Chapter 45: Breaking Past the Critical Point
Translator: ShutDoor
February 23, 2027, 7:32 p.m.
Thud! Thud!
The heavy rumble of machinery filled the underground space as massive excavators and jumbo drills roared away.
Rrrrrrrumble!
This construction project was intended to secure extra space in advance for the eventual expansion of the hydroponics section. After all, the more food we could produce, the better.
‘That really is fast.’
Construction was progressing much faster than I had expected.
For one thing, the Enigmas, which could do practically anything except Research, operated the complex heavy machinery with ease, needing no instructions beyond a set of blueprints. Meanwhile, the rock fragments and debris produced in the process were loaded into containers and hauled away by large transport vehicles and Juggernauts.
Of course, this was granite bedrock, renowned for its hardness. No matter how much heavy equipment and how many state-of-the-art androids we deployed, there was a limit to how fast we could excavate it.
Still, that also meant we had built the shelter on exceptionally solid and stable bedrock, so I ought to look on the bright side.
Every type of terrain had its advantages and disadvantages. Considering the benefits granite offered, a little difficulty with expansion was more than tolerable.
As for the equipment for the new hydroponic growing facility, we decided to use the spare units I had purchased in advance.
For critical systems directly tied to the shelter’s survival, such as hydroponics, I had stocked ample backups for even the spare parts. Since the purchases had also accounted for future expansion, we had more than enough equipment.
The new hydroponic growing facility was expected to produce enough food for approximately 454 people.
We had predicted how much water the water-efficiency research would save, calculated how many additional servings of food we could produce with it, and sized the facility accordingly.
The shelter currently had so few settlers that we already had an abundance of water for daily use, so I saw no need to divert the water we saved toward domestic consumption.
Naturally, I had been building the shelter with this kind of phased expansion plan in mind from the very beginning.
The standard strategy in city-building games was to build as much as possible with the resources available at the start, then slowly prepare for expansion afterward.
If I had never intended to expand the facilities later, I would not have bought all that colossal heavy machinery in advance.
Vrrrrrrrrm!
A prime example was the colossal hard-rock TBM, or tunnel boring machine, currently grinding through the granite bedrock along one wall with an ungodly amount of noise.
How much had that thing cost again?
Ann, wearing a dust mask beside me, answered as though she had been waiting for the question.
“120.7 billion won, including the cost of spare parts.”
It was by far the most expensive piece of construction and excavation equipment in our maintenance hangar. We might spend the rest of our lives in an underground shelter, so surely owning one cutting-edge TBM was only natural.
…That aside, why was Ann bothering to wear a dust mask when there was no chance of dust entering her respiratory system?
“The researchers might find it strange otherwise.”
…I doubted any researchers could even enter this area while the Juggernauts were controlling access.
In any case, the current construction work consisted of two major projects.
The first was the hydroponics section expansion I had just mentioned.
The second was to bore a tunnel to a river approximately eleven kilometers from the shelter, one considered to be among the headwaters of the Han River.
Strictly speaking, we were not trying to connect our underground waterway to the river itself, but to the enormous groundwater aquifer deep beneath it.
Until now, I had delayed construction as long as possible. Excavating a massive tunnel several kilometers long would produce microvibrations and geological changes that could be picked up by government geologists’ monitoring networks, creating a high risk that the shelter’s location would be exposed…
But with the country on the verge of collapse, I decided there could no longer be anyone with enough time on their hands to watch subsurface seismic-wave measuring instruments or the microseismic monitoring network.
That might raise the question of why I had bothered researching water efficiency first when we were going to dig this tunnel anyway.
But there was a good reason for that too.
Our shelter’s state-of-the-art hard-rock TBM had an average daily advance rate of approximately twenty-five meters.
The nearest large-scale groundwater deposit was approximately eleven kilometers away. Even by the simplest calculation, that meant 440 days, or roughly one year and two months of construction.
Surprisingly, that was extraordinarily fast by civil engineering standards. Excavating an eleven-kilometer tunnel through hard granite bedrock would ordinarily take at least three years, even at the fastest pace.
Our workers, however, could operate the equipment around the clock without rest or even shift changes. Since every one of them was an expert in excavation and construction, their efficiency was exceptional as well.
We also had a surplus of spare parts to replace any critical components that wore out, so there was no reason to slow down to preserve the equipment’s lifespan.
In other words, even with every favorable condition in place, it was still a massive project that would take over a year.
“Once we connect to that groundwater deposit, however, we expect the shelter’s daily water supply to increase by approximately 2,000 tons. You should have considerably less cause to worry about water resources in the future.”
“I hope so.”
Of course, building a tunnel did not end with simply boring a hole.
This was different from simply clicking a button with Shelter Builder’s Construction function: we had to reinforce the ground carefully wherever necessary as excavation progressed to prevent the bedrock from collapsing. Junctions and large cavities that the TBM could not handle by itself also required separate excavation methods such as blasting.
Fortunately, I had anticipated and prepared for a project of this scale from the very beginning, so there were no unfortunate work stoppages caused by shortages of equipment or materials.
That brought the total number of major projects currently underway in the shelter to three.
The treatment-development project, expected to take approximately one hundred days. The tunnel project to secure a new groundwater supply, expected to take approximately one year. And <SurvivalNet>, the survivor-only community that had opened a few days ago.
Every one of them was important enough to determine the shelter’s future.
After spending some time touring the construction site and checking its progress, Ann and I moved to the conference room for a staff meeting.
The moment the meeting began, Personnel Office Director Kim Mun-seok opened the discussion in a forceful voice.
“The current distribution of occupations within the shelter is extremely unbalanced. Researchers and related personnel working in the research complex account for 92 percent of all residents, while we have virtually no one providing the basic everyday services required to sustain society. Beyond research, we need personnel in fields that cannot be replaced through automation alone, including medical assistance, cooking, childcare, and facility management.”
“Isn’t that unavoidable for the time being?”
Ann, who had been listening beside me, interjected.
“With the exception of education, the occupations Director Kim mentioned involve simple duties that most adults can perform after a certain amount of training. I see no need to take unnecessary risks by bringing in additional outsiders merely to secure personnel who can be replaced at any time.”
Director Kim nodded as though he understood, but steadfastly continued.
“Of course, I understand that. Even if we set the other issues aside, however, I believe we must firmly decide what to do about the shelter’s 431 children, who have been left largely to their own devices for the past month. The personnel office used to operate with six staff members, but four of them are now assigned to the tunnel project, leaving us understaffed.”
“Are you saying the remaining two of you cannot handle them?”
“I can keep them under control by myself.”
Kim Mun-seok looked directly at me rather than Ann and answered without the slightest hesitation.
“However, I understand that you brought the children here not merely to keep them under control, Administrator, but to raise them to become the workers who will lead the shelter’s industries ten or twenty years from now.”
He had a point. Games like this had to be approached with the loooooong term in mind.
As if he had read my thoughts, Kim Mun-seok paused briefly before adding with even greater conviction.
“If so, we must put a systematic curriculum in place, even if we’re only starting now. Merely protecting the children and letting them play in the playground will not accomplish our original objective.”
Rather than arguing, they were both explaining their respective opinions in a way that made it easy for me to understand what problems the shelter faced and what was needed to solve them.
Maybe it was because Director Kim was a staff adviser who leaned toward “emotion”, while Ann leaned toward “reason”.
I had deliberately created separate advisers to offer rational and emotional counsel precisely because I wanted to see discussions like this, so I was satisfied with the exchange itself.
Admittedly, worrying already about the children’s education, which would not bear fruit for another ten or twenty years, felt a little premature. Still, Director Kim’s true value would reveal itself once the shelter’s population grew, so I could let it slide for now.
Yet as I listened quietly to their conversation, it began to feel strangely familiar.
If this were a survival-management game, I felt as though three choices would appear, something like these.
「 1. Child education: Cultivate future talent through systematic education. 」
「 2. Child protection: Exempt children from education and labor, supporting their healthy development. 」
「 3. Child labor: Employ even children as workers for the sake of survival. 」
The moment that thought occurred to me, a chill ran down my spine.
In construction and management simulation games like this, wasn’t it common for workers to go on mass strikes or riot because their workloads were too heavy?
Whether the outside world was ending or not, human beings were the kind of creatures who would simply lie down and dare anyone to do something about it when put on a two-shift schedule of twelve hours per shift.
The fact that the 「Research」 tab had a separate notification specifically displaying the researchers’ morale made it clear that some related mechanic existed.
[ Resident morale (Morale): Outstanding ]
An event designed to screw the user over, that was.
Of course, our shelter would probably avoid any major problems unless I started acting like Dong Zhuo from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but there was no telling what might happen in other shelters or groups.
In any case, the choice I would make among those three had effectively already been decided.
“I believe I said that, for personnel other than researchers, we should prioritize people without family ties who can be brought in alone. Right?”
Ann answered at once.
“Correct.”
“Then let’s reassign some personnel from the tunnel project to external field duty and bring in the specialists we urgently need. We can tell whether they’re infected now with just a few tests, can’t we?”
“You believe this crisis will be prolonged, Administrator.”
Without a doubt.
If this were something that would end within ten or twenty years, the system would never have handed out one quadrillion won.
“Do you have a particular ideal in mind for what the children should become, Administrator?”
“Researchers, engineers, and soldiers.”
“Hmm. In that case, I will design a military academy-style curriculum around those fields.”
…Military academy-style?
Well, Director Kim was more of an expert than I was, so I was sure he knew what he was doing.
Anyway, that was enough worrying about children who would not be useful anytime soon.
“How is SurvivalNet doing?”
“The original post containing information about infected people has surpassed two million views, and the number of registered users has exceeded one hundred thousand.”
That was an incredible rate of growth, considering only four days had passed and all promotion had been confined to online communities.
If we included those who merely browsed the posts without registering, several million people might already know SurvivalNet existed.
General Kang, who was standing beside me, spoke in a deep voice.
“I have an additional matter to report.”
I gave him permission to speak.
“With the situation outside now extremely chaotic, the likelihood of the government discovering us has also dropped significantly. We can now carry out a large-scale personnel transport operation.”
“…Really?”
As I listened to General Kang’s crisp report, I shifted my gaze to the tablet he had handed me.
Sure enough, just as he had said, the military outposts and screening clinics that had occupied every street and alley stood empty, with only their distinctive white tents left behind.
The same scene was unfolding not only in Gangwon Province, but throughout the country. In some regions, soldiers were still hastily preparing to withdraw at that very moment.
Coldly brushing aside the medical workers who begged to be taken with them, the soldiers were driving armored vehicles and military transports toward the nearest major cities to regroup.
They had effectively abandoned the infection-control effort.
Over the past month, more than half the population had become infected.
The uninfected, having learned the danger posed by infected people all too painfully, no longer hesitated to use force to protect themselves. One by one, people barricaded themselves inside their homes and cut off all contact with the outside world.
Then how would infected people react once they began suffering severe fevers and seizures?
Craaaash!
The sound of a window shattering into pieces.
Open up, you fucking bitches!
Aagh! Aaaagh!
With hoarse shouts, groups of infected people brandishing crowbars and sledgehammers began mercilessly battering the securely locked doors of houses and apartments.
Before long, horrific screams erupted.
Bang! Ba-bang!
Military units that arrived belatedly to contain the chaos spreading uncontrollably across the country also continued carrying out suppression operations using firearms.
The ten thousand surveillance nodes we had installed across the country broadcast the same tragedy unfolding in different cities in real time.
If I had told them that a treatment would be ready if they could only hold out for another hundred days, could I have stopped them?
Message from Anonymous12: I am South Korea’s Minister of Health and Welfare.
Message from Anonymous12: I would like you to share your research findings regarding the NIV virus with us confidentially. Please reply if you are willing to cooperate.
Message from Anonymous12: Once their authenticity has been verified, the government will ensure the safety of you, your family, and your fellow researchers.
“…”
I already knew the answer.
That day, more people died than anyone could count.
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