It was a sight I had seen once before, but I couldn't tear my eyes away. As I, too, stared blankly for a second or two at the escape pod tracing a parabola downward, Seo Jihyeok struck my shoulder with a thud from beside me. ...I almost fell. Seo Jihyeok, who had been driving Gang Sujeong forward with his crown pressed against his back like an ox, spoke in a low voice.
“We need to get moving!”
“Hey. Jihyeok. Those escape pods, those things over there.”
“Escape pods be damned, let’s go.”
The people who had been trading blows with fists and feet also stopped fighting at the shouts of bystanders. And they watched the escape pods, ejected toward the sea surface, being dragged back down into the ocean.
Kim Gayeong glanced at the escape pods displayed on the screen, then looked at me as I was led away. The moment our eyes met, Seo Jihyeok’s hand pulled me out of the escape pod port. Seo Jihyeok dragged the unconscious Muhan Church believer like a sack and spoke to Gang Sujeong and me.
“We need to go to the sports center right now. We have to move as fast as possible.”
“What about that unconscious person?”
“Ah. This is a gift for our Team Leader.”
That wasn’t what I’d asked. At Seo Jihyeok’s answer, Gang Sujeong also asked again, seemingly dumbfounded.
“No, that’s not what I mean. Are you going to carry this person on your back?”
“It’d be best if I could disassemble him and transport him.”
Seo Jihyeok seemed to have said it as a joke, but perhaps because neither Gang Sujeong nor I looked pleased, he spoke with slight confusion.
“Of course it’s a joke. I’ll carry him on my back. Or is there a better way?”
“...There’s a handcart. A handcart. There’s a cart over there.”
“There’s a cart? Where?”
When Gang Sujeong grabbed the handle on the wall in the corner of the corridor, a folding cart for moving objects was tucked away beneath it. As Gang Sujeong unfolded the cart into an L-shape, Seo Jihyeok’s face lit up. He roughly crammed the unconscious person onto it and said.
“You had this stashed in a place like this?”
“No matter how fit you are, people need to use tools sometimes.”
“As expected of our Deputy Team Leader. You know how to use your head.”
Gang Sujeong made an ambiguous expression, unsure whether Seo Jihyeok was insulting him or praising him. Just as Seo Jihyeok tried to push the cart and leave, I grabbed him in shock and spoke quickly.
“...Mr. Jihyeok. That person’s leg is dragging outside the cart.”
“He’s wearing shoes. Right now, whether someone else’s leg is scraping the floor is not what matters. You need to sprint at full speed immediately. Do you understand?”
Then, shoving the cart forward with force, Seo Jihyeok began running briskly. The cart let out a low rattle, but the wheels were quieter than expected. Rather, it vanished smoothly, as if sliding away.
“Huh? Hey!”
Gang Sujeong started running after Seo Jihyeok, but only after Seo Jihyeok’s back had grown distant did I realize I was lagging the furthest behind, and I started running too. How could he run so well while pushing a cart loaded with a person?
Until we reached the Central Building, I ran at full power without catching my breath. As I ran, I could no longer see Seo Jihyeok up ahead, and I could barely keep from losing sight of Gang Sujeong’s back. Seo Jihyeok slowed down about three times, and each time the person’s arms or legs fell from the cart, he would stop, lift them back on, and run again. Just as my breath reached my chin and my entire body was soaked in sweat, Seo Jihyeok slowed once more.
“If only I had some rope, I’d tie his body to the cart.”
An arm trembled along with the cart’s vibration and then dropped off the edge onto the floor with a thud. Seo Jihyeok clicked his tongue in annoyance, quickly lifted the arm back onto the cart, and ran off again. Running frantically like that, I saw, far in the distance, the figure of a snake coiled around an egg.
Seo Jihyeok carefully pushed the cart, slowing his pace, and began to walk slowly. After running too hard after so long, I coughed violently. Gang Sujeong looked at me worriedly and patted my back. Gang Sujeong, also catching his breath, wiped the sweat flowing down his jaw with the back of his hand and protested to Seo Jihyeok.
“We could have watched the escape pod situation a bit longer.”
“In a situation like this, we shouldn’t do what everyone else is doing. It’s not like watching a few more seconds would make them rise to the surface.”
“Is that so?”
Seo Jihyeok crossed the Muhan Church believer’s arms over his chest like an Egyptian mummy and asked me.
“Doctor. Among those escape pods, were there any that escaped to the sea surface?”
“Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff! Almost... none... none of them!”
Seo Jihyeok left the cart there and hoisted the man onto his back. Then he approached the sports center door. In front of the sports center door, Baek Aeyeong was leaning like a gatekeeper, waiting for us. Upon spotting Seo Jihyeok, Baek Aeyeong frowned and spoke.
“You’re so damn slow.”
“I came as fast as I could. Where’s Jihyeon?”
“She’s fine.”
Baek Aeyeong smiled at Gang Sujeong with an angelic voice and said.
“Deputy Team Leader, you’ve worked hard.”
“Yeah. Ayeong. You’ve worked hard too.”
Baek Aeyeong nodded toward me, and I also nodded in a daze. Baek Aeyeong passed by us and went toward the cart left in the distance.
When I opened the sports center door, I was completely overwhelmed by the sight before my eyes. I couldn’t even guess how to get inside. The entrance had been stacked in front of the door like Tetris using all the exercise equipment. As I stood there spaced out, staring at the tightly packed entrance with no gaps, Yu Geumi called out to me from the left corner with just her voice.
“You need to come this way. Step here, climb over there, like this. They said if you step on the wrong side over there, it will collapse.”
Even with a man slung over one shoulder, Seo Jihyeok smoothly climbed over the barrier of countless exercise machines and steel desks. I tried my best to only step where Seo Jihyeok had stepped. My legs, abused until moments ago, trembled like a strand of taffy.
I saw Gang Sujeong slip while clambering over this wall of steel chunks and smash his knee hard. Cursing, it took him a long time to barely get over the barricade, and his calves and knees seemed bruised from bumping against pieces of iron here and there.
Once past the protective wall of iron and exercise equipment, the inside of the sports center was unexpectedly empty. Since all the exercise equipment was blocking the entrance, there was almost nothing inside. Tumanako sat next to Henry and waved at me. I waved back and immediately lay down sprawled flat on the floor. Perhaps because I had run without resting for several minutes, I couldn’t move a single finger.
Seo Jihyeok dumped the Muhan Church believer he had been carrying onto the sports center floor. I was startled by the roughness of the action and sat up, but upon realizing the floor where he had put the person down was padded like a mat, I let out a sigh of relief and lay back down. Sin Haeryang looked at us and asked Gang Sujeong.
“What happened to Ms. Gayeong?”
“She’s at the Main Building escape pod port. She said she’d stay with the researchers who saved her.”
“Understood. What about that person over there?”
When Sin Haeryang asked about the new unconscious person, Gang Sujeong answered with a sigh.
“Ask Jihyeok. Jihyeok suddenly beat him up and kidnapped him.”
Gang Sujeong spoke as if drawing a clear line that this matter had nothing to do with him, and Seo Jihyeok spoke as if aggrieved.
“I brought a definite Muhan Church believer!”
Then he looked at Sin Haeryang expectantly, as if seeking praise. Sin Haeryang turned his head to the unconscious man without a word. Gang Sujeong looked at me lying on the floor with a sour gaze, then at the man lying on the floor over there, then back at Seo Jihyeok. Gang Sujeong wore an expression as if confused whether the Muhan Church believer Seo Jihyeok was talking about was me or that man.
While lying down, I pointed at that man with a trembling finger. Seo Jihyeok also thought for a moment and pointed at the unconscious man. Gang Sujeong pointed his fingers at both me and the unconscious man. Sin Haeryang let out a light sigh, then together with Seo Jihyeok dragged the unconscious believer toward the shower room connected to the sports center.
Lee Jihyeon brought a water bottle and handed it to me as I lay there. Taking the bottle with trembling hands, I asked her.
“How is your body?”
“I think I’m okay now.”
“If I may ask you one thing.”
Lee Jihyeon had an expression wondering what I would ask. Seeing that I couldn’t open the bottle cap properly, she said.
“Yes. ...Please drink some water and then ask.”
“Thank you. My... question is a bit strange.”
“It’s okay.”
“To stop a serial killer, could you crash the elevator that you’re riding in together with that killer?”
“...Is this some kind of personality test?”
Lee Jihyeon asked, looking at me gulping down water, as if bewildered. I thought for a moment and answered.
“Yes.”
Lee Jihyeon, frowning her brows in thought, finally spoke when I had emptied more than half the bottle.
“A serial killer in the same elevator. ...Crash. A crash. I don’t think I would do that.”
“Why is that?”
“The religion I believe in considers suicide a grave sin second only to murder. Because it violates the Ten Commandments. I probably wouldn’t do it.”
“...I see. Thank you.”
Lee Jihyeon looked at my face for a while and asked.
“What is the test result?”
“Huh? ...You are an incredibly brave person.”
Putting aside Lee Jihyeon’s strange look, as I drank water while half-reclining, I saw that Gang Sujeong was also sitting and drinking water. Was there a water purifier inside the sports center? Cold air rose from the floor, cooling my heated back.
Looking around while lying down, I saw descriptions of the sports center’s Ophion written on the wall. Was that giant snake in front of the entrance earlier Ophion?
Eurynome, the goddess of all things born alone from chaos and the powerful sea goddess, was said to have been dancing upon the waves when she created the great snake Ophion. When Eurynome, the primordial goddess, laid the egg (the universe), her husband Ophion wrapped his body around it seven times to embrace it, and finally, from the broken egg, countless stars, the sky, the earth, and living creatures were born. Then one day, Ophion suddenly and arrogantly claimed that he had created the universe himself. Seeing this, Eurynome stomped on Ophion’s head with her foot, broke all his fangs, and banished him.
...Can a snake’s fangs break from being stepped on? Then is dental treatment possible for snakes too? Reading the creation myth of Crete with a dazed mind, my legs and heart, which had been pounding from the all-out sprint, gradually began returning to their lazy state.
Below the myth, brief supplementary explanations about Ophion’s abilities and the myth were written. As I read the sentence stating that the snake symbolizes knowledge, and because it sheds its skin to be reborn, it means eternal life, reincarnation, and ceaseless new resurrection, my dim eyes suddenly snapped open. Why were these descriptions and names in this underwater base? Why were there things like a Qinglong, a Dagon, or a Yongwang in an underwater base?