Chapter 83 - 82: Transmigrated Into a Fake Book!

Sev no longer planned to hide anything from Doctor Jenkins—except for the fact that she had transmigrated into a book. She wouldn’t tell anyone that even if it killed her.

She brought the broken box to him. Doctor Jenkins crouched down carefully and inspected it multiple times, only to find some messy, random scratches at the bottom. Even after repeatedly probing it with his spiritual power, he found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Are you absolutely certain this box drained your Vitality?" he asked in disbelief.

"I’m certain. At the time, I was planning to transplant the Mutated Lemon Tree and Moss into another large box. Then I noticed the grain at the bottom of the box formed the shape of a tree. I reached out to touch it, and then..."

Sev recounted the scene again, but it sounded completely absurd to Doctor Jenkins. He genuinely couldn’t see how those scratches resembled a tree. Did they see things differently? Or was she hallucinating?

No, that was impossible! He could tell Sev was completely lucid. Her logic was sound, and her speech was clear and organized. She didn’t look like someone suffering from hallucinations.

If she was telling the truth, the only possibility was that whatever was hidden in this box could only be seen by someone with a special bloodline. It was a pity she was just an ordinary person. If she had a Spirit Ability, she might have been able to communicate with whatever was hidden inside.

"Since you’re sure it can drain your Vitality, stay as far away from it as possible in the future," he warned. "This time, Rose risked her life to transfer her Ability to you, but next time, it might just kill you!"

Doctor Jenkins didn’t tell her to throw the box away or destroy it. He had a premonition that it hid a massive secret. Unfortunately, with only ten percent of his Spirit Ability currently usable, he couldn’t investigate it thoroughly.

Seeing that Doctor Jenkins couldn’t figure it out either, Sev felt an even deeper aversion to the broken box that had nearly cost her dear Rose her life. In the books she had read, bizarre phenomena like this usually involved some portable wise old grandpa spirit or a treasure map. But this thing was completely useless and even drained her Vitality. It felt more like some evil, cursed object.

What baffled her the most was that the original novel never mentioned this box from beginning to end. She was starting to suspect she had transmigrated into a counterfeit book!

Unable to make sense of it, she stopped trying. She simply kicked the box into a corner of the courtyard, planning to burn it to ashes once she made up her mind.

Before leaving, Doctor Jenkins repeatedly warned her not to breathe a word about the box or Master Stone to anyone—not even the children. Fortunately, the children hadn’t discovered the box’s secret. They had only seen her faint and Rose desperately transferring green light into her.

Doctor Jenkins left, and Rose was still in a deep sleep, but life had to go on.

While Sev was talking to Doctor Jenkins, Zephyr had carefully transplanted the mutated wild garlic into an empty box and watered it. Now, Sev directed the children to help move all the wooden plant boxes into her bedroom, then carried Rose onto her own bed. She figured plants would be friendly toward a Wood Ability User; with them keeping her company, Rose might feel a little better.

She didn’t notice the wisps of green light floating from every wooden box in the room toward Rose’s tiny body. Some were very faint, while others were slightly stronger. Every single plant was doing its absolute best to nourish the human child who had once shared her Wood Ability with them.

Curly had suffered severe backlash from its Contractor’s injuries. From the moment Rose fell asleep, its branches had drooped lifelessly against the soil. Coco Holden, on the other hand, was largely unaffected. It remained lush and leafy, with the few ripe lemon fruits left on its branches glowing a bright, vibrant yellow, bursting with life.

Silvy had become capable of crawling short distances over the past two days. He lay by the little girl’s pillow, occasionally nudging her with his tiny head and letting out soft squeaks. Since Sev had a contract with him, she could clearly sense his worry and anxiety.

Ever since she brought him home, Sev, his actual Contractor, barely had time to look after him. His daily needs—eating, drinking, and sleeping—were almost entirely managed by Rose. Sev guessed that Silvy probably saw Rose as his older sister. It was only natural for a little brother to worry when his sister fell seriously ill.

When she bathed Silvy last time, she realized he was a male mouse, so she simply treated him like another boy in the family. Compared to delicate and soft girls, boys were a bit more resilient and could be raised with less coddling.

Sev decided that until the Head of the Stone Family arrived, she wouldn’t go out scavenging anymore. She needed to stay home to guard Rose and keep a close eye on her condition.

The boiled vines had already dried out. Sev wove cushions inside the bedroom, while Rusty and Zephyr worked on theirs in the hallway right outside the door. Unable to help with the weaving, Firestone grabbed an ax and went to the courtyard to chop wood. The thick logs were all scavenged by Sev and Hayden Hanson, but they had been too busy over the past few days to process them.

The whole family was busy, but everyone’s heart was heavy because their beloved little Rose was gravely ill.

Sev was extremely worried about her youngest daughter. With Rose on her mind, her hands subconsciously wove the girl’s silhouette into the cushion’s pattern. By the time she snapped out of it, a perfectly round, chibi-style version of Rose sat right in the center of the cushion.

The little one was woven to look incredibly adorable. Her big, round eyes took up nearly half of her small face, with starlike specks of light outlined by thin vines in her pupils. Her chubby cheeks puffed out slightly, and her tiny mouth was half-open, as if she were happily chewing on something delicious.

Zephyr was the first to see the pattern clearly and gasped, "Mom, did you weave a picture of our little sister? It’s so cute!"

Hearing this, Rusty and Firestone hurried over, reaching out to touch it.

Zephyr couldn’t help but plead, "Mom, can we keep this cushion for ourselves?"

"Sure, we’ll hang it on the living room wall," Sev agreed readily.

Firestone, always a boy of action, quickly fetched a hammer and nails. WHACK WHACK WHACK. He hammered the nails into place, grabbed some thin hemp rope, and hung the cushion up. The three boys gathered around the chibi pattern of their sister on the wall, completely enamored with it. Their eyes sparkled with delight.

Inspired by this, Sev began racking her brain for all the cute chibi designs she had seen back on Azure. The first thing that came to mind was the simple smiley-face emoji—a pattern perfectly suited for the creative Zephyr to weave. Then there was the cross-stitch method. It was simple, but as long as one followed the pattern grid by grid, they could produce beautiful designs. This method was perfect for the meticulous Rusty. As for herself, she could weave more complex patterns, like a chubby panda cub, a cute Pikachu, a daddy kangaroo, or little elves.

Ideas flooded her mind all at once. She wanted to grab a pen and sketch them out, only to realize there was no such thing as pen and paper in the house. Left with no choice, she tapped her watch and jotted the names down in her memo app, planning to weave them from memory later.

During the nuclear war back then, all near-Earth communication satellites had been destroyed. Only a few deep-space satellites survived and remained functional. However, deep-space satellites required large parabolic antennas and specialized modems. The terminal costs were exorbitant, the latency was high, the orbits were congested, and the internet speeds were excruciatingly slow.

The higher-ups had restricted all watches to their most basic communication and GPS functions, disabling everything else. If one wanted to access additional features—like downloading sketching software or browsing the latest news from the major Safe Zones—they had to pay a steep networking fee of fifty thousand points per month. Even the residents of The Gilded Ward in District Nine were reluctant to splurge on internet access.

Unable to draw complex patterns, Sev decided to use a piece of firewood as a pen and sketched a simple smiley-face emoji into the dirt of the courtyard. She trusted Zephyr would easily be able to weave it based on the drawing.

When the boys saw the smiley-face emoji, their eyes lit up. These patterns were so cute! Zephyr was especially eager to try. It looked great and seemed easy to weave—he could definitely make even more varied patterns!

Having taken the Pain Relief Potion, Rose was sleeping peacefully, allowing Sev and the boys to finally breathe a sigh of relief. The family stayed busy weaving cushions until Zephyr let out a yawn, prompting Sev to tell everyone to wash up and go to bed.

Just as she lay down, her watch lit up. She opened it to find a message from Seth Jennings.

"Bestie, our team is taking family members to Cindervale tomorrow to dig for Mutated potatoes! Each team member is allowed to bring two relatives. I’m giving my two spots to you and Hayden Hanson. It’s a rare opportunity, so you absolutely have to come!"

Sev hesitated for a few seconds before replying, "Thanks! I’ll definitely be there!"

"It’s a date then! We’ll meet at the main gate of the Safe Zone at 7 AM sharp tomorrow. Don’t be late!"

"Got it. See you then!" Sev’s heart fluttered with excitement after sending the message.

Mutated potatoes... Just thinking about them made her mouth water! In Sev’s limited twenty-one years of life, potatoes were hands down her absolute favorite vegetable. Nothing else even came close!