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

While some people were thoroughly supported by their families in their scholarly pursuits, others had a bit of a challenge in this area.

For example, Thorance, who had been mocked endlessly for focusing on the ’peaceful’ direction of the wood elements. He could no longer count the number of times he heard them yell at him ’what’s the use of being an elementalist’ and be called useless waste because he couldn’t bring enough money.

He heard them mention it would’ve been good if his brother had received the ability instead, then it would not have been wasted. Perhaps, if there had been a way to transfer his elements to others, they might have taken the chance.

Thorance shook his head of that dark thought, believing that family would not want that for their own relatives.

Anyway, this same family was only showing full support because he was finally making good money.

Thorance also received a lot of bonuses for successfully cultivating a few new desert plants in Alterra, which they could breed with some plants to improve drought resistance.

He got such big bonuses that it spread wide, and soon his family was knocking on his door to get a bit of it.

He had brought them here for treatment for their addiction. He allowed them to live in a house he was still paying for (and would for the next few years) but he placed a limit on every other expenditure.

Except for his parents, who’d receive just enough not to starve, his siblings wouldn’t get more than that.

This naturally angered them, but he was thankful for Alterra’s anti-harassment rule so the annoyances were limited. It was even more so because he would spend most of his time in the farms and greenhouses, all of which were restricted areas.

Anyway, his siblings were now trying to get some more money by camping outside his house. They would also occasionally make a scene, but they’d stop the moment a warning came in.

While they didn’t believe that Thorance would let them rot in jail, they were not entirely confident he’d pay for their bail either.

The brothers started out as allies, trying to pressure him in agreement by virtue of their numbers.

They were both his younger brothers, but they had indeed been used to ordering him around. Even if they were practically dependent on him to have a roof over their heads, old habits died hard.

They were step-siblings. His mother died giving birth to him and his father remarried very quickly after that. That family treated him as the main breadwinner and made him believe it was his duty to do so.

His job was in the Town of course, but eventually he did feel fed up and decided to leave for some space. The turning point had been during one of the extreme weather conditions and they took everything from him, barely letting him have enough just to survive.

He ran to the Chancery and had been taking jobs there since then, and because the towns he went to didn’t have level 2 post offices that could send money, he could not be forced to send so much money to them.

He only reconnected with them when, somehow, he received a Post from them telling him his father was dying from an illness. Since then, he’d take a few days off every month or so to go to a nearby Level 3 Town to send money to them.

Then the drug pandemic happened and they were dying, and he had the idiotic idea to bring them here to help them out.

The entire time they were here was a headache to him, and the gardens and farms became even more of an escape.

Things started getting better when, one day, Thorance got a tip from his annoyed neighbor. He was fed up with the noise and gave him a tip of ’divide and conquer’.

So here he was, looking at the younger brothers who were looking at him as if he’d dish out money soon.

”I lost a gambling game, so I don’t have money anymore,” Thorance said, raising his hands as if to show he really had no money.

”What?” one brother screamed, making passersby flinch at the annoyingly high pitch. The other brother stomped in his direction. However, learning from past lessons, he dared not touch Thorance lest he got warned by those damned rules again.

Still, his blood pressure was high and veins appeared on the side of his neck. ”How could you waste money like that?!” he yelled, as if he didn’t lose a lot of money from the same thing back in their hometown.

In fact, if he had money, he’d have tried Alterra’s casinos a long time ago.

Of course, even if he did, he probably wouldn’t be able to go in either. Alterra’s casinos had a strict minimum amount in the wallet and a maximum amount of spending. The former alone would’ve disqualified him.

”You can take an oath with me, but I also don’t have money to do that,” Thorance said, unusually composed. ”You’d have to pay for the oaths.”

”DREAM ON!”

Although Thorance was absolutely lying (he was very rich), the fact that he appeared so willing to take oaths lessened the doubts.

Thorance sighed, acting reluctant. ”But...I did get my salary, though only a partial. The rest were taken as salary deductions due to my loans...as you can see, I took loans from my office, but the interest is high and according to the payment terms, part of my earnings from this time onwards would be taken.”

He then started saying a lot of administrative terms that confused the brothers. They were just very angry at this bastard who was wasting money.

”But I only have a bit to give to one person, who should I give it to?” Thorance asked, and the two immediately went against each other, babbling and tattling their mouths off.

”You used to mock him for choosing his ability for non-combat.”

”Well, you bullied him as soon as we grew taller!”

”You did worse! You remembered stepping on those plants he was cultivating back home?”

”Remember when you grinded those seeds and fed them to the gugu birds?”

The kind Thorance face turned red, his fists clenched. Some of these things he did not know!

He remembered the time when he was young, and he spent all his savings to buy some seeds, only for them to be destroyed!

”Please leave me alone,” he said, eyes red. ”Or else I will kick you out of the house, too!”