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

A/N: One more chapter later today~ I looked at my stockpile and it seems like I can upload some bonus chaps every Sunday after this!

For this December ’24, I can do the +1 bonus chap if we retain Top 2 and I’ll try to do +3 Bonus chaps if we land Top 1 for the week~ (Hopefully, we don’t lose it during the last few hours of the month again like last time lol SOBS)

Regardless, all support would be loved and appreciated! *HUGS* Your support keeps the story alive!

On to the story~

…

_____

Elsewhere, there were plenty of other reunions abound.

For example: Ghesso, after making the announcement, only had to wait at the park outside the Village Center.

Novas had quite the distinct features—they looked very different from Terrans or the locals—so they found each other very easily.

”Ghesso!” Gaudi yelled from afar, immediately running to his old friend. Ghesso flinched as he stood up.

The two burst into tears as they ran towards each other. Any one around them would think they were about to hug, except… they started punching each other instead.

POW!

BANG!

The two punched and punched and wrestled all over the park’s grassy field, leaving the third member of their group (and the passerbys) baffled.

Badjao: ”...”

Was this a traditional greeting from the home planet?

No one knew what was happening until the two just laid side by side, staring at the sky with faces full of tears and snot. This, in turn, caused a lot of dirt to stick on their faces—making them especially unsightly.

Seeing as everything had calmed, the young half-novan cleared his throat and approached them. ”So… are we okay now?” Badjao asked, stopping a meter away, just in case.

The two older men sat up and turned to him simultaneously. They even helped each other up. ”Why aren’t we okay?” they asked, before turning to each other with smiles on their dirty faces.

”You got really strong,” Gaudi said, Ghesso shrugged. ”I was a slave in a Town and was asked to fight a lot.”

”I was also a slave in a Town,” Gaudi said, he was even hired by mercenaries during the latter part of it. Sadly, they were filled with fighters so he mostly just needed to clean up after them, causing him to stagnate.

Ghesso, in contrast, was a meatshield before he was bought by Urkin, letting him gain some levels a bit faster than the other.

Their chatter was interrupted when the young lad Badjao cleared his throat again. ”Er… that fight… was it a greeting?”

The two looked at him, taking a moment to absorb his question before shaking their heads.

”No. We were rivals growing up,” Ghesso said, Gaudi nodded beside him.

”It had become our habit to check out the other’s strengths whenever we could.”

”...oh,” Badjau mumbled, relieved. Fortunately, he didn’t have to pounce on someone who looked like him, after all.

Anyway, now that things had calmed, Gaudi took Ghesso to a house.

Gaudi and Badjao lived together in a rented apartment house. Badjao was new so he didn’t have enough contribution points for even a temporary residency, but Gaudi—as someone who fought in the mobs, wars, and killed a lot of enemies—had.

Contribution points could not be shared to purchase much, but they could be used to buy a friend’s or a relative’s residences. So, for now, the two of them were temporary residents so they could rent out a place.

Either way, even if they had much money (they didn’t) they would still live well. As people who had been used to the minimum, they were already living beyond what they dreamed of.

Amazingly—looking at Ghesso—they knew things could get even better.

…

”Wow… this is a really nice place,” Ghesso said as he looked around the two-bedroom unit. Both bedrooms had double deck beds so Ghesso did have a place to sleep in immediately.

”We’re only renting it until this month though,” Gaudi said, ”So enjoy it while it’s here.”

Ghesso’s eyebrows rose as he looked at the other man. He knew there were a lot of things still left unsaid, so he settled down in the living room, ready for a long chat.

The three people caught up with everything that had happened to them in the past few decades.

The story that interested Ghesso the most… was actually Badjao’s.

”So… you mean to say there are a lot of people like your mother up north?”

Badjao nodded and Gaudi smiled, looking at him. ”Hey, Ghesso, you arrived just in time,” he said. ”Badjao and I had been planning on going on a trip North someday.”

”Oh?” Ghesso leaned forward, interested. ”Are we going there?”

The two nodded.

”My mother is there,” Badjao said. ”And so are hundreds of Novan and half-novan refugees who had integrated with the population there.”

”Is it close?”

”Well, no.”

Actually, it was very far. In Badjao’s map, the distance between this region, and his ’home’ —shown as a dark and blurry part of the map—was a few times farther than Alterra to Bleuelle. Not to mention the dangers, it would easily take them months to travel there on their own.

”We’re going to form a mercenary team and take advantage of the Mercenary Halls’ teleportation arrays by taking missions near there,” Gaudi said. ”Within the next few months, we will go to a nearby town to register as one.”

Ghesso was both excited and frankly a little cynical. ”How’d you get 100 Gold for creating a mercenary team? There’s an annual maintenance fee of 25 Gold as well, right?”

”I will borrow from loan sharks…”

”A what?”

”They’re people to borrow money from,” he said, learning a few terms after staying in Alterra for a while.

Gaudi was only a temporary resident and was fairly new, so even he couldn’t borrow that much money from the bank yet.

This was also why he’d be letting go of this unit to move to the dorms to save money. When he could afford it, he immediately rented out the house in his excitement. However, plans change and it started when he got reunited with his nephew!

Anyway, with the number of people in Alterra increasing, all sorts of occupations and businesses had popped up. One of them was the lending business, which could really flourish because of the Oath system here.

After all, unlike in Terran, the owners didn’t have to invest too much in Collections. They wouldn’t have to worry about people running away from their debts! The system could deduct a certain amount from other people’s wallets, sending it straight to them! It was too convenient to lend money for a good interest!

Of course, such a system could also be abused a lot, especially when the borrower was in a desperate situation.

Fortunately, Ansel had detected the practice early on and set out regulatory measures.

”We’re not doing it now—we still need a bit more,” Gaudi said. ”We won’t be careless. However, this long plan would really be hastened with your help. Maybe we wouldn’t have to borrow from loan sharks!”

He patted his old rival’s shoulder. ”So… what do you say?”