After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 128

Chapter 128: Teamwork
The twins, Luke and Leo, looked at the abandoned camp with observant eyes.

“Brother, it seems like it hasn’t been too long since the person left,” Leo asked his brother as he observed the bonfire with a barbeque stick still smoking.

Luke, straightened his back, sniffing, and looked around with narrow eyes. “Maybe they hadn’t left yet.”

Leo flinched at this and looked around as well.

He realized that his brother was likely accurate for once, and he quickly changed his approach. He looked around for some signs and indeed saw some footprints heading towards a direction.

He did not approach the forest, but only faced it, plastering on a friendly smile on his face.

“Hello!” He uttered out, though not too loud as to catch the attention of the monsters, especially those they just escaped from.

“We’re sorry for ruining your dinner.” He said, looking back to once again make sure there was no enemy that followed them.

“Do you mind if we rest here a bit?” He continued, hovering over the makeshift stone chairs surrounding the bonfire. “I promise that we are not bad people!”

Ansel stared at the teenagers, not answering immediately. However, after watching them for a while longer, patient, and didn’t take his meat on a stick, his shoulders relaxed a little.

He still had the intuition regarding people’s characters. These kids looked a little stupid, but they were not bad people.

After another thought, he jumped down the tree to meet the twins eye to eye.

It was Leo, the self-proclaimed to have higher EQ than his brother, who spoke. He raised his hand in greeting. “Hi! My name is Leo and this is my brother Luke—

Roar!!!!

They turned to the sound not too far away, and rustles of leaves soon near them.

Ansel sneered and whipped his head in their direction. “Monsters followed you?!”

“We’re so sorry!!!” They yelled. They could’ve sworn they really lost the monsters ages ago.

Otherwise, would they dare stay here and chat?

Ansel heard that monsters were coming from all directions. Having no other choice, he just gritted his teeth and took out his weapon.

Some were familiar monsters while others weren’t. He recognized a few as the Hui mouse and the Gnomos. There was a new type that was as huge as a bear but with the head of a long-nosed lion.

There were about a dozen monsters that sprinted towards them and they no longer had the energy to chat or care about each other. With his injuries, Ansel barely managed to defend himself against a few, while the other two had a harder time coping.

However, he only had two hands and two feet, and eventually, one got past his defense and bit his legs with its tiny but sharp teeth.

“Ah!” He yelled and quickly rotated his sword, stabbing it down. Over and over.

[Stab, -3 Mana!]

[Stab, -3 Mana!]

[Stab, -3 Mana!]

“Whoa, is that magic?” Luke mumbled, seeing a small flash of light when he attacked. Then he saw the bite and his eyes twitched. Unfortunately, he had too much on his plate and was injured as well.

Ansel ignored him and continued his attack. Eventually, under his onslaught, the biting monster let go of its bite like a leech, eventually losing its life.

[Killed Hui Mouse (Lv1): +30 copper, +30 experience!]

He saw his leg bleeding, but he gritted his teeth and he didn’t allow it to hinder his movements.

All this took a few seconds. Any longer and he’d have had two more bites on his body.

He ignored the pain in his leg and hit the nearest monster.

It was fortunate these were mostly just level ones, otherwise, none of them would be able to handle this mob.

Ansel continuously hit monster after monster. He was gasping and could see that his already-dripping spirit was getting even lower.

His ears flinched at a sound and he instinctively moved his body to the right to avoid the attack. Unfortunately, his bad leg carried the brunt of his weight, and was unable to support it.

He lost his balance and saw the monster open his mouth to eat him.

It was at this moment that another spear appeared hit the monster’s eyes and went straight to its brain.

He turned his head to the source. It was Luke, and he sent him a nod of appreciation.

He used his spear as a cane to bring himself up, taking out the sword to handle the monsters that came his way.

“Watch out!”

“Thanks”

Like them, he used his spear to block the attacks on the twins, assisting them in their subsequent kills.

Somehow, the formation changed and the two of them sword users began attacking behind Luke’s strong defense.

During this time, Ansel noticed that their teamwork was surprisingly smooth.

Did he inexplicably become a member of triplets?

It took half an hour for them to deal with a small mob.

Without another word, they once again dragged their bodies to a different area, finding a damp cave. Hopefully no monsters lived here. Even if there was, they didn’t have much of a choice at the moment.

Without another word, Leo took out a first aid kit and leaned in front of where Ansel sat.

Ansel was surprised, but he didn’t reject the kindness. He needed it, anyway. “Thanks.”

Leo scratched his head embarrassedly. “Well, we kinda brought you the trouble in the first place.”

Ansel was non-committal and shrugged, looking around as he was being treated. He looked at the molding rocks, dried stalagmites, and the very rough walls.

His sights finally ended up on their familiar class E wooden weapons. “Which territory were you from?”

“It was called Bonnie Village.”

Was?

“A beast tide destroyed it, just yesterday,” Leo said, knowing what he was thinking.

He frowned, “Where?”

“Flatlands up north.” Leo said, “We came here looking for springs.”

Ansel nodded. “There is indeed one kilometer from here.” He said, pointing in a direction.

But before the twins could thank him, his pointer changed to another direction.

Then… changed it again.

“…”

The twins stared at him in confusion.

Ansel turned beet red. “I don’t have a particularly good sense of direction.”

The brothers sighed but didn’t push it. After all, they brought the poor guy trouble.

The topic died down and they settled themselves in the cave for a bit of rest, with the twins handling everything as he was more injured than they were.

Ansel took this time of respite to observe the twins.

It seemed that the older one, Luke, was the muscle of the pair. He was the one who carried the logs and stones in.

While Leo, the younger one was, well, everything else. So far, Leo was the medic, the cook, the navigator, the brains of the pair.

As Leo prepared the tangy meat for barbeque, Ansel sat down in the nearby chair, curious about their former territory.

“Have you seen someone by the name of Althea in your territory?” He asked, not knowing which answer he would want to hear.

“There’s an Athena.” Leo mumbled, “The lord’s girlfriend.”

“Then it is definitely not her.”

Leo continued to ponder. “There was also an Alnea. But she’s a kid—very cute. How old is the person you’re looking for?”

“Twenties. But she looked younger. Very beautiful.”

“Do you have a photo?” Luke asked, interested when he heard the adjective, and Leo also scooted closer to peek.

Ansel nodded as he took out his wallet from the space. He really wasn’t expecting much, and he definitely wasn’t expecting their eyes to widen so much at the sight of her.

“It’s her!!!” They yelled, simultaneously, and Ansel’s heart stopped.

He faced them and grabbed a shoulder,  shaking it a little. He couldn’t help but grip a shoulder in urgency.

“You know her?”

Now he was just worried. What if something happened to her in the beast tide?!

Leo saw his pale face and hurriedly corrected his words. He patted back his shoulder, comforting.

“We didn’t meet here, we met at Terran.”

“What?”

“How’d you know her?” Leo asked back, very interested, eyes shining with glee.

This enthusiasm made Ansel flinch a bit. “She’s… my sister.”

“Sister??” They yelled, in sync, and Ansel couldn’t help but rub his ears at the noise.

“Do you want to attract monsters here again?!”

The two quickly realized their gaffe and covered their mouths, but the brightness in their eyes remained.

Luke and Leo exchanged happy smiles and looked at him.

“Do you want us to tell you a story?”

.

.

.

Half an hour of very passionate story telling later, Ansel still couldn’t calm down.

Althea was roaming around the city? On a motorcycle?

With that huge belly of hers?

(Though it seemed the twins didn’t notice she was pregnant… )

Althea was taking a walk around zombie-infested streets? Careless and cool? As if nothing bothered her?

Althea flying across buildings to rescue them?

Okay, he knew that last one wasn’t true. It was definitely an idol filter at work.

But… looking at the shining gazes of the two boys, idolizing and admiring, at least Ansel could be sure that she was doing well.

That was all that mattered.