The Little Sofa, Little World

The typhoon raged for a day and a night, finally calming down by evening.

Uncle Wei's old clinic was extremely dilapidated. Last night, the strong wind blew open the windows, almost sweeping people away. Fortunately, Tom put on the heavy old street armor and climbed up, braving the almost-sweeping hurricane to pull the window back in place with the help of Bozi, then nailed wooden boards to patch up the holes.

This unexpected event left the camp in chaos. Branches, leaves, trash bags, and various debris were blown in, and it took over a hundred people all night to clean up the mess. The wooden platform they had built before was destroyed, but thankfully, there were no casualties.

Opening the iron door crack, everyone climbed out of the clinic into the corridor. The yard outside was even more of a mess, with a large sofa blown from who-knows-where landing squarely on their railing, leaning diagonally against it and the walkway, forming a huge sloping platform.

The sofa was made of leather but belonged to the cheap variety, now turned upside down with almost half of it sticking out over the railing. People could climb onto the sofa, then onto the wooden back and up to the top of the railing. The leather on the side was worn out, with many places peeling off, leaving only a thin layer of fabric.

One of the men wanted to use a knife to poke at it, but Tom quickly stopped him, immediately calling for alertness and running back to fetch Bozi. The two of them put on their old street armor and opened the door.

"The old sofa is easy to hide cockroaches. Although it's unlikely they're mutants, their numbers and individuals still pose a threat to us," Tom explained, letting the older men return while the younger ones put on cockroach leather armor and armed themselves, standing guard under the door slit. Tom and Bozi went forward to cut through the thin fabric.

The opening was made, but contrary to everyone's expectations, there was no terrifying and spectacular sight of ants and cockroaches swarming out, leaving them feeling disappointed. After all, with their current equipment, dealing with non-mutant insects posed no danger.

"Shall we go in?" Bozi asked.

"Of course we have to. We can't just leave this thing here. We must ensure there's no threat inside," Tom said, pulling out his large knife from his back and stepping in first.

Bozi followed suit. As it was getting dark outside, it was even darker inside, so he couldn't help but complain, "We should've brought that guy. It's too dark. It would be nice to have a human-shaped light bulb to illuminate."

Tom shook his head. "That's not practical. Stop talking and watch out around you. You only have half-body armor. Don't be careless!"

The inside of the wooden sofa structure was filled with dust and wood chips, and the air was exceptionally murky. The two endured the harsh environment, exploring step by step. Along the way, they crossed two wooden barriers. Bozi even found a key, picking it up and carefully examining it under the faint light filtering through the bottom of the sofa.

Suddenly, Tom turned around. "Do you smell that? A faint odor."

"Odor? Hmm... a bit... over there..." Bozi pointed the end of the key toward the light, only to see a skeleton, a withered little skeleton.

Tom reacted immediately, shouting, "Alert! Mutant organism!"

Bozi quickly adjusted the key, shining the light around. "What's that?"

Tom followed the light and saw a white head with a black ball in the center, rushing toward them. Suddenly, the white head emitted a faint yellow light, and the black ball contracted. Tom felt a violent impact on his chest, staggering and sitting down.

"Danger!" Bozi shouted, throwing away the key and rushing forward, but tripped over a protruding nail and fell.

Tom struggled to get up, still in speed mode. He rushed forward and shielded Bozi, hands crossed to protect his head, and immediately felt another intense impact, almost feeling like his hands were going to break.

Bozi got up, switching to strength mode, and threw a thin needle, which hit the wood with a snap, making the white head disappear.

Tom continued to crouch with his hands raised, carefully scanning the surroundings. "It's hiding. Be careful. It might be in another location."

Bozi leaned against Tom's back, and the two covered each other, avoiding blind spots in their vision, but it was not very clear in this dim sofa. The only fortunate thing was that the opponent was white, so there was still a vague outline under the shadow. 

"To the right!" Bozi shouted, at the same time squatting to protect Tom's right side, enduring another impact for him.

And Tom reacted quickly, immediately turning around and swinging his back, throwing the butcher knife hanging from his backpack, which flew into the wood with a click... still missing.

"Did you see it clearly?" Tom asked.

"I saw it. It's retreated. We're playing whack-a-mole in the wood!" 

"Whack-a-mole? In the wood? I think I know what it is," Tom continued to observe left and right. "Wait for my command. You'll use your fists." 

"Fists? Mine aren't as tough as yours."

"They're enough. Keep an eye on the surroundings. We only have one chance!" 

The two continued to turn slowly back to back, searching in the faint light.

"To the left!" Bozi spotted the trace of the white head again. Just as he reminded, Tom, clad in the full-body iron armor of the old street zero, charged toward the target like a cannonball. The wood instantly shattered, sending many white powders flying into the air.

Bozi squinted to avoid getting the powder in his eyes, hearing Tom shout, "Now's the time!" Without hesitation, Bozi forced his eyes open, even if the white powder, the size of fingertips, hit his eyes, he locked onto the position of the white head. At the same time, his body moved, and his fist, with 3.5 times the strength, smashed down on the fallen white head.

The fist hit the white head without any hindrance, immediately splashing nauseating slime, smearing Bozi's face, which only had a leather cap without a face mask.

"Ugh... Ugh... Disgusting!" Bozi wiped his face and bent down, retching.

Tom chuckled, unfastening his gauntlets and digging through the body of the white head. With rare sarcasm, he said, "Don't waste it. Mr. Bei said this thing has a high protein content. Don't throw up; it's a waste. Haha."

Bozi didn't care about what Mr. Bei said; he retched for a while before catching his breath. "What is this thing? So resistant to beating?"

"There it is!" Tom dug out a large crystal from the white and fat corpse. "Wood borers, the larvae of wood borers. That's why my old street zero can smash through wood with just one hit. These woods are all hollowed out by them, filled with the sawdust they excrete."

Thinking about how he had roared and swallowed several pieces of sawdust when he punched just now, Bozi retched again.

Tom laughed and shook his head, carrying the large crystal out. 

Outside, many people were anxiously peering through the door slit, even Uncle Wei had come out to look. Seeing Tom come out, he hurried over. "How is it? What's this..."

"A large crystal, red!" Tom held up the crystal, illuminated by the remaining sunlight, reflecting red light. "It's safe inside."

Uncle Wei wasn't particularly interested in the crystal; instead, he was more attracted to Tom's old street zero. "Tom, what's that on your chest?"

Everyone then noticed the large hole in the chest plate of Tom's old street zero armor. After unfastening it, Tom carefully examined it and found deep indentations on his gauntlets too. He found some sawdust inside by digging with a needle.

They had been attacked by mutant wood borers inside, and this invisible long-range attack should have come from them.

"A soft wood borer, able to spit out such powerful wooden bullets?" Tom pondered and decided to go back and check the body. He immediately called for Zhang Guishu.

Zhang Guishu, a man in his forties, quickly ran out with a yellow gemstone. His resonance crystal was yellow, which turned him into a humanoid light bulb.

Tom brought Bozi along, and the two of them, lightly equipped, guarded Zhang Guishu as they entered the sofa hole again. Zhang Guishu only needed to hold the large gemstone to provide ample lighting comparable to daylight, and it was very durable. This large gemstone had been assigned to him from the beginning and was still being used now. Whenever there was something to be done at night, they would ask him to help with the illumination, and it still hadn't consumed all its energy.

The sun had already set, and the surroundings gradually darkened. The originally pitch-black interior of the sofa became bright because of Zhang Guishu's arrival.

Tom and Bozi carefully guarded Zhang Guishu with their weapons, unsure if there were still threats, but after the commotion just now, there probably wouldn't be any other threats. Besides, that wood borer was so dominant, it probably wouldn't tolerate other creatures inside.

This time they made more discoveries.

Cockroaches could be said to be the most tenacious creatures; they could lay eggs in any dark corner and quickly hatch into a large group of baby cockroaches.

Tom found some cockroach eggshells in the corner, all of them shattered, indicating that they had already hatched.

As they delved deeper, they found some cockroach carcasses, undoubtedly dying before they could grow much larger.

Returning to the body, Tom went forward alone to inspect. As expected, the bones had been gnawed clean, leaving only the bone frame. The bone frame was very intact, but there were signs of wear in many places.

After two months of training, Tom had become immune to things like corpses and no longer felt any obvious nausea, so he checked the body very carefully, with no psychological fluctuations. But to Zhang Guishu beside him, it was terrifying. He retched, accidentally interrupting his glowing ability, then quickly igniting it again.

"Sorry... But I see Tom... is too calm." Bozi's face turned pale and uncomfortable, but after following Tom for a long time, he had developed some immunity. He could only smile bitterly and say, "Is it like a chef buying pork bones at the market?"

As soon as he said that, Zhang Guishu immediately squatted down and vomited violently, regurgitating the dinner he had just eaten.

Seeing Tom put down the bones and stand up, Bozi knew there were results. He immediately asked, "What did you find?"

"Initial inference is that this victim was sleeping on the sofa. When the disaster struck, he shrank and fell into the sofa hole. Then he was eaten."

"Eaten? By cockroaches? Ants?"

Tom shook his head, pointing to the white, rotten meat next to the wood shattered by the old street zero. "Wood borers!"