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

[03/08/2025] As of the time I went to bed, we're <40 tickets away from T1 guys! So close! URGH! hahahaha

Thank you, everyone, for your support! \\o/ We're getting an extra chap today~

As always, if we reach T1 next week, I'll commit +3 bonus chaps that Sunday~ I'll crawl if I have to! xDDD

...

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[The war with Inko Village (Lv3) has commenced! The War will end in 27:59:59]

By this time, everyone was already in position—whether it was the Terrans, the aborigines, and even some visitors—they had specific placements assigned to them.

They also had specific places to serve back up to—nothing more, nothing less—so that no area would remain empty in case the enemy decided to be smart and use their own tactics against them.

However, in order to prevent enemies from sneaking behind their defenses—which was completely possible with all the 'tourists' they had—every visitor who wished to participate and earn contribution points had to pay out a bond of 1 gold each.

After the war, the contribution points and this gold would be awarded to them. They would also be asked to make an oath for a small cost that would be shouldered by the territory after they paid for their bonds.

Of course, this was not foolproof. If the enemy wanted them strongly enough, losing a couple hundred gold was no big deal at all. So Henry and Victor simply created a system where their trusted guards would not have their backs to anyone they didn't completely trust.

They simply assigned the outsiders and suspicious people near the walls—Limestone Valley also had a corridor or easement from the wall to the nearest building—so the sentries could target them the moment they made trouble.

They knew how the minds of aborigines worked, and it was unlikely they'd be willing to die to cause a bit of convenience to someone else.

Except if they were slaves, of course.

Sadly, there was no way to tell who the slaves were among these people. Slaves could still make oaths in the Center after all—otherwise, Alterra wouldn't dare free so many as long as they paid and took oaths—which was a loophole the enemy could very well maximize.

Another challenge was the communication problem. Limestone Valley was only given 2 Aether letters, one for Henry and another for Victor. They did not have the convenience of easily telling others what was happening in real time.

However, despite these challenges, they weren't too worried because the enemy also had an even bigger disadvantage of being out of their home grounds.

Even if they worked together, Limestone Valley could hold them back! Anyway, since they were in the defense, that was all they needed to do!

Everyone stood in position for a few more minutes and, soon, the news they had been waiting for arrived.

"The array is in this direction!" a guard yelled.

In fact, they had seen some movement minutes prior, but couldn't immediately sound the alarm. This was because they knew there were plenty of enemies camped out before the war, so it took a bit longer to determine where the array was even with their scopes.

They also didn't discount the possibility of the enemies just making chaos there in order to misdirect their forces. Hence, the scouts had to make sure the array was truly there before making any announcements.

A signal flare exploded, and colored smoke bursting upwards. Immediately, those who were assigned to guard the area, as well as those who had flexible assignments headed to be back up.

There were also plenty of forces on the gates, though it was naturally much more balanced along the perimeter since they were going against human mobs.

Soon, the enemies came to view—thousands and thousands of them. Even the vanguards, who were mostly meatshields, seemed particularly intimidating.

This was because—unlike most villages—most of the meatshields had weapons too, even if it was only the lowest kind. They heard something similar happen with Resso before, and it showed the difference of having a Town as a backing.

The Walls, especially level 3 walls and below, were still susceptible to attacks. Even if it was made by Class E weapons, if the attacks were done by thousands of people—over and over—in the span of a few hours, they could really cause damage to the walls.

They (or the lord, rather) could repair it via the system, but that was only after the war. After so long, even they knew that System buildings could not be manipulated in any way during the wars.

So, in their case, they would have to deal with the slaves.

However, like Alterra, they were reluctant to directly deal with slaves who rarely had decent equipment anyway, fearing there were people they knew among them.

Instead, when the human mobs arrived close enough, they targeted the farther end where their main forces were likely settled.

While there was still the possibility of their own people there, it was less likely, and they would have to take their chances.

They'd help out brethren when they could, but there certainly was a limit as to how much they were willing to compromise their own safeties.

Victor—now standing on the battlement directly across the array—looked back at the cannons located strategically on the easement by the wall. They had dragged them here after determining the location of the arrays.

Limestone Valley also cleared a few meters away from the walls to prevent trespassers from finding hiding places so easily after going past the walls. These easements were also where the cannons were placed.

During their transfer, the cannons were covered well and used good suspension so they didn't make much noise. This was why even the spies around were unaware that such a weapon was here—let alone so many— until they were actually set up in place and ready to cause actual damage.

Victor looked back at the crowd with his scope, determining where the leaders could be. It took a while, but he knew they'd appear soon enough.

He eventually saw more beyond the forest's dense foliage. Among them, there seemed to be a few people in higher positions. Victor could tell this by their stance as well as the humble body language of the others beside them.

Even if they weren't the leaders in the war— or even if they were not from Inko—they should at least be the leaders of a sector. That was enough for him.

He raised his arm and made specific signals with his hand. This was understood by the trained artillerymen as the direction, angle, and approximate distance of their target.

Then, with a wave of a hand—

"NOW!"

BANG!