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

A/N: Happy October, guys~! Thank you thank you to everyone who stayed with us until now! *GIANT HUGGGS* extra thanks to the lovelies who sent gifts, golden tickets, voted, reviewed, and commented! Each one helps the story’s relevance!

Finally, special mention to last month (Sept 2025) top 3 golden ticket gifters~! Edward_Flynn_1495, Lavenwinkle, and Phantasea. I saw that IVP99 also got in very close 4th xD~! *HUGS*

As always, if y’all have any chapter requests, do tell me~

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Things related to the drug escalated fairly quickly after that. It was almost impressive.

The Terran region remained fairly safe, but the same couldn’t be said anywhere near West and Southwest of it.

In the next few weeks, the powder was introduced to more and more markets, the demand for it spiking.

Many powerful people recognized the potential of the powders. Whoever had tried it once was sure to buy more—making the most stable markets the aborigine sellers had ever encountered!

It really was an unusual ‘medicine’ that felt like it could heal the soul, remove all problems, and could make one feel happy no matter what.

Moreover, the powder was well known even to the well-off commoners, so the market was really wide. They heard that some even sold their houses to stockpile this thing!

Even to the lesser commoners, there was a market. After all, they were suffering so much, who wouldn’t want a taste of happiness?

However…for the poor, the cost of tasting this ‘happiness’ was often something that could not be taken back, including selling their own child to get a small bag of inferior product.

Its spread among the nobles was even more vast and deep. After all, a gram of the powder, especially the premium quality ones, was quite pricey and not many could actually afford it.

More interestingly, if one had a high level, say, post-level 20—the negative effects were practically negligible.

Imagine the feeling of the high without repercussions!

The body of an elite recovered much faster than others. At the same time, the effects were also slightly shorter, so they would consume more to lengthen the experience.

Humans seek pleasure and yearn for it. Even without withdrawals, these stronger people couldn’t tell that they were just as addicted to the powder as everyone else.

Rather, they actually consumed far more because they could afford it and could not feel its negative effects, at least for now.

Anyway, this market quickly spiked up after it was introduced to the nobles of Voumi, quickly spreading to their subsidiaries as well as the passing merchants.

At some point, it had become the trend to find at nobles’ parties. Because it also had little and decreasing effect as one’s level went higher, consuming it even became synonymous with one’s prowess.

The view was: the more one could consume in a day, the richer and more powerful a person would be perceived as.

Even if one had an inkling, a bad feeling, about the drug, the peer pressure to try it out was strong. After all, refusing would be seen as weak, further seeping the toxic practice deeper into the noble houses, even to the youths.

Of course, those who did not experience much of the withdrawal symptoms were the small minority. Everyone else would still experience it to varying degrees, and some actually had the mind and brain to notice that there was something peculiar happening underneath the surface.

Still, not everyone would admit it. Some would even be ashamed to raise an issue.

In any case, while the withdrawal symptoms were alarming for some, there was no way for them to calm them down without the powders, making everyone who tried to be dependent on them, regardless of whether they realized there was something wrong with the situation.

During these few weeks, the demand had spiked so much that the prices increased even if the origin did not. At least not yet.

Basically, in the area west of the Terran region and far east of Holt City, a strip of territories was experiencing a particular phenomenon of addicted citizens in all strata.

And this all came from a single territory called Flaret Town.

The Town was located slightly North of what would eventually be referred to as the Terran regions, which was the small region where all Terrans were spread out and built their territories.

It was far from Alterra, about 500 kilometers North, but the Town was fairly close in distance to the northmost Terran territories. The Town was even nearer these Terran territories than Alterra was to them.

At first, it was nothing special. It was just a Level 1 Town that upgraded after several decades of existence, and had been stagnant at this level for several more.

In this town, like most places bordering this region, they had gathered quite a few interesting resources through wars and kidnapping.

And somewhere here, inside one of the warehouses and factories that was brimming with activity, the Lord was walking around with someone very important to him, despite being half his level.

This man was a middle-aged man with a strong physique and a dark atmosphere around him. For his age, he was also relatively handsome and charismatic, and several aborigine women couldn’t help but follow his figure when he passed by.

His level was not even level 20, but he had an intimidating aura around him. For some reason, even the Town Lord was amicable to him.

Felipe Cruz, Althea’s neighborhood drug lord, and the dude whose house Althea stole from all that time ago.

Ironically, it was the place she got the guns, including the plasma gun, as well as the high-end motorcycle, all of which ultimately helped Althea hoard so much money even as a lone pregnant woman.

And it was also thanks to him that Flaret Town, once a poor town only superior to villages, was finally booming.

It was just that it was at the cost of the blood and tears of hundreds, and it hadn’t even been a year since they started.

He’s iredeemably evil btw, just sayin in advance xD