Bai Bai stared at the rice ball in her hand, and after three seconds, took a bite.
“It’s just slightly sour, still edible.”
As she ate, the more she chewed, the more aggrieved she felt.
“Aside from eating leftovers in the dog days of summer that I forgot to put in the fridge—and even then, that was just a single bite, at most one bite, and the moment it smelled sour I threw it out—when in my entire life have I ever eaten spoiled food?”
“What a dogshit life!”
Bai Bai cursed up a storm, cursing with every bite. Picking up the water jug, she took three chews of the rice ball before chugging water to wash it down.
After forcing herself to swallow that single rice ball, Bai Bai didn’t even spare a glance at the remaining one, intending to toss it the moment she stepped out the door.
She wanted to wash her face, too, but she didn’t even have a clean towel.
After gulping down another jug of salt and sugar water, Bai Bai stowed the few pieces of clothing from the corner of the bed into her space.
Clothes were precious supplies now. She was afraid that after she left, someone might pry the door open and steal them.
That door lock was just a standard dormitory lock, providing zero sense of security in Bai Bai’s eyes.
If her space weren’t too small, she would have even stowed this lousy bed away.
“Time to go, time to head to the異市 (Anomalous Market) to trade for Source Crystals.”
She locked the door and walked downstairs. The building was quiet, as most neighbors had already gone out to work. Judging by the dazzling sunlight outside, it was clearly no longer early.
Bai Bai walked straight out of the residential complex and bought a fresh, warm rice ball at a street stall. As soon as she put it into her space, one became two, and two became four. She then pulled one out, peeled back the leaf wrapper, and ate as she walked.
The hot rice ball was moist and soft, thoroughly delicious.
With hot food in her stomach, her mind seemed to clear up. As she ate, Bai Bai cursed herself once again for why on earth she had eaten that sour rice ball earlier…
Her body instinctively knew she no longer needed to strictly budget her food. Bai Bai’s appetite opened up, and by the time she finished a stretch of the walk, two rice balls had vanished into her stomach.
She went from shop to shop seeking familiar bosses to ask if they had goods that needed delivering—this was the original owner’s daily routine.
Working was a necessity.
The wallet in her space, combined with the money she earned yesterday, totaled 78 yuan.
The monthly rent for this tenement building was 180 yuan.
Moving was urgent, but the reality was that affordable housing was tight on supply. If she couldn’t find a suitable vacant room, she would have to renew her rent at the tenement building.
There were certainly quick ways to make money—namely, selling the duplicated grain.
But where could she find a reliable channel?
As a bottom-tier spatial awakened user, if she brought out a massive stash of full bags of grain, where would she claim it came from?
Wasn’t she afraid that right after selling the grain, someone would follow her to her doorstep and force out her supply source?
Bai Bai considered herself someone who had watched countless crime dramas growing up; she naturally couldn’t do such a stupid thing.
For now, it seemed the only way to cash in the grain was to continuously trade for Source Crystals in various Anomalous Markets, securing her mental energy while secretly copying other people’s abilities.
As for exchanging for cash, she would take it one step at a time.
She asked three bosses in a row, but none had work. When she stepped into the fourth shop, she happened to see the boss holding a walkie-talkie, writing down orders while listening.
Seeing Bai Bai walk in, the boss quickly gestured for her to wait.
After writing down the order, the boss read it back to double-check.
Bai Bai listened from the side. The person on the other end called him “Uncle” with every sentence, and the boss had a kindly look on his face. She immediately remembered that this boss had an explicit backer—his biological nephew who ran an adventure team.
This was precisely why bosses who could run a stable shop formed their own faction.
Whether they had an adventure team behind them was the source of these shopkeepers’ confidence.
Once the boss verified everything without error, he put down the walkie-talkie and ended the call.
“Little Bai, you came at just the right time. Help me hold the basket.”
“Will do.”
Bai Bai carried the shopping basket and followed the boss deeper into the store to fetch the goods.
A few minutes later, the two emerged. Bai Bai held a basket packed with daily sundries: towels, soap, toothbrushes, tooth powder, and an entire box of toilet paper.
Bai Bai checked with the boss, and following his directions, she found an empty cardboard box and neatly arranged the loose sundries inside.
The boss filled out the delivery invoice at her side for an address in a residential complex, and Bai Bai took the order to set off.
The moment her front foot stepped out of the shop, the box of sundries in her space multiplied—one became two, adding an extra box.
This extra box was, naturally, Bai Bai’s personal stash.
Compared to yesterday, when eight bags of grain instantly doubled into sixteen, the mental energy consumed by this box of sundries was barely worth mentioning.
After a good night’s sleep—sleeping from before dark until just now, well over twelve hours—her mental energy was fully recharged, as a good sleep was one way to replenish it. She was indeed full of energy right now.
In a complex urban environment, the communication range of a walkie-talkie wasn’t far—just three to five kilometers.
Bai Bai walked out of her district with light steps, stepping onto the rammed earth road. After walking another stretch, her path was blocked by a crowd ahead, with workers wearing reflective road maintenance vests directing traffic.
She walked over and mingled with the crowd to listen to the gossip.
It was actually quite simple: a small fight had just broken out ahead, and an entangling anomalous plant had been dug out. They were currently filling the large crater in the road, so passing pedestrians either had to wait patiently or make their own way around through the anomalous plant thickets on both sides of the road.
Hazardous anomalous plants were a daily occurrence nowadays, but the rammed earth roads were managed by the state, with crews clearing them at all times to ensure road safety.
As for the anomalous plant thickets on either side, those who weren’t afraid of dying could trek through them at their own risk.
As a small fry who had just transmigrated yesterday, Bai Bai certainly wasn’t going to look for trouble; she waited patiently at the back of the queue.
Without a watch, she didn’t know how long she waited, but eventually, the road opened up.
Bai Bai followed the flow of people forward and soon saw a freshly filled patch on the road surface, perfectly smooth and flat—at a glance, it was clearly the work of a superpower.
Yet, she didn’t feel that impulse to copy an ability.
Recalling yesterday’s process of copying the Water Control ability, could it be that the trigger condition required seeing the person cast it with her own eyes?
Perplexed, Bai Bai silently made a mental note of it, prioritizing her journey.
Walking until she was drenched in sweat, she drank most of her jug of salt and sugar water before finally turning into the side street where her destination’s residential complex was located.
There was a row of small shops lining both sides of the road, but Bai Bai walked straight past without looking left or right.
With no money in her pockets, she couldn’t even be bothered to look at the shop signs.
Just as the complex’s main gate came into view, Bai Bai suddenly heard a familiar voice.
Subconsciously turning her head to look, she saw two familiar faces standing inside a shop beside her.
The cheap laborers from Lulu Tong.
The two were currently delivering goods to the boss.
This was the benefit of a team—they could take on large orders with heavy volume.
The moment the two opened their spatial storage, that impulse of “wanting it” surged from deep within Bai Bai.
Yielding to the sensation: she wanted it, she got it.
Whoosh!
Her brimming mental energy was instantly drained dry, and her legs went weak—the aftermath was even fiercer than when she copied the Water Control ability yesterday.
The remaining three Source Crystals in her space shattered one after another, pulling her mental energy back up just a sliver—at most a centimeter or two in a measuring cylinder.
The drastic shift was too intense. Bai Bai suffered from both weak legs and dizziness, but not daring to pause, she gritted her teeth and hurried forward a few paces. Only after passing two shops did she lean against a wall to catch her breath, pulling out her water jug to replenish her salt and sugar.
As she put the jug away, she took a quick glance inside her space, and instant joy washed over her.
Her space had expanded.