Chapter 18: Enigma: Become Human
Translator: ShutDoor
Now that we had the basic framework in place, I decided to trust Ann and leave talent recruitment entirely in her hands. I had realized that if an amateur like me clumsily interfered, I might ruin something that would otherwise have worked.
When a leader insisted on taking charge of work beyond his abilities, even a country that should have survived could be driven to ruin.
How many young emperors had destroyed their countries by insisting on waging wars of conquest just to ‘prove themselves’?
Since it had come to this, I decided to follow the Liu Bang meta.
I might lack ability, but surely things would somehow keep running if I had Han Xin (an android), Xiao He (an android), and Zhang Liang (an android) beside me?
Those at the top generally did a passable job as long as they held things steady and refrained from constantly telling their subordinates what to do.
Determined to turn over a new leaf, I asked Ann the sort of question a boss should ask.
“Is there anything else you need?”
“I need personnel to conduct the external recruitment in my place.”
In short, she wanted me to buy several more androids like her at 1.8 trillion won apiece.
I swallowed hard and asked.
“…How many do you need?”
“At least six more.”
That would be 10.8 trillion won. Maybe it was because I had just spent nearly 200 trillion, but now even a measly(?) 10 trillion made my hands and feet tremble.
Why was I so nervous when I was going to spend all the money anyway?
Because spending 10 trillion out of the funds left over after finishing the shelter was worlds apart from spending it now, when I had not even built proper residential facilities.
“C-Could you tell me why?”
“A headhunting approach offers the highest likelihood of successfully and safely recruiting the researchers. Therefore, we need two androids for Seoul, two for the Gyeonggi area, and another two to cover the metropolitan cities.”
The universities in Seoul and the Gyeonggi area needed no explanation, while the cities in the last group were apparently meant to provide talent from science and technology institutes such as KAIST and DGIST.
That made sense.
No matter how capable an android was, one could not possibly make the rounds of all those universities alone in just nineteen days. Considering today was already effectively over, only eighteen days remained.
Since this money would be invested in androids eventually anyway, wouldn’t it make sense to go all in and buy them now?
“Then how many would you need to guarantee results without leaving anything to chance?”
“With eighteen, we will be able to produce results that satisfy you, Administrator.”
Ann, or rather the P-7 Enigma model, was an espionage android.
You could say that was the result of my desire to fill the ranks of ‘my people’ exclusively with personnel capable of at least some combat.
Since only humans could use the 「Research」 feature in the first place, I had concluded that research androids would be useless. Ann could already fill that sort of role well enough anyway.
So I intended to standardize on Enigmas for internal affairs and espionage, and Juggernauts for combat.
I paused to catch my breath, then clicked the screen.
「You have purchased 18 P-7 Enigmas.」
「Appearance settings required.」
Just like that, 32.4 trillion won vanished.
‘Phew.’
When the same window from my purchase of Ann appeared, I had little difficulty configuring their appearances this time.
I had no intention of making them as ‘striking’ as Ann. Having too many exceptionally attractive people in one shelter would be suspicious in its own way.
Therefore, I gave the new androids the thoroughly average appearances of Korean researchers, Koreans educated overseas, and employees of foreign corporations. Not what Koreans considered average, but actually average.
Spies might be handsome in movies, but I had heard somewhere that real intelligence operatives tended to look ordinary.
Naturally, I included a balanced mix of sexes, varied their apparent ages from the early thirties to the mid-forties, and gave each a different personality.
As a result, standing before me were six androids who looked like completely ordinary Koreans, six who gave off a Korean American vibe, and six sharp-looking androids who seemed to have stepped straight out of a major corporation’s strategic planning office.
Wait, did I have to name every single one of them myself?
*****
Fortunately, I did not need to name them.
Ann, my dependable secretary and their senior android, began briefing them on her own.
“We will divide into pairs. Let us start with Seoul. Those who consider themselves suited to the assignment, step forward.”
Apparently androids did not care about seniority, because one who looked like an ordinary Korean raised a hand without hesitation.
“I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Assuming we successfully recruit the targets, we will need vehicles to transport them here. Can separate transportation be provided?”
Instead of answering, Ann glanced at me.
She was telling me to buy them.
When I nodded to show I understood, an android with a Korean American air raised a hand next.
“As I understand it, there are no roads nearby. Even if we covertly transport the researchers by vehicle, what do we do once we reach the section vehicles cannot enter?”
“An unpaved mining road provides access to a point approximately five kilometers northwest of the shelter. After arriving at the abandoned mine, you can use the small vehicles stationed inside to travel approximately two kilometers toward the shelter, then reach its entrance by way of a vertical shaft and a separate access passage. Be advised that there is a Jogye Order temple with a fair amount of foot traffic five kilometers to the south-southwest.”
I fell silent for a moment.
Needless to say, there was no underground access route connecting another mine to our shelter. If anything like that had existed nearby in the first place, I would have been the first to know.
In other words, I would ultimately have to build that myself too.
Looked at one way, it seemed as though Ann held a grudge over everything I had put her through and was mindlessly dumping work on me, but that was probably a misunderstanding.
After all, this method would let us use the existing mine as a sort of underground access route into the shelter without cutting a new road aboveground.
The shelter’s construction range only extended three kilometers from its center, but the far end of the mine barely fell within that range, making the plan possible.
But how in the world had Ann known there was an abandoned mine nearby? It was winter, with snow piled high on the unpaved road, so I could not see it no matter how closely I examined the satellite map.
And how had she known the mine had been excavated to a point so close to our shelter in the first place?
“Wasn’t there a reconnaissance outing this morning?”
Oh.
The Juggernaut. It had even explored those gloomy mine shafts while I was away.
Come to think of it, the shafts must have been fairly large if a Juggernaut could pass through them.
“But will small vehicles be able to get through?”
“Some leveling work will be necessary, but it should be far simpler than cutting a new road aboveground.”
Moreover, the abandoned mine was deep in the mountains, where even setting up a communications network or supplying electricity was difficult. Apparently it had been left unattended for over ten years with nothing but a simple wire fence and warning signs, without even CCTV.
Of course, even if CCTV had been installed, Ann would have dealt with it somehow.
In any case, that more or less solved the transportation problem.
I shook hands with each of the androids I had just purchased. I knew it was only a formality, but they were practically founding members at this point. The least I could do was memorize their faces.
I extended my hand to an ordinary middle-aged android in a suit who looked moderately sharp and moderately stiff.
“What’s your name?”
“That is rather informal for a first meeting.”
“?”
Apparently satisfied with my reaction, he gave a subtle smile and took my hand.
“I’m joking. You may call me Deputy Manager Lee Jun-su.”
Deputy Manager?
“We are headhunting, after all. Should we not have at least one plausible corporate title? I just invented it.”
“Uh…”
How was he so good at talking? He did not feel like an android at all. He seemed like a real person.
But Lee Jun-su? Couldn’t I just call him Chul-su because it was easy to remember, and the person next to him Young-hee?
“I would not mind, but names carry a certain degree of weight in situations like this. Retaining this name will be more helpful for recruitment. Besides, names such as Chul-su and Young-hee stand out more than one might expect, do they not?”
I fell silent.
I felt as though I was finally seeing what an espionage android was truly capable of.
Unlike Ann, who still had a subtly stiff, android-like quality, the man before me looked every bit like a supremely confident, fiercely proud elite professional who ran the day-to-day operations of a major corporation’s executive office.
If a man like this praised someone’s abilities and offered to recruit them with a generous signing bonus, who would not be tempted?
“For your information, I will be heading to Seoul with Assistant Manager Ji Young-hee here. Please provide us with one new Grandeur for business use and one van for transportation. As for supplies, mobile phones for communication should suffice.”
“My name is Ji Young-hee.”
“…”
The moment the suited android beside him bowed her head, goose bumps rose across my skin.
‘At this point, aren’t they basically human?’
Anyone would fall for it.
I did not know whether their recruitment efforts would succeed or fail, but it would be utterly impossible to suspect that the ‘people’ before me were not human.
“Wow.”
He smiled at my exclamation.
“I find that reaction of yours most gratifying, Administrator.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
“As do I.”
A question suddenly occurred to me, so I asked him.
“…Will you need a separate operating budget?”
“You may speak as casually as you did at first.”
“I’m more comfortable this way.”
Wouldn’t it look strange for a guy in his twenties like me to speak so casually to someone in his forties?
As though he had read my thoughts, Deputy Manager Lee Jun-su answered in an exceptionally kind voice that inspired trust.
“We will handle the operating expenses and signing bonuses ourselves. You only need to prepare the vehicles, Administrator.”
“Oh.”
“You also said you needed a way to monitor the surrounding cities and roads, correct? If you provide us with surveillance equipment, we will take care of that while traveling as well.”
Honestly, he was incredibly dependable.
*****
I briefly introduced myself to the other sixteen androids as well.
They said they would generally operate in two-person teams, traveling among companies and universities across the country to recruit talent.
Along the way, they would also install surveillance equipment on the Yeongdong, Gyeongbu, and Honam Expressways.
Of course, since there was currently no route connecting us to the nearby roads, I still had to walk all the way to the unpaved road near the abandoned mine and ‘purchase’ the vehicles there myself.
Nine new Grandeurs, nine transport vans, and eighteen mobile phones for communication cost a total of 710.59 million won.
That was almost as much as I had received from winning the lottery, yet I was slowly reaching the point where it hardly even felt like money.
“Then we will return with good news in ten days.”
Deputy Manager Lee Jun-su flashed a broad smile from behind his sunglasses, then drove away.
They were returning in ten days because they expected my shelter to be mostly complete by then.
Research facilities alone would not be enough to admit the researchers. They would also need lodging, a dining hall, and recreation facilities.
They planned to begin transporting researchers here whenever possible from that point until the final day.
“Ten days, or nine if we exclude today. Every moment will be precious. Please go to sleep.”
“I’ll sleep after I finish this.”
Before bed, I began reading through the reconnaissance and surveillance report the Juggernaut had brought back.
Ann had organized the Juggernaut’s notes into a neatly formatted report, making them easy to read.
It did not take long for me to understand all too painfully why Ann had been so determined to put me to bed.
‘…Why is this so thick?’
When I served as a military signalman, I had once read things like operational plans because I had nothing better to do. This genuinely felt like reading one of those.
“Didn’t you say your knowledge of combat was limited…?”
“It is limited compared to my knowledge of other fields.”
The Enigma really did deliver.
In any case, the report could be summarized roughly as follows.
The Juggernaut had divided the area around the shelter into three sectors based on their characteristics.
Sector 1 consisted of the northwestern cliffs and steep, rocky mountain terrain. It offered clear lines of sight, but numerous caves and gaps between the rocks that could provide concealment and cover had been identified. The abandoned mine was located in Sector 1.
Sector 2 followed the southeastern ridge and offered relatively open visibility, but the gaps between the rocks and dense brush made securing an approach route extremely difficult without using the road. Apparently the Jogye Order temple was located in that direction as well.
Accordingly, it added that if enemies chose to attack, they would most likely approach from Sector 2.
Finally, all remaining areas had been grouped into Sector 3. The layer of accumulated leaves was so thick that footsteps would echo loudly, while the dense forest canopy would likely hinder aerial drone reconnaissance in summer and fall.
The overall assessment stated that the dense tree cover and abundant concealment offered by the rocky mountain terrain made the area favorable for long-term seclusion if sufficient resources were available. However, it was difficult to venture outside, and there was a persistent risk of small groups exploiting the terrain to infiltrate or establish hideouts.
It also warned that there were many signs of wild animals and civilians such as hikers, and that caution was needed.
“Appropriate surveillance methods and access-denial measures for each sector are proposed below that section. However, for the time being, I do not recommend installing defensive measures other than buried vibration sensors and surveillance cameras.”
“Hmm.”
Installing something like an attack turret in advance only for it to shoot a passing hiker would be an unmitigated disaster.
‘This isn’t something I can finish in a day either.’
The number of CCTV cameras I needed to install immediately was already in the hundreds.
There was so much to do.
“I’m going to sleep. Wake me at six tomorrow.”
“I will finish designing the research facilities in the meantime.”
“All right.”
I zipped the tent shut and lay down inside my sleeping bag.
Eighteen days remained.
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