After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 687

Chapter 687: Books
While the Golds were undergoing some mini identity crisis, a new voice from behind them sounded. “Would you like to take a peek?”

They turned to see it was the beautiful elder, who was looking at them with a half-amused smile.

“Miss Althea!”

Olga looked at her gratefully, but she also couldn’t help but ask. “Will it be alright?”

“Actually, I proposed some contribution point system for you guys after deals are made. After all, fruitful deals with partners were a major part of Alterra’s growth,” she said, making them brighten.

“That’d take a while to implement though,” she paused. “In the meantime, come with me.”

The Golds nodded, following closely behind her. They reached the massive double door with carved motifs, and finally entered into the space that had been poking at the curiosities for hours.

As they stepped inside, they were greeted by walls filled with rectangular objects. The building spanned four floors, with a massive atrium at its center, allowing light to cascade down from above, illuminating the whole space.

The people moved about, selecting the rectangular objects and opening them to reveal piles of paper filled with symbols, some of which were recognizable, while some were not. They realized it was made of that thin paper bound together at a side.

The room was filled with various types of seating arrangements. There were large tables to accommodate groups of people, but there were also individual desks for those who wished for solicitude.

In addition, there were also plush and colorful sacks—they called them ‘bean bags’ —where people could recline in and sit in comfortably even after hours.

Otto curiously took one book from the wall and the others followed. For the most part, the contents contained symbols they did not recognize. This was probably the written language of their home.

Olga took another book with a different cover and realized she could read it. She blinked. It was a story about a girl who pretended to be a boy and sneaked into the army. The others obviously saw her reading and peeked, realizing it was in their written language.

Before they could read more though, they were distracted by a few other people taking books nearby. It was different in appearance for the most part, but there was a similar green mark as the one in Olga’s hand.

“Wowww…. Who wrote these?” he asked, seeing as it was written in the Xeno lingua franca. Her companion peeked and grabbed it as soon as she saw the content.

“It’s my favorite book!”

“Oh, I know this! Alterra must’ve gotten its name in the hero there!”

“Cool! There’s a Terran version, but also the local one,” One said, pointing at the logograms Xeno used.

The Golds looked and realized there was a special color code on the book if it was written in their language. Basically, if it had a green mark, then it would be written in their language.

“May I?” Otto asked, and the female Alterran happily handed it over while swooning, making sure to touch a bit of skin. She swore she would not wash her hands until tomorrow.

“It’s true,” Otto said, looking at the book on his hand and then at Olga’s. “Very interesting.”

These were all translated manually, for now. Perhaps they would get a translation feature, possibly during an upgrade, but for now, that was not an option.

Of course, the works they translated were ones they didn’t mind aborigines seeing. For example, story books, some basic elementary knowledge, and so on.

The Golds couldn’t help but look at similar books, finding some after a bit of perusing. While they took a look at the stories, they would also hear some exclamations around them.

“OH CRAP. I know this! It’s Basics of Astronomy! I read this before in Terran!”

“Wait, what?”

“There are also some basic geometry and other subjects!”

“Some psychology and science are here, too!”

“Oh my goodness… I didn’t think I’d even encounter a book of those! I used to curse seeing them, but now I want to hug them in my sleep!”

“Not just Terran knowledge…,” one said, showing them another thick book. “We also have several copies of flaura and fauna!”

Other than Terran knowledge, there were also several copies of flaura and fauna books—one that Althea had been working on with a team for a long time—as well as the advanced Beast Guide Volume 1 she asked experts to compile.

It included the name, the habits, weaknesses, and the like of monsters that they had encountered—some of which were strange because the information came from the soldiers or the aborigines, who gave information about monsters from distant lands!

Regardless, this was information they ought to stab in their own heads! How many times it could save their lives?! “This is so helpful!”

“Is that the last copy?”

“No! There’re dozens more!”

“There were also restricted access books of course, those with secretive knowledge they’d like to thoroughly keep to themselves.

However, all these were already amazing to the aborigines—the Golds, the hires, and everyone else.

For example, the hired aborigines like Brenda and the others. They couldn’t understand the Terran language but there was plenty of content for them to consume.

Brenda, Letty, and the others were particularly fond of books with strong women. It so happened that there was a vast collection of stories with female heroes and the like.

“No wonder Miss Althea and the others are so strong. The women in her world are strong.”

“Not necessarily,” Mathilda said. She happpened to be nearby when she saw the group of women and approached them. This was the topic she came into earshot with, and she couldn’t help but want to correct them.

“It hasn’t always been that way. There were just a few women who made small changes—they weren’t particularly big acts in front of a large world, but they were something they dedicated their lives to.

“Ripples after ripples of changes echoed through generations, until something or someone would finally trigger the massive change that could define that era.”

She handed them a few more books depicting strong women, some of whom had to be strong amidst a world that hated them for it.

There was even one where women were burned as witches for having any opinions. This one made the women gasp, shocked at the unfairness of treatments.

From here, one could see that back in Ancient Terran, women actually had it worse than the women here.

So, it was much easier to make changes for themselves, and Mathilda hoped these books could help tell women what they were capable of.

The aborigine ladies sat down and absorbed the contents of the books with apt interest, making Mathilda smile at the side.

Mathilda was gifted with very good observation skills. Staying in Alterra changed a lot of aborigines, especially these women as well as their outlooks.

Being aware of what the Terran women—women these ladies admired—had been through in the past could serve as a catalyst for even bigger change in them.

She wondered what kind of changes Alterra would bring to women around the continent. She was looking forward to it.