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

While their Lord was counting good money, the rest of the territory were just surviving day to day, as usual.

At the very least, their Lord upgraded their pitiful Level 4 Walls to Level 5 and sentries to improve their defenses, so that was hopeful. Rather, many of them admired this Lord because the walls hadn’t been upgraded for a long, long time.

However, there had been plenty of rumors that the walls were only upgraded at the behest of Sir Felipe. Felipe had quickly gained recognition in the Town. He also received a lot of assistance in leveling from people who wanted to get into his good graces.

That said, other than the walls and the influx of gold in their Lord’s wallet, life remained challenging for the people below.

It was safe to say life had gotten even worse, now that so many had become addicted to the new products their town was churning out. Interestingly, most people didn’t know that the product originated in their territory at all. It was spread to be something bought from the West and except for the inner circles, everyone believed this.

That said, there were cheaper varieties— the ’failed’ products or the byproducts — that also flowed to the lower rungs of society, allowing the poor to have a taste after emptying their wallets.

People were far more desperate for money now to be able to buy their fix, and plenty of fights exploded even at the slightest of triggers.

Every day, there was an increasing number of fights that stemmed because of this. Either it removed rationality in the parties, or it was an outright fight for the drug despite the availability of supply.

The Lord found it too expensive to prohibit fights—most territories did, especially since the cost of implementing them also increased as the population rose. This was how it was in most territories, even towns and cities.

Not to mention, their prisons—assuming they had one— wouldn’t be able to handle everything anyway, and blacklisting people generally meant losing money.

This was taken advantage of by various forces, for one reason or another.

For instance, despite all the efforts to be subtle in transferring goods, certain people with trained investigation skills could still tell whenever a deal happened, and which cart likely had the goods.

Today, there were four carts traversing one of the Town’s widest streets. It was going relatively fast. Unexpectedly, fire lit up at the connection of the beast and the carriage.

CRACK! The sound of the connection being destroyed.

BANG! The sound of the carriage’s front side slamming to the ground.

ROARRR! Followed by the irritable sound of the beast mount, which continued to run without control.

The large carriage had halted and dropped with a bang, and the inertia caused it to topple. People gaped as it happened and saw some powder leaking through.

Before people could react and absorb what was happening, a certain masked man went ahead of them, filling up his space with the powder before quickly disappearing into the streets again.

”OI!! STOP HIM!” the driver yelled when he realized. He was groggy in shock but tried to recover, jumping to follow the masked man but more beast carts from the opposing traffic came by.

ROARR!

”AH!” he yelled as he was pushed back, cursing. He barely avoided a beast’s fangs, and his arm was even swiped. He did not bleed much only because his level was relatively high, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t irked to death!

Worse, the passersby realized what was inside the carts and immediately became like wild animals, trying to get their share as well.

”POWDER!”

”It’s the magic powder!”

It also caused several cars to stop, with the driver and passengers taking some stuff. The ones from the sidewalks also saw the same and rushed forward.

They didn’t care that new beast carts could be passing by—someone even got run over—but they all focused on getting their hands on the powder, even if just a bit of it.

Getting a few kilograms was hundreds of gold, okay!?

The driver’s eyes widened. Each cart had one driver and one guard above the average level. This was because they were confident they were being subtle and they didn’t need to get more, as getting more was not only expensive but was an indicator of the importance of the things inside.

Now, both of them were too preoccupied with keeping their remaining goods to even attempt to go after the masked man!

They did not have the chance to think about how they were revealed, and the two of them immediately ran to the cart to push people off before they could take anything into their spaces.

They were not even gentle. They would slap, kick, and punch without care, even if the person was half their level.

BANG!

CRASH!

”Ahhh!”

However, despite this, many still rushed over, mindless like the undead. There were too many addicts in Flaret Town now, and as soon as someone yelled ’free powder’ from somewhere, hordes and hordes of people started piling in in a wave.

”STOP IT!” the mercenary screamed, and he used his skills, even killing a few people.

The people who had been addicted were far less logical than the others. Even after the violence, some of them still manically tried to get their hands on as much powder as they could.

Reinforcement arrived and handled the people, kicking them away or slapping them out. One by one, people were taken down. Some were still alive, but immobile, while some perished from the hit, from the injury, or from being stepped on by the horde after that.

The mob that attacked was not small and by the time the cart was pushed back up again and the human mob was dealt with somehow, the powder that had used to fill up the carriage was now less than a third.

How much gold did they just lose? Who would pay for this loss!?

Everyone cursed when they saw the damage. ”ORCSHIT!!”

The driver yelled, glaring in a direction.

”Wait until I capture you, you bastard with a mask!!”