The First Test

Tom noticed their guarded stance, feeling a bit nervous as he spoke hastily. It was hard to explain in the heat of the moment. So, he turned to the person who gave him the matches and said, "Come touch Biscuit; it won't hurt anyone."

The person who gave Tom the matches hesitated but approached and tentatively touched Biscuit. Understanding Tom's intention, Biscuit obediently let him touch.

"It's really cool, and quite chilly. It's very obedient, no harm done, haha!" Relieved that Biscuit was harmless, he finally relaxed and bowed to Tom, saying, "Hello, thank you for saving us! My name is Luo Jun." He pointed to the woman who had almost been carried away, "This is my girlfriend, Zhang Jiaqi. That's Zhang Meng, my girlfriend's fellow townsman. And this is Chen Jianbin…"

The small man who had been afraid Biscuit would harm someone still stood aside with reservations. Tom then learned his name was Zhang Meng.

"Hello, I'm Tom, safe and sound, just ordinary," he said. While Tom was glad to have encountered survivors, he felt uncomfortable around strangers, one of the reasons he didn't quite fit into normal work and life.

"He's so cool!" Zhang Jiaqi held onto her cloth tightly, afraid it might fall and expose her. She reached out and touched Biscuit's helmet. "I know this helmet; it's from Transformers, right? Um... a Saint Seiya in Transformers?"

Tom chuckled, not paying much attention. It was normal for people, especially girls, not to recognize anime characters.

Then the chubby guy who had been frightened earlier interjected, "Zhang Jiaqi, what do you know? It's a Level 3 helmet, not from Transformers... um... okay, it's a Transformer, named Gundam, I was kidding, haha. Hello, I'm Liu Lian, Liu from Liu Qian, and Lian from practice."

"Hello."

"Hey, that gear of yours is nice, take it off." The bulky man who had fled earlier came back with his needle cap. He was muscular, wearing only a piece of cloth around his waist, with two dragon tattoos on his body, looking quite imposing.

"Why?" Tom guessed what he meant because he seemed to be someone of importance.

He was a thug who collected protection fees around here, named Li Qiang, also a tenant in this building. It was said he was Uncle Seven's henchman, the leader of the local underworld. People in the building were afraid of him and called him Brother Qiang.

"Why? Because I want it. This gear is good for protection, and I want it." Li Qiang dared not touch the helmet Biscuit wore, but he had his eyes on Tom's armor.

"Why should... I give it to you?" Tom realized that this man, who had run away with the needle cap earlier, leaving Tom alone in front, might have had some intentions. If he hadn't prepared kerosene, he might have been overwhelmed by the ants. Tom hadn't confronted him about it yet, and he actually wanted Tom to take off his armor and give it to him?

"Because my fists are the strongest!" Li Qiang cracked his neck and fingers, making a cracking sound, and walked arrogantly towards Tom, seeming to want to snatch it.

Li Qiang's words made Tom's face change. Indeed, in the apocalypse, the first test one faced was human greed.

Although the guy was big, Tom had never been afraid of anyone bullying him, even if they were stronger and burlier.

"If you're in the front line, I can give you this armor. But based on your behavior just now, I don't think you deserve it!" Tom was the first to see the ants attacking, and when the big ants joined, the defense line collapsed, and this guy had to join the fight. After Tom arrived, he ran away directly. Such an unreliable guy actually wanted to take advantage. Did he really think Tom was easy to bully?

"Whether I deserve it or not depends on my ability, kid!" Li Qiang walked menacingly, and the others looked at him with fear, not daring to speak up.

Feeling Li Qiang's hostility, Biscuit roared and pounced on him, knocking Li Qiang down. Opening its mouth with sharp teeth, it was about to bite him, frightening the big guy who screamed in panic.

Tom quickly stopped Biscuit. Such people who relied on their size to snatch things were not uncommon, but there was no need to resort to violence right away.

Biscuit sprayed saliva on the big guy's face, obediently retreated to Tom's side, still baring its teeth at Li Qiang, ready to pounce again if he made any sudden moves.

Li Qiang got up, trembling, pointing at Tom. "You... You said it doesn't eat people? Bah, it must have eaten human flesh to grow that big, just like those big ants."

With that said, the others became fearful again. They knew they had become smaller, and they had seen the ants that wanted to eat them. Some of them were still quite large. Putting these two together, what Li Qiang said made sense.

Seeing the others wavering, Li Qiang continued, "Let's not fall for his tricks. He must not want to leave us for his pets, so he helped us kill the ants. Let's go together; I don't believe…"

"Shut up!" Luo Jun rebuked, "When the ants came earlier, you said we should all fight together, but you hid behind watching the show. Now you want us to fight together again? If he wanted to feed us to his pets, he could have waited for the ants to bite us to death before setting fire. There was no need to try so hard."

With Tom as the backbone, not only Luo Jun but even Liu Lian became bolder. "Exactly, can ants grow bigger by eating humans? Then if we eat you, can we also grow bigger? Nonsense! Obviously, you're using your big size to exploit us. You've taken our food and water, and everything is for your own benefit. You talk about unified management of resources, bah!"

Tom understood completely when he heard this. It was just like when he was in the orphanage as a child. The food distributed by the supervisors was always meager and unappetizing, but if you didn't eat it, you'd go hungry. The bigger ones would often gather followers and grab the food first to control it.

Now that everyone had shrunk and was trapped here, Li Qiang, as a thug with a big build and a tough attitude, naturally wanted to be the boss and control everything. Now it was the food, and if he had his way, Zhang Jiaqi, this girl, would be dragged back to his own bed by him.

There was no point reasoning with such a person; only strength could speak, and that had been Tom's modus operandi for dealing with such situations for many years.

So he gave a simple command to Biscuit, who happily complied. Biscuit scurried over to Li Qiang and circled him twice.

Li Qiang was so scared he didn't dare move. He stood there trembling.

Then Biscuit crawled back and nudged into Tom's arms. Tom patted it and said, "Biscuit is my reliable partner. With it, I have the capital to deal with the ant swarm. We can work together to hold out until rescue arrives, or we can go our separate ways. But if you have any ill intentions toward me, then letting Biscuit eat you is not out of the question."

With that said, Li Qiang completely lost his temper. He slinked away and ran to the bookshelf on the table. They had set up a makeshift partition with a piece of torn cloth as a door curtain, and this was his exclusive "room."

Without Li Qiang around, the others stopped cowering, and chatting and exchanging information with Tom became smoother.

It turned out that everyone had fallen asleep the night before and only woke up to find themselves shrunk yesterday morning, except for the chubby guy named Liu Lian.

Liu Lian was a gaming enthusiast. He had been playing a new game all night before, and he remembered passing out suddenly around 2 o'clock. He was very sure he wasn't sleepy because his life was upside down, waking up at 6 in the afternoon and going to bed at 10 in the morning. His sleep was ample, so there was no possibility of him dozing off.

If Liu Lian's account was correct, then the premise for everyone in the building to shrink was falling into a deep sleep.

"Hey, imagine if the people outside, or the whole city's people, had also shrunk, wouldn't that be exciting!" As a gaming enthusiast, Liu Lian had experienced all sorts of strange worldviews in games, so he was more excited than scared about the current situation.

"Is that really the case? What about my parents back home..." Zhang Jiaqi hugged her boyfriend, Luo Jun's arm, with worry written all over her face.

Luo Jun tenderly embraced Zhang Jiaqi's waist and reassured her, "Don't worry, baby, even if the whole world has shrunk, I'll still be with you."

Liu Lian expressed his dissatisfaction, "Hey, are you guys torturing singles? People have shrunk, and you're still showing off your love. How does that saying go, showing off your love..."

Tom patted his back and interrupted his unfinished sentence, "Let's... let's prepare more. It's better to be prepared for another ant attack."

"How do we prepare?" Luo Jun asked, "Are we just going to sit here and wait for rescue? There's still plenty of food here, enough for two days since we all eat less now, but..."

He glanced worriedly at Li Qiang hiding in the room.

Tom naturally understood. Food was controlled by Li Qiang, plain and simple.

Tom often found it difficult to determine the right attitude when dealing with strangers, so he sometimes stumbled over his words. But facing someone like Li Qiang, he was experienced.

He gave Biscuit a simple command, and Biscuit happily complied, scurrying over to Li Qiang and circling him twice.

Li Qiang was too scared to move, trembling where he stood.

With that said, Li Qiang completely lost his temper, slinking away and running to the bookshelf on the table. They had set up a makeshift partition with a torn cloth as a door curtain, and this was his exclusive "room."