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

A/N: Been trying to use footnote function to mention/explain characters since I have so many and I know you already forgot abt them. But it’s not working, so I can only use the author’s notes at the bottom.

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While Gill was bringing over two citizens-to-be—three counting his child—several acquaintances had also arrived at Alterra.

It was none other than the other members of the Terran Mercenary Team!

The group was now staring at the wall ahead of them, and they were queuing like everyone else.

”This is Alterra? Where the captain is?” Orz asked Juno, the person who the lord himself ordered to guide them to Alterra.

The green-haired man looked at them blankly. ”I told you this 12 times today.” Included in this count were Orz’s questions when they hadn’t gone too far from his home territory, too.

”Ah, yes,” Orz said, scratching his cheek.

They actually landed in Bright Village first.

At the time, the lord greeted them himself. He was very hospitable.

At first, the soldiers (who knew Lords could see people’s stats) thought he was being kind to them because they had good levels.

Surprisingly, he seemed to be a bit more interested in Ryan’s uncle, instead.

This was not to say he wasn’t interested in them at all. He also asked them a lot of questions. He also offered them very good jobs as Top Guards. He even offered them free housing and food allowances on top of their base salaries.

”We’re actually looking for people,” Ryan said, interrupting the very obvious recruitment. ”If you can tell us if any of the names we need are here, we would really appreciate it.”

Micheal had a foreboding feeling about these soldiers and was actually reluctant to ask this question. Their strengths were just too high for them to have arrived at the same time as they did. He just pretended not to have an idea, in hopes of actually keeping them here.

However, when they explicitly said they came three months earlier than others and that they had separated from another group of soldiers from Eden—and were now looking for them—then he knew he could stop fooling himself.

”Well, I guess I should’ve known. I suppose I ignored it because I really wanted your force in my territory,” he said, heaving a disappointed sigh. ”Could you be members of the Terran Mercenary Team?”

They all flinched and looked at him. One had to know, that being focused on by people of much higher levels was normally unnerving.

It would be intimidating if Micheal was a normal person, but he wasn’t. Instead, he just looked disappointed and his enthusiasm was toned down by about a hundred points.

His shoulders slumped and he looked at Juno. ”Escort them to Alterra,” he just said, waving his hand as if wanting them to disappear from his sight, as if they reminded him of heartbreak.

”...”

They were puzzled at first and asked Juno what it was about, and when he said other members were there, they were extremely ecstatic.

They also asked the lord for the names of their relatives and some refugees did find some, but there was no such luck for the others. Micheal did mention that Gill had his mother, and Sunny was a familiar name.

Later, after asking around, Ryan and his uncle found out that the Sunny in Alterra was their Sunny, and she had made a life for herself in Alterra!

However, although they were excited, their families—who were normal civilians— were incredibly weak from the dangerous and tedious travel.

Hence, they made the excruciating decision to rest for a day. Anyway, everyone told them that Alterra was the strongest, and they didn’t have to worry about that place at all.

Speaking of them, while Ryan and the others were gathering info, the rest of their group was eating and drinking their hearts out. They were already so happy to find a good place, and it came as a shock when the soldiers told them they’d be going elsewhere the next morning.

It startled them at first—after all, Bright was already so special—but when they found out that the rest of the team was in the next village, and that village had even better conditions, it was no longer a discussion.

Gwen herself was too giddy. If it was just her, she’d run there, but she wasn’t so arrogant that she’d think she would reach it safely on her own with all her limbs intact.

She just couldn’t sleep in the end so she snuck into Ryan’s bed so he could put her to sleep.

Suffice to say: It was sweet torture for the poor blonde the entire night.

They couldn’t sleep well and, even if they were comfortable, they ended up getting up very early.

The team got ready hours before dawn and left while it was dark with their families. The target was to be able to reach Alterra by sunlight.

As for the other refugees, they didn’t tell them they were leaving. Bright was already good enough, and it’d be impolite to take all the manpower they just added back. Of course, if someone heard of their plans and decided to come with them, they weren’t stopped either.

Before they left though, Micheal ’got over’ his heartbreak and asked to send a message.

In return for his good deed, Micheal asked them to put a good word to the territory, asking to put a small base in Bright, where one or two soldiers would be designated at a time when Alterra upgraded to Town.

Of course, it wouldn’t be for free, with Micheal paying a certain amount of extra protection fee to Alterra on top of the tribute as a subsidiary.

Besides, when Alterra became a Town, the hired aborigines would also see massive improvements. As long as they had money, Alterra could hire an army!

This was in stark contrast to the adjacent villages who would take many more years to even dream of reaching the prestige requirement! In that case, securing strong forces from Alterra was the best bet.

Not to mention, people would be reluctant to become their citizens with such a town nearby.

If one thought of it that way, Alterra should compensate by protecting them.

Of course, none of them would dare say this out loud…