Free Web NovelChapter 48: Chapter 48: VELARIS
[ What would you like to name your territory? ]
Cold wind swept quietly across the mountain ridge while the group slowly recovered from the pressure earlier.
Several people were still breathing harder than usual.
Caleb rubbed his chest dramatically. "I’m not going to lie... for a second there I genuinely thought the world was crushing me."
"You almost fell before the pressure even started," Benjamin replied immediately.
"That’s not the point."
Despite the exhaustion lingering around everyone, the brief exchange eased some of the tension slightly.
Nearby, Veronica steadied herself fully after Henry helped support her earlier. She still looked faintly shaken from the sudden gravity increase.
"That definitely felt worse than anything I’ve felt ," she murmured softly.
Henry’s gaze remained on the valley below. "Whatever happened just now probably wasn’t normal territory activation."
Iris barely heard the rest of the conversation.
Her attention remained fixed on the translucent prompt hovering before her vision.
A name...
For some reason, that single detail suddenly made everything feel far more real.
The valley below was no longer just another temporary resting place.
This territory belonged to her now.
No—
belonged to all of them.
For several long seconds, Iris simply stared at the prompt uncertainly.
She had never been good at naming things.
Even before the apocalypse, she used to spend absurd amounts of time trying to rename playlists, folders, plants and even game characters before eventually giving up halfway through.
But this was different.
Much more important.
The wind moved softly through her hair while her thoughts drifted unconsciously toward Earth Prime.
Toward home.
Or... what used to be home.
For a brief moment, memories surfaced quietly inside her mind.
Late night conversations.
Tired laughter.
Small impossible dreams spoken half-seriously during sleepless nights.
Someday, they would leave.
Someday, they would finally have somewhere peaceful to live.
A place that belonged to them.
Iris could still vaguely remember sitting on the floor beside that person while random fantasy names got thrown around without meaning.
Most of them sounded ridiculous now.
But one of them remained strangely memorable even after all this time.
Velaris.
At the time, they simply thought it sounded pretty.
Now, standing beneath an unfamiliar sky in a completely different world, the name suddenly felt heavier than before.
A small piece of Earth.
A small piece of ’that person’.
Iris exhaled softly. freёwebnovel.com
Then she made her decision.
"Velaris," she whispered quietly.
The system reacted instantly.
[ Velaris Village (LV1) has successfully been established. ]
A second notification appeared immediately afterward.
[ Please establish residency requirements and taxation standards. ]
Additional information expanded rapidly beneath the prompt.
[ Entry Requirements ]
[ Visitor Pass (1 Day): 10 Copper ]
[ Temporary Residency (1 Month): 300 Copper ]
[ Permanent Residency: 10 Gold ]
[ Taxation Rate: 10% ]
Iris blinked slowly at the amount of information suddenly appearing before her.
"What does it say?" Caleb asked after noticing her staring silently again.
Several others instinctively glanced toward the empty air near Iris before pausing awkwardly.
Then Iris suddenly realized something.
"...Right. You guys still can’t see this."
Caleb looked mildly offended. "You say that like we’re supposed to."
A few tired laughs escaped afterward.
Iris pressed her fingers briefly against her forehead before explaining aloud.
"It’s asking me to configure residency requirements for the territory," she said while continuing to read through the prompts. "Entry fees, taxes... permanent residency... things like that."
Benjamin frowned slightly. "Already?"
"Apparently."
Iris continued scanning through the options silently afterward.
The more she looked at the default prices, the more familiar they felt.
Too familiar.
King’s Territory.
Suddenly, Tobias charging ridiculous entry prices earlier made far more sense.
Territories themselves encouraged it.
But unlike Tobias, Iris immediately understood something else.
People were the foundation of a territory.
Not walls, not buildings, not gold but People.
If survival itself became impossible inside a territory, then eventually nobody would remain loyal to it anyway.
Her gaze paused briefly on the temporary residency price.
Three hundred copper was too high.
Especially for ordinary survivors struggling to stay alive in a world like this.
But permanent residency...
Iris hesitated slightly there.
Ten gold was expensive.
Extremely expensive.
Yet strangely enough, she didn’t lower it.
If permanent residency became too easy to obtain, then eventually it would lose meaning entirely.
People protected things they sacrificed for.
Slowly, Iris adjusted several settings.
[ Visitor Pass (1 Day): 5 Copper ]
[ Temporary Residency (1 Month): 100 Copper ]
[ Permanent Residency: 10 Gold ]
[ Taxation Rate: 10% ]
[ Confirm Changes? ]
She pressed YES.
The settings finalized almost immediately.
Then another notification appeared.
[ Would you like to register residents of Velaris Village? ]
Iris blinked once.
"Oh."
"What now?" Caleb asked.
"It’s asking about residents."
Veronica looked slightly surprised. "Already?"
"I think territory members have to register officially."
"That sounds serious," Caleb muttered.
"It probably is," Benjamin replied quietly.
Iris hesitated briefly before selecting the first names manually.
[ Henry Hale wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Confirm? ]
Iris pressed YES.
Then Veronica.
Then Benjamin.
Then Caleb.
A series of additional notifications immediately began appearing one after another afterward.
[ Priscilla Adedayo wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Evelina Petrova wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Li Wei wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Jin Taejin wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Marcus Reed wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Victor Maddox wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Claire Whitlock wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Daniel Voss wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[ Elias Rowe wishes to register as a permanent resident of Velaris Village. ]
[...]
The notifications continued ringing softly inside Iris’s head while she accepted them one after another.
For several moments, nobody spoke much.
Yet the atmosphere around the ridge felt subtly different now.
Heavier.... Not in a bad way.
She felt more certain that these people were choosing to stay. Not temporarily and also not out of obligation.
But because somewhere along the way, this exhausted group had already started becoming something larger than simple survivors traveling together.
Velaris was beginning to feel real.
Caleb suddenly crossed his arms while staring toward Iris suspiciously. "So technically... does this make you some kind of village ruler now?"
Benjamin immediately sighed. "Here we go."
"I’m asking a valid question."
Marcus exchanged a brief glance with Daniel before speaking carefully. "Miss Iris would technically be the acting territory lord now, yes."
Caleb pointed dramatically toward Iris. "I knew it. She’s becoming Boss Lady."
"Absolutely not," Iris replied immediately.
Several people laughed quietly afterward.
Even Henry’s expression softened slightly at the edge.
The atmosphere relaxed again.
Only this time, it no longer felt like temporary relief shared between strangers surviving together.
It felt warmer than that.
More stable.
More dangerous too.
Because now they finally had something to lose.
A new interface expanded quietly before Iris’s vision shortly afterward.
[ Territory ]
[ Buildings ]
[ Residents ]
Several additional options remained greyed out beneath them.
Iris stared silently at the interface for several long seconds while cold mountain wind swept quietly across the ridge once more.
This really was happening.
