After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1532

Chapter 1532: Opain Plants

The next day, while Althea was in her lab in the Research Center with her master, she received the complete analysis of the drugs, as well as their cross-checking with their database.

“It’s from the Opain, but very much concentrated,” her assistant, Gus, told her.1 He looked a bit impressed as he looked at the test tube.

One had to know—and this was something they learned and confirmed after months of experimentation—that creating concentrations like this was not so easy in Xeno.

After all, there was an extra thing called Aether that seemed to have a certain binding effect that was difficult to predict before it was thoroughly studied.

She looked at the concentration inside the test tube. “Whoever isolated and prepared it is a very skilled chemist.”

Opain, in fact, was a plant that even Alterra had been using for a while—though primarily for pain killers and anaesthesia.

This was also the typical use by anyone with some medical knowledge, as creating something so addicting—even if one went past level 20—was not something that could be done with anyone.

Opain was not too common near Alterra though, it was something more from areas tens of kilometers North of Alterra. They received it from one of the trades from New Shrao and had been studied and used thoroughly since then.

Since Alterra had made alliances with various territories, one of the deals was for them to find unusual plants. The deal was—if it was really unknown to the originators and Alterra managed to find a use for the materials—then a partnership would be formed.

The originator territory would be Alterra’s supplier, and they’d also share a small amount of the product’s proceeds for a period of 5 years.

Opain was something Matthew found some ten or so kilometers further North of the then-Vismont. 1They had released the improved pain reliever a few months ago and Melissa, Matthew’s beneficiary, had been receiving the proceeds.

“She must’ve brought a laboratory with her to get this amount of concentration,” Gus said.

“Or a skill,” Althea added. “My portable lab is very expensive and rare. It has also been developed according to my requirements by many companies,” she said. “It’s unlikely others managed to bring in a small laboratory like I did.”

She paused and looked at the data again. “It is more likely that a brilliant chemist received some interesting inheritances, though they used it to create things like this instead.”

Regardless, she knew how addictive this was, and the fact that towns were already exposed to it meant that its operations were far-reaching now.

Althea wondered: Did she really want to get involved in that?

Later, when she went home, she went to ask the others for their opinion. Alterra might be something she started, but in her mind, it was no longer just hers.

She called the others for a casual chat. Mathilda also went through the gates between their villas.

“I personally don’t want us to get involved,” she said, carrying the babies in her lap, and happily giving them some treats.

Ansel piped in. “A wise man once said: Great prestige comes great responsibility.” Dude watched too many superhero movies growing up.

To be honest, this wasn’t their business at all. They could just choose to focus on Alterra. However, they also couldn’t do nothing. But…what could they do without compromising their own comfort?

After a few discussions, Mathilda came up with something.

“I recommend simply focusing on… a cure and taking measures to prevent its spread in our area,” she paused, feeding meatball another veggie-cookie (a new Harold original).

“Perhaps controlling its spread in other nearby territories would be a possibility for later,” she said. “And I reckon that is already ‘responsible’ enough.”

…

The plans for handling the imminent spread of the drug commenced while they ate dinner.

The plant was naturally occurring in this swiftly-refreshing world. It would be impractical and cruel to destroy the plant as they saw it. Every plant could be poisonous or hurt people, but it was up to the person who used it.

It definitely had its part in the ecosystem. For now, they would be keeping the population informed about the drug and its potential.

Of course, the plant itself was useful elsewhere, and they didn’t want to tell people the raw materials for the drugs, so they kept that a secret. They simply asked the people to memorize and determine the appearance of the finished product, its taste, and so on.

They planned campaigns to familiarize people with the appearance and effects, as well as its dangers, of the drug itself. These seminars would also tell them what to do if it were seen in the territory.

For example, they had to report it to the guards immediately, and they’d be rewarded with contribution points

Health back in Terran was important, let alone here, where a bit of an ailment could get one in the mouth of monsters.

Finally, in one of the areas outside the walls, they would plan to manually build a Rehabilitation Center specifically for patients like this. Detoxification works and remedies would be given to patients in the hospital, but they’d be transferred there for monitoring.

The current hospital wouldn’t be big enough, considering what they knew of the drug and how far it was starting to spread. Anyway, they hoped this was only temporary.

Since they knew the raw material, it shouldn’t be too difficult to create the cure. They’d also need to consider the people’s physiques and degree of use.

Even if it were a level 20, if they used the addictive drugs every day, then the effect would be deep. They hadn’t encountered a ‘victim’ of that level yet, but they could surmise some effects based on what they knew.

Of course, unless they were permanent residents, there would be some costs—though it would mostly be for people to not take advantage of their recovery programs.

In Terran, there were plenty of cases of people doing something illegal to get a place to stay in prison.

While she believed most Alterrans would not foster such thoughts, it was better safe than sorry.

Character Review~!

1. Gus – Pharmacist. Class D by now I believe. Came in with Mathilda and Drake.

2. Matthew – Lord of Vismont Village, now New Shrao Village under the aborigine Shiro.

3. Melissa – Matthew’s sister, Eugene’s wife, and now part of the Research Center’s Math team