The torturous week soon ended, and the family finally headed back home to Grandma’s embrace and to the land without wolves.

The twins even forgot the space tour thing since they were so focused on not falling down.

She allowed them one day of rest but asked them to maintain their minimum hours of exercise. Considering how much they suffered in the forest, she reckoned their weakness would remind them to work harder on their physiques.

Naia, on the other hand, was filled with energy. With the kiddo trio and their dog, she went around the village to learn more about it.

"Where do you wanna go first, big sis?" Little Yaya asked. Yaya was pretty much the ’big boy’ and the leader of the trio.

She smiled and patted his head. "I just want to know more about our neighbors."

She was planning to survey—to survey which plots of land she’d take into her space when she got the chance. She was thinking of paying money to the neighbors before they left, lending the land to them, and then fencing it out to hide what they were doing.

Taking in large swaths of land would also be energy-consuming, like she had her blood drained out for a while.

This was why she had to canvas which land would be worth the trouble.

To maximize the verdant parts of her space, she should choose either forests with high biodiversity or farmland that had high productivity.

Her space accelerated the growth of things. It wasn’t related to time, however, not like how the static area was. Otherwise, she’d be concerned about her own aging. Rather, there was an energy in the space itself.

This energy, she learned, was her innate ability.

It was like Kael’s essence stone triggered the creation of the space, but it was her power that maintained it—energy that prevented it from dissipating—eventually allowing it to become its own world.

She always had this power. However, due to the lack of life and resources in their previous timeline, her ability didn’t have anything to pull from but her own life force. Back then, enhancing a hundred weapons could pretty much take her out for a day.

Now, she had plenty of energy.

It was also the sustainable kind where one energy fed on and sustained another.

For example, the trees and animals in her space were nourished by the space and her own power, and they also passively provided her with energy that she needed.

Another thing she wanted to explore about the neighbors was their character. Since she had the ability, she seriously considered taking them into her space. However, they had to be reliable ones. As for the others, she probably wouldn’t bother with them beyond sending some warning.

Choosing one wrong ally could put everyone else in danger.

She did not want to act like a god and determine people’s life and death, but she could definitely choose who she’d allow to be near her and her family!

She also wanted those who’d contribute to the greater cause. Ideally, except for the old people and the very young kids, she wanted everyone else to willingly leave the safety of the space and get exposed to the apocalypse.

For example, Old Wen next door was a fairly good old man. He taught them a lot and was an honest worker.

According to the kids, he also made excellent fried rice.

Whenever they played in the afternoon, they often helped villagers out with some chores. In exchange, they were given some goods like candies or even a small portion of food.

Old Wen’s daughter, Beibi, who was usually in town, apparently worked as a masseuse. Such a job was unheard of in the apocalypse, but one day Linlin helped her massage her stiff neck and back, and was very refreshed the next day.

She understood the magic of massage then and was determined to preserve this art!

When Old Wen’s daughter visited, Naia planned to see her skills herself.

Anyway, Old Wen and Beibi were some of the kids’ favorite people and their house was the first household they introduced her. He happened to be just a few hundred meters away from Grandma’s house and right next to theirs.

Amusingly, they seemed to like or were neutral with most of the villagers. Naia was actually relieved. It was either that the villagers here were pretty decent, or the kids looked at the world with a clean lens. Either way was fine with her.

The children could adjust when the time comes.

They were the most adaptable age group.

In contrast, Old Pangeet in the next village was (allegedly) super annoying. Little Mimi emphasized ’super’ by making a balloon with her chonky arms.

Their villages were adjacent to each other, so in the height of farming season or when hunting, there were intersections.

This old bastard was famous for stealing the game from other people’s traps. There were plenty of fights that began because of him.

One of their friends’ fathers had been seriously injured—almost disabled—because of it, so they remembered him well.

Even Marcus was a victim when he was in his teens. He remembered it clearly because that was the first time he wanted to pummel someone’s face.

He was also a bastard who spoiled his son and neglected his daughter. That old couple was still asking money from their daughter until this date, and it was so exhausting that her husband divorced her.

Their daughter-in-law was also in bad shape, treated like a maid by the family who thought of themselves as royalty. For these people, help was going to be taken for granted.

She heard that the daughter-in-law almost became a doctor, too. She would later find out (the kids didn’t know these details) that the daughter-in-law was only one year and she could’ve taken the exam already.

Naia looked at the sky and pondered for a few moments.

Speaking of doctors, she wondered if it was time to start recruiting one.