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

Alterra

While the Epo war was ongoing, the movements in the other two territories hadn’t stopped. Understandably though, the productivity had taken a dive for some industries.

For example, some minor sectors focusing on leisure and extraneous industries were slowed down in favor of others.

For one, there was a major dip in the sports centers and gambling houses related to them. It was too hot to do sports at this time.

To overheat even more? No thank you.

Of course, while some industries dropped a bit, others flourished. Baron’s woodworkers house was very adaptable and mass produced items according to need. Their best sellers were fans as well as massive wooden tubs.

Cotton was also very popular and the factory and farms rushed to produce a lot of it before the heat struck. On that front, lighter colors like white and beige were also given priority.

The aborigines were mystified by this until they found out lighter colors supposedly ’reflect’ the heat while darker colors would absorb it, making the latter impractical to wear during the upcoming heat wave.

Interestingly, the kids who had been going to school seemed to absorb this trivia better, and eventually idioms like ”I’m so hot I’m black” or ”You make me so hot you’re white” began to be thrown around here and there.

The Terrans didn’t mind or see anything wrong either. Rather, they found it amusing.

Anyway, in their time and generation, racism was a thing of the past or at least kept within minor and niche groups. There was not much sensitivity in certain words.

Not to mention, the more popular iterations were in the local language, creating their own implications.

Other than clothing, the food had the greatest concern, of course.

The food stores including the grocery and the supermarket also upped the purchasing limits for non-perishable food like instant noodles, jerkies, dried fruits, pickled vegetables, jams, and the like. They also increased production and purchasing limits to table salt, which would also help in the preservation of food.

In the medical sector, not only were healing remedies increased in production, they also upped the creation of medicine with cooling effects. They dedicated farms for the minty plants like the Sagada Plant and the Papra and created special medicines from them.

With these things, a single tablet (chewable, and came in various added flavors~) could lower the body’s ambient temperature to a certain degree.

The minty plants also had properties that aid in digestive functions (with less water, it was estimated a few people would get indigestion). They could also assist in fighting infections (which would be worse during heat), and promote oral health. They contained lots of Vitamin A and C, too, which was a welcome bonus.

The drinks that were produced with them had exploded in popularity during the past few days and definitely more so during the actual heat wave. A lot of cuisines containing them like salads and as garnish was also very popular.

There were also new shops that appeared during this time. Most prominently, there was a big new corner shop in the newest market street. This one was owned by ’the Territory’, and would be set to sell some interesting things.

This large store sold some items like household items that didn’t quite fit in the grocery store. More importantly, this also included products from the Research Center, so officially they were products of the territory rather than just Althea’s.

Many of the items here had a share for their respective developers, as promised to them when they were hired. This way, everything sold here also added some money to their developers.

Among the first products it sold were various types of insulating materials. For instance, there were the slightly more costly but more effective blanket-type insulations. These were glued on walls and increased their insulation capability… by a lot.

With this, the citizens could buy insulation materials and surround their cellar walls with it, isolating the space from whatever was going on outside, to some degree.

There was also the foam-type insulation that would be sprayed on surfaces and left to dry for a couple of hours. While its insulating capabilities were a bit less than the blanket-type and was also less durable (if people hit it, it could get flaked off), it still worked wonders and could be easily transportable for other territories to buy in bulk.

There were even written instructions next to the item displays. The aborigines thought it was very generous and kind to do so, while the Terrans took it for granted.

One of the instructions was to coat or cover the cellars with this. With very cool cellar and underground constructions, they could then buy saltpeter and use it to produce ice.

Speaking of which, bags and bags of saltpeter (which were not sold in the grocery store due to their unpalatable production process) were made available and could be purchased in bulk.

Anyway, this shop had just been opened and the shop was understandably full of patrons roaming around with their large push carts (nearly twice as big as the ones in the grocery store).

The queue went up to several streets, reminiscent of what happened when the supermarket was opened.

The queue was much hotter now though and people had umbrellas and fans with them. (And, of course, walking stalls selling delicious drinks were abound).

Despite the discomfort of waiting outside though, a lot of them had excited smiles on their faces. After all, there was finally a method to cool them down more, of course they were looking forward to it!

Anyway, thanks to these items, people could now not only have a cool basement—they could create ice in their own cellars!

Ice! Everyone with a property could create them! The aborigines, when they realized this, could only gape.

With this, everyone could live like nobles outside right?

Although there was no more free water for residents, people naturally bought and stocked a lot in preparation, and it was definitely much more affordable—even during the heat wave—compared to what the people outside would be experiencing.

People excitedly placed buckets in their cellars after insulating it, though a lot of people tended to stay there already because it really was a bit hotter outside even at this time.

Anyway, with the commercialization of ice, stalls selling flavored shaved ice, cold drinks, and even ice cream would boom which would amaze everyone to no end.

Hey, the Heat Wave probably wouldn’t be so bad, after all.