Chapter 26: Entering the Shelter
Translator: ShutDoor
The superhero Batman’s secret base had its entrances to the outside world thoroughly concealed.
The depiction varied somewhat between versions, but sometimes it was disguised as the rock face of a vast cavern or hidden behind a waterfall, and other times an entire section of cliff simply lifted out of the way.
I had taken inspiration from that for the concealed entrance newly added to my shelter.
“Opening the entrance.”
Rrrrrrrumble!
A heavy mechanical roar sounded and the ground began to hum beneath me as a whole section of the cliff I had taken for part of the massive mountain range started to rise.
It was an unreal sight, as though the cliff itself were opening a gigantic maw. Twigs and clumps of dirt showered down from its surface through the widening gap.
Boom!
Once the rock-face camouflage shutter finally locked into place overhead, the enormous arched tunnel I had designed in the earliest stages slowly revealed itself.
It was enormous and dark.
Click! Click! Click! Cliiiick!
Before long, however, the lights along the dark tunnel’s ceiling flickered one after another, then began switching on like falling dominoes, starting farthest from the entrance.
Fwoosh!
The interior instantly brightened as though it had never been dark at all.
The tunnel’s winding design kept me from seeing all the way to its deepest point, but the lights coming on so smoothly suggested the power facilities were working properly.
“Let’s go. I’ll show you around.”
I followed Ann, who had volunteered to be my guide, farther inside.
Clomp, clomp.
Maybe it was because we were in a tunnel, but even when I tried to walk quietly, my footsteps echoed loudly.
I ran my fingertips over the inner wall’s smoothly finished special military-grade concrete and steel framework, once again taking stock of the tunnel’s dimensions.
At this size, even heavy construction equipment or tanks weighing dozens of tons should be able to pass through without trouble.
Around the time we reached the middle of the tunnel, Ann, walking ahead of me, spoke calmly.
“Administrator, General Kang says he would like to try closing the concealed entrance.”
Apparently, he wanted to check how large a gap appeared between the rock face and the camouflage shutter when viewed from outside.
I granted permission without hesitation.
Rrrrrrrumble!
I stopped where I was and quietly watched the enormous entrance we had just come through descend again.
Boom—!
Another dull tremor reverberated beneath my feet, and a moment later, General Kang’s concise report arrived on the tactical tablet.
[No gaps or defects detected.]
In the photograph General Kang had taken, the camouflage was so perfect that no amount of searching could reveal where the door ended and the cliff began.
Just to be sure, I felt along the closed wall from the inside, but its seams interlocked perfectly, like pieces of an intricate puzzle.
I was convinced.
At this level, the special forces could raise all the hell they wanted and still never find it.
“I’m glad you’re satisfied.”
“Let’s hurry up and see the rest.”
“Understood.”
Unable to hide my excitement, I resumed walking deeper into the tunnel.
As originally conceived, the tunnel had been designed with multiple bends in an S-shaped layout to prevent direct fire from reaching inside.
The last corner in particular turned nearly ninety degrees, making it physically impossible for enemies to fire beyond it even if they breached the camouflaged door, unless an intruder personally stuck their head around the corner.
And waiting just around that corner was…
Hssss—
A monstrous primary blast door, nine meters wide and seven meters tall, stood there in imposing silence, its massive surface casting back a dark metallic sheen beneath the ceiling lights.
While I marveled at its overwhelming grandeur, Ann tapped her tablet screen several times.
Vrrrrrrrr—
With a deep vibration, the massive door that looked as though it could never possibly open began moving slowly under hydraulic pressure.
I had designed it myself, but seeing the real thing left me in awe of its sheer size.
“Oh, whoa…!”
“I’ll continue the tour.”
Beyond the primary blast door lay a fairly spacious concrete section. If outside expeditions became possible in the future, it would house a quarantine station where returning reconnaissance personnel could be examined and a secure guardhouse.
Had I put this off early on to build other facilities? I should construct these as soon as I had the time.
At the far end of the section stood a secondary blast door with exactly the same specifications as the one we had just passed through.
It was a failsafe in case the monster behind us was ever breached. If I remembered correctly, a double-door system like this could even withstand a direct nuclear strike.
In that sense, the shelter proper could be said to begin beyond the second blast door.
Hissss—
The second blast door opened with a hydraulic hiss, and we boarded the enormous freight elevator at the end.
The blast doors had been huge, but this elevator was freaking enormous. Without exaggeration, it looked big enough to practice the triple jump inside.
“How many people did you say this could carry at once?”
“Its maximum load is 300 tons. In terms of passengers, it can transport up to 600 people.”
Apparently, it was the sort of freight elevator used at actual industrial sites.
Since I had no way of knowing the size of the equipment and supplies that would eventually move in and out of the shelter, I had designed it to be as large as possible from the start.
Clank.
Only after descending six hundred meters vertically were we able to step out of the elevator.
The first thing I saw upon leaving the elevator was a pristine corridor whose surfaces flowed together seamlessly, without a single visible gap.
The corridor’s floor was far cleaner than the concrete we had seen aboveground. At the far end stood the access control checkpoint that everyone had to pass through to enter the recreation facilities and residential zone.
“Following General Kang’s advice, this facility will be operated by teams of three.”
I decided to consider later whether to station Juggernauts there or fill it with less expensive military robots.
The moment we passed through the access control checkpoint, the rough military concrete floor gave way to gleaming white marble.
We walked on for perhaps another thirty seconds.
Fwoosh—
The ceiling suddenly soared to a staggering height, and the space before me seemed to burst wide open.
This was the central square of the recreation facilities, built at a cost of 160 trillion won.
The first things to catch my eye were the stately old-fashioned clock tower in the center of the square, the vast artificial pond, and the green lawns and urethane sports field stretching broadly around them.
And enveloping all of it from dozens of meters overhead was a night sky.
“…Holy crap.”
The night sky was so exquisitely rendered that even I, despite knowing it was fake and made from LED panels, was fooled for a moment.
“That thing actually runs on electricity…?”
“It does consume a commensurate amount of power.”
Still, it certainly seemed worth it.
Who could ever have imagined seeing the night sky hundreds of meters underground?
It really did feel like looking up at the night sky from inside a domed stadium.
Thanks to that, the ceiling created an extraordinary sense of openness despite being a mere(?) few dozen meters high.
It felt as though the space opened all the way to the real sky.
Furthermore, the recreation facilities had been designed to connect naturally with the residential zone, making the already vast area seem even larger by blending it with the adjoining space.
What expressions would be on the future residents’ faces when they entered this place? Imagining it sent an involuntary thrill down the back of my neck.
“The air’s a little stale, though.”
“You will need to wait about two more days for the air to be completely purified.”
I wondered if I should wear a mask or something, but she said that was not necessary. Apparently, she had checked the air quality before we even entered.
That was Ann for you.
*****
After finishing our tour of the recreation facilities, we headed straight for the residential zone.
A large park and walking trails fit naturally into the surroundings along the way.
Running a hand over the ground revealed the distinctive scratchy texture of artificial grass, but we could hardly waste precious water on real lawns, so I would have to live with it.
“Hmm.”
Once I gained access to 「Research」, I would have to start by finding some way to improve our water efficiency.
The residential zone consisted of rows of ten-story apartment buildings.
There were five entrances visible on each floor, meaning each building contained fifty households. Accommodating two thousand households would therefore require forty apartment buildings.
But there were actually slightly more than forty buildings in sight. That was because I had built apartments in a variety of sizes to account for households that did not consist of four people.
“Your room is this way, Administrator.”
We opened the door and entered one of the apartments intended for single-person households like mine.
It was an eight-pyeong studio apartment, more than spacious enough for one person to live in. The interior also had the clean feel of a high-end studio apartment. [TL Note: One pyeong is approximately 3.3 square meters.]
The bed was suitably soft and looked sturdy enough that it would not break easily.
The wardrobe was plenty large enough for one person, and the apartment came fully equipped with a private bathroom, a kitchenette for preparing simple meals, and everything else one might expect to find in a studio apartment.
‘Not bad.’
Anyone who received this much and still caused trouble in the shelter seriously needed to reflect on their behavior.
Seriously, in an apocalypse, living conditions like these were heaven on earth. (They did come with listening devices, though.) Heaven.
Naturally, to conserve as much water as possible, the ordinary toilet had been replaced with the sort of vacuum toilet normally used on space stations.
Fwoosh!
I tried using it once out of curiosity, and it felt even stranger than I had expected.
Naturally, the sink and shower could not be used without restriction either.
An ordinary household shower used roughly fifty liters of water in five minutes. Even assuming that each of the 6,720 residents showered only once per day, that would require a staggering 300,000 liters.
I already lacked enough water to expand the hydroponics facilities. I could not allow precious water to be wasted on something like showers.
Therefore, showers were limited to once a day for five minutes. At least hot water was freely available during that time.
“The water used here will be recycled directly through the water supply and sewerage facilities.”
“Even so, we should conserve as much as we can.”
I had managed thirty-second showers in the military, so if everyone adapted, surely they could make it work somehow.
Anyway, the reason I had come into this eight-pyeong studio instead of the spacious twenty-five-pyeong home was simple.
For one thing, this studio was on the lowest floor, at the farthest end of the most remote apartment building, which made it difficult to reach. In other words, the chances of anyone coming this far even by accident were extremely low.
So if one of the many residential units was going to conceal a passage to my real home, the central control room, I had decided this was the right place for it.
“Say anything to the bathroom wall and it will open.”
I went back into the bathroom.
The ceramic-coated wall looked perfectly ordinary. I tapped every section, listening for any change in sound, and only spoke after confirming there was nothing unusual.
“Open up.”
Nothing happened.
When I turned to Ann, she had taken out her tablet and was entering commands I could not understand.
A moment later, part of the wall containing the mirror and sink slid sideways.
“Let’s go.”
“…Did you just trick me?”
“Once personnel have been assigned to the central control room, you really will be able to open it this way using voice recognition alone.”
“…”
After we had walked along the long, narrow corridor for several minutes, a security door that looked thick and solid even at a glance came into view.
“Only you may proceed beyond this point, Administrator.”
—Beep! Please complete iris authentication.
Sure enough, a mechanical voice sounded from the speaker.
Still skeptical, I brought my eye up to the iris scanner.
—Authentication complete. Welcome, Administrator.
Ann walked quickly through first and had already summoned the elevator beyond the security door.
“Let’s get in.”
I followed Ann into the elevator. It seemed much faster than the one we had ridden earlier, and we plunged hundreds of meters in moments, leaving my ears feeling slightly blocked.
Hissss— Thud.
The elevator doors slid smoothly aside, and air far cleaner than before rushed deep into my lungs.
Flash!
At the same time, the dark screens ahead all blazed to life with blue light, shining brightly enough to dazzle me.
At last, I had arrived at the central control room.
The home where I would live until the day I died.
⚬──────────✧──────────⚬
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