If she worked until her face melted into the detector

[constantinusphilo]

This is a passage from How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer:

Irene kept her face steady, her eyes open, pointed at the machine. If she worked until her face melted into the detector, if her brain fell down into the path of the accelerator, if it was penetrated by pions and if a small black hole was created in her skull, then at least she would have finished all the data for this set. She blinked her eyes to wake herself up, clicked the knob, and peered into the machine, like every time before.

I think this a real condition in the past; however, how to change it into an unreal condition?

 

[tedmc]

As written, they are second conditionals - unreal/hypothetical conditions - with if-clause in the past tense and main-clause with would + a base verb.

 

[5jj]

Let's shorten the sentence to make consideration of it simpler:

If she worked until her face melted into the detector, [...] then at least she would have finished all the data for this
set.

In that context, this is a reporting of her thoughts: either: (1) If I work until my face melts into the detector, [...] then at least I will have finished all the data for this set.
or: (2) If I worked until my face melted into the detector, [...] then at least I would have finished all the data for this set.

The first of these is a predictive conditional - a real possibility.
The second is a hypothetical condition - - a lower or no possibility.

A counterfactual conditional (she didn't work until her face melted) would be:

(3) If I had worked until my face melted into the detector, [...] then at least I would have finished all the data for this set.

 

[jutfrank]

this is a reporting of her thoughts: (1) If I work until my face melts into the detector, [...] then at least I will have finished all the data for this set.

That's how I read it.