-6- Awaiting Death

Page 1/3

Though she said she was waiting to die, after lying on the ground for a while with nothing to do, Yvette obediently got up and began exploring the other floors, hoping to find some long-shelf-life canned food or similar supplies to extend her life.

During this process, she pieced together the characteristics of each floor from the remaining written information combined with what she had learned in her dreams.

First were levels negative ten and negative nine.

In her dreams, the project responsible for treating genetic diseases in the orphanage children like Yvette was called the “Metamorphosis Project,” and the drug used was tentatively named “Metamorphosis Potion Type Two.”

Underground levels ten and nine were, respectively, the experimental floor for the Metamorphosis Project and the living quarters for related personnel.

Next were levels negative eight and negative seven, called the “Active Rune Laboratory.”

Yvette’s understanding of the so-called “Active Rune Group” was limited to what the AI had described.

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 only needed to inject the rune elixir into their bodies, and within minutes, they would transform into powerful spellcasters, gaining greatly enhanced magic power and instantly unleashing spells pre-encoded in the elixir—a rapid superhuman transformation.

Even when the AI introduced meditation techniques to Yvette, it used the Active Rune Group as a benchmark—meditation would take more than seven years to reach a certain level, whereas the lowest grade Active Rune elixir took only 4.6 minutes—highlighting the stark contrast.

However...

After so many years, even if there were remnants of Active Rune elixirs in the laboratories on levels seven and eight, they would have long since expired.

Thus, despite sounding tempting, aside from a few readable paper materials, these floors yielded no substantial gains for Yvette.

Then came levels negative six, negative five, and negative four.

Level negative six was, like negative nine, a living area with nothing special; the storage warehouses for supplies were also empty, leaving Yvette disappointed.

Levels negative five and negative four were rune elixir laboratories.

These drugs, similar to gene optimization serums in science fiction, had effects including but not limited to eternal youth, increased strength, optimized metabolism, and hair regrowth—Black Tower Pharmaceuticals’ second most important business.

As for the drugs from the Metamorphosis Project, they were neither Active Rune Group products nor rune elixirs but fell under the category of “potions,” which were more traditionally considered medicines.

Continuing upward.

Page 2/3

Level negative three was the experimental animal breeding floor;

Level negative two was the regular staff living quarters;

Level negative one was the inspection floor, responsible for verifying personnel qualifications.

After spending nearly ten hours thoroughly inspecting all the floors, Yvette had to face the harsh truth: she had gained nothing but some broken scraps of what were once advanced magical equipment.

Of course, she also tried to pry open the metal grates covering the ventilation ducts to see if she could climb out. But the welds were too solid; with the strength of a five- or six-year-old girl, it was impossible. She had to give up.

Finally, exhausted, she lay on the ground covered with magical glowing vines, feeling the pangs of hunger in her belly and letting out a long, despairing sigh.

In her dreams, she had already made many efforts. Besides actively learning the language and gathering information about this other world, she had shared her situation with the AI for advice.

But lacking resources was still lacking resources.

Within this enormous metal cage, apart from the magical glowing vines that fed on magical energy, no other life could survive. The only way out was to fish from the water platform, but the lake was inhabited by fish monsters...

No matter which path she took, it was a dead end.

Thinking this through, Yvette closed her eyes dejectedly and decided to sleep for a while.

This time, she was truly prepared to die.

...

She slept for an unknown length of time.

Upon waking, she looked up at the ceiling woven from magical glowing vines and silently calculated how much time had passed since her crossing.

The six months of vivid dreamtime hadn’t starved her to death, nor had her hair grown longer, indicating that in reality she had only been here a short while.

But even excluding that period, more than 24 hours must have passed since she crossed over.

Despite such a long time, she didn’t feel weak or fatigued; she was still full of vitality and energy, only slightly hungry...

Is this the resilience of youth? Such strong recovery ability—if only she could use it for courier gigs, wouldn’t she be unbeatable?

Page 3/3

She muttered to herself and stood up, driven by the will to survive, and began a second investigation of the ruined base.

The result remained the same: a dead end.

But there was something different—Yvette sensed something unusual within herself.

By now, at least 36 hours had passed since her crossing.

Under normal circumstances, as a developing child, going 36 hours without food would likely cause dizziness and trembling from low blood sugar, dehydration-induced dry mouth and tongue, drowsiness, sluggishness, lack of energy, and at the very least, a painfully hungry stomach.

Yet now, she remained in good spirits, with ample physical strength recovered, and only a mild hunger.

What could be the reason?

Was the original owner some kind of ultimate hunger-resistant champion?

Upon noticing this anomaly, a faint spark of hope ignited deep within Yvette’s numb heart. But she didn’t immediately celebrate with champagne; instead, she waited anxiously, constantly monitoring her body’s changes.

In this torment, an unknown amount of time passed—maybe twenty or thirty hours, possibly even several days.

But unbelievably, Yvette found her bodily functions remained completely normal!

Her energy was stable, no dizziness, no dehydration, and aside from slight hunger, in every other aspect she was—

Bouncing with life!

Thus, she became 99% certain that the original owner was no ordinary person. The fact that she could awaken in the form of a child from the bed 300 years after everyone else had turned to bones was not a result of the crossing but because she was inherently extraordinary!

“This is even more absurd than I expected...” Yvette muttered. She had originally guessed the original owner was a hibernator who endured the apocalypse using some device here and had woken shortly before Yvette’s soul possession.

But now it seemed the original owner may have indeed hibernated, but required no external device—her body alone endured 300 years, surviving until after the apocalypse...

Who exactly was she?