It was in her plan, and she got a dagger and a machete now. But those men had weapons too.

They were hidden, but...she saw a gun.

There was a gun ban in her country, but she could at least get other weapons to help her deal with enemies, including long-ranged ones.

The City had a large variety of shops and a few weapon stores. All of them were cold weapons, of course, and there was no place that would legally sell hot weapons, proving the men from before were nowhere near simple.

She bought a bit of everything, from daggers, swords, spears, axes, maces, and even air guns.

Those things weren’t cheap. The cheapest ones were more than 10,000 danas! At best, that version could kill pests (like bugs, literally).

Naturally, she had to buy those with actual use in the apocalypse, buying the high-end ones directly. These could seriously injure people.

Most importantly, they were legal. While it was also useless against aliens, the main enemy in the year or two before they appeared was humans.

Naia bought six in the end, each one costing 50,000 danas each.

She also got her own weapon customized, and fortunately, there was already a base version on stock, so she just had to add here and there.

She asked for a rope dart, which was an incredibly difficult weapon to wield. For customization, she required a certain amount of length and strength.

"Isn’t it too heavy?" the owner couldn’t help but ask. He doubted the little skinny girl would be able to lift it flexibly.

"It’s for a movie." Naia did not bother explaining. The owner wanted to ask what movie it was, but it felt too obtrusive.

She—and every child in the apocalypse—had been trained to handle different weapons. Weapons were a finite resource, after all. They were trained so they could grab whatever was available.

The world had fallen, and there were plenty of non-perishables around. It was just up to them to take advantage of whatever was around them.

And indeed, there had been many cases of the fighters losing weapons mid-fight, saved when they grabbed another weapon and were proficient at it.

Even so, among all those weapons, the rope dart had been her favorite weapon since forever because it was just so flexible, literally and figuratively.

Smiling and satisfied with her haul, she finally went to the bus stop to head to her destination.

...

Unbeknownst to Naia, a car arrived in the neighborhood of the inn half an hour after she left. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

A certain lawyer came out of the shotgun seat and headed straight to the door of the back seat. The driver went out along with him, wordlessly setting up a wheelchair.

They helped a certain ’young master’ onto the wheelchair.

This was none other than Kael, along with the top-lawyer Micheal and Reno Cruz, his driver. For some reason or another, the two grown men really ended up working under Kael, who was barely even considered a millionaire.

Reno pushed Kael around the bus stop area. "She was just here..." he said, eyebrows furrowed, before turning to the buses.

Had she left?

About an hour ago, while he was doing his exercises in the rehabilitation department, he felt the inkling that Naia was in the City. However, it was quite faint, so he knew she was not that closeby.

He immediately cut his training short and called on his driver, Reno, to help drive him around. Michael was just visiting at the time and was inexplicably dragged along.

Michael had indeed become his unofficial assistant, though his work had reduced now since the villa was already in progress. The money he got from selling his parents’ patents was used to reserve supplies and equipment necessary for long-term survival.

He knew that the changes were permanent, so he naturally had to plan for the rest of his and Naia’s lives.

Speaking of the patents, Kael had already read and memorized his parents’ patents, mostly applied to electric automobiles. The future tech had pretty much stagnated except for those related to food, so these were still useful to him.

Whenever he was resting his body after long hours of rehabilitation, he was slowly developing a few technologies to help them out when the time comes. All of that was to make life more comfortable for Naia and him.

Though he was embarrassed about his current state, when he sensed she was nearby, he naturally had to go to her first.

They drove around the city for a while, with Kael dictating the direction. Whenever he felt the inkling disappear, his stomach would drop, and when it grew stronger, his heart would palpitate.

Sadly, he was still too late.

He looked at the cameras around the facility and then at Michael. "Can we ask the administrators for CCTV footage?"

"Generally, it requires a proper reason..." Michael paused, and then flinched when he met Kael’s gaze. "But, it’s not impossible."

Soon, the footage of the past hour was sent to his phone. There were three angles, and he saw her in two.

Like him, her current body had very similar features in the past life, so it was not difficult to find her. Her temperament was also the same, and the sight of her made his eyes soften so much they pretty much leaked sugar.

Michael, who was looking at him from the side, wanted to scratch his eyes for some reason.

During his time with this young man, he had long equated him with a venomous snake. What was this now?

"She’s heading to a Town called Colden Town in the West," Michael said. "Should we follow?"

Unexpectedly, Kael shook his head.

He was already satisfied to see her. Rather than go to her in his current state, he’d rather continue preparing long-term.

He looked at his legs.

He could already stand up now, but only for a few seconds, and the searing pain was enough to cause other people to faint. It had only been more than a week since he woke up, and this was already a miracle, but it still wasn’t enough.

Seeing Naia made him feel this shortcoming more intensely.

"Let’s go," he said, heading back to the car. "We will meet again soon."