Chapter 752
Machione's Lilliput
Chapter 752 Machione's Lilliput
Maggiore's "Lilliput" doesn't actually cover a large area, but after being enchanted with a seamless stretching spell and having various scenes set up, people who have been shrunk will feel that this place is endless when they walk through it.
Ferns and grasses form a perilous "forest".
Large and small stones are piled up to form rugged and steep hillsides and canyons.
The garden puddles have turned into a vast lake, and the leaves are small boats that cross it.
Inside a fallen, rotten log, a dark and terrifying tunnel had formed, in which all sorts of insects crawled around, each one enormous and frightening.
The bird's nest is like a giant trampoline, with crisscrossing branches and vines forming a complex, three-dimensional, and wonderful space.
Using the swaying branches as propels, they dart down from the tops of plants, gripping the tough spider silk, and delve into the vast, abandoned anthills, which are as large as palaces. They even fly on petals blown by the wind.
Most insects are not as aggressive as that stag beetle. Some ignore humans who walk by, while others are mild-mannered and can serve as "transportation" for a while.
These seemingly insignificant insects reveal their dazzling colors and intricate structures when humans are placed on the same scale as them.
When insects grow larger, they may seem terrifying at first, but after looking at them for a while, they develop a unique charm.
Not to mention, Marchionni also added various human-made structures to it—
There are castles suitable for shrinking human bodies, "safe houses" made of coconut shells, and even a few houses for people of normal size.
Of course, no one actually lived inside the latter, but for the shrunken people, the plush on the carpet was like a dense "prairie," and the sweater casually draped over the back of the chair became a complex mountain range full of holes, making it extremely difficult to walk through.
The tall desk now resembled a vast plain, while the soft surface of the sofa appeared steep and dangerous, and when standing on it and looking down, the ground seemed dizzyingly distant.
Tools such as wrenches, tongs, kettles, and forks were scattered on the ground, each of them looking enormous. Even the teacups were as big as bathtubs to them. Machioni accidentally fell into a kettle and almost couldn't climb out.
Currently, this miniature world does not have any additional adventure storylines or buried "treasures" for visitors to explore.
But simply by changing the perspective, the shrunken world presents a breathtaking yet incredibly fascinating grandeur and bizarreness, where even the most ordinary objects become uniquely interesting.
The world reveals its intricate structure with unprecedented clarity—
The grain of wood, the fibers of fabric, the veins of grass, the colors of dragonfly wings...
Every detail, magnified to the extreme, evokes a sense of excitement and joy, as if one is "seeing" the world for the first time. The instinctive awe of colossal objects and the intense curiosity to explore the unknown intertwine, making it irresistible.
As dusk settled and the surrounding scenery began to turn gray, the two, though reluctant to leave, had to end their exploration.
They stepped onto the catapult mushrooms, the caps sank slightly, and then Vader felt a tremendous force suddenly come from beneath his feet, propelling his body rapidly upwards!
A heart-pounding feeling of weightlessness washed over him instantly, and the surrounding vegetation turned into blurry blocks of color as he sped downwards. He seemed to pass through a barrier emitting a faint light, and with a "thud," he landed on a soft platform.
Marchionne also landed with a "thump" next to him, groaning and muttering, "This way of getting out is too unfriendly. I'm going to put three more... no, five more carpets here!"
When Wade stood up, he found that he had returned to his original size. His body had lost the lightness it had when it shrank, but the sense of grounding had returned.
They landed on a flat, open rooftop platform, the ground covered with a soft mat. At the end of the platform was a spiral staircase leading away. Wade turned to look in the direction from which they had been thrown, and saw that the vast world they had just seen was actually a garden, and the house they had lingered in for so long seemed to have been the gardener's former residence.
This strange sense of disorientation left Wade momentarily stunned. He gazed at the garden, comparing it to the places he remembered walking through, trying to recall the surprise and excitement, and suddenly felt a sense of loss.
Marchionne dusted off his robe. Unlike Vader, although he had been very engaged during the experience, he quickly detached himself from that emotion.
He reached into his pocket, took out a crumpled notebook, and quickly wrote a few more lines on it.
Their notebooks were filled with notes on the phenomena they observed, fleeting inspirations, and details that needed optimization—from improvements to the overall security mechanism to adjustments to the set design of a particular area.
He's serious about making money.
Wade withdrew his gaze and looked at his companion beside him, his tone filled with undeniable certainty:
"Without a doubt, Marchionne... this project will be a huge success."
"Of course, I never doubted it."
Marchionni smiled expectantly and confidently.
But the next second, when he turned his head, he was slightly stunned by what he saw. Then his eyes widened, his mouth opened wide, and he froze on the spot, with only his chest heaving violently.
Immediately, his once bright eyes dimmed, one hand clenched tightly against his chest, and his whole body trembled slightly.
"...What's wrong?" Wade asked hurriedly, reaching out to help Marchione, who seemed to be unable to stand.
“I’m so sad, Wade.”
Marchionne slowly put away his notebook, and a hint of heartache welled up in his eyes as he gazed into the distance, his tone filled with genuine sorrow.
He looked at London shrouded in twilight—the city lights were just coming on, and the glass and steel skyscrapers stretched to the horizon like an endless, sparkling jungle.
“Look over there, Wade… Look at those windows with lights on, behind every single one are living people, millions, tens of millions of Muggles… No! There are billions!”
Marchionni's voice trembled slightly with grief as he said, heartbroken:
"If it weren't for the Law of Secrecy, if it weren't for that damn segregation... if the wizarding world and Muggle society were integrated... I could make money all over the world!"
"What a vast and glorious undertaking that was!"
"But what about now? I'm trapped in this tiny magical world! Our greatest inventions and most wondrous experiences are all confined to this dark corner!"
“Our market… is like that anthill I dug up; it looks huge and complex, but it’s actually only a tiny little thing!”
He covered his face, almost bursting into tears of grief and indignation.
Wade: "..."
(End of this chapter)