Kim Jaehui added somewhat self-deprecatingly to Seo Jihyeok's words.
"There aren't many happy or future-oriented people among the Muhan Church members. They all have at least one mental illness, and the majority are physically unhealthy too. Anyway, you're a consumable whether you go here or there in life. Is that really so important?"
Jeong Sanghyeon listened to Kim Jaehui's words and asked as if he couldn't understand.
"If you don't have money, it's usually like that. And if your mental state isn't good and your physical condition isn't good either, shouldn't you be hospitalized? Why believe in a religion? That's absurd."
Kim Jaehui smiled slightly at those words. Seo Jihyeok looked at Kim Jaehui with an expression like he was chewing rocks and asked.
"Why did you join that religion?"
"Because I wanted to go to the past."
"Why do you want to go?"
"The others had differing opinions, but I want to live there."
Sin Haeryang, who was walking while being held by Seo Jihyeok, asked Kim Jaehui.
"Then what about reality?"
"If I had considered reality, would I have joined a religion like this?"
Sin Haeryang closed his mouth after hearing that answer. I heard Seo Jihyeok speaking while gently patting Kim Jaehui's shoulder.
In the brief moment we stopped, I rummaged through my backpack and took out two pads. And I held one out to its owner.
Sin Haeryang examined the front and back of the pad, then expressed his thanks and took back his pad.
With a slightly tired voice, Seo Jihyeok was trying to persuade Kim Jaehui.
"Jaehui-ya. The people who cherish and love you are all in reality, going back to the past is impossible, and those bastards are all scammers after money."
"That was a good start."
"......Let's say I care about you roughly and comfort you roughly. Comforting people isn't my area of expertise, so I can't do it well, so just take it roughly. Even just the team leader who's lost it and the two team members who've lost it are a headache, but two team members have disappeared like smoke, and the one team member who was relatively intact said with her own mouth that she joined an armed pseudo-religious terror group? ......Let's take it easy. You were moved by my persuasion and comfort and escaped from that religion where the patients gathered, struggling desperately to live in this shitty reality. And you forget all the conversations that happened today."
Kim Jaehui smiled slightly, perhaps finding Seo Jihyeok's words funny. Seo Jihyeok sighed, looked at the people, and spoke.
"Other people will forget your words too. If they don't, I'll borrow Deputy Team Leader Gang's hammer and strike the part with the hippocampus one by one. Well. There are four more people here besides you and me, so it'll be hard to keep a secret, but if I strike just one person as an example, the rest will automatically forget it. (Jeong Sanghyeon panicked upon hearing that. What did you say?) The nonsense that you voluntarily joined a crazy religion that commits terror will be treated as drunken rambling. Don't worry too much. Seeing American and Canadian kids get wasted and spew nonsense, your story is nothing."
I raised my head while looking at the undersea base bulletin board on the pad upon hearing that nonsense, and my eyes happened to meet Seo Jihyeok's. I quickly played along.
"I didn't hear a single thing all day today."
"Thank you for your cooperation, Doctor. ......See? Jaehui-ya. With this many people, you can still turn it around even now."
"Thank you for the offer, Hyung. But it's okay."
"Argh. Really. ......Team Leader. I can't do this!"
Seo Jihyeok declared his surrender to Sin Haeryang. And swiftly passed over the team member management duties he had been performing in place of the injured team leader and absent deputy team leader.
Sin Haeryang asked Kim Jaehui in a low voice.
"Jaehui-ya. If that impossible-to-leave malicious group called the Muhan Church coerced you into joining, I can help you escape somehow."
"I went in of my own will, and I have no intention of leaving."
"......Understood."
Sin Haeryang didn't try to persuade Kim Jaehui any further than that. He seemed to have judged that she wasn't in a state to listen even if he stopped her from the side. Unlike the gloomy-looking Sin Haeryang, Kim Jaehui pointed at me with a slightly excited face and spoke.
"A savior who can grant wishes is right in front of your eyes, so why are you so depressed?"
Seo Jihyeok muttered with a slightly vacant expression.
"I think it's stranger not to be depressed when one of the team members you've worked with is a terrorist. Is our team leader going to dance around going 'My team member is a criminal! I'm so excited!'?"
"I wish he'd sing along too."
At this remark, Sin Haeryang let out a gloomy sigh, but Seo Jihyeok seemed to be holding back from hurling curses at Kim Jaehui. I was looking at posts on the pad and cut into the conversation.
"I have no intention of granting wishes or anything."
Seo Jihyeok looked at me in surprise, then pointed wildly at Kim Jaehui. And spoke vigorously.
"Oh. Doctor. Please tell this lunatic clearly one more time. So that your words sink deep into her head."
Jeong Sanghyeon snickered upon hearing Seo Jihyeok's words.
"I am not a savior for the Muhan Church followers, nor do I have any intention of granting the Muhan Church people's wishes. I will focus solely on escaping the undersea base."
Jeong Sanghyeon, who had been laughing, nearly fell forward as the person who had been supporting him suddenly disappeared.
Kim Jaehui, who had stopped while walking down the corridor, narrowed her eyes. The tension that had been flowing loosely disappeared in an instant, and Kim Jaehui spoke in a light voice.
"Is that so? Do your best."
And then she supported Jeong Sanghyeon again. She talks like it's someone else's business. Though it is someone else's business. No. She called me a savior. If I don't grant their wishes, is it just a straight-up cut-off?
The attitude the Muhan Church followers show toward the savior is one of disregard as if worshiping him, and they try to discard him as if cherishing him, so it isn't easy to understand. Is it because I don't believe in religion that I can't understand? If he's a savior, shouldn't the believers cherish, love, and trust him? I tried to recall the fates of saviors from other religions, but since there wasn't a single one I liked, I gave up on the thought entirely.
I slung one of Jeong Sanghyeon's forearms over my shoulder and read all the posts that had gone up today, but there was nothing written by Kim Gayeong. I felt anxious. Shouldn't I go to the Jujak Sector? If Seo Jihyeok had only rescued Tumanako, then Kim Gayeong might still be trapped in her room, unable to use her pad. What do I do?
To end my anxious worrying, I asked Seo Jihyeok a question.
"Mr. Jihyeok. Previously, Ms. Tumanako and Ms. Kim Gayeong moved together with you."
"Huh? With me?"
Seo Jihyeok asked back as if he had heard something absurd, then mumbled.
"Unless something is wrong, I try not to go near women who aren't team members."
"......If you had to evacuate those two immediately in a situation where people with guns are overflowing in the Central Sector, where do you think you would take them, Mr. Jihyeok?"
Seo Jihyeok thought for a moment and then asked me.
"Granted, Kim Gayeong is one thing, but does this person called Tumanako have some special ability I don't know about? Bulletproof skin, or shooting lasers from her eyes, or something?"
"No. She's just an ordinary civilian."
"Is this some kind of test?"
"No. I was just curious what you would have done."
Seo Jihyeok, who had hesitated briefly, spoke.
"If it were me, I would have taken them to an easy and safe place, right? I'm also a powerless civilian."
At Seo Jihyeok's shameless answer, I stared at him with empty eyes. Stop talking nonsense.
"How about going to the 5th Undersea Base?"
I only knew that the 5th Undersea Base was under construction; I didn't even know where it was. Was it a place I could get to? Or was it at least close to here? The 4th Undersea Base was spacious too; why had they poured money into building more undersea bases?
Seo Jihyeok frowned, shook his head, and spoke.
"For engineers, going outside the -3000m undersea base, wearing external suits, and walking through places where only pitch-black darkness and strangely shaped fish roam is their job. But for people who don't do that kind of work, it's hard to even walk there. The suits are heavy, and it's hard to breathe. Don't strangely shaped marine creatures cling to you? Besides, I suppose the armed cult members don't attack us while we're putting on suits."
"Then what if all of the armed personnel have their attention focused on my dental Deep Blue?"
Seo Jihyeok asked me as if curious.
"Why did people's attention gather there? Did you start a fire or something?"
"Because Team Leader Shin started a hostage situation by capturing me and some Muhan Church followers at the dental clinic."
Sin Haeryang looked this way when he heard his own story being mentioned. Seo Jihyeok rolled his eyes with an expression that said he didn't want to know, then answered.
"If the number of people entering and leaving the 4th Undersea Base increases or the surroundings become chaotic, if it were me, I'd grab a few of those followers, strip them down to their underwear, and then put those clothes on the two people and send them off to Daehan Island."
As soon as Seo Jihyeok gave that answer, the floor suddenly shook, and I nearly dropped the pad I was holding. Grrrrrrrrrk! With a terrible noise, the entire building of the 4th Undersea Base shook violently.
I saw Baek Aeyeong, who had been walking precariously in front, quickly slump to the floor. I threw myself to the floor together with Jeong Sanghyeon and Kim Jaehui.
This time, the building shook for more than a minute. When the tremors stopped even a little, I looked around and saw Jeong Sanghyeon's game console fallen on the floor and smashed.
Jeong Sanghyeon, who hadn't screamed even when falling, discovered the broken game console and shrieked.
Seo Jihyeok swayed several times together with Sin Haeryang but didn't fall. Seo Jihyeok frowned and asked Team Leader Shin.
"Is this an earthquake?"
"An undersea base doesn't shake this much from an earthquake."
It felt like it had been shaking much more frequently than before. Was it just my imagination? Why did I feel so anxious?
There was nothing we could do but try to move quickly while the entire building shook as if struck by an earthquake. Even the engineers who had been in the undersea base for a long time didn't seem to have any particularly good ideas.
Sin Haeryang checked the state of the fallen people and spoke.
"No one is hurt."
Jeong Sanghyeon spoke while clutching the plastic debris.
"My game console is smashed!"
"As long as your legs are fine, that's enough. Throw that away and let's move."
"Team Leader, you really go too far sometimes!"
Sin Haeryang ignored Jeong Sanghyeon's words and spoke to Kim Jaehui.
"Jaehui-ya. Keep doing what you were doing earlier, calling out the name."
"Ah. The Muhan Church follower? Michael Roaker, the head of the engineers living in our 4th Undersea Base!"
As soon as she heard that name, Baek Aeyeong gritted her teeth and shouted.
"I knew it was him. That ill-mannered, foul-tempered old geezer!"