Building a Safe Zone with My Harem In The Post-Apocalyptic World Chapter 181: One Man’s Foundation

To be honest, Gideon did not fully trust Piggy.

That was exactly why he reviewed every policy she proposed many tis. He was not an economist, but he knew enough to tell whether a policy benefited both the territory and its residents or unfairly favored one side over the other.

If she ever tried sothing like that, he would throw her out without hesitation and probably feed her to an aberrant while he was at it.

For now, her movents were heavily monitored by everyone living in the house. Not only that, every major policy she drafted was reviewed by Jade, Kanna, and Delilah.

They might not have the sa economic knowledge as Piggy, but experience was just as valuable as theory. In so areas, Jade and Kanna’s life experiences were worth more than any textbook could ever teach.

"Well, while you’re working on it, why not?" Gideon said.

"And I don’t an free healthcare for everyone. Just for people who already have chronic illnesses that Elaine can’t treat with our current stock. Most of the dicine I’ve given her is for external injuries and essentials like antibiotics."

Piggy imdiately looked like she wanted to scream again.

"And just do what I said. Aren’t you technically my captive? I’m already being generous by not handcuffing you to a table and sending soone to torture you every ti you sigh."

"Still!" Piggy pointed at the papers covering her desk.

"Do you think all these calculations fall from the sky?! I don’t even have a calculator, for God’s sake. Do you know how many things I’ve had to calculate by hand?"

She grabbed her hair and aggressively ssed it up even further.

"And all these reports! Every single one has to be written by hand!"

"Fine," Gideon shrugged. "I’ll get you a calculator."

He was kind of glad she didn’t see him as so kind of predator anymore. Maybe too furious to even get nervous in front of Gideon. But still, progress is still progress.

Piggy groaned loudly. Then she started pacing from one side of the room to the other while muttering incomprehensible complaints under her breath.

Occasionally she would stop, stare at a random sheet of paper, shake her head, and continue pacing again.

After several rounds of that, she finally seed to reach so kind of conclusion and collapsed back into her chair.

"Ask your people to make a list of every resident with a chronic illness that requires treatnt," she said.

"As for healthcare, I understand why it’s important, but dicine is expensive. If we try to fund everything through taxes, the burden on residents will be ridiculous."

"It all cos from my power anyway. You don’t have to worry about the budget or taxes that much. Honestly, I don’t think I need to follow normal economic rules too strictly."

That statent was not arrogance. It was simply reality.

Most of the fangs and scales he had obtained from killing the Verdant Devourer—specifically all the parts of the aberrant he got from the system—were still sitting inside his storage. He only sold so of it back to the system so he could pay the Paylatter bill.

Even the cores he earned from selling half of those materials—the one Freebound helped to salvage from the corpse—were enough to support him for the rest of his life if he lived alone, or kept a small territory running for nearly a decade.

Gideon was rich. Money was not the problem.

As far as he was concerned, the best use for his wealth was investing it back into the territory. He wanted to spend those cores, Love Coins, and Satisfaction Points building infrastructure until the economy could eventually sustain itself without constant intervention.

Surprisingly, Piggy did not argue. The frustration that had been driving her earlier seed to cool down, replaced by sothing more serious.

"But are you sure you want this territory to depend on you that much?" she asked. "If you’re gone one day, everyone here dies with you."

"Do you think I’ll be killed that easily?"

Gideon imdiately disliked where the conversation was heading.

Piggy shook her head. "Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying you’re weak."

Her fingers absentmindedly moved a few papers aside. "I just know soone who built everything around a single person. Trust, authority, responsibility, hope. Everything was placed on one set of shoulders. In the end, it beca a disaster."

Gideon remained silent. Sothing about the way she said it made him wonder whether she was speaking from personal experience.

"Are you talking about Elaine and Victoria?"

Piggy nodded. "I knew Elaine before the apocalypse. Victoria too. We went through a lot together. What do you think destroyed that familial bond in the end?"

"I don’t know," Gideon admitted. "Different goals?"

"Goals and ambition." Piggy let out a tired breath.

"People change, Chief. Sotis they change because the world keeps proving them wrong over and over again. Nobody stays exactly the sa forever."

The room beca quieter.

"Don’t tell you’d never beco that person," she continued. "You have people following you now. Victoria had people following her too and she still changed for the worse."

***

Night finally ca, and Gideon found himself sitting on the rooftop.

A heater stood near the bench he had placed there, along with a shade and a barbecue grill. Sumr loved at, and barbecue was her favorite thing to eat, so they used the place every once in a while whenever everyone had ti to relax.

Even with the heater running, snow still continued to gather across the rooftop. So of it slowly slid down the sloped edges before disappearing into the darkness below.

Tonight, however, Gideon was not there for a barbecue.

He wanted to see what kind of aberrants would appear during winter night.

One had already shown itself yesterday, and there was a chance more would erge in the coming days. When the King slept, the White Death beca a land without a master. Aberrants that normally stayed away could now wander into territories they usually would not dare enter.

Of course, if observation was his only goal, he could have stayed inside the Guard Tower.

The real reason he was sitting on the rooftop was much simpler.

He wanted a drink before moving to the tower.

Ever since arriving in this world, he had gradually beco accustod to alcohol. Beer especially had beco sothing he genuinely enjoyed.

On nights like this, when winter seed endless and the cold never truly left, the warmth spreading through his body after every sip was difficult to resist.

At the sa ti, Piggy’s words continued to echo inside his head.

He wanted to ask Elaine about them. The problem was that she beca strangely emotional whenever the topic ca up. She was just like an explosive that suddenly exploded.

The rooftop door suddenly opened. Gideon glanced over his shoulder and imdiately recognized the figure stepping outside.

It was Elaine.

Her dark purple hair was loose tonight instead of tied into its usual braid. She was still wearing those fake glasses she insisted on keeping, though Gideon was becoming increasingly suspicious that she genuinely needed them.

’She’s way too young to be farsighted, isn’t she?’

He took another sip from his beer. The mont Elaine spotted him, a grin appeared on her face.

"Speak of the devil."