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

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She nodded and took out a ceramic bottle from her space. ”This is the only resource that we have,” she said. ”We call it black liquid. It cannot be consumed by humans, but it allows flame to last for a long time.

His eyebrows rose as he rubbed the liquid between his fingers. ”This is…”

Oil?

Even if Alterra was set to become self-sustaining with regards to electricity and power, it didn’t mean petroleum wouldn’t be useful. Especially since mass production of the solar panel was still far away, their sources were water and wind, which could depend a lot on nature.

What about during extreme weather conditions wherein these things could not be tapped? Other than this, oil had a lot of other uses…

Sahara didn’t know he could recognize what it was and continued to explain what she knew. ”Thanks to this, our fires could last throughout the night. It is cold in the desert at night, and it is our source of warmth.”

”It’s not much, but… I know cities and rich territories liked their streets and walls lit up at night, I thought it’d be a useful thing to have.”

It was to assist the forces when fighting with monsters and it would also help refugees find their place, which was the best alternative if they didn’t have the lighthouse. And, perhaps more prominently, it was a way for territories to show off their wealth.

Helios nodded. It so happened that he knew a bit about the subject as a mercenary back in Terran. ”This is good. While our research center would need to study it further—if this thing is as I thought—then this can also create a waterproof layer so you can create big bowls to keep sparse rainwater in. It also helps slow or prevent the decay of wood.”

”What?”

Helios blinked, realizing her knowledge about this was not that wide yet. ”Did you just discover this?”

She nodded. ”A few months before I left,” she said. ”Our people discovered it by accident. Rather, we had known of its existence for a while longer, but only began to explore its use recently.”

Sahara was puzzled as she looked at him. ”You know what this is?”

Helios nodded. ”Alterra would love to have this. You can definitely use this as leverage.”

Oil could still be used in various other things. For one, plastics and synthetic materials would need it. Modern Terrans also had the knowledge of how to make plastic sustainable, to a degree. He had no idea how this was done, but he knew the Research Center would figure it out.

They could also make asphalt roads which were markedly cheaper than concrete, assuming they managed to get enough oil.

Asphalt was also reusable and had better sound absorption than concrete did. If they someday used it to create paths outside the territory, then it’d reduce the monsters attracted by the noise of the road.

Hearing this, Sahara felt like much of the burden she had been carrying so far had disappeared.

She was the only daughter of Dune Town, but unlike other girls, she was loved and cared for. When powerful people tried to get her as their wife, her parents refused the offers because she didn’t want to get married.

It was one of the reasons Dune Town had been so isolated. These Towns refused to trade with them and they also forced their subsidiaries to do the same.

They even announced that she was the reason for the punishments and many people tried convincing her. Some even isolated her, trying to make her marry.

However, her brother made sure people knew the lie—he exposed that the other’s resources was just enough for themselves.

Marrying their precious princess there would’ve been useless and they should be ashamed to think of sacrificing a little girl for their own gain.

Although people could get inherently selfish, her family did have a good reputation and most people did express their apologies for turning against them.

For a while, things were a little bit better. However, at some point, her brother was attacked as retaliation by enemy spies.

More misfortune hit their family then. Although her brother survived, he was injured and couldn’t fight for a while. The fights against monsters had become more challenging, and there were more and more deaths in their town.

They also felt it was even more difficult to gather resources, and the few wells that they had were getting less and less productive.

Anyone with a brain could tell the territory would not last much longer in this way, so they had to take a big step and ask for help. Since the territories near them would not help, nor were they capable, they decided to set off farther away in hopes of getting more powerful territories to help out.

There were a few teams that headed out in various directions North to Southeast. Sahara, feeling like a lot of the suffering was because of her, volunteered to take a team as well.

The journey was perilous and a few guards had lost their lives. However, they continued forward, knowing that failure was not an option.

Eventually, they ended up in Ferrol and, now, in Bleuelle.

She didn’t think their resource was too valuable, so she didn’t dare hope for a lot of exchanges. They just needed something to survive.

”What you need is sustainable resources…” Helios said. ”As for how Alterra can help you, we have drought-resistant crops. I’m sure we’d be able to get a few and improve them more.”

The more he said things with confidence, Sahara also felt more and more hopeful.

”Besides, do you know? No one in Alterra died during the Heat Wave. We even exported to our satellite territories,” he said, feeling a little smug as he said this. ”Even Ferrol Town bought stuff from us.”

”What?” She exclaimed. At this point, she was feeling so hopeful that—even if her expression was muted—her eyes glimmered brightly.

In Helios’s eyes, she was very pretty and adorable. He let out a sly smirk.

”However,” he paused, making her a little nervous. ”I don’t know much about those things…”

He paused, tightening the hand that held hers. ”Come with me to Alterra, okay?”

Obviously, this should be the case. After all, she was going to be closing deals with the village.

But when this man said it, it felt like it meant something different.

And it burned her.