After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 91

Chapter 91: Livelihoods (Part 1)
At this time, all over the territory, dozens of people were gathering wood and stone to exchange for some copper.

Of course, a lot of them still go outside a couple hours every day to hunt, knowing full well they couldn’t be too complacent even when they’re in such good territory.

It also helped that a team with an old man, a little girl, and a pregnant woman always went out to train early before dawn, going back well into the morning.

This had been happening every day, without exception.

Of course, going out to fight monsters wasn’t for everyone. For these people, the alternatives for decent livelihood within the walls was something they treasured.

Although it was a bit of hardwork and manual labor, pretty much everyone had small smiles on their faces.

It was really a breath of fresh air. They had not only rested well and bathed well, but they could also earn their keep peacefully without having to risk their lives.

As such, even if they worked under the hot sun, no one complained. On the contrary, they had relaxed expressions.

However, one young woman had a worried look plastered on her face the entire morning. As she gathered the resources, along with some edible fruits, she couldn’t help but give subtle glances at the old woman doing the same, albeit at an evidently much slower pace.

When the old woman paused for a moment, the lady dropped what she was holding and ran to her. “Are you alright grandma? How’s your back?” Cassie asked the older woman worriedly, holding her arms to assist her.

“Don’t you worry, child.” The old woman laughed, not expecting a little pause to induce a panic attack.

She gently patted her granddaughter’s hand off of her arm. “I hadn’t felt back pain for days now. This little thing is nothing.”

Thankfully, the evolution had indeed helped her physique a lot. She felt alive and, now, safe, and she definitely wouldn’t be able to stay still in the house while her granddaughter worked under the hot sun.

Although they were not rich before or after the transfer, they still lived well back then and she hoped it would be the same here.

For now, it seemed very promising. They could now sleep on beds, drink water when needed, and eat decent food.

Unlike before, where they could only sleep amongst soil and rocks. It was very scary because there were not only beasts, but there were also so many aggressive bugs and birds in the forest. Some of the people that came with them were killed off by bug poison.

Cassie cringed at the memory of her companion’s painful death by bug bite…

As for the other basic needs, they also struggled very much upon arrival in this new land. They could only drink dew water—which Cassie learned to collect in what she called a ‘camping camp’. And even that wasn’t easy to collect either because they lost a lot of dew if monsters appeared unexpectedly.

The only thing they didn’t struggle as much was the food because not only was she able to collect a lot back in Terran, her grandmother had the wisdom of the old and had very good intuition of what was edible.

It was around this time they heard rustles coming nearby them and they flinched by instinct.

But they quickly remembered that they were in a safe place—only harmless critters remained within the walls—and their panic calmed down, though they kept their guards up just in case.

They saw a small group of various ages with makeshift baskets on their backs. It was filled with produce.

“Amazing. You gathered all of these?” Cassie whistled, impressed. “You sure maximized our foraging limit.”

She was referring to the limit some hoarders experienced first. Understandably, the territory limited the amount of resources a person could forage.

“Well, actually, we were approached by rich neighbors to collect stuff for them.”

“You could do that?”

“Yeah, but we consume our own limits.”

“Oh… rich people problems, right?”

The teen laughed. “You don’t know, just this morning someone was already making plans to furnish their house.”

His friend couldn’t help but supplement. “They were talking about the budget…”

The youngins cackled, and proceeded in talking about some rich people and their funny stories.

The old woman, Cathia, smiled as she watched the lively interaction of the younger generation.

Just a day ago, they were all filled with weakness and tiredness. Now they could talk about random things with strangers they just met.

Looking at the tall territory walls and then the people around laughing and filled with hope…, she believed they would continue to do so.

…

Deeper into the territory, was Baron’s busy workshop.

He set up his workshops in both of his farmvillas. They used about two-thirds of the fields as a workshop, adding makeshift sheds to protect the workers from the sun.

While a little wasteful to use over half of the system fields for a workshop, they really didn’t have much of a choice. No other place was big enough.

Anyway, Baron’s sharp business sense was telling him where to invest, and he found his calling in these industries.

And he was right. It had only been more than a day and his team had been flooded with work.

For one, the customized special fit out projects, all with Ms. Althea’s team, already took all of his highest skilled workers.

Other than these, Baron also had a separate production team for less specialized items which required considerably less skill.

Of course, the number of workers in his hand, which was nearly a score of people, was really no joke.

Especially, he had only been in the territory for two days.

As for how he managed to find so many carpenters and workers, it was mostly down to his boundless charm (which Ms. Sheila seemed to be blind to, for now) and also luck.

Okay, there was also the fact that there were less than 200 people in the entire territory, concentrated in very few living zones.

Everyone was bound to know everybody else.

Because of this, it was fairly easy for him to get hires and form partnerships by being a little friendly.

One of the survivor team happened to be in a construction site. There was even an architect with them, though he refused to work for him.

Anyway, this less-specialized team of fabricators focused on the most basic furniture, mostly beds, chairs, and tables.

So far, the line was enough for them to work overtime for the following week.

As the Greats had said: The businessman who takes the first step, takes the most profit.

He could almost smell the profit coming in. He estimated he would have the return on his huge investment within a week.

His business in Terran had never been so good!