Chapter 392 - 278: Bad News
"Talk! Who the hell are you?!"
Nadia brought Paige Summers back to her room at The Research Institute, asking impatiently the moment they walked through the door.
Paige Summers rolled her eyes, sauntered into the bathroom without a word, and locked the door behind her.
’The medical bay only had a tiny, palm-sized mirror. It just wasn’t big enough!’
She stripped off her clothes and stood before the full-length mirror for a moment, finally able to take in the full extent of the changes to her body.
Not only did her face look younger, but her entire body had shrunk. She was probably only about five-foot-one now, not to mention all the places that were supposed to be curvy... Her butt was one thing, but her chest was practically indistinguishable from a couple of soup dumplings!
Paige Summers gritted her teeth. ’This is the worst luck ever!’
The only silver linings were that her superpower was unaffected and her skin had become incredibly tough...
She guessed this medicine was definitely the work of those two old geezers, Silas Dudley and Seth Walsh! And of course, neither of them had used it; instead, it ended up being used on her!
’But who would want to turn into this?!’
’This is so frustrating!’
Outside, Nadia was furious, pounding on the door and shouting, "What the hell are you doing? Get out here right now!"
With a dark expression, Paige got dressed and walked out.
Paige Summers glared at her sideways. "What are you shouting for? Are you trying to attract a crowd?"
Nadia pointed a finger at her. "You, you, you... What is going on with you? There’s no way Sister Paige would have a sister like you!"
"Of course not!" Paige Summers sighed, found a chair, and sat down, looking Nadia straight in the eye. "Because I *am* Paige Summers."
Nadia froze for a moment, then, after a long pause, she suddenly snorted with laughter.
"Are you kid—..."
Before she could even get the word "kidding" out, Paige Summers flicked her wrist and a small bottle materialized from her dimensional space, which she then tossed over.
Nadia scrambled to catch it. She opened it, took a look, and froze.
Rainbow Water...
After a moment, she stammered, "But that still... doesn’t prove..."
Paige Summers rested her elbow on the armrest and propped up her head, tilting it to look at Nadia. "What do you want to know? How about the time Evan Pierce stole your research data and ran off, and you came crying to me? Or when I later sent you and Andy to that warehouse so you could focus on your experiments? Or how about when Sheldon Reid sent people to assassinate you, Andy got hurt, and then he went to Marcus Monroe’s place to recover? Or maybe the fact that you ended up falling for Andy?"
Nadia’s face flushed beet red. "You... you could tell?!"
"You were so obvious, it’d be strange if I couldn’t! Now, tell me what’s going on outside. I heard the Dudley Family is finished. What about the others? I mean, Marcus Monroe... is he okay? I’ve been gone for a while. Does everyone think I’m dead? How is Marcus Monroe doing?"
Nadia stared at her blankly, her eyes growing redder. Suddenly, she lunged forward and threw her arms around Paige Summers, holding her in a death grip.
"Sister Paige! You really are alive! I knew it, I knew it... WAAAH..." she sobbed, her words muffled by tears. "But how did you end up like this...?"
Paige Summers patted her on the back, a bittersweet feeling welling up inside her.
’I almost didn’t make it!’
’It’s all my fault for being so careless!’
’I didn’t want to become like this either!’
"There, there, stop crying."
Nadia cried for a long while before finally calming down. Only then did she have the presence of mind to look Paige over carefully. "Sister Paige, you... what happened?"
Paige Summers didn’t hide anything, directly explaining how she had been used as a test subject.
Nadia was shocked and indignant, but when she heard Paige Summers speculate that she had taken some kind of youth-restoring medicine, she became visibly excited.
"Is that true? They actually managed to develop a medicine like that?"
Paige Summers pondered for a moment before saying, "It must have been a failure." She frowned. "In any case, aging, sickness, and death are a normal part of life. A medicine that defies the natural order like this, even if successfully developed, is bound to have flaws. So I don’t recommend focusing your energy on it."
Nadia nodded. "I know, but I’m worried about your body. Why don’t I give you a thorough check-up? I don’t trust the standard of care in the medical bay."
"That can wait. You..."
Nadia cut her off. "I know, you want to hear about Big Brother Monroe." As she spoke, her expression darkened slightly. "Honestly, when you disappeared with Silas Dudley, a lot of people thought something terrible might have happened to you. But we never believed it. Big Brother Monroe was especially insistent. He was convinced you were still in Central City, so he just kept searching and searching... He even came when the explosion happened at The Institute, but no one expected Vice Dean Sawyer to cover up what happened to you. After that, he left Central City and headed north, saying Silas Dudley might have taken you there. But don’t worry. Although he looks haggard, the thought of finding you is keeping him going, so he’s in decent health."
Paige Summers nodded, falling silent.
She had noticed it herself after waking up—that strange connection she had with Marcus Monroe was gone. She wondered if it was because of the drastic changes her body had undergone.
’He must be having a really hard time...’
"Sister Paige?" Nadia said softly. "We still have some time. Should I go ahead and run that check-up on you?"
"...Alright."
Nadia first took her for a full-body examination, which, unsurprisingly, came back normal. Then she took a blood sample for analysis. This time, the results were different from the medical bay’s, and it made her expression turn grim.
"Sister Paige, there’s a strange substance in your blood. I don’t know how to describe it, but with it present, I suspect that over a period of time, you’ll continue to get... uh, smaller..."
Paige Summers was stunned.
She had never considered that possibility.
Since she woke up, her appearance hadn’t changed at all, so she had assumed this was as far as it would go.
’But if she really does keep getting smaller...’
’That’s beyond terrifying!’
"How small?"
Nadia shook her head. "I don’t know. I’ve never encountered this substance before. I don’t even know its composition; I can only guess at its effects. In fact, if you hadn’t told me the truth about what happened beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have even considered this possibility!"
Paige Summers forced down the turmoil of emotions rising within her and asked, "If I give you time, can you figure out this substance’s composition and create an antidote?"
Nadia bit her lower lip hard. "I can only try..."
’So basically, there’s no guarantee at all.’
Paige Summers let out a breath. ’That makes sense. Those people spent who knows how many years developing this medicine; how could Nadia possibly find a countermeasure right away? Not to mention, being here at The Research Institute, she faces all sorts of restrictions...’
"Is it convenient for you to leave right now? If so, I want to get out of here."
Nadia nodded emphatically. "Let’s go find Ivan! He actually knows more about this stuff than I do. Maybe he’ll have a solution!"
Despite her words, Paige Summers didn’t dare get her hopes up.
After all, besides the medicine, the power of the Jade Pendant Mark was also at work inside her. With all these factors combined, the resulting situation wasn’t going to be easy to solve.
But finding Levi Young first was, without a doubt, a necessity.