Chapter 7: A Game Where Survival Isn’t Enough
Translator: ShutDoor
Since I had no desire to stick something weird into my brain, I decided to search for the robot I wanted myself.
Robots could be broadly divided into two categories.
Industrial models used for everything from simple labor to manufacturing, research, and construction, and combat models specialized in settlement defense, raids, and sabotage.
Some of them had already been deployed by modern militaries, like the ones below…
[ ■ Reconnaissance units ]
⦁Specter Robotics Vision 70
⦁ Description: A quadrupedal robot that patrols difficult terrain such as mountains, gravel, snow-covered roads, and stairs.
⦁ Unit price: 220 million won
⦁ Status: [Available for purchase]
⦁Reinmetall Mission Master
⦁ Description: An 8×8 amphibious unmanned ground platform. It can be equipped with 70 mm rocket pods or guided missiles to support main battle tanks and infantry units.
⦁ Unit price: 6 billion won
⦁ Status: [Available for purchase]
.
.
.
…But mixed among them were wildly unrealistic machines packed with technology that was obviously futuristic even at a glance.
[ ■ Industrial/civilian androids ]
⦁I-3 Maestro series
⦁ Description: A high-end unit that replicates the delicate craftsmanship of a human artisan. Possessing limited self-awareness and an aesthetic sense, it can optimize blueprints and sometimes produce results beyond anything imagined.
⦁ Unit price: 270 billion won (unmet requirements penalty applied)
⦁ Status: [Available for purchase without penalty once facility and technology requirements are met]
Just in case, I scoured every other field to see whether there were any other ‘futuristic’ products besides robots, but I couldn’t find a single one.
‘What’s with this all of a sudden?’
If the game had only let me use things already developed in the real world until now, why make an exception solely for robotics?
One thing was certain: ‘Shelter Builder’ wasn’t such a conveniently accommodating game. There had to be a reason, but I had no idea what it was.
‘Tsk.’
I might not have understood anything else, but I had figured out what the ‘penalty’ listed above meant. Overpowered models that couldn’t be created with modern technology incurred an unmet technology penalty, apparently forcing me to pay dozens of times the normal price or more.
It said I needed a nanofabrication laboratory and some other incomprehensible things to buy one at the normal price. Since I had never heard of any of them in my life, this really did seem to be future technology.
Besides the insane price, there were no refunds and I couldn’t repair it myself, but the game seemed to be saying I could buy one if I was prepared to accept all those risks.
If I didn’t like it, I could raise my tech level through the 「Research」 tab and pay the proper price.
‘Research?’
Right. That existed.
On the off chance it might work, I went straight to the Research tab. I wondered if I could brute-force research with money too.
The answer was no.
[ Research ]
「Research is primarily conducted in a research laboratory and requires specialist personnel and advanced equipment.」
▶ Nationality: South Korea
▶ Technology grade: Advanced information society (high-tech age)
[ National traits and modifiers ]
◈ Technology gap penalty exemption
+ Thanks to its developed R&D infrastructure, South Korea is exempt from the ‘unexplored technology penalty’ incurred when researching technology from the modern and high-tech ages.
◈ High-tech specialization (bonus)
+ Research speed is slightly increased in certain high-tech fields, including IT, electronics engineering, communications, and semiconductors.
◈ Weak basic science foundation (penalty)
– Pure academic disciplines lag behind applied technology, increasing the funding required to develop foundational technologies.
◈ Medical field bias (penalty)
– Recruiting advanced science and engineering researchers is more difficult and costly, but advanced medical professionals can be secured with relative ease.
Oh, right. This was a game for autists.
Judging by the densely packed status window, each country probably had different traits.
Africa, with its weaker scientific capabilities, might research technology extremely slowly; manufacturing powers like Germany might produce higher-quality goods; and China might manufacture things quickly but with lots of defects.
In short, our country’s advanced semiconductor technology gave us a bonus in related fields, while we suffered a penalty in pure science.
The system apparently even reflected the reality that medicine was valued more highly than science and engineering by making doctors relatively easy to recruit.
‘They sure nailed the Hell Joseon realism.’
In any case, it seemed that conducting 「Research」 absolutely required a researcher who had majored in the relevant field.
Would I have to raid a prestigious university once the apocalypse broke out?
Whatever else happened, this seemed like content I could only attempt after combing through graduate labs, kidnapping every master’s and doctoral student I could find, and then handing them perfect research facilities.
Unless the user happened to be a specialist in the field.
‘This is obviously mid-to-late-game content. Am I supposed to start raising my tech level once the shelter is established?’
Like Frostpunk or RimWorld, it seemed to combine a construction simulator with a technology system.
Whatever else might be unclear, I could tell for certain that the system was thoroughly steering players toward group survival rather than solo play.
Requiring me to bring in researchers just to raise my tech level practically forced me to form a group.
But how could I easily bring in just one researcher? They were human too, so they would want to take care of their families. Assuming an ordinary family of four, bringing in only ten researchers would already mean forty people to feed. I was alone, while they would form a group of forty.
Could I really control them? I didn’t think so.
Time to do some calculations.
First, I had spent exactly 38.985 trillion won on the entrance and power-generation facility.
Even the power-generation facility, which was sure to consume the largest share of the budget, had cost less than 40 trillion won. Large hydroponic growing facilities, research laboratories, server rooms, the central control room, and the like would clearly cost far less.
Originally, I had planned to spend around 500 trillion won, half my total budget, solely on shelter construction. I could make the shelter larger by investing more money, but I believed equipping the interior with the best facilities was more important.
Anyway, assuming I invested around 150 trillion won in the interior facilities and kept about 100 trillion in reserve in case something went wrong, I would have roughly 250 trillion won left.
I had planned to invest that money in security equipment from the start.
What if I invested that entire, enormous sum in military power?
Wouldn’t it be all right to bring in a few scientists then?
‘Hmm.’
First, I should search the Shop for anything useful.
Besides, the sudden appearance of those ‘futuristic’ products bothered me.
*****
With the advent of AI, the already rapid advancement of human science accelerated even further.
Humanity could now process vast quantities of data that no person would ever have dared tackle, and create a convincing picture with a single click.
Most astonishing of all was that even ordinary people could easily enjoy all these benefits.
Then just how advanced was the technology of the companies providing such AI services to the public? If one of those companies cooperated fully with a government to analyze a single piece of software, how many days would it take? A month? A week? Three days? Or… one day?
But no one could have expected to face the devastating result: [Unable to interpret].
“…”
South Korea was a semiconductor powerhouse, and its AI technology currently ranked among the top five in the world. Even a conservative estimate placed its technological gap with the United States at only 3.2 years.
Of course, given that this was an advanced field, three years might as well have been an eternity. Even so, South Korea was more than competitive by global standards.
Yet the country’s researchers and engineers had devoted themselves to one piece of software and failed to analyze it.
The government official in charge of the case approached the laboratory and asked,
“Have you made any progress?”
The lead researcher, who had been glaring at the vast quantities of data on the monitor, shook their head.
“First, we cross-validated structures ‘constructed’ by the software using several different instruments. Everything from their crystal structures to their isotopic ratios matched ordinary concrete perfectly. We’ve also finished testing materials such as wood, stone, and glass, in addition to cement.”
“Is that important information?”
“It is. At the very least, it means we’ve established that this isn’t a hologram or a simple optical illusion.”
“Then is that good?”
The researcher glanced at the samples in the glass bottles, then shook their head.
“The truth is, if this much concrete suddenly appeared out of thin air without warning, it should leave substantial physical traces in its surroundings. At least, according to the conventional wisdom of modern physics.”
“What?”
“Matter suddenly appeared, so we need to know where the atoms composing it came from. If it gathered nearby matter and reassembled it, the composition of the soil or atmosphere should have changed. Conversely, if it truly emerged from nothing, we should have observed a corresponding amount of energy or some other physical phenomenon…”
The researcher paused.
“…But so far, we haven’t observed anything.”
The government official’s expression stiffened subtly.
“For a while, we even considered the hypothesis that ultrafine nanomachines, too small to see with the naked eye, gathered atoms from the surrounding air and soil and reassembled them into matter, but…”
As technical terms began pouring out, the government official frowned and waved a hand.
“Can you explain it in simpler terms?”
“…Then let’s set aside things like the laws of science for a moment.”
The young researcher took a moment to choose their words, then brought over a nearby chair.
“Let’s say there’s a chair here.”
The researcher pointed at the chair.
“But this chair suddenly appeared in a space that had been empty until a moment ago. Where would the air that originally occupied this space go?”
“…It would be pushed aside.”
“Exactly. Since the chair appeared in an instant, the air would have to be pushed away just as quickly. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that speed exceeded the speed of sound, although it would actually be far faster. In any case, that would cause a sonic boom, correct?”
When the government official nodded, the researcher played a video file.
On the screen, a skinny man sat before a laptop, his entire body rigid with tension. He was a self-reporting user.
A researcher appeared on one side of the screen, standing behind reinforced glass.
—Mr. Kim Yeong-cheol? You said you could purchase furniture as well as buildings, correct? What do you have?
—Uh… an IKEA desk?
—Let’s try that this time.
The self-reporting user clicked the mouse, and a desk materialized in midair. There was not even a faint noise, much less a sonic boom. The special camera installed to detect changes in entropy registered nothing either. They repeated the experiment several times afterward using more than a dozen types of precision observation equipment, but made no progress.
The despair on the scientists’ faces alone made the situation at the time easy to imagine.
—You’re saying this thing has spread all over the world? To civilians, no less?
—Fuck.
—If it can disregard the laws of physics to this extent, couldn’t ‘Construction’ be used inside a human body too? Hell, all someone would have to do is put a single bolt or nut inside a vital organ…
—Hey, don’t say such gruesome things. That’s disgusting.
—We still need to test it.
The self-reporting user cautiously raised a hand toward the people behind the reinforced glass.
—Excuse me? You’re really going to reimburse me in cash for however much I spend in the game when this is over, right?
The researchers answered that they would. The video ended there.
The video led to a single conclusion.
The software was causing phenomena that modern physics could not explain.
“We need more sam… I mean, more self-reporting users. And more personnel.”
The government official noticed that the researcher had nearly called a person a sample, but gave no outward sign.
“Why do you need more personnel?”
“At first, we had the self-reporting user demolish the structures himself, but it cost more than expected. So we decided to handle demolition separately with outside workers. Also, the range of items available for purchase seems to differ between self-reporting users. We need to investigate that separately as well.”
“They can purchase different kinds of items?”
This time, an engineer nodded.
“Mr. Kim Yeong-cheol, the man in that video, started with 2.3 billion won, correct? The first self-reporting user had a little over 200 million. Our sample size is still far too small, so this is only speculation, but we suspect that a larger amount of initial funds may progressively unlock higher tiers of products for purchase. And there’s something else…”
*****
In 2026, China commercialized a domestic robot made to look exactly like a human. Of course, it couldn’t walk around like an ordinary humanoid robot, but its AI model allowed it to hold simple conversations.
Even its skin texture was replicated fairly convincingly, making it difficult to distinguish from a human at a distance of roughly five meters.
That might have been enough to fool children, but it wasn’t enough for me.
Even if I brought in outside researchers, I needed to show them that this many ‘people’ were on my side and had my back. Otherwise, they might get ideas.
That meant the robots either had to look so perfectly human that even intelligent people like researchers wouldn’t realize they were machines, or they had to make people believe someone was inside them, like Space Marines.
Naturally, neither was possible with modern technology…
Amazingly, however, the Shop had products to fit either description!
Their only drawback was that they were eye-wateringly expensive. They probably hadn’t been cheap to begin with, but the real reason for those absurd price tags seemed to be the ‘unmet technology penalty’ I had seen before.
[ ■ Military/security unmanned mobile weapons ]
⦁H-9 Juggernaut
⦁ Description: A bipedal unmanned mobile weapon resembling massive power armor. Its towering 2.3-meter height and heavily armored appearance create an intensely intimidating presence, making it exceptionally effective for base defense and armed suppression.
⦁ Unit price: 1.2 trillion won (unmet requirements penalty applied)
⦁ Status: [Available for purchase without penalty once facility and technology requirements are met]
[ ■ Special operations/espionage multipurpose androids ]
⦁P-7 Enigma prototype
⦁ Description: A top-tier, high-performance multipurpose android that perfectly replicates not only a human appearance, but even subtle body heat, skin texture, and breathing patterns. Its advanced computational abilities enable flawless emotional performances and psychological manipulation tailored to any situation. Even experts observing it with the naked eye at extremely close range would struggle to realize it was a machine.
⦁Unit price: 1.8 trillion won (unmet requirements penalty applied)
⦁Status: [Available for purchase without penalty once facility and technology requirements are met]
1.2 trillion? 1.8 trillion?!
Wasn’t charging over a trillion won for a single robot going way too far? At this point, the price tag was practically screaming at me not to buy it.
‘Should I just bite the bullet and buy ten?’
No, I would need at least a company-sized unit to use them effectively.
Anyway, if I used those robots appropriately, couldn’t I make it seem as though the shelter had a proper balance of combat personnel and researchers?
They could also keep the people inside under control while they were at it.
One machine might cost as much as a small nuclear reactor, but considering that other players might be able to buy robots like these too, they seemed worth the investment.
Didn’t the saying go, if you wanted peace, prepare for war?
No matter how diligently I built the shelter, it would all be for nothing if I had no means to defend it.
‘Hmm.’
If I purchased the maximum my budget allowed, one hundred combat models and seventy noncombat models would cost roughly 246 trillion won.
‘Is it really right to spend this much money on them?’
On top of that, since the combat models were fundamentally designed to kill, I apparently had to stick that bioengineering whatsit I had seen before into my brain as a precaution against ‘unexpected situations’. That was the only way to control them.
I had no idea what other expenses might arise, so investing 246 trillion won in robots already was absurd. If I mindlessly blew through my money just because a quadrillion won sounded like a lot, I might end up unable to build the facilities I truly needed to survive.
…So I would buy just one of each for testing.
It absolutely wasn’t because I wanted to see what the power armor looked like.
If the world really was going to end in twenty-eight days, I had no choice but to use every function this game offered to its fullest.
Of course, it was true that I couldn’t trust the system. That went doubly for implanting an unidentified machine in my brain.
But by that logic, this entire game was full of danger from beginning to end.
I didn’t know whether I would become the idiot who died after eating pufferfish for the first time or the pioneer who first figured out how to prepare it, but ultimately, I had to accept the risks to reap rewards that big.
「Would you like to purchase the Neural Hive?」
⦁ The purchase will cost 170 billion won, and picomachines will enter the user’s brain immediately upon purchase. There is a high probability of dizziness. There is a low probability of nonfatal bleeding.
I was ready.
“Phew.”
「Neural Hive purchased.」
A sharp sting flared inside my nose. It burned even worse than seawater running up my nostrils! It hurt!
I had swum a great deal since childhood and was fairly accustomed to pain inside my nose, but this still hurt. I could barely think straight.
I rolled around on the ground like a madman for about five minutes before the pain finally released me.
“Wow.”
Fortunately, I no longer had a headache. I had worried it might feel like ants crawling around inside my head, but thankfully, it didn’t.
“…I thought I was going to die.”
Had anything changed in my body? My vision seemed the same. My senses of smell and hearing were unchanged too. My sense of touch didn’t seem any sharper either. All five senses normal. My brain didn’t suddenly seem to be working faster.
Would I only find out once I bought a robot?
After a moment’s hesitation, I purchased one combat robot.
「H-9 Juggernaut purchased.」
Honestly, I couldn’t wait.
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