“So if I engrave my initials on any old gem, I become the savior of you dimwits? You’re telling me all it takes is a lace needle to become a savior? That’s cheaper than parking fees.”
Joseph, apparently furious at Sin Haeryang’s remark, shouted while bound, panting heavily.
“You think just anyone can do it by carving a name! Only a savior who meets the proper conditions is granted qualification to enter the Infinite Loop! What? A lace needle? They used a laser to engrave [Park Muhyeon] in Korean, in enormous letters, on a diamond—they sure weren’t confident when they carved it!”
They even engraved a Korean name on a gem. And if it was a diamond, do they mean one as big as a human head? Then… does that make it mine now? Then are all the gems there mine too? For a brief moment, greed burrowed into my chest.
But imagining the exhibition hall filled with eerily beautiful gems, and the cultists of the Infinite Church engraving my name and initials in eight languages on them, was nothing short of grotesque. Moreover, the moment I pictured those massive gems, every memory of what had happened in that exhibition hall came flooding back. What remained in my head was not the radiance of the blood-red gems, but only the color of Yu Geumi and Seo Jihyeok’s blood that had splattered on them. If a gem had human blood on it, I wanted nothing to do with it. …And don’t carve my name on them, either.
Sin Haeryang watched Joseph squirm about while bound, his expression unchanging. The gems Joseph spoke of seemed to be the massive ones displayed in the exhibition hall, but Sin Haeryang, who had no memory of the exhibition hall, seemed to be imagining tiny gems—necklaces or rings owned by individuals—with small initials engraved on them. To bridge the gap between their ideas, I asked:
“Are my names engraved on large gems inside the exhibition hall of the Second Undersea Base? Or are you referring to engraving them on small accessories owned by individuals?”
At my question, Joseph looked up at me blankly and asked:
“Are you Park Muhyeon?”
Wondering if I should answer this, I looked at Sin Haeryang, and he gave a slight nod when our eyes met.
“I am Park Muhyeon.”
It sounded reluctant to Sin Haeryang, but Joseph answered me with an exceedingly polite attitude.
“Yes. Your name was engraved on the gems in the exhibition hall. Most likely, believers who detected your existence in another time period carved your name into the gems. Even if someone engraved your name on a personal accessory they carry around, it wouldn’t have any effect. Those gems were specially prepared for this day, and they will be used for you.”
That was incredibly burdensome. It might not be me. There could be another Park Muhyeon besides me.
“…There might be someone with the same name besides me. Park Muhyeon seems like a fairly common name.”
Sin Haeryang, who had been looking at Joseph the whole time, turned his head slightly to look at me. It was just a fleeting glance, but it felt like a gesture that said, “What kind of bullshit is that?” It’s a common name! Like John or Michael! But Joseph answered firmly:
“Across the undersea base and Daehan Island, there is only one person with that name.”
I had tried in every way to shake off the title of savior of a pseudo-religion, but I failed. Joseph looked at me with eyes full of hope and faint joy, and asked:
“Are you truly experiencing the miracle?”
“Pardon?”
“The miracle of returning to the past.”
Before I could answer, Sin Haeryang stepped in front of me, blocking the space between Joseph and me. Then he spoke with an expressionless face:
“I’m the one asking questions. You just answer me.”
“You insolent—!”
Joseph seemed greatly displeased that Sin Haeryang had stolen the opportunity for me to answer. Sin Haeryang ignored Joseph’s attitude and asked:
“How many believers does the Infinite Church have in total?”
“…The total number is around twenty.”
The penlight Sin Haeryang had been holding pointed not at Joseph but at the hallway. Then the gun barrel whipped in that direction and a shot rang out. Bang! The instant the sound rang out, I looked dumbly to see a bound man in the hallway groaning loudly and writhing. He really shot a person!
A torrent of curses poured from Joseph’s mouth aimed at Sin Haeryang. Listening blankly to Joseph’s dazzling array of expletives, they were peculiarly directed only at Sin Haeryang personally, with no racial slurs against Asians. Was that because I was here? The angle of Sin Haeryang’s gun shifted slightly as he aimed into the darkness and spoke coldly:
“Does this look like a joke? Every time you lie, another hole will open in someone else’s body. Arms, legs, chest—I can toy with each one five times. Once it exceeds ten, it’ll be Park Muhyeon’s turn.”
Hey. Wait a minute.
“I don’t ask twice.”
Joseph looked back and forth between me, frozen in shock, and Sin Haeryang. He had apparently thought Sin Haeryang and I were on relatively friendly terms, but he seemed to be hurriedly revising that assumption.
“The armed personnel number around twenty-five! There are also about twenty ordinary believers… but they’re unarmed! They won’t have any intention to attack! The total number of believers isn’t even fifty.”
“What happened to the people who escaped from the Fourth Undersea Base using escape pods?”
“If they took escape pods, they should be floating just fine on the sea surface…!”
Bang!
There’s someone shooting and someone getting shot, and I feel like I’m losing my mind. Someone was writhing in pain in the darkness again.
“I-I heard that the escape pods from White Tiger Hall and Vermilion Bird Hall were sabotaged beforehand! But the ones from Black Tortoise Hall and Azure Dragon Hall are operating normally, so those who took proper escape pods should be floating on the surface waiting for rescue! Or they’ll swim to Daehan Island! Since they won’t be much of a threat without weapons, we planned to gather only those approaching Daehan Island and detain them at headquarters!”
The moment Sin Haeryang heard the answer, he asked:
“What happened to the ships or helicopters moored at Daehan Island? Do the Infinite Church believers have separate means to escape Daehan Island?”
“We have a few hidden away to secure an escape rou…!”
Bang!
“You crazy bastard! Stop shooting!” Joseph gnashed his teeth at Sin Haeryang, who stood like a statue looking down at him. Sin Haeryang merely shifted the direction of his muzzle slightly without a word.
“How did we… We burned them all! Satisfied?!”
“Stop shooting! …You stop lying too!”
This is completely insane. The ones with information are taking bullets instead of giving it up, and he keeps firing into people’s bodies the moment he catches a lie. Fearful that Sin Haeryang would fire again, I yelled only what was necessary. Then Sin Haeryang answered sharply without even looking at me:
“My actions change depending on how cooperative he is. Do not interfere. It is not your turn yet.”
Then Joseph, who had been showering Sin Haeryang with all manner of curses, straightened his expression and spoke to me.
“Please stay still. It’s dangerous!”
Joseph seemed more worried about me provoking Sin Haeryang, even as the believers who had raided Deep Blue with him were being shot. What kind of dogshit situation is this. Whose side is anyone on! …The Sin Haeryang I saw wasn’t an ungrateful bastard who would shoot someone trying to save his teammates. If anything, it was the opposite.
But a suspicious dentist he’d only met today couldn’t be more precious than teammates he’d worked with for a long time. I felt like Baek Ayeong, the Infinite Church believers, and I could all end up side by side in the ICU of Daehan Island General Hospital.
I asked the hostage-taker, who had destroyed the dental clinic and was currently tearing through anyone who entered it:
“…I’d like to provide emergency treatment for the people who were shot, even now.”
“Is there a need for that? They are lunatics who terrorized the undersea base. Moreover, they spew nothing but lies every time they open their mouths, so do not listen to them.”
Joseph was furious to the tips of his hair, but being bound, he could only squirm and spew curses at Sin Haeryang. So just because they ended up like this while invading Deep Blue, should I clap and tell them to die well while leaving them be?
Sin Haeryang was blocking the space between Joseph and me, and now I could see that a counseling desk shoved into the corner was cleverly restricting my movement. Unless I somehow moved Sin Haeryang aside, I couldn’t get to Joseph or go out into the hallway. At first, I had thought this was to stop Joseph or the person in the hallway from suddenly rushing at me or attacking me, but now I saw the reverse was possible too.
It seemed Sin Haeryang intended to keep shooting like that as long as Joseph’s attitude didn’t change. How many gunshot victims was he planning to create for Baek Ayeong’s sake?
“Then let me ask a few things as well. …It was Joseph, right?”
“Yes.”
“Please tell me the truth. I don’t want to see any more people getting shot, nor do I want to hear any more gunfire. What is the situation at Daehan Island General Hospital? Is the hospital operating?”
“The hospital has been left alone to operate normally. There’s no benefit in taking hospital staff hostage. We’re not that bad.”
For a moment, Sin Haeryang furrowed his brow but didn’t say anything. Though his curiosity was literally piled up like a mountain, he swallowed a sigh upon hearing the groans and screams flowing from the dark hallway.
“There should be medical transport robots called Medics inside the undersea base. Do you know where they are?”
“They were likely all placed in the First Undersea Base and the Second Undersea Base for gem transport and movement.”
Why did they put them there! So that’s why we couldn’t find any despite searching everywhere while carrying the injured! If we had even one Medic, we wouldn’t have suffered so much on the stairs!
“Can you contact them by radio and call a Medic to Deep Blue?”
Joseph’s tone suggested that if it wasn’t possible, he would make it possible. I picked up the radio on the desk to hand it to Joseph, whose hands were tied in front of him, but because Sin Haeryang was standing in between, I had no choice but to toss it. The radio clattered across the floor.
“Call a Medic to Deep Blue.”
When the Medic arrived, I would have to send Baek Ayeong out with it. Since Sin Haeryang wasn’t stopping my actions, it was probably fine. Sin Haeryang spoke up while listening to my conversation with Joseph:
“However, there are still seven shots left.”
It didn’t sound like a simple threat. Someone was already dying from gunshot wounds on my unit chair, and now two more were being added in the hallway.
“Looking at that person’s attitude, I think you could have taken just me as a hostage.”
Afraid that his actions might provoke Sin Haeryang, Joseph said nothing more over the radio than to send a Medic to Deep Blue since there were casualties. Sin Haeryang, who had been listening to him communicate with someone at the central elevator, snatched the radio away the moment the transmission ended. Then he began interrogating Joseph again.
“Would it be a problem if Park Muhyeon died?”
What the hell. Of course it would? Hey. Ask the person involved—me—about that. I can answer just fine even without any savior title.
“If what you lot say is true, Park Muhyeon will just come back to life even if he dies, so why would dying be a problem?”
The retort “Why don’t you try dying first?” rose to the tip of my tongue, but I held it back. Because I too was curious about the question Sin Haeryang was asking the Infinite Church believer. Joseph answered quickly:
“Everything will go back to the past again. Everything that’s happening now will become meaningless!”
Sin Haeryang looked skeptical at Joseph’s words.
“Was Park Muhyeon originally destined to become your savior? From what I heard from the person himself, he didn’t even know about the Infinite Church.”
“There was someone designated to be the savior. Even if that wasn’t the case, all Infinite Church believers who possess gems are reserve candidates. We too don’t know why Park Muhyeon suddenly became the savior!”