Discovery of Survivors

Tom found the male corpse at the door. Considering that the two sisters had died inside the house and the marks on the bed, he thought they had engaged in a threesome last night. Although Tom was still a virgin, he had watched quite a few educational videos, and anyone could make the connection.

With one sister dead in front and the other behind, the remaining male had retreated to the locked door, facing the large ants with no way out, ultimately bitten and devoured. The man must have felt desperate before his death.

Although Tom didn't want to speculate with malice, he couldn't ignore the possibility: when they realized they were shrinking, the ants attacked. The man abandoned the sisters and fled alone.

In novels or movies, when doomsday arrives, human nature is often tested before survival.

Now, at least in this building, doomsday had indeed arrived. Tom sighed as he touched the biscuit's neck, realizing the situation he was about to face wasn't optimistic either. If he were in this situation, would he abandon his companions and escape alone, like that man?

"I don't know," Tom told himself. No matter how noble, heroic, or righteous one's thoughts might be, the actual response could only be determined when faced with the decision, using one's actions.

Patting his cheeks to clear unnecessary thoughts, he prepared to leave. Suddenly, he noticed a small metallic object under the body's door crack. He hurried over and found a platinum diamond ring, with the diamond missing, leaving only an empty clasp. Presumably, the ants mistook the diamond for a gem and swallowed it; diamonds couldn't be digested.

Tom tried it on; the ring was small and could fit on his arm. The metal tray on top could also be used as protection. He took out a ruby and found it fit perfectly inside. Although he didn't need the protection now, who could predict the future? So he put the ring in his backpack.

After searching, he found nothing valuable and left through the window to continue along the edge.

In the next three rooms, he found no casualties. They had either escaped or been carried away by ants.

"Carried away?" Tom had a sudden insight. He had seen signs of people being carried away by ants twice on the second floor, while on the third floor, they had mostly been eaten, along with the great battle on that floor.

"The ants on the second floor carry people away, probably back to their nest, which is likely on the first floor. The ants on the third floor, however, might have nests farther away, so they just eat them on the spot."

Combining his observations with the situation in the fourth-floor rooms, where three people had been eaten on the spot in 401, and the other three rooms were empty, if they hadn't been carried away, they might have escaped, perhaps through the windows!

With this speculation, he felt excited. Shrinking for two days, being alone, he truly wanted to see others, even if they were as small as he was. Having another person meant having more strength in times of crisis.

Excited, Tom directed the biscuit to climb out the window and proceed along the edge. Sure enough, outside the fifth room's window, he found intermittent bloodstains extending forward.

"Survivors!" Tom rejoiced, confirming his suspicions. He was eager to meet others after facing the tragic scenes of the deceased. Even if they were as small as he was, having another person in a crisis meant more strength.

Guiding the biscuit along the edge following the bloodstains, he found another window broken, with the bloodstains continuing forward.

He guessed that the tenant of this room had also broken the window and escaped. So, Tom widened the window gap and urged the biscuit to investigate.

On the bed under the window, he saw the bodies of a dozen small ants. It seemed the tenant had some skills; they had managed to kill the attacking ants.

Back outside the window, he continued following the bloodstains until he reached the last window at the end.

The window was open. Tom cautiously entered. He didn't see anything on the bed at first, but soon noticed many ants crawling along the table near the wall next to the window.

In addition to the ants, he saw flickering flames on the tabletop. So, he rode the biscuit up the wall, climbing higher to see the situation on the table.

He saw several figures waving torches, driving away the ants trying to approach them.

Near them, many small ants were curled up with six limbs, while more living ants continued to surround them.

Facing the small ants, the torches had some effect, but Tom saw two large ants climbing up the table legs from the floor. The small people on the table were frightened and retreated.

This was dangerous. The aggressiveness of the large ants far exceeded that of the small ones. Seeing this, Tom quickly urged the biscuit toward the table.

But before he reached them, the defense with the torches on the table had already collapsed. The survivors retreated repeatedly, shouting in fear, and Tom was still some distance away. At this moment, a big figure emerged from the crowd, wielding a metal rod, and managed to knock down one of the large ants.

However, the other large ant knocked down a woman. Although a man waved a torch and struck the large ant's head, it was futile; after all, the ant's head was too hard, and the threat to the woman remained.

The biscuit finally reached near the side wall where they were. Tom grabbed a needle as a spear and angrily threw it at the large ant attacking the woman.

The needle pierced its head but lacked the force to kill it; it fell onto the tabletop. However, this successful attack drew its attention, causing the woman to be dragged back by her companion.

The large ant quickly opened its mandibles toward Tom, whom he saw as a challenge. He furrowed his brows, pulled out the needle cap, and let the biscuit fall onto the table, charging forward.

The biscuit's hard head directly knocked the large ant away, but three large and five medium-sized ants climbed up the edge of the table.

Tom swung his Guan Dao to push away the large ant entangling the big man, then turned the blade and chopped off its big head. He saw that the big man's metal rod had broken, so he threw his needle cap to him.The ant colony abandoned the dead man who had been bitten and rushed toward them. The biscuit, taking the lead, used its massive body to crush several of them flat.

At this moment, three more large ants climbed onto the tabletop and charged forward. Tom, riding on the biscuit, wielded his big knife and killed another one. But the other found an opportunity to climb onto the biscuit's back and viciously bite his hand while Tom was distracted.

His right hand guard was bitten, leaving a large gash, but it wasn't severed. Tom was shocked and tried to shake it off, but the ant's mandibles were clamped too tightly. Instead of getting rid of it, it made him unsteady, and he tumbled down when the biscuit jolted.

The large ant's strength was formidable. It dragged Tom, along with his plastic armor, into the swarm. Tom struggled in vain, shouting for the biscuit's help.

The biscuit noticed the situation and endured the other ants' climbing and biting. It rushed forward, stomping on the big ant dragging Tom, then used its head to bump into them, finally freeing Tom.

As Tom got up, he saw the bulky man holding his needle cap not coming to help; instead, he retreated and even hid behind the other men and women.

Tom didn't have time to be angry with him. He grabbed two large cans from the biscuit's back, which were filled with kerosene. The survivors had matches; with this, they could fend off the ants.

Tearing off the plastic cap, he quickly splashed it on the table, while the biscuit protected him on the side.

The man who saved the woman boldly approached, holding a half-burnt match, and asked excitedly, "Is that kerosene?"

"Yeah, help me," Tom handed him the other can. They emptied the kerosene, and Tom asked them and the biscuit to step back. He took the burning match, kicked away a medium-sized ant, and threw the match onto the kerosene.

"Huff!" The flames quickly ignited. The approaching ants were burned, some curling up with their legs in the air, and the larger ones were forced to retreat, but their legs, covered in kerosene, ignited quickly.

As the ants fell into the fire, Tom also suffered. Being small, he had poor heat resistance. Moreover, he was close; his hair and eyebrows were burned, and the smell was overwhelming.

He retreated, catching his breath, watching the raging fire. Being small, ants became larger, subverting many common senses. For instance, he had used fire to burn ants before, but with a lighter, the ants immediately stiffened. It was unlikely to burn such small ants.

But now, the enlarged ants had become the second source of fire. With long legs sticking to the flames, the fire quickly spread to their bodies. Under the intense heat, they ran around, quickly igniting two more large ants that had just climbed up from the edge of the table. Soon, there were three sources of moving fire, where the ants curled up and died wherever the fire went.

When the kerosene burned out, most of the attacking ants were dead. The kerosene's effect far exceeded Tom's expectations.

Taking advantage of this, Tom, with the biscuit, rushed up and killed the remaining small and medium-sized ants. Only when he confirmed there were no surviving ants did he turn to look at the survivors.

They were wrapped in a piece of cloth, which had fallen off in the chaos. The woman's white body glowed red under the flames. Now that the fire was out, they realized something was wrong and hurried to find their cloth.

Including the big guy who fled, there were six men and one woman.

Except for the one who handed him the matches, the others huddled by the bookshelf, looking at the biscuit, which had just killed many ants, in fear.

"A... Alligator..." a chubby man shivered and shouted.

Tom knew the biscuit's imposing size had frightened them, so he touched the biscuit's head and said with a smile, "It's... It's okay. It's called Biscuit, my friend. It's... It's a gecko."

A smaller man said, "What if it wants to eat people?"