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

For the next few weeks, Alterra continued to spread its claws, er, influence, to farther places, aiming to create a barrier around the small region they landed on.

There were three missions. Starting with Alterra at the Center, all three teams would expanded out in a fan shape.

One team would be heading Northwest, crossing about a dozen or so surviving Terran territories, with the ending spot to the villages near Voumi Town.

The next team would go East to Southeast to about ten or so surviving Terran territories (that they knew of), ending in the areas near Basset Town and Yassop Village.

The last team would go directly Northwards. This team was one of the largest because this area had been largely unexplored. After Luis and Tacky’s team returned with a number of refugees and a slightly filled-up map, they found out that there were quite a few territories in this section, too.

The reason they had fewer interactions with this area was because of the Nispedana Mountain Range, which created a barrier in certain areas. Luis’ party a few weeks ago was actually the first that had ventured past the mountains.

They came back with some information about some new plant varieties, too. Not many, but enough to get the Elders interested and send more people to this area.

Interestingly, the first appearance of the drugs users—who were the aborigine refugees from the north who landed in New Shrao Village—were from the North. Rather, they were part of an aborigine territory that went to war with a Terran territory and somehow escaped further South. It was predicted that there would be a lot of new movements in this direction.

The goal was to offer alliances to these places. It would not be so straightforward, however, particularly if they wanted it to be an official, system-approved alliance.

This was because to create alliances, approved parties from both sides had to make an oath in one place.

Representatives could not count either. In Alterra, they could make alliances with Mathilda in the front because it was within their own territory. Althea could literally control the panels from the side, all while there was another ’face’ there.

Lord’s representatives were arbitrary titles just set by the Lords and had nothing to do with the System itself. So, in alliances, the Lords themselves had to be present.

There was no way Alterra’s Lord would head out to other places just for that. First of all, most citizens didn’t even know who the Lord was. How could outsiders dare ask their precious Lord to go?

Another, this alliance was much more meaningful to others than to Alterra. For Alterra, it was only something for goodwill, convenience, and some long-term development thing. For other villages, it could mean survival.

Hence, should the reconnaissance teams convince these villages to accept the alliance, then they’d have to bring their respective Lords back to Alterra instead, and that would definitely exercise their people’s persuasion skills.

Alterra also allowed the scouts to bring items for them to sell. Not only could it give good extra income for the scouts, it was also an effective ’show don’t tell’, showing Alterra’s capability to others.

Interestingly, some of the people from Voumi, like Sarah, had volunteered to go on these missions. They, who had experienced all the horrors for nearly a year, understood the suffering the most.

Although, to be fair, they also had other, more selfish reasons, and it was not the contribution points. It was because they couldn’t stay still, even if they wanted to.

While some just wanted to make up for all the stress, the fact of the matter was that it wasn’t that easy.

When they tried to relax, they felt uncomfortable.

Unconsciously, it was as if they did not deserve to rest.

Since coming to this continent, all they knew was suffering, after all, and it felt like something was wrong if they weren’t.

It was actually quite sad, and a lot of people would definitely take a while to recover.

This was why, instead of suffering psychologically, many of them decided to go out... and suffer. At least this had some meaning and rewards.

Some of these people were Gurnam, Sarah, and even Misha—and Otto was dragged in, by extension—who went on different teams.

Gurnam and Sarah were going to the first route to West-Northwest with Minko and a few others, the second route to the East-Southeast areas was led by Ryo, a few Town-level hires, as well as Tambay and Tanod.

Atlas was also here, though he was on a different mission than others: Revenge.

At some point, he found out the people responsible for his brother’s death—Sandra and Gingo—were in Voumi Town!

They would pay for what he did to his brother!

Of course, as angry as he was, he also had to swear that he would not jeopardize the mission or any Alterran during this mission, which he did. His brother was kind and would not want him to destroy his life for vengeance.

The North-bound group had Otto, Misha, a few town-level hires, and a few Terran guards. Obviously, they were already blacklisted in the first team since they could be recognized by Voumi’s forces.

Because the North group had to go around a portion of the mountains first, there was a section where they travelled together with Gurnam’s group. This would last about a day or two on foot, which was just as well because travelling in big groups really did lighten the load.

Misha, while resting her head against Otto’s shoulder, looked at her friend Sarah.

Not long ago, they were former fellow slaves who had no control over their lives, women who had to burn their faces just to keep even a bit of dignity.

Now... they were free women aiming to help others achieve the same. It was an odd feeling.

She couldn’t help but smile, unconsciously rubbing her head on Otto’s.

The Gold’s eyes sharpened, and he leaned down. ”Be careful,” he said. ”Otherwise, I’ll open our tent here and now.”