At last, we all started eating. Hearing their happy chatter, I answered their questions about the vegetables the same way I had told the twins I found them hidden under the floor in the kitchen.
Maybe the Bloodhook had stashed them there.
Troy's eyes kept lingering on my kitchen knife.
"Can I have it?" he asked. I shook my head. Definitely not.
After a while, everyone finished eating. After a few minutes, I looked around at the kids, and aside from me, they had all fallen asleep happily on their makeshift leaf beds.
This is the perfect time to test my special ability.
After checking on the kids once more and making sure they were all asleep.
I quietly moved away.
I sat cross-legged behind a nearby tree, took a deep breath, and imagined myself back in my apartment.
It didn't take long.
I felt a strange force tug at my soul, and when I opened my eyes, I was already standing inside.
This time,
I had a clear purpose:
find anything that could help me survive better in that world.
I opened the refrigerator.
Unfortunately, the items I had taken before hadn't restocked.
Anything I used here was gone permanently.
If only there were an infinite restock function it would make survival so much easier.
At least the appliances still worked.
Anything that needed electricity could still be used.
Wait.
A sudden thought hit me.
If electricity still worked, then Wi-Fi should work too.
That meant—
I immediately pulled my phone out of my bag and turned it on.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw the Wi-Fi icon glowing full green.
There was a signal!.
I checked my contacts, but not a single number was saved, as if everything had been wiped.
Still, I tried adding my friend's number, but just as I expected, I couldn't find it.
"How unfortunate."
I tried apps like TikTok and Facebook, hoping I could contact someone, but none of them worked.
They didn't even have messaging functions.
In the end, I gave up.
Still, I found something useful.
I could search on some apps on the phone.
More importantly, I could watch videos—any videos that might help me survive in that world.
Many random videos instantly appeared on the screen.
I typed "Basic Survival Skills" into the YouTube search bar.
The moment I searched, a short video instantly appeared on the screen.
"Hmmm… that's weird.
Why is there only one video?"
I tried scrolling down, but no matter how far I scrolled, there really was only one.
"So I can only watch one video? Is this the limit?"
I guess I can only watch this one
I tapped the play button.
The video loaded.
A man appeared on the screen—bearded, broad-shouldered, clearly American—standing in the middle of a forest.
"There are four basic survival skills," he said calmly.
"Miss one, and you will die."
He raised one finger.
"Fire. Warmth, cooking, protection."
A second finger.
"Water. Find it, purify it, ration it."
A third.
"Shelter. Exposure kills more faster than hunger."
Then the fourth.
"Food. Foraging, trapping, patience."
I leaned closer, memorizing every word.
The man demonstrated simple shelters made from branches, showed how to boil water using heated stones, and pointed out common edible plants—while warning which ones should never be touched.
I paused the short video.
In the quiet of the apartment, I nodded slowly.
"I understand… and aside from shelter, we already have all of these."
Without wasting a moment, I searched again.
Basic animal trap.
But this time, there was only a note under the search bar.
You can only search once a day.
"Damn, there are also limit in how many I search?."
Irritated.
I turned off the phone and placed it back into my bag. Then I roamed around the apartment, experimenting some more, trying to see if there were other functions or limitations.
An entire hour passed.
In the end, I only discovered a few things.
I tried taking advanced items like the cellphone and the laptop into that world, but no matter how many times I tried, they wouldn't work.
"It seems I can't take advanced technology. Only common things."
I also discovered that I couldn't take items from that world into the apartment.
I tested it out of curiosity, but unfortunately it failed.
"Should I go back, then?"
I closed my eyes and imagined myself returning to that world.
Meanwhile, at the group's resting area…
Ren slowly regained consciousness inside the handcart.
He opened his eyes, but found out it was already night.
Everything around him was dark, except for the of the sky, which was filled with countless stars.
He tried to sit up, attempting to understand his situation.
"Ugh… it hurts."
But his limbs felt heavy, drained of strength.
He looked at his leg and saw there was a bandage wound in his thigh.
Immediately, he remembered—he had been gravely injured at that time.
He clenched his teeth and forced himself to lift his head, trying to peek out from the side.
But before he could.
"So, you're awake."
"Whoa! What the—"
Ren was surprised at the sudden voice as he turned toward the source.
It was a boy wearing clothes full of patches, like a beggar, his face expressionless.
It's was Soren.
I had just stepped out from my apartment domain, about to lie down, when some movement in the handcart caught his attention.
It turn out it is Ren
"You shouldn't move too much," I said, trying to sound firm.
"Or your wound will start bleeding again. I even put effort into Rebandaging it."
"Ah… sorry, I didn't know," he muttered, giving me an apologetic look.
"It's okay. Just don't do it again. If it bleeds, I won't bandage it next time."
"Okay," he said quietly.
I handed him a bowl of grain soup mixed with vegetables and half of my roasted sweet potato.
"Here. This can help you recover some of your strength."
"huh?"
He reflectively accepted it with his hand, and when he looked down, when he saw it was food a joyful expression form in his face.
He know that food are very precious from people like Soren.