Qin Sansi pulled a map from his robes, spreading it out on the ground.
It was a layered structural map of Thousand Faces City, marked with lines of different colors. It was data he had hand-copied while lurking in the city.
"Time is limited, so we'll split up. Based on my observations, there's likely a lot of good stuff in these few spots—here, here, and here."
Little Red Riding Hood raised her hand. "I request to go with Snow Leopard."
Yue Shi refused. "Request denied. Snow Leopard will only go with me."
Little Red Riding Hood pouted. "Stingy."
Snow Leopard yawned and buried its face in Yue Shi's collar, showing absolutely no interest in Little Red Riding Hood.
The four of them entered Thousand Faces City and split up.
Yue Shi ordered the aberrations to hide, but he did not withdraw his power of Utmost Evil.
In the streets of the commercial district, Little Red Riding Hood was sprinting, her red cloak fluttering behind her.
She rushed into a magic artifact shop. Some items were still on the counters and shelves, undamaged. She grabbed a handful of the most expensive-looking artifacts and stuffed them into her cloak. Then, she ran to the back warehouse and dumped entire crates of materials into her cloak.
Moving from one shop to the next—jewelry shops, pharmacies, material stores—she was like a swarm of locusts, stripping every street in the commercial district bare.
Even though these things might be contaminated, she didn't care; she had plenty of strength and methods to remove the contamination.
"I'm rich, I'm rich, I'm rich!" Little Red Riding Hood's cheerful voice echoed through the streets.
Yin Runa was also scavenging everywhere, looking like a ragpicker. However, the 'trash' she picked up would all become precious treasures once she left this world.
Qin Sansi headed for the library. It contained a wealth of magical knowledge and ancient documents recording the origins of this world. He didn't have time to look closely, so he stuffed everything into a mass of clouds to study slowly later.
The scavenging lasted for a long time, and everyone's pockets were overflowing.
As expected, burning, killing, and looting were the fastest ways to get rich.
Over an hour later, Yin Runa suddenly stepped on a loose patch of ground. It looked no different from any other spot, but when her foot landed, the ground collapsed, and she fell into the darkness below.
Fortunately, she wasn't injured, as the bottom was soft soil. When she emerged from the hole, she was covered in dust, but she was clutching a piece of glowing ore. The warm yellow light was like a small sun held in her palm.
"Everyone, come here! This girl found something good underground!"
The team reunited. Qin Sansi took the ore and brought it close to his eyes to observe carefully. "It's some kind of high-purity extraordinary metal ore."
Little Red Riding Hood leaned in. "What kind of metal is it exactly?"
Qin Sansi replied, "I don't know, but it's definitely good stuff. Otherwise, the people here wouldn't have embedded it in the foundation."
Yue Shi walked over and glanced at the ore in Qin Sansi's hand. "There's plenty more underground."
Little Red Riding Hood's eyes lit up. "Then what are we waiting for? Dig!"
Yue Shi pressed his hand directly against the ground. The earth was sliced open, and the cracks expanded to both sides, revealing the layers of soil and rock beneath, followed by all sorts of minerals.
There wasn't just the glowing metal Yin Runa had found, but also various unnamed ores, densely embedded in the rock layers.
"Good stuff. The ordinary minerals of this world might be priceless treasures in other worlds," Yue Shi said.
Qin Sansi was the first to act, jumping into the pit.
Yue Shi followed closely, using space magic to cut the rock layers, peeling away entire blocks of ore and collecting them in bulk into his spatial storage.
Little Red Riding Hood couldn't compete with Yue Shi at all. Her hands moved like excavators, frantically digging up soil and stuffing the unearthed ores directly into her cloak.
Yin Runa moved slowly. She knew she couldn't out-compete the others anyway. As long as she gained something from this operation, it was a net gain regardless of how much or how little she took.
The four of them were like a swarm of locusts, stripping the mineral veins beneath Thousand Faces City layer by layer, taking everything they could carry.
Several more hours passed, and the four of them were still enthusiastically mining.
Yue Shi's spatial storage was packed with items; he didn't even bother to count how much there was.
Suddenly, Qin Sansi stopped. "That's enough. I sense many powerful auras rushing toward Thousand Faces City."
Little Red Riding Hood glanced into the pit with lingering desire. "Can't we dig just a little longer? I feel like there's still a lot down there."
Qin Sansi shook his head. "Don't be too greedy, little-timer. What we've taken is enough for us to do whatever we want on the Deep Red Continent. The most important thing now is a safe withdrawal. If you want to dig more, we can come back next time."
Yue Shi looked at Qin Sansi. "How do we get back?"
Qin Sansi pulled a talisman from his robes, identical to the one they had used to come here.
Yin Runa suddenly spoke up. "Wait, this girl wants to leave some property for her counterpart."
The Yin Runa of this world was living too miserably, having been reduced to a street performer. Naturally, Yin Runa wanted to help if she could; after all, that was also herself.
Qin Sansi rolled his eyes at her. "What were you doing earlier? You only remember now. Hurry up, don't waste time."
Yin Runa immediately pulled out the God Realm currency she had collected. With a flash of blue light, the bills disappeared, sent into the hands of her counterpart.
"Are you ready?" Qin Sansi looked at the others.
"Aye, aye, Captain," Little Red Riding Hood instinctively replied.
Qin Sansi was speechless and simply ignited the talisman.
The paper began to burn from one corner. The flames rose without smoke, emitting only a faint, strange fragrance.
A strange rift appeared in space, tearing open from the middle to the sides, just like when they had arrived. Inside the rift was a vast expanse of white light, with no end in sight.
Qin Sansi was the first to step inside, his figure blurring in the white light, followed by Little Red Riding Hood and then Yin Runa.
Yue Shi brought up the rear. Before leaving, he crooked his finger, and the aberrations in the city became active once again.
Snow Leopard let out a low cry.
Yue Shi asked, "What, are you reluctant to leave this place?"
Snow Leopard rubbed against his face. Yue Shi reached out and patted the leopard's head. "We'll come back next time. This world isn't going anywhere, anyway."
Rate on N.U.
