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

At this time, Gill was sitting in the cellar of a villa.

He naturally felt uncomfortable delaying the search for Cassandra by another week or two, but his sense of responsibility remained. Not to mention, going out when he clearly knew a disaster was coming was idiotic, no matter how much he wanted to do it.

The leading team and a couple of ’richer’ citizens bought the insulation materials for their homes (well, the Terrans did), ensuring that they had their own private space even at this time.

If they could afford it, why would they endure feeling other people’s body heat and sniffing their body odor, right?

Anyway, not long ago, Althea built a large villa for the inner circle and whoever would be assigned to lead the territory at the time.

It was composed of a few modules already existing in Guia (albeit heavily modified). It was also fenced with gardens, so they would have their own private parks.

While they encouraged integration with aborigines, there were times when they’d just wanted to socialize peacefully in an open space, only among themselves.

Gill had long abandoned Baltimore’s old house, which was converted to a massive dormitory and orphanage—the lower floors also lined with insulation—and had moved to this area.

That place was uselessly big and frankly, he couldn’t stomach staying there. In contrast, the wars had left a lot of children and teens making do in the slums. It was quite pitiful and when Silvia saw it she immediately went ahead and made the suggestion.

Further, while it was a known fact that conceiving was more difficult in this world, at least among the higher levels, it was much more difficult to support another life when one was poor and struggling.

This was why in villages—with lower-level people who did not have much difficulty in conceiving yet—it wasn’t uncommon to see abandoned children at all.

Those children now had a new lease of life. Sadly, they didn’t get to enjoy it fully because the heat wave arrived.

Basically, it was like everything turned barren overnight.

Even the system farms were mostly dried up except for a few drought-resistant crops improved in Alterra, and this was already a cause of wander to the locals who had never seen plants growing so well in this heat.

This fact definitely increased the Alterrans’ prestige in Iron Valley.

The improved seeds were sent via the Warehouse as soon as the Heat Wave was foreseen. These were sent along with other things like fertilizers and some portable insulation. Eventually, the excess was sent and sold in the Alterra Shop.

Everyone was also asked to stock up for at least a month, just in case, so no one really panicked when it really happened. The stocks though were either in a manually-created warehouse (with guards stationed at all times) or with individual teams/households.

The issue of stockpiling was a challenge when it came to the satellites because the warehouse was only accessible to the Lord, who wasn’t even there. The satellites could rarely use the System Warehouse unless they were sending goods to the main territory.

They had to store their items in a different place, which was risky, especially during wars, but what could they do?

At this heat, everyone was just focused on surviving.

Anyway, at this time, Gill was spending the day in the basement which contained their stocks for the month as well as some makeshift but comfortable beds.

The underground ’room’ of the villa was outfitted with three bunk beds. Because Rowan was doing rounds, only three beds were occupied for now.

During the heat wave, the ’working hours’ were swapped, with the hot mornings as the rest times and most of the activities being done at night.

This was fine in theory, but… the thing was, it wasn’t easy to fall asleep and rest in this heat.

This also meant they had too much time to think and get agitated.

And so… the three grown men stared at the ceiling (or the soffit of the bed above), and they found themselves daydreaming after several minutes more of boring quiet.

Gill thought of Cassandra, wondering what could’ve made her break up with him through letter. It was so abrupt and unlike her. Whatever the truth was, he wanted to hear of it from her own mouth.

Hugo was also in a daze looking up, using his arm as a pillow. He knew Alterra was far more prepared than they were, but he couldn’t help but wonder how they were there.

Was she very uncomfortable?

But then he remembered she had a capable husband and his mood was strangely relieved as it was bitter.

What about the babies? Because he was there when she gave birth, he was also fond of the twins.

In fact, he’d have been one of the uncles who sent gifts to the babies if it wasn’t inappropriate, with ’Inappropriate’ in the sense that her husband definitely wouldn’t like it.

He had a lot of similarities to her husband in terms of personality, so he knew what the man would hate. They could sense each other, but they kept it decent lest Althea felt uncomfortable.

In the same vein, it was also natural for him to think of ’What-ifs’. If he had met her first, would she have been attracted to him instead?

However, he didn’t let that thought fester. He just closed his eyes and willed himself to rest. After all, at night, the mobs could become active.

While the two older men were feeling pained and melancholic, Helios was not much different.

He was dreaming of that fateful night, as he always did.

He could still remember every detail of that night. Her pretty face and how it flushed in pleasure, her hair that cascaded down her shoulder to her breasts, and her sweet voice letting out sensual moans that made him crazy.

Where was she?

Weren’t women here conservative? Why would she just run away? Did he look like someone who couldn’t take responsibility?!

At this thought, he suddenly bolted up and turned. Feet on the floor below him, he faced Gill’s bed with a serious expression.

He didn’t speak for a while and the other two noticed the oddity, soon turning their heads to look at him.

Helios looked conflicted. However, he heaved a deep breath and looked at Gill.

”I heard you’re going away to look for someone after this?” He asked and the two other men narrowed their eyes at him.

”Yes, and?”

Helios gulped, but he said it anyway. ”Can I come with you?”