Apocalypse Survival Guide

Chapter 1. Destruction of Daily Life (1)

Clatter-Clang-

The hull of the ship shook as if it were a train running on rails. It was a ship flying through the sky, defying gravity, and many people were aboard.

They differed in age, gender, personality, and even preference, but they all had one thing in common.

They were all extremely exhausted.

People with dark circles as if they had done something intense overnight were nodding off, finding stability within the shaking hull.

And I was one of them.

【☆٩(｡•ω〈｡)ﻭ】

"Stay still, Carry. You make me so conscious of you all the time."

I whispered softly to the squarish object shaking near my feet. What's so good about going to work?

【( ´ ᐞ ` )】

Displaying a gloomy expression on the screen, showing off its dejection, was a type of transport robot, simply put, a carrier. I had named it just by using the first few letters.

I thought giving it a name might help me get attached, but I secretly regretted it every time the little guy acted up. If I weren't attached, I could swap this tin can for a pack of cigarettes.

As I securely fixed Carry into place after my admonishment,

"Hey, Lee Hyun-woo. Are you bringing that thing along again?"

A man with a scruffy beard spoke to me. He was a fellow worker with permanent black grime on his clothes—a characteristic of a miner.

"Do I have a choice? I need it to earn a bit more on my daily wage."

"Didn't a new model come out recently? If you switch to that, you can earn twice as much. Have you thought about it?"

"Talk sense, will you? Do you know how expensive that is? It costs a whopping ten million credits, ten million credits."

I repeated myself to emphasize the amount. Ten million credits were half of what I had saved up so far.

Though I still had a long way to go to reach my goal of 50 million credits, I neither had the luxury nor the intention to buy a new model now.

"Besides, it costs 10 million just for the basic model."

I had seen the ads for the new carrier, but my reason for giving up on the idea early on was simple. By the time you add in all the options, the extras would outweigh the base.

Purchasing only the body would make me a fool, even amongst my peers.

'For that price, I'd rather...' I'd had enough of plunging into disaster.

Thus, I decided that old but familiar Carry was sufficient for me.

"I'm going to save up as much as I can and get out of here as fast as possible. I'm fed up. And..."

"And?"

"This is better than your runaway wife, man. It might be a bit rowdy, but still."

"You little punk, aren't you?"

I noticed Philip, with his face turning red, glaring at me, so I got up. Even without having to deal with a flustered Philip, it was about time to get moving.

〈We will shortly arrive at the temporary mining base, Heaven.〉

An announcement came from a speaker attached to the wall. Accompanied by monotonous music, it was a repetitive message that I had heard to the point where ear calluses should have formed.

〈Heaven is a medium-sized base accommodating 50,000 people, continually expanding to offer more space...〉

〈Committed to coexistence and harmony as our mission...〉

〈Implementing various systems to ensure just rewards without discrimination or oppression...〉

〈A sentence of 20 years will be imposed on those who illicitly siphon Blue Crystals, while those who report the culprits will receive a reward...〉

〈Try your luck at Ball! The first prize is a cutting-edge security robot powered by Blue Crystals! The opportunity is open to everyone, always!〉

A statement that no one paid attention to. However, it had enough power to forcibly rouse those exhausted individuals.

Before long, I felt a tingling buoyancy. The shuttle was gradually coming to a halt.

Stretching my stiff body, I gave a light kick to the seemingly dormant Carry.

【Σ(°ロ°)】

Simultaneously, Carry opened its screen with a startled expression and emitted a beeping sound. It then displayed an angry face, but I paid no heed.

I simply readied my gloves, adjusting the seams, to brace for the snowy landscape ahead.

"Ahh... it's really killing me. Let's go, Carry."

It was time to go to work.

***

"Ah, Hyun-woo! Over here, here!"

A woman was bouncing up and down, waving her hand at me. Her nose looked a bit red, possibly from waiting outside for a while.

"Nadia, what are you doing here in the cold? I told you to wait inside if you were going to wait."

Feeling a pang of guilt, I tapped her red nose gently, and her snub nose twitched, sniffing at the stimulus.

"You always go for a cigarette if I'm inside. I hate that smell."

"I quit smoking, seriously."

"Liar. You can't fool my nose."

A strange silhouette whizzed past behind Nadia. It was a tail, fluffy and directly connected to her body.

"Fool what? Go ahead, smell it yourself. Do you smell any cigarette smoke?"

I had made no false claims, so I was confident. My clothes might have smelled like smoke, but that wasn't something I could control.

With so many beings driven by their base pleasures in the residential area, there wasn't much I could do about it. Compared to the other smells, the cigarette odor was almost pleasant.

"... It doesn't smell."

"That's because I haven't smoked. I don't lie."

I subtly nudged Nadia, who was twitching her half-gnawed ear, toward the interior. Though there wasn't a rule that the first one in should leave first, there was no advantage to being late.

"Let's just get in line."

"We don't have to wait in line! After working with the power loader last time, they said we can just go in next time!"

"That's your case, not mine."

When I shook my head, Nadia flicked her tail in displeasure. She stood by my side as if to say she wouldn't go in without me.

Even though some terraforming had been completed on this satellite, the biting cold characteristic of the ice planet was still harsh. The cheap temperature control built into the work clothes barely kept me warm.

One might wonder who she got her stubbornness from, but I was relieved that, for today at least, the line was not long, and it seemed our turn would come soon.

People who had arrived before us waited with their equipment. Some worked solo, and others, like me, waited with their teams.

The one common trait among them was the dim gray wristband each of them wore. The wristband served as a sort of identification. Depending on the color emitted by the wristband, a person's status was determined.

Although a person might choose their wristband's initial color, once it was on, the wristband became the defining proof of their identity.

'I heard there are other colors too.'

Ever since I awoke here, I had only ever seen gray. Gray, the miner's color. The color of a lowly worker like myself.

Wheee...

Nadia's tail tucked between her legs as an icy wind whistled by, peppered with bits of ice. Even as a beast person, she found it chilly.

I silently kicked Carry. The box whirred on, and when I nodded toward Nadia, it clung to her leg.

Though it wasn't an in-built feature, the heat generated from its old parts was comforting. Nadia giggled and crouched down to soak in the warmth.

The people in front dwindled, and finally, it was our turn.

Unlike us outside, the supervisor inside the properly heated steel booth turned his gaze to us. His bored eyes showed a flicker of interest when he saw Nadia but returned to indifference when looking at me beside her.

"Didn't I tell you before that you don't need to wait separately?"

"You did!"

"Then why- Never mind. I'm asking needless questions. Go into Tunnel 8. That's where you'll be working today."

The supervisor, still disinterested, tapped away at his monitor. As the familiar clatter of keys continued, our work location for the day was determined.

"Tunnel 8? Isn't that a newly dug spot?"

"That's right. Any problem?"

"... Nothing. Just gotta do what I'm told."

I swallowed my sigh. The number on the tunnels indicated how recently they'd been dug; the larger the number, the more recent.

More recent meant more work. It was not just about clearing paths but also being wary of potential cave-ins. Even if the ceiling collapsed, with our full gear and Carry, we wouldn't die.

Still, the idea of spending a lot on medical bills wasn't appealing.

"In this day and age, having to work manually..."

If it weren't for the electromagnetic disturbances caused by Blue Crystal mining, operations could have been a lot simpler—immensely so.

There's also talk of planetary drilling, but currently, it's deemed infeasible as it could affect Blue Crystal deposits—so, what's there to say?

"Hyun-woo, today's going to be tough!"

"What's so funny about that? I'm exhausted just thinking about it."

I headed towards the entrance of Tunnel 8, which the supervisor had mentioned, surveying the surroundings.

The sky was a deep gray, though not yet snowing,
Cloudy air,
The mechanical sound of earth being excavated,
People entering the dark tunnels,

And the ongoing repetitive broadcast.

〈Do not stay in the darkness too long. Prolonged exposure can lead to confusion due to Blue Crystal's influence.〉

〈Avoid being alone. Space psychosis begins with silence and loneliness.〉

〈Our medium-sized mining station, Heaven, spares no support for its workers.〉

"... Bullshit."

I mumbled while retrieving the laborer's equipment from the container. It had been three years since I suddenly found myself on this base.

Every time I returned here, it felt as if I were being led to a slaughterhouse. I swallowed that feeling, remembering that I needed to work myself to the bone to afford a shuttle ticket to another satellite.

Maybe I already had space psychosis, dealing with such thoughts while checking my equipment.

'Battery's good, dispersal unit's fine.'

A plasma cutter is indispensable for a miner. The ground here was largely metallic, rendering ordinary equipment useless.

With this cutter powered by small amounts of Blue Crystal, I could finally dig through.

"Nadia, are your tools okay?"

"Yep! They're perfectly- ... well, not really, but they should last for today at least!"

"Good. That's all we need."

Since it's rented equipment, as long as it lasts for the day, there's nothing to worry about. Especially since Nadia, who's an expert with tools, vouched for it.

Just then, sounds of commotion erupted from behind. Looking over, I saw a group of people rummaging around, digging through the surroundings.

Seeing the emblem on their outfits, I frowned.

'Why are the pureblood supremacists here...?'

Though they didn't plant bombs, they were pretty much akin to a terrorist group, so why did they show up at this remote base?

A group of pureblood supremacists established after beastmen appeared, spearheaded by a lab purporting the creation of superior humans.

Their facade was a love for pure human labor, which basically translated to outright hate towards any being not like them.

Encountering Nadia wouldn't bode well. They were unpredictable at best.

Luckily, this Blue Crystal mining complex, which doubled as a refinery, had incredibly tight security. I hoped the security robots would handle issues before they escalated.

"Hyun-woo, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, let's go inside."

"Okay!"

As I proceeded forward, the beastwoman with her fluffy tail and the transport robot, Carry, followed along.