Scapegoating and Responsibility

Tom woke up groggily to find himself inside a large glass jar. Sitting beside him were a few people: Li Qiang, Chen Jianbin, Luo Jun, Liu Lian, and two other unfamiliar yet vaguely recognizable individuals. Without Xu Dong, Tom recalled faintly that before he passed out, he saw Xu Dong being severed in half by the soldier ants. He wasn't entirely sure if that was just his imagination or a dream.

Surveying the surroundings, Tom noticed Luo Jun sitting numbly, as if his soul had left his body. Zhang Jiaqi's death had hit him hard. Chen Jianbin, the cowardly and sarcastic guy, was glaring at him with an unpleasant expression on his face, making him even more detestable with his somewhat sleazy look.

Li Qiang seemed okay, mixing fear with amazement. However, Liu Lian was chatting with the other two while observing the situation ahead. When he turned back and saw Tom, he immediately said, "Hey, Tom, you're awake."

Tom responded with a grunt and checked himself. He wasn't injured, just a bit shaken from the blow to his head earlier. His protective clothing had suffered minimal damage, but the plastic armor was gone, probably chewed off by the ants. Only the ring on his right arm remained, as the ants couldn't remove it.

He asked Liu Lian, "Where are we?"

Liu Lian smirked, and Tom's gaze followed, feeling a chill down his spine.

The layout resembled the house he rented. They were inside a jar on the floor, surrounded by tables, chairs, boxes, and barrels, none of which were the focal point. The main focus was the ants crawling all around them, varying in size from small to large.

The ants moved about, seemingly chaotic, but Tom noticed a pattern.

The smaller worker ants were about the size of his palm. They were divided into four groups, shuttling back and forth. Some were carrying small pieces of food, some were carrying eggs, and others were just walking around. It seemed to be a normal deployment and movement.

"You were the first to be knocked out, so you could consider yourself lucky, unlike us, who were brought down by the worker ants while still conscious," Liu Lian said with excitement. "Seeing more and more ants around us is really scary. That Chen Jianbin wet his pants out of fear. Haha."

Chen Jianbin stood up angrily, cursing, "%@&." Tom couldn't understand; it was probably Chen Jianbin's dialect.

"It's all because of you, Tom!" Chen Jianbin finished cursing Liu Lian and turned to Tom, "It's all your damn idea. You insisted on leaving the house, and even thought about sneaking away under the ants' noses. Now look, we've all been caught by the ants."

Tom didn't want to pay attention to him. What concerned him more now was the behavior of these ants.

It was true that ants had the habit of storing food, but... he looked up at the tall mouth of the jar... how did these ants, with their collective thinking and individual actions guided by pheromones, come up with the "genius" idea of trapping living beings in glass jars?

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"It's been a day, buddy!" a long-haired man said. "You guys were brought in at noon, and now it's noon again."

"What about you? How long have you been caught? You look a bit familiar."

The long-haired man's eyes were lifeless, and he smiled bitterly in response, "I was caught the day before yesterday, in the afternoon. I lived on the second floor with my wife."

"Room 209?" Tom asked. It was the room he remembered exploring on the second floor, occupied by a couple.

The long-haired man nodded, "Yes, when we were brought down, my wife said she saw a figure on the stairs."

Tom's heart sank, "That was me. I had just come down from the third floor, heard someone calling on the stairs, but..."

"I know. There were too many ants. No one had the courage to save a stranger."

"What about your wife?" Liu Lian suddenly interjected. Tom glared at him. It was obvious what the situation was like now, and there was no need to increase others' grief needlessly.

The long-haired man pointed casually to a corner in the distance. Tom looked carefully and saw a red skeleton.

Liu Lian sighed, "I'm sorry..."

"It's nothing. It was bound to happen sooner or later. We all share the same fate. I can't wait to reunite with her." The long-haired man finished and found a corner to sit down, despondent after experiencing extreme pain, just like Luo Jun.

Tom looked around and saw several skeletons, possibly all tenants from the first and second floors. Apart from the two of them, it seemed like everyone from the first and second floors had already been eaten.

Seeing those skeletons, Chen Jianbin became even more agitated. He jumped up, pointing at Tom, "Do you have the nerve to stand here? Why don't you smash your head against the glass, make a hole, and let us escape? %@￥#, it's all because of you. Isn't your gecko awesome? Can't it climb walls well? How did it get pushed down by Zhang Meng? And, I said let me go up, but you insisted on letting Zhang Meng go up. Look at what you've done to us! Now, we're all going to be eaten, torn apart by the ants, %@￥＠!"

Li Qiang, who had been silent, suddenly turned around and grabbed Chen Jianbin's neck, slapping him twice. "I'll %@￥% slap you to death! Zhang Meng called Luo Jun a coward, but you're %@￥% even more cowardly than Luo Jun. We're all adults. Who the %@￥% restricted you from leaving or staying? Oh, when we saved your life, it was only natural, but now that something's gone wrong, you're furious? And smash the glass? I'll %@￥% smash your head first."

Luo Jun stood up, pushed Li Qiang aside, and punched Chen Jianbin in the face. "You've been getting closer to Zhang Meng lately. Now, look what he's done to us. And you still blame Tom? Don't think I don't know. When Tom was exploring the rooftop, you and Zhang Meng were whispering behind. I didn't think much of it at the time. Were you discussing leaving us behind?"

With Luo Jun's words, Li Qiang grabbed Chen Jianbin's neck again and lifted him up. "Confess honestly, were you planning and scheming against us at that time?"

"I... I didn't..." Chen Jianbin was now at a loss for words. "He just wanted me to be prepared to push Tom away at the time, to see his reaction. I... I thought it was just getting back at Tom, never thought it would harm all of us... Ah..."

Before he could finish, Tom pushed Li Qiang away and punched him in the stomach. The punch was powerful, causing him to double over in pain.

This move startled everyone. They had all seen Tom as easy-going, almost non-assertive. Only Li Qiang was at fault previously, disciplined by Tom with the gecko biscuit incident. However, only Li Qiang had witnessed that. None of the others expected Tom to be so ruthless, knocking Chen Jianbin down with a single punch.

"Tom, I'm sorry..." Luo Jun said guiltily. "I knew Zhang Meng had feelings for Jiaqi, but I thought... if Jiaqi ignored him, it would be fine. I didn't expect him to hold such deep resentment, to the point of..."

Tom ignored Luo Jun, just kicked the crouching Chen Jianbin in the side, making him fall backward.

"It was you who suggested pushing me down to Zhang Meng, right? And it was after Zhang Meng snatched away my umbrella bag. Without that bag, I would have fallen from the fifth-floor rooftop." Tom looked coldly at Chen Jianbin. Zhang Meng always had a strange look when sizing up Luo Jun. Now, in retrospect, it was probably jealousy.

People like him were not good at hiding their malice. It was just when their intentions weren't clear that the taste couldn't be discerned. On the other hand, Tom could clearly feel the prick in Chen Jianbin's every interaction with him.

"Don't hit me... wu wu wu... it hurts so much... Yes, it was you. I hate you. You have a mount but won't let us use it. I hate you. If I had that gecko, I would have ridden it and left you guys long ago. Stupid idiots for staying to help you bunch of losers. A gangster, a coward, a fool always trying to steal someone else's thunder, a fat idiot with a big mouth. Who wants to fight alongside you?"

His words enraged Li Qiang again, who went up and kicked him fiercely until Liu Lian pulled him away.

Tom sighed, walked to the glass, and looked outside at the busy ants coming and going. He began to reflect on himself.

The first test that came with the apocalypse was human nature. He initially thought it was Li Qiang but ended up being Zhang Meng.

The collapse of order allowed certain people's inner desires to be unleashed due to lack of supervision, leading to decisions made without considering consequences.

When Liu Lian mentioned going to the police station for help, Zhang Meng suggested Tom go alone. At the time, it seemed normal, as it was the best choice. Now, Tom realized Zhang Meng probably wanted to get rid of him, the one maintaining order, so they could return to their original state.

Li Qiang would assert dominance again, oppressing others, and Zhang Meng probably hoped to benefit from Li Qiang's spoils, including Jiaqi.

"Was it wrong for me to stay to help them?" Tom asked himself. "No, it wasn't."

If everyone in the city had shrunk by 24 times, the city would have expanded by 24 times for them.

In a world where even ants loved to eat humans, without familiar tools, their own strength was too insignificant; they had to unite.

He was manipulated this time because he gave a critical task to an uncertain person, someone he couldn't fully trust. But at the time, he had made that choice because the gecko biscuit was unwell, after weighing his options.

If Luo Jun could explain Zhang Meng's situation to him, he would never have chosen Zhang Meng. Even if it meant taking off all his armor on the spot, he would have gone up to tie the rope himself.

Although Zhang Meng wasn't certain at the time, he was indeed the best choice compared to others. And at the time, he also instructed the gecko to watch Zhang Meng's movements. Now it seemed the gecko was distracted by Zhang Meng's food, which led to its being pushed down.

Zhang Meng must have paid attention to the gecko's condition when he went up, confirming that it was unstable, which allowed him to do so; otherwise, he would have been bitten to death by the gecko.

"Next time, when I make a decision, I must consider unstable factors more carefully," Tom summed up to himself.

"It's... it's over, Tom. We're about to be eaten by ants." Li Qiang, no longer as mighty as before, spoke with a trembling voice.

Tom saw ten large worker ants approaching their glass jar, bustling with collected food. Were they going to bring out the food they collected and eat it?

The worker ants crawled directly into the jar, and the survivors gathered together, facing four large ants.

"It's over, it's over... I'm really going to be eaten by ants..." Li Qiang's teeth started chattering.

Tom wanted to fight back, but now they had no protective gear, no weapons, and faced with ten large ants, they had no chance of winning.

The large worker ants rapidly opened and closed their mandibles, making a piercing sound in the glass jar, frightening Chen Jianbin to sit back on the ground again.

Seeing that everyone dared not resist, one of the worker ants approached Tom.