After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 688

Chapter 688: The Benefits of Knowledge
Anyway, all around the library were exclamations of wonder and glee. This was especially true to the Terrans who frankly thought they would never see a library again—or be so happy to be in one, for that matter—especially not so soon and not with such a big selection!

With this, they could retain a lot of the knowledge studied for thousands of years back in Terran. They didn’t have to start from scratch anymore. Instead, they could build over what was already known, to find more knowledge, to find something more to improve their lives with!

“Holy Crow—” Dog exclaimed, raising a book. “It’s my favorite novel!”

He had learned a lot about warfare here. It was usually a boring and dark topic, but it was told in a way that was super fun. He didn’t read a lot of books, and this was one of the handful. How nostalgic!

“Be quiet!” Sunny said, pinching his cheek. “You’re the type always being glared at by librarians right?”

“You’re the type loved by them, right?”

“Of course!” she said proudly. Crow beside them only shook his head, just perusing the library at his own pace.

Such massive amounts of knowledge were accessible at one’s fingertips. It was something very difficult to believe.

While Althea watched the library being used with smiles, some people couldn’t help but gather their shamelessness and surround her. When her husband wasn’t there, Althea was much more approachable so they were planning to make the most of it.

“So many books~ are papers and pencils finally available, Miss Althea?” they asked. They had known the sets had been available for a while now, just not commercially available yet.

Oh, the things they could do with it!!

Althea smiled at their curiosity and nodded. “Yes. Papers, pens, and pencils would finally be commercially available within the week.”

“YES!”

“FINALLY!”

“HUSH! Quiet! Don’t you know this is a library?”

“Oh right sorry.”

Althea giggled, looking at them with a slight seriousness on her face. “We’re looking forward to what everyone creates with these new resources,” she told them.

A few of the people around looked at her with confidence, minds already brewing with endless ideas. It helped that there were so many books here that inspired them.

“You won’t be disappointed, Miss Althea!”

And she indeed won’t.

…

The library was extremely impactful, even more so than Althea and the others thought. After all, they knew it could be enlightening for some, but the Library was primarily built to handle information and knowledge within the territory.

They didn’t expect that it’d have a lot of worldview impact even on the adult aborigines.

When Olga returned home not long after this, she would definitely bring about a change among women in their class, and it would trickle down until the commoner class would feel it.

Other than the Golds and the hired aborigines, there were also the aborigine members of Terran Mercenary team, particularly the first batch of arrivals.

They lived like Terrans the past weeks or so, hence they also fought and hunted outside as everyone did. It had to be noted that their average levels were higher than the locals, so they could also handle themselves against the mobs.

They were intent on taking advantage of the current weakness of the monsters and gathered a lot of contribution for themselves. Anyway, they also worked hard for the territory and they definitely deserved the rewards.

The ones currently using a lot of the points in the Library were Roana and Yoyo, the Terran Mercenary Team’s cooks. They had been training under Joanna—Harold’s assistant and Jun’s wife—who was also there reading with them, prepared to answer their questions about their readings if they had some.

At this time, they were reading the various translated ‘cookbooks’ with apt interest. If they were leaning down so much they were practically kissing the books.

“This is amazing…” Roana mumbled, eyes tracing the various words on the paper. A lot of this had the recipes taught to them, while many were new.

“Don’t they worry people would take away business?”

Joanna only smiled. First of all, a lot of secret recipes were still kept, and second, there was a reason why there were so many restaurants in Terran using similar recipes but people still found ways to be unique and make money.

“These are all just basic recipes to us,” Joanna explained. “It’s still up to the chef to make things special—to add their own expertise and flair.”

They looked at her waiting for her to explain, and she gladly did so. “Business owners need to ask, what will make the customers choose them? What can make them special?

“Without competition, there is no growth,” she said. “Publishing this would only make people want to innovate it, make it better.”

The two nodded, understanding her words but still absorbing her meaning.

However, there had been a change inside of them that slowly sprouted from her words.

On another corner, there was Koli, the Mercenary Team’s leather expert, who read about the history of Tanning in their homeplace. He had also been learning a lot with Sassy, though learning its history was fascinating.

He could see at what point in their history was at the same level as what he knew, and he could see that they were several hundred years behind. Learning how the techniques grew to what they called ‘modern’ was fascinating because he understood it more.

There were also the Mauin villagers, who had a lot of contribution points due to the war. They were relatively well-off now and had decided to see everything that could be accessed exclusively with contribution points, one of which was the library.

Sadly, they… couldn’t read.

It didn’t mean they didn’t enjoy the place though, because there were several people around who were willing to read a book or two for them.

For instance, at this time, a woman named Evelyn was holding a children’s book reading session in a corner with a lot of bean bags.

There were adults and children around, listening to the fun story of a little orange fish looking for his son.

They clapped when it was over with the kids asking adorable questions. Some were related to the story, while some… were of wonder when they’d be able to read themselves.

“Don’t worry,” Evelyn said, “We’re teaching people how to read in school. Just make sure to attend.”

This made the villagers and other illiterates brighten. They had heard of a school opening and that it only needed contribution points and a bit of money to enroll in. Even adults could learn literature and other things, and this meant they’d also be able to learn reading.

To think that a month ago, reading anything wouldn’t even be in their list of wants or could do—they didn’t even have anything to read, just monsters to defend against—but now it was so close to reality that it still disoriented them a bit.

“In a short while, we’ll also be able to read these ourselves!” Little Maumi mumbled as he looked up to his parents. His rounded eyes were filled with determination and certainty of his goals.

Mauru chuckled, rubbing his little head with pride. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, we will.”