Building a Safe Zone with My Harem In The Post-Apocalyptic World

Chapter 180: Agricultural Zone

After finishing his inspection, Gideon watched Aaron and Eugene leave before heading toward the only completed building standing in the entire agricultural zone.

It was the seed storage building.

The structure itself was small and made of concrete, with thick insulated walls and very few windows. Inside, rows of metal shelves filled the room, holding thousands of carefully labeled seed packets. Some varieties were even stored in large sacks stacked neatly against the walls.

The system had provided the building automatically after the agricultural zone reached Level Four.

’Honestly, an irrigation system would have been more useful,’ Gideon thought as he walked inside. ’But I guess the system wants me to do some of the work myself instead of depending on it for everything.’

The building was divided into two sections. The larger area was used for seed storage, while the second section served as a preparation room where seeds would be inspected and prepared before planting.

Based on what Delilah had explained to him, preparing seeds properly was just as important as planting them. Some seeds needed to be selected carefully to remove poor-quality batches, while others benefited from germination beforehand to reduce the chances of crop failure later.

Since Delilah knew far more about plants and crops than he ever would, Gideon had happily handed all of those responsibilities over to her.

Passing through the connecting door, he entered the preparation room.

Compared to the storage area, this room was much smaller. It was divided into two workspaces, one dedicated to selecting seeds and the other to germination.

At the moment, however, most of the room was still empty except for a long table positioned near one of the corners.

Delilah, Johan, and Daphne were gathered around it so intently that none of them noticed him entering.

Gideon walked over and glanced between them.

"What are you guys doing?"

Delilah immediately jolted and placed a hand over her chest.

"Gideon! At least knock first!"

Gideon only shrugged before stepping closer to see what had captured their attention.

On the table sat five shallow wooden containers filled with water and seeds. Every seed was completely submerged. They were labeled as: wheat, cabbage, corn, spinach, and carrot

More importantly, none of them were floating.

"The seeds are great, huh?" Gideon commented. "Not a single bad one."

Johan nodded immediately. "That’s true, and honestly it’s pretty impressive. They’re also almost identical in size, which is rare. Usually, every batch has at least a few bad seeds mixed in."

"Really?" Daphne looked genuinely surprised. "Wow, you know a lot about farming, Grandpa."

Johan chuckled. "Your grandpa may be retired, but I spent years taking care of a vegetable garden. Of course I know a little."

"Only a little?" Delilah snorted.

Johan laughed while Daphne grinned.

Still, Delilah’s expression soon turned thoughtful again. "But I have to admit, this territory really needs an actual farmer."

"Yeah?" Gideon stepped beside the table. "I thought we had a few survivors with farming experience."

"Hm, we do." Delilah nodded. "The problem is that most of them worked on modern farms with specialized roles. One person handled irrigation, another focused on machinery, and another dealt with crop monitoring. I’ve talked with some of them, and starting everything from scratch is a completely different challenge. Moreover, they were all working with robots that usually did all the physical works."

Gideon could understand that. Modern agriculture was incredibly specialized. Knowing how to operate one part of the system did not necessarily mean someone knew how to build an entire farming operation from the ground up.

"We’re still below one hundred permanent residents if we don’t count Freebound," Gideon said, trying to reassure her.

"For now, our food requirements aren’t that high. We don’t need a massive harvest immediately."

Delilah let out a long breath.

Honestly, Gideon understood her concerns.

She was the type of person who constantly thought several steps ahead. Because of that, she often saw potential problems long before anyone else did.

It made her incredibly useful, but it also meant she was prone to becoming overwhelmed whenever she imagined all the different ways a plan could fail.

"You’re right, I’m overthinking things again." she admitted with a small smile. Then she pointed toward several notes spread across the table.

"Anyway, we decided to start with wheat, corn, potatoes, carrots, spinach, garlic, and cabbage. They all grow comfortably within roughly the same temperature range, so it’ll make climate management easier."

"I see." Gideon looked over the notes. "Did you already get people to install the sprinklers for irrigation?"

Delilah nodded. "William stopped by this afternoon and checked the planting sites we marked. We already divided the fields based on crop type and estimated space requirements. He lent us a few workers and had them start digging trenches and installing pipes."

She pointed toward the construction area outside. "This zone doesn’t even have a proper drainage system yet, so everything takes longer than expected."

Gideon rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

The more he looked around, the more obvious it became that one hundred and fifty workers were nowhere near enough.

Between apartments, barns, irrigation systems, storage facilities, roads, and future expansion projects, manpower was becoming one of the biggest bottlenecks in the territory.

’If possible, I want another senior engineer too,’ he thought.

His gaze drifted toward the system menu. ’I really need to use those gacha tickets as soon as possible.’

But before that, he needed to take care of something else.

****

"Are you insane?! A healthcare system funded through taxes?! Do you think your residents are all millionaires?! Most of them don’t even have an income yet, for Goddamn sake!"

"Look what you’ve done to me, I don’t even believe in God!"

Piggy shouted at full force. Gideon did not even bother arguing back because the woman looked incredibly stressed, somehow even more stressed than he was.

She had been working nonstop ever since he asked her to create a currency system, wage structure, rent system, utility fees, price controls, territory budgeting, tax policies, and countless other things.

At this point, she was basically acting as the Minister of Economy for a newly established territory. Honestly, it sounded more cruel than torture.

Her hair, which was usually tied neatly into a bun, was now a complete mess. Dark circles hung beneath her eyes, and she was practically buried beneath stacks of papers and books she had asked him to find.

The desk was so crowded with documents that Gideon genuinely wondered how she managed to find anything anymore.

She suddenly stood up from her chair so quickly that several sheets of paper slid off the table.

"You know what? Just kill me already. You can even torture me, I don’t care anymore, man. Just end this!" she practically begged.

It was a reasonable crash.