Lu Shanshan don't seem to remember her. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"Come to think of it, it does seem a bit strange..."

Although Tang Jing's words made sense, it wasn't an absolute truth. Chen Mu felt puzzled and asked in a hushed voice, "Are you suggesting she's not from our school?"

"It's just a speculation," Tang Jing shrugged.

"But her school uniform fits perfectly."

"Yeah," Tang Jing didn't confirm or deny.

"If she's not from our school, then she must be from Yizhong?" Chen Mu was slightly surprised and after a moment, uttered a word, "Spy?"

Tang Jing laughed, "It's unlikely to be a spy. How would they know that we were planning to rob the car?"

"Maybe it was originally prepared for Qingbei?" Chen Mu suggested.

"That still wouldn't explain why they needed to send an entire car full of supplies and two combat-type ability users. Moreover, Yizhong had already successfully repelled Qingbei, right?" Tang Jing said.

"In that case, I really don't understand," Chen Mu sighed.

Tang Jing fell silent for a moment and said, "Gu Yinglong should not be in danger. However, her origins might be a bit problematic, possibly related to abilities..."

"If you can't figure it out, I have even less of an idea."

Chen Mu smiled and said, "But this harmless little girl is really hard to be suspicious of. If she really is a spy, it would be quite a dilemma..."

"You're overthinking it."

Tang Jing gave him a playful glance and seemed about to say something but suddenly her expression changed drastically.

Chen Mu watched helplessly as Tang Jing's face twisted in pain, then she slumped to the ground.

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