Apocalypse Queen: My Space, My Rules Chapter 42: Worth More Than Gold

The gemstones worth ten million were absorbed into the storage space, and shockingly, they expanded it just as much as fifty million worth of gold bars had.

The living area increased to 1,400 square feet, and the ceiling height rose by another 4 inches. The total storage volume reached 15,500 cubic feet, while the garden expanded to 280 square feet, with its height increasing as well.

However, the countdown still only added three hours of usable time per day, accumulating to a total of thirteen and a half hours.

The emerald bracelet on Mariella's wrist became even more translucent, shifting from an icy clarity toward a glass-like quality.

This clearly showed that, at the same price, gemstones were far more valuable to the storage space than gold.

So this is what it means when gold can be weighed and priced, but emeralds are beyond measure.

Mariella made up her mind. As soon as she left the warehouse, she placed another urgent order with Denton for 35 million worth of gemstone emeralds.

Denton's grin stretched from ear to ear. "Alright, I'll get them in no later than three days—"

"You'd better deliver by tomorrow," Mariella cut him off. "Push it. Try to get it here by tomorrow morning."

In her previous life, the extreme heat lasted a week before being followed by devastating floods. Now, the heat had already lasted 2 days, and she felt like everything could collapse at any moment.

Maybe this time, the heat wouldn't even last a full week before the floods came early, freezing everything in place.

Denton hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and agreed. "Fine! But it'll cost extra."

...

Mariella paid an additional million as a rush fee. Denton, braving the intense heat, mobilized all his connections to source genuine top-grade rough emerald stones.

She gave him everything he wanted in terms of profit. She only had one requirement—it had to be real.

After sending him off, Mariella called Chandler over and whispered a few instructions in his ear.

Chandler looked surprised. "All of it?"

"Yes. I want everything in cash."

Mariella knew that once the disasters began, the banking system would collapse, and many ATMs would be submerged.

At that point, the numbers in an account would just be numbers, useless if you couldn't withdraw them.

Mariella transferred another 2,000,000 to Chandler and told him to go handle the withdrawals immediately.

"That's a large amount. We probably won't be able to withdraw everything this afternoon. We'll have to queue and continue tomorrow," Chandler estimated.

"Take out as much as you can. Schedule the rest for tomorrow. And call Number One and the others. When they handle deposits and vehicle returns, they should request cash if possible. Use account funds to buy the Chevrolet vans. Bottom line, anything we take back should be cash, and anything we spend should come from the account balance," Mariella instructed.

She handed him the keys to her pickup truck.

Chandler immediately called over Numbers Four, Six, and Seven. The four of them geared up and drove off to the bank.

Meanwhile, Number Eight, Nine, and Ten stayed behind to organize the rooms and install air coolers and surveillance equipment.

Matthew walked over and asked, "Is there anything I can help with?"

Mariella glanced at him and didn't hold back. "Go home and pack. Bring everything you and Serena might need to the villa. You probably won't get another chance to go back for a long time."

Matthew had a lot of questions, but something about Mariella's presence made him follow her instructions without thinking twice.

"Mariella, what can I do?" Serena came running over, bouncing excitedly.

Seeing everyone busy, she wanted to help too.

Mariella pretended to rummage through her bag, then took out a tablet from her storage space and handed it to her. "Go download some cartoons you like. This tablet is yours now."

With everyone assigned tasks and Lucky guarding the house, Mariella rushed out again, driving straight to a grain and oil supply station.

She bought 5,000 pounds of rice, 5,000 pounds of flour, 100 pounds of dried noodles, and 100 barrels of peanut oil. After paying extra, she had everything delivered to her rented private garage.

Once the delivery truck left, she stored all the supplies in her storage space.

Then she went to a poultry breeding station and bought 1,000 fertilized chicken eggs, 1,000 fertilized duck eggs, 1,000 fertilized goose eggs, and 5,000 fertilized quail eggs.

Since she transported the goods herself, the supplier even threw in a small incubator as a bonus.

Mariella drove the eggs into her rented garage, closed the door, and stored all the eggs and the incubator in her storage space.

Now she had plenty of storage space, but time was the real problem. Disaster could strike at any moment. She had to race against the clock.

By the time she returned to the villa, it was already dinner time.

As soon as she got out of the car, Serena ran over happily.

"Mariella, it's time to eat!"

Mariella took Serena's small hand and walked with her into the large dining hall on the first floor.

After combining the two villas, each floor was now about 6,000 square feet.

The first floor had a massive kitchen, a spacious dining hall that could seat at least 20 people, and separate restrooms for men and women. Aside from that, the rest of the space had been converted entirely into storage rooms.