Chapter 143: Side Story - Bunker (1)
Chapter 143: Side Story - Bunker (1)
"Even if the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today."
It’s a famous quote. It is often attributed to Spinoza, though that isn't actually true.
There’s even some uncertainty about who actually said it, but that’s beside the point.
What matters is the meaning behind the words. It’s generally understood to mean that one should either do nothing or do something regardless of the end.
I, however, saw it a little differently.
I took those words to be about the importance of sweetness and pleasure.
In a ruined world, the sweetness of an apple would be an unparalleled joy in a bleak post-apocalyptic diet. Furthermore, the joy of growing an apple tree could serve as one of the few hobbies available in a tedious bunker life.
"…I’m sick of this."
Of course, it also happened to be a very fitting sentiment for my current situation.
Even with my spoon raised, I couldn't bring myself to eat and stopped.
A space completely enclosed by bleak asphalt. A massive cafeteria originally built to accommodate about twenty people eating at once.
Despite my stomach growling with hunger, I couldn't force myself to consume the food in front of me.
It was tasteless. Something made by boiling solid blocks of nutrients. It was close to a porridge, but in reality, it was a nutritional porridge that tasted far more horrific than even oatmeal.
It wasn't sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. There weren't even any spices to add to it, leaving no room for variation.
And yet, it was nutritionally perfect—something indispensable for survival.
When I first ate it, the horrific taste made it hard to swallow, but I could manage it because I was hungry and possessed the will to survive.
But once survival was on track and I calculated that skipping a day of meals would be fine, I found I could no longer force it down my throat.
I looked at my companion, who wore a similar expression, with a look of annoyance.
"…Pig."
"…You wanna die?"
The one scowling at me with eyes full of irritation was Kang Yu-min.
She was my older sister, my companion who had fled to this bunker with me to survive the end of the world, and my arch-nemesis.
It had been a year and a half since the world ended.
And I was currently in a bunker.
*
The cause of the apocalypse was, quite absurdly, war.
Actually, the war itself wasn't that surprising. Hadn't the international situation been chaotic for a while?
Wars were already breaking out here and there, and talk of nukes had been circulating for some time. It wouldn't have been strange if a global conflict had suddenly erupted and become known to the distant future as 'World War III.'
In the midst of that, people with money tried to prepare for the end in their own ways, such as building bunkers. My mother was one of those people.
Once a world-class ballerina, my mother had transformed into an international businesswoman using her reputation and the business my father left behind. She had prepared bunkers across the country for the family to use and had taught us their locations in advance so we could use them whenever the situation arose.
Even so, I think it was pure luck that we were able to enter the bunker in time.
As soon as the nuclear warning sounded, Kang Yu-min and I, who happened to be at home, managed to enter the bunker amidst the chaos. Considering that my mother never arrived, it truly was a stroke of luck.
"Whew…"
Thinking of my mother made me depressed, but I didn't grieve for too long.
Naturally, the absence of my mother, who would have been the centerpiece of our family of three, was sad and tragic news.
However, enough time had passed that the wounds and the sense of loss had begun to dull. A year and a half of tedious bunker life was more than enough time for that.
Furthermore, the nukes seemed to have thoroughly destroyed the world. The internet, which existed to monitor external conditions, was down, and only the internal intranet functioned within the bunker. There was nothing in this bunker life that could be called a joy.
We couldn't even bring games. We were in too much of a hurry. The same went for books.
We couldn't bring anything from the outside.
It wasn't impossible that the world had been rebuilt without us knowing, but when I stepped outside in a protective suit to observe and find some form of entertainment, I realized that wouldn't be the case.
All we could find were ruins where life had been completely extinguished and toxic radiation.
It was the same no matter where we went. I couldn't go too far for fear of radiation, but at the very least, the city near the bunker had been reduced to something resembling a giant crater.
With even plants and animals failing to survive, it would be too optimistic to hope the world was fine or to expect to find new things to do.
And Kang Yu-min was my only companion in this bunker life, my only remaining family, and at the same time, a person I was dreadfully incompatible with.
She picked fights over every little thing, our personalities didn't match, and despite being pathetic, she had a massive ego.
She liked exercising, but her competitive streak was so strong that if we worked out together, it always ended in a fight, and she wasn't above cheating.
She was a girl who acted ugly and had a bad personality.
If only my mother had survived instead of Kang Yu-min, we might have been able to do something more family-like.
I sighed as I lay on my bed, letting out a long breath.
If there was any optimistic news, it was that this bunker was huge, as it wasn't designed for just one person.
Space was the one thing we had in abundance, and the facilities were quite well-built.
There were shower rooms, of course, and more than enough rooms for each of us to have our own. The power was supplied by some technology I didn't quite understand, but it was plentiful.
Who knew what the future held, but at the very least, it hadn't broken down in a year and a half.
There was plenty of preserved food, and as long as the water purifier worked, we had an unlimited supply of drinking water.
The problem was this boredom.
The functioning intranet had nothing stored on it, and the specs weren't good enough to do much of anything.
Neither of us had hobbies like drawing, music, or writing.
In the face of overwhelming boredom, I lay quietly and sighed.
I was sick of exercising, and Kang Yu-min wasn't the type of person I wanted to play games with.
There was no alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. It was a relief there were no drugs, though.
Even masturbation felt pointless. You need some kind of visual material for it to be a proper diversion.
I couldn't even write a diary on the intranet. The bunker's intranet seemed to have been designed without any concept of privacy; whatever I wrote would remain on every terminal in the bunker, meaning Kang Yu-min could see it.
Considering we once had a huge fight because I read her diary and teased her, I didn't want to take the risk of writing anything on the intranet.
Unless it was for leaving a message.
"Maybe I should just sleep."
With that thought, I tossed and turned for a bit, adjusting my position and lying on my side, blankly tracing the patterns on the asphalt wall with my eyes.
Then, there was a series of thumping sounds.
Footsteps. And there was only one being in this bunker besides me who could make those sounds.
I looked toward the door with a disinterested expression.
Suddenly, the aluminum door swung open.
"Hey!"
"You're gonna burst my eardrums, seriously." As I scowled in annoyance, the bitch who opened the door frowned even harder than I did.
"What's with that face?"
"An annoyed face."
"This… who do you think is more annoyed? Are you seriously insane? Why would you do something like that? Why don't you just go out and die?"
"What now? What are you throwing a fit about this time?"
Her reaction was strange. Her expression was the same as usual, but… I wondered if my face had become weird because I’d been lying down for too long.
"You, you seriously… I don't care how bored you are. Have you really lost your mind? Why would you do that? Just go out and die already!"
"Stop barking and tell me what I did. And it's not the internet, it's the intranet. Stop showing off how stupid you are every single time…"
"Ugh, internet or intranet! As long as the point gets across, who cares? Why are you being so pedantic? Will you die if I get it wrong? Seriously, you're unbelievable."
Kang Yu-min, wearing the dolphin shorts and black tank top she usually wore, was drenched in sweat and continued to vent her irritation.
What on earth did I do? I couldn't understand it at all.
What was wrong with the intranet? I racked my brain to remember if I had done anything there, but nothing came to mind.
In the first place, it had been quite a while since I last used it. Other than occasionally checking if there was anything to tease Kang Yu-min about, I hadn't touched it, and even that had stopped being fun once she switched to writing on paper.
So, I replied with confidence.
"I didn't do anything. Why would I even mess with the intranet? And isn't the problem you? You don't even clean the floor, you just spray your gross sweat everywhere, and you don't even clean up your hair or fur after you're done. It's disgusting. And why did you come here without washing if you're just going to pick a fight? You're reeking."
As I fired back, Kang Yu-min crossed her arms as if she couldn't believe me. Her expression was more like, 'Oh, look at this guy?'
It was truly strange. Was I missing something? But I really had no memory of doing anything.
"Whatever, you disgusting creep. You really want to act like this after writing that kind of stuff?"
"What are you even talking about…"
What exactly did I write?
At this point, I was curious.
What did she see?
More importantly, did I really write something?
I had no memory of touching the terminal recently.
Unless I had written something and then completely forgotten about it, there was no reason for any content to be there unless Kang Yu-min had written it herself.
But… Kang Yu-min's reaction was very unsettling. Seeing her naturally treat me like a pervert and corner me, I could guess the nature of the content.
I was suspicious.
I doubted my own sanity, or Kang Yu-min's.
Could this really be proof that I was losing my mind?
Or… was it Kang Yu-min?
It was chilling. The mere thought of me or Kang Yu-min losing our minds was terrifying and unpleasant.
The only other human living with me in this bunker was going crazy?
Knowing what happens next? My reaction to the premise—which often leads to horrific deaths and tragedies in countless games, movies, and novels—was perfectly natural.
I checked the intranet terminal to find out why this crazy bitch was throwing such a fit.
And on the low-resolution screen of the terminal I checked, several lines of simple text appeared.
Basic instructions on how to maintain the bunker's generator and guides for each facility.
Items that allowed me to view the current status of the bunker.
The section for connecting to the outside internet via satellite, which was currently non-functional.
And finally, something that hadn't been there before.
[Family-Friendly Shelter]
What is this?
I blinked, staring blankly at the words. I was someone who had checked the intranet hundreds of times over the past year and a half. I checked to see if it would connect to the outside internet, if there was anything to tease Kang Yu-min with, or if there were any hidden entertainments.
Because I had checked it so many times, I was certain. This was something I had never seen before.
Kang Yu-min must have been the same. Convinced of that, I blankly typed and selected the item.
What on earth did she see that made her so sure I wrote this and led her to denounce me as a pervert?
Before long, I found the answer.
[Family-Friendly Shelter™]
[A little helper to provide a boost for getting along most intimately with your family in the shelter!]
[Complete the instructions and receive rewards to make your shelter life even more abundant!]
[Instructions can be changed daily if not performed!]
[However, if you fail to complete an instruction but wish to keep it for the next day, select 'Store Instruction'!]
[Only one instruction can be stored at a time!]
[Repeated performance is not recognized!]
A series of guidance messages appeared. As my eyes moved frantically from word to word, the messages cleared only after I had read them all, and two new lines of text appeared.
It was something that explained why Kang Yu-min had reacted that way, something I had never seen before and could never have imagined.
[Goal: Joint half-body bath for Resident Kang Yu-jin and Resident Kang Yu-min (60) minutes]
[Reward: (2) Fried Chickens]
[Progress: 0/60]
What the hell is this?
I was flustered, but I found myself staring intently at the reward.
To me, it felt like a single, massive apple tree.