Chapter 87: Jadeite for Free

An Nan drove and quickly arrived at her destination.

The Jewelry District.

This entire street was lined with jewelry shops. Hardly anyone scavenging for supplies would bother coming here, so it was especially quiet.

After all, no matter how valuable these jewels had been before the disaster, they were now completely useless.

You can’t eat them, you can’t drink them, and you can’t trade them for food or water. What’s the point?

But for An Nan, this place was a treasure trove.

She started browsing from the very first shop at the end of the street.

It was a well-known brand store. As soon as she walked in, she saw rows of display cases, neatly organized with various gold, silver, gemstone, and jade jewelry.

An Nan headed straight for the jadeite counter.

There were plenty of jadeite bangles, necklaces, rings, and more.

Although they’d been soaked during the flood and were covered in grime—some even broken in half—as long as the material was right, it wouldn’t affect the upgrade of her space.

An Nan glanced over the selection. Almost all of them were “bean” or “glutinous” types, with only two high-ice pieces displayed separately in a special case.

Even though the quality was average, the prices were sky-high.

Looks like that saying in the jade world is true: take a zero off the price of jadeite in malls and brand stores, and that’s its real value.

Just like the bangle she’d picked up at the floating market, which was worth fifty thousand—if it were sold here, they’d price it at half a million.

If you want real value for money, you have to go to places like Wuhui Market or Jieyin Market, the big jadeite trading hubs.

In Linbei City, if you want to buy jadeite, you’re stuck getting ripped off at malls and chain stores.

Spend tens of thousands and end up with a bangle worth a few thousand at best.

Out of all the jadeite in this shop, the best piece was actually the one she had on her wrist—the one bound to her space.

Even the bangle from the floating market and Long Cong’an’s thumb ring would be considered top quality here.

But An Nan wasn’t picky. As long as it was real, her space would take it.

If the quality’s not enough, quantity will do! After all, there were so many jewelry shops here.

She swept up all the jadeite in the store, then tested her space. She found that the distance she could move in and out of her space had upgraded from 1.1 meters to 3 meters.

An Nan was overjoyed.

Just one store’s worth of goods and her range had increased by nearly two meters. With so many jewelry shops on this street, wouldn’t she soon be able to blink a hundred meters away?!

Excited, she prepared to head to the next shop.

Before leaving, she also scooped up all the other jewelry in the store.

Since she was here, why not take it all?

As she gathered everything, she thought, Too bad gold can’t upgrade my space.

If it could, that’d be perfect.

Besides these gold bangles and necklaces, she still had a whole cabinet of gold bars from the boss’s secret room in her space!

The second shop was about the same in terms of quality and quantity. An Nan emptied it out as well.

This time, when she tested her space, it only upgraded by 1.5 meters.

Was the overall quality of this shop not as good as the first?

An Nan moved on to the third shop.

After collecting all the jadeite there, she tested again—this time, it only upgraded by 1.3 meters.

An Nan frowned.

That didn’t make sense.

She’d checked the quality of the jadeite here carefully—it was about the same as the first shop. In fact, there was even an extra display case’s worth of goods.

So why didn’t her space upgrade as much as before?

Puzzled, An Nan continued sweeping through several more shops, and was surprised to find that her space was upgrading slower and slower.

She stopped and compared carefully: two high-quality bangles, collected one after the other—the second one upgraded her space less than the first.

Suddenly, An Nan understood: the more jadeite she collected, the harder it became to upgrade her space.

Back when she’d picked up Long Cong’an’s thumb ring, her space’s range had jumped by 10 centimeters in one go. Now, a piece of the same quality only added 3 centimeters.

Thinking it over, An Nan could understand.

It was just like leveling up in a game—at first, you could gain seven or eight levels in a day, but later on, it might take a whole month of grinding just to get one level.

She remembered some hardcore gamers who’d get stuck one level away from max for over a year.

With this realization, An Nan comforted herself:

It’s okay if upgrades are slow—I’ve got quantity on my side!

So she kept sweeping through shop after shop, not even bothering to test anymore—just grabbing everything in sight.

Wherever she went, nothing was left behind.

Not just jadeite—diamonds, gold, platinum, K-gold, silver, pearls, agate, all kinds of gemstones…

If she could see it, it was hers.

Only after she’d cleared out every shop did she go into her space to test again.

Now, her range had reached thirty meters!

It wasn’t quite the hundred meters she’d hoped for, but a thirty-meter blink was enough to instantly take out any enemy within that distance.

As for enemies farther away…

She could just blink a few more times!

Blinking back and forth like a ghost—she’d scare them to death before they even knew what hit them.

After three hours of hard work, An Nan returned to her car, ate a few crackers to recharge, and set off for her next destination.

Linbei City had about a hundred large shopping malls.

Of those, around sixty had jewelry counters. An Nan planned to hit them one by one, following her map.

Her armored vehicle was fast, and she soon arrived at her next stop.

The mall wasn’t as quiet as the jewelry street.

There were lots of supplies here. Even though everything had been soaked, plenty of people were still picking through, taking anything that was sealed.

Even ruined rice, spoiled rations, and murky bottled drinks were in demand.

Different types of goods were on different floors.

Most scavengers went straight to the basement supermarket.

But the jewelry counters An Nan wanted were all on the first floor.

The first floor was quiet, since it only had jewelry and cosmetics—no food.

Only people passing through on their way to other floors would be here, and only briefly.

Just in case, An Nan put on a mask and a hat.

That way, even if someone caught a glimpse of her secret, they wouldn’t be able to tell who she was.

She looked around and, seeing no one nearby, got to work.

But unlike on the jewelry street, she didn’t dare use her space so openly. If a passerby saw her, it would be trouble.

So she grabbed a backpack, used it as cover, stuffed jewelry into it, and then transferred it into her space.

Of course, she didn’t empty the counters completely—she left some jewelry in the bag so it wouldn’t look suspiciously empty.

It was less efficient than before, but much safer.

The quality of jadeite in the mall was about the same as in the brand shops on the jewelry street—plenty of glutinous types, a few decent pieces, but no top-tier goods.

Those pieces worth tens of millions or more were probably locked away in the private safes of celebrities and rich ladies.

She was busy sweeping through the counters when suddenly, she heard footsteps approaching.

An Nan immediately became alert."