The Strategy of Tailless Escape

Compared to worker ants, the primary responsibility of soldier ants is to defend the ant nest from external invaders. They belong to the fighting caste within the ant colony and possess much larger bodies and larger mandibles than worker ants.

Previously, even a dozen ants would be no match for a gecko, but now, facing a single soldier ant, the gecko was evenly matched.

Due to carelessness, the gecko sustained some injuries to its head. However, Tom wouldn't stand idly by. He brandished his cap needle and knife, seizing the opportunity to attack the soldier ant while the gecko drew its attention.

Although the soldier ant was slightly larger than the gecko, its protective shell was no match for the gecko's. Tom's sword split it open with just two strikes.

The soldier ant had to turn its attention to Tom, but every time it did, the gecko would strike with its front legs. With its split rear end being pounded by the gecko's forceful blows, the ant's body soon flattened, its internal fluids splattering everywhere.

The soldier ant had no choice but to turn back and face the gecko once more.

Ants are resilient creatures; even if their bodies are severed, they can survive for a while. However, Tom wouldn't miss the chance. He used his sword to sever the ant's smashed rear end, and incidentally, two hind legs as well.

Now missing its tail and two legs, the soldier ant's mobility was severely compromised. Tom instructed the gecko to move behind the ant. Although the ant still had four legs to maneuver, its turning speed was slow. Following the gecko's instructions, Tom used his sword to continuously attack the ant's weakened rear end.

Soon enough, the ant's remaining legs were disabled, leaving only its head. Tom promptly used his cap needle and knife to pry open its skull, leaving behind a lifeless mass of flesh and shell.

With the soldier ant defeated, Tom didn't rush to collect the gemstones. Instead, he quickly took the gecko to the sink, turned on the faucet, and thoroughly rinsed its head wounds.

He remembered that soldier ants have mandibles that secrete venom. If the gecko had been bitten, it could have been exposed to acidic venom. It was crucial to rinse the wounds with plenty of water while there was still time.

Tom couldn't afford to be complacent; after all, he had recently established a cooperative relationship with this gentle creature through the green gemstone. If it were poisoned to death, it would be a great loss.

Considering the gecko's ability to regenerate its tail, Tom believed in its strong healing capabilities. The acidic toxin from the soldier ant was only paralytic, unlikely to kill it. Moreover, the gecko hadn't shown any discomfort after being bitten; its immune system should be able to handle it.

Speaking of regeneration, Tom noticed that the gecko's tail had already begun to grow back!

When he encountered it yesterday, its tail was clearly missing, yet it had regrown overnight. This regenerative ability should also be effective against toxins.

Sure enough, after a few rinses, the gecko confidently climbed back, much to Tom's relief.

Seemingly out of danger, Tom proceeded to dissect the ant's head to retrieve the gemstones. His experience with dissecting fish in the past made him less squeamish about dissecting ant corpses. Moreover, the discovery of gemstones inside them and the threat posed by the ants eating humans had pushed any lingering guilt out of his mind.

Killing and dissecting ants for gemstones had become almost as routine as preparing food.

Finally, Tom successfully extracted a large gemstone from the ant's head.

It was a green gemstone, slightly larger than the one he already had, and it felt weighty in his hand.

Seeing it was green, the gecko expressed disappointment and immediately indicated that it wanted it.

"What? Oh, the biscuit!" Tom realized. The gecko's interest in biscuits far outweighed its interest in gemstones; it was a true glutton.

Since he had come to the second floor, it was worth exploring further. Tom instructed the gecko to "go to the other rooms to find that." The gecko eagerly scurried away, leaving Tom bewildered.

After a few steps, it remembered that Tom hadn't followed and returned to wait for him to climb onto its back again.

Tom placed the large gemstone in his backpack, making it even heavier, but manageable.

After climbing onto the gecko's back, Tom reasoned that since the soldier ants had mobilized, it might be unsafe to walk outside in the corridors. Hence, he decided to let the gecko climb out of the window.

Although the corridor was wide enough, the gecko's size made it a tight fit. Tom decided to abandon the neighboring room as it was too close. If the ants followed the scent trail from earlier, they might detect him in the adjacent room. He skipped two rooms before deciding to enter one.

The weather in early May was hot, and nobody would choose to close the windows while sleeping.

Entering the room, Tom found a set of clothes arranged as if for a human. The occupant of this room had likely also been miniaturized.

After searching the bed and floor, Tom found bloodstains near the door crack, a chilling sight extending to the bottom of the door.

"Was this person bitten by ants and dragged away?" Tom remembered the fate of the man with small eyes, who was devoured on the spot. How did these ants now drag people away again?

"Perhaps they're storing the bodies after feeding?" he pondered. The ants he encountered on the third floor seemed different from traditional ants.

They were bringing food back to eat, which was more in line with ant behavior.

However, now that the ants had grown in size, changes in behavior were not impossible. Tom stopped pondering and instead rode the gecko to search for usable resources.

There were unwashed dishes on the table, but the food was gone. However, a few grains of rice remained at the bottom of the bowl, now appearing as large as small loaves of bread to Tom. Despite being leftovers, he didn't mind; he picked them up and ate, attracting the gluttonous gecko, who licked up two grains with its tongue.

After finishing the food, Tom realized there was no harvest to be found and decided to leave with the gecko to explore the next room.

Judging by the clothes on the bed, the occupant of this room had likely been taken away. Tom found an old-fashioned cellphone near the pillow, with physical buttons instead of a touchscreen.

Curiously, Tom tried to make a call, but there was no signal, rendering it useless.

"So the phone signal and broadband network in the entire building are down," just as he had expected, there was no way to contact the outside world.

Tom considered leaving the building and seeking help outside. However, if the people outside were also shrunken, the outside dangers might be even greater.

The rented building was located in the old district of the city, surrounded by large courtyards on three sides, each with dogs. Stray cats and dogs roamed the old streets in front,

mostly active at night.

Staying in the room meant facing the enlarged ants, but going outside meant facing the unknown dangers of stray cats and dogs. The latter seemed even riskier.

Tom stroked the smooth head of the gecko and asked himself, "Should I take a gamble?"

He had never lacked adventurous spirit and, based on a thorough assessment of the risks, he was willing to take a chance on uncertain critical conditions.

"Let's see what's on the first floor!" Tom immediately made up his mind.

He calmed the gecko's emotions and rode it out of the window towards the end of the corridor, just like the third floor, where the end led to a ventilation window leading to the stairs.

The gecko carried him to the staircase, intending to go downstairs, but they encountered a large group of ants crawling up from the first floor, led by a dozen soldier ants, just like the ones they had fought earlier.

Tom quickly halted the gecko; facing so many soldier ants, there was no way they could win.

As they turned back, they encountered another wave of ants on the second floor, this time led by five or six soldier ants.

Tom was alarmed; with ants everywhere, their only choice was to go up.

However, the ants had already caught his scent and were chasing after them.

Tom hugged the gecko's neck, enduring the gravity of vertical climbing, and finally reached the third floor. There, he saw ants on the corridor, though not many, they were large and had caught his scent too.

"What should we do?" Tom immediately spotted the window at the end of the third floor corridor. "Let's go there!"

Although the gecko was somewhat reluctant, it trusted Tom's decision and quickly climbed up the wall, slipping out of the window.

"Wait, the tail, leave it!" At the window, Tom issued this command. The gecko wasn't pleased.

"No."

"Leave it, it's dangerous!"

Tom watched as two groups of ants approached, once again emphasizing the danger. Reluctantly, the gecko severed its tail.

After leaving the tail behind, Tom guided the gecko to the window of the nearest room, then cautiously peeked outside.

After a short wait, he indeed saw two large ants crawling out of the window and approaching the edge. They probed the tail left by the gecko for a while, then waved around, looking quite bewildered.

As Tom watched, the two ants retreated into the window. He turned back and pushed the gecko inside.

The ants were indeed following their scent. In the strong wind outside the building, Tom's scent had dispersed. The tail left by the gecko served as a distraction, making the ants believe they had only caught the scent of that tail, thus abandoning their plans to search along the corridor.

Tom breathed a sigh of relief, finally breaking free from the entanglement. Faced with so many ants earlier, the gecko alone wouldn't stand a chance. Without this impromptu idea of using the tail, if the ants had come knocking, he and the gecko would likely have been either devoured or dragged back to the ant's nest to be consumed alive.

Just as Tom pondered his next move, the gecko nudged him with its large head.

"What's wrong?" As he made contact with it, Tom immediately understood. The glutton was thinking about his biscuits.

"They're gone, but I have some at home!" Tom decided to return to his dormitory, not only to satisfy his pet mount's appetite but also to take some precautions.