Chapter 1: Miniaturized

Hey there! Just to clarify, I'm not the one who wrote this novel. I'm just translating it. The original novel name is "人类缩小100倍," and it's written by 怪灯. I'll try to preserves the beauty, emotions, and essence of the story, so that more readers can experience its magic and wonder. I approach this task seriously, always seeking to honor the original work and the creativity of its author, while making it accessible and enjoyable for a broader audience.

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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.

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.

Chen Mu had no doubt that its pincers could bite off one of his legs.

He certainly wouldn't just sit and wait for doom. Fortunately, there was half a paper clip lying on the ground. He picked it up and wielded it like a sword. After several rounds of struggle, he managed to take down one ant.

Ants have incredibly strong muscles and can carry things many times heavier than themselves. Compared to them, humans were far behind in raw strength. However, ants lacked intelligence and had poor eyesight. Besides, Chen Mu was still bigger than the ants, so he could handle them, at least for now.

This was the third ant he had killed along the way, and it took quite a toll on his stamina.

As he panted, holding his "sword," he heard a chorus of surprised voices behind him.

"Chen Mu!"

"It's really Chen Mu!"

"Hey, over here!"

"...!"

Chen Mu turned around and saw several classmates waving and calling out to him not far away.

It turned out that everyone had shrunk...

Before, he had been worried that he was the only one facing this situation, but now it seemed like everyone was in the same boat.

In times of disaster, it was natural to stick together for safety. However, after shrinking, even though they were all in the same classroom, it wasn't easy to find each other because most of their vision was blocked by the table and chair legs. Now, after over an hour, around a dozen people had gathered.

Luckily, it was the break between classes, so there weren't many people in the classroom. After seeing each other and confirming that no one was missing, they found Chen Mu last because he was sitting in the back corner.

The class monitor, Dong Junwei, stood out from the crowd and cautiously approached the ant corpse that was still twitching occasionally. She looked at it for a moment before turning to Chen Mu with a face full of disbelief. "Chen Mu, did you kill it?"

No one saw him actually doing it, so they found it hard to believe, but there was no one else around, so it was difficult not to believe.

Actually, I killed three of them.

Chen Mu felt a bit proud in his heart.

A big figure rushed out and patted Chen Mu's shoulder, laughing heartily. "Boss, you're still awesome! When I saw that ant, I almost peed my pants. My strength doesn't listen to me anymore."

The speaker was named Wei Dalei, Chen Mu's close friend, who was a tall and sturdy guy.

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."