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

While most people took a short shut-eye, some people couldn’t quite afford it yet.

For example, the guards, who were looking for a few outlaws who had yet to register hours after the declaration.

Since the announcements, they had gathered and recorded most of the people past level 25 within the territory. There were definitely some people who were suspicious about them, but without them doing anything yet, they could only monitor them for now.

For convenience’s sake, they asked them to stay in specific motels, so they were easier to monitor. There was a debate on who’d pay, but the guards reassured them it would be reimbursed after the war, provided that they weren’t one of the enemies.

However, there were those who had not checked in.

Some were just arrogant and didn’t want to follow the instructions of townsfolk, but they were monitored regardless. A lot of threatening from both sides had to happen, and only calmed when Gregor appeared.

Ah, Gregor. By this time, they made no effort to hide who was here anymore. Too many eyes were on Alterra, so any misdirection wouldn’t work as well anymore.

Valov was against them already, and they were obviously well-researched. Bleulle probably already knew how many talents they had stolen from there by now.

Anyway, they had captured a few people who refused to take the temporary oath. Temporary oaths could be very strict because their duration was very short, and they had to make sure none of these powerhouses would harm Alterra in any way or form, directly or indirectly, during the war, and their oaths reflected that.

Mathilda worded them herself, so there was no way they could get out of it. The bright side for them was that the oath would only last two to three days, so if they weren’t planning on doing anything bad to Alterra, then the guests really had nothing to worry about.

Through the process of elimination, they also figured out who could be who. For example, there were two high-level fire users unaccounted for. There was also an earth user and another high-level non-elemental. One of them was probably the mind manipulator who messed with Harold’s head.

Skills were not indicated in the Lord Panel, after all, so there were still a lot of gaps in information, but since they knew that the mind manipulator had to be high-level to get someone of a stable mind to kill themselves, they had a pretty clear idea of who it would be.

Vlan Isip, a Level 39 powerhouse. Wherever he was right now.

As for the fire users, they were even more urgent. Although one had been imprisoned after hurting the Ministers, there were still some at large, and they were a great risk since they didn’t know where the other bombs had been planted.

There could be misdirections here, but they ought to find all of them anyway!

”Sweep through all places, increase the contribution point rewards for confirmed information about the missing persons!”

”Yes, sir!”

...

Meanwhile, in one of the large, undeveloped forests in what would eventually be Phase 2, three people were hiding away. These were the people being hunted now, and they had no choice but to hide in places where there were no people around.

At this time, they were trying to create a tunnel and hide there. This was a common stealth tactic for teams with earth users. That was to say, people would create a cellar in the parks or forests within the territory, comfortably wait there until the fight began, and then stab the enemies in the back while their attention was defending against enemies from outside.

However, for this place, they could not do so at all! Alterra’s damned excessively specific rules were activated whenever they tried.

[No unapproved construction allowed.]

”Damn!” Xon cursed, throwing a random ball of dirt he lifted up to hit a random tree, creating a dent there.

It wasn’t that people could not dig, because people could to a certain depth. The rule would trigger if a certain threshold was reached, but this threshold was not that deep at all!

They hadn’t even dug two feet when the rule sounded. What could he fit there? His head?!

The old man Vlon sighed, shaking his head.

”We’ll just hide here. The place is big, and there aren’t that many people yet, especially in the forests.” They had also hidden in a lot of the parks before they reached this place. Unlike most places, Alterra had an inordinate amount of untouched forest, and they took advantage of that.

It was just that the interior parks were still surrounded by neighbourhoods, and there were still people around them. There were no more children running around lately, but there were still plenty of adults and guards around, the former gathering resources, and it was too risky to hide there.

They had also wanted to hide in an inn or something, but everyone who stayed there was recorded.

They also wanted to hide in a random home, but after what happened in a previous war, where their previous enemies did something like this, Alterra quickly implemented countermeasures.

They now had something called a buddy-neighbor system, where a randomly selected group of neighbors (which changed every war) had to go check on the status of their neighbors.

They had to report if there was anything suspicious. They couldn’t mobilize the guards each time, as that could get taken advantage of by enemies (for example, thinning out their forces by distracting them, or setting up traps), but it was enough for enemies to think twice before hiding in certain houses.

What made this strategy so effective?

It was because the people here were horrid gossipers! Absolutely the worst!

If they saw anyone unfamiliar to them, one could bet they’d be remembered, and any movements they made would be watched!

A lot of them weren’t even for the sake of guarding. They were really just bored and were watching because they were nosy!

It was very annoying!