Before leaving the old man’s house, she naturally took note of everything related to the property. It was the property she was sold for, after all, and she would never take a loss.

The property was located at a western border town called Colden Town, bordering the western megacountry Micara country.

The fastest way to get there was to take the train to the nearest City to Colden, which was Freisa City. Luckily, although the origin station was in Amber City, there was a station in the town north of Lotus Town.

Naia left the village before dawn, calling a cab because there were no other modes of transportation that early in the day, taking a cab to the train station. Since it was still early in the day, there was not much traffic, so she arrived at the Station in less than half an hour.

She paid extra to get a comfortable seat. Her seatmate was a random auntie who chatted her up a bit.

"Heading to Freisa City? Alone?"

She nodded. "I...have relatives there. I’m just visiting."

"I see..." she nodded. "Is this your first time there?"

When she nodded, the auntie pretty much splattered her with suggestions and even a number of gossip.

"You don’t know...that scandal that made national news—it’s actually my neighbor! Gosh, it was sooo bad. I was there when the entire family got arrested! That poor kid was taken out on a stretcher full of bruises and infected wounds.

How could a man torture his own nephew like that? Tsktsktsk!"

"It’s especially heartbreaking because the victim was handsome!"

"...I see..."

She hadn’t watched the news, so...

The auntie did not mind her lack of excitement and continued chatting like a bird. She detailed the case, and Naia had to admit that it was indeed sensational news for the standards of this timeline.

It was happy news to know that the victim had managed to escape and seemed to be recovering well, though no other news had been made available since then.

Naia found herself wanting to find out more, but there really was no other news anymore. The auntie’s attention span was worse than a kid, too, so that topic was quickly buried under a dozen others.

An hour into the trip though, the woman was already snoring. Dawn had just descended then, and it was obvious she was very tired. Naia did not mind at all.

Before the auntie fell asleep, she also managed to find out a bit more about the city.

It was apparently one of the cities with above-average crime rates. There were apparently gangs forming here and there, some of whom had connections with foreign gangs.

Anyway, she appreciated the return of her peace and quiet (if she ignored the snoring).

Naia looked out the window for the entire ride, watching the landscape pass by her eyes. Soon, the scenery became more and more urbanized. From a line of two to three-story houses and buildings, soon rose the skyscrapers that occupied the horizon.

She remembered what a city looked like in her previous life. Everything was desolate and ruined. Many of the buildings have fallen, exposing their skeleton and the rebars as if they were sinews.

The trip to Freisa would’ve taken five to seven hours by car. But thanks to the Intercity Train, it was reduced to about three hours. She arrived to the city early in the morning, just in time for the opening of most shops.

Since she was already in the City, she might as well spend a day shopping. It was in another region from where she was from, so naturally, it should have some products unique to it, and certain products more readily available or more inexpensive.

At this time, she didn’t see the need to rush to the property since she couldn’t do anything about it yet. She was literally just checking it out for its resale value. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

One of the targets this time would be precious metals and some gems.

Since it was a border city, a lot of the items from the West and Southwest go through here. It was really the best place she could test the effects and limitations of her space.

She was determined to know which items could cause an ’effect’ on the space. For now, she had confirmed that precious metal like gold and silver, as well as some beautiful stones like jade, had some effects on her space.

According to her observation, the metals were used to create the small time-freeze spaces, or other controls like adding vitality to the plants.

On the other hand, high-quality jade automatically expanded it. She wondered if it was a set effect per type, which was something she’d find out later.

After this, she’d have to find a new way to get more money. She thought about it and the fastest route would be the sperm donor.

Specifically, fleecing him.

Grandma was right. Her mother had burnt herself out for that company. It was why she had been so busy, and why she never had the time to relax or pamper herself, ultimately making her age faster.

Meanwhile, Houser was focused on the ’marketing’, except it involved a lot of drinking, under-the-table deals, and women.

Hmph!

As her mother’s only daughter, it was her duty to pull these things under the enemies’ noses!

The primary investigation of the case was relatively fast because it made so much noise. What would’ve taken two weeks was reduced to one week.

She was afraid that the house and assets would be frozen and confiscated by the time of the bail hearing, so she’d have to figure out how to get money from him before then.

Naia went around to buy different materials. In a city, there were all kinds of stores. There were stores that sold various metals, some sold various rocks, and some gems.

She did not have unlimited funds to buy a bit of everything, so she only bought a few samples that could theoretically represent a group.

Hopefully, this trip will be fruitful.