Humans Shrunk 100 Times

Chapter 13: Research

"You're also up early."

Chen Mu didn't hold any position in the class, and before, he and Tang Jing would only discuss some math problems at most. But these days, they've been talking more than they did in the past three years combined.

"Da Lei's snoring was so scary," Tang Jing joked, sticking out her tongue.

She worked the first shift last night, so she could go to sleep around 10 o'clock in the evening. Since she didn't do much physical labor yesterday and followed Chen Mu to fetch water while freshening up a bit, she actually slept better than others.

"Haha, he was probably too tired yesterday," Chen Mu chuckled.

"You're busier than him. Why don't you get more sleep?" Tang Jing asked.

Chen Mu replied, "I found that our awakened abilities use something similar to mental power. Even if it's overused, it won't lead to fatigue; you'll just feel dizzy. But the recovery is faster than physical fatigue. After sleeping last night, I feel completely fine now."

"When you climbed on the desk yesterday, you rested for quite a while. Was it because you felt dizzy?" Tang Jing inquired again.

"Yes, at that moment, I didn't know what would happen, so I took the safest approach."

"You did the right thing. We still know too little about these so-called abilities," Tang Jing sighed.

Chen Mu also wanted to use Tang Jing's mind to help analyze his own ability, so he took the opportunity to say, "I noticed that after consuming mental power and then recovering, there's a certain degree of growth, similar to physical training, but the effect is more noticeable."

Tang Jing nodded, "That's reasonable. If there's no room for growth, these abilities won't be of much help to humanity."

"What do you mean?"

"I think it ultimately comes down to a matter of scale."

"Scale?"

"Yes, for example, the abilities of you and Da Lei are more than enough to deal with ants' size, but they're almost useless against rats or even larger animals like cats and dogs."

"That's right," Chen Mu agreed.

"In that case, there are only two ways for humans to reach the top of the food chain."

"What are they?"

"The first is the growth of abilities, like Da Lei's strength continuously increasing until he can take on an elephant bare-handed, or your ability to control a whole building."

"That's impossible."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it just feels very strange," Chen Mu shook his head.

Your feeling is probably right because the gap in scale between living beings can't be directly compensated by physical confrontation. For example, if bacteria want to kill humans, they must destroy our body's functions, not just bite us directly."

"So, is there another way?" Chen Mu asked.

"The second way is to develop technology, or rather, technology built on top of these abilities."

"Technology..."

Even though the apocalypse has only been two days, Chen Mu already feels unfamiliar with this word.

"Humanity once dominated the world, not relying solely on physical strength. Even the strongest person can't match a lion or tiger. We invented guns, automobiles, and airplanes, all to make up for our shortcomings."

"But why is it said to be technology built on these abilities?" Chen Mu inquired.

"Because much of humanity's past technology relied on certain scales."

"Scale again?"

"That's right. For example, even if we perfectly scale down all the components of a steam engine to the same proportions as now, it won't work. Similarly, internal combustion engines, machinery, and even a simple screw, when reduced in size by 100 times, might not function properly."

"Why?"

Chen Mu couldn't understand Tang Jing's words for a moment. He always thought that as long as humans had enough time, they could restore the previous technological level.

Everyone still drives to work every day, comes home to cook, watches television, and plays computer games, but it's just a shrunken version of the world. But according to Tang Jing, such a world may never be possible."

"I know it may sound counterintuitive, but it's actually easy to understand. Let's take the simplest example: a regular candle. If we shrink it 100 times, the flame it produces won't shrink 100 times as well.

"Many phenomena in physics can't be simply scaled proportionally."

"That kinda makes sense." Although Chen Mu still couldn't fully grasp it, he got the idea that he's not even close to Tang Jing's level in this aspect.

Tang Jing continued, "Of course, theoretically, we could manufacture machinery of the same size as before and operate it through a series of intermediate steps. But who knows how long that would take? In the short term, humans can only focus on ensuring survival. If several generations don't pass down knowledge, there will be a gap, and perhaps the lost civilization will never be recovered."

Chen Mu fell into silence for a while and then asked, "So, are these abilities even more important than we imagine?"

Tang Jing nodded, "They not only become our reliance for survival, but they might also serve as the foundation for humanity's resurgence."

Chen Mu chuckled, "I must say, you're quite persuasive. You could make a fortune in a pyramid scheme."

Tang Jing shrugged nonchalantly, "Chen Mu, have you ever considered that your ability might be much more powerful than you think?"

"It's indeed a bit more useful than I initially thought, but for now, I can only create some simple tools," Chen Mu said with some helplessness.

Tang Jing smiled, "The reason humans stand out from other animals is because they learned to use tools from the beginning. While others are still in a primitive state, you already have the right to use tools. Isn't that a huge advantage?"

At this moment, Chen Mu somewhat understood the significance of his abilities. Before industrial civilization was fully restored, he did have a tremendous advantage.

But there are two prerequisites.

Firstly, his ability needs to be powerful enough to manipulate larger objects and perform more precise actions. Otherwise, if it takes him ages just to deal with a simple plastic bucket, it's obviously not very meaningful.

Secondly, and most importantly, he has to survive.

Currently, his ability is of limited help in battles. If he faces even just a few ants, he might be in big trouble, let alone talking about the future of human technology, which sounds utterly ridiculous.

With a helpless shrug, he said to Tang Jing, "Let's talk about surviving for that long first."

Tang Jing didn't continue that topic and suddenly looked a bit embarrassed as she asked, "Aren't you going inside?"

At first, Chen Mu didn't understand, but then he suddenly realized.

She didn't come out early in the morning just to greet him; she must have needed to take care of her own business.

"Uh, yeah, I came out for some fresh air. I'll go back now. You...do what you need to do..."

After he finished speaking, he realized that his words were ambiguous, but he couldn't explain further. Saying more would only make it worse, so he quickly escaped and walked back.

Leaving Tang Jing somewhat amused and speechless.

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