Favorite Food Turns Out to be Biscuits?

Tom tried his best, but he couldn't lock the door, at most just reducing the gap to the smallest possible.

"If it won't lock, it won't lock!" Tom immediately turned around and saw many clothes on the floor in the distance.

"I need to block the gap under the door first!"

He immediately ran over, dragging all the women's clothes on the floor, trying to pick the lightest and thinnest ones so he could drag them more easily. He didn't aim for a tight fit; he just wanted to prevent as much air as possible from flowing out to avoid attracting ants with his scent.

It took him a good ten minutes to block all the gaps under the door. As for above, it shouldn't make much of a difference, and he couldn't do anything about it anyway. Moreover, if the battle between the gecko and the ants had been settled by now and they still hadn't found him, it meant that blocking the door was effective, and they probably hadn't discovered him here.

Sitting on the floor, he gasped for breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and rested for a while before getting up. He put on his backpack with his cap needle and big knife, ready to explore the rented room.

This should be a couple's room, judging from the number of shoes at the door. Tom walked quietly through the serene room, with the sunset casting its last rays through the window, shining directly on him. He glanced up and then continued to explore. He didn't have the privilege to enjoy the scenery now; he had to search the room thoroughly before nightfall, solving the problems of food and hiding places.

Since there was a female host, he couldn't expect to find any leftover food on the floor; after all, if couples lived together, one of them would likely be responsible for keeping the environment clean.

Tom searched around but found no food whatsoever. The floor was as clean as new; the tenants of this house kept it very tidy. There was no food or water on the floor, and even if he was willing to drink tap water, he couldn't reach it. The food he carried on his back was either biscuits or noodle crumbs, both of which would make him thirsty if he ate them.

However, he found several ant corpses under the table, two small ones and one large one, indicating that ants had visited here before. He also dug out a yellow gem from the head of the big ant.

He had dug out red and green gems before, and now he found a yellow one. He suspected there were more colors, but he didn't understand if these things were useful to humans.

Tom went under the bed and shouted loudly, but no one responded. If it wasn't that nobody was here, it might be that they were eaten by ants, and their remains were still on the bed, or perhaps... they were carried away by ants, just like the two people he saw earlier.

Realizing he was alone in the room made him uneasy. Night was approaching, and even if ants and geckos couldn't come in, it didn't mean there weren't other creatures in the room.

Cockroaches were extremely resilient creatures on Earth; they could go without food or water for a long time, usually hiding in dark corners and crevices and coming out to forage at night.

In today's world where ants could grow bigger and geckos had hardened skins, who knew if cockroaches would become human killers? But worrying about these things now was meaningless. Tom found a corner to sit in, with his cap needle and big knife by his side. If it dared to come, he wouldn't just sit there and be its meal.

As night fell, there were no lights on in the house, and Tom couldn't reach the switches on the walls. But being smaller now had its advantages; his eyes had also shrunk, so weak light wasn't a problem for him anymore. Even at night, he could still see his surroundings, which gave him more security.

The night was so quiet; Tom hadn't enjoyed such a peaceful night in a long time. There weren't many city lights shining through the windows, and it was possible that because he was so small, he couldn't hear much sound. Sounds like car engines or horns, the noisy chatter of pedestrians, the din of diners at street stalls drinking and playing games, or even the sound of fights that often occurred downstairs, he couldn't hear any of them.

Tom suddenly felt that maybe everyone in the city had become tiny like him, and if that was the case, staying inside might be safer than going outside. But how long could he stay here?

People had shrunk by 24 times, which meant the city had expanded by 24 times.

Tom remembered when he first came to this city, he had looked up some information. The urban area was about 890 square kilometers, with a permanent population of about 10.3 million.

For him now, the city had expanded to 20,000 square kilometers. If he drove, it would take at least seven or eight days, assuming good traffic conditions with a speed of 120 kilometers per hour and two people taking turns driving for 24 hours.

But now that he was small, where would he find a car to drive? What if he walked?

Tom shook his head; the need to leave wasn't that urgent. The most urgent thing was to figure out how to gather resources to face the challenges of the future.

He thought about many things, but in the end, he felt hungry again. Between dying of thirst and losing strength due to hunger, he chose the former and ate all the noodle crumbs, although his mouth was dry, at least the hunger was gone.

After patrolling a few rounds, he began to feel drowsy. He woke up three times in the middle of the night, only lying down again after patrolling twice. He wasn't sure if cockroaches would appear, but it was always good to be cautious.

When dawn was breaking, he fell asleep again. In his dreams, he vaguely saw a black figure walking away from him, with a faint yellow pattern on his clothes, a symbol that looked very much like a fish with two legs.

As the figure walked farther and farther away, it was engulfed by the faint rain.

This was a scene he occasionally dreamed of, and it was always the same every time.

And every time the figure was engulfed by the rain, a snake would suddenly appear and rush towards him, and then he would wake up in a fright.

This time, Tom was also awakened by a snake, but as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a large mouthed snake.

He exclaimed and raised his hands to defend himself, feeling the cold touch of its fangs against his elbows.

"Hiss!" The big snake made a hoarse sound, and Tom rolled over and got up. If it wasn't for his quick reaction, he would have been crushed by its feet.

After rolling over, he crawled to the backpack at the foot of the bed and picked it up. Thinking of the gems, he reached inside and pulled out a large red gem. "I know I used you yesterday, I'm sorry, how about this one for you?"

The big snake roared, seemingly dissatisfied.

He pulled out another green one, "How about this one?"

Immediately, he was met with another bite

. Luckily, he shrank his hand quickly, or he would have been swallowed. He noticed that the snake's mouth had grown teeth, sharp teeth.

"I'll give you all of them!" In total, three big red gems, one big green one, and one big yellow one. Tom now took out the remaining two big red ones, two small red ones, and the green one and threw them on the ground.

To his surprise, the big snake glanced at them and ignored them, continuing to stare at him.

"It did want the gems yesterday, otherwise it wouldn't have followed me to fight the ants." Tom thought for a moment, then reached in again and pulled out a yellow one, which he had dug out from the ant corpse in the room last night.

As soon as he threw the yellow one on the ground, the big snake rushed over and swallowed it in one gulp.

"Oh, so it only eats yellow ones, that's why it followed me yesterday when I lured it with the red ones." Tom thought, putting himself in the snake's shoes. If he were the snake, he would come to settle scores with someone who had deceived him.

The snake swallowed the yellow gem and squinted its eyes, motionless. Tom quickly ran to pick up the big knife, and with a weapon in his hand, his heart felt a little more settled, although he doubted the big knife would give him any advantage.

Before he could run, the big snake opened its eyes and blocked his way, but this time it wasn't as aggressive, just staring at him.

Tom spread his hands, "I don't have any more yellow ones, only this one."

The snake sniffed and hissed, seeming to say, "I smell it, there's more, you're lying."

"I really don't have any more!" Tom could only rummage through his backpack again, but there were only a few crumbs of BB crackers left from yesterday.

Who knew that when he took them out, the snake would come over with its mouth open? He quickly backed away, almost swinging the big knife.

Unlike before, the snake made a sharp "squeak" sound this time.

"Biscuits?" Tom couldn't believe it; this big snake's interest in biscuits was greater than in yellow gems.