Clearing the Game at the End of the World Chapter 1

Prologue. Just like that, the world was destroyed.

***

There are many truly absurd things in the world.

For example,

if you flip a coin ten times, all heads come out.

For example,

the post-apocalyptic film ‘Edge of Life’, which had an extremely low budget and starred only unknown actors, became an unprecedented box office hit, and bunker houses similar to the one where the main character of the film lived became all the rage.

For example,

the world’s No. 1 gaming company suffered from constant attacks by hackers and external operations that went too far, such as breaking into the company’s server room and taking away computers, and spent a lot of money to build a nuclear bomb shelter in a place that no one knew about, causing the entire company to collapse. Creating a large-scale secret server room and making the world laugh at it.

For example,

a mad scientist fell into a pseudo-religion and created and spread a virus that could destroy the world, and no one could stop it.

The world I live in now was created that way.

***

Chapter.1 Oh happy day! (1)

***

[Crackling-Crackling- Ah, microphone test. One, two, three. Is this working now? Crackling, crackling – Oh, that’s it. Hmm….Hmm! greatness! …record number 1. The world has collapsed and I…um…I guess I survived somehow.]

***

“

Oh, please. Please.”

I think about it every time I go outside, but the wasteland is such a shitty place. You can’t go outside without protective clothing, the radioactive fallout, the endless sandstorm… Wow! Isn’t this weather perfect for repairing precision machinery exposed to the outside?

Even a scavenger who is familiar with the wasteland would be stuck in a shelter thinking, ‘Ah, today’s not enough’. The male professor, who is wrestling with a piece of metal that seems to be buried in the sand, desperately calls out the names of the five or six gods that come to mind one by one. I prayed to the generator of

“Generator~ Generator? We’ve had a good time, right? Let’s just hold on until the end of the year. I’ll do everything you ask me to do! Let’s hold on just a little longer! Please!”

Woo-woong …. Woo-woong ….

“Friend? Brother?

For the past month, not only on clear days but also on days when there were sandstorms so strong that protective clothing was washed away, I went up to the roof and tried every possible method to save this damn generator, which was flopping around like a sick chicken day after day. .

I bet since I settled here, I’ve cleaned my generator’s solar panels more times than I’ve washed my body.

That suffering ends today. The generator who was in charge of the power supply for the shelter where I live passed away at this very moment.

Kang!

“You fucking damn bastard! I want you to hold out just until this year!!!!”

In fact, even if he did stop, he should have stopped a long time ago. On the day of last winter’s blizzard,

the generator that withstood the maximum output shield that the shelter could produce died heroically the very next day, and I, who was exposed to the cold of minus 42 degrees Celsius that day without any cloaking equipment or shield, even lost the book I had been cherishing. In front of a bonfire that had been burned down, he was able to save his life by desperately carving out a piece of scrap with a file and two pieces of sandpaper and succeeding in replacing the damaged part of the generator.

Ah, the sound of the generator humming! A light bulb that shines like a shooting star! I was so happy to see the hiding place that kept me awake every night because of its strange frequency!

After surviving the winter like that, as soon as the weather cleared up, I went out into the wasteland to look for replacement parts, but the Hound scavs had already wiped out all the useful ones, and the generator that had endured so helplessly as a prayer meta was finally called off as of today. I ended up doing it differently.

When I saw the generator completely stopped in front of me,

[No generator -> Exposure to the outside of the shelter -> The simple formula of ‘

Spending an awesome day with mutant psycho raiders’ was drawn up without much difficulty.

Ah, the cruel reality. I’m about to commit suicide.

match!

The professor slapped his cheek and drove away the negative thoughts that had crept into his head without his knowledge.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay! Professor. You can do it. You’ve known for the past seven years that this day would come, right? It was all expected. It was within the plan! Sure!”

Professor Park. It’s my name. The day I was born, my father, who didn’t know that the world would turn into this mess 17 years later, said, ‘My son has learned well! Perfect for being a professor!’ The name he gave me right on the spot. Seven years since the Great Disaster and five years since the end of World War III. The word “professor” has become a word only used when hanging someone.

Umm. Old-fashioned thinking is poison to a healthy wilderness life. Each piece of scrap piled up in the warehouse was telling its story.

The cylinder over there is the one that fell out of the bag at a critical moment and attracted all the mutants around it, and that bundle of bolts is the one that Mr. Woojin, who suffers from dementia, bought at a very expensive price at a flea market, saying he was going to use it for his dentures. Woojin: Even old man Taeng lives in this neighborhood long enough to think about his dental health. He really is quite a harsh person…

“Ah, he was here.”

Because it was a rare item, it was hidden in the deepest part of the warehouse, so it took a long time to find it. A shiny red body. An old valve with a design that is difficult to find after the 2040s. An old generator that I was lucky enough to find. Look at this simple and sturdy structure! This won’t go away even if you use it for another 20 or 30 years!

This is by far the most expensive item in this bunker, other than our solar generator, which passed away about 10 minutes ago.

In fact, without electricity, no matter how well-built a shelter is, it is useless, so a generator is the most basic element in shelter installation. As the power generation capacity increases, the range that can be covered by the shield generator increases, and whether it is building a greenhouse on the land to grow vegetables or increasing the number of members by increasing the shelter, it is unconditionally beneficial in the long run. Survivors say that even if they sell their family, they sell the generator. He said there was no. In fact, it makes no sense for a powerless individual like me to even have a spare generator like this.

“Wow, I was really crazy back then too!”

It was exactly two years ago around this time. There was a mild earthquake, and the greenhouse responsible for the air in the bunker cracked. Unfortunately, the high-performance waterproof tape needed for repair fell off, so I risked my life to participate in a five-day market held at the border of Pale Land. At the time, I had been alive for five years and was quite confident in surviving in the wasteland, so I went to the offline market armed with simple weapons such as a homemade pump gun and a Paru, and carrying an extremely expensive (I didn’t know at the time) scrap of a sports car headlight. It was a visit.

Professor Park, who had been an experienced wasteland survivalist for 5 years, did not let his guard down for a moment and went into the crowd of people in the market with his eyes wide open. As a result, the dog

was run over in 10 minutes. I don’t know when I touched it, but the bag was torn and the things inside were everywhere. As I turned around and ran into the dark alley, I thought, ‘It’s fate that I met that rabbit-like boy over there, so why don’t you leave behind just one liver?’ A psycho gang like Byuljubu blocks the road…

I have no choice but to pull out the plasma flash grenade that my mother had made for me to wear around my neck like a keepsake necklace, which was my mother’s last touch, and throw it, and then kill the psycho gangsters parked on the outskirts of the market. He fled in a buggy (which can be distinguished at a glance due to its unique grotesque decoration).

I ran away for a while, parked far away from the house, said all sorts of things, and when I opened the trunk to see if there was any water in it and this old generator came out, I thought I was going to faint.

“Let’s see… there’s no problem with the nozzle. There’s nothing wrong with the connection. That’s it. Just put in fuel and it will work. Just fuel.”

I roughly opened the outer cover to check the status of the generator and sighed.

“Where on earth can I get gasoline?”

The year is now 2057. After the Paris Environmental Summit in 2039, huge taxes were imposed on the use of fossil fuels, and oil was almost extinct. Of course, they say they are pumping it out again after the world became this mess, but with nearly 90% of the population dead, there is a dire shortage of facilities, technology, and transportation personnel to refine gasoline from crude oil. Where on earth can you get gasoline?

“Tsk… Still, I have to try to find a way to get it. If I can, I can at least disassemble the turret and sell it.”

Of course, there was also a way to reveal the location of my hideout and join a large plant that is still accepting refugees, such as the Dome or the Raptor society, but that would cost me death!!! I hated it. I would rather play foot volleyball with the mutants with my head.

Grumbling, I got off the roof and returned to the hideout. First of all, since the generator had the last recharged battery, I was thinking of finding a way to use it as sparingly as possible.

***

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

@ Cheeeeeek!

As I took off my protective clothing and emerged from five vacuum cleaners and a cheap airlock made of house vinyl, the musty smell of the shelter greeted me.

“Oh, I think I’ll live. After all, home is the best!”

It’s a lie that we’ve become quite accustomed to now. Still, when I say it out loud like this, sometimes I really like this place.

“I’m here~”

“Welcome, master. Has the matter you left behind been resolved?”

The main character of this strangely tickling mechanical sound is Corduro, an AI dedicated to the shelter. Since it is a relatively new type, it has various functions, including composition of the atmosphere inside the bunker and adjustment of shield and cloaking field output according to the level of external surveillance risk, making it indispensable for a comfortable bunker life.

“Uh… well….”

“I’ll tell you again, I don’t know how fortunate I am that my master is a person with a talent for engineering. In fact, I am also an AI who met my master well. I will serve him with all my heart for the rest of my life-” “

That… … Speaking of what happened, I don’t think I have enough power to allocate to you anymore. Let’s move on.”

“….yes?”

It is said to be essential for a ‘comfortable’ shelter life, but it is also not necessary in times like now where there is no need to worry. Well, all you have to do is manage the greenhouse well to create an atmosphere, and setting the CCTV to motion detection mode will solve the problem, and you can roughly adjust the shields and hiding places manually. Reducing power consumption is much more important now.

The drone controlled by Corduro was quiet for a moment, then flapped its wings in a visibly bustling manner.

“Ha…haha… Master! That’s a really funny joke! That’s right! It’s never enough to prepare for depression-”

“I’m sorry.”

.

.

.

“Uh…how are you going to manage the bunker without Jeje-”

“As you said, the owner is skilled as an engineer, so it’s okay.”

“Hey, cooking! How about cooking! Master, you don’t know how to produce energy bars by decomposing and synthesizing various kinds of organic matter! That’s a feature installed in my personal software-” “Didn’t I tell you

last time? I escaped from Mars by growing and eating potatoes. “I was most impressed by the astronaut story. Now, I’ll give it a try.”

“What about the friendship we have developed over the past five years? Whether it rains or snows or radioactive fallout! Where has the trust we developed by relying on each other gone?”

“Uh…um…..”

Tsk. This stings a bit. To be honest, among the reasons why I was able to survive in this crazy wasteland for five years after my mother passed away without committing suicide, Corduro’s antics definitely played a big part.

“Yes. It’s definitely thanks to you that I was able to go crazy and endure as much as I needed to.”

“That’s right! So, calm down, if we put our heads together and come up with something like electricity, what other way can we come up with?”

I quietly passed by the drone, which was shaking with joy, and opened the bunker management panel. Among the numerous levers and buttons, the [General AI Power Control] lever was blinking like crazy.

“What what what are you doing! “Why is that happening all of a sudden?”

What is it, saving? My mom told me to unplug the cords I don’t use.

“I mean, the Corduroy Man. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions for the greater good, like Zhuge Liang beheading a demon or Zeratul cutting a nerve cord, right?”

“Stop that… Stop it! Get your hands off of there right now!”

“I’m sorry.”

Tick…

The lever at the tip of my finger slowly turns downward.

“Please help me! Master!”

Tidididik…

Those who are sorry should live.

“You will regret it later! You’ll regret it!”

“Uh, get rid of the drone, Corduro. Will you leave only your good side in my memories? “Go gently.”

Crank-dud-duk-

As if sensing the power going down in real time, Corduroy’s drone circled around my wrist even more desperately, suddenly opening the video panel and screaming.

“Holy shit!” video! There’s a video! If you don’t take your hand off that lever right now, you’ll be fucked!” ”

Huh? What?”

The moment the AI power lever was almost halfway down, a scream as if Corduro’s board was being scraped grabbed my finger. There’s a video. What an unpleasant sentence this is.

“Hey Corduro. What are you talking about. It’s a video.”

The corduro drone, now flashing red lights, hovered around my head, emitting a fishy mechanical sound.

“Hehehehe… At first, I dismissed it as nonsense. A few months ago, I was just browsing the community, thinking, ‘What kind of energy bar should I put on my master’s dinner table today?'”

Corduro’s drone said, shaking its sensor.

“What a strange thing! A post that I normally wouldn’t even pay attention to caught my eye that day! ‘Energy optimization tips for those of you who don’t have the power to turn on the closet right away!’ The article called! And there I saw!! “I saw that!”

Corduro trembled once and displayed the terrible memory of that day on the screen.

=====

– In fact, even after surviving for more than three years, most of the functions managed by AI can be managed by the survivors themselves. From that point on, AI can be seen as a luxury. With that much power, you can run a thermal imaging detection system 24 hours a day or operate a small exploration drone. Survivors who know how to save will gradually escape with the help of AI and run on their own two feet. We can confidently say that standing in the wasteland is the way to survive. In this wasteland survival guide –

=====

“Oh, that’s it.”

This is a post I’ve seen once. As soon as the post was posted to the gallery, hundreds of comments were received. It was written by a named survivor who was running. What was the ID? It was a bear or something…

Corduroy’s drone wiped the lens and said in a tearful voice.

“Ever since that day, I’ve been suffering from a little anxiety! In my mind, I was repeating to myself, “My master can’t do that. The person I know named Professor Park is not that cold-blooded, but in one corner of the memory, data saying

[It may not be so]

flowed through my motherboard for 24 hours!!”

That’s what Corduro thinks. I was doing it. I’m a little sorry, but what should I do? It’s true that, as he said, my chances of survival will greatly increase if I just turn off the overall AI.

I made up my mind not to be weak and reached for the lever once again.

‘It’s a video. There’s only one type of thing this guy can use to threaten.’

“So what. Are you going to spread the surveillance camera footage of our bunker location? Do you know what happens if the shelter location is shared with the Corduro community? The moment I spread that, I’m going to get sliced into three by Radar right away, head, chest and stomach, and get dragged into their trunk? Is that clearly an act of harming people? “Is it subject to the three laws of robots?”

The three laws of robots. Robots must not, under any circumstances, take actions that are harmful to humans. Robots obey orders given by humans. They protect themselves as long as they do not violate the above two laws.

Something. I think I prepared in my own way, but no matter what I do, the act of threatening itself is subject to the first rule, so no matter what I do, he can’t force my actions –

“Professor Park, I filmed your happy time!!!!”

I thought he was saying that. …..

“…Huh?”

The professor reflexively covered his lower body and took his hand off the lever.

***