Chapter 28: Concealment Maxed Out
Translator: ShutDoor
It was not hard to find people on online forums dismissing the combat capabilities of South Korean soldiers as all hype.
We even had a user in our chatroom who went around saying exactly that.
JjunLee690: First off, our officers and NCOs are subpar and incompetent. Just a total fucking shitshow of an organization. Not taking arguments.
JjunLee690: Does it make any sense to use cell phones during exercises because the communications equipment doesn’t work? Lmaoooo. Cell phones are the first things that’ll get fucked in a war, so what’s the point of training with them?
JjunLee690: Honestly, that whole sixth-strongest military ranking is complete bullshit too. The Navy and Air Force are both useless, and the Army’s the only one that’s even halfway decent, but they all die if we get nuked, right?
In my opinion, South Korea’s conscription system had played no small part in creating that perception.
In a country with an all-volunteer military, people could at least harbor a certain fantasy about being a soldier. Honestly, did we not all think military uniforms looked cool when we were kids?
But when every able-bodied Korean man was dragged into the military, made to eat rice out of plastic bags, and kicked in the shins by his superiors, those fantasies naturally fell apart.
I had once dug a trench to the right on a sergeant’s orders, only for the platoon leader to show up five minutes later and chew me out for not digging to the left. Then the sergeant returned another five minutes after that and cursed me out for not doing what the platoon leader said. That alone should tell you everything.
However.
That did not mean the military had no elites.
Several monitors that had been emitting the distinctive blue-screen glow flickered briefly and began displaying the outside landscape.
I looked at the monitors.
They seemed to have connected to the miniature camouflaged cameras the Juggernaut and General Kang had installed whenever they had the chance.
On the screens, special forces operators in snow camouflage were advancing quickly and stealthily across the rocky mountain covered in fallen leaves and snow.
The original plan had been to install far more cameras than this.
But we had held off after deciding that the risk would be too great if even one of them was discovered.
In the end, that had been the right call.
Although the special forces operators advanced relentlessly through the mountain blanketed in leaves and snow, they occasionally stopped at positions that invariably matched the chokepoints and major infiltration routes the Juggernaut had reported.
They appeared to be checking for any conspicuous surveillance equipment.
Fortunately, the cameras remained undiscovered, likely because we had accepted their restricted fields of view and hidden them deep within trees or between rocks, in places difficult to notice even when searching carefully.
Moving at that rapid pace, the special forces operators reached the exact spot where my temporary tent had stood in exactly thirty minutes.
“…”
Judging by their reactions, they had not found any traces of my stay.
General Kang and the Juggernaut had regularly covered my tracks and disguised them as signs left by wild animals, and the heavy snowfall early yesterday morning had helped as well.
Of course, it would have been a different story if the special forces had received specific intelligence that there was a suspicious person on this mountain. They would have conducted a far more thorough and deliberate search.
But with no such information, they could not afford to spend excessive time and manpower combing every inch of a mountain that showed no outward signs of human traffic.
Rather than take the time to search thoroughly, they had chosen to cover as much ground as possible in the shortest time.
“As you said, had they been determined to search thoroughly, there is a high probability they would have discovered some traces. They appear to be moving with prior knowledge of the mountain’s layout.”
General Kang, who had approached without my noticing, confirmed my thoughts.
In one corner of the rapidly changing display, ordinary soldiers were trudging along a forest trail. From the MILES equipment they wore, I could roughly guess what excuse had been used to bring them here for training.
They had probably claimed that worsening international tensions made it necessary to gain experience as close to real combat as possible.
“The ordinary soldiers likely do not even realize they are establishing a perimeter. All of the surrounding mountains have already been encircled.”
Hearing Ann’s words drove home how much trouble I would have been in if I had made my decision even one day later.
As always, the best time to act was the moment you made up your mind.
Apparently tireless, the special forces operators reached the abandoned mine at a speed difficult to believe on such rugged mountain terrain.
They expertly opened the fence blocking the path to the abandoned mine, then immediately began searching the entrance and the surrounding area.
General Kang, who had been carefully watching their movements for some time, offered an observation.
“They appear to be Tier One special forces.”
“!”
Unlike publicly known special forces units such as the 707th Special Mission Unit or the Naval Special Warfare Flotilla, these were special forces in the truest sense, their very existence shrouded in secrecy like the United States’ Delta Force.
I had wondered how they could run for dozens of minutes without tiring despite being loaded down with all that heavy equipment. Apparently, it was because the unit was made up entirely of superhumans to begin with.
—Vehicle tracks found.
A voice came through the listening device we had installed in advance.
A special forces operator with his face completely covered by a mask knelt on one knee and examined the tracks left on the unpaved road.
They had to be tracks left by the one-ton box trucks when we sent the hundred Enigmas out.
I had thought the snow had covered them well enough, but they had managed to find them anyway.
Uneasily, I turned to General Kang. He shook his head as if to reassure me.
“We concealed them as thoroughly as possible so that it would appear no more than three or four vehicles had passed through. When we arrived, there were already numerous tracks that looked as though vehicles had accidentally come this far before turning around, so they should not arouse much suspicion.”
That was a relief, but it did nothing to stop me from trembling with tension.
—Any signs of concealment?
—Nothing unusual that I can see.
—What about the CCTV inside and outside the mine? Did you check it?
—It had been dead for ages. It looks like the wiring itself was severed several years ago.
The man who appeared to be their leader studied the cobwebs on the abandoned mine’s CCTV camera, then turned away. With a heavy clank, the mine entrance opened completely.
—Moving in.
After that, we could no longer observe the special forces directly.
We had limited the installation of surveillance equipment inside the mine because, no matter how carefully it was concealed, it would inevitably be discovered.
But that did not mean we could simply sit back and do nothing.
“What is the layout of that abandoned mine?”
Ann answered as though she had been waiting for the question.
“A vertical shaft equipped with an elevator extends from the mine entrance to a depth of five hundred meters. The first and second haulage tunnels are located one hundred and two hundred meters below ground level, respectively.”
After confirming that the special forces had disappeared completely, I nodded for her to continue.
“The mine has effectively been abandoned since the 1990s, and its internal power has been cut. The elevator has long since exceeded its service life, so normal operation will likely be impossible. The ventilation and drainage systems are also unlikely to function properly.”
In other words, water had pooled inside, oxygen levels were low, and toxic gases had accumulated.
Of course, Tier One special forces would have prepared countermeasures of their own. Gas masks and oxygen concentration meters, for instance.
One of the operators was carrying a particularly large pack, so it probably contained all the relevant equipment.
Even so, they would ultimately find no traces of anything. We had not touched that part of the mine at all yet.
A Juggernaut had passed through the interior once, but if it had left any traces, they would have noticed something was wrong before they even entered the abandoned mine.
In other words, the Juggernaut’s concealment capabilities were enough to fool even Tier One special forces. Was this what one could expect from a combat-specialized model?
Of course, as I had said earlier, there was no telling how things would have gone if the special forces had come with solid intelligence.
The problem would be if they installed surveillance equipment or some kind of trap inside the abandoned mine before leaving.
By trap, I did not mean a snare or a grenade booby trap, but something like a disposable detector that could reveal whether anyone had passed through.
Think of how a child might stick a piece of tape across the bottom of the door to find out whether their parents entered the room. If they installed something like that, what would their intention be?
It would mean they were likely to return here later.
General Kang spoke then.
“Even if that is possible, they will not be able to return anytime soon. At the earliest, they will come back in six months. At the latest, one or two years from now. Assuming the South Korean government still exists by then.”
In other words, this was a wide-net operation, installing such devices in hundreds of abandoned mines throughout Gangwon Province just in case.
I concluded that the operation had been limited to Gangwon Province both to investigate why shelters could not be built there and to lay traps in advance at locations where 「Shelter Builder」 users might settle.
“Then I’ll leave this side of things to you.”
“Leave it to me.”
I decided to entrust the matter entirely to General Kang.
There was no point in my agonizing over it when I wasn’t a military expert. I decided it was best to leave the work to those who knew what they were doing and focus on finishing the shelter.
“First, let’s build a checkpoint by the entrance.”
“I will guide you.”
I immediately boarded the elevator with Ann.
*****
Our shelter entrance had a double-door structure consisting of two blast doors made from two-meter-thick low-carbon steel.
Anti-tank weapons like Javelins would barely tickle them, and they could comfortably withstand direct fire from a tank or mortar strikes.
The primary quarantine station and checkpoint between the two blast doors was therefore intended less to repel intruders head-on than to control those entering the shelter and secure their “cooperation”.
Click, click.
「Concertina wire purchased.」
「High-strength security fence purchased.」
「Kingsberg remote fire-control system purchased.」
Thick reinforced-concrete walls rose on both sides of the entrance, with surveillance equipment for monitoring the outside and remotely operated defensive turrets positioned behind them.
With a few clicks of the mouse, a convincing checkpoint was completed in an instant.
Anyone who breached the first blast door and saw this would probably feel as though they had encountered a small concrete fortress.
Anyway.
Anyone who passed through the checkpoint would proceed inward along security fences arranged in a zigzag like an amusement-park queue.
The idea was to naturally funnel even dozens or hundreds of people arriving at once into a single line, allowing the security and quarantine screenings to proceed in order.
Ann had explained it to me, so it was probably right.
「Security screening gate purchased.」
「X-ray security scanner purchased.」
At the end of the queue stood a security gate and X-ray security scanner far more sophisticated than those used at ordinary airports.
Belongings and carried equipment would be inspected one by one here, and any dangerous items such as weapons or explosives would immediately be separated out and confiscated.
Beside them would be thermal imaging equipment for measuring body temperature, various other quarantine devices, and quarantine officers permanently stationed to operate them.
They would verify the identities of arrivals while checking for fever, respiratory symptoms, skin abnormalities, or other signs suggesting infection.
「Infectious disease quarantine equipment purchased.」
「Thermal imaging camera (FRIR A-series) purchased.」
Naturally, I had no intention of allowing anyone straight inside, whether they showed symptoms or not.
Anyone displaying suspicious symptoms would be sent to a suspected-infection isolation room, while even those without symptoms would go to an asymptomatic isolation room where they could remain for a set time chosen with the incubation period in mind.
The process was complicated, but I believed this was something we had to handle as thoroughly as possible, even at the cost of inconvenience.
My life was on the line, after all.
After personally walking through and inspecting the checkpoint and quarantine station, Ann returned and reported.
“No issues found.”
“Good. Then let’s hurry up and move on to the next one.”
I immediately descended to the central control room to establish the strategic communications center that would serve as the nervous system of the entire shelter and its sole link to the outside world.
Because of the risk that the United States’ Space Surveillance Network, or SSN, would detect them, the purchase of four KH-13-class reconnaissance satellites was set for the final day. That meant I had to reserve at least 112 trillion won until then, no matter what happened.
But I saw no reason to delay preparing the communications room as well.
The communications room had plenty of functions that did not require artificial satellites, and there was no downside to getting it ready even one day earlier.
The remaining facilities were closer to recommended extras than essential facilities, things like a crude oil storage tank or a hangar that would be useful but whose absence would not immediately impair shelter operations. That was another reason I wanted to spend generously on the communications room.
Perhaps because I had been here several times already, I approached the central control room’s main console with far more familiarity than before.
Ann pointed at the front screen with her characteristically expressionless face and spoke.
“The communications systems have been configured to the highest-grade military strategic communications standards actually employed by the U.S. Department of Defense and the NSA.”
The equipment had the same specifications as that of the mighty United States, but with hyperintelligent Enigmas operating it, its effective performance might be far superior to what they had on the American mainland.
I immediately opened the Shop window and checked the list of items.
[ ■ Communications equipment list ]
⦁ AEHF-class LPI/LPD microwave satellite communications module
⦁ Description: The highest-level secure strategic satellite communications standard used by the U.S. military. Directional AESA beamforming minimizes signal leakage and drastically reduces the risk of enemy jamming and interception.
⦁ Unit price: 2.4 trillion won
⦁ Status: [Available for purchase]
⦁ VLF/ELF rock-penetrating communications antenna network
⦁ Description: A specialized communications network used to communicate with underground bunkers and deeply submerged submarines. It maintains communications with the outside while minimizing the antennas’ exposure aboveground.
⦁ Unit price: 1.2 trillion won
⦁ Status: [Available for purchase]
Those two were the most critical components.
Satellite communications normally required exposing large antennas or base stations aboveground, but these systems supposedly made it possible to communicate with the outside world even from deep underground.
Apparently, this method was actually used in American underground nuclear bunkers.
The package also included a tactical communications base station capable of intercepting nearby military radio transmissions in real time, top-grade encryption equipment, a dual-layer HEMP protection system, and more.
‘Expensive.’
Perhaps because every last component boasted monstrously overpowered specifications, even the cheapest cost several hundred billion won.
But didn’t they say the cheapest time to buy things like this was right now? Once the world ended, I would not be able to get anything similar no matter how badly I wanted it.
Since the communications room was such a critical facility, I designed it to cover eight hundred pyeong and connect directly to the central control room. Purchasing all the related equipment mentioned earlier brought the total cost to 8.4 trillion won.
The central control room had cost only a little over 1 trillion won. I had never imagined the communications room would burn through more than five times as much.
An incredulous laugh escaped me, but Ann manipulated the screen without the slightest change in expression.
“With specifications at this level, you will be able to detect civilian and military radio signals throughout the Korean Peninsula even if the external communications networks collapse completely.”
“Seriously?”
“Allow me to demonstrate.”
Beep-beep-beep-
The moment power was supplied to the communications equipment room, countless radio signals began pouring in like a waterfall, accompanied by a distinctive electronic tone.
It had begun picking up the countless signals drifting through the air above the shelter.
Without hesitation, Ann operated the radio signal analyzer, isolated a military frequency used in the hills directly above the shelter, and began decoding the transmissions on it.
Then, as if by magic, a familiar voice came through.
—Reached the second haulage tunnel at a depth of 200 meters. No anomalies or suspicious persons found.
It belonged to one of the special forces operators currently searching the abandoned mine.
A burst of static followed, then orders came through from their higher command.
—Search concluded. Wrap up all remaining tasks and return immediately.
“What do you think?”
…Yeah, that’s pretty nice.
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