After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

[155:24:26]

Through the alarm on Althea’s phone, the group woke up several hours later.

But when they opened their eyes and only saw darkness, with the light of the two moons the only illumination they had, they thought they must’ve imagined the alarm.

But it ran, and Althea lifted it to check the time. She felt a little headache, disoriented.

What was this? Jetlag??

Well, thinking about it, it wasn’t surprising.

After all, they were used to sleeping 5 to 6 hours a day at most back in Terran, and suddenly the nights were a lot longer.

Of course, the team had a peaceful sleep because the last leg of the night was Althea’s watch.

She was strong enough to silently and efficiently deal with the monsters that not even Fufi woke up from snoring.

Speaking of the dog snoring,

”What are you, a pug? Snoring so loudly when you’re a dog…” Althea mumbled, booping the dog’s nose with her finger.

While she teased the dogs, the others began packing away their sleeping bags (Harold and Maya’s were the thin duvet that Sheila took from the hotel). Within a couple of minutes, the group set out for the next part of their journey.

Although it was a bit disorienting to have complete sleep and still see nothing, the group prepared for another long journey nevertheless.

Because of the fight last night and the subsequent quest for a resting place, they were displaced a bit from their desired direction.

With Harold’s approximate guidance, they also avoided the location where the other group would go.

After all, they were likely to go in the opposite direction from the mountains, while Althea and her group were headed towards it.

Eventually, the sky brightened and although they were still a distance away from the mountain, the area did feel more peaceful.

The monsters they encountered were a lot less, and if they did encounter them most of the beasts were level 1, level 2s were already the leader-monsters of their group.

Because the level difference was a bit far, most of the monsters avoided them. For those that wanted to attack regardless, they eventually became training items for the weaker ones in the party. They were also sources of good meat.

Speaking of which, Harold was really not bad. His cooking could be on par with her husband’s, which was saying something.

Anyway, he was leagues better than both her and Sheila combined.

Althea was very glad she took him in.

They walked for several more hours and the mountain finally appeared near enough to appear like it could be touched.

They continued to walk in its direction for some time until they went past a dense patch of bushes and trees, suddenly seeing a different scenery.

They seemed to see… a fence?

It was a meter-high wooden fence.

They looked at each other in bafflement, and for a moment they thought they were imagining things.

They looked around again and confirmed they were still in the middle of dense forest, and then back to the fence in front of them extending kilometers to either direction. .

Harold touched it and confirmed it wasn’t an illusion, and soon Maya and Sheila followed suit.

Althea, on the other hand, did not, as she had an idea on what it was. ”Let’s follow it. Maybe we will be able to find a gate.” She said and the others gladly followed her lead.

It took them about half an hour of leisure walking until they reached the gate.

It was guarded by two guards with a wooden sword and a spear, respectively. They both had lazy postures and haughty expressions.

Except for ogling at the two girls, they didn’t do much and let them enter the territory.

[You have entered the Royal Territory. Please pay your entry fee within fifteen minutes.]

[Please pay 100 copper coins for a visitors entry fee, 1 gold for temporary residence (valid for 1 month), and 10 gold for permanent residence.]

They all stared at each other and were relieved.

It really was a safe haven.

Although this area was relatively peaceful, who would want to keep sleeping in the wild? Not to mention they had to keep watch when they should have been resting.

The guards saw that they paid the entrance fee without batting an eyelid and looked at each other with sly smiles.

”Wait!”

”What is it?”

”Other than the visitors fee, there is also a guide fee.” He said, extending his hand. ”It’s not expensive just 100 copper per person.”

Then the man looked at Sheila and Althea with perverted grins. ”Or you can stay with us. Your choice.”

Harold frowned, while Sheila almost slapped him.

Althea stopped them both. ”I’ll pay for us.” She said, and paid for the four of them.

However, as she handed the copper to the guard, she grabbed the man’s hand, gripping it tightly.

”I suggest you stop taking advantage of people.” She said, smiling, but aura menacing. ”Or else it would bite you right back.”

Then she let go, and guided the others to the territory.

Sheila’s eyebrows furrowed and looked at Althea, feeling wronged for her spending. ”They obviously—”

”There is a power here. You don’t want to get kicked out, do you?”

It was only a little copper anyway. Disregarding the wealth they earned in Terran, the loot from the monsters they hunted was not small.

They couldn’t risk their precious chance to rest properly for a few scum.

The group soon entered the vicinity and saw that other than the fence, there were a couple of buildings, beginning from about a few meters away from the gate.

The road was a dirt road, and it connected the buildings as well as the gate to each other.

However, the area occupied by all these together paled in comparison to the area of makeshift houses and tents near the edge of the fences, starting about a hundred meters away from the main dirt road.

Even from their location, they could see that the ’slum area’ consisted of a much bigger space than the village proper.

It was around this time that they heard a small commotion not far from them.

”It’s too expensive!” A dark-skinned man argued with a woman, trying to convince her of something.

”Come on, I’ll pay for you, it’s almost fifteen minutes!” A softer voice muttered, trying to convince him.

”The money is not the point! Staying here means we have to risk our lives many times just to stay for a day!” The man argued bitterly, combing back his dark coily hair in depression.

”A hundred copper—that’s two or three monsters a day! How many people died not even earning that amount!”

He looked at the empty underside of his pants in bitterness, feeling the makeshift rod he used to carry his body weight under his incomplete thigh.

”But, Eugene, we— we can’t go anywhere else.” The girl tried to reason with him, tears lining up her face as she stared at the metallic stick where a leg should have been. ”Your prosthetic leg is gone. We need to build a new one–”

”Then what about tomorrow? Or the day after? We can’t afford this amount every day–”

Althea’s eyebrows furrowed as she watched this scene. Althea’s emerald eyes began observing the citizens. Although no one spoke, based on expression alone she could see a lot of people actually agreed with the man.

This made her worried.

A territory… didn’t seem to be so friendly, after all?