Chapter 58

Episode 58. Did you say there’s oil?

***

The scenery inside the Garden had completely changed.

***

The Foundation had begun restoring the Garden. More precisely, they had started restoring the facilities within the Garden. It seemed that even the Foundation Headquarters hadn’t been able to freely enter and exit the Garden until relatively recently.

The four bunkers guarding the perimeter of the Garden had been restored, but the facility at the center of the Garden still had no restoration plan in place.

The Foundation Headquarters had sent a directive to “proceed with exploration and settlement while preserving the Garden’s natural environment as much as possible.” What exactly are they supposed to do…?

As for the Owner of the Garden, trapped at the center, the Foundation Headquarters had no clear solution. The eight chains created by the Foundation decades ago were still restraining that monster.

The Headquarters proposed this method: offer a monthly human sacrifice to the trapped Owner of the Garden and break one chain every ten years.

The Foundation Headquarters believed this would maintain the monster’s bindings for about 80 years.

I’m not sure if that’s even possible. A team of psychiatrists and psychologists arrived a few days ago, but I’ll have to ask them about it.

I picked up the Crystal Clock.

“Dr. Lee, we need to plan a vacuum operation for the center of the Garden. Where should we start?”

[Hmm, what kind of place is it?]

Last time, I didn’t bring the Crystal Clock with me.

I thought if I lost it in the subspace, there’d be no way to recover it. I also considered the possibility of information contamination related to the Owner of the Garden.

“At the center of the Garden, there’s a massive abandoned Foundation facility. It’s large enough to hold at least a thousand people.”

[That’s… It’ll be hard to even walk in there.]

“Yeah.”

[It’s tough. To properly search a building of that scale, you’d need dozens to hundreds of people. Even if there’s no resistance inside.]

“There is resistance. Specifically, the center of the Garden is sleeping inside the facility, and a malfunctioning psycho AI is holding its ground.”

The clock paused for a moment.

[Psycho AI?]

“It’s called Ganymede. The Foundation’s facility management AI. I heard they tried to deploy it experimentally before but abandoned it due to safety issues.”

[There’s no way they could’ve created an AI in the 1970s. Look into it. It’s probably a human soul trapped in an artifact, similar to my situation.]

“……”

I scratched my head. The idea that Ganymede(s) were made from human materials… That’s a bit much. As always, the Foundation’s methods are… far from ethical.

It wouldn’t have been too hard to kill people and bind their souls to create a facility management AI.

“So, it’s not an AI but a person?”

[At least, that’s what I think. If the facility at the center of the Garden has been abandoned since the 1970s, and that AI has been trapped there since then…]

“Whoa.”

So that’s why the AI went crazy.

[Well, that’s a side issue. Let’s slowly work on the vacuum plan. Foundation facilities are, of course, designed to be extremely difficult to infiltrate. Even if someone inside is just holding a brick, cleaning it up will be very hard.]

That makes sense. I’ll have to contact the Mechanical Division or the Foundation Headquarters again to find some solution.

***

This is the Garden’s bunker. Specifically, the command office of Facility 1000.

Not that the Foundation has a thousand facilities. It’s just named that way because it’s for Supernatural Phenomenon L-1000.

“Director, I’m sorry for coming so urgently. This is the geology team. I’m sorry, but you’ll need to see this yourself.”

They always need me to see things myself. The Foundation researchers must think I’m some kind of worry doll.

The geologist who came to my office was dressed in work clothes and even wore a helmet. Whatever it was, they must’ve rushed here in a hurry.

“What is it?”

“Well, we think we’ve found crude oil. The geological characteristics of this subspace, and how it was formed, are still unclear, but…”

“……”

I pondered for a moment.

Crude oil? Suddenly, I had too many questions. I took a moment to organize them.

“Uh, do you have any questions…?”

“A few. Is this fossil fuel? If it’s fossil fuel, should we estimate the subspace’s age to be millions of years? Is there a sedimentary rock layer near the area? Have you identified any anaerobic microbial communities in the crude oil?”

“Hold on. I’ll jot these down.”

The geologist pulled out a notebook.

“Has the crude oil been confirmed? Have you estimated the reserves? Have you started drilling, or just analysis? Are there other underground resources?”

The geologist closed the notebook.

They seemed to have roughly written down all my questions.

“I’ve recorded all your questions. I’ll answer the first one. It is fossil fuel, but its composition is identical to ordinary crude oil, making its origin hard to determine.”

“Okay.”

“Second question. We’re not estimating the subspace’s age to be millions of years. Generally, it’s believed that gods gained power after the birth of humanity, so it’s more reasonable to assume the Garden, along with its Owner, formed within the last few hundred thousand years, complete with crude oil.”

I nodded.

“Third question. The area is indeed sedimentary rock, as seen in karst landscapes. It’s mostly limestone.”

That makes sense.

Mountains rising like towers, swamps, and water-rich karst landscapes are usually made of limestone.

Though I’m not sure if the usual rules apply here.

“Fourth question. We hadn’t even thought about identifying anaerobic microbial communities in the crude oil. We’ll analyze it as soon as possible and compare it with samples from other oil drilling sites.”

“Okay.”

Analysis of microorganisms in crude oil is a relatively recent field of study. Microorganisms in oil can affect its composition and the corrosion rate of equipment.

“Also, we determined it’s crude oil based on density from seismic analysis. We haven’t started drilling yet, and we haven’t confirmed the reserves. It’ll depend on the drilling method. If we use fracking and capture natural gas, we could extract a massive amount of fuel.”

I wonder how the Foundation Headquarters will react.

“As for other underground resources, we’re not sure. There’s a cave nearby. If you give the order, we’ll go in and start a deeper analysis.”

I placed my hands on the desk.

“Understood. Let’s start drilling as soon as possible. If this gets out, the Foundation Headquarters will probably show some interest.”

The geologist bowed and then hurried off, as if they had something urgent to attend to.

***

Next in line was a man in a suit. Well, it was a suit… but his bulging muscles were straining the seams, so it didn’t seem like he wore it often.

He looked more like a gangster than an office worker.

“The construction team from the Foundation Headquarters is here.”

“Hello.”

I greeted the visitor.

“They told us to build something ridiculous… What was it, a drilling site? An oil field? They said to build something weird. Who’s the site manager here?”

“Dr. Kim, the Director of Facility 82. If you head to the center of the Garden now, we’ll explain the plan and everything on-site.”

The man bowed.

“So you’re the Director? My apologies. I thought you were a staff member since you’re a young woman.”

This guy’s honest.

“Once the geology team secures the drilling location, you can proceed. Get ready and come with me this afternoon.”

“Understood.”

The man left quickly.

***

[Supernatural Phenomenon L-1000.]

[The Garden.]

[Additional Notes.]

[Exploration has revealed an abandoned Foundation facility at the center of the Garden. It is believed to have been abandoned since the 1970s. The facility contains what is thought to be the Owner of the Garden.]

[From now on, we will refer to the Owner of the Garden as Cernunnos.]

[Cernunnos is currently bound by multiple chains. We have promised Cernunnos liberation in the near future. The Foundation’s plan is to remove one chain every ten years and periodically offer human sacrifices.]

[Only about a week has passed, but based on the current information, this plan seems feasible. However, there are concerns that we might be nurturing Cernunnos’s power.]

[Cernunnos appears to be asleep.]

[There are no signs of awakening yet, and to maintain this state, we are administering large amounts of gaseous and liquid sedatives into Cernunnos’s containment facility.]

[Beyond this, utilizing the facility where Cernunnos is contained seems difficult for now. We’ll investigate further.]

[Geological surveys have discovered crude oil within the Garden’s subspace.]

[We are in contact with Korea National Oil Corporation and GS Caltex to explore how this can be utilized. For now, it looks promising.]