Her space, originally 1 cubic meter, had now doubled in size to a full 2 cubic meters.
The supplies piled inside had been pressed right up against one another, quite crowded, but now there was an open border all around them.
Bai Bai was overjoyed.
She instantly forgave herself for her reckless behavior earlier.
When those two opened their spatial storage together to retrieve the goods, she had stared at them both without differentiating between them. Her cheat had most likely copied spatial abilities from both of them simultaneously, which was why her mental energy was drained dry in an instant. Luckily, those three Source Crystals saved her life.
She couldn’t be so careless in the future. From now on, whenever she copied an ability, she had to lock her eyes onto a specific target.
Bai Bai wiped the cold sweat from her face and walked toward the entrance of the residential complex. She was only granted entry after registering at the security booth, where she found the client and completed the delivery and collected her payment smoothly.
After exiting the building, Bai Bai wanted to take the opportunity to wander around the complex to see if there were any vacant rentals, but she was chased away by patrolling security guards who strictly prohibited non-residents from loitering.
When Bai Bai asked if there were any vacant rooms, all she received was an impatient “No, no!” from the security guard.
Stepping out of the complex, Bai Bai didn’t dwell on being kicked out. The guard was just a worker doing his job, so there was no need to get angry.
Continuing down the side street, she looked around for a nearby Anomalous Market. She urgently needed to stockpile Source Crystals right now.
As she walked, she organized her space, sorting and rearranging the odds and ends inside.
In her 2-cubic-meter space, the sixteen bags of grain first took up one corner, four jugs of water and two rice balls occupied another, her personal junk took up a third, and the box of daily sundries took up the last.
The center was left open, where future deliveries would be placed.
Her space would grow larger and larger in the future, so she needed to start preparing shelving units.
Leaving the side street, she reached the main road and turned to keep walking. After making nearly a three-quarter loop around the block, almost completing a full circle, she finally spotted an alley where awakened users were constantly entering and exiting. Following them inside led directly to an Anomalous Market.
After taking a quick walk around, she discovered this market had quality goods: she spotted Tier-2 Source Crystals, where a full bag of grain could be exchanged for 2 crystals.
Bai Bai visited two stalls and used two bags of grain to trade for 2 Tier-2 crystals and 5 Tier-1 crystals.
The moment the Source Crystals entered her space, she first consumed the Tier-1 ones to replenish her mental energy.
To her surprise, even after using up all 5 Tier-1 Source Crystals, her mental energy was only a little over half full, far short of feeling brimmed and fully charged.
“Holy crap…”
Bai Bai instantly gasped, sensing trouble.
“With my space expanding and my mental energy strengthening, Tier-1 Source Crystals can’t satisfy me anymore? Such a huge jump?!”
“Doesn’t this mean I’m screwed? How am I supposed to afford this in the future?”
While muttering to herself in her head, Bai Bai walked out of the Anomalous Market at a leisurely pace.
She didn’t dare act nervous or run around, afraid of drawing attention.
Stepping out of the alley and back onto the street, Bai Bai began sweeping the neighborhood, going into shops one by one to ask if they had goods that needed delivering.
This wasn’t an area where the original owner frequently operated, and seeing that she was an unfamiliar face, the shopkeepers turned her down for five or six stores in a row without offering any business.
However, this was the daily reality for the original owner—it was never easy for freelancers to land orders.
Bai Bai kept asking shop by shop. After asking at least a dozen stores, the boss of one shop finally hesitated upon seeing her brightly shining eyes, as well as the composure and focus in her gaze that felt completely out of place with her overall bedraggled appearance.
“I have a lot of cargo here. How big is your space?”
“2 cubic meters.”
The boss raised his eyebrows in surprise, pausing for two seconds before nodding.
“Seeing as your space is large enough, and this cargo happens to be an urgent delivery, I’ll give you a chance. Follow me to the back.”
Bai Bai followed the boss to the shop’s back room to pick up the goods.
Over a dozen sealed boxes were stacked on the floor, containing clothes, canned food, paper, pens, notebooks, and maternal and child supplies.
The boss held an already prepared delivery invoice and verified the boxes one by one. As he checked each box, Bai Bai stowed it away.
As she stowed each box, she duplicated it inside her space.
Her 2-cubic-meter space, combined with the duplicated boxes, was stuffed completely full.
Bai Bai took the delivery invoice, noted the address, and set off immediately.
By the time she reached the destination complex, it was nearly noon, and the delicious scent of food from small restaurants filled the street.
Bai Bai chugged a few mouthfuls of salt and sugar water, pondering in her head whether she should squat outside a restaurant to scout for orders once she came back out.
This complex also required registration to enter, but the management wasn’t as strict as the previous one. While she didn’t wander around aimlessly herself, she noticed other delivery couriers peering suspiciously inside building entrances one by one.
They were all bottom-dwellers, birds of a feather; Bai Bai was certain she wasn’t misjudging them—they were peers who couldn’t keep their eyes to themselves.
Bai Bai smoothly found the recipient, who lived in a proper three-bedroom apartment suite.
While counting the supplies in the living room, she could still hear the cooing of a baby coming from behind a closed bedroom door.
No wonder out of the thirteen boxes of goods, seven were maternal and child supplies.
This was truly the family of a capable adventure team member.
Thanks to these seven boxes of cargo, Bai Bai now had an abundant supply of feminine hygiene products as well.
A major concern was resolved all at once.
Once the count was verified and the handoff complete, the recipient calculated the delivery fee and handed her the money.
When Bai Bai took the payment, she casually asked, “Sister, may I ask you something? Are there any single-room rentals in this complex? As long as it has its own private bathroom, are there any available?”
“There are houses like that, six of the twelve buildings in our complex are studio units. But they’re all rented out. These units are in high demand—renting one of these as a transition is the first step to improving your quality of life.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I’m looking to transition too.”
“Our complex doesn’t have any vacant rooms left unless you’re willing to rent a multi-room suite, but that’s expensive. A one-bedroom, one-living-room layout with a standard kitchen and bathroom goes for a monthly rent of eight hundred, with a three-month deposit and one month’s rent upfront.”
As the recipient talked, she opened up further.
“My three-bedroom suite has a monthly rent of twenty-four hundred; it’s practically an extra eight hundred yuan for every additional room.”
“The single-room unit you want has a layout similar to a standard hotel room, right? The kind where you enter past the bathroom and the bed is inside?”
“Those rooms in our complex are cheap, with a monthly rent of four hundred, also requiring a three-month deposit and one month’s rent upfront. This is standardized. That deposit essentially locks down your occupancy for three months, you understand, right? If you go out for several months and don’t come back, who knows whether you’re dead or alive? Once the deposit is fully forfeited, it’s counted as you voluntarily terminating the lease.”
“I understand, I understand. Thank you for the guidance, Sister.”
Bai Bai nodded repeatedly, paused slightly for two seconds, and then rose to take her leave.
Standing at the doorway, right before opening the door, she paused once more.
“Sister, if you’re home alone, please keep an eye on your door and safety. When I just came in, I saw some fellow delivery couriers snooping around individual building entrances. They didn’t have the look of someone searching for a building number; it was that kind of suspicious looking around, if you know what I mean?”
The recipient’s expression turned stern, and she hurriedly nodded as well.
“Alright, alright, I understand. Thank you for the reminder.”
The two bade each other a friendly farewell.
Exiting the building, Bai Bai walked briskly outward, not spotting a single patrolling security guard along the way.
When she reached the main gate’s security room and smelled the aroma of food, she saw it was packed inside with people eating boxed meals.
Although eating lunch at noon was perfectly normal, compared to the previous complex, that one clearly had better management.
The rent would surely be more expensive—a safety premium, after all.
If she had the money, Bai Bai would naturally prefer a complex with higher security as her top choice.
This complex required a three-month deposit plus one month’s rent upfront, and other complexes were likely much the same, differing only in the deposit amount.