Book 1: Chapter 6: Waiting for Death |
Although she told herself she would wait for death, after lying on the ground for a while and having nothing to do, Yvette obediently got up and began to explore the other levels, hoping to find some canned food with a long shelf life to prolong her existence.
As she did this, she also utilized various pieces of textual information left on each floor, combined with her inquiries in the dream, to understand the characteristics of each level.
First was layer negative ten and layer negative nine.
In the dream, the project responsible for treating these orphans for their genetic diseases was called the “Metamorphosis Project,” and the medication they took was tentatively called “Metamorphosis Potion No. 2.”
The underground layers ten and nine were, respectively, the experimental areas of the Metamorphosis Project and the living quarters for associated personnel.
Next were levels negative eight and negative seven, known as the “Active Rune Laboratories.”
Yvette’s understanding of the so-called “Active Rune Groups” was limited to the AI’s description.
According to the information provided, the Active Rune Group was not only the core business of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals but also the fundamental reason it became one of the eight super corporations.
Users simply had to inject the rune potion into their bodies, and within just a few minutes, they could transform into a powerful spellcaster, significantly increasing their magic power and being able to instantly unleash the magic pre-set in the rune potion—essentially an express route to superhuman abilities.
However…
So many years had passed, and the laboratories on level negative seven and negative eight, even if they still had some remnants of the Active Rune potion, had certainly surpassed their shelf life.
Therefore, while it sounded enticing, in reality, it provided Yvette little more than a few pieces of readable paper documentation.
As for layers negative six, negative five, and negative four.
Level negative six was a living area similar to level negative nine, with nothing special, and the warehouses storing living supplies were completely empty, leading Yvette to return empty-handed.
Layers negative five and negative four were laboratories for the rune potion.
This type of potion was akin to gene optimization solutions often seen in science fiction novels, offering effects that included not just eternal youth, enhanced strength, optimized metabolism, and hair regrowth… it was the second most important business of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals.
As for the medications launched by the Metamorphosis Project, they were neither part of the Active Rune Group nor the rune potions, but belonged to a category called “Magic Potions,” which were distinctly traditional pharmaceuticals.
Continuing upward.
Layer negative three was for breeding experimental animals;
Layer negative two was the living area for regular employees;
Layer negative one was the inspection level to audit personnel qualifications.
After spending nearly ten hours thoroughly checking all the floors, Yvette had to confront a fact—she had found absolutely nothing of value, only some scraps that used to be high-end magical equipment.
Of course, she also tried to pry open the metal grates of the ventilation ducts to see if she could climb out. But the grates were welded shut so securely that a five or six-year-old girl like her could not budge them, forcing her to give up.
Finally, exhausted, she lay back down among the Magic Glow Vines, feeling a hunger pang in her stomach, and couldn’t help but let out a long, despairing sigh.
In the dream, she had made a remarkable effort; aside from actively understanding the language and intel of this other world, she also provided her situation to the AI for strategies.
But insufficient conditions were simply insufficient.
In this massive metal cage, aside from the Magic Glow Vines that fed on magic elements, no other organism could survive. Her only exit was to fish from the platform over water, but there were fish monsters lurking in the lake…
No matter how she looked at it, every possible path seemed like a dead end.
With this in mind, Yvette closed her eyes in despair, deciding to sleep for a bit.
This time, she was truly ready to die.
…
She didn’t know how long she slept.
When she woke up, looking at the luminous ceiling made entirely of Magic Glow Vines, Yvette silently calculated the time since her journey started.
The six months in the dream hadn’t starved her; her hair hadn’t grown longer, indicating that only a short amount of time had passed in the real world.
Excluding that period, she had surely been traveling for more than 24 hours now.
In that long time, she hadn’t felt weak or fatigued at all; she still felt energetic and vigorous—if anything, just a bit hungry…
Was the resilience of a youthful body really that powerful? Did it have such remarkable recovery abilities?
She mused to herself, then stood up and, driven by her survival instincts, launched a second investigation of the ruined base.
The outcome, however, was no different; it was still a dead end.
But Yvette noticed something unusual about herself.
At this point, at least 36 hours had passed since her journey began.
Under normal circumstances, as a developing child, going 36 hours without food would likely result in dizziness, trembling due to low blood sugar, dehydration with dry mouth, and perhaps lethargy, dullness, or lack of energy. At the very least, she should have felt ravenously hungry, her stomach practically touching her back.
Yet now, she felt quite well, completely energized. The hunger pang she felt was little more than an ordinary “slight hunger.”
What was the reason for this?
Was the original owner some kind of ultimate hunger king?
Noticing this anomaly lit a small spark inside Yvette’s numb heart. But instead of immediately popping the champagne in celebration, she anxiously awaited, remaining attuned to her body’s changes.
In this agonizing wait, who knows how much time passed—perhaps twenty or thirty hours, or it could have been several days.
Yet astonishingly, Yvette discovered that her bodily functions remained completely normal!
Her energy was fine, no dizziness, no dehydration; aside from slight hunger, she was vibrant and lively!
Finally, she could be 99% certain that the original owner was indeed not an ordinary person. She had woken up in child form from the bed three hundred years after everyone else had turned to dust, and this was not due to time travel—it was because she was distinctly different!
“Things have turned out to be weirder than I expected…” Yvette murmured to herself. In her mind, the original owner likely was a hibernator who had relied on some equipment to survive the apocalypse and had just woken up when she soul-transferred.
But now it seemed that while the original owner might have hibernated, she didn’t need external equipment; her body could endure three hundred years all on its own, making it to the post-apocalypse…
What exactly was her identity?
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