Chapter 1: Shrunk

Chapter 1: Shrunk

In a classroom of Grade 12, Class 4.

On the spacious floor, a black ant was restlessly moving, darting around in all directions, its antennae twitching.

Chen Mu sat with his back against the corner of a desk, holding a paper clip tightly in his hand.

After taking three deep breaths, he suddenly turned around and thrust the paper clip forward with a shining tip, accurately hitting the ant's head and the connection to its body.

The black ant, just about to resist, suffered a fatal blow. Its legs and antennae continued to twitch vigorously as the nerves hadn't completely died.

Chen Mu stared at the ant, which gradually stopped moving, speechless for a long time.

...

One hour ago.

Chen Mu discovered that his body had shrunk.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

At first, it was a strange experience. Everything around him instantly magnified countless times. The classroom's roof became an unimaginably high sky, and desks and chairs turned into towering buildings. The whole classroom seemed like an entire universe.

He didn't know how big he was now, but previously, he could easily crush ants underfoot, and now he was almost as small as a little calf.

He had no idea what caused his body to shrink; it was a mystery.

But after being lost for a minute, his strong will to survive compelled him to quickly adjust his mindset.

As a baby, he was abandoned at the doorstep of an orphanage called "Qi Dian." He endured bullying and hardships during his childhood, was later adopted, experienced several foster families, and worked hard to support his studies. While he might not have had the most privileged upbringing, at least he developed a stronger resilience compared to his peers.

He didn't know the situation of his classmates, so he thought of finding someone first and then figuring things out.

However, just as he took a few steps, his legs trembled when he saw an ant suddenly appear in front of him.

It was a local Japanese carpenter ant, also known as the "big black ant," with a body length of over ten millimeters, shiny black, and full of energy. Chen Mu used to catch and playfully kill many of them during his childhood. These ants usually stayed outdoors and rarely showed up indoors, let alone in a clean classroom that was cleaned every day.

Chen Mu felt it was a cruel twist of fate that he encountered an extremely fierce ant as soon as he became small.

And as the ant "saw" him, it immediately charged toward him, waving its antennae.

When they first met, they had a few fights, but despite Wei Dalei being almost two meters tall in junior high, he couldn't beat the seemingly thin and weak Chen Mu. After a few attempts, Wei Dalei completely surrendered and started calling him "boss." Later on, they became really close friends. Of course, the main reason for this was that Wei Dalei's grades were not great, and he always wanted Chen Mu to help him copy his homework or lend a hand during exams.

Among Dong Junwei's group, there were some tall boys. When they encountered the same ants earlier, everyone was frightened and didn't know what to do. It was a girl who saved them by reminding everyone to pick up small stones or pieces of dirt and throw them back at the ants, barely saving their lives.

Of course, when they say "stones," it's more like small pebbles or bits of dirt.

Wei Dalei was aware of Chen Mu's strength and fierceness, but the others had no idea.

Since high school, Chen Mu hadn't clashed with anyone, and no one could have expected that this seemingly ordinary and unnoticed classmate would be so formidable.

Dong Junwei was the class monitor, strong-willed, and responsible. Even after shrinking, she had been the one gathering the classmates together, maintaining everyone's fragile morale. Now, seeing Chen Mu adding strength to their group naturally made her happy.

"Let's confirm again, did everyone who was in the classroom just now make it here?"

"Yes, we're all here."

A girl said, "Today, there's an exchange activity with another school, and most of them went to the sports field. The ones who were in the classroom at that time should be us."

After confirming, they formed a circle.

They used to have a common goal, but now they looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

"Class monitor, what should we do next?" someone asked.

"For now, we can only try our best to survive. As you all saw, a few scattered ants were enough to make us helpless. If we can't change back to our original size in a short time, survival will be a big problem."

Though Dong Junwei had been encouraging everyone, she didn't have much certainty herself. After all, no one had experienced such an absurd situation.

"But I want to go home. I don't know how my parents are doing now." A small and thin girl said tearfully.

"Forget about going home for now." Tang Jing, who had always been quiet and reserved, suddenly spoke up.

Tang Jing had excellent grades and was known as a top student. Moreover, her knowledge beyond the curriculum was extensive, and she won various miscellaneous competition awards. When the class used to argue about something, her intervention would settle the matter.

"Why?" The girl was on the verge of tears, feeling like her only hope was crumbling.

Tang Jing explained, "Based on my observation, our current height is about two centimeters or less. If my guess is correct, the scaling is reduced to 1% of the original size. It means someone who was 1.7 meters tall is now 1.7 centimeters. Considering our current state, walking 10 kilometers would be equivalent to walking 1000 kilometers in the past. Think about how far your home is from the school, and now there's no car to pick you up."