After some more small talk, with the old guy revealing some more tips and tricks, the trio finally bought what they needed (and more).

Naia bought a few store-bought hives that were empty, but she only had two nucleus colonies to increase the biodiversity of those she already had. The rest would be for when their population increased.

She also learned how to process honey (the old man also sent some video links), and bought equipment for various processes. For example, there was the bee smoker (which was used to calm the bees), hive tools or pry bars, protective gears, honey harvesting equipment, and so on.

As they loaded the items to the van, she looked at the old guy. While they were taking lessons and going around, she had subtly inquired about the old man’s situation.

Inspired by the convenience the siblings brought her, she was tempted to just hire the old man and have him handle the bees and honey.

However, she found out his wife was alive though weak, and their children lived in the city. The family was quite close and they would always have a get-together at least once a month.

However, lately, the wife was often in the hospital. Jolly was only there due to responsibility and the wife’s urging. The family knew that the bee farm was his wife’s favorite baby, so it could not be neglected.

A man with a complete family was difficult to uproot, so she could only warn him.

She casually mentioned that her cousin worked in the government and may have gotten news of an upcoming disaster. To help the population cope, they released it as fiction.

The old man was tech savvy enough, so she just had to send him the link for the story, advising him to read it within the next few weeks, and to ask his family to do the same.

As for whether he’d believe it or not didn’t matter to her. She had already done her part.

Leave it up to fate.

...

After leaving the beefarm, they drove for a while before parking it at a gas station. The two either bought snacks, stretched, or went to the restroom. Meanwhile, Naia took this chance to take a look at the bees.

Naia set up the hives according to what she was taught, deciding to place them on the flower field she took back in Varma.

It was covered with wild flowers like dandelions and daisies, very pretty. She vowed to get more fields, enriching the honey flavors.

She was very careful in her arrangement. She even used a metric tape to make sure she got the right distances.

If the hives were placed too close, the foragers could go to other colonies, strong colonies could steal other workers, and diseases spread faster. This arrangement would also prevent mold from forming.

She did not have natural wind in the space. A bit of wind was actually necessary for a healthy ecology because of many things, like gas exchange.

Wind would also make sure the stalks and trunks were stronger, like exercise. She remembered the study where a tree was grown in a very controlled environment to the point that the rings on its trunk were equidistant.

When it was transplanted outside, it was easily felled by a little wind.

While her space seemed to automatically add vitality, there was no need to lessen the effects when she could increase it.

Finally, not having even a bit of a breeze was unnatural. Whenever she hung around her garden there, it felt weird, like something was missing. It didn’t feel stagnant due to the innate aura of the space, but it was close to it.

She wanted some breeze so...she placed a high-level electric fan inside.

It was interesting, but solar panels worked inside the space as they did outside. As she had surmised before, it seemed like this space was more like a space folded from reality, and could therefore enjoy things outside, while still protected from unwanted changes.

This was something she had become clear on during the Varma trip. She had hung out in the hot open sun, but when she went into the space, the solar panels worked better, while the ambient temperature remained comfortable.

In any case, the transfer to the hives was successful. Every bee was (mostly) calm and their flight was steady. Even the old ones who were attracted to their new home.

As for the honey-making tools like the extractors, settling tank, and the like, she placed them nearby. She’d ask Glen to make a shed for it later.

...

She did not waste the rural outing. This was a rich agricultural zone known for its dairy. It would be a pity to miss it, right? Not to mention, much of this would be decimated in the apocalypse, which would be such a waste!

She went to the dairy farms first because it was closer. Hey, she even bought a few cows (3 cows and a bull each).

She took in about an acre of fallow land, planning to throw out grazing grass all over.

After this, she bought a few breeds like the Holstein-friesan with the highest milk yield and the Jersey, which were smaller cows, but gave very rich milk. They also ate less and were highly efficient.

When surviving in the apocalypse, the latter breed was especially advantageous because their smaller body required less food, had a calm temperament, could survive on pasture and scraps, and had easier milk-handling.

She also bought a pair of Brown Swiss because they were hardy and long-lived. Their milk was the ingredient for excellent protein-rich cheese milk. The animals were also good in mountains and cold climates.

She then bought a few goats with different breeds from the home farm (they could just crossbreed or something). She bought the milking breeds.

Goats could survive through harsher conditions than cows and eat less than them. However, she just didn’t like the taste of their milk very much, so she did not buy too much.

And then she also bought some simple milking equipment for small farms, like milk filters and milking machines.

Milk independence, done!

...

For these cattle, she directly took a portion of the grazing area for them. The grazing area seemed to have different types of grasses they liked. Anyway, it was so large and she bought a lot of animals, so she’d consider it as part of the merchant’s service.

Sheep was also sold in the dairy farms because they also give milk. With this, she could get wool, which was a very important resource in the apocalypse, particularly during the cryogenic winter phase.

Different types of milk had their own uses and qualities. Cow Milk was the most common and had high productivity, while goat milk was easier to digest and less allergenic. The latter was also closer to human milk.

Sheep milk was very creamy and most nutritious, also more filling. It was best for cheese and yogurt.

It reminded her to buy various dairy processing tools like cheese vats, butter churns, yoghurt fermentation containers, and so on.

She also bought a lot of veterinary first aid, antibiotics, vitamins and minerals, disinfectants, and so on. She downloaded all the resources she could get on livestock farming and veterinary science. She also took note to buy more books the next time she passed through a city.

Finally, she passed through the orchards she had been lusting for and bought a few boxes of apples, oranges, grapes, and other things. She also took in a few young trees, or smaller trees, planting them around the grazing areas to add a visual delineation to her now cluttered space.

For the really big orchards, she took hundreds of square meters of land with trees and plants.

To make up to the farmers, she left small gold bars (the mini bullions) and then gave them a warning of what was to come. She didn’t leave the link for the webnovel this time, because it could lead to them during an investigation, so her warnings were a bit more detailed than others.

Hopefully, more people survived this time around.

...

Glen, with assistance from his sister, had already built several tall shelves. From a height, they could actually see the land expanding. There were also more and more creatures coming in.

For creatures who found themselves elsewhere, they were really calm. Suddenly, the siblings, who panicked when they arrived in the space, felt a little ashamed.

"Hey, they’re simple-minded," Gale said, comforting herself. "They have the power of blissful ignorance."

"Still, seeing the space grow (literally) in front of my eyes is really...comforting," Glen said at the side.

His heart was churning.

It was like watching a world get built up from scratch.

They had already read the latest updates of the webnovel. It terrified them so, especially knowing it would come true. Whenever they imagined the world they knew would suffer the fate written in the book, their hearts turned cold.

Seeing the space grow like this made it feel like things were going to be okay, after all.