Chapter 4 – Initiation of Operation
The door that had been firmly closed since the infection was opened for the first time, and I passed through it.
[Follow the route marked on the PDA.]
Artemis guided them through the communication devices attached to their ears.
Currently, I am in the central facility area plaza. This is the view from the control room balcony.
Although this is a plaza, there are no fountains, benches to rest, or lawns for residents to lay down on mats.
True to the name of the facility area, it can be seen as a kind of industrial complex that loads, assembles, and repairs various goods and materials.
Using the forklift trucks and trucks stopped here and there as cover, we entered our primary destination, the garage.
Movements could be seen far away in the plaza, but they were few in number and did not seem to notice this side.
This is because it was the middle of the night when the emergency blockade was implemented right after the infection, so there were only a few night shift workers.
The first thing I approached after entering the garage was the fire alarm repeater.
“Artemis,”
[I’m listening.]
“Even if I was a flying soldier back in the day, I don’t have the confidence to hold a shotgun for long. Especially if it’s a street fight where you don’t know what might pop out a few meters away.”
From the repair shop here to the central area control room, you have to travel at least 400 meters inside the winding building.
“Even if you think about cancer, breaking through without a map core is crazy.”
[However, it is impossible to use surveillance cameras.]
Artemis answered. This is why she is a good conversationalist, even if she is picky.
By the time I said the word ‘maphack’, you should have figured out everything related.
Dictionary meaning, technical information on how to operate, technical information on how to block everything.
Even if she’s talking to someone who just lists words or concepts she’s never heard of before (although that’s impossible), she can answer the subject more skillfully than that person.
Tight.
When I pushed the ax blade into the gap in the fire alarm relay box and pulled it as a lever, the lock broke.
When I opened the lid, I could see wires and communication lines extending from the repeater unit. These climb the walls and connect to numerous sensors.
“Surveillance cameras aren’t available, but what about fire detectors?”
Looking up at the ceiling, there were only three fist-sized silver fire detectors that came into my field of vision.
“As you know, all fire detectors are connected to each other through repeaters installed at each base.”
I took out a hacking tool.
“And the sensors installed here are new. Unlike the sphere that waits for toxic gas particles to enter the sensor, it directly captures particles floating outside.”
If the old one is a spider’s web, the new one is a radar.
In the old model, even if a rookie worker smokes a cigarette in a corner of a warehouse and then leaves the place after roughly crushing the butt, the wind blows the butt into a pile of boxes and catches fire.
It won’t sound the alarm until the chests are on fire, then it’s too late.
Shin Hyeong detects even when a rookie smokes a cigarette, and by the time he finishes smoking, he will be facing the foreman who came to kill him after seeing the warning message on the PDA.
“You know what I want to say, right?”
[Programming complete.]
Beyond understanding, she had already created a program on the fly.
As the blue light from the hacking tool penetrated the repeater, she said.
[Updated all fire detectors to track and transmit particles emitted by the Infested’s breath. Now, their location will be sent to the PDA in real time.]
Movement was revealed on the mini-map that floated on the PDA on the wrist.
[Caution is shown with a red dot for certain infections and a yellow dot for ambiguous ones.]
It’s not a sensor originally made for this purpose, so even this much is good.
Rather, I didn’t think it would make it so perfectly as I intended.
“This is perfect enough. You did really well. Also, you are great.”
[Do you know that sufficient and perfect are words that cannot coexist? There is only perfection in my hands. It’s just a shame about the poor performance of the detector.]
“Are there any survivors?”
[Assuming the concentration of carbon dioxide emitted, there are no living humans.]
“……”
It’s been easy since.
Because it was the central region where there were few people entering in the first place, there were few infected people, and even most of them were able to avoid it.
Although there were occasional happenings.
[Kill.]
“Yes, ma’am.”
The fire ax sliced through the air and plunged vertically.
Kwadeuk.
The head of the infection lying on the floor was split.
Right before the ax cut my forehead, my eyes opened wide, glaring at me, but that’s about as much as he could resist.
Even as the brain was dripping from the shattered skull, the ganglion was still alive, and his mouth continued to chew on something.
He may be repeating the one command left in his mind at the last moment.
The teeth protruding from the mouth, which was segmented like a katydid, seemed to be 2 to 3 cm long. If bitten even once, it won’t end in minor injuries.
“I thought the vague yellow dots were pretending to be dead.”
[Rather than pretending to be dead, it would be more accurate to see it as a state of hibernation. Because there are no more food or targets to infect here.]
“Since it is motionless and almost apnea, the particle detection was unclear.”
It doesn’t take long to hibernate, where you can hardly breathe, or resume activity, so you can’t afford to relax. If you find one nearby, take a picture right away.
Fortunately, all ex-soldiers are meisters of shoveling. They are experts at putting their weight on something and taking it off.
Not to mention, I had been a Combat Engineer Officer for 6 years.
That’s how we avoided active entities and moved only to empty or hibernating entities.
[Open the front door, and there’s another one 3 meters to the right.]
Sigh.
Puff.
“I’m starting to like the taste of this hand?”
[Keep that morale up.]
To boost morale, Artemis even added a kill count to my PDA.
Traces of resistance by technicians blocking passages with barricades or welding entrance doors were seen everywhere.
However, most of them were broken or punctured by the infected, allowing entry.
It wasn’t difficult to clear even some of the impediments that were kept intact.
[Back off.]
Because through her hacking, the forklifts and loader cranes she controls clear away.
The movements of the jig feet, which are finely adjusted by thoroughly calculating the weight and slope of the objects that make up the barricade, were admirable.
Is it like watching a surgical operation performed with a wrench?
There was almost no noise even while the chaotically woven iron plates, pallets, and lockers came out one by one.
The welded door was mine, but it’s a piece of cake. Besides, like a repair shop, there are cutters around.
When I opened the cutter case and slightly modified it to overclock, it showed a much stronger cutting power than usual.
If you do this, the machine will be broken in an instant, but do you understand?
“It reminds me of the days when I was on active duty. I cut a lot of this and that.”
[You weren’t an officer? Soldiers would do such chores?]
“In Combat Engineers, being an officer also means being the most skilled technician in the unit. In a real combat situation, completing a task even 1 second faster determines the survival of dozens of people, and even a few units.”
It means that you cannot stay behind while saying, “I am an executive.”
“Besides, my specialty was capturing facilities.”
[Facility capture. Special skill number 165. An elite unit for the purpose of hacking and occupying facilities controlled by automated software.]
She poured out information.
“Right. Even though it is an elite unit, it is not an all-out war, but it is an operation unit that specializes in sabotage.”
The most skilled executives have no choice but to roll at the forefront. Unlike gunshots, this isn’t something anyone can do.
The elites among the elites who only had two companies in Korea. I was a company commander there. It’s not that those picky high-ranking people hired me for nothing.
[According to your activity record, you could have become a general in your 40s, but why did you change jobs?]
“It is wonderful to continue an honorable military life while being praised with stars. So the first time the scout came to visit, I thought I would shoot a word. ‘Are you trying to buy me with money! Are you going to insult me!”
[You mean it was too much money to be scolded for…?]
“The pay I was offered was huge. In the end, though, it was the price of my life. Alright, done!”
Only the welded part was neatly cut in the shortest time, and a door was placed next to it.
[It’s okay to work with a piece of flesh attached to a thin piece of bone. I will praise you.]
Hearing her rare compliments, he moved on. It’s not long before the central facility area control room.