I quickly put on socks and hiking boots. And as I pocketed the cell phone that had become more of a watch than anything else, I thought. What time had it been when I woke up in bed before? Had it been around seven in the morning then too? At least I knew it was morning.
It was my day off, and water had suddenly started leaking, so I’d been out of it and couldn’t remember what time I’d woken up at all. I tried to blame my past self for being complacent, but since beating myself up wouldn’t do any good, I rationalized it instead. You don’t count time on your day off. You just lie around lazily all day without a thought, grab something to eat when you’re roughly hungry, then lie back down and just kill time.
The time I’d died in the elevator before had been around 4:30 in the afternoon. ...Let me start keeping track of the time now. Nothing is too late. I can start now. I woke up this morning at 7:02. Comforting myself just a little, I threw my backpack onto the bed.
This time, too, I shoved all the towels I had into the backpack. Unlike before, I didn’t bother putting things like my wallet or cell phone charger in. Clean cloths were bound to come in handy in any situation.
What else should I pack? A flashlight was absolutely essential. As time passed, blackouts inside the undersea base had been becoming more frequent. Light was necessary to see ahead, but also for psychological reasons. In darkness, even the tiniest spark was an incredible comfort to the mind.
What else was there? If I saw a sturdy, long rope anywhere, I was grabbing it no matter what. Team Leader Sin Haeryang had used parachute cord, and seeing how much I’d regretted not taking rope when the Jujakdong Research Center blacked out meant it would definitely come in handy again.
Painkillers too—if I found any along the way, I had to take them. It was nearly impossible for a person to accomplish anything while in continuous pain. Whether it was the mind or the body, if it hurt, focus was inevitably shattered.
The human body wasn’t made to endure pain to begin with, so what can you do? People who never even looked at a dentist’s office came running the moment they had a toothache. What else, what else? I had to avoid getting hurt as much as possible. Water too—if I saw any, I had to take it.
...This time, I have to do better than last time. I don’t want to see anyone else die, and I don’t want to die either.
After five seconds of hesitation, I decided not to pack the family photo or the whale plushie this time. I packed an extra pair of pants in their place and swept all the candy and chocolate from the table into my backpack.
I thought as I zipped up the waterproof backpack. Even if dying sent me back to the past, I didn’t know how many times I could go back. What if this was the last time? What was I supposed to do if I couldn’t return to the past anymore?
Even time spent thinking was a waste now. I simply reached a conclusion.
What else. I just had to live hard like always. Like I always had. Without regrets.
I shouldn’t believe I could go back infinitely. The Church of Infinity bastards might have messed up the name, so how would I know if it’s actually the Three-Times Church or the Five-Times Church? How could I trust a pseudo-religious cult’s sense of naming or how they handle things? I took a deep breath. I was fully dressed with my backpack on. I could dash out of the room at any moment.
Instead of leaving the room, I quickly opened the undersea base guidebook and found the broadcast section. If this guidebook hadn’t been in Korean, I wouldn’t have dared to open it in this situation.
As I flipped through the pages, I caught a glimpse that the first escape method listed was the escape vessel. The broadcast section took quite a few more pages to find; skimming through it with my eyes, I saw that emergency broadcasts could also be made through the pad. It said broadcasting was possible for those with authority of at least Engineer Deputy Team Leader within the undersea base.
Even during the five days I’d worked here, broadcasts were made from each base from time to time. There were announcements about engineer shift changes, charging and repair times for mining robots, requests to find people or return borrowed items, and frequent notices about what time you had to come out to board a certain country’s helicopter or ship.
How much authority did I have? I knew that because I was classified as medical staff, I could open others’ doors with my fingerprint. But what about broadcasting? Did I also have the authority to broadcast? Was my authority equal to or greater than that of an Engineer Deputy Team Leader?
I turned on the pad and entered the undersea base program. Even the one-second wait for the program screen to load felt like my insides were burning. And I got lost for a few more seconds inside the program looking for the broadcast section. My other self was screaming in impatience—where did I have time for this bullshit, get out of the room right now.
I tried to calm my frantic self down. I’m doing this to get better. To live a better life. This isn’t wasting time! Hold it together!
Soothing my fingertips that trembled with impatience, I barely found the broadcast screen. When I pressed the broadcast button, it activated from red to green. Cute dolphins and sailfish started swimming all over the screen window. Did this mean I could broadcast? I asked the pad as if talking to it.
“Is this how I speak into it?”
[Is this how I speak into it]
The moment I spoke into the pad, my stupid voice flowed out from the hallway speaker. I couldn’t even spare the time to sigh in relief. I immediately started speaking into the pad.
[I am Bak Muhyeon, a dentist working at the Fourth Undersea Base, Deep Blue. If anyone is hearing my voice right now, do not board the escape vessels! I repeat. Do not escape via the escape vessels! Currently, the escape vessels have been intentionally sabotaged by... uh... unidentified persons so that they cannot leave the central ocean layer (-1000m). Do not board them just because they look fine on the outside. Those of you trying to escape the undersea base, please give up on escaping via the escape vessels.]
Don’t board the escape vessels if you don’t want to die, you bastards! What else? I racked my brain for everything I knew.
[Also, I don’t know who they are, but someone has attacked Jujakdong with a torpedo. The Jujakdong Research Center is flooding with seawater.]
How much information should I give? ...I don’t know. What should the people hearing this broadcast do to survive? I started to worry, then realized I didn’t even have time for that.
What I was doing might be a complete blunder. No one might believe me. It might be a stupid waste of time. ...But maybe this could save someone!
I decided to provide everything I knew to the people listening to this broadcast. Even if I monopolized information about the future and tried to profit alone, in the end I’d only produce corpses.
[In Cheongnyongdong, Engineer Ra Team (China) is armed with firearms and attacking people indiscriminately, and Engineer Na Team (Japan) is also moving around armed near Jungangdong.]
I ran my tongue over my parched lips and spoke.
[And escape through the Central Elevator is impossible as well. An insane religious cult armed and wearing black hats with Greenland shark patches has occupied the other undersea bases except for the Fourth Undersea Base. The believers of this religion called the Church of Infinity are estimated to number between at least twenty and sixty. They are armed with rifles, and if you take the Central Elevator up, you will definitely encounter them. Though their goal is to turn back time, they worship the Greenland shark for some reason, are extremely hostile, and do not want the staff stationed at the undersea base to escape.]
What else had there been? I realized I was rattling off things that probably sounded like nonsense even as I said them. Who would believe me about the Church of Infinity? They’d probably treat me like a lunatic.
[Especially, never, ever board the undersea cable car connecting the Second Undersea Base and the First Undersea Base! And do not take the Jujakdong freight elevator! In the case of the undersea cable car, as time passes, it is highly likely to collapse along with the undersea base. And if you board the Jujakdong freight elevator, due to continuous blackouts, it ascends slower than an inchworm, and from the moment you board, you can do nothing but scream and pray!]
Having been bitten to death by a shark and shot to death, my personal feeling was that other people didn’t necessarily need to experience this. Let’s share the bad experiences widely and not create any more victims. Was I missing anything? I hesitated, about to end the broadcast, then added one last thing.
[The undersea base is facing an unprecedented situation. Please, just for now, set aside your selfishness and try to overcome this disaster by helping those around you as much as possible. You cannot survive alone. Do not calculate profit and loss or reason. To survive, you must help one another without expecting anything in return. ...Let’s get out of here alive and healthy.]
If the people who heard this broadcast asked where they should escape to, I had nothing to say. I’d never properly gotten out of the undersea base myself. But one thing was certain: you had to cooperate with the people you met inside the undersea base. Because dealing with crazy fanatic terrorists was hard enough!
I roughly spat out my last words and ended the broadcast. Then I pressed the emergency alarm on the pad.
[Weee-oooh! Weee-oooh! Emergency! Everyone at the Fourth Undersea Base, please escape via escape vessels, elevators, and other means. Emergency! Everyone at the Fourth Undersea Base, please escape via escape vessels, elevators, and other means.]
Now the familiar voice echoed throughout Baekhodong. It was the button Vladimir had pressed before. I heard the doors of Baekhodong opening all at once.
I had expected it, but the moment the doors opened, water surged into the room like a wave. Just seeing it made my heart rate skyrocket from stress.
...Calm down. You can do this. You’re doing this for the third time now. You’re completely used to it. You’re an expert. Don’t worry. You won’t be late. You can do everything in time. You haven’t wasted anything. There’s no need to rush.
Looking at the water rising to my ankles, I immediately ran out of the room.
Carlos and Yu Geumi were already out in the hallway. The two of them were running-walking down the corridor with difficulty due to the water. The sight of Yu Geumi floundering as she walked down the flooded hallway was so welcome. I splashed after them and shouted at their backs.
“There’s a cat in Room 64! You two get it out!”
“You want us to grab a pet in this situation?! Are you crazy?”
Carlos asked in disbelief. Nikita was running down the hallway, and I could see Vladimir dragging Nikolai out of his room.
“Vlad-i-mir!”
I passed by Room 36, shouting his name at the top of my lungs. Engineer Da Team Leader was looking at his drunken teammate and turned his head toward me.
“Dmitri is sleeping in Room 80! I think it’s Room 76, and there’s probably a snake there too!”