Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 897 Vole

"...They are most likely the 'Thumbelinas' who 'failed' to escape in the previous attempts and were discovered by field mice or moles. The bones and bracelets that Shiku found are evidence of this."

“I suggest that during the next week while we wait for the moles to arrive, we take turns going out at night to try and communicate with ‘them’.”

He Lingling suggested.

"Exchange?" Xu Han was utterly astonished and instinctively shook his head.

"No way, they don't seem like they can communicate at all?"

"Just trying."

He Lingling explained, "If we can't communicate, that's fine. We can wait a week for the mole to come."

Yu Shijiu moved his wrists, and the black and yellow hair on his arms trembled slightly with his movements.

There was no fear in his eyes, but rather a burning flame of inquiry.

"What if the mole comes? Should we follow the original plot, watch Thumbelina be given to the mole, and then wait for Swallow to recover and take her away? Or should we..."

He paused, looked at the crowd, and lowered his voice, but it carried a dangerous excitement:

"We're trying to hijack Thumbelina... to break this cycle of multiple 'Thumbelinas'?"

"How do we break it?" Xu Han's throat tightened, and he whispered:

“We don’t even have a complete idea of ​​how many Thumbelinas there are or what their conditions are… And that field mouse, although it doesn’t seem to be very aggressive right now, who knows if it’s hiding something? The mole hasn’t arrived yet, the swallow is still half-dead… and then there are all those 'claws' that are everywhere in the burrow…”

Xu Han's voice grew softer and softer as he spoke, and he let out a long sigh.

"What on earth is going on? Why do I feel like there are monsters everywhere in the burrow? What did that old field mouse do to cause such a scene, like it's enraged by both heaven and man..."

As if in response to his words, the candlelight on the wall flickered uneasily a few times, and the scratching sounds coming from the depths of the passage seemed to intensify for a moment.

"...You really are a jinx."

He Lingling listened to the dense scratching sounds coming from the underground passage outside the main room, "Judging from the sound, it seems that those things have increased again."

Xu Han felt extremely wronged and muttered, "...No, how could the number of them be due to me?"

“We need more information,” Chen Yi said in a deep voice. “About the mole, about the swallow’s true purpose, and if Lingling, your guess is correct… we also need to consider one more thing.”

Chen Yi paused for a few seconds, then said, "...Shouldn't we also try to see if we can 'rescue' Thumbelina from the hole?"

The moment he said that, Ange seemed to realize something and frowned.

"Sister An."

He Lingling did not respond directly to Chen Yi's words, but instead turned to look at An Jie.

"Do you think the woman's head in the swamp, and the female ghost who helped you, are 'enemies' or 'friends'? Or, to put it another way, is it actually a... 'distress signal'?"

Ange was taken aback by the question, and after thinking for a moment, she pursed her lips:

"Rather than whether they are enemies or friends... I'm more inclined to think they might be the lingering will or resentment of 'Thumbelina' in some cycle. As for why she helped me... I suspect she might have considered me one of her kind."

Ange spoke quickly, whispering, "And that woman's head in the mud..."

She subconsciously looked at Yu Shijiu, who hadn't spoken. "She's very aggressive towards us. It might be because of the heavy mental pollution, or it might mean that she's in more pain and more insane than the other 'Thumbelinas.' Perhaps she's been completely assimilated by the environment inside this cave... I don't think she can communicate with us normally."

“Assimilation…” Xu Han silently repeated the word, his gaze unconsciously falling on Yu Shijiu’s arm, his expression changing.

"Wait, Shi Jiu, your contamination...aren't these hairs on your arms assimilated by those 'claws'? Could they be related?"

Yu Shijiu was taken aback by the question, and after thinking for a moment, he took the broken claw out of his pocket again.

This time, the severed claw appeared unusually quiet in the candlelight, completely unlike its "lively" state in the cave.

However, they all noticed something: the yellow-black hair on Yu Shijiu's exposed wrist seemed to have become thicker.

He Lingling's heart skipped a beat.

The color of this fur... it looks so much like an old field mouse?

"The claws react most strongly when they are near the old field mouse and near that hidden burrow."

Yu Shijiu didn't notice He Lingling's gaze and said, "After I went in, it calmed down after seeing the scattered bones on the ground, but the fur on my body started to grow even faster."

"If you ask me, I suspect that these claws may have originally been part of the burrow."

"...Being able to feel the movement of those claws...does that mean you can control them, or just sense them?"

He Lingling withdrew her gaze and asked sharply.

"At present, we can only vaguely perceive a little bit of them. We know that there are many of them, that they are moving, and that they are digging."

Yu Shijiu tried to concentrate, the hair on his arms stood on end slightly, he hissed softly, and frowned:

"...I think I can sense their 'emotions' a little bit too? A bit confused, hungry, and...obedient? What would make them have such thoughts of wanting to obey?"

Yu Shijiu found it a bit hard to understand, but... he lowered his eyes and looked at the hair on his arms that was obviously much denser than before, and narrowed his eyes.

"Obey? Obey whom? The old field mouse?"

Chen Yi frowned and pressed for an answer.

Yu Shijiu shook his head: "I don't know about that. The feeling I get from deep within those walls and floors is very vague and a bit hard to understand."

Xu Han was completely confused and subconsciously looked at He Lingling and An Jie, who had only asked one question and hadn't said anything since then.

Anjie was clearly overthinking things. She hesitated for a moment and looked at He Lingling.

"Lingling, what do you think these claws look like?"

"..." He Lingling was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Field mouse."

"..." The group was taken aback, even Yu Shijiu blinked subconsciously and repeated, "Field mouse?"

"Yes." He Lingling nodded: "It's the paw of a field mouse."

"A field mouse's paw..." Xu Han said blankly, "If it's a field mouse's paw... then doesn't that mean... there's more than just an old field mouse in the burrow?"

"Yes."

He Lingling did not refute his statement. "I had thought about this before. Generally speaking, field mice are social rodents, but in the original story, the field mouse was a lone mouse that lived in a burrow, so I didn't think of it that way... until these 'claws' appeared in the burrow."