WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Unlimited Money Shelter of the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 11: Terrorism (2)

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Morning broke once again. There were now only 24 days left until the demo service ended.

That might seem like plenty of time, but thinking so would be a huge mistake.

Living quarters, dining hall, kitchen, laboratory, food-ingredient warehouse, raw-material warehouse, armory, ammunition depot, munitions factory, metalworking factory, lounge, maintenance bay, archive, infirmary, central control room, security and surveillance posts, garage, freezer warehouse, isolation ward, detention cells, quarantine station...

Huff, huff.

I didn't know why there was so much, but there were still countless places that needed work. This was absolutely not the time to relax.

Even if I finished one every day, it'd be cutting it close.

The moment I woke up, I downed a cup noodle and canned coffee. Anne immediately scolded me.

“Cup noodles and canned coffee for breakfast will cause a terrible nutritional imbalance.”

I let it go in one ear and out the other as I gulped down my coffee.

“I won't be able to eat stuff like this later even if I want to. I need to eat it while I still can.”

No matter how much money I had, I couldn't move an entire ramen factory or coffee factory into the shelter. Sure, I could probably grow wheat and somehow make ramen by hand, but coffee was out of the question.

“Did you know coffee trees can also be grown hydroponically with specialized LEDs and a greenhouse environment?”

“...Really?”

Add that immediately.

* * *

The major facilities completed in the shelter so far, listed from the lowest level upward, were as follows.

[ SMR Power Facility → Transformer and Energy Storage Facility → Data Center (Server Room) → Hydroponics Zone ]

I had decided that the places producing energy, water, and food, all directly tied to survival, were the most important. I intended to keep stacking the levels according to importance.

Therefore, the facility to be built above the growing zone would be the storage zone.

Raw-material warehouses, food-ingredient warehouses, freezer and refrigerated warehouses, and extra flexible storage spaces would all be concentrated on this floor. A logistics hub needed to be located in the middle of the shelter to quickly move supplies to either the upper or lower levels.

“Are you also planning to place the cultured-meat production facilities on this floor?”

“For now?”

Warehouses could be made quickly by excavating a wide enough space. There wasn't much to think about.

There were more concerns than expected, such as condensation, humidity control, and logistics routes, but surely they couldn't be as complicated as a reactor or hydroponics facility.

I glanced at Anne. Anne blinked a few times, then began reciting the figures I had been expecting.

“To store 5,820 servings of harvests long-term without spoilage, the freeze-drying and automated packaging lines alone will require at least 1,300 pyeong of space. Assuming ten years' worth of emergency rations are standardized and stacked as well, an additional 3,500 pyeong must be allocated.”

I rubbed my bristly beard.

“Does the packaging line really need to be that large?”

“It accounts for crop washing, a preprocessing room, blast freezers, industrial-scale vacuum freeze dryers, nitrogen-flush packaging machines, contamination-prevention airlock systems, and future increases in production.”

“...Really?”

I didn't know what any of that meant, but apparently all of it was necessary.

Wait. If I was freeze-drying all the food for storage, did I really need separate large freezer warehouses and food-ingredient warehouses?

“If you plan to eat your weekly cultured-meat steaks and fresh salads frozen crispy like snacks, you may remove the refrigeration facilities. However, diversifying storage methods and items is much more advantageous for supply management and risk distribution.”

So I should just build all of it. Got it.

“Then why don't you put that expertise to work for me?”

“?”

You need to earn your keep. You cost $1.8 billion, after all.

I naturally dumped the task of drafting detailed blueprints for the storage complex onto Anne, then began planning the next facility.

Today, I would build cultured-meat production facilities.

After roughly skimming some papers, I learned that I needed biopsy tissue extracted from animals and something called a master cell line. After reading papers for days, I had developed a knack for getting through them.

Then there was sodium chloride, salt, amino acids, carbon dioxide, UV sterilizers, and more for culturing the cells...

* * *

There were three broad types of equality.

Arithmetic equality, which distributed the same amount to everyone regardless of qualifications, effort, or circumstances. Substantive equality, which distributed more to vulnerable groups. And proportional equality, which distributed more according to contribution.

Of the three, I thought proportional equality was the most correct during an apocalypse. After all, I couldn't treat those who directly contributed to the shelter's safety exactly the same as people who locked themselves somewhere safe and sat around sucking their thumbs.

Therefore, if thousands of people truly entered this shelter one day, meat would only be supplied to those who had contributed sufficiently.

It absolutely wasn't because managing cultured-meat facilities capable of producing 5,000 servings or more was so damn exhausting.

Um, well. If I had to make an excuse.

Since the facility literally cultivated cells to produce food, bacteria could multiply all too easily, and there were countless supplies that needed periodic replenishment. Naturally, it also used a lot of water.

Maybe it would be different in normal times, but I decided it could only operate on a limited basis during an apocalypse.

Well, I could produce more if I assigned androids like Anne exclusively to the cultivation facilities... But I didn't want to waste billion-dollar elite personnel just to make more meat.

I also needed to assign a minimum number of androids to the hydroponics room and other important facilities. Thus, I concluded that I couldn't put that many personnel into the cultivation facilities.

Anyway, I bought three large cultured-meat production facilities, each capable of producing 300 servings, around 50 kilograms, of meat every two or three weeks. They would produce chicken, pork, and beef, respectively.

Since the system continuously cloned a single stem cell taken during the initial extraction, all I had to do was replenish the ingredients for the culture medium on time.

Out of habit, I took out my notebook and checked whether I had missed anything. That was precisely why I regularly browsed survivalist communities in Korea and abroad.

Kemono: FUCKKKKK!!!

Kemono: I stocked up on food and oil before the blizzard, but I forgot toilet paper!!!

Kemono: Ah, ah, ah, can plastic bags work? No?

.

.

.

Kemono: Don't wipe with plastic bags.

Even that Canadian user had gone through hell after forgetting a single necessity.

North America had an especially high number of survivalists. Major natural disasters such as hurricanes and blizzards were frequent, and there were many householders who had painfully learned the importance of stockpiling supplies during the Cold War.

Thanks to that, North American survivalist communities were far more active and crowded than Korean ones.

But today, several well-known users who talked constantly were nowhere to be seen.

ZOMBIE_MAN: Guessing the Location From One Photo [Live]

ZOMBIE_MAN was one such example. He could somehow tell whether an image was a satellite photograph just by looking at its distortion.

His most recent post was a link to a livestream from three days ago. Surprisingly, he was a fairly large streamer with roughly a hundred thousand followers.

His main content was receiving any random photo from viewers and guessing which country and region it was from.

Apparently, he reasoned from things like the type of clouds in the sky, the direction of shadows, the shape of paving stones, and the direction leaves had bent... I watched it without understanding how he did any of it.

ZOMBIE_MAN: Buying that game for $300~

ZOMBIE_MAN: Buying that game for $350~

Anyway, being an obsessive map nerd, ZOMBIE_MAN had mentioned wanting to somehow buy and play Shelter Builder right up to the very end of that livestream. Clips of it were circulating throughout the community.

A hundred thousand followers was impressive, but not extraordinary compared to a community that saw tens of millions of visitors each day.

Even so, posts about ZOMBIE_MAN's whereabouts were going viral all over the community because something alarming enough to interest users who didn't even know him had happened.

firefighter1542: Where'd ZOMBIE_MAN go?

ZOMBIE_MAN had disappeared.

His account had not been deleted, but he had completely vanished from the community for three days.

Some users criticized everyone for making a big deal out of a mere three-day absence, and I tried to dismiss it as nothing too.

At least, I did until ZOMBIE_MAN's real final post was revealed.

That post had not been uploaded three days ago, but exactly two days and eight hours ago. It was also a video rather than a written post.

ZOMBIE_MAN: [LIVE] Emergency!!! Help me!!!

The original post had already been deleted. What was circulating online now was a low-quality copy recorded by a viewer at the time.

I play the video.

It's too dark to see clearly, but the moonlight leaking through the dim image tells me that he's in an attic.

ZOMBIE_MAN's face isn't visible. But as if he were being chased by someone, his breathing is terribly ragged.

Heavy combat boots and radio chatter can be heard not far away. Despite it being an emergency livestream, around thirty viewers are watching, befitting a streamer with a solid fanbase. One of them had probably spread this video.

Malejandro: What's going on?

sipstea: ?

civ5: What bullshit stunt is it this time?

throatSignifiCant468: Clean your room.

Then the camera swings to the side and captures ZOMBIE_MAN. A man who looks to be in his mid-thirties is trembling with terror. The viewers instinctively realize that this isn't an act.

“Th-there were about eight people who said they'd sell me the game. B-but...”

The sound of boots grows closer. ZOMBIE_MAN covers his mouth and holds his breath. Fortunately, he wasn't stupid enough to leave Super Chat alerts on in a situation like this.

He waits until the signs of life have moved far enough away, then speaks in a whisper.

“Everyone, everyone disappeared. I lost contact with all of them. I even met one today. But in the short time they said they needed to go to the bathroom, they disappeared.”

sipstea: Stop shaking and explain it properly.

civ5: What, you're saying they got kidnapped?

“Yes, kidnapped! They were all kidnapped. Right, I knew you wouldn't believe me, so I recorded footage while I was running too. Look, look at this...!”

As ZOMBIE_MAN operated his phone with trembling hands, voices sounded directly below.

“He's right above us.”

“Confirmed.”

Less than twenty seconds later, two people with their faces completely covered burst into the attic.

They subdued ZOMBIE_MAN with skills too practiced to believe they were robbers, crushed the streaming camera underfoot, and disappeared from the scene.

Crunch!

The video ends there.

“...”

I freeze in place.

ffgg333: They definitely aren't civilians. It took only eight seconds from the takedown to destroying the evidence. They're pros, no question.

solho: Special forces, then?

TechnoPsyco: Could be Chinese spies. The accent wasn't American. And ZOMBIE_MAN lives in Texas. You know how thick Texas cops' accents are.

texasman: Their eyes were too big to be Chinks. Russians?

Anothermind: Could this be connected to the well-known users who kept mentioning that game disappearing one by one? For something that caused such a fuss, I thought it got buried way too fast.

major33: What are the police doing when footage like this exists?

Kim_man: It's staged. Seriously, do you think the government would see something like this and do nothing?

I hurriedly logged into the Korean survivalist community. Could this be related to the noticeable drop in users there too?

Anon: No trending posts. Guess I’ll die.

Anon: Is this a dead forum?

Anon: Welp, the survivalist forum is dead... Guess we're all doomed...

WayneRooney: From now on, this is the Manchester United forum.

Survivor484: I packed a newbie survival bag. Thoughts? lol

Perhaps they, like me, had sensed from the very beginning that something was off and chosen to stay uninvolved.

After seeing the community-server explosion debacle last time, I had wondered whether the heads of governments around the world had finally realized what this game was truly capable of.

Even ordinary people like me could tell something was wrong and had spent days holed up in the mountains doing nothing but building a shelter. Government officials would be no less wary than I was.

Of course, there was one question.

I wondered whether governments had interpreted the end of the demo service as the beginning of the apocalypse, just like I had.

That part-timer had said such ominous things before leaving, and I was the kind of person who always acted on the assumption of the worst. That was why I had concluded that the official release meant apocalypse.

But what about other people? What about governments? Could people with so much to lose calmly accept that their countries would collapse in a month?

Anyway, there was only one conclusion to draw from the ZOMBIE_MAN incident.

I needed to live less conspicuously.

‘I can't even go to a motel to shower anymore.’

Who knew what might happen if someone spotted me going back and forth from the mountain?

With unease, fear, and, though I hated to admit it, a little anticipation, I lay down in my sleeping bag.

“...”

What exactly was I expecting?

Knowing the truth yet deliberately looking away from it, I fell asleep.

* * *

Morning broke.

Today was the final day of 2026.

Anon: BREAKING NEWS!!!!! Civil war broke out in the Middle East!!!! Oil-price emergency!!!!!!

War had broken out in the Middle East.

[At around 7 p.m. local time in France, a terrorist attack occurred on Avenue Montaigne in Paris. With the French Interior Minister's fate unclear, French counterterrorism authorities...]

France's Interior Minister had been murdered.

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