The Enlarged Ant

On the cutting board, among the unfinished model parts, were various tools used for assembling models, such as water pliers, small files, utility knives, glue, and so on. These things were small, but for him now, they were quite large. There was even a small pair of scissors. Upon seeing them, Tom immediately had an idea.

Although the small scissors were still large for him, he could still hold them with both hands. He grabbed a couple of pieces from the large T-shirt on the bed, figuring they could be turned into makeshift clothes to keep warm and avoid running around naked.

Without hesitation, he quickly grabbed the large scissors and threw them back onto the bed, then jumped onto the books on the table to give himself a boost and leaped to the other side onto the pillow. It took quite an effort, but Tom managed to cut three pieces of fabric that fit him somewhat, draped them over himself, tied them with fine fabric strands, and made do with what he had.

Having eaten and dressed warmly, what should he do next? Tom pondered for a moment and decided to call for help from one of his two best friends, Haotian Ouyang, also known as Haozi.

That guy was one of his only two good friends in the city. Their relationship was decent, so contacting him should be the most reliable option at the moment.

His domestically made smartphone was lying next to the pillow. Tom was extremely grateful that he hadn't placed the screen facing down before going to bed last night. With his current size, flipping the phone over would have been impossible.

He exerted effort to press the power button and lit up the phone's screen. Taking advantage of the screen being illuminated, he quickly climbed up and slid to unlock the screen. The fingerprint unlock feature on the back was out of reach, so he had to enter the password.

The password was 135190, but entering it on a screen that was taller than him and wider than him wasn't easy. Tom had to hop around the keypad in the nine-square grid. However, when he pressed 1 and then tried to press 9, he misstepped, hitting 8 instead, forcing him to start over.

Finally unlocking the screen, Tom had to navigate the nine-square grid again to dial the 11-digit phone number. It felt like playing a dance machine game at the arcade.

After entering the number, Tom breathed a sigh of relief and pressed the dial button with his hands, but soon, he heard a busy tone, and a window popped up on the screen: No network.

He looked at the signal bars at the top of the screen. The phone had no cellular network. What about the WIFI? Checking again, the WIFI signal was full, but neither web pages nor messaging apps like WeChat or QQ could be opened. There was no internet connection at all.

He didn't give up and tried other WIFI networks, but it was the same story. All networks were down, and he couldn't reach out for help.

With no cellular signal, Tom tried dialing 110, 119, 120, and similar emergency numbers. Soon, he had tried all the emergency numbers he knew, but they all resulted in a busy tone. Even if a phone didn't have a SIM card, it should be able to dial emergency numbers. There was no reason why none of them were going through. Something strange was going on.

Feeling tired, Tom sat on the screen, thinking about his laptop. But when he turned around and looked at the tall table, he remembered he had closed the second-hand laptop last night... he couldn't open it now.

"What should I do? I can't seek help from the outside world at all!" Tom was at a loss. Was he truly abandoned by both heaven and earth?

He felt he should go outside to seek help from someone, perhaps the building manager... No, thinking of that creepy middle-aged man, Tom shook his head, that was a no-go. Oh, there was a girl next door. Although girls might be more interested in dolls, their hearts should still be kind. He could ask her to make a call to Haozi for help.

No, Tom shook his head again. Most women might be interested in dolls, but who knew if she would treat him like a live Barbie doll and play with him. He was already so small that even a three-year-old could easily crush him. Until he was absolutely certain, he couldn't expose himself to anyone, including humans.

With that in mind, Tom stood up. He retraced his steps, climbed onto the pillow, jumped onto the books, and climbed onto the table.

Except for the cabinet, this table was the highest point Tom could reach. Surveying the cramped little room, it suddenly seemed so spacious, even for a moment, he felt it wasn't so bad. But soon, he realized how absurd the thought was.

There was a movie about people shrinking voluntarily to save space on Earth and enjoying better lives with less money. On the surface, it seemed like a fantastic idea. But there was a line from a bystander in the movie that Tom agreed with: "Do you think you, being so small, would have the same rights as us normal-sized people?"

Being weak meant being bullied. Even when they were the same size, the struggle never ceased, let alone when someone became smaller... Sitting on the edge of the table, swinging his feet, Tom suddenly felt even more worried about his future.

"Maybe... only when everyone becomes small can we all start from the same starting line... oh, it's better if all animals, elephants, lions, dogs, insects, mice, cockroaches, and... ants... ants? Ants!" Tom saw a few yellow figures crawling in from under the door crack in the distance. Could they be those annoying yellow ants that were everywhere?

Every summer, ants would come to his cup to drink water, only to be gently squished by him. But now... considering his reduced size, those ants were no longer easy prey for him.

Several ants of different sizes formed a neat line and crawled towards the table. With his current size, Tom had to be cautious because he was almost considered food in the ants' eyes.

He turned and ran to the cutting board, quickly picking out a suitable weapon from among the larger ones.

A file? It was longer than him and not usable. Craft knife? Pliers? These were a bit heavy. Tom searched around and saw the cap of the 502 glue nearby.

To prevent the glue from sticking to the mouth of the bottle, the cap of the 502 glue had a short needle attached to it. This thing was as long as a kitchen knife but not too heavy. Tom immediately ran over, pushed the glue bottle over, and struggled to pull out the cap. After a lot of effort, he finally managed to pull it out. The cap itself was designed to be easy to hold between the fingers, thin in the middle and wide on the sides, making it convenient for Tom to grasp.

He ran back to the edge of the table and saw the ants climbing up the table leg, clearly heading towards the tabletop. Tom quickly ran

to hide behind the shelf in the other corner of the table. He thought that the smell of the torn-open box and the biscuits might have attracted the ants, and they would leave once they took the biscuits away.

Holding the glue cap, he watched as the ants climbed onto the table, moving their antennae, exploring the air around them.

"The biscuits are over there, hurry up! The biscuits are right there, take them all!" Tom silently urged them in his mind, hearing his heart pounding.

Suddenly, he saw the ants' antennae pointing in his direction, and they started moving their mandibles rapidly, as if they were about to feast on him.

"Oh, damn! They found me!" Tom grabbed the cap needle and ran, knowing he couldn't outrun the ants' six legs, so he had to run to the corner on the other side, at least where he wouldn't be surrounded.

The yellow ants quickly caught up to Tom. Now he could really see the size of these ants up close.

The four ants in the front were about half the size of his palm, the two behind them were about the size of a Bulldog, and the one at the back was the size of a country dog.

"This is absurd!" Tom thought, but he didn't have time to think further. The four ants at the front charged at him, and he met them halfway, kicking one of them away. Then he was entangled by the other three.

Tom used the cap needle to pick them off one by one and then jumped up to stomp on their bellies, causing them to curl up and tremble with their six legs.

The four small ants were relatively easy to deal with, but when the two Bulldog-sized ants came charging, things got tricky.

Using the cap needle as a weapon, Tom managed to jab one of the Bulldog ants in the head, but the other one bit into his leg.

The ant's large mandibles, known as mandibulate mouthparts, still had some power against Tom's tiny body, immediately drawing blood.

Tom cried out in pain and bent down, using his fists to smash the ant that wouldn't let go of his leg. The ant's head was quite hard, and after a few hits, the other Bulldog-sized ant had arrived. It opened its mandibles and was about to bite his belly.

Tom didn't care about the ant biting his leg. He forcefully pulled out the cap needle and stabbed it towards the mandibles.

The needle was caught by the ant's mandibles, and then it shook its head, flinging Tom away.

With only this one weapon, Tom wasn't willing to let go. He swung both himself and the ant biting his leg, tossing them both into a corner where he wouldn't be surrounded.

Ants can lift objects up to 400 times their weight. Leaving aside whether this claim was accurate, at least this large ant could easily lift Tom and the needle together.

Tom was tossed around like a cowboy in an American movie, held up in the air. Thankfully, he had eaten two large biscuits earlier, and he was somewhat strong. He didn't dare to let go of the cap needle and let the ant throw him around.

After being tossed around for a while, the large ant seemed to grow impatient. It lifted its head high, causing the needle to be vertical.

"Here's my chance!" Tom adjusted his body, placing his feet on the ant's mandibles, and shouted, pressing down on the tail end of the cap needle with all his might.

The needle was made of metal and quite smooth. With a forceful push, the large ant couldn't hold onto it, and the entire needle pierced through its mouth.

The large ant struggled, but Tom exerted all his strength, pushing the needle further in. Eventually, the large ant seemed to have been stabbed through its head, and its entire body went limp, falling to the ground.

The Bulldog-sized ant was still biting his leg, and Tom used his hands to pry open its mandibles, throwing it to the ground, flipping it over, and stomping on its belly with his feet, finishing it off.

Breathing heavily, Tom rested for a while before attempting to pull out the most available weapon he had at the moment—the cap needle.

The head of the large ant had been pierced, and when Tom pulled out the cap needle, he seemed to see something glowing inside its head.

Disregarding the disgust, he pried open the ant's head. There wasn't much fluid, but he saw a small, faintly glowing, rhombus-shaped gem inside.

"What on earth is this? How could there be a gem in an ant's head?"