Natalie only picked out emeralds and stuffed them into her bag. Real emeralds always had tiny threads inside them. The better the quality, the fewer those threads were. But the kind that was perfectly clear like glass—those were the highest grade, and there weren't any of those here. The brighter and clearer stones on the shelves were actually just cheap peridots. It didn't take long for Natalie to sweep all the emeralds into her bag. She grabbed a few diamonds and some gold along the way too. The woman nearby watched in frustration. She was about to lash out when a group of scavengers rushed up from the lower floor. "This store's picked clean! Nothing left here!" someone shouted. "Yeah, too many scavengers and not enough supplies! Let's move on!" another yelled.The man who had been picking through jewelry went pale. "Dammit! All the supplies are gone!" The woman finally panicked. "What do we do now?" She glanced at Natalie, who was still calmly tucking jewelry into her bag, and snapped, "Hey, lady! All the supplies are gone, and you're still wasting time with jewelry?" Natalie lifted her eyes and finally answered, "Ma'am, it's pretty rude to just call someone 'lady' when you don't even know them." She paused, then added, "And for the record, I don't need to hunt for supplies. I've got five big brothers, each over six feet tall, and they're the ones gathering food and water for me. I'm just here grabbing jewelry because I've got nothing better to do." When you're out in the world, identities are whatever you claim them to be. If she hadn't worried about sounding too outrageous, Natalie would've said she had an army of a hundred strong men at her command.The woman's face turned sour, but Natalie pressed on. "I mean, come on—who in their right mind would ignore food and water just to hoard jewelry?" She calmly swept the rest of the jewelry into her bag, slung the pack over her shoulder, and walked toward the exit. The woman, furious, grabbed her man by the ear. "This is your fault! Why didn't you stop me? Now what are we supposed to do?" The man looked just as sour. "Maybe we should follow her? She must have supplies." "Are you stupid?" The woman snapped. "Didn't you hear her? She's got five muscle-bound brothers with her! You think you can take them on?" Natalie couldn't be bothered with the two fools. She stepped outside without a backward glance. They could've spent their time gathering useful stuff, but instead, they got caught up showing off and ended up with nothing but a pile of worthless jewelry.Natalie shook her head, climbed back into her car, and drove off toward the next mall. It was only a few minutes away. Unlike the last one, this mall didn't have a grocery store—just clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics. That was probably why hardly anyone was inside. Natalie moved fast. In no time, she had cleared out all the jewelry in the store and hurried to the next one. She kept at it all night long. By the time the sun came up, she had swept through nearly half the malls in the city. Her storage space had even upgraded again—the range had stretched from 100 feet to 130 feet. But when the blinding sun rose higher, she felt her body grow heavy with exhaustion. It was time to stop. The rest of the malls could wait until tomorrow night. Right now, she needed sleep.Near her neighborhood, she tucked her car into the storage space and walked home with quick, light steps. She was almost at the gate when a car horn blared behind her. Startled, she turned. A beat-up old van rattled up and stopped beside her. The window rolled down, and Olivia's cheerful face appeared. "Nat! What a coincidence. I just got back from scavenging gas. Were you out hunting supplies too?" Natalie nodded, glancing at the van. "Nice ride. You managed to snag a car too?" Olivia laughed. "Not me. The thing had locks and no keys. I wouldn't know how to hot-wire it. Harold's the one who figured it out." Just then, another head popped out of the window. "Idol!" "Harold?" Natalie blinked in surprise.She had heard Olivia mention borrowing a fuel pump from him, but she hadn't expected Harold himself to come along. In her last life, she never once saw Harold venture out. Of course, maybe he had, and she just never knew. After all, back then, they'd never spoken. Even Harold and Olivia had been strangers. In that timeline, Olivia had died early, swept away during the floods. But this time was different. Now they were catching crocodiles together, scavenging gas together, and slowly becoming friends. Her rebirth had set off more than one butterfly effect. Olivia had survived. And three people who once would've never crossed paths were now building bonds. The van pulled over, and together they unloaded three large barrels of gasoline. Natalie raised her brows. "That's quite a haul."Harold shook his head. "I've got a bad feeling this disaster isn't ending anytime soon. Fuel is priceless out here. The more we can get, the better." Olivia grinned. "This is nothing! We already hauled back two full vanloads before this!" Natalie's eyes widened. "That much?" Olivia nodded. "Yep! Most people are too busy raiding supermarkets. Nobody's fighting us for gas."