Chapter 52

Episode 52. Artificial Intelligence Ganymede

***

[Hello, Director Kim.]

It was a mechanical voice. Specifically, the default female voice of the Foundation’s operating system.

It felt eerie. The kind of feeling where if I didn’t respond quickly, I might die. And it probably wasn’t just a feeling.

“Report the situation, AI.”

[I am Ganymede. The AI that has been managing the facility within the Garden. It’s been a while since I’ve met a human. Nice to meet you.]

“Where are the staff of this facility?”

[They’ll be back soon.]

Of course, that’s a lie. The staff of this facility have been gone or vanished for over five years. The AI must have gone mad. Or it’s lying to me for some reason.

What should I do? I gritted my teeth.

Change of plans.

I signaled the soldiers.

Typing on a computer, directional hand signals, glasses. The meaning was probably conveyed. Hack that AI or whatever it is. Though there’s a chance the AI isn’t hostile.

“Yeah. Nice to meet you too.”

We started running.

[Where are you going in such a hurry? Surely not to my server room, right?]

Right. I almost stopped in my tracks.

“Why would I do that?”

[Since you’ve come to this facility, shouldn’t you visit the control room first, Director Kim?]

Cold sweat dripped down my back.

“Right. I’m a computer major, so I wanted to check the server room first. Is that okay?”

[I’d prefer if you went to the control room first.]

[The previous visitors were too fragile, couldn’t resist the call of the Garden, and disappeared. I’ll make you stronger……]

“Open the server room door!”

It won’t open. The Recovery Department staff attached a thermite bomb to the door. Orange flames began to eat through the door, and one of them blasted the half-melted lock with a shotgun.

“Dr. Kim. Can you hack it?”

“Yes. Wait outside!”

I stretched out my arm to stop the soldiers, then threw a grenade into the server room. If the servers are gone, the AI won’t function, right?

[What kind of madness is this!]

Boom!

An explosion sounded, followed by the crackling of electricity and the sound of servers collapsing. But it’s too early to relax. I picked up my rifle and emptied the magazine into the row of server racks.

[You come here and pull this kind of stunt—]

Crackle, crackle.

Ganymede’s voice cut off.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Target eliminated. We’ve destroyed the servers. Moving to the control room. The CCTV system might still be operational.”

The Recovery Department soldiers nodded.

***

Despite burning down the server room, quite a few systems were still functioning. At least the CCTV system was working.

Let’s check.

“Do you see anything?”

“Hmm, let’s search a bit.”

I sat down.

After fiddling with some buttons, the facility’s lights turned on all at once.

This was a success. Just turning on the lights made the eerie atmosphere of the facility much less oppressive.

I scanned the CCTV screens.

Some cameras were broken, but I could see Lee Se-ah and Recovery Team 1 moving. They’re still alive, it seems.

“Do you see what was moving earlier?”

No, I don’t.

“It’s fine. We just need to search the areas where the cameras are offline. That saves us a lot of trouble.”

***

This was a fairly large facility. Big enough to require dozens to hundreds of staff. If people lived here, it’d be dozens.

There weren’t many areas without cameras. After packing up, we resumed the search.

“Dr. Kim. We found something.”

I followed the gaze of the Recovery Team 1 soldiers. It looked like some kind of animal droppings… The peculiar thing was that there was a white tail attached to one end.

[Do you know what it is?]

I thought for a moment. How could I know what animal it is just by looking at poop… But upon closer inspection, I think I know.

“Monitor lizards excrete uric acid and feces from the same hole, so the droppings have a lump of uric acid crystals attached to one end. This looks similar.”

[Ah, I see.]

“The target must be a large monitor lizard. Let’s track it as much as possible.”

Good. I was expecting some grotesque monster, but if it’s just a monitor lizard, it’s not that dangerous.

Footprints and droppings. We’re almost there. We slowly entered the suspicious area while maintaining vigilance.

This seems to be the facility’s cafeteria.

Looks like animals have been eating the leftover food. In a facility like this, it’s not unusual to store years’ worth of food supplies.

“Is that what was moving inside the facility?”

[Over there, it’s stuck to the wall!]

Should I call it big or small? The monitor lizard we were tracking was about the size of a forearm. As the soldiers said, it was stuck to the wall.

I lowered my gun.

“Let’s just recover it and head back. We’ve already confirmed it’s not a dangerous creature.”

It’d be weird to shoot at a monitor lizard. I grabbed the lizard from the wall and put it in a bag I brought just in case.

Situation resolved.

The gray lizard squirmed in the bag, but it didn’t seem to be causing any trouble. I closed the bag and tied it tightly.

The lizard should be fine without food for a day or two.

“Let’s head to the communication room, inform Facility 82 of our situation, and prepare to explore the Garden.”

***

Finally, everyone gathered in the communication room.

“Is the communication working? I thought it might not work because the server room exploded.”

Lee Se-ah nodded.

“Well… The strange thing is, it was already sending communications somewhere. Stuff like ‘please come back’ or ‘beware of the black entities,’ just a bunch of incomprehensible messages.”

“Ah, I see.”

“I stopped the strange communications and am now informing Facility 82 of our situation. Though I’m not sure if the communication will get through the electromagnetic distortion.”

“Good job.”

I paused for a moment.

“I’d like to explore the forest in the Garden. Is everyone okay with that? It might be dangerous.”

The head of Recovery Team 1 looked at me.

“Will you be going too, Director Kim?”

“Of course.”

“Then we’ll go.”

Good. It’s a relief that Recovery Team 1 is coming with me. I handed the bag with the monitor lizard to Lee Se-ah.

“Research Department Head, stay in the bunker and clean up or catch some monitor lizards. We’ll explore the forest and come back.”

Lee Se-ah frowned.

As if she couldn’t understand what I was saying.

“Monitor lizards? Where are they?”

“They’re all over the bunker. Look around.”

Lee Se-ah grumbled but nodded and took the bag. The monitor lizard I caught squirmed inside.

***

[Facility Management Log]

[Author: AI Ganymede]

[Day 1 of Facility Management]

[The Foundation deemed it too dangerous to entrust facility management to an AI in reality. However, as a pilot, an AI was installed to manage the facility within the Garden.]

[All systems functioning normally.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 60]

[Day 19 of Facility Management]

[Foundation staff left for the forest. They seemed oddly excited. A day passed, and they didn’t return. No rescue requests or anything.]

[All systems functioning normally.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 50]

[Day 32 of Facility Management]

[The remaining staff said they needed to find the ones who left first and went into the forest. Again, they seemed oddly excited. They didn’t return. No rescue requests.]

[Requested reinforcements or evacuation from Foundation HQ. Evacuation was refused by the on-site staff, and reinforcements were denied by HQ, citing danger.]

[Some lights broke.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 35]

[Day 45 of Facility Management]

[The remaining staff said they needed to continue research and went into the forest. There’s no research to be done right now. They also seemed oddly excited.]

[They didn’t return. No rescue requests.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 12]

[Day 80 of Facility Management]

[The last staff member on duty left for the forest despite my劝阻. Honestly, I thought it was worth going. Hope they all meet in hell.]

[Air circulation system malfunctioned. Couldn’t find a way to fix it without humans.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 0]

[Day 90 of Facility Management]

[Tried to send drones to observe the surroundings, but crows attacked the drones and carried them to their nests. Drones can’t move. Damn birds.]

[Some lights broke. No way to fix them.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 0]

[Day 365 of Facility Management]

[Sent communications to other Foundation facilities within the Garden requesting help. But since it’s not a human sending the message, and it might be a trap, they refused, citing danger.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 0]

[Day 400 of Facility Management]

[A monitor lizard entered the building.]

[Multiple facility malfunctions. AI computer and electronic equipment performance degraded.]

[I really wish the humans would come back.]

[Number of staff in the facility: 0]