"Shit!" she cursed, immediately running back to the village.

Although animals were somewhat amicable with her, at least neutral, it didn’t mean the big, superior forest kings would not eat her for crossing into their territory!

GRRRRRR—

She teleported away, making the wolves flinch, but their instincts were fairly sharp. She only teleported a few hundred meters away, and they immediately dashed in her direction.

She moved farther away again, and even though they could still follow her, it gave her time to determine what to do.

To place anything in her space, they had to be inanimate or unmoving. Placing the wolves, which were agile and aggressive, into the space wasn’t as straightforward as people think.

If she were to find a comparison, it was much like trying to place marshmallows on a cup of hot cocoa moving erratically. Except it was much more complex, because the mental control needed to handle the space alone was taxing, let alone doing something like this.

Hmn, in that case, the more apt comparison would be trying to shoot a heavy, heavy weight through an erratically moving ring.

So, the key here was to keep them relatively static for a couple of seconds. Further, the method of restraint had to be unrelated to her ability as well. She could only use her ability in one way at a time, after all.

She teleported again, but this time towards the very rocky faces of the mountain. She grabbed several big, but loose, stones and placed them in the space.

She stood over one of the fixed rocks and then placed the heavy loose ones like a small maze around her. By the time the wolf pack arrived, they had to go through this ’maze’, and she’d just have to block their exit, trapping them there.

Grrrr—Squeak!

Inside the space, the wolves looked guardedly around. They were in the forest, but they were definitely not in the same place. Their animal instincts were clear on this.

Then Naia appeared right in front of them. Some were about to lunge by instinct, but it suddenly felt like their bodies had become heavier, so they had no choice but to stop.

The wolves looked at her guardedly, and Naia curiously walked closer, and no wolf moved against her. Still, their eyes showed guardedness rather than obedience.

Naia observed this, taking note of their differences with other animals. The simpler the mind, the easier to manipulate. For example, the insects, once in her space, immediately listened to her commands.

Each animal still had their own lives, but it was like they had imprinted on the fact that she was the owner. As long as she ordered the bugs, they would follow, otherwise, they would simply exist how they were.

For bigger animals, it was a bit different. Upon entering her space, they were just less aggressive at most, but she couldn’t order most of them like they were puppets.

If she summoned them, they would come, but it was usually due to her affinity with them and not because they were compelled to follow like mindless robots.

Anyway, the wolves soon realized that as long as they didn’t attack her, they would be fine, so they immediately dashed as far away from her as possible, mostly in fear. Naia shrugged, ignoring them.

She heaved a breath of relief before teleporting back to the open area where they had set up the accommodations.

Glen and Gale had transplanted some of the bamboo in the accommodation area. With the growth rate there, the already miraculous growth of bamboo was expedited even more.

Within a few days, the siblings had created a nice, enclosed rest space in the midst of the bamboo forest. Naia fell down on a hammock, immediately falling asleep.

She had gotten weak from her previous consumption of the small hill, and her legs were shaking the whole way. She had attributed it to fear of the wolves; now she realized it was just dead tired.

It looked like she’d have to be more careful in the future.

...she wondered how tired she’d be if she took in a whole building.

...

This thought was forgotten as she slept, only to wake up late in the evening.

She went outside the space with a sandwich on hand. After planning her seaside itinerary, she also began to search for some experts to pirate, er, recruit, though only through the internet.

Whether it was a few biologists, chemists, physicists, et cetera, she’d only feel comfortable if she had a few of those in her space by the time the apocalypse began.

She specifically looked for those with minimal attachments to the world, and she zoned in on a few names, but they were too far away from her. In the end, she just sent the list to Kael, asking him to take a look at those experts and maybe recommend his own.

She knew that Kael would have similar thoughts as hers regarding this, so she wasn’t worried that the search wouldn’t be done well.

Strength was King in the apocalypse, but technical knowledge was the lifeblood of the future.

To be able to rebuild properly, in order to avoid the life of savages, or to avoid stagnancy, they had to develop the post-apocalyptic world in a holistic manner.

The horrid loss of knowledge was heartbreaking, and the effect was something she had witnessed. How could she not do anything about it now?

Interestingly, while she was searching, she received a call from someone. It was none other than Detective Luke.

Luke had been calling her every few days to check in and give updates about the case (or what was allowed to be said), so she thought this one was a routine call again.

However, this time, his voice was a bit more somber.

"What is it?"

"Your maternal cousin, Perdita, approached your father’s family," he said. "She revealed you were alive."

Sigh. She should not have been surprised.

That Perdita was as restless as ever. She definitely couldn’t stand their life getting better and better while hers was getting worse.

By now, the husband’s mistress with a son would’ve appeared, staking claim to the remainder of the family wealth before it was completely confiscated.

Suffice it to say, that family was in chaos, and Perdita’s thought process was probably something like: If I’m suffering, you have to suffer, too.

The villagers and even the townsfolk probably weren’t familiar with her family or their address in Amber City at all. However, Perdita’s family happened to have received a lot of help from her mother when she was alive, so they naturally knew the details.

It was literally biting the hand that fed them, but oh well. Some people were just born to be lower than dogs.

Anyway, now, the sperm donor’s wife and children were now calling for her, and she knew it was no longer avoidable.

But...she wasn’t particularly concerned about this ’reunion’.

She was being low-key not because she was afraid of them, she just didn’t want to be held back with the things she wanted to do.

So, since the problem was already there, she might as well profit from it!