Apocalypse Shelter Administrator

Underwater Exploration

A male snow crab is happy these days. Born in the seas near Korea, ever since he became an adult, he's been in a constant state of ‘fullness.' As a result, he's grown to a size incomparable to his parents or any of his ancestors. He has mated numerous times with females drawn to his size. Soon, over a million eggs carrying his genes will hatch and spread throughout the world.

Many snow crabs were caught by humans before reaching this size. Fishing boats sank traps filled with pieces of anchovy, sardine, or mackerel because no crustacean could resist the stench coming from dead fish.

After enjoying a feast exchanged for their lives, these crabs ended up in steamers and on display at markets. But this male snow crab has evaded all those dangers. A large container emitting a mixture of an unpleasant metallic smell and a faint fishy odor was in front of him. Once again, the male snow crab boldly crawled into the container.

When he first found this place, it was filled with meat to eat, and even more, it was packed with competitors. As time passed and the last scrap of meat disappeared, the competitors left. However, the male snow crab knew there's a secret chamber at the bottom of this container. Reaching it was no easy task, but the reward was worth it.

After a tough journey through narrow, winding tunnels, the snow crab finally arrived at the promised chamber. The moment he entered the room, a strong smell overwhelmed his senses. It's the smell of meat and corpses. The snow crab’s small brain was flooded with ecstasy as if drugged.

Click Click—

His front claws clashed, making a sound. His eyes glistened with anticipation. The prey in front of him was large and hearty. It’d provide enough nourishment for him to breed for years.

His mouth busily moved as he tore, chewed, and tasted the soggy meat. With the small vibrations, the hat worn by the prey slipped off and slowly sank to the floor of the combat command room.

A moment later, a decayed eyeball fell from a hollow skull and landed next to the hat. Several strands of optic nerve from the eye dangled, swaying in the water stirred by the movements of the snow crab's claws. The black military hat with a golden laurel wreath embroidered on its brim.

This place where the male snow crab was feasting was not an iron crab trap. It’s far bigger and heavier than any trap. This massive chunk of metal had a long, sleek body, and the number “991” was visible on the front. This was the fate of the once-mighty Aegis destroyer, the Sejong the Great.

After his satisfying meal, the male snow crab emerged to gaze at the sea surface. Once again, the ‘king' hadn't shown up today. Could he have gone somewhere else?

The king appeared one day and bestowed a great gift upon all sea creatures in the area. Whenever the king appeared, soon after, a deafening roar shook the waters, and unpleasant chunks of metal sank to the ocean floor. But inside those metal chunks were heaps of delicious, irresistibly fragrant meat.

The king delivered the prey, but he didn’t seem interested in claiming it for himself. At first, the sea creatures were too overwhelmed to approach, but eventually, they started following the king.

Far off in the Atlantic, at Cape Town, tens of millions of sardines begin their annual migration, pursued by a strange alliance of dolphins, sharks, seals, Cape gannets, and Bryde's whales. The same phenomenon is happening in Korean waters. Around the king, countless sea creatures have formed a bizarre truce. To savor the succulent meat stored in the steel cages.

Hairtail, mackerel, flatfish, yellow croaker, Pacific saury, flying fish, sea bass, cod, anchovy, perch, skate, filefish, crabs, shrimp, prawns, snow crabs, blue crabs, and countless others from the ocean depths. For the first time, they have reversed the relationship that had, for millennia, placed them on humans' dining tables, stripped of flesh and bones.

There was plenty to eat. And it’s a rare treat—land meat. It had an exquisite taste. As long as the king continued to bestow his favor, there was no need to fight each other.

The male snow crab briefly considered setting out to find the king but decided to stay. There was more than enough food here just for him.

Something shimmering on the water’s surface caught the snow crab’s eye. The object, reeking of a mix of metallic and rubbery odors, suddenly splashed through the water, startling the crab into hiding beneath the sand. ℞âŊȱВƐș

***

In the central control room, the large screen displayed footage transmitted by an underwater drone. The once-glorious destroyer was now resting on the ocean floor. Its side was deeply dented, as if struck by a tremendous force. It spanned about 8 meters in diameter.

Around that point, the entire ship was covered in thousands of small dents, like ripples. Through the tens of thousands of cracks created by these impacts, seawater must have flooded within seconds.

"It wasn’t hit by that mantis shrimp-like thing, was it?"

If it had been struck by that nuclear punch, the ship wouldn’t just be dented—it would have been torn in half. After the prisoner rescue and containment operations were wrapped up, the first thing Artemis and I pursued was an exploration of the sea.

Bang!!!

That deafening roar had echoed through the speakers. The nuclear punch that split a large vessel in two in one blow. What kind of absurd giant monster could that be?

It was something straight out of Pacific Rim, a monster that wouldn’t seem out of place. In fact, it would likely be a fan favorite. The sight of a Jaeger being pulverized by a barrage of punches, like a boxer playing with a speedball—who wouldn’t cheer for that?

Fortunately, the creature disappeared after smashing the ferry, but the problem is that the sea isn’t safe either. We have no idea what could be lurking beneath that seemingly peaceful ocean surface.

I jokingly imagined something fish-like crawling out from the sea on a full moon night and knocking on the shelter's back door. For the city’s safety, we had to find out what kind of infected beings were in the sea.

And the result?

“It’s clean.”

[Not just clean. It’s beautiful.]

Artemis corrected my assessment.

She was right.

We sent underwater drones hundreds of kilometers out for a deep-sea exploration, and the ocean was pristine. Perhaps it’s because fishing activities have completely ceased? The sea has not only become clean but also rich.

Seaweed stretched out long from the seabed to the water's surface. Small fish darted about between the forest of seaweed. The drone’s precise camera captured clusters of eggs attached to the seaweed, as well as male fish spraying sperm over them.

[They’re Pacific cod. It’s spawning season.]

Artemis informed me.

When I zoomed in, the scene looked like silver grape clusters growing on sharp pine needles. The starfish, like stars floating in the sea, sea urchins rolling around like chestnuts, the corals emitting dazzling colors, and the jellyfish drifting by in the distance—all of it was a treasure trove of the ecosystem. A continuous stream of lifeforms, harmony, and beauty. There was no sign of any twisted, decaying abominations or traces of infection.

The only things ruining this scenery were the sunken ships. Fishing boats, passenger ships, warships—many vessels lay destroyed and sunken. Some had large holes, others were crushed as if a giant had smashed them like a can, and still others were split in half—each case different. But aside from those wrecks, it was a perfect image of nature.

“What’s going on? Why’s the sea so untouched?”

As far as I knew, the infection didn't discriminate between species.

Beep— At that moment, a large red dot appeared on the sonar at the bottom of the screen.

[Detected large object in the upper northeast.]

“Is it that thing?”

It was referring to the monstrous creature that resembled a mantis shrimp, which had destroyed the ferry.

[We’ll know if we check.]

“It’s not a whale or a ship, right?”

[It’s moving at 35 knots underwater. It’s neither.]

I operated the underwater drone and sent it toward the target. The massive object was moving back and forth as if patrolling, and since it was near where our drone was, we were about to meet it soon.

“A different one this time?”

What appeared on the drone’s camera was a giant manta ray—or rather, something that resembled a manta ray. As far as I knew, no manta ray was 200 meters in size. Nor did they have four blazing red eyes filled with hatred.

The creature swam around with its massive mouth open, as if it were feeding, like a baleen whale. However, instead of baleen, it had long, tentacle-like bundles reminiscent of anemones. Each of those tentacles twitched grotesquely, as though each had a will of its own.

Beep— Another movement was detected on the sonar.

“There’s another one?”

[No, this time it looks like an actual whale.]

Just as Artemis said, a large whale appeared from the other side.

[A fin whale.]

The fin whale was moving straight toward the giant creature.

“It’s going to die like that.”

I wanted to warn it to stay away, but there was no way to do so. Just as I imagined the whale being torn apart and spewing blood… Contrary to my expectations, nothing like that happened. In fact, something even more surprising occurred.

Wooooong— The manta ray-like creature passed by the fin whale without a second glance, while the whale made an eerie sound and waved its tail toward the creature. It felt, if not my imagination, like a friendly greeting.

At that moment, the manta ray-like creature turned toward us. The four burning eyes glowed even more intensely in the dark sea. Its enormous mouth, capable of swallowing a shark in one gulp, slightly pursed before shooting forward. At the same time, the tentacles around its mouth convulsed violently and sent out countless ripples. It looked as though billions of water striders were dancing all at once.

In the center of those ripples, a powerful sonic arrow was launched. The sonic arrow created apartment-sized circular ripples at intervals of dozens of meters as it flew toward us.

Artemis immediately initiated evasive maneuvers, but it was useless. The speed of the sonic arrow was incomparable to any torpedo, and it was enormous.

[We can’t avoid this.]

Beeeep— The video connection was cut off, followed by a loud alarm. The screen, which had just shown the beautiful underwater environment, now only displayed a black screen with a “No Signal” message. The drone had been destroyed by the creature.

Click— Artemis disconnected the feed to silence the alarm.

“Was the destroyer taken out by that thing?”

[Most likely.]

The underwater exploration we initiated for safety measures had raised more questions than answers, though it seemed there was no immediate threat to the city.

“Let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far.” I leaned back into my chair, tapping the armrest with my index finger. “The ocean ecosystem remains largely unchanged from before the infection, check.”

[It’s actually even more abundant since all fishing activities have ceased.]

Artemis recorded the first point on the central control room’s screen.

“There are only massive, super-infected creatures in the ocean, check.”

[Unlike the Shelter, which infected a wide range of life forms like dogs, rats, and plants, the ocean hasn’t seen widespread infection.]

The second point was noted.

“They don’t attack sea creatures, or at least not whales, check.”

The third point was recorded.

[But they do attack drones and ships, check.]

And now the fourth point. This was puzzling.

“What are these things even doing?”

At least in zombie virus movies, things were straightforward, but this…

I operated the touch panel and replayed the last footage captured by the drone on a loop. Blazing eyes glaring in this direction—the hatred in those eyes was unmistakable, and a whale peacefully passed in front of them.

The more I thought about it, the more the questions grew.

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