After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Territory Buildings I
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The group leisurely followed Priya past the Shanty area and towards the other ‘main buildings’ of the territory.

There seemed to be more than a dozen buildings altogether, although only a few building types could be seen.

These so-called Main Buildings were structures created through the system by the lord. The residences they’ve been seeing were the most predominant of these.

They were located near the central area with the premium houses located in relatively bigger spaces adjacent to the road. Compared to Terran, they were densely packed together, but it was still much less crowded than the tents or shanty areas not far away.

Unlike the ‘downtown area’, the Shanty area had no personal space whatsoever with a person or two for every square meter.

One could imagine the horrendous smell of body odor and human waste one had to endure every single day. It had only been a few days so it probably wasn’t that bad yet, but considering that the population should continue to increase, it would definitely get worse.

Similarly, they were also squeezed far from the central area, as if they were an embarrassment to show.

However, this wasn’t where they were going at the moment. Priya was taking them along the ‘main’ pebble road. Adjacent to these roads was the system one-storey detached houses made of plain wood construction. By visual estimate, the area should be about 50 square meters.

It was worth noting that about a dozen such houses, and only about half seemed to be occupied. Another thing to note was that the occupied houses seemed to have at least five people inside.

Thinking about it, it made sense, because people could just divide the cost of renting a house.

Althea turned to Priya to ask.”Do you have an idea how many people are in the territory now?”

Priya paused and rummaged through her memory. “I was transferred here with about a hundred people. I was with the Lord, unfortunately.

“And there have always been a few groups coming here every now and then, so I’m guessing we should be at least a few hundred by now.”

Althea nodded. This should be a fairly normal number, if not on the lower side, considering there were millions of Terran around. She truly doubted that a lot of territories were erected just based on the stringent requirements.

An average territory should be able to handle thousands, if not tens of thousands, at the very least.

“What the—they charge so much rent!” Her thoughts were interrupted by an exclamation next to them They turned to look at Harold, who had yelled for some reason.

He had opened one of the house’s doors and was looking at the air with a complicated expression.

They looked at him in interest, and he cleared his throat to regain his bearing, “To use a house, you need to pay 500 copper coins a day.”

He couldn’t help but remember the poor less-abled guy from earlier. “At this rate you really need to risk your life to live comfortably in this place!”

Althea followed and looked inside. It was basically just an empty fifty square meter covered bungalow. Except for a tiny private room with a hole lined with wood, there were no other amenities at all.

Althea frowned and she turned her head to Priya, who was also looking around.

It was her first time inside a house here, but Althea didn’t know so she asked, “Where is the bathroom?”

Priya told her that she hadn’t been in one before, “But I did meet a group of people who rented a house before.”

She took them to one of the doors, leading to a small room with a 1 meter by 1 meter dimension. It had a hole in the middle, lined with a slab of stone.

“They said they had to do their business in that hole. Of course, they had to wash it every now and then to keep it from being too dirty.”

The group looked at the hole in disgust, but Althea sighed in the end, knowing they didn’t have much choice.

“We need a place to stay for a few days, let’s rent it together.” She said, “Of course, everyone will share the rent.”

Althea was not short of money, but she didn’t want her possibly-temporary companions to feel she could take care of everything for them.

“You’re not staying here?” Priya asked and Althea shook her head.

“It would depend. To be honest, I don’t think that lord was particularly reliable.”

As she said so, she clicked on the rent option on her screen.

The other two also sent her their share, with Harold paying for Maya’s share as well.

Althea didn’t want people to know she had a lord token. She was planning to build the Territory in a low-key way.

The president’s wife was a major client of her beauty products, she had more than once very emotionally ranted about the pressure of the job.

She said it was often a thankless task. With democracy, there wasn’t even enough power.

It was a little glory if you do right, all criticism if you did even the slightest mistake.

She said she’d rather her husband be a normal man with a normal job.

Similarly, Althea would not want such a thankless task to land on herself.

Priya saw that they were serious and she looked at the group with a complex expression, but she didn’t say what was in her heart.

They only just met after all, and how many villages were there outside? What’s more: She was pregnant and had a three-year-old son.

No matter how unreliable Bobby King was, he still owned this huge fenced village. She could not gamble about their safety.

But internally, she couldn’t help but doubt a little. What kind of future would she and her children have in a territory with a lord like that?

But… do they truly have any other choice?