Chapter 48: Welcome to the Ark
Translator: ShutDoor
The last cold snap had faded, and spring had finally arrived.
Bang!
The magnolias and cherry blossoms in riotous bloom, punctuated by occasional gunshots and screams, perfectly encapsulated the current state of South Korea.
A month earlier, after nationwide chaos and massacres, governments around the world had ordered every infected person whose incubation period had ended to be ‘humanely’ shot dead.
I had no idea how ‘humane’ and ‘shooting people dead’ could possibly belong in the same sentence, but after witnessing the ‘inhumane’ killings in China and India, I finally understood why developed countries had gone out of their way to add that qualifier.
Viet_1191: (Graphic content warning) India.jpg
Viet_1191: (Graphic content warning) China.jpg
Have you ever seen livestock infected with avian influenza or swine fever being culled?
That was exactly what was happening in China and India.
The scenes were so shocking that they became a major topic of conversation even in the Telegram chat room, whose members usually had little interest in what was happening outside.
Anon: Did they seriously behead every single corpse?
Anon: Seriously, they’re making the Nazis look like saints by comparison;;
King250: Forget them, it’s a miracle we still have electricity here
Lupin720: The military fortified the country’s critical infrastructure and is holding it somehow. But that’s over the moment they run out of fuel. Think they have about three months left?
Kimo777: So if you obediently go to a quarantine facility, you’re still in the incubation period, but if you refuse, your incubation period is over? They’re just making up whatever the fuck they want lol
Anon: I heard they don’t even feed you once you’re inside a quarantine facility. They just starve you to death. But if you try to escape, they shoot you.
Cham170: South Korea is still better off than the United States. At least your governments aren’t shooting at each other lol
As Cham170 said, the situation in the United States was hardly rosy either.
Several key leaders of the eastern National Guard forces that had been cooperating with the federal government staged a coup and launched a surprise air strike against it.
They might have managed to conceal their infections for a time, but once the recurring fevers and fear of death closed in, they could endure it no longer.
Even at the fastest possible pace, developing a treatment would take hundreds of days. By then, their brains would already have melted and killed them, or the authorities would have shot them, so they had probably decided they had nothing to lose.
Of course, true to the United States’ claim that it could ‘win a war against the entire world’, its automated interception systems activated at once and stopped most of the missiles.
Viet_1191: (Unverified rumor) Empire State Building collapses
But in the wake of the incident, the name ‘United States of America’ became nothing more than an empty shell.
California had descended further into madness than anywhere else.
With the largest population in the country, more than thirty federal military installations, and an economy surpassing those of most developed nations, California led several like-minded states in declaring independence outright.
[We, the five western states including California, can no longer stand by and watch the federal government violate the human rights of infected people! We will also introduce legislation prohibiting discrimination against the infected…]
That did not mean California possessed military power equal to the federal government’s, of course. But the federal government had never dreamed it would be attacked by its own citizens, so its response was inevitably far slower than it would have been against a provocation by China or Russia.
The giant whose own limbs had torn themselves away was left paralyzed, unable to so much as twitch until it had expelled every enemy within.
Compared with China, which indiscriminately shot anyone who showed the slightest sign of infection, and Japan, whose government collapsed after most of its leaders were infected while pursuing the most humane policies possible, the South Korean government, which immediately thought to cut the mainland loose and flee to Jeju Island as soon as D-Day struck, could practically be called the god of buying the dip.
Then again, seeing that it still maintained defensive lines against China and North Korea even after things had come this far, only time would tell whether it had abandoned the mainland entirely or merely staged a strategic retreat.
Message from Anonymous12: This is the Minister of Health and Welfare.
About four days had passed since the message arrived from an IP address believed to be on Jeju Island, sent by someone claiming to be the Minister of Health and Welfare.
At last, the government attempted to make ‘contact’ with us.
Of course, its method was a far cry from what society would ordinarily consider contact.
―[Clear.]
―[No targets present.]
In the dead of night, special forces personnel dispatched by the government stormed one of the decoy outposts we used to reroute data.
I became certain they were not ordinary soldiers but elite special forces the instant they smashed a monitoring camera concealed where no civilian could ever have found it.
“The South Korean government has more resources left than I expected.”
“…Apparently so.”
It seemed I had judged them too hastily after seeing them flee to Jeju Island with their tails between their legs almost as soon as D-Day began.
Perhaps they had assessed the situation even more coldly than other governments, then left for Jeju after making the ruthless decision to abandon what could not be saved and preserve only what could.
Of course, if the people left behind ever learned the truth, nationwide riots would erupt immediately.
‘Then they would cut the electricity first.’
What government in the world would proudly advertise that it had abandoned its people?
Perhaps that was also why the government was gritting its teeth and maintaining security around the most vital infrastructure, including power plants and water facilities.
To keep the citizens remaining on the Korean Peninsula as quiet as possible until the relocation to Jeju Island was complete.
Once the oil reserves ran dry, the water supply, electricity, public security, roads, and literally everything else that constituted modern society would collapse.
By then, no one would dare protest against the government even if they wanted to.
The means to protest would no longer exist.
Except for SurvivalNet.
That aside, quite a few new settlers had recently entered our shelter as well.
According to the personnel office’s report, we had brought in a staggering 520 new settlers.
That figure included most of the researchers’ parents we had previously been unable to retrieve, along with other specialists brought in to operate the shelter.
“…That is a lot.”
Thanks to them, the shelter’s settler population shot up to around 2,100 all at once.
Of course, we had not admitted them into the shelter’s residential zone yet. They were being housed in temporary quarantine facilities set up between the blast doors.
Now that we had test kits capable of distinguishing infected people from the uninfected, we planned to admit them in stages after they underwent a nominal quarantine and ‘education.’
I had decided to accept people so proactively after gathering everyone’s opinions at an advisory meeting a few days earlier.
*****
“Administrator, there is something I would like to discuss with you.”
The ‘emotional’ faction among my staff advisers had made the following argument.
At present, all 138 Enigmas were responsible for critical facilities such as the power-generation complex housing the SMR, the communications department intercepting domestic communications, the operator department collating intelligence from satellites, surveillance nodes, and online communities, and the research laboratories. They also handled maintenance and expansion work on every facility in the shelter and were even responsible for the food-production equipment.
In other words, they had been assigned to literally every facility.
Naturally, Personnel Office Director Kim Mun-seok had not brought this up because he wanted some time off.
His point was that while deploying Enigmas to critical facilities was understandable, continuing to use ultra-expensive strategic androids worth 1.8 trillion won for menial labor in fields where humans could replace them was an enormous waste.
I agreed with him on that point.
We had tied the Enigmas down with work ordinary people could easily perform, leaving them unable to handle other tasks that could make full use of their capabilities.
More importantly, reallocating personnel that way would give us enough breathing room to send Enigmas outside instead of working them to their limits just to handle everything inside the shelter.
The fact that androids originally intended for ‘intelligence and field operations’ could not even leave the shelter because there was too much work inside was certainly putting the cart before the horse.
Personnel Office Director Kim Mun-seok’s argument did not end there.
“Moreover, conditions on the surface are changing drastically by the day. The harsh suppression operations by the Republic of Korea Armed Forces and the U.S. military, along with the riots by infected people, are killing or infecting highly skilled personnel on the surface every single day.”
Director Kim’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“Administrator, I would like you to consider this from a longer-term perspective. Accepting settlers will place a heavy burden on us for now, but the day will eventually come when the labor needed to utilize our resources is rarer than the resources themselves.”
“…”
He was right about that too.
I had felt this ever since confronting the epidemic apocalypse, but it was arrogant to assume that the trials posed by a game capable of ignoring every law of physics with a single click would be ‘reasonable.’
We therefore had to assume that the next disaster could be far more horrific than even the worst of the worst.
Accepting settlers would certainly impose a burden, but at least the risks were manageable within reasonable limits, and the returns were guaranteed.
If I refused to accept a risk I could manage now, I might face one I could not manage later.
Even if the settler population suddenly increased by hundreds or thousands, they could not defeat a Juggernaut. Even if the settlers secretly conspired among themselves, there was virtually no chance the Enigmas would fail to discover it in advance.
That convinced me.
“Then how many more do you want to bring in?”
“We require at least 1,500 more to achieve optimal efficiency.”
“Then go ahead.”
“…You are giving us permission?”
They kept mistaking me for someone who believed living alone was best, but as I had repeatedly said, I considered group survivalism far superior to individual survivalism as long as the other people could be trusted.
Nomads had formed tribes, and tribes had developed into nations precisely because doing so offered better odds of survival. Why would I deny a method proven over thousands of years?
I had only hesitated because I prioritized my own safety over developing the shelter.
And now, accepting settlers was directly tied to my safety.
*****
The meeting reached a single conclusion that day.
Before the end of March, we would bring in as many people as possible from outside with skills in fields where ordinary humans could replace the Enigmas, including construction work, internal facility maintenance, maintaining the helicopters and fighter jets we would operate in the future, running the oil refining facility, and educating the children.
By then, the shelter’s population would probably be well over 3,000.
Of course, we intended to use NIV test kits to screen out as many infected people as possible before bringing them in, so the risk of infections suddenly surging inside the shelter was effectively nonexistent.
Once that happened, we could send out the fifteen Enigmas purchased solely for intelligence operations.
Anyway, I decided to see the 520 people we had newly brought in and housed in the upper quarantine station for myself, even if only from a distance.
With a Juggernaut escorting me, there was no chance of a security issue, and this corridor was a secure zone accessible only to me and the androids, so there was no risk of anyone discovering my presence.
Of course, it was not because my body had grown stiff from spending every day cooped up in the central control room.
As the administrator, I simply believed I needed to see with my own eyes how effective the ongoing ‘education’ of the new settlers had been.
A leader had to do some legwork from time to time, after all.
*****
Not long ago, Kim Gyu-hyeok and the other civilians had inadvertently overheard the soldiers who brought them talking among themselves.
—Ah, yes, Chief Secretary.
That was not all. They had heard titles such as General and Director, titles that plainly belonged to important people, mentioned more than once.
They had entered blindfolded and did not know their exact location, but there were staggeringly enormous blast doors unlike anything they had ever seen or heard of, soldiers who could only be special forces personnel, and even ‘that thing’, which they were reluctant to mention aloud.
Putting all those facts together led to one conclusion.
This was a government-run shelter housing South Korea’s highest-ranking officials, including the Chief Secretary, generals with star insignia, and the National Research Institute Director.
‘I-I’m alive…! I made it! I’m going to live!’
For the first few days, Kim Gyu-hyeok and the other civilians cheered inwardly. As long as they remained here, at least they would not starve to death or be killed by infected people.
But after a few more days, one question suddenly arose.
‘B-but why me, of all people?’
Honestly, the people quarantined elsewhere did not seem particularly remarkable either…
There were no celebrities and no one who looked like a National Assembly member. Every one of them was an ordinary person one might encounter anywhere.
For now, they received plenty of food, medical staff occasionally came by to perform simple examinations, and everyone behaved themselves because no one knew when ‘that thing’ might appear. But that did not mean their worries had vanished.
Naturally, all their electronic devices had been confiscated, so all they could do inside their tiny isolation rooms was kill time with bodyweight exercises.
“Phew.”
Under those circumstances, it was perhaps only natural that Kim Gyu-hyeok turned on the small television mounted on the wall.
The television showed nothing but an endless stream of news, without so much as a single ordinary variety show.
The screen showed American cities burning under bombardment. Then came mosaic-blurred scenes of devastation from China and India, followed one after another by disasters and violence from around the world.
News of the outside world that he had known nothing about until now.
[As the NIV virus continues to spread worldwide, the governments of seven European countries, twenty-three Asian countries, all of South America except Brazil, and every country in Africa have collapsed.]
Kim Gyu-hyeok fell silent before the first sentence had even ended.
The following screen displayed the estimated numbers of infected people and deaths.
[Over the forty-seven days from January 23 to March 10, 2027, approximately 4.992 billion people worldwide were infected, more than 40 million of whom died.]
“…”
[This is a CNN report. On the 7th, every South American country whose infection rate had surpassed eighty percent issued a surprise declaration of war against Brazil. Brazil has lost its capital, Brasília, and government forces have reportedly retreated to their final defensive line at São Paulo…]
He changed the channel.
[Director of WHO’s Asia office considers scaling back development of an NIV treatment after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister. Denies respiratory transmission of NIV virus. “The virus is not as dangerous as people think.”]
He changed the channel again.
[China authorizes biological and chemical weapons. More than 50 million casualties.]
He changed it again.
[Japan People’s Party declares Osaka lockdown amid distrust of government response… Effectively launches independent infection-control regime]
…He changed it again.
[United Kingdom abandons human rights protections for infected people.]
He couldn’t…
[Russian Ministry of Health reports cases of continued muscle movement after loss of brainstem responses in people infected with NIV. Cause unknown.]
He could not get a single word out.
[Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare officially halts treatment development. All borders and airports reopened.]
His breath caught, and he could do nothing but open and close his mouth.
[Indian government collapses.]
All he could do was press the remote’s button again and again in an attempt to deny this horrific reality.
[France descends into anarchy. State control lost.]
[Germany orders the culling of all vertebrates, including infected people.]
[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms NIV infection in marine mammals and fish… Reports cases of increased aggression among infected specimens.]
Ah.
Kim Gyu-hyeok was not a stupid man.
He was a well-educated man who had completed both a master’s degree and a doctorate, and he therefore understood exactly what it meant that more than sixty percent of humanity had been infected in less than two months.
Humanity had already been destroyed.
It had been utterly defeated by a disease that engulfed its world overnight.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Kim Gyu-hyeok realized he had been holding his breath. Sprawled on the floor, he violently expelled the breath trapped in his lungs.
“Haaah, khh…!”
His chest heaved violently. From the room next door came the sound of someone else struggling to breathe, drawing short, desperate gasps.
The people in the other rooms had understood as well.
Ksssh-
At that moment, the ceaseless noise of the news abruptly cut off, and a calm voice entirely unlike anything before flowed from the television.
[As long as you do not abandon us, we will remain with you to the very end.]
Kim Gyu-hyeok raised his head from the floor.
The faint light cast by the television in the darkness illuminated his face.
[Welcome to the Ark.]
He had survived.
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