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

To avoid unnecessary conflicts and explanations, the time they chose to leave was the time when they knew the family was either in the gambling house or leisurely elsewhere. They headed straight to the beast rental areas with their spaces full and with luggage on hand.

He had rented a beast car a day prior, heading to Ferrol Town. Although Hubble was a Level 2 Town and had a Mercenary Hall, his son and wife were not members—and their son’s level disqualified him from joining—so he could not use that route.

The cart lunged forward then, and soon they exited the gates. His son couldn’t help but peek out and look back.

”I wonder what our new home will be like?” the boy asked, still so incredibly optimistic.

Elron smiled weakly and patted his head. He wondered the answer to that question, too.

...

The next letter to arrive in Alterra was one addressed to Thorance, one of Althea’s closest wood elementalist workers.1

It was from his family, who had sent him a letter for what must be the fourth time in a single week. He should be happy they were initiating so much contact with him, but sadly, all they had been asking for was money.

However, their Post Office was only Level 1; it could not send money yet. Fortunately, Ferrol’s Post Office was Level 2—upgraded just a couple of months back, in fact—so he could send some money.

Of course, being the dutiful son he was, feeling the desperation in their letters, he went to send some more money than usual to them. It felt like life and death, and he had the impression that they were ill. They never detailed what their affliction was, however.

It was just that they kept asking for more and more, and he demanded to know what they were using it for.

His father started calling him unfilial for questioning their demands, while his mother just begged him, claiming that there was medicine they needed to buy, otherwise they would die.

It had to be noted that the handwriting was also increasingly unintelligible, as if their hands were shaking as they wrote.

Thorance’s instincts were telling him there was more to this, so he asked them to describe whatever the symptom they were feeling in great detail, as well as to describe this medicine.

He put his foot down, saying he wouldn’t send anything unless he was satisfied with the information they would give.

That said, he had to ask for a few more days off from Miss Althea to facilitate communication with his family while he was in Ferrol. Unexpectedly, he received a reply a few hours later, and it made Thorance wonder if they were camping in the Post Office or something.

The more he read, the more his eyebrows furrowed. He asked for a little more information before sending a couple of gold he had saved up for them.

He read the letter over and over as he traveled to the beast cart rental areas, heading straight to Alterra.

Because Alterra was studying the drugs closely as well as its raw materials, including the experimentation of its cure, Thorance—one of the main gardeners—was actually privy to this investigation.

Their descriptions felt eerily familiar, and he immediately ran to Miss Althea, who was fortunately in the greenhouse by the time he arrived to see if she was there.

Miss Althea was a bit confused when he handed the letter to her while looking haggard. However, as she read the letter, her gentle expression turned increasingly solemn.

”Your fears are likely true, Thorance. We will investigate more,” she said. ”Thank you.”

”We will make sure that when the treatment is completed, your family will receive it for free.”

Thorance almost cried, and he bowed deeply to her.

”Thank you, Milord!”

...

Soon after that, a meeting was called in. It was between the Elders as well as the leaders of the Information Team.

Althea handed them the letters exchanged between Thorance and his family. There were quite a few, and some of the writing was unintelligible, but soon it became clear what was happening.

They looked at each other worriedly. Althea looked at the information team representatives. ”Is it so spread out now?”

”In our region, no, Miss Althea,” Loki said. ”According to our information, other than the initial batches that landed in Shrao Village, there were seldom cases in Terran territories near us.

”In fact, it feels like the ones that reached Shrao Village were the initial trials, and the next batches didn’t find their way to our direction anymore.”

Mathilda nodded. ”Even if it did, we’d have noticed it sooner rather than later.” After all, Terrans could realize it for what it was, and most of them would either isolate the users, or just nub everything in the nub.

They were no longer in the peaceful Terran. A drug addict was much more of a danger to them than others.

”It seems to be spreading more around the areas west of us,” Loki said, reading from the paper reports. Although they didn’t have people in every nearby territory, they had a decent network and good investigative teams who could chat or interview merchants and the like.

”By Estimate, it came from a Terran Territory north, and somehow they found a town west to distribute.”

Althea nodded. ”Which in turn spread further West and South.”

”It was likely via the Merchants,” Loki said, nodding. ”They could’ve bypassed us, but there are plenty of other lucrative paths.”

For instance, they already received news of Voumi having it. From there, they could’ve spread out to their associate territories, a lot of which were South of it.

A few hundred kilometers South of Voumi, there were many other villages and towns until they reached the fertile region where Thorance’s old town was.

But Thorance’s family weren’t members of nobility. How’d they get a hand on it?

Was the production of the drugs already so big and their distribution already so spread out?

One of the NPCs