Chapter 125

The person inside the iron cage looked thin and small, because they were curled up facing inward, so nobody could see their face, not even their gender.

Chen Mu was quite surprised, but not very worried, because at a glance this person looked like they had been imprisoned.

Held in the deepest part of the container, with goods piled up outside, just thinking about it feels pitiful.

That person seemed asleep, not even woken by the loud noise of moving boxes outside.

Chen Mu exchanged a glance with He Ying, then cautiously walked over.

At this moment the carriage interior was brightly lit, allowing every detail to be seen.

After getting closer, Chen Mu's heart relaxed a bit more.

This person wore the uniform of Ziwei High School, obviously captured by Yi Zhong. But Yi Zhong always kills anyone from our school on sight, yet for some reason they kept this person.

Going around to the side of the iron cage, they finally saw the face clearly.

This was a female student.

Despite not being washed for a long time, her face still showed a youthful demeanor; combined with her especially petite stature, she gave the impression of not being a high school student, at most looking like a first-year middle schooler.

The two looked at each other, obviously not knowing this junior schoolmate.

Chen Mu waved, calling Wei Dalei over to lift the iron cage out.

This cage was not as big as the "birdcage" Chen Mu had made; it was square but too low, so a person inside could not stand, and one could imagine how harsh the living conditions were.

It was basically treating a person like a dog.

Chen Mu felt a personal anger toward Yi Zhong for the first time.

Wei Dalei lifted the iron cage with one hand and quickly walked out of the container.

Perhaps the jostling finally woke her; the girl inside moved slightly, but curled her body even tighter.

Everyone gathered around.

Dong Junwei looked around at everyone and asked, "Does anyone know her?"

After saying that, she looked toward Lu Shanshan, thinking that since they were both lowerclassmen, they might happen to know her.

However, Lu Shanshan, Cao Zishan, and the others exchanged glances and all shook their heads.

Ziwei High School has over two thousand students, so not knowing her is normal, but this situation left Dong Junwei and the others stumped.

Looking at the girl sleeping soundly in the iron cage, everyone felt it was improper, yet they hated to wake her.

Tang Jing crouched down, examined the girl closely, stood up and said, "Let her sleep for now; we'll open the wooden boxes to see what's inside."

"Okay."

This proposal gained everyone's agreement.

Including Chen Mu, everyone was very curious about these wooden boxes and had long wanted to take them apart to see what's inside.

A whole carload of supplies.

There must be lots of good stuff.

This feeling is a bit like receiving a gift on a holiday, just about to unwrap it.

"How many are there in total?"

"I just counted them." Du Jia Jia said: "There are 36 in total."

"It can actually hold that many?"

"This model vehicle is scaled down from real size." Tang Jing said: "I estimated that the container uses the standard 40GP specification, length 12 centimeters, width and height both 2.4 centimeters; the wooden boxes are 1-centimeter cubes, and if full they could hold 48, judging by the earlier look, it should be about that."

"The model car is easy to understand, but these wooden boxes—no one knows how Yi Zhong's people got them."

"I'll open them."

Wei Dalei walked forward holding a large axe, looking left and right.

Originally they wanted to find a gap to pry the box open, but after searching for a while they discovered the box was completely smooth and seamless, a single piece with not even a crack.

"No wonder it was so hard to move just now—what kind of wooden box is this?"

Wei Dalei was getting impatient, about to split it with the axe, when Chen Mu stopped him.

"Let me try."

He placed his palm against the wooden box.

The next moment.

A circular opening slowly appeared on the top of the wooden box.

Because they didn't know this material, Chen Mu didn't dare act recklessly, but upon reaching out he found that the box's material, at least in density, was no different from ordinary wood.

Everyone gathered around, wanting to see what was inside.

Upon looking, everyone was dumbfounded.

Inside were some irregularly shaped round objects, one by one, earth-yellow, looking somewhat like potatoes.

Miniature potatoes.

Chen Mu reached in, took one out, and handed it to Tang Jing, saying, "It's definitely a potato."

Tang Jing held it in her hand, rubbed it a few times, then made some marks with her fingernail.

"Indeed it is."

"How could there be such shrunken potatoes?"

"Could it be some kind of ability?"

As soon as that was said, everyone turned their gaze toward the girl in the iron cage.

"Could it be, Shrinking Objects?"

"This..."

This guess seemed plausible, yet although the ability sounded ordinary at first, upon further thought everyone felt a chill.

Shrinking Objects

If it were before, it really wouldn't be of much use.

But after humans shrink, this ability is absolutely insane.

Chen Mu's ability can to some extent achieve this goal, but in practice, things that are too precise or beyond his understanding simply cannot be done.

For example, whether it works or not, theoretically, if he had enough materials, he could build a computer.

But the fact is, Chen Mu can't just think of a computer and make one; he needs to know every detail of the object's structure.

With his ability, at best he can only make a computer-like shell.

As for the internal structure, how much could a senior high school student know? Graphics cards, processors, hard drives… not to mention deadly integrated circuits, even a relatively simple cooling fan couldn't be made by human effort.

This is no longer a matter of ability, but of knowledge.

But if a person's ability is to shrink objects, then it's completely different.

Everyone thought of this possibility, and their gazes at the girl in the iron cage gradually became eager.

However, Tang Jing at that moment poured a basin of cold water:

"The ability to shrink might exist, but these potatoes are probably not a product of that ability."

"Why?"

"Actually it's simple: given the quantity of these potatoes, if they were at their original size, how big a pile would that be? Even if the cafeteria stores some food, it couldn't possibly buy this many; where would Yi Zhong get this many potatoes?" Tang Jing explained.

"That also makes sense."

"The most important thing is, even if there really were someone with the ability to shrink objects, I don't think he could achieve this at this stage."

"How so?"

"As things stand now, the strength of an ability is the biggest prerequisite limiting ability users; among us, Chen Mu is considered the strongest, but controlling an object's scale is only up to a few times his own size—reaching the size of a potato is hard to imagine, let alone a whole pile of them."