After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 677

Chapter 677: Messenger Birds
After the past few days of their stay, Benny and the others had fallen in love with Alterra.

And this made their imminent departure that much more heartbreaking.

However, they still knew they were sent here because they asked to—because they wanted to see what the ‘main territory’ was like.

Sadly, now they had seen it, they didn’t want to leave.

Anyway, as reluctant as they were, responsibility and duty still emerged over temptation (they were real men).

After all, they would be the mainstays in Limestone Valley, with some of the original members of the Terran Mercenary team assisting with their leveling until they hired aborigines who could do so in their stead.

Benny didn’t bother hiding his reluctance though and Sammy, an old friend, patted his shoulder. “Relax. Limestone Valley is now part of Alterra. Just wait for it to change positively under us. Besides, maybe they already improved things while you were here.”

“Hmn, you’re right,” Benny said, feeling a bit better. Even if they couldn’t be as good as Altera, even getting a bit of its quality was already infinitely better than those other territories outside.

This time it was Luis’ turn to bring them there. “This will be the last time we’ll escort you. Please train harder,” he said and they blushed a bit, though agreeing in their hearts.

They were soldiers for goodness sakes! They couldn’t be escorted to and fro every time!

Garan and the others sent them off, and Vanessa naturally couldn’t go without sending googley eyes at the captain (which was, of course, ignored). She was particularly blatant now that Althea was nowhere in sight.

Before they went away though, Eagle ran to them. He was closely followed behind by a tall, skeleton-thin man with medium-length hair.

“Wait!”

“Eagle? And who’s this?”

“This is Reddit, our Animal Trainer.”

Luis couldn’t help but take a closer look at Reddit, feeling that he’d be blown away if a monster sneezed on him.

“Oh? Can you train beasts, then?”

Reddit shook his head. “No, at leath not yet. My inheritanth doethn’t thay anything,” he said. “I can only influenth and train non-aggrethive creaturth.”

“Including Broats?” He asked, as if not hearing the lisp at all.

“I’ve already taken Chucky ath my apprentith,” Reddit said. “Hith focuth ith on Broath and other livethock.”

They nodded, quite curious as to what this implied. Heyhey maybe even milk quality could get improved. Who knows.

“Anyway, we stopped you to get you this,” Eagle said, revealing a small cage with two birds inside. They blinked, even Vanessa stared.

They were very little, and very very adorable. Their size was smaller than the palm and they had unique velvety feathers. They went by so fast that they were basically invisible to the low-level people there.

“They’re very cute. These are the legendary non-monstrous birds?”

“Yes, we’ll be using them to communicate, for now.”

Allied and subsidiaries could send some short messages via the VIllage centers, but it ironically wasn’t like that for satellites. After all, satellites didn’t have lords, which were required to access the messages.

The Elders could make announcements via the centers as well, which was what Althea told them she did, but they had to be in Limestone Valley to do so.

Speaking of this, one had to be in the village center to send the message. What if they were outside the territory? Aether letters had a limited scope and could extend not too far away from the territory.

They still needed an alternative way of long-ranged communication. Cellphones were far into the future—if ever—so they had to find another way. Messenger birds were the most viable option they had.

“Wow they really move fast,” Benny said, blinking when the birds practically disappeared in front of their eyes, only to reappear again somewhere else in the cage. “What are their names?”

Eagle smiled, introducing their new teammates. “These cuties are called Uno and Dos.”

“…”

Who named them? The captain?

“Can they really be used as messengers?” Henry asked. “How do they work, if you don’t mind us asking.”

“To a certain capathity, yeth they can thend methanges,” Reddit said. “Ith can travel much father than aether letterth and they are altho very fathth.

“How do we use them?” Henry asked, looking at the two birds curiously.

“OH, and bring thith with you,” he said, taking out a few sacks of food which Benny took. He couldn’t help but open and take a peek at its contents.

They were dried and seasoned Gouji berries, and Eagle smiled at his reaction. “These fruits are apparently these birds’ favorites.” They confirmed this because the ones they captured… ended up bring their families as soon as they could.

Reddit then continued to teach them how to use the birds. “You juth have to feed them a handful every day, and give extra when you’re sending it on a mission.

“Thpray this perfume on whoever ith thet to receive it. You have to thpray every hour though ath it dithipateth quickly.”

Benny opened the bottle and sniffed. “Smells nice,” he said. It was also notable that the birds stopped moving so quickly when he opened the bottle. Instead, they looked at him with those large eyes and he squinted at the cuteness attack.

Reddit didn’t notice this and continued to explain the potion more. “It hath thpethial Gouji berry exthract. Be careful when you uthe outhide territorith, becauth you may attract a lot of bugth.”

Then, he paused at a realization. “Well, the birdth can altho clear thoth up, tho do whatever you want.”

“…”

As he finished, Reddit looked at Henry and the others with deep seriousness. “Pleath take good care of them.” These were practically his children, after all. Rebellious brats, but his children nevertheless.

“Ah, yes, we will,” Henry said, looking gently at the little critters. Benny did the same and Vanessa also found the things very cute. Eagle nodded in approval and, seeing as Reddit didn’t have anything else to say, he proceeded to add the final caveats.

“As you can see, there’s a lot of imperfections with this system. We’re still studying it. But it can serve our purpose for now. For one, a bird (unless it gets distracted) can travel from Alterra to Limestone valley in a few hours.”

“We also had to limit the people who can ‘control’ them to about 1 or 2 per territory. This is to avoid confusion on the part of the birds,” he told them. “Fortunately, birds here are a bit smarter than were used to, so it’s unlikely for them to fall for obvious traps.

“We’re not underestimating humans, especially Terran ingenuity though. If other people developed the technique, then it’s possible to intervene, so we don’t recommend sending super sensitive information. At the very least, make a habit of sending messages in code.”

Benny and the others looked at the birds with particularly sparkly eyes. “Well, our communication problem is not a big issue anymore with these babies.”

Sammy chuckled at this. “Hmn, yeah. But don’t be surprised if our research team churns out phones one of these days.”

Benny laughed, “Well, I certainly won’t be surprised.”