Chapter 94: Chapter Ninety-Three: Gift

The huge plastic cube kept changing its shape, like a magical 3D slide show, eventually forming a giant sphere with a base, hovering above everyone's heads like a hot air balloon.

Lu Shanshan and her brother had long been in a daze.

I've never seen such a flashy ability before.

They of course also wanted to know the abilities of these new companions, but due to their own status, it was awkward to ask right away, especially Chen Mu; Lu Shanshan still felt a bit wary of him even now.

In fact, even Tang Jing and He Ying were seeing Chen Mu use his ability so openly for the first time.

"Just as we guessed." Tang Jing laughed.

"That's right, the mass decreased, but all other physical indicators remained unchanged—volume unchanged, hardness unchanged—in other words, the density was halved."

Chen Mu's voice also revealed his delight.

He liked Lu Shanshan's ability more than anyone else.

As it stands, changing an object's shape is related to its density, and with Lu Shanshan, it's as if she indirectly doubled his ability.

This is a classic case of 1+1 being greater than 2.

Take this plastic cube before us, for example: with Chen Mu's original ability he could naturally control it, but obviously not as freely as now.

From more intuitive data, the density of stainless steel is about 7.8g/cm, while common PP plastic is about 0.9; for the same volume, Chen Mu finds controlling stainless steel eight times harder than plastic.

Lu Shanshan's ability to halve an object's density is truly a boon for Chen Mu.

……

"Hot air balloon" instantly melted, reverting back to the original plastic cube.

Lu Shanshan only now came to her senses, unable to help asking: "What ability is this?"

"Changing an object's shape."

Chen Mu answered casually.

But Lu Shanshan still couldn't let it go.

This ability sounds just like that, so why does it look so flashy? But upon reflection, that extravagant scene indeed didn't stray from the description "changing an object's shape"; it's just that the user is overly powerful.

Lu Shanshan was still in shock, yet Chen Mu asked again: "At this level, how many times can you use it in a day?"

"This is already my limit; any more would give me a headache."

"You haven't deliberately practiced before?" Chen Mu said, feeling a bit greedy, then added with a smile: "Your ability should be very useful for moving supplies, right? Why isn't the usage frequency higher?"

Lu Shanshan seemed a bit unconvinced, her face slightly flushed: "I… I've already been practicing hard… I practice every day until my head hurts before stopping."

Chen Mu blinked, then relaxed.

The plastic block before us is about one cubic centimeter—already a sizable chunk for today's humans—and Lu Shanshan's ability reaching this level is actually quite difficult.

You can tell this girl is still relatively positive and proactive.

But at this level, it's not much help yet for Qiming's construction work.

Take the present situation, for example: Chen Mu needs to drive all 125 stainless steel bars into the gap beneath the door, but Lu Shanshan's ability can't affect even a single one.

"Last question: is your effect on objects permanent?"

"For now, yes, but we only have about ten days so far, and I don't know what will happen later."

Chen Mu nodded.

As for testing Lu Shanshan, though not entirely satisfactory, the harvest has been quite abundant.

There are still some more precise data to test later, such as the upper limit of how much an object's mass can be affected; these are handed over to Tang Jing, who as the study committee member is obviously most interested in this research.

Next.

Chen Mu then questioned and tested Lu Liangliang.

The result was the same as what Lu Shanshan said: the older brother and younger sister's abilities are basically opposites.

Lu Shanshan can reduce an object's weight, while Lu Liangliang can increase it.

It's quite obvious that, as the older brother, his ability is weaker than his sister's by more than a little; after Lu Shanshan lightened the plastic cube, Lu Liangliang couldn't restore it at all.

For now, the testing of the two is temporarily concluded.

In fact, the research on Special Abilities is an ongoing effort, mainly conducted by Tang Jing, with subjects ranging from Chen Mu and Dong Junwei to Sun Yuan and Chang Junyan, without exception; now four more test subjects have been added, and Tang Xueba's excitement on his face cannot be hidden.

Since Lu Shanshan couldn't help for the time being, Chen Mu let Tang Jing take her and her brother away.

……

Life then entered a period of stability.

In the days that followed, Chen Mu continued to focus on sealing the door gap, while that little kitten, aside from rainy days, came here almost every day to play.

Zhao Xiao Yan, who likes cats the most, gave it a name—Little Yellow.

Among the ten orange cats, about eight are called that name.

No one else minded, so following Zhao Xiao Yan's lead, they called it Little Yellow.

But one day, Little Yellow caused a big incident.

This kitten, seemingly hyperactive, somehow dragged in a dead mouse pup and placed it at the storeroom's entrance.

Such a tiny cat—it's uncertain whether it has hunting ability—this prey was likely taken from an older cat.

Because of this, everyone suddenly realized that the cat might be coming here every day due to someone present.

Cases of cats placing dead mice beside humans' pillows are common; supposedly this shows the master distrusts the cleaner's hunting ability, fearing they'll starve.

Given the current situation, perhaps someone on the team once fed it, and it caught the scent, making it eager to come inside.

But with humans shrunk to this extent, it's doubtful whether their scent could carry that far.

"What should we do now?"

After lunch, sixteen people gathered around Chen Mu's newly made oval long table and held an emergency meeting.

Everyone was moved by Little Yellow's gift, but the problem is, this present really can't be accepted.

Mice can likewise be food; roasting the meat on an iron plate would probably not taste bad.

Even if it's a youngling, to humans it's still a colossal creature; this dead mouse—never mind whether we can move it in, even if we did bring it inside, we'd surely be unable to finish it in a short time, and the end result would be rot and stench.

Having a puddle of rotting meat in the room is obviously not a good thing.

But if we ignore it and leave it at the doorway, that's just as bad, because it would quickly attract a swarm of ants and similar crawling pests, making things even more troublesome.

「How about I go try to see if I can drag it away and move it farther? That should be fine, right? 」

Wei Dalei, when it comes to work requiring brute strength, has always stepped up without hesitation; seeing everyone at a loss, he naturally volunteered.