Teleportation? (2)

'Earth's scientists from my 21st century, you should be proud. I really am the eyewitness of mankind's evolution.' Adelaide thought randomly while transferring her hand back to where it belonged.

She was genuinely surprised at how smooth her own actions were. It was like once she figured out how to do it proactively, the progress got imprinted in her brain.

Sadly, Adelaide had no time to appreciate the unexpected success. The three scientists whose ethics remained a question were looking at her in astonishment while murmuring excitedly between themselves.

Their subject #00 had endured 8 minutes without passing out. This proved that her mental strength was incredible, even if you take into account the fact that she's a demi-human. Mind you, other adult subjects went crazy after six months.

They already knew this subject was special due to her origins. Well, they did go a bit easy on her since it was an order from the Baron himself, but the aie doses' purity level was no joke.

Adelaide did not like the looks those bastards gave her. Staying up could make matters worse, and the pain in her head also worsened, so she decided to pass out.

Once Adelaide found herself in the room of subconsciousness, she immediately shifted her focus onto the virtual screen. She needed to know what the bastards were talking about.

"8 minutes! This is an all-time record!"

"I know. Should we report this to the Baron? No, what am I even talking about? We must send him a report as soon as possible. Oliver, you take care of that. I have a feeling that he'll grant us an audience soon. We finally gain something from this."

"On it."

"Wait, this proved that her mental capability is quite strong. Will the brainwashing technique work on her?"

"Don't worry about that. It will. No matter how strong she is, she's a kid. Her thoughts and sense of self-identity aren't stable yet."

"Her result yesterday was 4 minutes 50 seconds, but it's 8 minutes 45 seconds today. It's almost doubled…"

"Are you saying she did it on purpose in the past?"

"…I'm not sure about that. My past of being a spy got me for a second. Honestly, I'm leaning towards the hypothesis of the accumulated aie inside her body taking effect all of a sudden. She's six. It's illogical even if you overestimate her."

"Yes. And don't talk too much about your past here, even if it's just the three of us."

"But there's no recording device in this room sir. You even check it yourself with your sniper eyes."

"I'm not talking about this room; being careful is never wrong. Anyways, I'll request another audience. I don't think he'll change the date, so be prepared to finish everything according to schedule."

What Number Three said gave Adelaide the chills.

The problem was that she remained sane. She was careless, if not reckless. Yes, the brainwashing event was coming, and having no concrete escape plan was a problem, but being cautious should be the priority. What if the Baron thinks that his brainwashing techniques would not work on her and decides to "deal" with her instead?

Lady luck helped her this time at least, but what if she failed to make any progress after staying up for 8 minutes straight?

Adelaide was the duke's daughter, so of course, she would not die. But being alive does not equal being intact. Adelaide even suspected that with what he had shown, the duke would not care less either.

'Crazy old man really hired mercenaries as scientists. But I have to either take risks or have my mind wiped out.'

Adelaide waited two hours for the three men to clean up and get out of the room. She did not dare to wake up immediately after they went out, so she waited for another half an hour.

'I never had the chance to properly look at this body', Adelaide thought while sitting up.

She was wearing a white dress with the number "00" in the top left corner. Her skin tone was almost as white as the dress she was wearing, and upon looking at her own reflection at the metal door, she finally saw her new body properly for the first time.

"Pretty" was the only word that appeared in her mind. White porcelain skin, black hair, and light blue eyes. Her face features were delicate. Adelaide could see a hint of gold in her eyes, though the color was vanishing rapidly. Her ears were also returning to normal from being pointy. Maybe it was because of the aie dose from before.

They said when demi-humans were agitated, they would temporarily expose the other race's features.

'Nobles really have good genes.'

Adelaide sighed and tried to jump down from the bed. It took her quite an effort. The bed was tall compared to her current size.

'I don't even remember how six-year-olds are supposed to look. Am I tiny for my age?' Adelaide sighed again while looking at the tall bed behind her.

Instead of calling it a "bed", the thing she laid on looked more like an operating table. It had a metal frame, with a white mattress and white pillows. With her already quite pale skin, white dress, and black hair, the entire combination looked eerie.

'What am I, a patient in a mental hospital?'

If it wasn't for the fact that she was able to overhear their conversations and figure out the details, the mental patient concept would be the first thing that had appeared in her mind.

The floor was cold as Adelaide walked around. The room was big, with all the facilities that one would need. There was a toilet in one corner, and a wardrobe with drawers in the other. There were no slippers, as the people here assumed she would not wake up except for when receiving the doses.

Although Adelaide was a bit concerned about her new body's digestive system, bladder, and the like, she did not have time to contemplate the idea. She walked around for a bit, did some stretches, and checked all corners of the room.

There was something she wanted to try. Adelaide was not that stupid to escape immediately after barely succeeding once.

'I need to at least master this new so-called ability. I checked every corner. If they found out using some undiscovered tracking devices, then I guess I'm unlucky.'

'Adelaide Winford was a little girl with complex family issues so there wasn't much information regarding advanced technology of this era. Well, she was young too.'

'I'm taking risks one after another. At least I'm pretty.'

With the determination of growing up as a beauty, Adelaide closed her eyes and breathed slowly to calm her racing heart down. As someone who had always been easily worried, she either needed to fix this habit step by step or have a sudden heart attack someday.

As the sensations from before were still fresh in her mind, Adelaide thought about the basic physics knowledge that she learned back in her past life. She was not a physicist, nor did she remember vividly everything related to human particles. However, Adelaide memorized a thing or two about how living creatures were all made up of atoms. What if she could disintegrate herself into these electrons and protons? And what if these atoms could travel at the speed of light, or even faster than the speed of light itself? If she could remain sane during the process, then does that mean she could direct them to her desired destination?

Then she would be able to 'teleport'.

This shallow theory was utterly dismissed back on Earth. Yes, we were all made up of small particles. However, it was proved by Earth's scientists that the atoms' speed can only approach, not surpass the speed of light; even Einstein's theory made this an inevitable fact. Moreover, the particles that made up living creatures' bodies are different in nature, so theoretically, teleportation of matter through space is impossible.

Adelaide was no expert, but she was glad she read random scientific articles in her free time when she found a certain subject interesting. As a result, she knew a little bit of everything.

'No one could call what I remembered as an amateur's knowledge. This is just simply wrong. Even a business student like me knows the law of physics would not enable teleportation to work this way.'

Nevertheless, this seems like the only way. This world was also a fantasy one where magical abilities and science met. Adelaide saw with her own two eyes that it worked with her finger, then her entire hand, back then. If she could somehow do that to her entire body, she would have a higher chance to escape.

The idea of disintegrating your body for the first time sounded scary to even the bravest person. There was no guarantee that this method was safe. What if you couldn't combine yourself back, or remain conscious?

You would wipe off your own existence, without a trace.

Adelaide could hear her own heart racing inside her chest. She was scared, but her mind kept on working. She imagined herself as a big mass of particles. The particles, or atoms, were glued together. Now, she tried to disintegrate them into individuals.

Adelaide also tried to focus her thoughts; she must be the one in control of all these individual atoms. They must not drift apart, as even one tiny atom was indispensable. Like how soldiers are individuals but obey one superior – their general.

Her mind, or her consciousness, must be in control.

Whoosh.

Then it happened.

Adelaide's eyes were closed for better concentration. She was also prepared for any situation, but the changes still shocked her to her bones.

Well, she was nothing more but indistinct particles, but since she was still sane, she felt like there were chills running down her bones if she had one at that moment.

It was dark at first since Adelaide had her eyes closed. However, light came pouring in. She suddenly had a 360-degree view of the room, without any blind spots. It should have made her dizzy since humans were not built for this kind of vision, but Adelaide felt totally fine, except for the initial shock.

When Adelaide "looked" down to check her current "body", it was simply not there. She could think like normal; the only differences were not having a body and a perfect view.

'Um…now let's try appearing next to the wardrobe.'

After deciding on her first destination, Adelaide "gathered" all her little "minions" and directed them to the corner of the room where the wardrobe stood.

It worked. She did not know what to say, or explain, further. Adelaide had prepared herself mentally for multiple try-and-errors. She even thought that since her hypothesis of teleportation lay in the aie injection, she would need more practice while receiving those painful doses if the amount was insufficient.

Or extreme failures where she might lose her limbs and organs.

She did risk it all this first try, but she also needed to know her capability at that moment.

'But it worked? That's it?'

Adelaide did not feel extremely excited and happy like how a normal transmigrator should when they first gained an ability. If anything, she felt slightly threatened.

She then checked her own body to see if everything was there. As a lady with beautiful features, she did not want her arms and legs to mess up its positions.

'Ah, where's my right pinky?'

Luckily, Adelaide's body assembled itself well, except for her right hand's pinky finger. Adelaide did not freak out immediately but looked around instead. She saw a small lump of glowing dust next to the metal bed where she used to be.

After a minute or so of focusing, her right pinky reappeared on her hand.

'Fortunately, I don't glow.'

Adelaide thought to herself while doing the second round of checking. She thought teleportation, or disassembling and reassembling, would not include her clothes. But since she did not appear naked, it seemed like she could teleport stuff with her in the future.

'...Did I get it like that? First try? And it was pretty fast too. Of course, it's not perfect, and I need more practice, but still… '

The fast progress made Adelaide uneasy. She knew herself best – Ly was not an extraordinary learner. She was not the type to be a pioneer in something. She was quite quick-witted, yes, but not a revolutionist with a brilliant mind.

Maybe she was a genius at teleporting? It sounds unlikely, with her blind attempts and broken physics knowledge.

'I mean, my pinky was not here at first, but the problem was fixed easily. The key was being concentrated, so a strong mind is a must.'

Adelaide sighed and leaned her small body on the big wardrobe. The sight of a little girl in a white dress standing alone in the corner of the room was sad. The girl kept her head down, and the way she crossed her arms looked like she was cold and was hugging herself. Anyone with common sense would have their parental instinct explode at that scene of the poor, confined kid.

"I should be happy that everything was smooth-sailing. But why am I having this ominous feeling that something will come bite at me one day?"

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Proofreader: krissaira