In a lush, thriving jungle, the treetops blocked out the sky. It was noon, and the forest was silent until a woman’s shrill scream suddenly pierced the stillness.
“Ahhhhhhhhh! Just let me die already!”
Chu Xiaoxiao threw away the stick she had been using to probe the path ahead, covered her face in despair, and crouched on the ground, utterly overwhelmed by the unbelievable situation she found herself in.
A few hours ago, she had still been at her graduation thesis defense. After successfully passing her defense, she made plans with her roommates, who had yet to finish theirs, to return to the dormitory and have hotpot together. Excited, she had run to the supermarket inside the campus cafeteria to buy food.
When she returned to the dormitory carrying two bags stuffed full of hotpot ingredients, she had barely set them down when she suddenly felt the world shake beneath her feet. The next time she blinked, she was standing in the middle of this forest with nothing in her hands.
Chu Xiaoxiao raised her wrist and glanced at her watch, which was still working normally. It was the only piece of technology she had left. She had casually placed her phone on the table when she entered the dormitory.
She had already been exploring the jungle for nearly two hours. Everywhere she went was silent, primitive, and overgrown with weeds. Although she hadn’t encountered any obvious dangers, she felt as though danger lurked everywhere.
During her exploration, she had discovered many plants she had never seen before. She had also encountered rabbits and wild chickens that were more than twice the size of the ones she had seen in the past. Everything around her was completely different from the environment she had lived in before.
She knew very clearly that she was no longer in her original world.
Even so, she refused to give up hope. Enduring the thirst and hunger rising in her body, she continued exploring, holding on to a faint hope that she might be able to return home.
Unfortunately, hope was still just hope. Two hours had passed, yet she was still wandering around in circles inside the jungle.
There wasn’t a single trace of human presence around her. However, all kinds of strange sounds kept reaching her ears: the roars of wild beasts hunting, the sounds of them chewing their food, and the startled cries of birds that occasionally came from above her head.
The various noises came from places she couldn’t see or locate, making the entire forest feel eerie and terrifying.
Looking at the endless trees stretching as far as her eyes could see, Chu Xiaoxiao’s psychological defenses finally collapsed. She crouched on the ground and burst into tears.
“Waaah, what the hell did I do to deserve this?! I finally managed to graduate, and before I could even celebrate, I transmigrated to this godforsaken place! Fine, if I had to come here, at least let me bring those two bags of food with me!!”
Unfortunately, the only response she received was the occasional sound of birds chirping.
Chu Xiaoxiao had always been a calm and rational person. After letting out her frustrations, she finally composed herself and returned to her senses. She wiped the tears from her face, stood up, and complained in resignation.
“Damn it, I must’ve drawn the hell-mode script.”
Other people transmigrated into interstellar armies or ancient imperial palaces. Who on earth would transmigrate into a forest in the middle of nowhere where not even a bird would want to shit?
Oh, wait. That wasn’t quite right. There were actually quite a lot of birds here.
Thinking about that, Chu Xiaoxiao felt even more miserable.
She let out a long sigh, reached up, and patted her cheeks.
“Forget it, forget it. I should focus on figuring out how to survive first.”
Ever since she was little, Chu Xiaoxiao had liked muttering to herself whenever she felt nervous or down. The people around her usually found this habit annoying. At least she didn’t have to worry about that here.
After all, apart from her, there wasn’t even a trace of another person in this place.
She smiled bitterly at the thought.
No matter where she was, staying alive was her first priority. She wouldn’t give up searching for a way home, but she needed to be alive to do so.
Fortunately, her luck wasn’t too bad. From the moment she had fallen into this forest until now, she hadn’t encountered a single wild beast face-to-face. At least she had managed to keep herself alive for the time being.
This wasn’t the time to indulge in sadness. Her most urgent task was to find water and food.
The weather wasn’t particularly cool. After walking for two hours, she was already sweating quite a bit. Her mouth felt dry and parched, and she desperately needed to replenish her fluids.
On top of that, she hadn’t eaten anything at noon. Now that she had finally relaxed, an overwhelming sense of hunger erupted from her stomach.
Once she had figured out her situation, Chu Xiaoxiao immediately began taking action. She turned around and started searching for a water source.
She remembered that when she had encountered a hen more than twice the size of an ordinary chicken, she seemed to have heard the sound of running water nearby.
This primeval forest was enormous. Everywhere she looked, there were towering trees and thick clusters of bushes and grass. The path was extremely difficult to navigate.
Chu Xiaoxiao picked up the wooden stick she had used to probe the path earlier and skillfully, though with a heavy heart, pushed aside the weeds blocking her way.
After walking back for more than ten minutes, her efforts finally paid off. She heard the gentle gurgling of water.
At this moment, that sound was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard.
She pushed aside the grass and saw a small stream flowing quietly in front of her.
Chu Xiaoxiao cautiously looked around. After confirming that there was no immediate danger, she didn’t bother checking whether the water was clean or contained parasites. She bent down, scooped up a handful of water, and began drinking greedily.
Once her thirst had been quenched, Chu Xiaoxiao finally felt herself recovering. The hunger in her stomach had also temporarily subsided. She let out a long breath, and her previously muddled mind gradually became clear.
It was then that the faint pain coming from her arms and legs made her realize she had suffered numerous small cuts.
During her graduation thesis defense, it had been the height of summer. She had been wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, leaving her arms and lower legs exposed.
She figured she must have been scratched by the surrounding branches and weeds while exploring. Although the wounds weren’t particularly serious, she was in an unfamiliar and dangerous place, and even the slightest trace of blood worried her. She was afraid it might attract something.
Realizing this, she hurriedly used the stream water to clean the dirt and blood from her body. However, it didn’t do much good. The areas she had just cleaned began slowly oozing blood again.
Chu Xiaoxiao frowned as she stared at her wounds, feeling a headache coming on.
Where was she supposed to find something to stop the bleeding and disinfect the wounds in the middle of this wilderness?
She let out a long sigh and couldn’t help thinking about the first-aid kit she had kept in her dormitory. It contained common medicines for dealing with various illnesses and injuries.
If only she were still in her dormitory.
The moment this thought crossed her mind, a sharp pain suddenly struck her temple. Her vision darkened, and in the next second, a rectangular box abruptly appeared in her hands.
When she came to her senses, she stared blankly at the familiar first-aid kit in her hands.
Her first reaction wasn’t excitement. Instead, she was filled with even more confusion.
Why had the first-aid kit appeared in her hands simply because she had thought about it?
She was certain that there hadn’t been anyone around her just now. There was no way someone could have played a prank on her.
Not daring to open the first-aid kit immediately, she began recalling what she had done moments earlier.
She had drunk some water, discovered the wounds on her body, thought about the first-aid kit, and started reminiscing about her time in the dormitory.
As soon as she reached this point in her thoughts, her vision blurred again.
Enduring the dizziness in her head, she forced herself to concentrate and focus her attention.
After a while, Chu Xiaoxiao suddenly opened her eyes, her face filled with wild joy.
What had she just seen?!
Through those two instances of deep thought, she had somehow sensed that there was a place far away that was closely connected to her.
That place was the dormitory where she had lived for four years!
The dormitory was completely empty, still maintaining the same appearance as when she had entered it at noon.
She had suddenly transmigrated while inside the dormitory. Could this be a passage that would allow her to return?
To test her theory, Chu Xiaoxiao closed her eyes again and began meditating.
An image of the dormitory surfaced in her mind. Before long, a packet of hotpot soup base appeared out of thin air in her hand.
Then, the packet of hotpot soup base disappeared into thin air and reappeared inside the shopping bag in her dormitory.
Chu Xiaoxiao opened her eyes with a hint of disappointment.
She could sense the existence of her dormitory, and she could retrieve things from it. However, her body seemed unable to pass through via her thoughts.
Even so, the situation had improved considerably. Compared to the complete confusion she had experienced at the beginning, she now at least had a direction to work toward for returning home.
Perhaps her roommates would notice that she was missing when they returned and find a way to rescue her.
However, she needed to let them know about her current situation first.
With that thought, she immediately focused her mind and transported a pen and paper over. She then carefully wrote down everything she had experienced here.
Afterward, she placed the note in the most conspicuous spot in the dormitory, ensuring that her three roommates would see it the moment they walked through the door.
After making these preparations, Chu Xiaoxiao, whose nerves had been tightly wound the entire time, finally relaxed considerably.
She gathered her thoughts and began thinking.
There were still plenty of instant foods and snacks in the dormitory. Even if she couldn’t find a way out of this miserable forest for the time being, she had enough supplies to survive for a while without starving to death.
With that period of support, she refused to believe that she wouldn’t be able to find a way home.
The Chu Xiaoxiao who had nearly resigned herself to her fate earlier now rekindled her fighting spirit.
Now that she had hope of returning, she naturally didn’t want to stay here.
This godforsaken place had no phone, no air conditioning, and no signal. There would be no ice cream or milk tea in summer, and no hotpot or barbecue in winter.
Just thinking about it made her miserable.
Although she wasn’t particularly close to her parents, this was still the hometown where she had lived for more than twenty years. She had plenty of friends and companions there, so naturally, she didn’t want to stay in this place.
Of course, the key to returning home was making sure she was still alive when the time came.
Chu Xiaoxiao applied some medicine to her wounds. To prevent herself from being scratched by the bushes again, she changed into long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and sneakers.
She tossed her old clothes back into the dormitory. After making sure everything was properly arranged, she immediately retrieved a packet of instant noodles from the dormitory.
She tore open the packaging and began eating the noodles dry.
At a time like this, having something to eat was already good enough. She wasn’t asking for anything more.
After feeling the satisfying fullness in her stomach, the heavy weight pressing down on Chu Xiaoxiao’s heart finally lifted considerably.
She looked up at the sky.
The sun had already begun to slowly descend. Recalling that the sun had been directly overhead when she had first arrived in the forest, she figured that the passage of time here probably wasn’t much different from that on Earth.
If her guess was correct, nightfall would arrive in another hour or two.
She also had no idea how time was passing in the dormitory or when her roommates would return.
While waiting for someone to discover the note she had left behind and rescue her, she first needed to find somewhere to take shelter.
There were no houses in the forest, but there were plenty of caves.
If she couldn’t return in the short term, choosing the right cave would be extremely important. It needed to be close to a water source while also offering protection against sudden attacks from wild beasts.
Finding a cave that met all her requirements would be a major undertaking.
After organizing her thoughts, Chu Xiaoxiao carefully put away the unopened seasoning packets from the instant noodles. She needed to prepare for the worst-case scenario as well.
She set off again, planning to search for a cave along the stream.
After all, this was the water source she had worked so hard to find. Naturally, she didn’t intend to act recklessly. Before doing anything else, she planned to prepare several buckets of water in case she needed them later.
She closed her eyes and searched through the dormitory. Eventually, she found four plastic buckets.
When she opened her eyes and looked at the unfamiliar yet familiar objects placed in front of her, Chu Xiaoxiao couldn’t help feeling emotional.
Their dormitory was a four-person room, and before entering university, each of them had prepared a bucket based on the recommendations they had found online.
After starting university, they had realized that they hardly needed them at all.
She had previously complained that the things were useless and took up space. Who would have thought they would come in handy at a time like this?
The sky was already getting darker, so there was no time to waste.
She first cleaned one of the plastic buckets and filled it with water.
Once it was full, she focused her thoughts and attempted to retrieve it.
However, what happened next left her completely dumbfounded.
The bucket was successfully transported back, but the water inside it didn’t follow.
Instead, it spilled all over the ground.
Chu Xiaoxiao immediately understood what had happened.
So, her dormitory could only accommodate modern objects?
Since the water was a product of this world, it naturally couldn’t be transported into her space.
To confirm her theory, she casually found a branch and attempted to activate her ability.
As expected, nothing happened.
Objects from this place couldn’t be placed inside her space.
Fortunately, after enduring the torment of having absolutely nothing in her hands during the first few hours, this minor setback didn’t defeat Chu Xiaoxiao.
One of the girls in their dormitory loved collecting all kinds of cups, so they had quite a few sealed water bottles.
She took out two water bottles with carrying sleeves and slung them diagonally across her shoulders.
If she couldn’t put water into her space, she would simply carry it herself.
After being thoroughly beaten down by reality, Chu Xiaoxiao accepted the situation quite well.
However, her first attempt ended in failure.
Chu Xiaoxiao walked a large circle around the stream. The caves she encountered were either too low-lying to provide any shelter or already occupied.
She didn’t dare disturb the animals inside, so she could only quietly retreat.
There was nothing she could do.
She had no choice but to give up on this stream and head farther away to continue exploring.