She took the forest route this time, but she walked parallel to the rough mountain road so she wouldn't get lost, just keeping herself hidden enough with the trees and shrubs.
Her senses were active enough to know whether there was a beast or person nearby, and she could avoid it accordingly. She didn't use her teleportation skill because she didn't need to.
She was not sure how much energy it consumed, or if it was a finite thing, so she refused to use it just for a little convenience.
In fact, she only used it with the old man twice, and for good reason. One was during her experiment of teleporting things aside from herself, and another was to scare the hell out of the old man, making him easier to 'convince'.
Anyway, walking along the refreshing forest was no loss to her. Knowing that forest areas were dwindling and the town she was heading to had less of them, she could even take detours to prolong her trip.
She encountered some sparse houses along the way; there were even a few mountain villas here and there. They were guarded by tall gates and walls, mostly against wild animals, probably. Other than these, for the first fifteen to twenty minutes of walking, she hadn't seen any other signs of civilization.
When she was entering gentler slopes and could see a town from a distance, she heard the sounds of sirens. They were quite fast, too, and she realized that they were approaching her direction.
Was it the murder report?
It made sense. After all, they made it sound like a murder was ongoing, so the officers naturally wanted to rescue people before they actually died.
She ignored the sirens, her eyes fixed on the town. According to memory, this place was called Acero Town. It was not near, but having a visible goal was fun.
It took her another hour or so to reach the scope of the town. By this time, she was already drenched in sweat, but her spirit felt lively.
She emerged from the forest to a park, and then onto the lively streetscape of a town. A modern town was quite…novel. Even with Nadia's memories, experiencing it on her own was a totally different sensation.
It was almost tactile.
She walked along the edges of the park, but she could already see a good portion of the buildings a few hundred meters away. With the mid-rise buildings as the backdrop, her attention quickly shifted to the streets in front of her.
The roads were lined with trees and benches, with people hanging around there, laughing, or eating some snacks together. There was also the constant flow of cars, bicycles, and people.
Naia's eyes couldn't help but widen a little as she looked around, feeling a deep sense of awe.
It was just so…alive.
Then, out of nowhere, her mind overlaid the images of the desolate towns she had been to in her past life when the world was dying.
There were similar streets and buildings, except many buildings had already given way or were crushed into rubble. At best, they'd be standing, but were abandoned and dilapidated, slowly withering away with the arid winds.
There, the cars were nothing but pieces of junk metal piled up over each other, blocking the way. In 99% of the land she was born on, there were absolutely no signs of life, not even a single blade of grass.
At this thought, she felt her heart clench a little.
Relax, Naia, she told herself. In this life, maybe that wouldn't happen at all.
She was fooling herself, of course. Her instincts were telling her it would 100% happen, but since it hadn't, she wanted to hold on to a bit of hope.
How would she stay sane in the hopeless apocalypse if she wasn't a bit delusional?
As she walked, Naia memorized every detail she saw and every decibel of sound she heard. If she had a phone, maybe she'd even record it.
As she walked, a group of children ran past her; they were playing tag together along with their dog. It was a very chonky mixed-breed (?) dog, and every time it moved, its short legs made its bum stick out. It was very amusing.
Somehow, she remembered the one dog she had seen in her past life, and it was a taxidermy model.
Next, she saw a group of tweens spill out of a corner shop—an arcade, according to the sign—and they were laughing and jostling each other.
At this time, their biggest problem was whether they'd get an increase in allowance so they could play more games or whether or not to confess to their crush.
There were also old people feeding pigeons—a legendary extinct creature, like everything else—on the benches near her.
To these people, this was just an everyday sight.
To her, it was a miracle.
When her parents were alive, they would show her some movies and documentaries of how life was before the apocalypse. Their goal was to give her hope that this would be their future too, rather than only knowing the current bleak world.
Seeing the sight that had once been limited on screen, in the flesh, made her heart beat wildly, but also made her gut feel heavy, feeling the dread of what would happen not too long afterwards.
HONK!!
"Hey! Watch it!" the driver yelled, and she realized that, at some point, she had unknowingly stepped past the pedestrian road during a red light.
An auntie even pulled her deeper into the pedestrian lane. "Even if someone broke up with you, you don't have to die for them! A better man will come!"
"..."
In retrospect, she must have really looked like she was in a sad daze just now.
"Er…thank you…" she said, moving forward as soon as the green light came on.
So embarrassing…
She shook her head, and her exploratory mood resumed. After the open space park, there was a food park.
The smell of fried snacks lingered in the air, kneading her stomach and seducing her to head there. The next thing she knew, she was in front of food stalls.
"..."
The memories from Nadia told her of what these were and how to eat them, but there was also a feeling of truly trying it for the first time, despite the memories.
She also knew that these could be paid for only in cash or a digital wallet. Fortunately, the old man had a lot of cash. Otherwise, things would've been embarrassing for her if all she could give out was jewelry.
"How much is this?" she asked the seller, who was a young lad a few years younger than Nadia.
"It is 20 danas, pretty lady," the young lad, Bart, said with a friendly smile and handed her a stick. She chuckled.
She agreed; she was indeed very pretty. Especially now that she tied her hair and straightened her back, she retrieved a fraction of her old charm.
Kael was blind to rejecting this beauty so many times, tsk, tsk.
Before her mind could sail towards that man, she opened her mouth to get a taste of the food.
Nom!
Squelch!
Naia's green eyes widened the moment her teeth bit into the juicy piece of meat, and she almost gasped when magical flavor exploded inside her mouth.
Most of the tastes were powerful and unfamiliar to Naia, but fortunately, they could be named thanks to Nadia's memories.
Smoky, salty, slightly sweet, and a bit of umami.
She did not know there were so many tastes, and she did not know they could make her heart palpitate like this!
That day, a major foodie was born.