Chapter 171: Zoo Encounter

She was thinking of what to put in her space when, while they were driving along the highway, a sign for a zoo appeared.

“Let’s go there,” Naia said, excitedly grabbing Kael’s arm.

She and Kael had always wanted to preserve as many species as they could, flora or fauna. They didn’t have enough space before, but now they did, and they were all arranged conveniently in a zoo.

At the very least, the zoo would have a large variety of animals, local and exotic, and would also have the facilities to care for them. Assuming it didn’t get destroyed during the disaster, of course.

The best case would be to get veterinarians and zookeepers along the way, too.

Speaking of veterinarians, Naia couldn’t help but remember the goth vet from Freisa City. She wondered how she was?

…

The zoo in question was a medium-sized zoo located at the borders of an adjacent city. Obviously, zoos require a lot of space, so they generally wouldn’t be built in dense urban areas.

This one might not be the biggest zoo in the region, but it wasn’t small either at 50 acres. They also didn’t have to take a wide detour, and they only had to travel a few extra kilometers, which made the trip worth it. They were already here, so how could they not check it out? If they didn’t, it might even become a regret.

Anyway, even if the megastorm was coming, they were within schedule.

This was because they were deep in-land, so they were less affected by the storm compared to the coastal areas which were likely already experiencing strong winds by now.

Of course, they couldn’t exactly take their time. The weather was quite unpredictable. Rather, the thought of what was coming made them want to gather as much as they could more than ever.

With the storm would be strong winds, acid rain, possibly nuclear rain, and so on. What would happen to her animals if she ignored them?

Yes, she had already claimed the animals as hers.

Naia had watched a lot of animal documentaries growing up, but she never got to see them. She was naturally very determined to do this. After rebirth, she had wanted to go to a zoo before, but she was afraid she’d get too attached and, without strength and resources, wasn’t just asking for pain?

But now, that was not an issue!

The others had no complaints, and they quickly headed there.

They headed straight to the parking lot and did not bother entering the zoo itself. Anyway, it was well within the scope of what she could absorb. After taking in that meteorite, her space did not just grow larger, but her instinct told her that she could now take in larger parcels of land.

They observed the zoo from where they were. She frowned when she saw that there had been a bit of damage, likely from a forest fire as well as the earthquake. Some animals had probably escaped, but most enclosures seemed mostly intact.

She closed her eyes and opened them again, seeing the superposition of the other dimension of her space. She could just overlay her space and ‘eat up’ an area as long as it was within the size.

Now, with the space upgrading and her ability improving, the upper and lower limit had also increased to about five stories high on up and bottom. Even the underground aquariums, she could take them all in without losing consciousness.

The amazing thing about this skill was that she could also have an overview of whatever it covered. It was like going around blindfolded and using your hands to feel it. The sensation was quite similar.

She couldn’t see the details, but she could see enough. There was also a cartoon map at the gates, and she easily memorized them, giving her a better ‘view’ in her mind.

Immediately behind the gates were what should be the entrance plaza, a few gift shops, and restaurants. There were several zones like the savannah zone, eastern forest zone, rainforest zone, Highlands, Outback, Amphibian house, Marsh, Aquarium, Aviary, and children’s zoo and farm.

There was also an Education Center and backstage, the Discovery Center, and there was even a small lake, numerous parks, and al fresco dining areas and food courts.

She could see the animal’s frantic states, many of them practically killing themselves while trying to get out of their cages. A cacophony of roars and screams abound inside, which was a bit heartbreaking.

There were also a number of people inside, however. It was a Saturday afternoon when the fall happened, so there were many people who had gotten stuck inside. It was just that the earthquake happened (though it was probably not that strong), so many people had managed to run away the past couple of hours, leaving a fraction of the guests and staff behind.

Except for a few zookeepers, no one bothered with the animals anymore. She couldn’t blame them, but it was still sad for the animals.

Every and each one of the animals was feeling insecure, which was really heartbreaking to see. “Don’t worry, babies…” she mumbled.

As for the people hiding, if it were like before, they would simply not enter the space, and they would find themselves in an empty space.

With some concentration, she gathered the desired area to be captured in her space and—snap—the entire 50 acres entered her consciousness.

The entire thing was gone, but she blinked when there was no one left!

She was fairly sure there were people!

She used her consciousness to skim through.

Some were hiding inside the buildings and had no idea their world had literally changed twice. All they knew was that they were dizzy.

Those who were outside saw the dark, reddish sky turn to void-like skies, which was definitely a cause for concern.

Her eyes twitched.

Looks like she needed to practice her control a bit more.

Will resume after one of the other ongoing stories end~ Thanks!