Chapter 289: Lin Sanjiu’s Hyperostosis
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
As it turned out, Reno and Rena’s concerns over Lin Sanjiu being identified by Puppeteer were unfounded.
Seven days after the two teenagers left, it was almost time for Lin Sanjiu to be transported to the next world. Lin Sanjiu had spent most of her time in Kisaragi Station as a higher consciousness entity. In retrospection, she discovered that she obtained only a pathetic number of Special Items during this 14 months. She only had two books, [A Girl’s Sorrow] and [A World History of Art]. Furthermore, she would have to sell one of the books to earn some living expenses for her time at Red Nautilus.
After she threw away the vending machine that she had converted at the start of her journey, Lin Sanjiu did not have anything else to tidy up. After some contemplation, she searched through the hotel rooms gathering some blankets and pillows just in case she needed them in the future. From a certain perspective, it was very rare to find a world like Kisaragi Station where human artifacts and items were still so well-preserved. After searching through the entire hotel, Lin Sanjiu finally found the warehouse of the housekeeping department on the fourth floor.
She stuck two fingers out and flicked the door lock gently. The lock crumbled like it was made of biscuit and made a powdery pile on the floor. The door creaked open. Just as she expected, the warehouse was filled with towels, toothpaste, toothbrush, toilet paper and all sorts of daily necessities. After Lin Sanjiu’s [Planar World] had upgraded once more, the maximum weight of the item she could convert already reached three tonnes. She wrapped everything she wanted in a big bed sheet she placed on the floor. With a single thought, the floor was empty. Even with a conservative estimate, those supplies could last for at least three years.
After she casually killed off a duoluozhong which had dangled its head out from a shelf, Lin Sanjiu started walking out of the warehouse leisurely. When she placed her hand on the doorknob, she had a vague feeling that something was wrong. She turned her head and looked. The warehouse was very normal, she did not spot anything unusual.
Oddly, she did felt a very distinct weird itch on her back. Lin Sanjiu slowly turned back and took two steps out of the warehouse. At the same time, she activated her higher consciousness scanning. When she noticed a black shadow, she turned behind very quickly. She realized that it was just an empty plastic bag.
After feeling a very peculiar feeling all over her body, it took Lin Sanjiu two to three seconds before she realized that this feeling of uneasiness came from her own body.
She lowered her head and looked at herself. She saw her long legs, arms and her body which did not even have a pound of excess fat. She seemed normal. She used her hand to touch her back and was instantly stunned.
Shortly after, she sprinted down the hallway noisily and rushed in front of the full body mirrors in the main lobby. When she saw herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help letting out a soft fearful cry.
“What’s this…”
Her previous “out of sight, out of mind” attitude came back to bite her. She could no longer deny and escape her worry. The cat doctor had warned her that theoretically her body might be further altered. It had finally had been proven.
In the mirror, there was a reflection of a tall, slender woman with an icy expression who was standing very still. Her pair of light amber eyes were usually icy cold, yet, right now they held an indescribable expression…
There were two large bony wing-like projections protruding from her back. They peeked out from her shoulder very slowly, piercing through the material of her singlet, before they stretched upwards.
No, they weren’t just bone protrusions. They were much closer to wings made of bones. After seeing that pair of scary-looking, threatening “wings”, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t say a word even after a long time.
The bleach-white bones had a tight-interwoven structure and seemed very hard. Long fang-like spiny structures grew from the topmost section to the tips of the wings. As the joints of the wings moved, the spines moved menacingly like poisonous serpents that could attack any time. When the two bony wings finally stopped growing and settled for a fixed form, Lin Sanjiu felt her legs go weak. She wanted to just sit on the floor— but she couldn’t even do something as simple as that— because the end of her wings stabbed themselves into the floor of the hotel’s main entrance. They supported her body firmly and sturdily.
The wings, which were almost close to two meters, formed two large narrow triangles on her back when she retracted them. Even though she had not tried to extend them fully, she could see from the numerous joints that these wings were going to be astonishingly flexible.
“What the f*ck.” Mrs. Manas, who usually portrayed herself as a role-model teacher, cursed.
Even though the cat doctor had already predicted such a possibility, Lin Sanjiu just couldn’t imagine that such a mutation would occur even after she had grown taller.
“What… what are these two things? I remembered those Sages don’t have things like these bony wings…” she mumbled weakly.
Mrs. Manas hesitated for some time without saying a word. The teacher seemed to be shocked by the view of her back. After quite a few minutes, she finally spoke softly and with uncertainty, “Maybe, the sages that you see are just one type of species with that appearance?”
This explanation made a lot of sense. Lin Sanjiu turned and stared at her own reflection. She found herself momentarily speechless. After that, she looked down and eyed the tip of her wings.
There were about eight serrated spines forming the frame of the wings. Each of them had the girth of her arm and their tips had a metallic sheen. They didn’t seem like they were made of bones but rather had a metal-like appearance. Lin Sanjiu tried to move the wings on her back and realized that it felt as though she was controlling a muscle or her little finger. With a single thought, her large left wing slowly opened up.
After she fully extended her left bony wing, its horizontal width reached more than 2 meters. It had already reached another end of the hotel lobby. With another thought, the serrated spines extended out with a swoosh. They tore through the air making a sound that seemed almost like a malicious spirit devouring a human. With another thought, the bony wings retracted quickly like a beast closing its mouth.
Mrs. Manas didn’t say a word for a long time.
“Why don’t you try flying?” she asked rather foolishly.
Though it was a somewhat disappointing, but very predictable, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t fly with those bony wings. After they were fully extended, air would just slip through the gaps between the bones. Lin Sanjiu created a drift with her wings, but no matter how strong the drift was, her feet were still firmly planted to the ground.
“Can you withdraw the wings into your body?” Mrs. Manas thought of another question.
“I’ll try,” Lin Sanjiu wanted to reply but she realized that her body was suddenly fading. From the looks of it, she would have to bring these two large wings to Red Nautilus.
