Apocalypse Shelter Administrator

Metacraft Cybernetics (4)

As we entered the second research building, a chilling cold could be felt. Although only the orange emergency guidance lights were on in the dark interior, there was so much light pouring out from the lights mounted on the soldiers' shoulders that visibility wasn't restricted.

Thick shadows stretched out from the drums marked with biohazard signs, forklifts, and pallets stacked with boxes. I was skimming through the data we had secured from the computer on the second floor of the hall earlier. Thanks to that, I learned about two technologies being developed at this research facility.

The first was a VR training system. It allowed soldiers to repeatedly experience real combat scenarios without the costs, injuries, or risks of death associated with actual training. Could there be a proposal more exciting for generals than this?

That was what was being researched here. Although VR training itself was a technology already realized abroad, few countries possessed it, and those that did strictly guarded the technology, so self-development was mandatory.

Moreover, what was being researched here was a more advanced version that added sensory simulation to the VR training. The fact that its core technology was initially developed for use in VR pornography is awkward, to say the least.

[The VR simulation being developed here isn't just for infantry combat; it also includes various equipment operations as part of a comprehensive training program.]

Artemis commented as she skimmed through the data.

[There are many obstacles to overcome, but the development records show steady progress. If the research had continued normally, it could have been commercialized within five years. They might have been able to mass-produce experienced elite soldiers.]

An elite soldier is made through real combat or training that closely simulates it, not in a video game.

[This is a typical reaction from a veteran soldier encountering new technology, isn't it?]

"This isn't just stubbornness. It's not even distrust of new technology. It's that there are too many side effects when you try to use this to create talents whose ultimate destination is the battlefield."

[The latest technologies can provide extremely realistic experiences. With sensory stimulation systems, they can even simulate a sense of danger or survival instinct, which is often neglected in VR. It feels indistinguishable from reality.]

Is she a VR training advocate? Well, cyberspace is, in a sense, her homeland. My words might have come across as criticizing the place where she’s spent her whole life.

"No matter how real it feels, VR is ultimately not reality. When you make a serious mistake, what you get isn't injury or death, just a deduction in points. That’s the problem."

I've seen firsthand what kind of side effects this can have on the battlefield.

"There was a guy among my comrades who had completed a year-long VR training program in the US. He had cleared 120 combat experiences, not only based on domestic battles like the Korean War, North Korean infiltrations, and Operation Dawn of Aden, but also based on actual combat from abroad."

He boasted as if he were a legendary war hero starting his second life.

"In training, he was always at the front, full of enthusiasm and energy. Even in courses that would make even the most gutsy hesitate, he would charge right in without a second thought."

[Isn’t that a good thing?]

"The problem is that all of this was in a training scenario. The guy treated everything he did like a game."

Even after several comrades pointed it out to him, he never, ever admitted it.

"He was confident, leaping into battle like it was a game, but he deluded himself into thinking he was taking it seriously. It was exactly the ideal mindset the higher-ups had hoped for when they introduced VR training."

[Did he die?]

Artemis, who had been listening silently, asked. She seemed to recall the son of a general I had mentioned before.

"He did. And it was a horrific death."

I still remember it vividly.

"That face, full of bravado and courage right up until the moment of deployment, disappeared in an instant. His abdomen was torn apart like rags by two machine-gun bullets, and his intestines spilled out. A comrade beside him, hands trembling, tried to push the intestines back into his stomach, but even those were shredded."

On the way to the helicopter, the sandwich he'd been eating during our small talk was leaking out between his intestines.

"Do you know what the emotion in his eyes was when we made eye contact just before he died? If I had to sum it up in one word, it was ‘Huh?'"

‘Huh?’ or ‘Wait, this isn’t right.’

"When he got shot, and pain, cold, and the fear of death rushed over him, he finally realized the harsh reality. VR is just a system that mass-produces artificial heroes who are numb to reality."

I remember his fading eyes reaching out into the empty air. Was he looking for a reset button? Or was he hallucinating? There’s no way to know. And I don't want to know.

The second technology was something beyond imagination. It had been temporarily named the "Neural Response Amplifier." The original VR technology research was an experiment aimed at transferring the user's sensory organs, and even their mind, into virtual space. But then, something interesting happened during the process.

A test subject connected to the virtual space slowly counted to ten, but in reality, less than three seconds had passed. Initially, the researchers considered this effect to be just a nuisance interfering with virtual reality access, but they then realized—what if this effect could be controlled voluntarily in reality?

By increasing the speed of neural response, one could maintain cognitive and motor functions while slowing down the flow of real-world time. In short, they had managed to implement bullet time, a phenomenon typically seen in games or movies.

This technology would have immense potential in sports or medical fields, but its value as military technology was unparalleled. However, from the emails exchanged by the researchers, it didn't seem like the research was being conducted in a particularly ethical manner.

Type: Internal Communication

Level: Top Secret

Sender: Chief Researcher Shim Hyunseok

Recipient: Lab Director Park Jaesung

Subject: This is a breach of contract.

Director, did you know that all the clinical trial subjects sent to our lab this time were prisoners brought in by force? This wasn’t part of the contract we made with the Ministry of Defense. We agreed to only use voluntary civilian applicants.

At first, they sent healthy volunteers, then foreigners started being mixed in, and now it's all prisoners. On top of that, the experiment levels you’ve ordered are too harsh. This isn’t a clinical trial, it’s human experimentation! I can’t continue like this.

(End of log)

About two hours later, a reply appeared on the log.

Type: Internal Communication

Level: Top Secret

Sender: Lab Director Park Jaesung

Recipient: Chief Researcher Shim Hyunseok

Subject: You bastard.

If I tell you to do it, just do it! Who cares if you can or can’t? Do you think the military inside the lab is here just for security? You want to quit? Go ahead and try! The soldiers guarding this place will kindly drive you out. Don’t be surprised if they ask you to step out of the car in the middle of a field. It’s just a bathroom break, haha.

(End of log)

“Hmph.”

Such things would have been unimaginable in Korea 20 years ago, but given the situation just before the outbreak, it’s not that surprising. Worse things happened then. At least they used illegal immigrants before turning to their own prisoners—that’s the one saving grace.

The fate of those prisoners was clear. In the lab marked H1-1, skeletons in orange prison uniforms were strapped to white experimental tables. Cables extended from their necks to machines below the tables, likely VR access devices.

They didn’t die from a failed experiment, though. Each skull had a bullet hole. The PDA in the corner revealed the whole story. Next to it was a soldier’s corpse with his head blown off, still holding a gun in his mouth.

I played the recording on the PDA.

“Shoot them now!”

“Sir, I can’t do it.”

(Sounds of gunfire and screaming)

“Shoot! That’s an order!”

“But how can I shoot my own countrymen?”

(Sounds of monsters roaring)

“This is Dr. Jang Chunsoo, head of clinical trials. We must dispose of the subjects! Their neural response speed is up to 2.5 times faster than normal. If they mutate, we can’t imagine the horrors that will result. We have to act immediately!”

“But…”

(Gunfire, soldiers screaming, and the monster’s growl closing in.)

“Hey!”

(Thud!)

(Short scream and a dull crashing sound)

“I’ll do it myself, you bastard. If you survive this, tear off your sergeant stripes. Useless idiot.”

(Single gunshots ringing out one by one.)

“Dr. Jang, let's move.”

“Yes, General!”

“That guy’s whining after a soft kick. Crawl if you want to live, or just die here. Your choice.”

(End of communication)

The lab labeled H1-2 was also filled with bodies with bullet holes in their heads. The real problem was H1-3. The experiment tables there were empty, with only shredded remains of soldiers left behind.