Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 898 An Illusion?

He Lingling exhaled softly as she spoke, her eyes filled with a complex expression:

"I shouldn't have assumed that only the old field mouse existed in the burrow."

"…Holy crap!" Wu Xuhan was utterly stunned. "If that's the case, doesn't that mean there are countless field mice in this burrow?! We're actually in a mouse nest?!?"

The thought of the countless field mice swarming behind the claws on the walls sent a chill down the spines of everyone present.

“No wonder,” Chen Yi quickly realized, his expression turning serious. “No wonder the old field mouse always knew what we did.”

It turns out that deep in the soil of their burrows, there were always one or two... or even more field mice watching them.

After listening to the whole story, Yu Shijiu subconsciously looked at the broken claw in his hand and asked with some confusion:

"Wait a minute, if I cut off this claw... wouldn't that mean I'll be resented by some field mouse with a missing claw?"

After all, the earthen walls and deep underground behind those claws obscure their bodies—a dense swarm of field mice...

"..." The four of them paused at the same time. After a few seconds, He Lingling nodded. "Logically speaking, that's how it is."

Upon hearing this, Xu Han forgot his fear and looked at Yu Shijiu with a hint of sympathy, sighing, "Sigh, Shijiu, how come your luck is so bad—"

Before he could finish his words of comfort, the group suddenly heard a soft footstep coming from the entrance of the main room.

"..."

Xu Han immediately stopped talking and, like the other four, looked alertly toward the entrance of the main room.

A dozen seconds later, as the footsteps grew closer, the group saw Thumbelina walk in slowly with her head down.

Realizing there were people in the main room, Thumbelina wiped her eyes, looked up, and gave a somewhat awkward smile.

"You've all finished breakfast..."

In the candlelight, Thumbelina's eyes looked red and swollen, clearly from crying, and her expression carried a numb resignation and a deep-seated fear.

Yu Shijiu glanced behind her—the old field mouse hadn't followed.

Is it because Thumbelina has resigned herself to her fate and obeyed?

“Yes,” Yu Shijiu quickly replied to Thumbelina, “We just finished eating, what about you?”

“…I’ve already eaten.” Thumbelina smiled gently at Yu Shijiu, then whispered, “Grandma Field Mouse said we should continue cleaning after we finish eating, so why are you still here?”

Yu Shijiu: "We're getting ready to clean up."

He Lingling and the others beside her nodded in agreement: "Aren't you coming with us?"

This is what He Lingling asked.

"I'm not going to go with you guys."

Thumbelina walked into the house with a pale face. Upon hearing this, she shook her head and said softly:

"I have other things to do."

The five people exchanged glances upon hearing this and remained silent.

Thumbelina, however, seemed oblivious to the somber atmosphere that had settled in the main room.

She walked past the group of people and went straight to the basket where the swallows were lying. She squatted down, gently stroked the black feathers of the swallows that were sticking out of the blanket, and suddenly hummed a familiar, strangely melody in a low voice.

The gazes of the five people changed simultaneously.

He Lingling, An Jie, and even Chen Yi, Xu Hanyu, and Shi Jiu were all stunned for several seconds.

The strangely melody that Thumbelina sang... was exactly the same as the humming of that unknown woman's voice in the dead of night.

The low singing echoed in the silent main room, which, combined with the scratching sounds coming from the depths of the cave outside, sounded particularly eerie.

After her initial shock, Anjie immediately gave the others a look, signaling them to hold back for the time being.

He Lingling reacted quickly by collecting the bones and bracelets on the table, leaving only the old bracelet she had brought back from the hidden cave, which she placed in a relatively conspicuous but not overtly obvious place.

Thumbelina hummed to herself for a while, and her expression seemed to calm down a bit.

She stood up, turned to the crowd, and forced a familiar, gentle smile, her voice weak:

"Oh, by the way, Grandma Field Mouse just asked me to tell you... the storage room needs to be organized, and the winter food needs to be sorted and stored properly. Shall we... go now?"

As she spoke, Thumbelina's gaze swept over the crowd. When it passed over the old bracelet on the table, her pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, and her fingers unconsciously curled up. But she quickly looked away, as if she hadn't seen anything.

He Lingling took it all in. She stepped forward, speaking as gently as possible:

"Okay, we'll go right away. Thumbelina, you don't look well. Are you too tired? Do you want to rest for a bit?"

"No, no need."

Thumbelina quickly shook her head, as if afraid of being left alone. "I'll go with you. I... I know roughly where to put the things."

"Okay, let's do it together."

Anjie nodded, while giving Yu Shijiu a look that indicated he should be careful to conceal the hair on his wrist.

Yu Shijiu took out a long towel from his system backpack and casually wrapped it around his wrist a few times to cover the black and yellow hair that had grown out. His movements were as natural as if he was just casually tidying his sleeves.

Chen Yi and Xu Han subconsciously took a step forward, blocking Thumbelina's gaze from falling on Yu Shijiu.

The group followed Thumbelina out of the main room and headed to the storeroom.

The candlelight in the underground passage remained dim, and the scratching sounds on the walls seemed to have temporarily subsided as their group passed by.

But perhaps because their disguise had been exposed, the feeling that Nanhu was being watched by countless eyes became even stronger as they walked through the cave.

Yu Shijiu walked at the back of the group, concentrating on sensing everything around him as he went.

Thanks to the "blessing" of his left arm being "contaminated and assimilated," Yu Shijiu could now hear the subtle movements deep in the soil that others couldn't.

Inside the walls and beneath the ground, the slender, curved paws of the field mice subtly adjusted their direction as they moved, like a swarm of insects lurking in the soil.

The cool, furry touch of the severed claw in Yu Shijiu's hand, and the slight tingling from the hair on his arm, were constant reminders of the strange changes happening to him.

Yu Shijiu could feel that her upper arm was starting to itch.

Is the pollution starting to spread upwards again?

Yu Shijiu quietly scratched his itchy upper arm, then subtly pulled it back.

It's okay, it's just an arm. If it really becomes unusable, just ignore it. Besides...

Yu Shijiu lowered his eyes and felt his left arm, which had been "contaminated and assimilated".

Yu Shijiu wondered if it was just her imagination, but she felt that the strength and muscles in her contaminated arm seemed to have gotten bigger?

It's probably just my imagination, right? After all, not everyone gets to experience the phenomenon of hair growing back on their arms like a primal trait.

Yu Shijiu thought to himself, not really caring.