Chapter 33
Zoey introduced pigeons into the arena, initially thinking it would add some excitement to the game. After all, they had already played several rounds of the regular mode of the food-grabbing game, and the audience was getting a bit bored.
Pigeons are generally gentle birds that mainly feed on grains and are not known for being bloodthirsty. Zoey thought their appearance would, at most, cause a bit of panic among the little people but wouldn’t result in significant harm. However, he had overestimated the little people’s tolerance and underestimated the potential harm pigeons could inflict on tiny creatures. During the game, one person was pecked through the chest and lung and died instantly.
Zoey couldn’t recall the victim’s name. That person hadn’t been very active in previous games, but now they were gone. In the sandbox, people had died before, and Zoey was not one to show empathy or kindness for the deaths of the little people.
Moreover, the audience’s reaction to the scene of a pigeon attacking a person was quite enthusiastic. They seemed excited, as if they were watching a realistic blockbuster film that was more thrilling than a superhero movie.
It was somewhat similar to people’s fascination with watching a cat hunt down a mouse. Most people wouldn’t feel sorry for the mouse’s fate but would appreciate the cat’s cruelty and cunning.
Looking at it from a different perspective, it was akin to the psychology of those who enjoyed disaster movies. When they saw a pigeon stepping on a little person, it triggered a sense of immersive fear – the reversal of the balance of power, where humans were dominated by non-humans. It was thrilling!
But once they moved away from this terrifying fantasy, the strong contrast provided a sense of happiness akin to having survived a disaster.
Therefore, every viewer could find their own perspective in such shows and watch them with a clear conscience, enjoying the experience.
However, the only drawback was that, at the most exciting moment of the game, the power outage and signal loss occurred again.
After the previous incident, Zoey had already had the internal equipment thoroughly checked by professionals. However, this time, the situation was much worse. The power outage affected not only the activity room but also the surrounding rooms, nearly the entire villa. Yes, the club was located in a secluded garden villa.
After the incident, Zoey was too preoccupied with restoring the circuit and signal to pay attention to the tragic events that had unfolded in the arena. When they restored power, the holographic screen remained blurry, and the original cameras could no longer produce clear images. The maintenance personnel on-site were unable to determine the exact cause but suggested that the cameras might have been damaged due to a “short circuit.”
Naturally, the game couldn’t continue under these circumstances, and the viewers had to leave early.
Afterward, Zoey called the maintenance department for various electronic devices and had technicians come in for an emergency inspection. During this time, he instructed club staff to quickly deal with Joe’s body and move the sandbox to an underground level.
It was only five hours later that the personnel sent by the micro-camera company found the cause. “Sorry, sir, there’s no problem with the signals. The reason the projections couldn’t be formed is because the lenses of these cameras shattered.”
“Shattered?” Zoey was shocked. “How did they shatter?”
The technician shook his head. “The reason is unclear.” He removed one of the micro-cameras and showed it to Zoey. The originally transparent curved glass lens had a layer of white mist, a substance only as large as a human pupil. It was only when magnified with a lens that one could see a clear network of cracks, dense and intricate, like a spiderweb that covered the entire lens.
“The transparent lenses of micro-cameras have very small rubber rings around them for protection. They are so small that even if they fall to the ground, they won’t shatter, unless they’re specifically punctured point to point with tools like silver needles or metal pen tips. However, the nature of this shattering doesn’t seem to match the type caused by point-to-point impacts,” the technician explained. “In my opinion, this kind of even shattering that still maintains the integrity of the lens is more like damage caused by a uniformly distributed impact, such as…”
“Such as what?” Zoey asked.
“Sound waves,” the technician said.
Zoey was taken aback and frowned as he recalled the scene. During the power outage, he had indeed heard a piercing “sizzling” sound coming from the sandbox. Could it be that sound?
The technician looked around and continued, “Perhaps, sir, you should check other glass products indoors. If the lens shattering was indeed caused by sound waves, then all glass objects with similar densities here might have similar cracks.”
Zoey’s expression turned serious, and he quickly instructed the security to check the indoor windows.
After the final inspection, the large skylight in the activity room’s ceiling was intact, but the small skylight glass that connected the activity room and the basement was almost entirely covered in cracks.
This section of skylights would automatically open like flower petals when the sandbox ascended or descended, and it was the closest glass object to the sandbox during the game. Although the glass appeared to be intact, its hardness had greatly diminished, and even a light impact could cause it to shatter and collapse.
At this point, Zoey realized the seriousness of the problem.
After sending the technician away, he called someone and relayed everything that had happened inside the arena. Then, he asked, “Do you think this ability resembles something that genetic engineers might possess?”
“Impossible. Most genetic engineers merely enhance the physical abilities of the little people. I’ve never heard of any genetic engineers being able to affect circuitry or emit sound waves. But wait,” the person on the other end paused and then said, “This kind of terrifying ability seems more like something that ‘superbeings’ among the minis might have.”
“What are superbeings?” Zoey asked.
“I’ve only heard about them. They’re a kind of mini person with unique abilities. Among a thousand genetic engineers, there might be one who could develop such abilities. Currently, the total number of superbeings in mini world bases worldwide is less than a hundred… But superbeings are considered rare species at the Human Species Modification Research Center. Most are experimental subjects, and they’re not easy to find. Besides, the little people you have aren’t from the exile zone or the restoration department.”
“But we do have a situation here. If it weren’t for the technician’s reminder about the lens shattering possibly being caused by sound waves, I wouldn’t have believed it. I recalled, at the time, that the sound came from inside the sandbox,” Zoey argued. “Better safe than sorry.”
The person on the other end remained silent for a long while and then said, “How are the little people there now? Do you know which one might have caused the situation?”
“I don’t know. They’re all in the sandbox, and I’ve already reactivated the infrared monitoring, cameras, and the electrical network.”
“Hmm, if it truly is a superbeing with the ability to emit electromagnetic waves and sound waves, those things won’t be of any use. Despite their size, every superbeing could potentially be a deadly weapon…”
Hearing this, Zoey became even more nervous. “So, what should I do?”
“You need to think of other protective measures, maybe have someone dedicated to keeping an eye on them. I’ll bring specialists tomorrow to conduct tests, just to be on the safe side. Your little people might not even realize they have superpowers. Also, superbeings among the minis have absolute special rights, and if one is discovered, you must report it to the relevant authorities. Don’t mention this to anyone for now. If it’s exposed, not even your uncle, the president, can help you,” Zoey said, hanging up the phone.
Despite the unease, Zoey couldn’t help but feel excited. He knew that identifying which little person had superpowers with the naked eye was nearly impossible. Nevertheless, he hurried to the basement, turned on all the floodlights, and called the little people out.
After the events of the day, the little people looked fearful and anxious.
As he inspected each of them one by one, Zoey suddenly realized that two of them were missing.
“Where are Blake and Kai?” Zoey thundered.
The little people looked at each other, shaking their heads. At the time of the incident, they had been too busy running for their lives, and nobody had noticed where Blake and Kai had gone.
Evan received Zoey’s call late that night.
When Zoey questioned Evan about secretly bringing Blake home, Evan was irritated. In truth, the club’s activities that day hadn’t been enjoyable for Evan. Despite the excitement of releasing the pigeons into the arena, before the holographic screen went blank, he had seen a scene that had almost given him a heart attack – Blake had rushed to the little person who had been pecked by the pigeon. At the time, the pigeon was still there.
In a previous special activity, Evan’s little person, Johnny, had suffered a severe injury, and he had had to leave Blake with Zoey at the club. This was a significant loss for Evan, and he didn’t want to suffer another loss. Fortunately, after the cameras malfunctioned, Zoey had the pigeon captured. Evan had looked from a distance at the “tragic” scene but hadn’t seen Blake. He assumed that the boy had managed to escape, as he was quite clever. Nevertheless, he had adhered to Zoey’s rules and hadn’t taken Blake home. He believed that Zoey could take care of his “property.”
Now, he was being accused in the middle of the night. Evan was furious, and he had to make an effort to contain his anger. “Mr. Zoey, at the time, I had my three little people crawl into the transportation box on their own. You saw it yourself, and you even escorted me to the door. I strictly followed your game rules.”
“Sorry,” Zoey said, feeling somewhat guilty.
Evan’s heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly asked, “But why are you calling me to ask this? Does it mean that Blake isn’t in your sandbox?”
Zoey smirked and tried to downplay the situation. “I just counted the people, and I haven’t found him yet. I guess he might have been scared and is hiding in one of the houses. I’ll recheck thoroughly. Don’t worry, if we can’t find him, I’ll fully compensate you.”
Evan remained silent.
Zoey, not giving up, counted twice more and even pulled down the tower where Kai lived, shaking it from side to side. This insane behavior frightened the little people, who thought Zoey had gone mad.
In addition to the sandbox, Zoey had all the logistics personnel and security personnel use infrared monitoring devices to search the entire villa, inside and out, several times. They left no corner or crevice where Blake and Kai could hide, but they found no trace of the two.
After an entire night of searching, Zoey reluctantly admitted one fact – Blake and Kai had disappeared completely.
Upon careful reflection, during the time of the electrical malfunction, when the area was in chaos, he had been busy trying to fix the equipment and had only instinctively pushed the button to lower the sandbox into the basement. During that period, no matter what had happened, it wouldn’t have been recorded by the cameras. Blake and Kai might have been taken by someone during this process or had managed to escape on their own…
