Naia didn’t waste another moment and booked a flight to Varma country, which was the adjacent country north of this one. The flight from Amber City airport was not too long, only a little over 3 hours, including boarding, taxiing, and landing.

Naia was determined to enlarge the space as much as possible and fill it up with as many things (or real estate) as she could. She could now enjoy the perks of having a one-acre space. How could she miss out on enlarging it a bit more?

Varma country was a resource-rich country abundant in jade, sapphire, wood, and even natural gas. However, from the sky, she could see that it was very poor.

In urban areas, the city was densely packed with crowded neighborhoods, patchwork rooftops, and messy infrastructure.

It was apparently due to the several civil wars that it suffered, followed by a deep culture of corruption. Even now, it was still characterized by its corrupt government. It was why she hadn’t completely dismissed the idea of smuggling herself back then—a bit of money could really go a long way here.

At the time, she just thought it was troublesome and a bit too risky, since she was going just for greed. After all, she didn’t absolutely have to go to jade mines, she could just steal them when the apocalypse happened. Sure, the number was far less, but it wasn’t life-or-death.

The airport was about three hours away from the mines. As she drove up to town, she also got to know more. The world used a lingua franca. Even if some couldn’t speak well, using the language, they at least did not humiliate themselves.

The mines for the jades, and the mines for rubies and sapphire were naturally not the same. However, they were located in adjacent mountain ranges, and there was a town situation smack in the middle of them.

The mines here were generally government-controlled, while some were joint ventures with private organizations, especially those deeper in wherein investment and heavy manpower were required.

The government held the majority of the stakes, of course, and they held the biggest mines, especially those near the town.

A town next to mines naturally flourished, especially when the government developed it into some sort of tourist hub where people could buy the gems and minerals for lower costs, and they might even win lotteries in teh ’blind stone guessing’ games.

It was a common gambling method related to jade wherein some stores would take the surface rocks—those that did not have dense amounts of valuable stones—out to sell. The customers, tourists, and enthusiasts could then choose a rock and hope it had precious jade inside.

Many people lose money here, but there were also plenty who made money. Anyway, this was one of the most lucrative tourist spots here.

She passed by a random shop and used her perception ability, and sure enough, she could really feel if there were precious stones inside as long as they were close enough!

With this, she could not only buy jade for a lower cost and higher effectiveness, but she could also use this to pad her lack of funds! This way, she really wouldn’t need to borrow more money.

(She was a law-abiding citizen and refused to steal from innocents!)

Of course, some rocks might have precious stones, but were not valuable enough to her space and would therefore not trigger.

What she needed the most now were things that would improve her space!

She quickly disguised herself with glasses and a wig before beginning her shopping/selling spree.

She rented a cart and bought every stone she wanted. Except for a few she’d use to replenish funds, she didn’t bother opening most of the rocks she bought as the space would absorb them automatically when she placed them inside.

She only managed to find two from the shop though. The others didn’t seem worth it.

Then again, she did hear that the rocks that ended up in these areas were the ’waste’ from the mines. It costs too much labor to open everything, so why not just let the customers do so? Selling them this way was just the final bid to make money when it was unlikely.

While perusing and buying, she saw a crowd forming in an area. Her tea-loving senses tingled, and she went to check it out.

It was a conflict between a large guy and a pitiful lady. "Help! Stop it! Stop it! I didn’t steal it!"

"Liar! Come with me! Let’s see if you can continue stealing!!"

From here, she could surmise the big guy was accusing the girl of stealing from him and was being rough about it. Many people spoke for the girl, or at least asked the guy to be more gentle and talk it out, though no one really stepped forward to actually take action.

Naia, on the other hand, did not jump recklessly just because it was an image of strong bullying the weak. This was because it could really be just that: An image.

She actually learned this the hard way.

Once, on a mission, she had encountered a very similar situation. They were not familiar with that team as they were from another base.

Back when she was young but old enough to go on missions, there were actually three bases left standing in their country. One was too far away from them, while the other was less than a day’s drive away.

She had once intervened in the conflict for a pitiful girl, but then later found out that it was that girl who really did steal. She used her feminine charms to distract the guards so she could take some food and resources to steal the food.

It wasn’t even a sob story where she was planning on giving it to a sibling or something. She was just a femme fatale.

So Naia learned to watch first and get to know the context before taking action.

It didn’t stop her from furtively taking a nice little lollipop from her space, her green eyes fixed on the drama on hand!