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

They looked at the wooden sign with two sets of languages. One was in their lingua franca and another was an unfamiliar one.

Atlas narrowed his eyes. ”Is this the aborigine language?” he asked. They could speak and understand the language, but they had not encountered the written version yet.

His comment made everyone freeze, narrowing their eyes at the sign, extremely suspicious. ”Is it a trap?!”

Atlas shook his head, thinking there wasn’t much point to it. Juno didn’t have aborigines, so he didn’t know much about it at all. At the same time, he wondered why anyone would bother doing this at all?

Even if it was a trap… where else would they go? Would they just go in the opposite direction simply because of this suspicion?

In the end, they simply studied what they

could

understand—i.e. The sign itself, and the text in Terran lingua franca.

It was cut into the shape of an arrow pointing in a direction. [Path heading this way] it said, leading somewhere deeper into the forest.

The unknown had always been unnerving. Obviously, they had been traveling across the forest for a while now, but with a sudden sign of civilization in the middle of nowhere, somehow they felt even more tense.

So… to follow or not to follow?

”I think we should still take a look,” Atlas said after a while. It was better than aimlessly wondering.

They had been getting some water from the gouji fruits they encountered and they took meat from some monsters they beat to sate their hunger.

However, they could never stay in one place for an extended amount of time, and being on the run for so long was too taxing. Their bodies were about to give way now.

In fact, they had lasted so long only because, for some reason, the mobs had… decreased?

This got them both relieved and worried. Normally, wouldn’t being somewhere near the settlement make them encounter

more

beasts? How come there were fewer?

However, the arrow was pointing at an area they hadn’t explored yet, and they could only hope they didn’t make the wrong choice.

After following the path for some time, some hundred or so meters away, they would find a similar signage, and they would follow that, and so on.

Eventually, they encountered a sign on the floor. It was also like the others—arrow-shaped—but it was no longer attached to a tree, likely bumped down by a mob or something.

They paused, staring at it for a while.

”It obviously fell down, is it still safe to follow?” Laos, a middle-aged man from their team, mumbled. If it was taken down, what if it was now pointing in the wrong direction?

The young lad next to him, Shawn, looked at him. ”Which way would we go then?”

”...”

That was true. They had already reached this far, and it wasn’t like they knew where to go. At the very least, thanks to the System map, they didn’t have to worry about going in circles.

They walked and walked and, at some point, they realized it had been a while since they encountered a big mob they had to run away from. It was always in small groups and, thanks to Atlas, they could at least manage to deal with those without losing another person.

They… didn’t know what to make of it, really. Should they be happy? Or should they dread it??

After a few hundred meters, Atlas suddenly stopped walking. ”Wait…” he said, and he looked around.

The others were puzzled at first until they realized… they were on a pathway!

It was at least 3 meters wide… with flat rocks on the ground. They were arranged in an orderly manner so they knew it was man-made.

”What…”

Their hearts beat fast and they walked ahead with renewed energy, running fast until they found a sturdy post with several signs on it!

It was located on a major fork in the road, showing where each path was heading.

Pointing towards the West and Southwest—from where they were just at—there were two signs.

[Iron Mountains, 88 Kilometers]

[Limestone Valley, 20 kilometers]

Then pointing towards the North, there were two signs.

[Alterra Village, 56 kilometers]

[Camping grounds, 35 kilometers]

And finally, pointing East, [Bright Village, 10 kilometers]

”It’s really specific…” Shawn commented though he was mostly impressed.

”So we’re likely in aborigine area now, right?” Shawn said. After all, there was no way fellow Terrans could be so connected like this, let alone have resources to create pathways more than a hundred kilometers long in total. ”I’m kind of scared.”

The interactions they had with aborigines... were horrible. They were all marked by suffering. And now... they could be heading in territories filled with them!

”But... even if they were aborigines.... would they really bother making such helpful signs?”

Tim gulped, eyebrows furrowed, but his heart was beating with hope. ”Surely, no one would bother doing this just to set traps for refugees?”

They all agreed. At this point, even if it

was

a trap, they’d be willing to go there!

A place that could afford to go through all this trouble was probably a well-off one!

Sure, there were plenty of dangers being in an aborigine territory, but at least the territories would be handled better. After all, those people lived here, unlike Terrans who were thrown to a whole new world!

So, they followed the sign—opting to go to the nearest territory, Bright— for a few more hours.

Unfortunately, everything couldn’t be smooth for too long, at least not for them.

At some point, they encountered a slightly bigger mob. Their hearts fell, knowing there was no way they could handle this on their own.

”Another mob!” Atlas yelled. ”Run this way!”

He dashed in the direction of the path, throwing whatever meat he had on stock in his space in an attempt to distract them. The others followed his movements, and it really did save a life or two from getting taken right there and there.

They ran to the direction the mobs were going. The territory was heading in that direction, and their chance to survive was to head there before the mobs could!

”Run! Use all of your strength if you have to!!”

They gasped and ran the best they could and soon they saw a wall around 3 meters high!!

”Walls!”

”We’re here!!!” someone cried, but it paused when they heard the rumbling behind them getting closer. Their hearts beat fast, fearing they wouldn’t be fast enough to reach the safety of the walls before the mobs caught up to them!

They were crying at this point, just praying in their hearts to please please

please

let them arrive on time!

Tilda ran faster than anyone else, and she also had no qualms about pushing another survivor back to give herself more time.

Squelch!

When they heard the familiar sound of flesh being torn and bones being crushed, they could feel that the mob was really on their tails!

Hana couldn’t help but look back a bit and her heart almost stopped when she realized the monsters were just a few meters away from them. Because she turned, her peripheral vision caught sight of movements from their side, and gasped when a monster came out from there!

Timmy was holding her hand and was running at the edge of the group, making him the monster’s primary target.

”Timmy! Watch out!”

Her heart clenched and she tried to use her limited strength to pull him in her direction. However, it was too late, the monster’s jaws were too close.

Not just to Timmy, but from its movement, she could see it capturing her into its mouth as well!

”Kyaaaaa!!”

Tim wrapped his arms around her in a vain attempt to protect her.

Whoosh!

Squelch!

They gasped as an arrow went through the monster’s skull, realizing it was from the sentry!

Hana—who was surprisingly level-headed—continued to pull him, and they ran forward to the walls together and holding hands.

They looked at the 3-meter wall and the number of sentries they could see from their side, taking down the monsters entering their scope one by one!

They all cried, going straight to the gate. Their knees buckled and their entire bodies fell down—smack to the floor—the moment they reached the threshold.

[Welcome to Bright Territory (Lv3)!]