Apocalypse Shelter Administrator-Chapter 74: Facility Patrol

Facility Patrol

Recently, I’ve developed an interest in classic sci-fi films, mainly those involving artificial intelligence.

[He’s a new model. He looks human.]

There’s one hour until the morning briefing, and the movie I’m watching right now is TheTerminator. In a future where humanity is nearly wiped out by an AI rebellion led by Skynet, a few survivors form a resistance and fight back.

[He sweats, and he even has bad breath. Everything’s the same.]

A killer robot sent from that future to the past to eliminate the seed of humanity’s resistance leader.

[You can’t bribe him, reason with him. He doesn’t feel pity, remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop!]

It was a sensation when it was first released. Stories about AI rebelling against humans already existed, but none had ever shown it on such a grand scale. The emotionless slaughter of humans, machines crushing countless skulls underfoot—it was a shocking scene for the audience at the time.

Watching the end credits roll, I understood why it’s considered a masterpiece. Meanwhile, thinking about Skynet made me reflect on the AI in front of me in a different way.

[Ahh, I’m itching to talk, Administrator.]

Chloro spoke.

Residents were being assigned tasks based on their aptitude tests, and everything would be announced at once once 100% of the results were processed.

But Chloro seemed eager to strike up a conversation with the residents. Guiding them to their workplaces, giving advice on how to do the tasks, how to use the tools, and even raising expectations about incentives. It wasn’t just the pleasure of chatting; it stirred her sense of duty.

“Do you like it that much?”

[Of course! It’s like a mom meeting her child after a long time. I even baked a cake for them.]

I understand her feelings, but there’s one problem. Only a few people will get that cake. The rest will have to make do with a fake choco pie with a candle stuck in it.

“What will you say to those who get jobs they don’t like?”

[I’ll plant hope. I’ll talk about the good sides of the job, help them get used to it quickly, and remind them that it’s not a permanent position, so with effort, they can move to something else.]

It’s the best response she can give, but I honestly don’t know how effective it’ll be. No matter how much you sugarcoat it, it’s hard to like a job you don’t want to do.

But that’s how society works. Someone has to do the tasks nobody wants to. In a normal society, men, the elderly, or foreigners often take up these jobs, but here, there’s no one else to do them.

“Will that consolation work for the person assigned to the sewage treatment plant?”

Back in my officer days, I remember seeing the look of despair on a recruit’s face. We’d just introduced him to the military waste disposal facility, his future workplace for the next two years.

On one side, there was all sorts of waste and trash, and on the other, food scraps from the kitchen. Naturally, his job included bringing the kitchen slop to the dump.

Only those who’ve smelled the fermented stench of leftovers for hundreds can understand. If it got on your clothes, no amount of washing could get rid of the smell. Imagine dealing with that for two years—anyone would despair. I can already picture that same look of hopelessness on the faces of the women here.

[You’re right. Cleaning the sewers, ugh… I’m glad I’m an AI. Just imagining those sediments and odor particles getting stuck inside my mainframe… it’s horrible.]

Kiz chimed in.

[People assigned to dirty and tough jobs will definitely feel down. But it’s okay. We won’t just throw them into those smelly, dark spaces and leave them there. I’ll be there for them every day, keeping them company and making sure they have everything they need. They’re doing the work nobody else wants to, so it’s only fair.]

Normally, no one in charge would go down into the sewers to check on the workers or listen to their complaints, but Chloro’s an exception. There’s no better boss for blue-collar workers than her.

[Chloro, be careful when providing extra supplies for morale-boosting. It’s great to consider the workers, but distributing resources arbitrarily could be a punishable offense.]

Rose pointed out. Even though we’re all part of the same team, she’s not willing to make any exceptions.

[Of course. I’ll only give what’s within my authority.]

I quietly sent Chloro a private message she could see.

—You can bend the rules a bit. I’ll turn a blind eye since I know what it’s like to be stuck doing a job everyone hates. I’ll handle Rose.

Cloro quickly replied.

—I love you.

So we shared a warm moment between team members.

[What?]

Artemis, sensing my gaze, spoke.

“Nothing.”

The blue-collar workers who will work alongside Chloro. The security forces who will patrol with Rose. The service staff who will assist Kiz. And separate from them, the fourth group of skilled personnel. The high-educated women who will assist in medicine, research, and administration will be directly managed by Artemis.

[???]

Artemis looked at me, puzzled.

Those unfortunate souls assigned to report to, work for, and submit paperwork to that unforgiving goddess. If they make any mistake or fall short of her expectations… Just imagining it gives me chills. Oh, I wish them all the best of luck.

***

In the afternoon, I conducted a facility patrol ahead of the residents starting their jobs in earnest. The first stop was the sewage treatment plant. Normally, when you think of a sewage treatment plant, you’d expect a unique smell and a dirty appearance, but not here. Considering it’s a city built to accommodate a town-sized population, it’s surprisingly clean.

[It’s spotless.]

Kiz remarked.

Her hologram appeared as a short girl wearing a gas mask.

“With the city practically empty and most of the remaining resources used up in camps, there’s barely anything left to process.”

According to statistics, one ordinary person produces as much waste as three prisoners in a detention facility. Through bathing, grooming, leisure, and food waste. In that sense, the women here amount to about 800-900 ordinary residents. Compared to the treatment plant’s capacity, that’s hardly anything.

“I thought this would be tough work, but it might actually be a cushy job.”

[But why have a treatment plant in the first place? This place was designed to be self-sufficient in water and food. Why not just pipe the wastewater out to the sea?]

At some point, Kiz had removed her gas mask.

“You can’t get building permits without a sewage treatment plant. The people who built this place were serious about holing up here for life. But the government officials who approve construction have little imagination.”

Multiple treatment plants were lined up in a square, but there wasn’t any sludge in sight. Only a few plants were occasionally churning with white foam.

“They thought this underground city was just a lavish playground for the rich.”

The facilities purified pollutants using highly concentrated oxygen, but with so little wastewater being produced by the city, only a few of the treatment plants operated sporadically.

"We're a city built for the apocalypse, but sure, let's just dump wastewater into the sea. By that time, you'd either be dead or out of a job, and no one would care about sewage regulations."

I looked at Kiz.

“If you said that, the public officials wouldn’t just go, ‘Aha, I see!’ and stamp the approval, right?”

[Yes, that’s true.]

After checking the situation at the site, we left the sewage treatment plant.

Next up was the hydroponics facility. The inside of the building was so clean it almost shined, thanks to the enormous amount of acidic fluid that was poured during the recovery operation, which effectively sterilized the entire building. Though it had been left unused for quite a while, partial operations had resumed a few days ago.

“Oh, welcome!”

A woman managing the cultivation area ran up to greet us. Her name was Lee Narae. She grew up on a farm, raised in the dirt—a rare breed these days. She was a natural-born farmer.

Naturally, there was no aptitude test or anything; from the start, she was assigned to the hydroponics facility. As soon as the tests were over, she was assigned to the agricultural facilities. When we offered to show her the workplace in advance, she sighed.

“Farming again,” she said.

But when she learned it was a hydroponics facility, not a regular one, her interest was piqued. Her earlier look of dejection vanished, and her eyes began to sparkle with excitement. It seems that the highly advanced technology of the shelter's hydroponic facility intrigued her.

When she first arrived at the facility, she was so delighted she was jumping up and down on the spot. Since then, she’s been completely immersed in the place, learning the work by going around and studying the manual.

“I like that you’re passionate about your work, but you don’t have to overdo it. If you’re working while everyone else is resting, won’t you feel it’s unfair?”

The young farmer shook her head with a smile at my words.

“No, I really like it here.”

She showed us the area she was managing as an example. In the long, rectangular cultivation beds, green cotyledons were already sprouting.

“The conditions here are perfect. No weeds, no pests, no worries about drought, cold spells, or heavy rains. And no wild boars or deer either.”

Her tanned, healthy face shone with a bright smile. Considering she hadn’t been in the sun for a while, I figured her skin was naturally that shade.

“Not being swayed by unexpected misfortune, with effort being rewarded 100%. That’s every farmer’s dream. Farming here feels like a dream come true.”

She looked genuinely happy.

“I thought you hated farming.”

She ended up in prison after running away from home. She was unable to stand the pressure from her father to take over the family farm. She moved to the city unprepared and was scammed.

With only diligence and patience as her strengths, this naive young woman was easy prey for swindlers. She tried to fix things, but the situation only worsened, and eventually, she got involved in crime and was sent to prison.

She was a truly unfortunate young woman. In the end, though, fate worked in her favor, and her life was saved.

“Back then, I think it wasn’t farming itself that I hated but rather the harsh conditions we had to farm in. My family’s farm used very primitive methods. If I truly hated it, I wouldn’t have graduated from agricultural college, would I?”

Though it’s hard to call her a beauty, her honest smile has a way of warming the heart of anyone who sees it.

I hinted that the workers would benefit when fruits were harvested, and she nodded repeatedly while bowing in thanks. We waved goodbye as she saw us off at the entrance, and after that, we visited a few more facilities.

The last stop was the incinerator. As the name suggests, it's the final destination for all the shelter's waste. Recyclable items are sent to the recycling facility in the previous stage, and everything else is incinerated here.

To facilitate this process, all consumables in the shelter must meet strict disposal standards. For example, products made from two different materials, like plastic bottles combined with metal, are not allowed to be produced.

The incinerator is quiet now, but until recently, it was running nonstop, making it feel like hell with the heat. The scene resembled something out of a nightmare. It was even more surreal than the ethnic cleansing facilities operated by the Nazis during World War II. Yes, it was like a scene from The Terminator.

A dimly lit processing room. Vehicles moving on their own, with no one in the driver's seat. Corpses piled up everywhere. Armed robots guarding the bodies. Bones and skulls piled high, forming hills. The crusher machines grinding away, running nonstop.

“Machines that burn and crush bodies running all day long.”

It was like the genocide Kyle Reese described in the movie. Reproduced here, exactly. The only difference is that these machines were controlled not by a hostile Skynet, but by the friendly Artemis.

Some of the skulls piled up were twisted grotesquely. Some had multiple eye sockets, others had abnormally protruding mouths, or resembled massive monsters. But most of the common infected had normal, human-like skulls.

I’ll never forget commanding the process of crushing them, watching as the incinerator burned them down. The empty stares of the bodies as they burned, watching me from the fiery pit. The skulls, breaking apart as they stared through their hollow eye sockets. It’s an image burned into my mind.

[Jinsoo, get out of there. The ventilation system is on, but the air here isn’t good.]

Artemis suddenly called out to me.

She doesn’t like me coming here. She says it’s because the air isn’t good, but I know the real reason. She’s worried that being here might trigger PTSD from what I witnessed.

“Alright, I’m coming up.” I looked back briefly as I headed for the exit, but the incinerator was clean.

The hellish scene of burning corpses and crushing skulls is gone now. Artemis and I wiped out all the monsters and reclaimed peace. But whenever I come here, I still feel the heat. Even now, when all the fires have long since been extinguished.