The man started getting a bit handsy, however, and while most of the spectators were uncomfortable, none of them stepped in to help.

"I’ll take you to the station!" the man declared, grabbing the girl’s arm and making her squirm uncomfortably. "You can explain yourself there!"

Naia frowned. She felt like this guy was insisting on taking the girl away too much. Shouldn’t he prove that she stole something first?

"Can you tell us what she stole and when you think you lost it?"

The man was a bit startled when he saw the bespectacled girl. "About ten minutes ago or something! I was watching a cutting at the side, and it’s gone!" the man yelled. "I’m sure the CCTV captured it!"

He was rather confident about it. However, it so happened that this area was a blind spot. Rather, there weren’t many CCTVs at all in this area.

Her eyes sharpened, looking at the man suspiciously. "The burden of proof is on the accuser," she said. "Provide foolproof evidence that she stole it."

The man gritted his teeth. "That’s why I’m bringing her to the station! What if she runs away! You can come with me to deliver her to the station if you don’t believe me!"

Naia’s eyebrows rose. He’s so confident. Was the police in on this?

To be honest, considering this country’s reputation, she wouldn’t be surprised.

The commercial area only had one police substation near the parking lot. It was a small place, pretty much just a kiosk, and far away from the bigger police stations in town.

"Then get your proof first, and then look for her again. She won’t run away."

The man cursed as he glared at her before going away. Whether he was actually going back or not, however, was unknown.

The girl meekly walked toward her. "Thank you..."

"It’s not over yet," she said. "What if he finds evidence?"

"He doesn’t," the girl said. "I haven’t touched a single stone. I...I was just here to guide a few tourists."

"So you’re a local?"

"Yes."

"Then...can you point me to good shops?" she asked, then pointing at her cart, which only had pitiful two rocks. "I don’t feel very lucky with the others."

The shops and the raw stones they sell weren’t entirely random. If the shop owner was experienced and had a good eye, then the selection was also better than others.

Fiona, a local, naturally knew where people had higher chances of winning anything. Of course, this was already sifting through some who had gimmicks, like getting someone to pretend to be a customer and make a show. Witnesses of the ’win’ generally believed they’d have higher chances as well and would buy from that shop.

This time, Naia needed to earn a few more million, so she decided to open up a few.

Gambling on Stones was where buyers purchased rocks that may or may not contain valuable jade or jaidete. Each one cost a large amount of money, probably months or years worth of a commoner’s salary, and you could lose everything if you buy the wrong stone.

Or you could make it ultra big, like hundreds of millions of danas big per rock. However, like any other type of gambling, the chances of going bankrupt were several times higher than the chance of winning big

But that wasn’t a problem for Naia, who had bought rocks from the same shop, and decided to open the less valuable one in public.

The stone was yellow brown, and had a slightly rough texture. The surface was not quite sandy. In terms of size, it was about a foot in its smallest dimension. It had a faint green window, covered by some white-ish pattern.

Most shops had the facilities to cut stones open in front of people, and people would see whether the buyer won or not as a form of entertainment. If there was something good, there might even be a bidding war for it.

The rough, unopened stone cost her two hundred thousand danas. As for its selling, she waited for it to be opened with a smile.

The man behind the machine wasn’t expecting much, but he gasped when he realized there really was something inside!

"Glass type colorless jade!" the man said. "15 centimeters!"

The collectors sparkled while the spectators gossiped amongst themselves, some already buying new rocks from the shop.

Those who were there to buy jade jumped over, throwing their offers and starting an impromptu bidding war. "Seven hundred thousand!"

"Seven hundred fifty!"

"Eight hundred!"

Naia tried to keep her smile down. Maintain composure, maintain grace. Be zen.

In the end, that small rock ended up making her 1.43 million danas~

...

A few hours later, after several outfit changes, she earned a whopping 56 million danas.

She not only chose different shops on different streets, she also went and changed her appearance several times over the past couple of hours. She pretty much toured every street to keep her wins relatively low-key, as well.

In this case, she was thankful that most of the CCTVs on this street was dysfunctional. It made things easier for her to earn money.

She placed the rocks into her van, which she placed right under the CCTV areas to avoid robbers or holduppers. Anyway, a lot more people bought more stones than she did.

She watched as her space increased by hundreds of square meters again! The height remained unchanged, but this was not a small increase!

Mines were big and small, and then there were dug and undug mines. In places like these, even if the bigger mines were taken, some smaller mines were untapped because they weren’t economical to open anymore.

Digging deep in the middle of the mountain wasn’t exactly cheap. She considered going to the smaller mines and trying her luck.

It was just that she could not teleport through solid objects, and she could not take items from outside either. She couldn’t take entire mines away and place them in her space, either.

The plot of land she managed to take in was just surface-level soil. Taking in actual rocks was connected to the mountains, and she simply couldn’t place that in her space.

In the end, she regretfully gave up on the idea of digging unclaimed or ignored small mines on her own.

So what else could she do?

Steal from the already-dug up mines, of course!