Unlimited Money Shelter of the Apocalypse - Chapter 6

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

◈ Unlimited Money Shelter of the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 6: The “Human” I Can Trust

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Community posts briefly became a hot topic, but the world went on as it always had.

At least, that was how it looked on the surface.

No matter how large Korea's biggest online community was, it was still just talk circulating in a place with no credibility. Most people dismissed it as a simple conspiracy theory.

Maybe the government or whatever force was behind it had shaped public opinion to make people believe exactly that, but I decided not to dig that deeply for now.

I was busy enough looking after myself. If I started digging into that too, my head would only hurt.

Anyway, after realizing I could buy anything within a three-kilometer radius of the terminal, I first bought a warm sleeping bag, drinking water, field rations, hand warmers, and Starlink.

Unfortunately, I couldn't buy the entire rocky mountain.

‘They sell everything else, so why can't I buy a mountain?’

So I decided to set up an olive-drab tent and live there temporarily.

Strictly speaking, pitching a tent in a national forest was illegal, but I decided to press ahead with the mindset that I'd just pay the fine if I got caught. The world might end in twenty-eight days. What did a fine matter?

For reference, I used the construction function to move the terminal into the blueprint, meaning into the screen. Maybe it counted as a structure too, because it moved just as easily as when I demolished concrete.

Anyway, from now on, I planned to build solely through the laptop's blueprint function so as not to draw attention.

That way, even if a public official found me, all they'd see was a crazy young Korean guy in his twenties playing a game on a winter mountain. They wouldn't see the shelter itself.

Having rationalized it to my satisfaction, I stared at the blueprint.

The power generation facility was located 1,200 meters underground. Since the rocky mountain itself was 1,400 meters tall, it was effectively 2,600 meters below me.

‘Damn, that's deep.’

It went without saying that I couldn't let just anyone wander into the shelter's most important facility.

So even after taking the dedicated deep-shaft elevator all the way down, you wouldn't arrive directly at the power generation zone. The route had been designed so that you'd first have to pass through a long, sealed, straight corridor.

At the end of that corridor, I had made room for a checkpoint and offices to control access to the power facility.

Since it was a Class 1 hazardous facility that could blow up the entire shelter if something went wrong, I planned to require anyone entering it to pass through a special protection zone beside the offices and don dedicated protective suits and decontamination equipment.

But looking at it like this, something still seemed to be missing...

「We recommend constructing a Nuclear Control and Management Facility.」

...Right. That.

Honestly, I didn't want to admit it, but the system's little offhand remarks were surprisingly helpful.

But what did a nuclear control facility need? Did I have to dig through papers again? I didn't think I'd read more than a few papers even when I was in college...

* * *

The National Intelligence Service, commonly called the NIS.

As South Korea's foremost intelligence agency, it was the first institution to intervene when national security was threatened.

But since its founding, it had never faced a security crisis of this magnitude.

“...Cross-verification has confirmed that the coordinates of every nation's top-secret military facilities listed in the disseminated material match our preexisting Level 1 classified data by 99.8 percent. We have also confirmed that the movement routes of all visually identifiable strategic assets, including the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, are updated daily.”

“So have you identified who distributed it?”

A weary-looking senior government official pressed their temples. Their head clearly hurt.

“At present, we believe the probability that this was the work of a hostile state or a neighboring great power is extremely low. They would have no reason to expose the locations of their own strategic assets with such precision. For now, the most likely possibility is an unidentified third party possessing transnational asymmetric capabilities, or an extremist terrorist organization seeking to collapse the global security system...”

“So you're saying you don't know?”

“...Yes.”

A satellite map with such grotesque precision that it made even America's most advanced reconnaissance satellites look like toys had been distributed to civilians across the globe. As a bonus, the locations of every military facility on Earth that could be identified with the naked eye had been laid bare.

Military facilities that had been tightly concealed, perhaps shared only through tacit understanding among superpowers like the United States, Russia, and China, had been exposed to the entire world.

The ports where warships and nuclear submarines docked, even the routes of hidden tank battalions in countries at war, had all been revealed. Apparently, the software was already being used for intelligence in the Russia-Ukraine war.

How? Could a satellite map that could pick out tank skid marks fail to find a single tank hidden in a forest?

It was a catastrophe. There was no other way to describe it.

They didn't even know who had distributed it.

They had mobilized every member of the Cybersecurity Center and the Security Investigation Division to review every CCTV camera in all the locations mentioned in online communities, including the Jamsil, Myeongdong, Namdaemun, and Hongdae areas of Seoul; Suwon Station and Hwaseo Station; Haeundae District in Busan City; Daejeon City, Daegu City, and Gwangju City; and Jeju Island. But only the footage from that time frame had been erased, as if someone had cut it out with scissors.

If South Korea, famous for its abundance of CCTV cameras, was in this state, other countries were probably no different.

“How is the analysis of that game software coming along? You threw personnel at it. You should at least have the rough outline by now.”

“...We are doing our utmost to determine that.”

Knowing what that answer implied, the senior official squeezed their eyes shut.

“What kind of fucking mess is this at the start of a new administration...”

The official's gaze fell on the report on the desk.

__________________________

[ TOP SECRET ]

Subject: First Analysis Report on the Anomalous Software “Shelter Builder”

Prepared by: Joint Investigation Team of the National Intelligence Service Cybersecurity Center and Science and Information Bureau

1. The physical properties of the disc surface completely match those of currently available polycarbonate material. However, when attempts are made to physically extract data using a laser optical reader, every connected forensic device burns out from an unidentified overload.

2. To date, four air-gapped network servers have physically burned out. During this process, no scratches or heat deformation have been observed on the disc surface.

(※ Analysts are strictly prohibited from conducting experiments involving destructive impacts or cutting the disc without upper-level approval.)

3. All attempts at digital downloading through online platforms and source-code cracking have failed. This software contains an irrational security mechanism written in an unknown base language, and operates only when the purchaser who acquired ownership consciously recognizes it and makes physical contact with it.

4. Based on a voluntary report by the civilian purchaser Kim Ui-seong, hereafter referred to as the voluntary reporter, agents from the Security Investigation Division visited the residence and encouraged voluntary cooperation. The voluntary reporter readily consented to an examination of the device, but it was confirmed that operation and recovery were impossible without the subject's involvement.

5. Based on the voluntary reporter's statement, investigators traced the matter back to a street vendor area in Songdo International City in Incheon City, on December 24. Communication tower records and all public and private CCTV in the area were operating normally that day, but only the records from the street where the transaction occurred remain blank.

6. A thorough interview found that the voluntary reporter had been approached in the form of a street survey by an individual wearing a Santa mask. The reporter answered a total of seven survey questions and paid $7 in cash.

7. The survey's central theme concerned survival behavior in hypothetical large-scale disasters and apocalypse scenarios. However, the voluntary reporter's memory is unclear, so hypnotic investigation and further cross-checking of information are required.

8. The security risk posed by the voluntary reporter activating the software cannot currently be predicted. The lifting of detention measures for voluntary reporters is to be withheld indefinitely.

9. If this software is shared with terrorist organizations and other extremist groups, its impact cannot be estimated. Restrictions on entry from certain countries must be considered. Large-scale strategic asset movements have already been identified in the Middle East. In the worst case, civil war is possible.

Report immediately upon securing additional voluntary reporters.

__________________________

* * *

“Grrrgh...!”

After crouching in a tent and staring at a screen for twelve hours since morning, my back felt like it was about to burst.

Hammering away at a laptop in the mountains in the dead of winter was no way to live. At least I had been wrapped in a blanket and sleeping bag inside the tent. Without them, my hands and feet would have frozen solid long ago.

I did my best to build the nuclear control room for now, but the limitations of a non-specialist were obvious, so I decided to improve it later.

Why didn't I just ask AI? Because it was stupid. It confidently rattled on about things it didn't know, and without the background knowledge to judge whether it was right, I was better off quietly reading papers.

Anyway, the next area I needed to work on was the substation and battery room above the power generation facility.

It seemed best to place them as close as possible to minimize losses while stepping down the high-voltage electricity generated by the three SMRs at the deepest level.

However, I planned to place the main battery room safely in an independent area at least fifty meters horizontally away from the space above the SMRs. A fire could lead to a massive explosion.

「[TIP] If you rely on only one main substation, damage to the main transmission line will black out the entire shelter.」

Right. Like you said, I'll build a few substations on the middle and upper levels too.

First, though, I'd need to read papers and verify whether you were telling the truth.

At this point, I decided to enjoy it. Unless I brought in a professor from Seoul National University's Department of Architectural Engineering, I had realized I had no choice but to rely on the system's tip popups.

Based on domestic and international papers, I selected the highest-grade equipment available.

[ ■ Power Conversion and Energy Storage Equipment List ]

• Ultra-High-Voltage Central Substation Equipment Set

• Description: Core substation equipment consisting of ultra-high-voltage gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and large transformers. It performs the initial step-down of externally supplied ultra-high-voltage electricity to a voltage suitable for the internal transmission system.

• Unit Price: $500 million