I wished someone would smack Shin Haeryang on the back hard enough to light a fire under him. It was a shame Seo Jihyeok and Kang Soojung weren't here. Wouldn't they have taken the most full swings at a team leader spouting such nonsense?
Listening to you, I think, *Ah, I see. Truly a promising prospect for the future. I do hope that time comes quickly.* As if I could think the same thing. A person needs at least a slightly optimistic situation to live with hope for the future! I don't want to go to those Church of Infinity bastards! And I don't want to watch you die beside me either!
Joseph listened to Shin Haeryang's words and said with a gleeful, lopsided grin.
"You really are a crazy bastard, but you've got some sense for judging situations! Hurry up and surrender and beg! Untie me first!"
"Until that happens, I'll thoroughly whittle away as much of your time, firepower, stamina, and mental strength as possible. I'll inflict enough damage that you'll wonder if catching a single guppy like me could really be this bothersome and annoying."
Joseph looked at Shin Haeryang with eyes that said he'd never seen such a ruthless bastard before. However, upon hearing Shin Haeryang's declaration, my first thought was that it was a relief he wasn't planning to die easily.
He probably figured the Church of Infinity wouldn't keep him alive, so he intended to efficiently inflict losses on the enemy before dying, but couldn't he find a way to survive without dying, even if it was inefficient? "Don't think about dying at the dental clinic where I work." I said to Shin Haeryang with a small sigh.
"Let's do our best to make sure it doesn't come to that."
How much power does a savior hold? Was it enough influence within the cult to safely extract Shin Haeryang from the undersea base?
...From what I could see, he seemed to have jack shit. Judging by his track record, that so-called savior didn't even have the freedom of residence and movement to take the central elevator up to Daehan Island and stroll in the sea breeze. The ruler of eternal time and the savior of all living creatures surviving on this planet seemed worse off than a flying fish freely darting above the water's surface.
If I asked the Church of Infinity bastards to let out the others, including Shin Haeryang, from the undersea base, would they listen? Or what would they think if I asked to leave here myself?
Time was flowing like seawater. Though ten minutes hadn't passed yet, sitting on the counseling room floor, all sorts of thoughts came to mind. Had the medic arrived at the hospital emergency room properly? Was Gayeong's surgery proceeding well? Had the people who left Deep Blue hidden safely somewhere? How were those who went up to Daehan Island doing? What were Mom and my younger sibling doing right now? Why was I here doing this?
"Will the others be all right?"
Shin Haeryang rotated his right arm several times, stretching, then said,
"Exactly who are you referring to?"
"The people who left Deep Blue earlier. Jihyeok, Gayeong, Tumanako, all of them."
"They might run into Church of Infinity believers on the way, or the elevators might not work. There could be other hostile people already hiding at their destination. Jihyeok will use his own judgment."
"I hope they're hiding well."
Shin Haeryang narrowed his eyes, looked into the darkness, then shook his head.
"...Jihyeok won't stay quietly hidden."
"Pardon?"
"He'll put the others in a safe place, and then he'll probably sneak around."
"How do you know?"
Shin Haeryang said with a faint smile.
"When you give orders to subordinates under you, a superior must accept that the probability of the work being completed that same day is less than fifty percent."
"No way......"
Is that so? No, I don't think so. Was I like that too? Completing work the same day...... If you assign it in the morning, maybe, but if in the afternoon, it's a bit... I found it fascinating how Shin Haeryang was acting like an engineering team leader with that somewhat enlightened tone.
"Then are you staying here to buy time?"
"Yes. I'll make the Church of Infinity believers flock around Deep Blue. The more people gather here, the quieter other places become."
A decoy. Had Shin Haeryang originally planned to do something similar all by himself?
"Then is there no possibility that Jihyeok might attack the Church of Infinity believers gathered around the dental clinic? To help you escape?"
If there was outside help, wouldn't escaping Deep Blue be easier for Shin Haeryang, even if I was a secondary concern? Shin Haeryang thought about my opinion for a moment, then shook his head.
"He won't take such a risk unnecessarily. He'll concentrate on finding a safe place as ordered."
Joseph had been listening quietly and snorted.
"That Jihyeok guy is wandering around? He'll definitely get caught by our believers."
Shin Haeryang glanced at Joseph as if belittling him and said,
"I can't even find him sometimes; you guys must be incredibly good at finding him."
From what I could see, it would be better for Joseph's mental health not to talk to Shin Haeryang as much as possible. Regardless of whether Shin Haeryang answered or not, Joseph seemed to suffer mental stress every time Shin Haeryang looked at him like he was something worthless.
In the darkened dental clinic, in the counseling room without any intact furniture, I was with a gun-wielding man reeking of blood, yet I was surprisingly safe. My body was healthy, and I didn't feel greatly threatened mentally. Looking at my unbound hands and feet in contrast to Joseph, I asked Shin Haeryang,
"This is my first time being a hostage, so how does a hostage situation usually proceed?"
In my entire life, I'd only seen hostage situations in movies. Don't hostages bow their heads to the floor and stay tied up? Was the fact that they hadn't tied me up a sign that I wasn't much of a threat? Or that they didn't suspect me of being a Church of Infinity believer?
In movies, the protagonists are police officers or former and current special forces agents, so they took down hostage-takers incredibly easily. Bullets only avoided the protagonist. Even if they got hit sometimes, it was heroically in the side or shoulder; I'd yet to see anyone get shot in the sole of the foot or the balls.
Almost all the hostages survived too. If a real hostage situation occurred, I felt like both hostages and hostage-takers would literally become beehives during a special operations raid.
Now that I was a hostage, I hoped this would be the last hostage situation of my life. Shin Haeryang didn't recklessly attack Korean civilian nationals, and knowing that I myself would revive even if I died lessened my fear of death somewhat. Had I been here knowing nothing, I would have been at a loss due to the tension of having my life on the line. I would have buried my head in the floor, claimed I couldn't see anything, and trembled.
Shin Haeryang thought about my question for a moment and began explaining hostage negotiation in quite some detail for the novice hostage.
"When a hostage-taker takes hostages, they will have demands for outside forces. If there are no demands for the outside, it's mostly a case where the hostage-taker intends to harm the hostages."
"What do they usually demand?"
"Prepare money, prepare transportation, bring someone from their family, prepare things so they can broadcast, release someone, and so on."
I'd thought they only demanded money, but they asked for a surprisingly diverse range of things. I didn't know about money or transportation, but did they really comply when a person was demanded? What would they do if the person refused to come?
"What would you do, Haeryang, if the hostage-taker demanded their family be brought?"
"We wouldn't bring them and would make false promises to buy time."
"What about demands for money, transportation, or release?"
"All are the same. The hostage-takers' goal is to get what they want in a short time, but the negotiation team's goal is to obtain information without harming the hostages and to buy as much time as possible."
This situation was reversed. Shin Haeryang was trying to buy as much time as possible while obtaining information, and the Church of Infinity wanted to get something quickly. I deliberately ignored that the "something" was me.
"So you'd demand something like transferring ten billion won to a Swiss bank account, or preparing a helicopter, things like that?"
"Ten billion......"
Shin Haeryang's eyes moved right and left, scanning me and Joseph. His ever-expressionless face cracked slightly. It seemed Shin Haeryang didn't think the two of us combined were worth ten billion won. ......That's harsh. Really. When Joseph and I looked at Shin Haeryang with similarly wounded expressions, Shin Haeryang hesitated subtly and spoke.
"...Since all means of transportation are already broken, I'd like to pretend ignorance and demand an aircraft carrier from them just to see how they respond, but..."
As if they'd comply with that more readily than ten billion won?
"Unless the Church of Infinity offers me something that can replace you, I'll keep demanding things that are subtly difficult to grant. I'll waste time nitpicking their attire and such, and make sure the Church of Infinity believers can't leave the vicinity of Deep Blue."
Joseph closed his eyes as if he couldn't stand to look at Shin Haeryang anymore, slumped to the floor, and spoke in a tired voice.
"You crazy bastard. Give me the radio again. I'll tell them to charge in right now."
I recalled the person Shin Haeryang had said he wanted to talk to and asked,
"Why did you say you wanted to talk with that person named Elizabeth Weaver?"
"Because if they've designated her as the savior, she seems to be a key figure within the cult. ......I won't be the one talking to her."
Shin Haeryang rolled his eyes for a moment and added,
"You, sir, will be talking to her over the radio."
Tell me to suddenly get on the radio with some pseudo-religious nutjob I don't even know? Is passing the buck to the person next to you the trend these days?
The radio suddenly blared, startling me. Had ten minutes already passed? What happens if they couldn't bring Elizabeth Weaver? The light tension made the hair on my neck stand up, but a familiar voice began to flow from the radio.
["Team Leader? Team Leader! It's me, Sanghyeon! Save me! Team Leeeader!"]
Jeong Sanghyeon's wailing voice began to flow from the radio. For a moment, I wondered if Jeong Sanghyeon had subdued the Church of Infinity believers and obtained the radio to call us, but immediately after his words ended, Kim Jaehui's voice followed as if passing a baton.
["Team Leader Shin. You are alive. Thank goodness. We were unlucky and got caught. Well. It can't be helped."]
Immediately after the resigned voice finished, a sound of someone snatching the radio was heard, and a man called Night spoke.
["If you don't release Park Muhyeon within ten minutes, we will execute your team members one by one in order."]
Holding the radio, I looked at Shin Haeryang.