"Shi Rang!"
"Shi Rang, we need to leave!"
Jack slapped Shi Rang on the neck with all his might, using that incredibly faint sensation to jolt him awake.
"That guy isn't dead! Grab your things and let's get out of here before he wakes up! He'll just think he bumped his head!" the Sheriff shouted. "Hurry up and pick up the other Tiny Ones. We still have a factory to get to!"
Shi Rang stiffly turned his head. Following the command on instinct, he reached toward the robber, his arm hovering in the air for a moment of hesitation. He snatched up his phone and wallet, wiped the ritual dagger on the ground twice to clean it, and hurled it far away. Cradling his tiny saviors who had climbed onto his palm, he sprinted straight for his electric bicycle.
He pushed the bike up to the road, twisted the throttle, and sped away.
It wasn't his first time being robbed, but it was his first time being robbed out in the wilderness.
City robbers usually avoided using violence, fearing that making too much noise would attract patrols. However, that experience was useless out here. That robber had definitely intended to stab him just now. In a lawless, desolate area like this, a vehicle could vanish without a trace, and a corpse would likely just be hastily disposed of as a nameless drifter.
But should he have thought of another way just now?
Should he have just let the robber take his wallet?
Should he have run, waiting for the robber to take the bank card and toss the wallet aside so he could retrieve it later?
His mind, now freed from the grip of sheer panic, spun rapidly, replaying the scenario over and over in an endless loop of regret.
Yet, Shi Rang knew very well that he would never allow himself to be robbed. He was terrified of being poor. He had just lost his job and his sole source of income. Soon, he would have to compensate someone for a ruined camera, and he might even have to go on the run. He needed money for everything. Any financial loss was completely unacceptable to him.
Right, the wound—
He turned his arm over, discovering that the knife wound had unknowingly healed. After wiping away the bloodstains, not a single mark remained.
The Mini-Humans were incredibly skilled at cleaning up. Before Shi Rang picked them up, they had already wiped their blood-stained hands on the robber's clothes, ensuring they wouldn't get a single drop on Shi Rang.
Since the robber wasn't dead, there was a high probability the man would just consider himself unlucky.
Given the caliber of the police force in the Tenth District, thugs generally wouldn't call the cops anyway.
But why did the fear lingering in his heart refuse to dissipate?
There was a manifesto written on the homepage of the Management Bureau Main Station. It was a majestic oath about protecting the world from anomalous invasions, shattering fear, and safeguarding humanity. Back then, Shi Rang had marvelled at the author's prose with the mindset of someone reading a web novel. Now that he knew it was reality, his perspective had completely flipped.
What exactly was he now?
Was he an anomaly that needed to be locked up?
He merged onto the main road, heading toward the Yunling New District once again, trying to make up for the time wasted by that little interlude.
Vehicles occasionally passed him by, zooming past his small electric bicycle. Every time a car swept past, it left Shi Rang trembling with anxiety, the grit and gravel kicked up by the tires stinging his skin.
"...What did you do to that guy?"
"Gave his brainstem and cerebellum a few strikes, and did the same to his eyes and lungs. It always works like a charm. The younger Tiny Ones are quite handy at this, and we even have doctors among us," the Sheriff explained in Jack's stead—obviously, it was more appropriate for an adult to discuss such a brutal topic. "You don't need to feel guilty about this, Shi Rang. That guy wanted to kill you. If you were an ordinary person, you wouldn't have survived the trip to the hospital with a stab wound to your organs. This place is an absolute mess; people are committing robberies in broad daylight."
"Back at the newspaper office, is that also how you chipped open that coffee mug?"
"Exactly. To our smaller members, ceramic is very brittle. We just need to grind away at it with a micro-drill for a bit. As long as you provide the materials, we can craft tools and even machines for our own use—the researcher in charge of us used to call it... some sort of effect. Anyway, we can be of much more help to you."
Shi Rang didn't know what to say to that.
Should he blame his lifesavers? He harbored no such thoughts.
But how were they so proficient at this? Did shrinking instantly grant them the sudden realization of how to perform such tasks, or could it be—
Shi Rang didn't ask.
He focused his mind on driving, trying his hardest not to imagine the scene of a Mini-Human crawling into his ear and pulverizing his brain.
Business first.
'We're in a cooperative relationship right now. They have no reason to attack me...'
The towering factories of the Yunling New District emerged on the horizon. There were no police cordons or suspicious vehicles visible on the main road, which was a good sign.
Maybe he could still make it in time.
"What's your plan?" the Sheriff asked. "Pretend to just be passing by the outside of the factory district?"
"Pretty much."
"Slow down, you're looking too suspicious. That's an abandoned factory area; heading over there for no reason is too conspicuous."
"I'm not planning to go inside. I'm familiar with this direction. There's a discount department store about five kilometers down the road. I go there often, though I usually don't take this route. Comparatively speaking, this road is a bit smoother to drive on, it's just deserted and unsafe." Shi Rang eased up on the throttle, explaining his thought process. "When I pass by, I'll first check to see if the area is locked down, and then I'll actually head to the department store. My fridge is empty anyway, so I need to pick up some groceries."
"But that specific factory building is a long way off the main road. I doubt you'll be able to see it at a glance."
"True... Do you guys have a way?"
"Of course we do!" Jack, who had been forgotten for quite a while, crawled forward from the back collar. He stirred up a tickling sensation on Shi Rang's neck, making him chuckle as he fought the urge to shrink his neck away. "We can send some Tiny Ones to scout ahead for you."
"How long will that take?"
"I can take a group of Tiny Ones of different heights with me," the Sheriff said. "The larger ones will handle the advance, and the smaller ones will do the scouting. Maybe we can even tame a few ants for transport. You can take your time at the store to give us enough time to operate. Finally, we'll find a marker and meet up. Jack will stay with you; he's too big for this kind of work."
"I'm very useful! I'm the big guy here!"
"That's right, kid, you're very useful," the Sheriff consoled him dismissively before turning back to Shi Rang. "So, how about it?"
"That'll take too much time, but... if Director Bjorn is still being tracked, even if I go to the scene and wipe my traces, it won't change the outcome. Getting caught would only be a matter of time; I can't fool the professionals. However, I haven't been caught yet. That means they either haven't arrived, or no one is searching there at all."
Shi Rang delivered this somewhat convoluted analysis slowly, giving both himself and the Mini-Humans time to process it.
"What I need is more information. I need to know why they haven't come to arrest me yet... Can you see that abandoned bus stop ahead? The one at the end of the road? How about we use that as our rendezvous point?"
"No problem. Our horizontal vision is pretty good. Wait for our good news."
The tickling sensation in his ear returned, trailing down Shi Rang's neck before finally disappearing at his collar.
The Yunling New District looked no different than usual. Shi Rang didn't slow down as he passed, driving straight ahead with his eyes locked on the direction of the department store. Only when he was about to leave the area did he follow his intuition and cast a perfectly natural glance toward the industrial zone.
The sprawling layers of factory buildings looked entirely harmless in the broad daylight. There were no vehicles, no people, no bloodstains on the ground, and no obvious tire tracks.
Yet, somewhere deep down, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was in there.
Lurking in a place he couldn't see...
Shi Rang sped past the abandoned bus stop and rode off into the distance.
It looked as though nothing had happened, but Jack told him that the reconnaissance team had already set out.
-----------------
For the miniaturized Mini-Humans, all the rules of the world had undergone a subtle transformation.
The two-millimeter members carrying micro-drills drifted down to the ground first. After waiting for their even smaller companions to land one by one, they formed up and set off.
What the reconnaissance team needed to guard against wasn't being trampled by pedestrians—there were far too many microscopic crevices capable of sheltering their bodies, and any applied pressure would just disperse to the surrounding objects due to their tiny surface area. No, their true enemies were the carnivorous insects and small creatures blocking their path, as well as the sudden, unpredictable gusts of wind.
The road ahead was long. The cracks and raised granules on the concrete ground were deep ravines and rolling hills in their eyes. But as the scorching midday sun drifted toward the western sky, the wind began to howl through the industrial zone.
Waiting until the right gust arrived, the scout squad linked hands and spread the fabric tied to their coats. Catching the wind, they soared upward, gliding deep into the industrial zone.
As their altitude climbed, objects further away came into their line of sight.
A yellow police cordon, several police cars parked haphazardly, and...
"There's someone!"
The first to shout were the two members on the outermost flanks of the squad. Soon after, the entire reconnaissance team saw them.
"Three, six, nine—there's a lot of them!"
"Let go and scatter!"
"They got here so fast. Damn it, this is trouble..." The leading Sheriff tucked his coat in and narrowed his eyes during the descent, carefully observing the equipment strapped to the people's waists. He quickly spotted a concealed emblem among the gear.
The insignia of the Management Bureau.
The people masquerading as local police and officials searching around the factory were indeed the lapdogs of the Management Bureau.