After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 335

Chapter 335: Resuming Development
Althea had also decided to continue with the old plans, before adding the system buildings so as to not be too dependent on them.

The land has expanded, but she was able to decide on the direction of its expansion. Rather than a circle, the land was more like a very irregular rectangle, mostly extending to occupy more river and flat lands, as well as the mountains north.

She also decided to add another consideration with this expansion: Underground Construction.

It wasn’t that they didn’t consider before, but the tree roots were too dense and they didn’t want to risk weakening the foundation of buildings.

Now was the perfect time to do so.

The mountain areas northward was also a bit enlarged, other than safeguarding the springs, this was also to occupy a resource point for hemp, which was currently being developed to make fabric and paper.

She still hoped to find something like flax though, as linen was smoother and didn’t need to be ironed. There were several clothing types more suited to it. It was also highly absorbent, more comfortable than hemp, and it was also more durable and breathable than cotton.

Anyway, having the three types of cloth in addition to animal hides would provide the territory with enough necessary variety.

Next was the arrangement of the roads. Following her new greening rule in the urbanized areas, she maintained the planted sidewalks, road islands, and parks.

The farmlands were expanded twice its current size and she invested in more fields. The earlier it was bought, the better, as it raked in more profits.

The industrial park also planned to build several more factories for rent.

Speaking of factories, because it was public knowledge that Althea ‘requested’ factories to be built and Gru’s public domain farmlands had been approved by the ‘Village System’, there had been a number of other building requests.

Some of which were actually pretty good, and were thus slated to be added in the territory.

One was to create a small fishing port along the river. Although people could fish here (conditionally), comfort would be nice since they’d stay for hours.

Some transportation routes would also be added here, though mostly with small boats and canoes.

The person who suggested was a man named Bull, who she heard was someone from Vismont before.

He was asking to make a business out of it, not only would he transport goods or people along this long river chord, he also proposed scenic routes.

Althea, naturally, approved of this.

Similarly, there were also proposals to add artificial river routes heading deeper into the luxury areas and form a small lake.

The person who suggested it was from Silvia and her brother Reno’s team. Reno was one of Drake’s men in the guard team, while Silvia was an official under Mathilda, so the business would be primarily handled by their teammates.

The leading team member, Honey Guevara, happened to discover a relatively non-porous material that could be used like geomats to keep water in a certain place without leaking into the soil.

As for why the use of the material was limited to this (rather than other applications) was because it was strong only when it was in contact with water. Further, it could only be placed in fragile thin layers.

From Sheila’s gossip, Honey was collecting weird materials to try to get them approved as resources when she accidentally fell into the river in her excitement.

Unexpectedly, she touched an unusual surface very different from the rocky texture she was expecting, and spent days investigating until she and her team figured it out.

She called it WaterBlocker.

Because land could not be privately owned, however, Althea simply awarded the woman with huge contribution points (a whooping 5000) and priority to rent commercial land adjacent to the lake.

Her story did inspire a lot of people and it was partly because of her that they found a lot of resources just before the protection period ended.

Of course, while she approved of this, as someone with a better grasp of the terrain she changed the location of the artificial lake to more natural basins. This was to let it double as water collector during strong rainfalls to prevent flooding.

After this was settled, the siblings focused on the other side of the river. Althea and Ansel also made some plans for these areas.

The river bent slightly north, so the last section of the river that was still within the territory connected closely with the farmlands.

At this, Althea paused thinking of another improvement. She added another river branch.

She read somewhere about a technique of integrating fish ponds into fields, forming a sustainable ecosystem on its own: Rice-fish culture.

This was a farming system that integrated the cultivation of rice and fish in the same field. Fish benefited from the rice, using them as shelter and food. The rice plant, in turn, benefits from the fish by having them control pests and provide nutrients through their waste.

Better, what if the fish grew better because they lived on system fields?

“Definitely worth the try,” Ansel said.

Althea nodded and added it to the agenda. After all, they still needed to figure out if the rice could survive such an arrangement.

Next, there was also someone who requested daycare so their children could have some place to socialize and learn. Adults were too busy to care too much, after all. This was especially true now that most of them had to hunt outside a few hours a week.

There were now over three thousand people in her territory, about a score of which were children under 7 years old. It was more than before, and she made a mental note to send a task to Rosalind later.

As for the others, the modules and factories were extremely flexible and could be modified as needed.

For instance, a more popular baker in the territory requested larger kilns, as the current demands could no longer be met. This could be rectified by the person buying bigger units and placing larger kilns.

The luxury areas also increased a little, while the areas between the center and the southwest gate increased the most.

She got a lot of rich citizens since the last visit of the three territories.

She also added narrower streets perpendicular to the avenues every two blocks or so, adding a few more pedestrian-only streets by the way.

She assigned more areas for stalls. Now that the basic raw materials were basically completed, a lot of industries were expected to rise. There were already different shops for clothing, shoes, bags, etc. booming.

Different types of foods, different types of furnishings, and different services were already flourishing.

When rubber became commercially available, even more industries would rise. Of course, there was still a lot of study of local resin to be done.

She really wished Winona was here already.

Anyway, there should be more demand on the commercial side and she should be filling up the main avenues again.

Except for the areas along avenues, she basically didn’t build much anymore. For now, the residences were enough and she just needed to add another dormitory.

There was plenty of construction left and she didn’t want to expand to the next level up. The level 5 walls were very expensive, and she didn’t need such a large area anyway.

Her next goal was to find a way to safely build high-rise buildings. They might have limestone deposits as they were near water sources, but she searched to find out it was a long shot.

Concrete was still integral if they wanted to build even taller. Her target was at least 10 floors.

Unfortunately, it would be hard to find limestones as the river was freshwater, rather than seawater. However, it wasn’t impossible, but just very hard.

At worst, she’d have to find another alternative somewhere. The one she used in the module was basically just for grout, not structural concrete.

It would be better if the curing time of concrete was reduced. She read in her tablet that a batch could take days, so a building would take months or even years to finish.

Her theory about the latest Aborigine hire reducing time was still a theory after all, and she couldn’t take it as fact already.

She didn’t have that time, and neither did the territory.

And then there was steel, which would only work if they could find more iron sources.

That, too, would take time.

Fortunately, she saw the new buildings and there was a good alternative she could use while this aspect was being studied.

Anyway, she didn’t build any more buildings for now. Instead… she turned to look at the system buildings that came with the upgrade.

I’ve ignored you long enough, she mused.