After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 822

Chapter 822: Underground Tunnel (Part 2)
“Ah! So delicious!” Pupu mumbled, shoving a handful in his mouth.

When he realized this he blinked and looked apologetically at Yut. “I’ll buy some for you when I get my first paycheck later,” he said. People were paid daily here, so they had funds for their daily expenses (which may or may not include a food splurge).

Yut chuckled. “Nah, I bought the bags for you guys,” he said, before heading to the wall and began to dig. Pupu blinked and ate a bit more before joining his friend.

Anyway, the goblins and their human teammates continued with their job, now with an even more renewed energy as they went.

Taktaktaktak

“WOW you’re really going fast. If you continue this you’d go beyond the output requirement for us!” Iko said as he looked at Yut and Pupu. As Goblins, their output was a bit larger than the others.

However, they were paid the same per mass so they were probably making a lot more than their human counterparts each day.

Added with their excess output and overtime, then their daily salary was really quite impressive.

“Wow, citizenship can come sooner for you!”

“That’s what I want!”

Yut nodded. As one of the first goblins there, and one of the ‘intellectuals’ he had studied and understood a lot about the system in Alterra. “The sooner we get the residencies, the sooner we get the benefits.”

“Even temporary residency can receive a certain level of free health care, more access to resources inside the territory, and we can even rent our own home!”

“Wow…”

It was hard labor, but it was a job and no one really complained, especially those who got used to much worse.

Anyway, the miners—humans or goblins—were paid as normal workers, and could therefore use their hard work to better their own lives.

However, not everyone had this treatment.

For instance, the Prisoners of Wars—whether they were from Guia, or minor betrayers from their own territory—had quite a different situation.

After all, unlike the paid workers, they were paid in Atonement Points, and that meant they didn’t get extra money in their wallet. They could only make do with the shelter and food provided for them as sustenance, and nothing else.

It was easier to handle the System Slaves because they just had to order them with words, but it was a bit of a challenge to the others who technically had their freedom from the tethers of such slavery.

For example, the Alterran betrayers.

“AH, SO TIRING!” Alon yelled for the nth time that day.

He squatted down. Sadly for him, nobody but his mother would care, but most of the women prisoners were assigned to other labor work like cleaning or pushing the cart with the soil out.

But Alon didn’t care. He wanted to throw a tantrum!

“This is so annoying!” he yelled, pushing the soil with his hand, and making a mess in the area. “I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!”

This earned him a light kick from the guard-on-duty, which happened to be Angelo, who had quite the gripe with him.

“SHUT UP!” He yelled. “Work or you wouldn’t be able to eat!”

Angelo kicked him up. “Clean this up, or we’ll put you on shit duty like your mum.”

Alon’s mum was among those cleaning the septic tanks and pushing them to the fertilizer farms. Alon shivered. Although it was less hard work, it was too disgusting to access shit!

Grumbling, Alon had no choice by to start digging again, though slowly.

Angelo sighed. “Well, if you give low outputs, you get low atonement points. Up to you,” he said, looking away to check on the other Prisoners.

Although modern people like them had a natural dislike of slavery, they felt no pity for betrayers. They even felt extremely gratified that they could contribute to the territory like this instead of trying to cause it harm.

Anyway, the rest of the Prisoners could only do their jobs as they had been the past few days even before the goblins arrived.

Angelo and the other assigned guards nodded as they entered a pretty good pace after a while. “Work hard. Instead of Contribution Points, you get Atonement Points. Receive a certain amount and you might get pardoned!” he said, though it was targetted to those with minor crimes, marked by the color of the bracelets on their hands.

“So work hard and don’t annoy us!”

The guards were particularly harsh to the Guia slaves, marked blood red for those who had killed people. They didn’t whip them like those slave drivers they saw in movies, but they did ask them to dig more with less rest.

“GYAHH!”

“WORK!”

The Guia prisoners were System Slaves—strong ones who didn’t were killed—and could only drag their bodies to do so, no matter how livid they were inside!

It got a bit more difficult when the Guia prisoners encountered the tunnels made by the goblins, and therefore the goblins themselves.

They saw that the rats in their minds—-rats they had kicked and abused a lot through the years—were being treated much better than they were! Some were even chewing on jerkies and other snacks!

WHAT IN THE ORCSHIT IS THIS PLACE?!

“You bastard!” A Guian yelled, glaring at the goblins who flinched at the sight of him. “You dare put me in the same place as these rats?!”

Bang!

He found himself kicked to the wall, some loose soil fell on him. He gasped and coughed, pushing himself up with his arm and glaring at the person who kicked him.

This was Turbo, who wasn’t assigned there, but just happened to be checking on the process. Sadly, this kind of sight was still not rare, and he wasn’t surprised to encounter one from the get-go.

“They’re proper citizens of Alterra! You dare insult them! 2 more hours work for you!”

Unlike other territories, Alterra was not inhumane. The slaves worked just a few hours beyond the normal working hours. Adding two more was still less than the working hours of slaves outside, not that most slaves—who were formerly slave drivers—-appreciated that.

“Jerks,” Turbo said, and he turned to look at the goblins, who flinched under his gentle stare (they were really small and animal-like).

“Although you’re still slaves in name, you are Alterran citizens now,” he said, kneeling down to their level so they didn’t have to strain their necks looking at him.

“We’re all equal here, okay? When someone’s bullying you report it to us!”

The goblins stared at him blankly, unsure if they were hearing correctly.

The goblins didn’t feel any insincerity in his words, and they understood that he really meant what he said!

They knew in theory that they could become citizens in name, but to get sincere treatment of equality was still beyond their comprehension and expectations.

Now they were protected so well with such frankness, and some goblins couldn’t help but sniffle a bit.

…

Later that night, Gaea Villa.

The Midnight chime sounded, and the couple was resting after another passionate activity. Althea rested her head on her husband’s generous chest, entering deep thought.

It was the habit of a hyperactive brain, and it had always been one of Garan’s excuses when he went wild. “It’s to get you to fall asleep quickly,” he would say, as if he wouldn’t spend hours making love to her.

As they relaxed again though, the various worries about the territories emerged again. She worried a bit about the Iron Mountains in particular.

It could get attacked again, especially if news came that the leadership had changed. She didn’t want to change too much before it either, so as to add an element of surprise to the next war.

That and she felt stingy and she really didn’t want to spend much on the other two territories without perfecting hers first.

She hoped every potential enemy would get distracted by the upcoming weather change. That way they could all focus on maximizing the survivability of the populace during that time. They really could use a war-free few weeks.

Garan sensed his wife overthinking things and patted her back as if lulling her to sleep. Althea smiled, burying herself deeper into his embrace.

However, just as she was about to fall into slumber, a familiar ding sounded in her head, waking her up completely.

[Epo Village (Lv3) declared war on Iron Mountain (Lv3)! War will begin at 13:59:59]