Humans Shrunk 100 Times

Chapter 153: Illusion 1

The storage room had cost them too much effort, and they had hoped they could use it for at least another year or two, until everyone's abilities had made a qualitative leap, and then they could expand outward.

If they lost this shelter at this moment, the foundation that Qiming had painstakingly built would be completely lost.

Moreover, without cover, their safety in the short term couldn't be guaranteed, and food and water would once again become difficult problems. Everyone would be busy with basic survival and have no time to study and train their special abilities, creating a vicious cycle.

Therefore,

Chen Mu was anxious to go out, even if he wasn't sure if there were other ambushes outside.

Qian Fei remained in the watchtower.

The other three descended by elevator.

Tang Jing was already waiting at the door.

"We must find a way to put out the fire."

"Unfortunately, the drainage outlet of the water tank is too far away."

"Can we divert the water over?"

"We can, but there might not be enough time."

"If not, I'll try to tie the stone ball and let Lao Wei pull it away."

As long as no one disturbed them, dealing with the burning stone ball wouldn't be a problem, but they were unsure if they had enough time. Once the door was on fire, it would be difficult for them to put it out with their current size.

However, right at this moment,

Zhao Xiaoyan pointed outside, "The fire is out!"

"Huh?"

Indeed, the flickering flames suddenly vanished.

Chen Mu was about to brave the high temperature and go outside, but the fireball extinguished on its own?

"Could it have burned out?"

"How did the stone ball catch fire?"

"Maybe it was coated with gasoline?"

"But it was burning fiercely just now. It wouldn't have gone out all of a sudden, would it?"

Everyone chimed in with their thoughts until Chen Mu said, "Let's go outside and take a look."

Sun Yuan stepped forward, "I'll go with you."

"Me too," Zhao Xiaoyan followed.

With these two accompanying them, they would be able to detect most dangers in advance. If anyone tried to hide in the darkness and ambush them, it wouldn't be an easy task.

Leaving Gu Yingliang and the others, who were elderly and weak, at home, Dong Junwei, Chen Mu, and the rest went outside together.

The light orbs left on the ground now looked particularly bright, as if they were in a large, well-lit square.

The light dispelled the darkness, providing everyone with a sense of safety.

To be honest, this battle was fought in a fog of confusion. They didn't know how the other side discovered them, what specific means they used, and they couldn't even get a clear view of the enemy.

Chen Mu immediately walked toward the huge stone ball.

The height of the stone ball was about the same as a person, but now, near the door, it didn't look as magnificent as it did when it was burning.

"Don't you find it strange?" he said.

"Hmm?"

"We are already so close, yet there's no trace of heat?" Chen Mu suddenly said.

"Now that you mention it, it's true," someone replied.

They were just a few centimeters away from the stone ball, but under the night wind, there was even a slight chill.

Logically speaking, such a large fire should have produced heat.

Zhao Xiaoyan also said, "I've been smelling the scent around here from the beginning. Now that I think about it, I never smelled any burning odor, but I didn't pay attention earlier..."

The area around the door was as bright as daylight, allowing them to see almost everything clearly.

As they approached,

Chen Mu found that the stone ball was quietly leaning against the door, without a trace of burn marks on it. When he touched it with his hand, it was still cool.

"This is weird."

"Perhaps it's some kind of special ability?"

Tang Jing pointed upwards, "There are no burn marks on the door either."

"What kind of ability is this?" Chen Mu frowned.

"It seems to be some sort of illusion."

"But the flames earlier could illuminate the surroundings. Can an illusion achieve that?"

Chen Mu recalled the flames he saw from the watchtower, which looked identical to real flames, but he hadn't felt any heat at that time. It did seem rather strange.

Tang Jing said, "It's hard to say. Maybe the person creating this illusion can inherit all the visual effects, but not other attributes. And if this illusion itself is simulated using light, then it makes sense that it can illuminate the surroundings."

"So, this thing is just used to scare people?"

"Seems like it, but it's very effective, isn't it?"

"Indeed, it scared us thoroughly just now."

Chen Mu thought of how the people near the Green Monument were also frightened and ran away in all directions, and he couldn't help feeling a sense of empathy with them.

"However, since it's an illusion, why did they add a real stone ball? Rolling this thing must not be easy. Why not just create an illusion of a stone ball altogether?"

Tang Jing chuckled, "I reckon that the psychic power of that ability user isn't strong enough to simulate something with a fixed form like a stone ball. They might be afraid of giving away their deception."

"But why did they do this? When we were fighting the Green Monument, this method could be used to scare and disrupt their formation, but just now, we were all inside the room. What could they do to us?" He Ying questioned.

Tang Jing explained, "Obviously, they are trying to force us out."

"That's right."

Chen Mu continued, "I saw from above that there were many ambushers below, and there were also many reptiles that I couldn't identify."

He then asked Sun Yuan, "What can you hear now?"

"I can hear footsteps, but they're moving away. I doubt we can catch up to them," Sun Yuan replied.

"There's no point in pursuing them, and it's too dark. We might fall into another ambush if we're not careful."

Relieved that the fire didn't spread, Chen Mu still furrowed his brows and said, "I remember there were many reptiles earlier. They were hit by hand grenades, but why are there no bodies on the ground, not even a drop of blood?"

"There." Tang Jing pointed in the distance.

Several figures that resembled humans were crawling on the ground, but their movements were slow, as if they were seriously injured.

They approached together.

It was evident that these were the people who were hit by the hand grenades and abandoned by One Middle School.

With 21 people arriving, Chen Mu saw that more than half of them were injured or killed. The survivors helped their nearby companions and carried them away, but there were still a few who couldn't be attended to.

Chen Mu found a person lying still and motionless, and he reached out with a long stick to turn the person over.

A young face appeared under the light, but it was covered in blood. After being flipped over by Chen Mu, the person let out a miserable groan.

They were all peers.

If not for the apocalypse, they might have held activities together on the school playground. If they met someone they could talk to, they might have made more friends.

However, now...

Although they had never met each other before, why did things end up like this?

Chen Mu considered himself relatively tough, but at this moment, he couldn't help but feel sorrow. There was even an inexplicable anger, not directed at the person in front of him or even at One Middle School, but at that mysterious power that shrank them all.

Clearly, everyone had worked hard and made it to a prestigious school like Purple Wei. If nothing unexpected happened, their university, work, and life would have been full of hope.

For an orphan, this was already quite an achievement.

But this apocalypse had ruined everything.

Since the disaster began, one significant reason why Chen Mu sometimes showed a negative attitude while struggling was that he didn't fear the fight, but he couldn't bear the sudden restart after achieving some progress in his efforts.

Although life was slowly getting better now, and his abilities were growing stronger, who knew if one day there would be another sudden restart?

The person on the ground quickly stopped moving.

Chen Mu crouched down, seeing that his half-opened eyes had lost all signs of life, and blood was oozing from the corner of his mouth. Even without being a doctor, anyone could tell that he was mostly dead.

Dong Junwei and the others could also see it clearly.

For some reason, the joy of victory from earlier suddenly diminished.

What was the point of such battles?

They won this time.

But what about the next time? Would they be lying on the ground?

Almost everyone was thinking about this question.

"Check if anyone is still alive."

The ones who remained on the scene were the ones who couldn't leave on their own.

Wei Dalei and the others looked around and found a total of seven people.

Three were already dead.

Two were still breathing, but they had clearly been seriously affected by the hand grenades at close range and were barely recognizable. They probably wouldn't survive.

The last two had their legs broken by steel balls, making them immobile, but their lives were not in danger.

"Take these two back with us, and the rest... just leave them in the bushes."

Chen Mu was afraid that they might have some special abilities, so he tied up the injured two into a bundle like a mummy, intending to take them back for Tang Jing to interrogate.

In total, One Middle School had already lost quite a few people just from conflicts with them.

After stealing the car last time, they suffered from Wei Dalei's grenades, which must have resulted in several casualties. Now, they had seven incapacitated individuals, plus the two they had captured earlier. Roughly estimated, they had lost at least a dozen people.

Thinking about it this way, Qiming's fighting strength seemed pretty good.

Even One Middle School, which gave the Green Monument a hard time, had stumbled in their hands several times.

Their record was remarkable.

Wei Dalei and the other boys were responsible for cleaning up the battlefield, tossing the bodies far away to avoid attracting ants. However, there was still too much blood on the ground, and there was nothing they could do for now.

The adaptability of human beings is truly terrifying.

After dealing with corpses just once before, today even Zhu Hao and the others had gotten used to it, showing no signs of discomfort.

After everything was taken care of.

"What should we do with these lights?" Wei Dalei asked.

"Leave them here. In case the other side comes again, it won't be easy for them to hide. We can't relax during tonight's watch, so it's better to have one more person on duty," Chen Mu said, looking at Dong Junwei.

Even though Zhao Xiaoyan was currently in charge of the duty roster, ultimately, it still needed Dong Junwei's confirmation.

Dong Junwei nodded. "Yeah, I and He Ying will take the second half of the night. Let Qian Fei rest for now. Tomorrow, we'll need to readjust the duty schedule."

As for that giant stone ball, there was no need to make the effort to move it for now. Just let it stay there.

After experiencing this attack, including Chen Mu, they all felt that there were many areas in Qiming's defense and warning system that needed improvement.

Just as everyone was getting ready to go back, they heard a "meow" sound from afar.

Afterward, a massive shadow loomed over them.

Everyone was terrified.

This was much scarier than One Middle School's attack just now.

Du Jiajia quickly rushed out and stood in front of everyone.

Qiming's greatest trump card, Xiao Huang's comrade-in-arms, had finally arrived.

With the speed of a cat, Sun Yuan and Zhao Xiaoyan couldn't even react in time. But whether it was due to the spiritual connection with Du Jiajia or because humans were too insignificant, the cat, except for Du Jiajia, didn't pay any attention to the others.

Of course, it was cautious around Du Jiajia, but it might not be so careful with others. Even if it didn't mean to hurt them, accidentally stepping on someone might be possible.

Chen Mu and the others quickly retreated into the room.

As for Du Jiajia, at this moment, she was probably the safest human in the world. Even if One Middle School and the Green Monument joined forces, it was estimated that it would be hard for Xiao Huang to scratch her.

...

A few minutes later, Du Jiajia came back, looking embarrassed.

"Du Jiajia, what's up with your cat? It doesn't come when we need it, but scares us when it's all over," Chang Junyan said, still somewhat frightened from earlier. It was already brave enough not to pee his pants when such a huge monster suddenly appeared next to him.

"Hehe," Du Jiajia folded her hands together and smiled. "Sorry about that. I just checked, and Xiao Huang went to play outside the school before. It was quite far, so it came late."

"You can actually check that?" Zhu Hao was surprised.

"Currently, when our bodies are in contact, I can occasionally see things from Xiao Huang's perspective," Du Jiajia said.

"When did this happen?" Tang Jing asked.

"Just two days ago, but the view is very blurry and intermittent, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I thought I'd understand more before telling you," Du Jiajia replied.

"It seems like your ability is also improving," Tang Jing nodded.

"But I haven't even trained it. No, precisely speaking, I don't even know how to train it." Du Jiajia's biggest problem now was not knowing which aspect her ability's growth was improving. Was it attracting more animals? Or was it better communication with animals? Also, she had no idea how to train her ability.

"For now, it seems that communicating with Xiao Huang is beneficial for your ability. So let's continue with that," Tang Jing had no specific advice for Du Jiajia's ability and mostly left her to explore on her own.

"Did Xiao Huang go back?" Zhao Xiaoyan asked.

"Yeah, she's been playing outside the school all day. It seems like Mama Cat is angry with her," Du Jiajia suddenly straightened her waist and imitated the words of an old cat with a mature tone, "Among all the siblings, you're the most troublesome one. You eat your food and disappear without a trace, always taking food outside..."

"Is that your imagination or did Xiao Huang tell you that?" Chen Mu laughed.

"Well... I sensed it. Ah, it's really complicated to communicate with one's mind. I can't explain it clearly to you guys, but even without using words, we can communicate a lot," Du Jiajia said with a smug expression.

Seeing Du Jiajia's proud look, everyone couldn't help but smile.

However, for now, it seemed that Du Jiajia's ability had a very high upper limit. Just enlisting a few cats would allow her to stroll through the school with ease. Then, whether it was One Middle School or the Green Monument, they'd all be nothing but rubbish.

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