Chapter 33: D-DAY
Translator: ShutDoor
Granted, 30 billion won might look like a small amount(?), but it was anything but.
Hadn’t I thought I was set for life when I won 700 million won on a scratch-off lottery ticket? If even 700 million felt like that, 30 billion was enough to buy the most expensive luxury home in Seoul outright and still have plenty left over.
So what would happen if I poured all that money into nothing but interior design and furniture?
Let’s just say I finally learned the thrill of actually saying, “I’ll take everything from here to there”, like people did in TV dramas.
First, I installed a 1.5-billion-won ultra-high-definition home theater in the living room. I also built a separate private screening room to get the full movie-theater experience and packed its storage system with thousands of classic films.
In my room, which I decorated like a PC café, I installed a handmade custom PC with top-of-the-line graphics cards running in parallel, even though it was an absurd waste of money no matter how I looked at it. While I was at it, I set up full-body VR tracking equipment beside it in case I ever wanted to use it.
I had never even tried imported liquor in my life, but I might someday, so I also installed a wine cellar filled with ultra-expensive rare wines and whiskeys.
Romanée-Conti? Ballantine’s? Even a total ignoramus about alcohol like me had heard of them, so they had to taste good, right?
In the temperature-controlled aging room for top-quality fresh ingredients, I installed dedicated storage systems for luxury foods I normally wouldn’t have dared even look at, from outrageously expensive beef to fresh tuna and pine mushrooms. Naturally, I didn’t forget to fill them with enough to keep eating until I was sick of it.
On top of that, I completed a private gym crammed with treadmills and every expensive exercise machine I vaguely remembered seeing somewhere.
Finally, I added a luxurious indoor spa and sauna to wash away the frustration and stress, a study where I could pretend to be an intellectual, and even a small, cozy swimming pool. After all that, I had barely 150,000 won left.
I felt like I had done everything I wanted.
…I really had wrung every last drop out of that 30 billion won.
I also spent as much of the 700 million won in lottery winnings left in my bank account as I wanted. Nothing extravagant. I used it to build a collection of comics and webtoons I had always wanted to read.
Seeing the house, which had been completely empty when I first arrived, now packed full gave me a strange feeling.
I sat in the space beside the wine cellar that I had decorated like a private bar and obediently sipped a cocktail Ann mixed for me.
I hadn’t touched alcohol since my parents died, but considering the occasion, I decided to have a drink to mark it.
My gaze rested on a retro radio I had impulsively bought because it fit the bar’s atmosphere so well.
As it happened, a famous singer I was familiar with was hosting the radio show.
[I hear next week’s Lunar New Year holiday is going to be one for the history books. It’s almost a full week, apparently. I hope all our listeners can put their troubles behind them and enjoy a good, long rest.]
I sincerely hoped so.
But this Lunar New Year holiday would go down in history for an entirely different reason. It might even be our country’s last holiday.
With the voice from the radio playing in the background, I looked in turn at Ann, General Kang, Medical Staff Officer and Hospital Director Im A-ram, Research Center Director Rachel, and Personnel Staff Officer and Personnel Office Director Kim Mun-seok.
General Kang, Personnel Office Director Kim, and I were men, while the other three were women, so the gender ratio was fairly even.
“How about a toast, everyone?”
I lightly clinked glasses with Personnel Office Director Kim, who had the solid, imposing look of a bear, then the catlike Research Center Director Rachel, the puppy-faced Hospital Director Im whose mere presence made anyone feel more generous, and finally General Kang, who carried the dignity of a battle-hardened veteran, and Ann.
Clink- Clink-
[And perhaps because the holiday is so long this year, apparently quite a few people are traveling abroad with their families. I would’ve gone on a trip myself if it weren’t for this radio show…]
Letting the host’s words go in one ear and out the other, I awkwardly offered a toast.
I wasn’t sure it made sense to do this with a cocktail glass in hand, but just for today, I wanted to.
No matter how calm I pretended to be, perhaps I was nervous inside about the impending destruction too.
“Administrator…”
Perhaps reading how I felt, Hospital Director Im gave me a sympathetic look, her eyes softly crinkled at the corners.
I downed my cocktail while resolving that if my mind ever broke and I needed psychiatric counseling, I would go to Hospital Director Im instead of Ann.
Four days. Exactly four days remained.
The outcome would reveal whether I was a lunatic or a pioneer who had foreseen hell.
*****
D-3
We had completed the transport of roughly 30 percent of the researchers’ families scattered across the country.
We could have brought in more people if we had committed to it, but it would be a problem if rushing caused the government to discover us.
Since most of the researchers were in their mid-thirties, the overwhelming majority of their spouses had jobs. Ann’s operators dealt with that by creating pretexts such as “external training” or “outside collaboration” that would allow them to be away for several months without it seeming unusual.
In some cases, we had even headhunted them outright.
Once they arrived, they would probably work as “support staff” within the research institutes.
Of course, ordinary people without any specialized knowledge couldn’t support complex research, but it seemed that Deputy Manager Lee Jun-su and the other headhunters had selected candidates after considering not only the researchers themselves, but also their spouses’ occupations and experience.
In other words, once we brought in the spouses, we could put them straight to work as research support staff.
“Of course, we selected unmarried candidates as well when they possessed exceptional ability, but shouldn’t we minimize wasted manpower wherever possible?”
They had a point.
Thanks to that, the number of people we needed to transport into the shelter dropped sharply.
Next, I brought up the feeds from the CCTV nodes monitoring the interior and exterior of the shelter and inspected them one by one.
[Jamsil, Seoul]
After a few taps on the keyboard, the monitor filled with familiar skyscrapers and the peaceful daily lives of the people walking beneath them.
Perhaps because the people were moving in real time, it felt different from viewing the area through Shelter Builder’s 「Map」 feature.
I suspected this map feature would disappear when the demo service ended too. It would be nice if it didn’t, but I doubted the system was kind enough to leave us such a useful feature.
I also checked the Telegram chat room whenever I had a moment.
ProSurvivalist_1500: There’s nothing left to do but wait…
ProSurvivalist_1500: Everyone bought a Starlink router, right? Let’s use those to communicate after the world ends.
ProSurvivalist_1500: Then we should be able to communicate until the ground stations on the US mainland go down. I’m betting on three years at minimum.
I had also bought a Starlink router as a backup, just in case.
D-2.
The transport operation proceeded smoothly, and we had already completed over 70 percent of it. Most of the researchers’ children were either in the lower grades of elementary school or kindergarten, and since winter break was underway, things went more smoothly than expected.
On top of that, with the mindset that this truly was my last chance, I reexamined every facility in the shelter from top to bottom. If we had missed anything, I intended to build it even if it meant buying one fewer reconnaissance satellite.
Fortunately, thanks to the competence of my staff advisers, I found nothing lacking.
That evening, I spotted the middle-aged man from before again on the CCTV feed from a deep mountain valley in Mungyeong, Gyeongsang. He was fairly far away and partly hidden behind tree branches, but could that be InariSushi_1300?
It seemed the approach of D-Day was eating away at him too.
InariSushi_1300: This is nerve-racking.
InariSushi_1300: Mom, my wife, and my daughter. Let’s keep living happily together.
That anxiety showed plainly in every line he posted in the chat room.
*****
D-1
I spent the entire morning conferring with my staff advisers to determine the personalities and appearances of the Enigmas we would eventually deploy into outside society for “intelligence” work.
In the end, we decided to plant five in the military, one in the judiciary, one in the prosecution service, two in the police, three in the executive branch, and three in the legislature.
For their faces, we referred to real press profile photos available online. We also combed through the subjects’ social media accounts to imitate their distinguishing physical traits, habits, personalities, and other details as closely as possible.
The fifteen people selected had two things in common: they were mid-ranking officials, and they either had no personal connections or extremely simple family relationships.
「You have purchased fifteen P-7 Enigma units.」
For the time being, they would be assigned in turn to the shelter’s key facilities like the other Enigmas, then dispatched outside at the optimal moment when “personnel vacancies” appeared on the surface.
The moment they left the shelter, they would never be able to return to this underground Ark, like Voyager 2 setting off on an adventure into the infinite darkness beyond the solar system.
I shook hands with each of them.
That evening, the table was laden with another sumptuous dinner just like the day before, but I was so tense that I couldn’t taste a thing.
“All the researchers’ families have been accommodated.”
Still, that news at least made me happy.
At this moment, the shelter had a population of 1,400, and thanks to all the young children, the average age was twenty-three.
Since over 80 percent were married, perhaps the fertility rate within our shelter alone would exceed 1.5.
In any case.
After that, I spent several hours refreshing community posts and forcing myself to hold it together.
It wasn’t until 11:00 p.m. that I swallowed hard and headed to the central control room.
“Ann, check the list of satellites we need to purchase one more time.”
“Four KH-13-class ultra-high-resolution reconnaissance satellites, two WGS-class geostationary military communications satellites, and two GOES-class geostationary weather satellites, for a total of eight.”
To delay their detection by the United States Space Surveillance Network, or SSN, for as long as possible, I needed to purchase every one of them within the final ten minutes after 11:50 p.m.
Naturally, accidentally purchasing something else wouldn’t end with simply wasting money. Four reconnaissance satellites were the absolute minimum required to maintain our surveillance network.
Operating six of each would have been better, but I had used the savings to build the hangar, buy crude oil, and pack our warehouses with survival supplies, so I had certainly gotten plenty of value out of the money.
I’m so nervous.
I ran through the process dozens of times in my head as I watched the chat room, my stomach twisting with anxiety.
Cham170: !!!!!!
Anon: Just 20 more minutes and we’ll find out whether this was the greatest goddamn prank in history.
Anon: Actually I had 3 trillion in my bank account, yeah. Watching you guys brag was seriously pathetic lol
Anon: Let the world end! I’m 300 million in debt and can’t even qualify for debt rehabilitation, so the only way I survive is if this country collapses! End! End!
Kimo777: I got into a 70-billion-won ultra-luxury shelter, and seriously, 20 people could live comfortably in here.
…
…
There was literally no other way to describe it but the calm before the storm.
Food, fuel, daily necessities, medicine, precision parts for maintenance, and spare equipment. We had prepared two or three times over for every contingency we could imagine.
“Administrator, now.”
The instant Ann spoke, I clicked the mouse like a madman, my nerves stretched even tighter than when I used to register for university courses.
「You have purchased four KH-13 reconnaissance satellites.」
「You have purchased two WGS-class military communications satellites.」
「You have purchased two GOES-class weather satellites.」
[All satellites will be placed into their designated low Earth and geostationary orbits.]
[Target region: South Korea]
Every last bit of the money I had saved until the very end vanished from my balance in an instant.
Hummm-!
In that instant, the enormous monitors covering the entire front wall of the underground central control room erupted with blue light.
“Satellite orbital placement confirmed. Begin downlinks from all satellites.”
At Ann’s command, the operators arrayed in a semicircle below the command platform hammered nonstop at their keyboards and fired off reports.
“KH-13 reconnaissance satellites One through Four have entered low Earth orbit and completed attitude control. Normal signals confirmed from all satellites.”
“Two WGS military communications satellites confirmed in geostationary orbit. Satellite attitude control and communications payloads are functioning normally. All communications links are normal.”
“Beginning weather monitoring system checks on both weather satellites.”
The satellite signals reaching deep underground filled the central control room’s monitoring displays one by one.
Now, even from a thousand meters underground, we could see all the territory, airspace, and straits of Northeast Asia at a glance.
January 22, 11:57 p.m.
With all preparations complete, I sat at the command platform in a posture so solemn it was practically rigid, awaiting the catastrophe that would arrive in three minutes.
Even at this moment, I still had no idea what form the apocalypse would take. But unless the Chinese president or the North Korean leadership suddenly lost their minds, I considered the possibility of war almost nonexistent.
Tick, tock.
Every movement of the second hand made my heart pound grotesquely against my ribs. My fingertips grew as cold as they had when I heard about my parents’ accident just before leaving the military.
Despite my overwhelming tension, my eyes darted frantically about, trying to take in even one more screen. The main panoramic monitor constantly cycled between feeds from the surveillance cameras the Enigmas had installed at key locations across the country and the national highway monitoring network.
“Sector D-03, Jeolla region, all clear. Surveillance nodes and radio signals confirmed operational.”
[Under the research center director’s supervision, all settlers inside the shelter have been put to bed. Heavily armored quarantine personnel have been deployed in preparation for any contingency.]
“Copy. Maintain internal thermal imaging camera surveillance. Intervene immediately if any abnormality is detected. Out.”
One minute remained.
Beyond the monitor screens, pedestrians were still walking the late-night streets.
A high school student in Daechi-dong walking home from cram school while memorizing an English vocabulary booklet by rote; a new employee in Bundang sighing deeply after sending their drunken boss home with a designated driver following an office dinner; even a gang of punks climbing over a no-entry fence as if mocking it to stroll along Haeundae’s nighttime shore.
The surface remained peaceful.
How exactly would it begin? Nuclear weapons, a natural disaster, or an infectious disease as I had predicted?
By the time I blinked a few times and opened my eyes again, the second hand was cruelly pointing to the end of the day.
Only when Ann, who had remained beside me to assist me, and Medical Staff Officer Im A-ram, who was standing by to check my condition, placed their hands on my shoulders did I realize I had been concentrating without even breathing properly.
Even so, I swallowed against my dry throat and refused to look away from the monitors. Determined to keep my eyes open as if my life depended on it, I stared at the countless screens until my eyes felt ready to split.
Tick, tock.
At the very instant the second hand crossed into the next day.
Fsssssh-
Four or five of the auxiliary monitors I had been staring at literally “vanished” on the spot, as though they had never existed there at all.
“!”
As I froze solid at the incomprehensible supernatural phenomenon, the 「Shelter Builder」 system window I had left open beside me produced a notification.
「Question 50. “If you could spend your entire fortune to purchase a shelter of your own design, would you do so?”」
「In accordance with your response at the time, 827.8 million won, representing all assets held by the user on the date of the survey, will be collected. Tangible assets within the user’s forward field of vision will be confiscated to cover any shortfall.」
「The Map, Shop, and Automated Construction services will now terminate.」
「Thank you for using the demo service.」
Pop-!
Before I could fully comprehend the meaning of those bizarre sentences, I had to turn my attention to the remaining monitors.
WEEEE-!
Along with the ear-splitting wail of sirens, countless ambulances appeared in one corner of the screens, racing madly along the national roads at night.
At first, I thought every monitor was showing the same feed, but now I saw that they were all different regions.
Jamsil, Hongdae, Incheon, Goyang, Suwon, Seongnam, Ansan, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan…
And the number kept growing.
Starting with the central monitors displaying the major cities, every screen was gradually stained by the distinctive crimson glare of emergency lights.
“The number of ambulances identified within Seoul has exceeded 200. No, correction. It has exceeded 300.”
“119 emergency call volume in the Busan area has surged by 1,800 percent.”
“Eight traffic accidents reported on the Gyeongbu Expressway. Now nine.”
The unfolding images made me forget even to breathe.
The high school student who had been crossing the street while looking at an English vocabulary booklet was hurled violently through the air and smashed into a wall.
KRAAAASH-!
The truck driver who had done that to the student only came to a stop after crushing both the student and himself into unrecognizable masses of red flesh.
Only then did I realize that the ominous sirens coming from all across the screens did not belong solely to ambulances.
WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO!
At that moment, the emergency disaster alert tone that every Korean instinctively associated with impending doom rang out repeatedly, almost tearing through my eardrums.
[Ministry of the Interior and Safety] Diversion notice due to emergency rooms in Suwon being unable to accept patients…
[Ministry of the Interior and Safety] All hospital beds in Hwaseong City and southern Gyeonggi Province are fully occupied. Citizens are advised to refrain from travel whenever possible…
[Ministry of the Interior and Safety] All hospital beds in Seoul and the Seoul Capital Area are fully occupied due to a massive surge in emergency patients. Citizens are advised…
“H-hospital. Enlarge the university hospital feed.”
At the main entrance of the university hospital, which had been quiet barely ten minutes earlier, dozens of ambulances flashing chaotic red emergency lights were lined up bumper to bumper in a long, unbroken column.
In the cold dawn air, paramedics and medical personnel on duty rushed about with gurneys in disarray, attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation on patients.
Was it a biochemical gas? Simultaneous terrorist attacks? Or an infectious disease?
At the edge of my awareness came the reports from the operators monitoring the researchers and their families we had brought into the shelter.
[Researcher Kim Tae-sin of the aerospace engineering laboratory: no abnormalities.]
[Report from the materials engineering research building. Researcher Park Jin-u likewise shows no abnormal body temperature.]
[Report from the virology research building. Min I-jun, child of researcher Min Hyeong-jun, has a measured temperature of 37.2 degrees. Classified as a mild fever. Initiate immediate quarantine if the normal-temperature threshold is exceeded.]
-Gulp.
My throat had gone so dry that even swallowing felt painful.
The university hospital’s corridors were already a living hell.
Aaaaaagh-!!!
Medical staff raced down the corridors, drenched from head to toe in the discharge and vomit spewed by patients who flailed their limbs as if convulsing from high fevers, patients who clawed their rash-covered bodies until their flesh was raw, and patients whose joints bent backward with grotesque noises.
“…”
At that moment, one horrifying certainty completely consumed my mind.
Humanity had fought countless infectious diseases and ultimately survived, but this time, it would not.
⚬──────────✧──────────⚬
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