Prince Xiong's Acquaintance

This time, Tom's target was the third building to the north, where the largest number of survivors were located. However, the survivors there were more dispersed, the response of mutated creatures was more intense, the situation was more complex, and the journey was longer. Therefore, Tom did not prioritize it as the primary direction for exploration.

In addition to the tank transport vehicle, Tom also brought along mutated oxwood. Although the wood was slower, its load-bearing capacity was stronger than the tank, so Tom could consider adding an iron shed to its back, allowing it to carry more people.

When passing by the second building to the north, Tom noticed that the door of the building was open, so he stopped the team and went to check it out.

Curious Lin Meiqi naturally wanted to find out, and Prince Xiong wouldn't just stay honest in the car.

"Wow, blood... Wow, bones... Are those human bones?" Prince Xiong exclaimed in surprise. "They've been eaten clean... All gnawed off. Oh my."

Lin Meiqi cast a disdainful glance at him. "What's there to be surprised about? With so many mutated ants around, do you think they just appeared out of nowhere? Of course, they eat human flesh. If you're so scared, you can run back to the shelter now, and no one will laugh at you."

Prince Xiong felt a bit embarrassed, being mocked by Lin Meiqi like that. He immediately patted his iron chest protector and said, "Scared? I was raised on horror stories; nothing can scare me."

Lin Meiqi walked towards Tom, "Xiafu University? Chicken University, relying on jokes to get famous online."

"You..." Prince Xiong was flustered by Lin Meiqi's disdain. But then Tom stood up and said, "Alright, this genius little beauty with an IQ of 183 is a doctor, a 16-year-old doctor. It's normal for her to look down on your university."

Praised by Tom, Lin Meiqi playfully stuck out her tongue at Prince Xiong, looking very pleased with herself.

Feng Hanyun, sitting in the tank, watched the three of them chatting and laughing around the dead bones with envy. As a nurse, she had seen many corpses, but she couldn't be as calm as Tom and Lin Meiqi. Watching Tom walk back in his tall armor, she forced herself to appear more natural.

"Let's go, no one's here. Those who are still alive have probably gone to the third building," Tom climbed onto the back of the wood carrying the Old Street No. 0 armor and directed it to crawl along the sidewalk.

As Lin Meiqi said, there were mutated ants appearing both inside the building and in the bushes. Compared to the few survivors in the entire community, apart from some who died during the shrinking process, the rest were likely eaten by ants when they ran out.

The bloodstains in the shelter, this building with the broken door, were probably all owners who had run out. Moreover, it was possible that even in the locked homes, they were attacked by ants... or by rats.

Apart from a human leg bone in front of the door just now, there were also two corpses with their flesh gnawed off on the grass nearby, indicating that they were attacked by ants when they escaped seeking help. So, the dozen or so survivors in the third building might also include the owners of the second building.

Arriving at the third building, it was 5:29. As Tom had expected, the doors of the three buildings were also open.

"The automatic door closer is broken. Hasn't the property replaced it?" Lin Meiqi followed Tom into the building, looking up at the top of the door with her blue eyes.

Prince Xiong followed closely behind and said, "It broke more than a month ago and hasn't been replaced. It seems that the doors of four buildings are broken. Besides the automatic doors, there's also the problem of unstable water pressure. The homeowner committee has asked me several times to help them pressure the property to fix it."

Tom turned around after hearing this. "Four buildings are all broken?"

"Huh?" Prince Xiong looked confused, not understanding why Tom cared about this.

In such a high-end community, it didn't make sense for the doors downstairs to remain broken and unrepaired, especially with so many of them broken. It would have been fine before, at most attracting some thieves, but with security guards at the main entrance, there wouldn't have been many issues. However, now that it's the present, the closed doors downstairs not only prevented the shrinking survivors from escaping, but also prevented animals like rats and stray dogs from entering.

The fact that the doors of four buildings were suddenly broken, and just a month ago, made Tom smell a conspiracy.

Different from Lin Meiqi and the others who stayed at home, the people in these four buildings, knowing that the downstairs doors couldn't close, would inevitably choose to escape and seek help.

Now with only about twenty people in the entire community, it meant that the people in the other buildings were likely eaten by ants or other creatures.

The number of mutated creatures was even greater than Tom had anticipated.

"Let's go. After searching for these people, we'll leave this community," Tom made the decision immediately.

There was still no one on the first floor, but the doors of each suite were wide open. They either escaped or were still on the upper floors.

The tank transport vehicle was left outside, and the wood naturally carried Tom, Lin Meiqi, Prince Xiong, and Feng Hanyun upstairs. This hardworking big guy always followed Tom's arrangements without reservation, although its efficiency was a bit lacking.

Arriving at the second floor, the doors of all five suites seemed to be open, which was very different from the two buildings Tom had explored before. Could it be that the success rate of people shrinking here was higher, while it was lower over there?

He directed the wood to move forward in the direction indicated by the watch's vibration and stopped at the door of 203.

Tom dismounted from the wood and walked past the slippers blocking the door, stepping into the suite. Lin Meiqi, Prince Xiong, and Feng Hanyun followed closely behind.

"Is anyone here?" Tom shouted. There was no response in the living room. Feeling the vibration of his watch and the wind blowing in from the balcony, he continued to walk inside.

The classical wooden sofa, the carved tea table, and the large pine bonsai indicated that the owner of this house preferred traditional designs. The huge tree roots formed a table, which, in the eyes of the shrunken people, looked as massive and solid as the Tree of Life in a magical world.

While Prince Xiong marveled at the majestic atmosphere, Tom was concerned about the pile of ant husks next to the tree roots.

These ant corpses varied in size, and there were even mutated soldier ants that were unmatched for ordinary people, but their sharp mandibles had been pried open.

"Hmm..." Lin Meiqi suddenly spoke up. "There are probably about 132, Big Hammer. Looks like there are experts here too."

Feng Hanyun expressed doubt, "You just took a glance and said there are 132? There's a limit to guessing randomly. We all know there must be hundreds here."

"Hmph, you don't understand the method of volume estimation, so you can only guess randomly," Lin Meiqi retorted, "Auntie, don't express opinions in fields you don't understand, it will only make people laugh at you."

"What? You called me auntie..." Feng Hanyun was furious, but Tom immediately glared at her, "Both of you, shut up."

This glare made Feng Hanyun swallow back the words she was about to say out of anger, leaving her resentful and unwillingly glaring back at Lin Meiqi.

Meanwhile, Lin Meiqi chuckled smugly and briskly followed her deity, Tom.

Passing through the living room to a bedroom, Tom saw four people together as soon as he turned the corner: one man and three women. Tom quickly turned back and covered Lin Meiqi's eyes, but this girl grumbled dissatisfiedly, "Hey, what's the big deal."

The man in the room didn't react to the presence of others and continued chatting with the three women.

"Let's go, let's leave first!" Tom said, putting his arm around Lin Meiqi's shoulder and turning her head, leading her out of the hallway.

Before Tom could turn around, Prince Xiong peeked into the room and grinned, "Ahahaha, this must be the legendary..." Before he could finish his sentence, Tom knocked his head with a fist, silencing him, and they continued walking out.

They had only taken a few steps when a man wrapped in a cloth ran out, "Hey, stop! Wow..." He was initially aggressive, but upon seeing Tom in his tall armor, he was immediately intimidated, "Who are you..."

"Just passing by!" Tom turned back and said. He noticed that the man who ran out wasn't the same as the man among the previous four. Moreover, there was a girl behind this man, also wrapped in cloth, her face red with embarrassment.

"I'm Tom. I have a temporary camp where a group of survivors has gathered. It's relatively safe there. I thought I'd come back and see if anyone needs to come along before returning to my camp. It seems like your situation is quite optimistic."

"My boss is busy right now. Just wait a moment. Um... I'm Liu Song." Liu Song looked a little fearful as he glanced at the heavily armed Tom. His tone became increasingly uncertain, "You seem to have superpowers too, right?"

Tom pointed his thumb at the pile of ant corpses behind him, "Your boss has them too, right?"

"Yes!" Liu Song nodded heavily, regaining some confidence once he mentioned his boss.

Since the other party had the ability to protect themselves, Tom thought it best to find other people first. "Since your boss is busy, I'll go upstairs first. We'll come back down later to ask for his opinion."

"Hey, don't go!" Liu Song became anxious, "Our boss..."

"What! Do you think I'm a quick man?" A slightly sharp voice came from around the corner of the bedroom door, and the man who had just simply wrapped himself in a cloth swaggered out.

"Boss, I didn't mean... I didn't mean that," Liu Song was very afraid.

"Deng Xinlai!" Prince Xiong shouted, recognizing the appearance of this boss, "Very moisturized, you!"

Deng Xinlai also recognized Prince Xiong. He raised his head proudly and let out a light laugh, "Oh, it's Prince Xiong, visiting our humble abode. Truly honored."

"Do you know each other?" Tom asked Prince Xiong.

"Yeah, he's the vice chairman of the homeowner's committee and runs a company. But you don't live here, right?"

Deng Xinlai shrugged, "When I came, there was only one brain left among the homeowners, and the environment here is so good, so I decided to stay. Prince Xiong, I didn't expect you, with such great martial arts skills, to take in such a powerful little brother."

"Hey," Prince Xiong scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed, "No matter how good your martial arts are, without superpowers, it's useless. So now I'm hanging out with this big shot."

"Big shot?" Deng Xinlai looked Tom up and down, "Relying on a suit of iron, what kind of hero are you? You must have superpowers too, your strength is not small."

Tom didn't have a good impression of the man. He thought of quickly skipping these formalities and asked straight away, "You probably heard what I said just now. Do you want to come with me to my camp? I'll only ask once."

Deng Xinlai shook his head proudly and asked back, "Did you see those ants? 132 of them, all killed by me. Do you think I need your protection?"

"Very well!" Tom nodded and then turned around, "Then have fun, we're leaving!"

Prince Xiong shrugged his shoulders, slinging the steel needle long spear over his shoulder, and casually followed along.

But Deng Xinlai's voice suddenly became deep, "You can leave, but leave those two girls behind!"