Chapter 101: Flight with Whales
Because of the limited indoor space, Rong Yuan often felt that the space was cramped when he was still a normal person. Crowded, hurried, and oppressive are the feelings that many modern buildings give people. After all, with more and more people accommodated on limited land, the space that individuals can enjoy is naturally greatly compressed.
When I shrunk for the first time, although the furniture and other things became huge, the space became wider, so wide that it even made people feel empty. From one end of the room to the other, the distance was so far that it seemed to span across a province.
The second time it shrank, it felt more crowded, because many tiny arthropods that were usually invisible to the naked eye suddenly appeared in front of him. The impact was indescribable. For example, dust mites. There may be millions of dust mites on the quilts and pillows of ordinary people that have not been aired for two or three months. There may be nearly ten thousand mites per square meter on the carpet that is cleaned regularly. Even on the face of a person when sleeping, there are hundreds or thousands of mites. Rongyuan used to think of these data as just data. When he saw the bustling scene with his own eyes, he almost wanted to burn the house he lived in during this period to ashes.
But no matter what, that was still the world he knew. But the scenery he saw after shrinking for the third time was completely different.
The lamp above my head was almost completely invisible, but the surroundings were not dark. Instead, they were filled with milky white light, a little hazy, but not dim, as if it had been automatically given a soft light effect.
Stupid humans on Earth often imagine Godzilla, chimpanzees, ancient dinosaurs and other monsters attacking cities. In those fantasies, monsters that are only tens of meters or hundreds of meters long are very scary. Those directors with poor imagination should really be allowed to see what he sees now - to him now, even mites are skyscraper-level monsters. A mite that looks a bit like a big-bellied spider crawled past him, and every time its fat legs landed, the ground trembled slightly. When a group of mites rumbled by, it was like the end of the world. When they picked up the fallen skin scraps and ate them, the crunching sound was terrible.
However, mites were nothing to Rong Yuan, because they were so big that he could only see one or two from a distance. In other words, he had shrunk so small that the space around him seemed empty again. And mites moved very slowly in his eyes, so he could avoid them from a distance before they got close.
He looked around, and now he couldn't recognize where he was in the room. The things around him were magnified to the point where they could no longer be seen in their original form. A few parts showed beautiful geometric structures, while most of them became more hideous. The ground was covered with small flowers that looked hard, angular, and like they were made of stone. However, when Rong Yuan touched them lightly, these "stone flowers" turned into even finer "gravels".
There were hills and gullies everywhere, as well as some strange-looking hills. But he could jump up these things without much effort. Rong Yuan jumped onto the highest "mountain" nearby, looked around, and suddenly heard the roar of the airflow above his head being quickly broken.
He looked up at the sound and found that the sky, which he thought was a little dark, was actually filled with all kinds of strange things floating in it. The tiny creatures suddenly scattered and looked a little panicked. Then Rong Yuan saw an unexpected creature emerge from it.
A blue whale!
——Of course it is not a real whale living in the ocean, but it looks very similar. It also has a round head, a huge body, and it swoops down from the air with its tail fin swinging aggressively. When it opens its big mouth, all the microorganisms in front of it are swallowed up. When it opens its mouth, Rong Yuan finds that it has no organs like teeth and tongue. There are tiny mouthparts inside its mouth that bloom like layers of chrysanthemums. Probably, the creatures swallowed by it will be crushed and absorbed by that mouthparts.
From this angle, it looks like its entire body only has that one mouth.
The whale had two long, soft hairs on its head, like shrimp whiskers. When it passed over Rong Yuan's head, Rong Yuan jumped up and grabbed one of the hairs and climbed onto its back. The whale shook its body uncomfortably for a few times when it was first caught, and then gave up. It didn't seem to take the tiny Rong Yuan seriously and continued its hunting journey.
The chubby whale, relying on its few small fins, carried Rong Yuan into the sky.
Above the earth, the vast sky has always left people with the impression of being empty and lonely, but Rong Yuan saw that it was not. There were colorful objects floating everywhere in the sky, including a red slender bamboo pole, light yellow cauliflower, indigo antlers, tender green kelp, pink and purple dumbbells... some of them were attached with sticky things like silk. There were also many translucent creatures floating in the air, such as the thing that looked like a soldier's hat that just passed by Rong Yuan's feet. The hemispherical top bloomed and shrank back like a flower, and the thin tentacles underneath swayed slightly. Some creatures were attached to those still lifes, and some devoured each other like whales.
This world is very quiet, with only one or two subtle sounds coming from time to time, and then all the sounds disappear. In the silence, it is also very lively, with fairy-tale colors and objects that have never been imagined everywhere. Most of them are translucent, and some have their own light sources. Countless tiny halos gather together, rendering this place like a dream.
The whale that Rong Yuan chose seemed to be the top predator in this world. It charged back and forth fearlessly, and no prey it set its eyes on could escape. Sometimes it would even tease its prey, slowing down and chasing for a while before eating it.
In the distance, a very large white platform, the size of a square, suddenly fell from the sky with a whooshing sound. It was not falling very fast, but because of its large area, the creatures below had no time to escape and were knocked down one after another. As the platform fell, it left a blank track in the air. The line that spread from the air showed how many creatures were destroyed in an instant. Soon, the platform fell out of sight, and the white mist blocked Rong Yuan's sight. The track in the air was gradually filled with other creatures, as if nothing had happened.
Rong Yuan discovered that this world of tiny creatures was far more cruel and ruthless than the world outside where creatures that were millions of times larger than them lived.
The whale took Rong Yuan flying very far, until it flew to the middle of a bunch of clouds. It rushed in to disperse the clouds, dragged out a transparent, long, thin worm with a pair of big eyes, and ate it. It then flew up and down in the clouds for several times, and it was unclear whether it was looking for food or for entertainment. Then it landed on a platform, and its thin whiskers trembled a few times on it, and then it plunged into it. Then Rong Yuan saw small balls bulging from the bottom to the top.
——Is it drinking water?
Rong Yuan guessed. He jumped off the whale's back and walked around the platform. The platform was gray-green. Although there were many small protrusions and holes, it was flat compared to other places. But there were also some particularly large protrusions - probably something like fluff, which were particularly large at the bottom and became thinner towards the top, and all tilted in one direction. To Rong Yuan, it looked like the Eiffel Tower in Flower Country cut off from the bottom of the first platform and placed horizontally.
There was also a strange thing on the platform - a small house-like thing with a fox's head. The pointed chin and slender eyes were clearly visible. There was a small milky white ball where the nose should be, and there was a thin slit below the ball which should be the mouth.
Rong Yuan thought it was alive at first, but after a long and careful look, he realized it was dead. He walked over and lifted it up with his hands. There was nothing behind the fox's head. He grabbed the nose with both hands and wanted to tear it open to see the structure inside.
"Wait! We can't do this!" A voice suddenly came from behind. Rong Yuan was so scared that he loosened his grip and the fox head fell off.
—What the hell? Is anyone talking to him here?
