Chapter 71 – Chatting With Beauties
Do you know what is most important in a closed organization?
That is the morning assembly.
Representative places are the military and prisons.
Organizations that do not need development and whose only mission is to permanently maintain today as yesterday and tomorrow as today.
In that sense, there is probably no place where the morning watch is as meaningful as this shelter.
Nothing comes in, nothing goes out.
Paradoxically, that means there are more things to check.
Nuclear fusion generator operating situation.
Atmospheric circulation system.
Water supply and sewage supply and drainage conditions.
Food supply system.
Presence of infectious disease.
Lastly, population.
Even if there is a change in just one of them, it poses a threat to the community.
The sacred event that comprehensively checks it is the morning assembly.
Since the emergency lockdown, we haven’t been able to do this important event for a long time, and there are some things that we didn’t need to do.
Even if there was a problem, no action could be taken because of the infectious agents spreading everywhere, and the population, which was the most important check, was fixed at 1 for a long time.
I don’t know how to reproduce asexually, so there’s no way for me to get to 2, and if it gets to 0, then the meaning of Shelter’s existence disappears.
But now everything has returned to normal.
The population has reached four digits, and all AI aides have taken up positions.
It is a natural trend that the morning assembly has resumed.
Central control room at 10 a.M. On weekdays.
Artemis, Chrollo, Rose, and Kids all attend and report on their work and special matters.
There was some time left until the inspection. Thanks to this, the girls’ stories are blooming.
[Seyoung is a proud and capable woman. I think she deserves more praise for her own worth.]
Rose said.
[Passing the civil service examination at that age is not something that anyone can do. But Rose doesn’t seem to be interested in that kind of ability, right?]
Kids seemed to know something. She encouraged Rose in a subdued tone.
[The two seem to have many similarities.]
[Like a friend, or rather, a sister.]
Chrollo agreed with Kids.
[Seyoung and I had a lot of conversations. At first the discussion was about work. About the operation of the security forces that will be reorganized in the future, and the integration of former prison guards and prisoners.]
I think I’m talking about Seyoung and Rose meeting alone at a café not long ago.
[But as time passed, we were talking about each other before we knew it. When we broke up, we became friends.]
Rose’s voice was unusually excited.
[Rose, we fall into that category of friends too, right? It would be sad if he thought of me as his only friend.]
Kids’ tone of voice didn’t convey any sign of her disappointment, but Rose didn’t seem to notice that. Rose answered immediately as if she was embarrassed.
[Oh, of course! We are all friends. However, Seyoung…]
[What about Seyoung?]
Chrollo asked.
[He told me that it would have been really fun if he had spent his school days with me. We go to school together, go to the snack bar after class, grade tests together, and spend free time together when we go on field trips. I was disappointed because I could have made a lot of good memories.]
Artemis seemed to react for a moment to the word ‘memory’. It’s not like her.
[He didn’t like photography, but he lamented that if he had been with me, he would have had several albums full of them.]
[Wow.]
Kids let out an exclamation of admiration.
[I was glad she said that.]
Rose’s voice was warm.
Afterward, they talked about various topics.
Kids responds to various requests from residents.
Chloro talks about future production activities and varieties to be farmed.
In fact, as they were artificial intelligence, there was no need to communicate using spoken language.
This is because it is possible to exchange long conversations in the blink of an eye by transmitting the data itself.
However, the reason I use such slow and inefficient analog communication is purely for my own sake.
[Please sign this and this too.]
“What about the new clothing supply thing you mentioned last time?”
[I’m going to put that on hold. If you’re going to mass-produce it, wouldn’t it be better to listen to residents’ opinions on the design before ordering it?]
“It’s okay. Proceed as is.”
I was reviewing the shelter operation status data and processing the payment documents uploaded by Artemis.
As a result, I am not involved in their conversation, but my eyes and ears are open anyway.
In other words, it was out of consideration for me that they bothered to communicate in spoken language.
So that I can participate in the conversation at any time, so that I am not excluded from their conversation even if I do not participate until the end.
While I felt sorry for having to use an inefficient voice conversation method for my own sake, I was also touched by their thoughtfulness.
At some point, the chatter of beauties turned to me.
[Administrator!]
Kids said.
He must have been staring at me from the corner of his eye because he thought he was asking a question at the same time I finished all the documents.
The gazes of the women dividing the front large screen all turn towards me.
Is this a bit of pressure?
[Manager, how did you join this company?]
Kiz said her mission is to manage the residents’ comprehensive lives, which is similar to that of the military.
Therefore, we are closely analyzing how the prisoners, who make up the absolute majority of the members, committed crimes and started living a happy life.
This is because it helps prevent various incidents and accidents in city life and manages life satisfaction more efficiently.
That sense of exploration naturally extends to me as well.
Chrollo and Rose also looked at me with considerable interest. The only one who is calm is Artemis.
She already knew quite a few things from the long conversation she had with me after the emergency lockdown.
“There were two main reasons. The first is a financial issue. No matter how quickly I was promoted and was an elite soldier with a bright future, I was ultimately a civil servant. There was a limit to the money you could make.”
[Isn’t it great if the rank of major earns 115 million won per year?]
Chrollo said after reading my past year-end tax settlement data.
Because I came here right after I was discharged, I still had withholding tax records from my previous job.
She has a lot of work to manage workers, so naturally she is also interested in the salary system.
“The allowance is enormous. “Not only during operations, but also when there are no operations, we are dispatched to various facilities of our military, so the allowance is more than the basic salary.”
Of course, technology that can be used for deodorization can also be used for maintenance.
“But even with the Amman allowance, you are ultimately a civil servant. Labor costs are bound to go up. In that case, it would be much more profitable to be dispatched as a civilian.”
It’s a common story. In particular, in fields related to the air force and aviation industry, it has become a course.
“In the meantime, I was offered a job scouting for the construction of an underground air defense city that had just begun construction, and the rest is as you know.”
[What is the second reason?]
Rose asked.
“It’s a safety issue. With the unprecedented global depression, the international situation on the verge of world war, and the unprecedented event of the appearance of an alien ship, you’re feeling anxious, right? Moreover, at the time, I was in a good position to pick up information that was not disclosed to the public, so my fear was even stronger.”
[Because our manager is the elite of the elite!]
Chrollo nodded as if it was obvious.
I gave her a smile to thank her for the compliment.
“Because my position involved frequent deployment of troops, I had many opportunities to access overseas information that was not available domestically.”
In particular, the connections I made with the war reporters and U.S. Soldiers who I became friends with while deployed were of great help.
An example of a war reporter is an American reporter who was kidnapped by a local gang member while reporting and was about to get into trouble.
He was saved by 20 $20 bills that I put into the gang leader’s pocket. A pack of cigarettes was enough for each of his subordinates.
The poor French journalist had it much easier. I was able to become a close friend just by stealing a little food and daily necessities from the military supplies and giving them an occasional interview about life in the military.
[Isn’t that embezzlement?]
Rose, who heard the French reporter’s story, said as if she was dumbfounded.
“Call it flexibility. Because each and every bit of information you gain ends up costing you your life. “You can think of it as the maintenance cost of moving a bio-reconnaissance drone.”
[That’s amazing!]
Kids’ eyes sparkled brightly.
To be exact, exaggerated special effects were played in the avatar’s eyes beyond the screen.
“It wasn’t difficult to become friends with American soldiers. “I had to go through a few events.”
For example, picking up soldiers stranded in an armored vehicle that stepped on an anti-tank mine while on patrol. I decided to do this and started talking.
Those poor soldiers were shaking with anxiety in the middle of the danger zone, having given up on walking.
Also, during an external operation, we spent two days trapped in a sandstorm that could not be seen even 10 meters ahead.
Meanwhile, exchanging cigarettes and combat rations also helps increase intimacy.
Not to be missed is the fact that they repaired broken equipment that could take several weeks to complete if sent to the maintenance department.
This job was completed in 30 minutes with a military knife, a wrench, and a few parts ripped from an unused radio.
They looked at me like I was some sort of wizard as I returned the equipment to them in good working order. For your information, I think this was the biggest factor in building rapport.
By completing several quests like this, I was able to achieve 100% favorability.
My blood pressure still rises when I think about how one of my narrow-minded superiors got upset and made a fuss about me being treated with much more respect than I treated my superiors.
“Anyway, by obtaining raw information that had not gone through domestic censorship and local information from various countries, the puzzle was put together. That a very large-scale war is going to break out. “I received a scouting offer at exactly that time.”
[Did the alien ship that appeared in Mars orbit also influence your decision?]
Kids asked.
“It wasn’t there at all. Still, war was a bigger problem for me at the time.”
Although an alien ship is an unprecedented event, it is something that happened hundreds of millions of kilometers away.
The impending war crisis was more threatening than the dozens of extraterrestrial disasters that conspiracy theorists talked about.
“Besides, I was an officer, right? He is also the commander of a combat engineer unit. “If a full-scale war breaks out while I am serving, my life will be one of the top five among commanders, and even if I retire, I will be called up as a reserve force and taken on a mission to defend key bases.”
If I were a female soldier, I could choose to completely retire and block myself from being called up to the reserve force, but unfortunately, I am a male. There was no choice.
The reason I applied to become an officer in the first place was because I thought I would rather get money and experience than get drafted.
Then, for various reasons, I decided to serve for a long time, and it was not because I was particularly patriotic.
“But it’s a different story if you work here as a shelter manager after being discharged. What if the war continues even though the country is still intact? This place will be 100% subject to wartime requisition. Of course, since I completely understand and operate this place, there was a high possibility that I would be assigned as a local commander.”
[Aha, you can make a lot of money, and if necessary, you can avoid being conscripted to a dangerous place and just sit there. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.]
Kids said with a smile.
“Even the neighborhood mutts eat half of the food in their own area. I thought there was nothing to lose by staying rooted here, whether war broke out or not. What if a disaster, such as conscription or something else, occurs that destroys the country? If we just seal up the shelter and stay in, everything will be okay.”
I shrugged.
“I was able to prepare for either scenario.”
I considered building my own personal bomb shelter, but with my level of skills and experience, it was a better choice to live under the auspices of wealthy, high-ranking people.
The scale of available resources and facilities varies.
In a personal bomb shelter, at best you can grow a garden in a conventional emergency generator, but this place has everything from a nuclear fusion power plant to hydroponic cultivation facilities and cultured meat facilities.
“That’s how I arrived here and touched everything from start to finish. Meanwhile, Chrollo arrived first.”
Chrollo and I exchanged eye smiles.
“Then Rose and Kids arrived.”
[I had no work, so I went into a dormant state after 3 days.]
Rose said.
[Yep! I arrived at your call!]
Kids saluted.
However, even with three artificial intelligences with the highest level of performance at the time, it was impossible to maintain a closed circular city of unprecedented scale.
The last member to arrive to save the shelter, which was in an inoperable situation.
“Artemis, you were the last to arrive.”
[Hmph.]
When she arrived here, Artemis looked very gloomy, unlike now, and she thinks of it as some kind of dark history.
[Why don’t we stop talking about the past and start the meeting soon?]
Artemis spoke as if to change the subject.
Everyone clearly knows the intention, but I am the only one who can tackle it.
Although Chrollo, Rose, and Kids all regard Artemis as a member of the same family, it is clear that they find it difficult to draw a certain line.
[I will introduce the ERP system for shelters.]
With those words, a 3D map of the underground city looking down from above appeared on the large screen in front.
At the bottom of the screen were items related to various operational support, such as city operation, construction, policies, personnel, and accidents.
In a way, the appearance was reminiscent of the user interface of a construction management simulation game.
