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

After some hours of travel, the rest of the party that went to Shrao had finally arrived. Behind them were the surviving Terran Citizen that remained or were kept in Shrao.

There were only a few thousand though, which was much less than they anticipated. Obviously, a lot of people died in the war as well as after it.

Ronny and Okuri had already recovered and were now watching their arrival with the others. They looked complicatedly at the rescued people, who were now safe and sound. This was a good thing of course, but they couldn’t help but look at their own suffering.

”Do you think we did the right thing back then?” Okuri asked, genuinely wondering, her eyes fixed on the molded cover that now hang on her boyfriend’s ears. ”If we hadn’t escaped…, maybe we didn’t have to suffer so much.”

”Your decision was not wrong,” Yao—who was greeting the others with them—said. ”Although a lot of people had been rescued, a lot had also passed. Although it was mostly Cain’s doing and a few of the lord’s citizens, a lot of people were tortured for days.”

During the initial investigations, the Shrao slaves indeed lived much more humanely than others. However, it was a village with thousands of people. Slaves, unless otherwise indicated, could follow any citizen—temporary or permanent—from the winning territory.

In the case of conflicting orders, they would follow the stronger person. After the ’threats’, all of the Terrans were released and they found out about the fraction of slaves who suffered.

That was to say, behind closed doors, a lot of people still suffered a lot. Some may be within the lord’s knowledge, while some weren’t.

”Many women had been abused. It’s just a normal thing in this world, and things really could’ve been worse for us had we stayed,” Yao said, heaving a deep breath.

Ronny held her hand tighter at this, no doubt thinking of what could’ve happened to her if they did not leave when they did.

Neither of them had doubts—she would’ve really suffered that way.

Yao sighed. ”It’s just the way of this world.”

He wasn’t making excuses for the people of this world, but stressing out and shouting injustice each time was too tiring. This world had too many problems to be focusing on every little thing.

This world was so dark, but what could they do? Until there was a chance for vengeance, they’d just hit them back but… until then, they could only move on with their lives, living it as peacefully as they could.

Hopefully, they would create a little patch of life where things were better.

To them right now, this was Alterra, and the Region they were slowly forming around it.

…

The newcomers were brought to the dormitories. Some went straight to the bank, putting oaths as their collateral. In Alterra Bank, they could pay off their debts by promising their own workforce to the territory. This was something explained to them on their way there, and it immediately injected hope in everyone.

Of course, the amount was minimal for now. After all, all they had was their own labor and their promise. Many of them had been captured as slaves, and this meant they had nothing in their names.

The amount they could loan out at this point was only a couple of golds, just enough to feed, shelter, and clothe themselves for about a month using the most basic food, dormitory services, and maybe two pairs of clothes. They could also buy a set of basic equipment, though how long that’d last would depend on their usage.

Fortunately, to most, it was more than enough—already very kind. They didn’t believe they’d be useless for an entire month. They should be able to find ways to make money on their own during that time.

The amount was payable throughout one year with minimal interests, which was extremely doable as long as they weren’t lazy. If one had the right attitude, things would not get any worse for any of them in economic terms.

They were already glad to be rescued, but to think they would have a chance to live well as soon as they moved in was something they didn’t expect.

As for Alterra’s side, it was indeed very kind, but it always had a long-term vision in mind.

And… it so happened that the territory needed a lot of manpower for the tunnels.

A win-win situation indeed!

…

The next day, these newcomers started working and the finishing of the mountain tunnels was faster than ever. They were also a team planting some plants and fungi that would thrive in tunnels.

In these areas, Althea actually secretly built system farms. Even if it was underground, the arrays should still work to some degree, though only time would tell how the productivity would be.

The new workers were led by the team leader to the section they had to dig up. Although it was really hot, especially for manual labor, there were plenty of trees around. There were also temporary stalls rented out by the mouth of the tunnel so they could buy snacks and food—preferably cool ones—whenever they had to go on breaks.

Also, this was the only easy-to-qualify job in the territory—everything with great pay, and those ’office jobs’ were all filled. A lot of them weren’t strong or brave enough to hunt every day—especially in this heat—so this was the best alternative for them.

The job was to dig out parts of the soil, working side-by-side the construction team, to create these tunnels and underground construction. They witnessed various earth elementalist work with them, which was amazing, and then they also witnessed a new species digging!

”Goblins… really goblins.” some would mumble, absolutely fascinated. Some of these people were moviegoers or avid gamers, and they really didn’t think they’d be working side-by-side with another intelligent species in their lifetimes!

Suddenly, a lot of them forgot their sufferings the past couple of months, even for just a moment.

Also, those cute little critters were REALLY good diggers. A little one a third of a grown man’s size could dig at least twice as fast as one.

”Amazing!”

”So cool…”

The compliments were so sincere and although they had been hearing it a few times lately the little goblins couldn’t help but blush.

Funnily enough, when goblins were shy, they didn’t turn red, and their upright ears would soften a little, making it look a bit droopy.

Very cute.

Other than them, a lot of the workers were from Mauin, very happy to be able to get honest and safe jobs. Although they naturally still had to go hunt outside every few days, they felt it was only natural and for their own good after a long session of explanations from locals.

After all, as people who had been fighting their whole lives, they were mostly leaning towards just resting and doing jobs within the walls.

At the time, they didn’t understand why everyone still had to go outside when there were perfectly good alternatives inside.

Even the weaker people went outside and willingly, some were even excited to do so.

Back then, they were so confused, and they were quickly enlightened by the locals.

”Do you want to be left behind?”

”Do you want to be weak?”

”Everyone else will look young but you’re looking old!”

Mauin-VIllagers-who-looked-their-age: ”...”

Anyway, safe to say that the villagers, the goblins, and the newcomers had integrated very well with Alterra, becoming one themselves.