Little Eros: Master, there should be one stone that went downstream and ended near where the Xing Plants were found. Should we retrieve it or leave it?

Aria doesn't know if these types of energy are easy or hard to find. Even though they took the whole lake's worth of stones just now, should one lone stone make it less important? Thinking about the fact that the stone was responsible to mutate two plants ahead of the ZA, it must have a lot of energy.

Aria: Let's go get it.

Aria changed into a swimsuit and put on the air mask before she jumped back in front of the crack behind the waterfall. She looked down at the bottom of the waterfall debating whether or not to jump down or pull herself back up.

It's always easier to descend than to ascend so she grabbed the rope and tethered it to her waist again. Slowly working her way down the waterfall, she finally reached the water while the flow of the waterfall rushed down her body.

Touching the rope to store it, she swam to the edge and pulled herself out of the water. Going behind some bushes to change back into her original hiking outfit, she made her way back to the trail and location of the Xing Plants.

It was now later in the day and getting colder. Although the sun sets around 7pm, the tall trees' shadows cast the temperature down at least 10 degrees. There were less people hanging around the clearing.

Aria: Little Eros, can you detect where it is?

Little Eros: Yes, it's located right around the middle of the stream. The rock should be the same pale white as the others found in the lake.

Aria took a stick and made her way into the river. This caught some people's attention but they have seen some people looking and searching for plants in the water earlier in the day so they didn't think it was too unusual.

Aria felt a slight pulling sensation as she got closer to the middle of the stream. Feeling the strong sensation at a certain part, she poked the flooring with the stick dislodging the mud around it. Seeing a white color peeking from under the rest of the stones in the water, she bent down and stored it inside the G Space. Then picked up another stone next to it and walked to another place nearby and collected a few more random stones.

Eyes were still observing her to see if there was anything unique with the stones she'd picked. But they saw her walking back to the clearing and setting up a blanket before taking out a water and food container to eat. The rocks were thrown casually outside her blanket.

While drinking water to wash her mouth after eating, Aria then turned to the rocks and piled them up artistically before taking a picture with the Xing Plant sight as the background. Then she took a selfie with a smile on her face before fiddling with her mobile phone.

The people who were secretly staring at the rocks then relaxed. It was just a silly girl taking pictures for her social media accounts. The scientists on the other side of the clearing also removed their eyes from the young hiker after she took out her phone. It doesn't look like she found anything important.

Aria then threw the stones into the river before packing up her picnic setup and left the park. Going back to the copied SUV, she drove away from the park towards the same abandoned farm building she hid behind the first time she visited the park.

Storing the old and generic looking SUV inside her E Space, Aria switched to the dark SUV in her space and drove to the city center. Passing by a completely blacked out car, she hurriedly copied it to use for this city's pharmacy collection later.

She decided to continue robbing the Tang Pharmacies in this city while she's here but this time she's going to be using the fluff ball to do the job in plain daylight. Since the Tangs should have upped their security across the cities after dark, she decided to just rob them whenever to throw them off the scent.

Aria: Eros, would you be able to store everything in the pharmacies by yourself without detection?

Little Eros: Yes! I can be invisible and take everything away. You just need to be within 100 ft perimeter. If you move further away than that then I'll be teleported directly into the G Space.

Aria: Okay.

So that's what they did. Aria drove near those pharmacies, Eros entered through any open doors or windows and flew to the top stories to take their equipment before going down each floor. It removed everything in the warehouse before emptying the store front except for the prescriptions order to be picked up.

This sweeping lasts around 2 to 5 minutes per location.

City H was cleared out in 3 hours. Aria quickly switched cars and collected some to-go food before leaving for City G. Repeating the same process, they swept that city clean too before continuing north to City DE. After sweeping City DE's pharmacies and good food, Aria switched back to her EOS1 and jumped into the G Space to shower and rest.

The G Space has expanded exponentially! It was no longer the small acreage that Aria first saw. Now a waterfall and a lake can be seen. Aria immediately moved her house closer to the waterfall- away from the old location where the cellar was.

The little fluff ball flew over to Aria excitedly as it recounted on how much it grew. The energy stones it collected are placed inside the lake like how they were found to be slowly absorbed into the space. Only a large stone as big as a man's torso was on the ground.

Little Eros: Master, what do you want to do with this stone we retrieved near the Xing Plants location?

Aria: Take out the Xing Plants and the dirt and plant them next to the lake. Place the stone and the others that Art found in between the two to encourage healthier growth. As for the ore samples, can you start growing them and how long will it take to meet Art's needs?

Little Eros: 20 months. I can grow all of them to the amount that Art told me in 20 months. If we find more energy sources, I can expand the land further and the output of the ores will increase, lessening the growth time.

Aria: Okay. Art, S3, S4, what analysis did you arrived at about the energy source?

S4: The energy source located in City H at the park was around the same location that was reported of having a forest full of redwood tree mutations 3 years after the ZA. We first pulled up all reports from all over Country C after the ZA of locations with plants or nature related mutations and overlapped them with any natural landmarks. We found 90% of them were. The remaining 10% we project to have some other type of energy source that we are unaware of.

We conclude that the dense amounts of high leveled mutated plants is directly related to hidden energy sources. We also pulled up reports and data from other Countries and we saw the same pattern.

Art: Since Eros need more energy sources to grow bigger, we have gathered all the locations in Country C that we should visit to find the energy sources that we believe are nearby. There are approximately 182 locations.

A projection was shown of Country C for Aria to see. Red Dots showed where all the locations are located. It then zoomed out to show more red dots located in the rest of the world in other countries.

Art: There are a total of 437 locations. Should you want to collect the energy sources before the ZA, then we have created an itinerary for you to follow. This way one of the largest threats can be eliminated before the end of the world which can save hundreds of thousands of people's lives.

Aria rubbed her face in frustration. She can deal with the 182 locations in Country C since that is her country, but the rest of the world... some places she might not be able to access.

Nevermind, let's take care of Country C first and then figure out what she can do for the rest of the other locations after. If she missed a few due to the country's current vigilance, she won't worry too much about it. Even if she wants to, it really depends on her ability to access said sources to help them solve the issue before it becomes a problem.

She thought she would have more time to prepare for the ZA but it looks like time will be tight if she takes into consideration the other countries' energy resources. But now she has to rush to City J to buy a property and create a disaster in City P to evacuate everyone out of that City before the apocalypse happens. But City P can wait while City J cannot.

Aria asked S3 to pull up a contact from Country M. Then booked the next flight to Country M.

Country M was Country C's ally during the Great War. While Country C has softened and became complacent, not taking technological advancements seriously, Country M did not. They were already a first world country well before the war and have always had a heavy presence in creating the newest offensive and defensive weapons as well as all the newest and coolest technology. They are also more relaxed on weapons control in their country, allowing citizens to buy weapons for self defense however they want. As long as enough money is paid, anyone can get their hands on anything.

Even though this type of thinking should encourage more weapons ownership, it didn't happen in reality. People's mindset are drawn towards a better life surrounded by smart techs everywhere. Food growth was studied and advanced resulting in tastier and healthier seeds and livestock. This would be the perfect opportunity to collect seeds and livestock for her G space.

There were also 65 red locations in Country M. She should be able to clear out those locations during her stay there.

Finding a project manager who used to work for the military, she contacted John Howard through email and requested a meeting the next day. John responded right away saying he is available and sent a time and location.

After eating dinner, she tidied up her appearance to align with one of her female aliases and called a car service to drive to the airport.

~~~ Author's Notes ~~~

Aww... no more robbing pharmacies. Guess the Tangs will get a small break while she takes care of business. Hehe.