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

In the end, the trio Tacky Brat, Juan Moon, and Baka Hapon were let inside.

Pedro looked at the three of them, the weakest of whom was level 13. That level was a proper powerhouse in the village.

”You’re the weakest?” Pedro couldn’t help but frown. It felt like they were being fooled.

”You think the territory will send out people weaker than us outside?”

Alfredo, who was standing nearby, couldn’t help but step forward. ”We will ask this again after you take the honesty oath. Do you agree?”

He meant to say that, if they were lying, they’d be exposed very quickly, so there appeared no point fooling them.

The trio rolled their eyes at the same time. ”Whatever,” they said, and headed back in.

[Welcome to Trial Village (Lv2)! Please pay 10 copper to enter.]

The team looked around and saw nothing particularly unusual for a village. The roads followed the uneven terrain, and the arrangement of everything was not perfect, but it also indicated the Lord had an idea of proper road layout.

They could also tell that they had yet to be ravaged by war, though probably not for long.

They were quite isolated, too, so they wouldn’t be surprised to see if their level had been stagnant for a while. Unless they expand their influence, they would probably be stuck in Level 2 for another decade or two.

Speaking of which, how the Alterrans found them was because they had a rough map of the surrounding areas, thanks to the few refugees from this direction, leaving a wide gap in between.

Wind users would also fly up above the tree canopies, so they could see farther than others, finding this place by accident.

Their strategy for efficiency would be to talk to people in power to buy off their maps for a good price in silver or even gold, depending on the quality of the information. They didn’t have Alterran products with them now, and they were not willing to use them as payment anyway.

They were led to the Village Center, and the trio couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic. Alterra grew so much, and it felt...quaint...to see village-level buildings again.

As mentioned, their itinerary was heading straight to a northern village in the ’gap’ area and then heading down to Alterra’s side after that. Hence, they hadn’t really bothered passing through other villages on the way here (yet).

They didn’t encounter one, anyway, since villages generally didn’t build themselves on a straight path towards each other. ’Villages on the way’ actually meant a few hours of detour every time.

Anyway, after the trio made their oaths, the Lord himself led the questioning, with many people watching on for curiosity’s sake or otherwise.

”Why are you here, truly?”

It was Juan who was representing them, with the other two free to answer as they saw fit. Juan was the most eloquent out of the three of them, and they were talking to a Lord, so a bit less crassness was appreciated.

”We are expanding our database. We are tasked to gather information, fill up our maps, and determine the relationships and distance from aborigine territories.”

”Why?” the Lord asked.

Tacky couldn’t help but intervene, hoping this interrogation wouldn’t last too long. ”Why not? If you had the resources, wouldn’t you do the same?” he asked. ”Our territory is strong and rich. We can afford to do something so simple.”

”...” Simple?

The Lord sighed. ”How much information have you already gathered, then?” This question would be enough to prove whether these people were targeting them in particular.

”The North Terran territories were a bit difficult for us due to the terrain, but the rest of the cardinal directions had been explored,” he said. There were still plenty of blank patches, of course, but compared to the North, which was mostly empty except for a few narrow paths the couple of refugees had, they definitely knew much more about the other areas.

”We have a rough idea about the delineation of Terran versus aborigine regions in the other directions.”

”What?”

”We have a rough shape of what we now call the Terran Region, which is the area where our civilization migrated to. We have also made contact and...allied...with two of the three towns that bordered us.”

”What?”

Juan and them tried very hard to push down smug smiles on their faces.

”Don’t blame yourselves. You’ve been isolated all this time. It’s fine to be frogs in a well.”

”...”

They were insulted, but they couldn’t say anything back! Further, they were more curious than offended. Even the aborigine hires were very curious.

Alfredo looked at them. He had heard about the ranking systems and territory hierarchy in this world from them. ”You mean to say that aborigines from Towns became your allies?”

It was so fantastic that it was too difficult to wrap their heads around.

”Of course! We’re from a Town, too, after all.”

”You’re from a Town?” they gasped, immediately more guarded than ever. It confused the trio at first until they barraged them with questions.

”Have you allied with aborigines?”

”No wonder they were so strong?”

”They must’ve betrayed our kind!”

The trio gave them a look, starting to get annoyed. ”Our Town is a Terran territory,” Tacky snapped. ”If you can’t imagine doing it, it doesn’t mean others haven’t already done so.”

This time, even the aborigine hires called them out. ”You people have been here for less than two years!” they said. ”You expect us to believe you have become a Town in that short period of time?”

”We’re still under oath, aren’t we?”

”...”

An awkward air of silence passed through the area. The villagers had no choice but to acknowledge their words.

Alfredo sighed, but he didn’t become a respected Lord due to stubborn pride.

After finally escaping interrogation (and leaving gaping Terrans staring at the air, questioning their existence), the trio finally separated to do their thing.

The goal was to gather various maps and information in exchange for money. Maps were easy to validate as they couldn’t be faked when exchanged through the system, but information had to go with an oath, too, so that took a while.

Juan stayed in the center for easy oath-taking, and they’d list down the information they gathered in their notebooks. The notebooks themselves would later become subject to admiration.

It wasn’t even the information inside, but the stationery it represented. Juan had to endure lustful stares directed at his notebook.

On the other hand, Juan and Tacky roamed separately around the village to observe and also do interviews.

A few hours later, Tacky and Juan met up by coincidence and they landed at the single slum in the territory.

It was relatively small and not too dense. It was more like a denser camping area than an actual ultra-dense slum they had seen in many poor territories back then.

This indicated that the place was better managed than many other villages. It could also be because there were fewer people reaching this place, so the population was much less dense in the first place.

At some point, they saw...a boy, hanging around the streets. He didn’t seem particularly sad despite his destitute condition. He actually looked carefree, petting his dog.

”He even has a dog. Is it a battle pet?” Juan mumbled, looking over, and saw that the dog was an adorable cocker spaniel.

And...if Galleon were here, he’d recognize the boy as his son.