Rust - Chapter 582



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-582

Ms. Kim was smiling brightly, but the transport team was in a state of despair.

Even without that, the airship is always loaded to the point of exploding, and now that it has to be transported to the logistics warehouse, it will take another 3-4 days to get there.

The people in the administrative department, including Ki-sun, were confused about whether to laugh or cry at this situation. They eventually began to organize the piled up supplies and handle the transportation plan with a bittersweet expression.

Even with the help of AI, it took a full four days just to sort the materials, which was a huge task. Without AI, it would have taken months.

It was called a logistics warehouse, but in terms of Korea, it was about 4-5 times the size of the Kyupang logistics warehouse, so a huge amount of manpower was needed to clean up the area buried in the mud.

That was the moment when the first task of the soldiers who joined the Holy Kingdom was decided to be something similar to supporting the people.

“There. Build a support structure first so it doesn’t collapse.”

“Dig down here carefully. It says canned goods inside.”

“Hey, I guess I’ll have to dig 5 feet (1.5 m) deep.”

“Five feet is a lot. Let’s dig quickly and take a rest.”

Retrieving supplies from a warehouse that collapsed in the earthquake and was drowned in the tsunami mud was like hard work, but there were smiles on the faces of the soldiers who were digging out the huge amount of supplies.

It was because Maru had declared that he would pay for his labor properly. The more you dig, the more you get. If you want supplies, you get supplies. If you want money, you get the Holy Kingdom coins.

When soldiers and people with spare hands gathered in groups of ten thousand and began to gather supplies, they were able to secure supplies faster than expected.

“This is difficult. Now that we’ve razed everything here, it won’t be easy for the people left in San Francisco to hold out. Isn’t this going to ruin the image of the Holy Kingdom? We’ve been doing this all along to improve our image.”

“If it’s a logistics warehouse, it’s okay even if it’s not here. This is the port city of San Francisco, right?”

“You did the same thing. Let’s just leave the warehouse alone.”

“That’s right. But what can I do if things turn out this way? Still, there are a few more Charlotte Group warehouses, so it’ll be okay.”

There are more than one or two warehouses. Ki-soon nodded at Maru’s answer, but looked at Kim Yang with a strange expression as she spoke.

“Did Miss Kim draw all the way to here? The result is mysterious.”

“How could that be? It just happened because I was doing it.”

‘Is that so? It seems too coincidental to say that…’ Ki-soon muttered, then slyly opened his mouth.

“What do you want to do?”

“what?”

“Since our King has decided to recognize the value of labor for the safe settlement of soldiers and new citizens of the kingdom, shall we get to work?”

“What are you trying to do now?”

“Hey- That’s a waste.”

Ki-sun said, pointing to the ships that were stranded and swept away by the tsunami.

“If you take that apart and recycle it, it could make quite a lot of money.”

The iron mines near Detroit were also operating, and iron ore was being mined continuously in Canada, but if there was a severe cold like last year, the mining operation would soon be suspended. If they did not rest during the winter, which lasted nearly seven months as of last year, the iron ore they had accumulated would not be enough.

But look at all those stranded ships. Aren’t they all made of iron?

Container ships, barges, crude oil tankers, etc. were literally giant plates of steel in themselves. If you had the equipment, you could easily tear them apart.

“We were going to have to give people settlement support money anyway, so let’s just get rid of that too.”

“okay.”

Maru lightly agreed with Gi-sun’s opinion.

And after living on rations for over a year, they saw the human capacity to turn to performance-based distribution, which pays according to labor.

“Is what I’m seeing right now real?”

“······.”

Soldiers equipped with power loader-style exosuits literally dismantled entire ships like tuna.

The same goes for the newly joined citizens. Ships are torn apart in real time, like ants clinging to a dead cicada and decomposing it.

“oh my god.”

“······.”

Maru and Gisun were momentarily speechless, feeling as if they had caught a glimpse of the driving force of humanity.

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As time passed and mid-October passed and late October began, temperatures in California, which should have been above freezing, suddenly dropped below freezing.

“This is driving me crazy. It was like this last year too, and this winter is getting even crazier.”

Ki-sun’s mouth became dirty in just a few months. Despite Maru’s gaze that asked if it was okay for her to use her mouth like that when she had a new body, Ki-sun was confident.

“I’m glad it ended before the bitter cold came.”

“I know.”

The two men confirmed that the last airship had left for Detroit. It had carried over 550,000 people and carried an unfathomable amount of goods.

A new spinning mill in Detroit was spinning a strong synthetic fiber by mixing compounds extracted from coal and raw materials extracted from monster corpses, but it was still far from being able to be made into fabric and clothing.

Indeed, neither the textile factories that make fabrics nor the sewing factories that cut fabrics into clothes were sufficient. It took time to expand the factories and install automated systems using artificial intelligence.

Enough supplies were brought to the Holy Kingdom to fill the gap. The amount was so great that clothing, shoes, and miscellaneous goods would not have to be worried for several years.

In addition to that, there was a huge amount of scrap metal. For the time being, the demand for steel could be met only by using recycled steel. Winter in the Holy Kingdom, with such an abundance of materials, seemed like it would be a rich and rewarding season.

That was until the PD reported the situation.

“The population has grown too much at once, and winter has started early, which has caused problems.”

The entire population of the Holy Kingdom, including the Canadian population, is over 4.5 million, so the arrival of 550,000 people, more than 10% of the population, at once was a bombshell for the administration.

The PD’s face, swept away by the work bomb, had become haggard. Could it be said that he looked like a zombie with half his energy drained?

“You said you weren’t going to use artificial intelligence?”

“Whew- I have no choice but to review the work that the AI ​​has done once again.”

The speed of AI’s work processing was no joke. In the time it takes a human to process 10 cases, AI processes 1,000 or 10,000 cases. PDs who have to check that even roughly are literally dying.

“Then how about making an AI that checks the AI’s work? Even if we run the AI ​​twice and only look at the filtered ones, it will make things easier.”

“Even now, we are only looking at things that have been filtered 2-3 times by artificial intelligence.”

“······.”

“Still, I think it’s fortunate that there are many people who have converted to the Holy Kingdom.”

The PD who spoke like that had an aura that could be considered half priest. The word “fortunate” that he just mentioned also meant that he was fortunate to be able to save over 550,000 people.

In fact, the solution to the excessive workload given to PDs was simple. All they had to do was enter virtual reality and use time ratio adjustments to work.

“Big- Then how about using virtual reality to do your work?”

The PD carefully unraveled the story at Maru’s suggestion.

“In that part… there was a bit of a problem centered around the research team.”

“What’s the problem?”

“The problem is the side effects of virtual reality.”

“Are there any other side effects besides the mental shock?”

What are the side effects other than having a heart attack from being unable to bear the vivid fear of death, or the person experiencing the death becoming mentally unstable?

“yes.”

Initially, it was a time acceleration of 6 to 8 times, but through steady development using quantum computers and grape bunches, a time ratio adjustment system capable of up to 12 times has been successfully developed.

A magical phenomenon where 2 hours in reality becomes 24 hours in the virtual world. Even if you work 12 hours in the virtual world, only 1 hour has passed in reality, so you can rest for the remaining 23 hours.

The researchers cheered and began to experiment and study to their heart’s content, immersed in the virtual world, forgetting about the specific characteristics of the organ called the brain.

So there’s something motivational leaders often say.

‘Believe and imagine.’

‘Dream with all your heart.’

‘If you really want it and work hard for it.’

A story about ‘what you believed, imagined, and dreamed of becoming reality.’

There is a similar tale in Korea, although the direction is a bit different.

The story of Jarin Gobi.

When I was eating, I looked at the oysters hanging from the ceiling as a side dish.

‘The ribs tasted really good today.’

The story goes that just by looking at the oysters, he said, “Hey, they’re salty.” and considered them a side dish.

Research results have shown that similar results can be obtained by simply imagining the situation without seeing it.

In a state of extreme concentration, the brain is unable to properly distinguish between reality and imagination. In a sense, the hallucinations and auditory hallucinations that psychiatric patients complain of are also included in this category.

In short, our brains react quite similarly when we see a steak in real life and when we imagine a steak with a high level of concentration.

And that was the problem.

Even though 24 hours in the virtual space was equivalent to 2 hours in reality, at some point the researchers’ brains began to perceive the 24 hours in the virtual space as real time.

If this were just for a short while, there wouldn’t be a problem, but the researchers didn’t come out of the virtual reality except to eat, poop, and wash briefly.

The gap between the virtual and the real is growing, and the brain that perceives the virtual as reality is gradually starting to age. No, not only the brain, but the entire body is changing as if it is aging. It is as if time is accelerating in reality.

The one who noticed this phenomenon was a female researcher in her mid-30s. After confirming that her skin elasticity was rapidly deteriorating, she ran around trying to find the cause.

It was confirmed that the acceleration of time in virtual reality also affects the real body. Maru was a little taken aback after hearing the PD’s report.

“When you train in virtual reality, didn’t you know that the training effects in virtual reality also apply to real life?”

“Yes, but I didn’t expect that the flow of time would be reflected in the real body.”

If it was true that the harsh training in the virtual world had some effect on the real body, making it physically stronger, then it was also true that the real body of a researcher who worked day and night in a virtual laboratory aged.

“Still, it’s fortunate that you realized it quickly. We talked about it briefly last time too… Let’s take this opportunity to restrict researchers’ access to virtual reality.”

“We had already discussed it that way, but there was strong opposition from researchers.”

“Huh? Are you saying that aging can happen in real life?”

“Yes, they claim that it would be more effective to study ways to slow down aging in virtual reality.”

Quantum computers and grapes provide each researcher with a perfect laboratory in virtual reality. It is a virtual reality, but using a perfect laboratory like reality alone? How can researchers tolerate that?

Maru realized that this could be dangerous later on.

Extracting information from the heads of werewolves and vampires revealed that they had almost achieved longevity, if not youthfulness.

So they could eat humans and live long lives. Specifically, they could eat younger humans and slow down their aging process.

What if researchers were tempted by the promise of longevity or slowing down aging?

“Researchers who conduct research in virtual reality are basically not allowed to go out. When they do go out, they are required to take at least four drones with them.”

Although most of the current researchers believe in HOLLY, the betrayal and corruption of a few can endanger the whole at any time.

“that···.”

“No. It would be better to do it the other way around.”

“On the contrary?”

“If there is someone the researchers want to meet, they can bring them into virtual reality and meet them.”

It would be better if the moment you log into VR, you can check if you are a spy or not.

“It is difficult because there is a lot of opposition to invading privacy.”

The story is that faith and private life are separate issues. Of course, the moment there is no such thing as private life, it becomes the same as fanaticism, so Maru didn’t like that either.

“Let’s try to fine-tune it. I think it would be safe to create a virtual space like Detroit and let people walk around there.”

“Is it because of that intuition?”

Since it was a public place, Ki-sun changed her tone and asked. Ki-sun couldn’t ignore Maru’s intuition.

Since it wasn’t something that immediately triggered his intuition, instead of answering, Maru quietly focused on the subject of the researcher’s corruption and betrayal.

When intuition is triggered, it usually works when you are about to experience a situation or just before it happens, but it was just a hope.

‘Did I go too far?’

Just as Maru was about to say that it must have been too much for him to go that far, his heart gave a small warning.

Thump-

Thump thump-

Warak- said the crumpled floor.

“Let’s conduct a full investigation of researchers stuck in virtual reality.”

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The northernmost territory of the Holy Kingdom of Canada.

Since mid-September, temperatures had begun to drop below zero, and the area was already frozen. A loud noise erupted from near the Holy Kingdom stronghold, which stood alone like an island on a snowy field covered in white snow.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!

A loud roar sent snowdrifts crashing down from the tall conifers.