"Why are there so many people gathered up ahead?" Winn suddenly asked.
Paige looked ahead and saw a group of poorly dressed people gathered together, talking about something.
Looking closely, she realized they were selling animal furs.
They were selling at very low prices, just hoping to trade for some food.
Even though the city was taken over by the PN Soldiers and the food had been taken away by them, the people still had to survive.
They brought out anything from home they could sell, just hoping to get a bite to eat.
But everyone was in a similar situation. There were many sellers but few buyers. Those willing to trade with food were even fewer.
Paige was quite interested in the furs, so she told Winn to bring the boat ashore and took Uziel with her to walk around.
This small market was formed spontaneously by local people.
Everything they were selling was handmade at home.
Processed animal furs, baskets made of rattan, fish traps, and so on.
Paige picked the furs she liked and started buying.
"These two, we'll take them back and make cloaks for you."
"These few have nice colors, they can be used for scarves."
"This one can be used to make gloves and a hat."
Everyone saw a big customer had come and eagerly promoted what they were selling.
Winn's hands were getting fuller and fuller.
After visiting every stall and spending all the food she had, Paige was finally satisfied and got back on the boat.
She carried a big sack as a cover, shopping as she went.
When she finally didn't want to buy anything more, she poured all the rice from the sack into the cloth bags of the sellers.
Uziel didn't go ashore. He stayed behind to watch the boat.
When he saw his brother coming back with so many things, he quickly came forward to help.
"Why did you buy so much?" Uziel asked.
"I thought they were nice, so I bought them. We'll pick some styles we like and make clothes out of them," Paige said.
She had already said that with her, they would have everything.
When no one was around, Paige put all the things from the boat into the space.
Even though they had seen it many times, Winn and Uziel were still amazed.
It was truly something magical.
Uziel even stepped on the place where the items were stored, just to make sure they were really gone and it wasn't some kind of trick.
He thought to himself that having this ability was really convenient.
Just like this time when they went out, all the weapons and ammunition were stored directly in the space.
No matter how thoroughly the city searched them, they wouldn't find anything.
Once inside the city, they could take everything out again, and after using it, put it back in.
Also, like now, they didn't need to carry a bunch of bags when going out. They just stored everything, and took it out when they got home.
The three of them wandered around along the river, letting Winn and Uziel familiarize themselves with the terrain and come up with an assassination plan.
Paige gave them an assignment this time:
Successfully kill the PN Official in the city and reach the designated location safely.
Originally, she planned for them to work together, but after seeing how few guards there were, she decided to let them act separately.
Each would plan on their own and see who could carry out the assassination first.
As for Paige, she naturally went around scouting for food, weapons, or anything valuable.
Since she was already here, not emptying the warehouse would be an insult to the PN Soldiers.
But after checking everything, Paige was surprised.
There was a lot of food here.
Mostly rice.
Which was perfect for her, since she didn't want to eat that coarse, throat-scratching grain anymore.
The canned goods and compressed biscuits stored in the PN warehouse were also something she didn't mind.
These things would be useful during battles and marches.
Even if she didn't eat them, many others would want them.
As for those guns, ammunition, cannons, rocket launchers, Paige gladly took them too.
It was just a pity there weren't any tanks or artillery vehicles.
And those horses—her small grassland inside the space was almost complete, so storing a dozen horses and cattle wouldn't be a problem.
If the grass wasn't enough, feed would do.
The PN had plenty of different kinds of hay and beans here, enough to last through the whole winter.
However, these living animals made too much noise, so she'd have to wait until everything was done before collecting them.
Otherwise, it might alert the enemy and disrupt Winn and Uziel's plan.
But Paige touched her chin, thinking—
Plans are made to be disrupted, right? When do things ever go exactly the way we want?
Looks like she'd have to start causing some trouble in the future too.
But since this was only the second mission, she'd let it go for now.
During the day, Winn and Uziel had to go survey the area.
Paige was in charge of shopping, strolling around, and checking out some spots.
Even though there wasn't much worth buying, from the ruins and damage, one could still see the glorious history of this ancient city.
If something could be taken immediately, she'd take it. If not, she'd make a note and come back at night to collect it.
Paige even found a small amount of opium in the PN Soldier camp.
No one knew if they planned to use it themselves or to harm others with it.
Either way, no matter who it was for, it now belonged to Paige.
It was safer to store such dangerous stuff in her space.
There wasn't much to buy or see anyway.
Since she had some free time, Paige went to rent a room to organize the things in her space.
Mainly, she wanted to check on that jar of water.
She had found it in a rush earlier, and things kept coming up afterward, so she never had a chance to inspect it closely.
Now that she was free, Paige carefully examined the water jar.
She scooped out a ladle of water and found it had become cold.
It had been warm just a couple of days ago, and now it was cold. So, where did the problem come from?
The water jar was just an ordinary one, and the water was also just regular water.
Could it be that this spot had some kind of freshness-preserving effect?
Paige wasn't sure.
She moved the water jar, planning to buy some hot food later to test if the spot had a preservation function.
After moving the water jar, Paige found a small, ordinary-looking stone underneath it.
But in this setting, the stone didn't seem so ordinary.
After all, the ground of her space was made of cement—where did this little stone come from?
Paige picked up the stone and examined it.
Wait, wasn't this one of those depleted energy crystals?
Paige suddenly thought of that crystal core she had casually thrown into her space.
Because what she had taken out was a Level 1 crystal core, and she had absorbed most of its energy, only a little was left when she threw it into the space.
Thinking about it, the water in the tank was still warm a few days ago. That means the crystal core kept the water warm for at least more than half a month, almost a month.
The remaining energy in that crystal core was only about one-third. So, it seems a Level 1 crystal core can last for around two months.
But in what form does it work? Direct contact?
Can one crystal core only keep one item fresh?
Even though she had many crystal cores, if they were used up at this speed, they wouldn't last very long.
No, she had to find time to do more experiments to figure out how to use the least amount of energy to keep things fresh.
After understanding how to use the crystal cores, Paige put the matter aside.
She had no materials around her now, so she couldn't do any experiments anyway. The main task now was still collecting supplies.
And building her farm and ranch.
Just thinking about having endless food and meat in the future made Paige extremely excited.
She would never have to worry about going hungry again. She could eat whatever she wanted.
If she managed to develop the crystal core's preservation function, did that mean
From now on, whether food was raw or cooked, she could just grab it anytime she wanted.
Hahaha...
She really must have saved the world in her past life. That's why the heavens gave her a chance to retire peacefully this time.
And just in case she didn't have the conditions to enjoy her retirement, they even gave her a bunch of conveniences.
Winn and Uziel were running around, finding escape routes and checking the enemy's situation.
They observed the PN Soldier movement routes and the nearby troop deployments.
Paige, on the other hand, was happily eating dinner in the hotel. After finishing, she even asked the staff to pack several dishes for her, using two food containers.
In one, she placed the crystal core inside the container. In another, she placed the crystal core at the bottom of the food box.
While packing meals for Winn and Uziel, she also continued her preservation experiments.