The White Space. Chapter 14. The Underground Club
And so, another person joined their group.
Marcus invited her to his apartment. Sirius and Kai came as well. When she stepped inside, she froze for a moment. After spending her entire life in the white world, the colorful interior felt almost shocking. But then she noticed a familiar sculpture standing on a shelf. And she understood everything. Sirius had printed identical sculptures for Marcus and Kai in advance. Now each of them had one of their own.
That made four of them.
Of course, the protagonist and Kai redesigned her apartment. They worked together, combining their ideas, and the result felt even warmer than the previous projects. By now, they knew what they were doing. They knew how their small community could grow. Most importantly, they knew how to do it safely. That knowledge gave them confidence.
Sirius continued traveling to Lucarne. There he created cozy spaces, learned new things, and passed his knowledge on to his apprentice. The young man had already started an official internship and received his own 3D printer. Every time Sirius visited Lucarne, he replenished his supply of colored cartridges and shared them with his young friend.
Katrin, who had recently joined their group, also mentioned someone she knew. She had a feeling he might be like them. Once again, they carried out their small sculpture operation. This time everything went smoothly.
The man worked at a recycling center. From time to time, he was able to bring them colored materials that were supposed to be destroyed. In the future, this proved extremely useful. Their community was beginning to grow, and they needed more and more materials.
Gradually, new people joined the group. The number of colorful apartments within the white world continued to increase. The protagonist and his apprentice created these new warm spaces one after another. Their numbers kept growing. Before long, there were already twelve of them.
Among them were some very valuable people. One worked in architectural restoration and could modify small buildings or individual architectural elements. But the biggest surprise for the protagonist was someone else. A woman from the Ministry Information Center joined them. He had seen her there many times before and had always been convinced that only people completely loyal to the system worked in places like that. Yet she passed their sculpture test, and Sirius personally designed a new space for her.
She turned out to be incredibly valuable. Through her work, she spoke with countless people and often noticed those who doubted the system. Those who lacked warmth. She passed their names on to the group, and then the team carried out their sculpture test.
Not everyone passed. Some immediately contacted the Purification Service. Others simply walked by and pretended they had seen nothing. There were also people who stopped and looked at the sculpture with curiosity but never dared to pick it up. Those people were a risk as well. Eventually, the group decided not to approach anyone who hesitated. They would simply retrieve the sculpture and move on.
They had to be extremely careful. Even the smallest mistake could lead to serious consequences.
Meanwhile, Sirius was creating increasingly ambitious projects in Lucarne. Larger and larger spaces. He was already receiving commissions for entire apartments. He had even redesigned two houses. Most recently, he completed the interior design of a café.
He became friends with the owner and began visiting whenever he could. The owner always greeted him personally. The protagonist even told him about life in the white world. The man genuinely could not understand why two separate worlds existed and always tried to support Sirius. Over time, Sirius gained a true friend from the colorful world. And a place where he could relax and enjoy himself.
Yet he had not forgotten the roadside café. It had become a tradition to stop there every time he traveled to Lucarne.
He missed places like that in the white world. Places where people could gather with like-minded friends, talk loudly, laugh, and eat real food. Their world had cafés and bars, of course. But there were very few of them, and all had been built according to the standards of white-space design. Cold. Almost sterile.
And the worst part was the food. The same colorless, textureless smoothies found in every apartment. Only with a few additional flavors and a very limited selection of drinks. Usually something based on coffee, tea, milk, or water.
For a long time, Sirius had dreamed of creating something more than colorful apartments. He wanted to build an underground café in the white world. A place where his friends could gather. Talk loudly. Laugh. Eat real food.
Now there were so many of them that meeting in someone's apartment had become a problem. It attracted too much attention. Besides, an apartment would always remain a private space. He wanted to create something different.
A true meeting place.
But there was one problem.
They had no suitable location. And without colorful food and drinks, it would never become the café he imagined. He dreamed of something else. Of aromas. Of textures. Of different colors spread across a table. Of glasses glowing with warm shades. Of laughter that did not have to be suppressed. In the white world, all of that seemed almost impossible.
But sometimes even the most sterile system develops tiny cracks.
And soon, a series of events unexpectedly brought his dream closer to reality.
One day, he was heading down to the basement to store some belongings in his storage unit. As he walked along the corridor, he noticed the same door he had ignored so many times before.
A massive bunker door.
Long ago, such bunkers had been built beneath almost every building in case of war. The wars were long over. But the bunkers remained. Cold reminders of another era. Most people had forgotten about them. New buildings were no longer constructed with bunkers, but the old ones still had them. Large. Empty. Unused.
Unused...
Until Sirius stopped in front of that door.
A crazy idea appeared in his mind.
What if he built an underground café here?
He stepped closer. Placing his hand on the cold metal, he pulled the heavy handle. The door slowly opened, and he stepped inside.
A vast empty space unfolded before him. Gray concrete walls. Thick ventilation pipes. Bare cold concrete beneath his feet. He slowly walked through the room, carefully examining every corner. His gaze moved across the naked walls, but in reality, he was already seeing something else: tables, warm lighting, colorful walls, people laughing, the aroma of food, and the hum of conversation.
He turned around and closed the heavy door behind him. The metal clicked dully, and suddenly everything became very quiet. No one from outside could simply wander in. That was exactly why these bunkers had once been built. Thick concrete walls. Massive steel doors. Even if dozens of people gathered here and someone burst into loud laughter, nobody upstairs would hear a thing. The ventilation system had been designed to support dozens of occupants. He slowly looked around the space once more and smiled.
He had found the perfect place.
Spacious. Hidden. Safe.
Later that evening, he shared his idea with his friends. Everyone loved the proposal, but they were even more impressed by the location itself. The bunker was perfect. Thick concrete walls, massive doors, and near-complete isolation from the outside world made it incredibly secure. On top of that, it had two entrances: one from the apartment building and another from the underground parking garage. That meant there would always be an escape route if something went wrong.
Marcus, who always thought several steps ahead, immediately suggested another important measure.
- If we're creating a place like this, we need a security system, - he said.
He began planning how everything should work. His idea was simple yet highly effective. They would install small hidden cameras in both the parking garage and the building entrance. Anyone entering or leaving the bunker could use their glasses to view a live feed from the cameras. That way, they would always know whether someone was nearby and whether it was safe to enter or leave. It was an essential precaution.
Everyone understood that even the smallest mistake could cost them dearly. But with a system like this, people would feel much safer. Slowly, what they were building became more than just an underground café. It was meant to become a gathering place for like-minded people. A place where they could be themselves. A place where everyone knew they were safe.
Only one problem remained: food and drinks.
Yet by now, none of them doubted that sooner or later they would solve that problem as well. After everything they had already accomplished, it seemed only a matter of time.
Meanwhile, the protagonist and his apprentice focused on the most important task—the design of the bunker itself. Thanks to an acquaintance who specialized in architectural structures, they managed to modify the entrance system. The massive bunker door could now only be opened through special authorization linked to their glasses. Every member of the group received access, making the place even more secure. The same acquaintance helped them install several partition walls to divide the interior. This allowed them to create a separate kitchen area, isolated from the main section of the café.
Now they could finally begin designing the interior. The process took far longer than redesigning apartments. The space was much larger, which meant they needed far more materials, furniture, and lighting. Colored materials had to be acquired gradually and transported in small batches to avoid attracting attention.
But the work continued.
Slowly. Carefully. Step by step.
And with each passing day, the bunker looked less like a cold concrete shelter and more like a place filled with life.
The project was steadily approaching completion.