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

Most Alterran citizens as well as all the Guests—even the ones who were caught completely off-guard—were now enjoying their heated floors and insulated roofs, as well as their warm food and beverages.

The contrast with the outside world was really too stark.

To be fair, warm food and beverages were definitely not cheap, especially when many of the production lines and the logistics had become a bit dangerous.

For some, especially the newcomers, they were definitely not cheap to maintain and buy on a daily basis. However, thanks to the affordable cost of living in Alterra, everyone had a lot of savings.

Spending a good portion of it to make this damned cold bearable was definitely worth it!

Many of the newcomers, particularly those who had just arrived (some of whom had to borrow funds from friends and family), did not think they’d be able to taste such good things on normal days, let alone during disasters.

Hot drinks like tea, coffee, and cocoa were the rage, and a good portion of the greenhouses had been focused on them.

Speaking of the greenhouses, their maintenance really took a lot of energy, but it was worth it. Of course, in terms of luxury, Alterra would never take losses, so their current prices were also very beautiful.

However, despite this, the bags of tea/cocoa/coffee would always be swept off the shelves as soon as the products were available.

Only the supermarkets were open now, and part of the roads cleared on a daily basis included the roads to supermarkets.

However, it was still dangerous to go out for most Alterrans, as their levels were below average for a level 2 village, so another (lucrative) business popped up during this time.

’Strongman Delivery System’

At some point, a delivery system was established, though by private groups and not by Alterra itself (there was no need to; they knew the citizens would take advantage of every opportunity to make money).

This was established by higher-level people and mercenaries, who would buy things from the supermarket and deliver them to houses for a fee. Usually, it was a portion of the item they were buying.

After all, after a certain level, especially in a low-cost place to live in like Alterra, the high-level people wouldn’t lack money. They did not even lack any equipment, warming or otherwise.

What they’d need was a satisfactory purchase limit. This was especially exacerbated by their larger appetites! How could they survive with only one whole cake a day!?

With delivery systems, they were allowed to take over the purchase limits of their clients. Many would make deals of delivering for a smaller fee (or even for free), provided they gave the rights to at least half of the client’s purchase limits.

The clients simply had to write authorization letters with their stamps, which was simple and convenient.

A stern warning for faking documentation was released preemptively, of course, with penalties being suspension of access to major deduction points.

Anyway, with this system, the ’delivery dudes’ could get more than their usual purchase limits!

Even if the clients wouldn’t be able to give much, what if they served 10 clients or more a day? That was a pretty sizable amount of cocoa (and other supplies)!

It was a win-win situation! Some were even thankful for the cold!

...

Their underground farms were also thriving, and so were the tunnel communities, even in this weather.

Because most houses, including mid-rise and the dormitories, had floor heating, and the inns and hotels were designed as such, the ones inside the tunnels were mostly travellers who got stuck here and didn’t manage to secure accommodation.

This was why, fortunately, it was not as dense as it was back when it was the Extreme Heat they were facing, though it’d have been fine because a lot of body heat would’ve been beneficial regardless.

For their sustenance, each sector of the tunnels was relatively self-sufficient with its own farms. The only items they stocked were bags of rice because rice and wheat could not grow underground.

The people here would more likely be bored because there was nothing to see except the walls of the tunnel though.

Fortunately for them, a lot of business-minded folk saw an opportunity in being ’trapped with strangers’ and purposely bought massive amounts of leisure supplies (some even took loans), and they bought bulk amounts of cards, board games, books (half of which were fanfiction), and so on.

That said, even for those above ground, not many dared to head out either. So everyone was just in their homes, chatting, reading books, playing board games, and so on.

Speaking of this, books and board games were all cleared off the shelves right before the cold wave. The ones in stock were released to the depots after it started, to be delivered by the strongmen-deliverymen teams as needed.

Not to say everyone was trapped inside. The fact of the matter was that staying out in such extreme weather for a few hours wouldn’t be harmful for people beyond level 30 without equipment, let alone if they had a lot of heatpacks stuck on them.

These people, other than making deliveries to expand their pantries, also volunteer to help with road-clearing missions for contribution points.

There were also some out for leisure, like those heading to bathhouses and some headed elsewhere to go ice skating.

Alterra had a number of lakes, some with water originating from the rivers, which had been covered by a few feet of snow. Many were artificial ponds that were connected to them as well. Like the rivers, these ponds were covered with snow.

However, some lakes had water coming from their mountain springs, and some combined with the source of their hot springs.

So, while they weren’t warm...they were warm enough not to have snow pile up on them. Rather, the snow would partially melt and just form another layer of ice, which was perfect for ice skating!

At noon, there were actually quite a few people past level 20 playing in here.

Some mercenaries who belatedly caught wind of the ’delivery’ hype went out for the first time in days and did their new job. They did not expect to encounter several people playing around like this!

”...”

What have they been doing, hiding around the past few days?!