Other than jade, there was a sapphire mine nearby as well, though not as big as the jade mines. It was impossible for jade and sapphire to appear in the same vein unless there were some special circumstances, but they were commonly found in the same valley or district.

The sapphire mines were closer to another small town about an hour away due to the rough and winding roads (though actually less than half the distance if one had a straight line path).

Since digging out her own mines was not possible, she should swipe a bit from the established mines. Anyway, these would be useless in 3 months! She’s here to prevent waste!

As for why she didn’t feel as guilty from stealing from these versus stealing from the shops was simply because the owners were big corporations and their corrupt government. Losing a few (hundred) stones wouldn’t kill them. They might not even notice there was something missing in a month.

She spent the remainder of the day investigating the schedule of the mines, the entrance points, the key personnel, and so on.

She decided to make a move at night. Night mining was illegal, so except for a few guards (who’d likely be snoring at certain times of the night), there would not be anyone else in there.

For jade mines, six to ten in the morning was excavation works and the related jobs. Ten through four in the afternoon was hauling, sorting, and so on of the harvests.

For sapphires and rubies, the schedule was a bit different. Gems were found in loose sediment, after all. The work started earlier at dawn, where they dug gravel. The process would end before dusk.

In terms of distance, mine clusters were about an hour drive to the other. With her teleportation skill—which could now cover an even wider distance—this was reduced, not to mention her space was expanding soon.

She went to her booked room in town and waited for the time to come. As for the stones she had bought before, she decided to let the space absorb the remaining stones she hadn’t been able to absorb before.

She was afraid that absorbing so many at a time would have some effect on her so she controlled her intake.

She also wanted to watch the changes herself.

She headed to her space and activated the absorption. She watched the small pile of jade stones release an energy that the space absorbed. Some of the rocks crumbled as the jade inside was taken, while the remainder didn’t look like they changed because the jade inside was small.

After about half an hour, it finally absorbed everything, and she watched the space expand from an acre before she arrived in this country to more than a hectare.

Happily seeing this improvement, she was more inspired than ever to get her stones.

For safety, though she’d try to be completely undetected, she still wore a mask and a hood. Her physique cannot be seen even if she were caught by the CCTVs.

As for the innocent people involved, this case was too big and too mysterious. After they figured out things were missing, the investigation alone should take months, so the ’suspects’ wouldn’t be incarcerated before the apocalypse.

She would do her best to avoid detection, especially within the next month or so. One way was to take the amount that wouldn’t be detected so quickly. While she seriously considered just taking everything and destroying all evidence, she decided against it in the end.

The succeeding manhunt could be troublesome, and she didn’t believe she was omnipotent that she could really plug every clue to her—not after making such a big move.

Stealing from the mines wasn’t exactly a necessity either; she wouldn’t die if she didn’t do it. Basically, this was just her greed, so there was no need to take excessive risks at this point in time.

She went to the nearest jade mine first, space jumping a few times, and erratically, flashing outside the warehouse. She stood by the blind spot of the cameras (such a large place had plenty of blind spots), and avoided the guards (with guns!). She also needed to figure out the blind spots in the interior.

The warehouse was currently locked, so she immediately went to look for openings that she could fit in. Her blink ability worked like dragging a body from one point to another, so if there were no openings she could fit in, she could not head inside.

For example, there was a window here. It was sadly guarded by metal railings, so she had to teleport to the rooftop and remove the railing manually, temporarily placing it in her space.

There was a time when one of the guards heard the creak. Fortunately, she had her space, and she simply had to release a random item elsewhere to get their attention. She could now make loose things appear and disappear within an acre, so it was easy to do so.

The warehouse held several piles or small hills of ores. She teleported at a blind spot in the middle of these hills. She took about half, but she arranged it so that people checking the warehouse from the outside wouldn’t notice the discrepancy for a while.

She even placed some excess rock and soil underneath the mine piles to make up for the lost mass.

She willed the space not to absorb it first before she headed to the mine itself. Since she could teleport, she could avoid the CCTVs. It wasn’t a high-security government building that had cameras pointing at every corner.

Jade mines were usually on tough, fibrous, and steep, chaotic terrain. The rocks’ composition was green to grey with a waxy luster.

Inside the jade mine were massive timber frames, each the size of two or three adults hugging it. There were blocks the size of cows, dull and muddy for now, hiding the beauty inside.

She decided to take most of the loose items, and then those she could take from the surface.

As for the rest of the stones still embedded in, she could only look but not touch. She could only take something when it was loose on all sides. Well, let’s not be too greedy.

There were other mines to fleece, anyway.