Chapter 19: 18 Days Remaining
Translator: ShutDoor
Dawn in the mountains was bitterly cold in winter.
I had a heater and hand warmers inside the tent, even a thick mattress spread across the floor, but a tent was still a tent, and none of it could completely keep the cold from seeping in.
Still, perhaps because I’d spent more than ten days practically sleeping rough, I no longer shivered quite so pitifully in the predawn cold, like a newborn fawn.
“Administrator.”
“Th-Th-Thanks…”
Though my words did come out painfully slowly because my teeth were chattering uncontrollably.
“…Are you certain you have adapted?”
I blew on the warm canned coffee a couple of times. Instead of responding to Ann’s lukewarm reaction, I hurriedly drank it.
As the hot liquid flowed down my throat, I finally began to feel alive again.
“How cold did it get last night?”
“The wind chill was minus fifteen degrees Celsius.”
“Ugh.”
No wonder it had felt especially cold.
Apparently concerned by the sight of me, Ann added something else.
“I believe you have spent quite long enough sleeping outside. If security concerns are the reason, I will arrange a separate solution.”
I answered calmly.
“I don’t think I’ll come back out once I go inside.”
I would take shelter inside if things became truly dangerous, but I wanted to remain outside as long as possible. The scenery was rather nice too.
Besides, I wanted to see the completed shelter all at once later.
It wouldn’t be any fun if I started looking halfway through.
“…Understood.”
Ann made no further attempt to persuade me.
In any case, it seemed Ann had stayed up all night designing the research facilities.
“Do you need more time?”
“I finished two hours ago.”
“You did?”
I drained the canned coffee in one gulp and examined the blueprints Ann had brought up on the monitor.
“…Whoa.”
The blueprints drew a groan from me before I could stop it.
‘What even is this?’
Water pipes and electrical wiring were only the beginning. Every inch of the plans was packed with all kinds of piping and equipment, and I had no idea where I was supposed to start.
At least Ann had separately written down the purpose of each facility and descriptions of its major equipment, so I could more or less tell what everything was.
‘How much is all this going to cost?’
There was a dark matter detector for the space science building, along with all sorts of research equipment whose names I had never even heard before.
One piece of research equipment stood out in particular.
“Can we even use this particle accelerator…?”
My research building had an honest-to-goodness particle accelerator.
“It is essential for advanced research, and I built it after determining that the power generated within the shelter would be sufficient to operate it.”
Apparently, more money had gone into it than into any other piece of equipment in my research buildings.
I wondered whether we truly needed one, but South Korea apparently had as many as five, so I ultimately decided to build it.
There were no fewer than twenty-three zones designed for specific research purposes, with dozens of enclosed corridors connecting them like a spiderweb.
As someone with no expertise in the field, even copying the plans was almost more than I could handle.
But what choice did I have? I was the only person who could operate the system. If I had my way, I would dump this job on someone else too.
“I will explain the plans to you, so let us begin immediately.”
“Okay.”
I let out one short but forceful sigh, then gripped the mouse with grim resolve.
Time to work myself to death again.
*****
After four hours of concentrating until my eyes nearly burst, I successfully completed about a third of the research facilities.
Winter was already dry enough, and staring wide-eyed at a monitor out in the cold genuinely made me feel as if my eyes were about to fall out.
“Please take a short break.”
Unable to let even my break go to waste, I kept an eye on the state of the world while making do with cup noodles for lunch.
In the mornings and at lunchtime, I mainly checked the news to track developments in different countries. Before bed, I gathered information from survivalist communities at home and abroad.
Naturally, I devoted every other waking moment entirely to Shelter Builder.
I did not limit myself to South Korean news either. I subscribed online to everything from global broadcasters such as the BBC, CNN, and ABC to more old-fashioned newspapers. There was no telling where an important piece of information might surface.
Today’s main topic was extreme weather.
[No fewer than 104 tornadoes have occurred across Portugal. Most had little impact, but several developed into F3 tornadoes, leaving thirty people injured…]
Tornadoes were reportedly breaking out simultaneously across Spain, Portugal, and nearby regions.
Tornadoes in the middle of winter were not actually all that unusual. In the central United States, strong pressure differences and atmospheric instability sometimes produced tornadoes even during winter.
The problem was that these tornadoes had occurred in Southern Europe, along the Mediterranean Sea.
Europe had not even possessed a word for tornadoes until Spanish conquistadors witnessed them in the Americas. Yet now they were breaking out in localized areas throughout the Mediterranean.
Fortunately, no one had died in the current outbreak yet, but the damage was expected to keep growing as the tornadoes continued.
Meanwhile, France still had not lifted its national state of emergency.
[My fellow citizens, today, we… the suspect in the New Year’s Eve terrorist attack…]
That was because the terrorist responsible for hundreds of casualties, including the Minister of the Interior, during the New Year’s Eve celebration still had not been captured.
The UN was also treating the incident with the utmost seriousness. In an unusually rapid response, even France’s neighboring countries had imposed stringent border controls and were cooperating in the hunt for the terrorist.
Then today, France’s national police, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, issued a new announcement.
After examining every dashcam recording and CCTV feed within a five-kilometer radius of the New Year’s Eve venue, investigators had identified eight suspicious individuals. They had also miraculously managed to recover footage from the dashcam of a vehicle caught in the explosion.
Pranoei: VIVA FRANCE (French flag emoji)
wamims: America stands with France. Having suffered through 9/11 ourselves, we share France’s pain, and the terrorist will surely be brought to justice.
ukleon: Seven-year-old Léa lost her grandparents, her parents, and every one of her relatives overnight. She is now in a coma.
Kronbopulos774: How has that goddamn terrorist still not been caught?
qpv: The French Ministry of Education has ordered all elementary, middle, and high school classes to be held remotely in preparation for possible further attacks. Nothing this terrible has happened since World War II.
[Deleted user]: Fucking president. Why is he hiding that Muslims did this?
englishmuse: God, please help France.
Meanwhile, the wildfire in Italy had already been raging for five days. Following the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires in the United States, it was said to be the second-largest wildfire of the past twenty years.
“…”
Seeing one tragedy after another like this dispelled my complacent thought that perhaps this much preparation would be enough and snapped me back to my senses, as if someone had dumped cold water over my head.
It only convinced me that none of the preparations I was making were excessive.
For now, all the chaos was confined to Europe, but it would hardly be strange if disasters like these struck South Korea at any moment.
No.
At this point, it almost felt as though Europe was getting its bad luck out of the way early while Northeast Asia sat squarely in the eye of the storm.
Northeast Asia had China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, and even the U.S. Seventh Fleet tangled together, yet it was this quiet?
That. Made. No. Sense.
The moment it became virtually certain that the game had been released worldwide, I grew convinced that the U.S. government had been responsible for taking down the American community ten days ago. ZOMBIE_MAN had probably been abducted because of this game as well, though I did not know which country’s government was responsible.
That meant the governments of the United States, South Korea, China, Japan, and perhaps even North Korea definitely knew about Shelter Builder.
Anyone exposed as a purchaser of the game would be abducted. If even the United States, the supposed embodiment of liberal democracy, abducted people, then what about China?
It would be even worse, certainly not better.
‘I’ll have to be even more careful.’
The disappearance of the people who had openly posted about Shelter Builder shortly after the game’s release was surely connected to this as well.
In any case, that seemed like enough of a break.
“Phew.”
The moment I rose from my seat, I threw myself back into constructing the research buildings. The section I was building now was the virology research building.
I was putting particular care into the virology research building because it was the facility most directly connected to the apocalypse that might be coming.
It was designed with not only outbreaks of infectious disease in mind, but even an unscientific(?) apocalypse such as a zombie outbreak.
Even if we failed to develop a vaccine, we would need to determine at the very least how the infection spread and how to prevent it if we wanted to survive.
That was why the virology research building even included rather ominous features such as isolation rooms and restraints.
To name just a few of its core internal facilities:
First was the BSL-4 highest-risk pathogen containment zone, designed to handle the deadliest infectious diseases. If a pathogen emerged that even this place could not contain, I supposed we would all just die together like one big happy family.
Second was the negative-pressure infectious disease patient care room, where patients suspected of infection could be isolated from the outside world and observed. Unlike the infirmary that would be built later, this room would focus more on research than treatment.
Finally, there was the emergency fully sealed isolation zone.
It was a space designed to physically isolate part or all of the research building if a large-scale outbreak occurred or an uncontrollable accident occurred inside.
In addition to these major installations, roughly forty-seven smaller specialized systems were packed throughout the virology research building.
‘My money’s melting away.’
Perhaps because it was all already included in the 200-trillion-won budget, I had reached the point where I simply shrugged it off even when trillions vanished.
The problem was that after repeating the process for hours, my brain was melting along with the money.
Ann immediately reprimanded me.
“Administrator, the emergency fully sealed isolation zone must be placed farther inside than you have it on the blueprint.”
“Oh.”
If even I was getting this confused while directly copying the blueprints Ann had made, how would an ordinary person fare?
No one without considerable expertise would even dare attempt it.
Only after sixteen straight hours of grueling, suffocating drudgery did I finally finish constructing every research building.
“…How many hours have I been awake today?”
“You have been awake for eighteen hours.”
“I didn’t even eat after a certain point…”
In any case, I had reached my limit for the day. Even if I wanted to keep going, I was too physically drained.
‘Ugh.’
This was harder than the time I had gone through field training in the army and tried to earn some leave by traveling seventy meters along a single rope from an eight-meter cliff, rubbing my skin raw in the process.
Even after the skin on my chest and groin split open, I had forced myself onward in tears, yet they still had not given me the leave. Those fucking officers. If they never intended to give it to me, they should have said so from the start.
I lay down inside the tent, struggling to keep my drowsy eyes from closing.
“…Could you handle the final inspection?”
“Yes. You worked hard today as well.”
I did not even have the strength to browse the survivalist communities tonight. The intensity of the concentration required had been on an entirely different level than usual.
…Still, should I take just a quick look before bed?
I immediately entered the Telegram chat room.
Cham170: Honestly, I am a little curious about how the apocalypse will start
Anonymous: I’ve given up on building a shelter and I’m just stockpiling as much food as possible at home. If the nukes come, I guess I’ll die;;
Lupin720: Honestly, the only realistic scenarios are nuclear war or a natural disaster, right? Rising sea levels from global warming, maybe, but I doubt an ice age is coming.
Anonymous: Can anyone recommend a generator?
Arrow300: I went ahead and set up a little hydroponics room ^^
After seeing them so many times, I had grown rather familiar with the handles.
“…”
I could feel someone staring at me disapprovingly, but I had finished everything I needed to do and this was my break, so I had no reason to feel guilty.
HangukUniversity188cm80kg18cm330: Good night, everyone 🙂
Anonymous: Royal bro!
Cham170: Wait, you’re going to bed already at this hour?
What kind of person said someone going to bed at three in the morning was turning in early?
“If you mean that user, I have confirmed that they reside in the eastern United States.”
Oh, they lived in the United States?
No wonder they had always seemed especially optimistic and disinclined to plan ahead. Apparently, there was a reason for it.
Then again, who would have expected anyone here to live in the United States?
But I planned to stay holed up in South Korea for the rest of my life, so Cham170 and I would probably never meet in person.
‘Time for bed.’
Unfortunately, I did not fall asleep easily that night.
「[Exclusive] Massive Explosion and Fire at Saudi Royal Palace… Crown Prince and Numerous Senior Royals Dead」
「Global Oil Prices Soar, Second Terrorist Attack This Year After France」
A colossal explosion reminiscent of the New Year’s Eve attack in France burned Al Yamamah Palace in Saudi Arabia to the ground without leaving a trace.
Global oil prices surged, conspiracy theories blaming Iran spread across social media, and the French government publicly announced that the methods matched those used in the attack on its own soil.
Anonymous: Motherf…
Anonymous: Is there anyone who might let me live with them in their shelter?
Anonymous: Guys, I’ll give you all the money I have. Can’t someone make room for me?
No one answered.
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