Three people were gathered around the table in front of the Red Coral Cafe, while the other four were bent over next to different tables vomiting, or standing and vomiting. In particular, there were many who belched loudly from the seawater and vomited.
So wretched were they that some spewed curses while vomiting, while others screamed, unable to endure the pain. Curses in every language flew left and right. ...Fortunately, they aren't fighting each other. Since many were bent over vomiting, their faces couldn't be seen properly. With the water coming up to their ankles, even if they vomited, the vomitus would float around their legs, yet none of the four paid it any mind.
Three people were seated around the table, and looking at their faces, they were Sin Haeryang, Hai Yun, and Sato. All three had grabbed whatever objects were rolling around nearby to use as chairs—an overturned lab sink, a display case with all its glass shattered, and a broken trash can flipped upside down—and were sitting on them temporarily.
The three team leaders—Engineer Ga Team Leader, Engineer Na Team Leader, and Engineer Ra Team Leader—looked completely soaked through. I think this is the first time I've seen those three gathered together. Among the three, Hai Yun was talking the most. Sato pressed his forehead with a handkerchief stained bright red and replied something to Hai Yun's words.
I should've buckled down and studied a second language. I can't make out a single thing.
"Sato is……."
Gim Jaehui spoke right into my ear, and I jumped in surprise. Gim Jaehui moved back slightly and said in a soft voice.
"It seems that while Sato was holding a fire hose, a metal chair flew at his head, and Hai Yun caught the unconscious Sato from beside him. Hai Yun is saying that since he saved him from dying, his life belongs to him now, and Sato is saying he should've just let him die. The two are bickering fiercely. Interpretation. Would you dislike that?"
"......No. Thank you."
Hai Yun looked at the people vomiting in the distance and said something to Sin Haeryang. Gim Jaehui said slowly from beside me, like a voice-over dub.
"We too have had a team member suddenly disappear. Given the distance, it likely has no connection to the matter of your team members disappearing. We also want to know where our missing member is. He says they've never seen your team members in Cheongnyong-dong."
Sato removed the handkerchief pressing his forehead, then, perhaps because the bleeding hadn't stopped, pressed down hard again and spoke toward Sin Haeryang.
"My team members—everyone you saved here are all there is. We'll have to look to find out if the rest are alive or dead. Our members didn't suddenly disappear. They were simply swept away by the current five minutes ago."
Hai Yun said something to Sato, and as Gim Jaehui listened, laughter suddenly mixed into her breathing. Then she quickly interpreted for me.
"Your team is no different with or without Tamaki, so would it even make a difference whether your members disappear or not."
"What?" Surprised, I looked at Gim Jaehui, and she smiled as she interpreted the part where Sato now spoke to Hai Yun.
"The eye booger mocks the nose booger. Why don't you worry about your own train wreck of a team, Hai Yun."
I whispered to Gim Jaehui in surprise.
"Are those two really talking like that?"
"I am telling you exactly what comes out of my translation device."
As Gim Jaehui spoke to me with a small smile, Korean pierced my ears.
"It seems I'm not the only team leader who doesn't know whether his own members are alive or dead. I'm relieved I'm not the only salary thief."
Sin Haeryang said that while looking around, then looked toward where we were hiding. He definitely recognized me and Gim Jaehui, but his gaze naturally turned elsewhere. Then he looked at the two team leaders and spoke as if pitying them.
"I fished out the drowned bastards, and in the end, they don't know anything."
Hai Yun coughed several times and spoke to Sin Haeryang in a low, hoarse voice. Gim Jaehui smiled and interpreted for me.
"Then throw them back in the water."
When Hai Yun said that, Sato, who had burst into a wide smile, spoke as if drawing a line with Hai Yun's remark.
"That remark has nothing to do with our team. I'd gladly watch the Engineer Ra Team people swimming in the seawater."
Is this how team leaders usually talk to each other? So heartwarming and wholesome. Give them guns in a situation like that and they'd be at each other's throats.
Sato frowned while pressing his forehead with the handkerchief and asked Sin Haeryang something, and since my name was mixed in there, I flinched in surprise. Then Gim Jaehui stared at me and slowly interpreted.
"When you came out of Baekho-dong, did you not see a dentist named Bak Muhyeon?"
"Why look for a dentist in this situation? Sato. Did you develop acute pulpitis or something?"
At that blunt Korean, I burst out laughing and covered my mouth. It was a tone that almost wished his counterpart would develop pulpitis out of nowhere. In the medical world, there are three pains notorious for being incredibly severe: labor pains, kidney stones, and acute pulpitis. There are occasionally people who dash into the dentist's office the moment it opens on a Monday morning; among them are acute pulpitis patients who spent the weekend on painkillers and can no longer endure the agony. Since pulpitis cannot heal naturally, one absolutely must visit a dentist. Sato replied to Sin Haeryang in a displeased tone.
"I'm sorry to disappoint, but I was planning to get dental braces while at the undersea base. Did you see Bak Muhyeon or not?"
"I didn't see him. Why don't you go to Baekho-dong and look for him yourself?"
Sin Haeryang looked at Sato while telling a brazen-faced lie. Hai Yun quietly listened to their conversation, then stretched with a long yawn, kept touching his shoulder as if it hurt, and spoke to Sin Haeryang.
"The Muhan Church is looking for him."
"Hai Yun."
Sato called out to Hai Yun as if warning him. However, Hai Yun didn't pay any mind to Sato's words. Sin Haeryang also didn't seem to care, leaving Sato out as he asked Hai Yun.
"Why are they looking for Bak Muhyeon?"
"I don't really know the details. I don't believe the absurd nonsense of religious fanatics. My goal is to capture Undersea Base 4 as ordered from above. What the Muhan Church wants with a dentist is none of my business. They said that if we find Bak Muhyeon, protect him and hand him over to the Muhan Church believers, or escort him to the central elevator so he can reach Undersea Base 1. That's all we know about Bak Muhyeon. The Chinese despise religious lunatics who believe in absurd cults."
Sato smiled with his blood-covered face and spoke to Hai Yun.
"How surprising. I thought your people were the ones congenitally afflicted with that very kind of lunacy."
"You think you're any different?"
...More than the Muhan Church believers looking for me, I'm more amazed by Gim Jaehui's interpretation letting me know what the three are saying. Do they really talk like that? Is it okay to navigate corporate life like that? Sin Haeryang untied the last bit of parachute cord from his forearm and threw it on the floor, then pressed Sato for answers.
"Sato. Don't you have anything to tell me about the Baekho-dong escape craft?"
"I don't know why you're asking me about the Baekho-dong escape craft. Seeing as you're wandering around Jungang-dong like this, is there some problem with the escape craft?"
"One of your team members tipped us off anonymously. I'm surprised I was working with a team member who possesses a conscience."
Sato frowned, but it was impossible to tell whether it was from the pain of the wound on his forehead or from the conversation. He swept his blood-soaked bangs back and spoke.
"I'm surprised too. Could you tell me the name of the employee who personally consulted with you?"
"Since they're your team member, find them and ask yourself."
Then Sin Haeryang asked Hai Yun, who was checking his scraped limbs.
"How is Ra Team planning to escape from here?"
"We've already prepared several escape craft in Cheongnyong-dong. We'll leave with our team members from there. Don't come to Cheongnyong-dong. We don't have enough vehicles as it is. Seeing them pull their tricks, they seemed to have prepared a separate escape craft at Hyeonmu-dong. I reckon the Hyeonmu-dong folks mostly died repairing mining robots."
At Hai Yun's betrayal, Sato stopped moving for a moment as if dumbfounded, then spoke through gritted teeth to Hai Yun.
"Hai Yun. Do you not know the word 'secret' at all?"
"Sato. Then your team must be quite capable, seeing as the Engineer Ga Team bastards are walking around without dying. Or is the Sin Haeryang in front of me a ghost? Since Team Leader Shin did save us from the water, I'll repay the favor with information at least."
"I never asked Team Leader Shin to save me either."
"Then we can swim side by side with Ra Team in the seawater."
When Hai Yun laughed and said that, Sato also smiled with his thin lips and laughed along, then tilted his head back as if he had a headache and spoke.
"Forcing us to discard our guns changes nothing. Sin. The Muhan Church has armed personnel of their own. Most of them will attack those trying to escape via the Jungang-dong elevator from Undersea Base 1 or Undersea Base 2."
Come to think of it, not a single person here was armed with a gun. Na Team and Ra Team were supposed to be armed with rifles. It seemed those with guns couldn't get up onto that vending machine at all. Sin Haeryang apparently hadn't saved anyone who refused to discard their weapons. Sin Haeryang spoke to Sato expressionlessly.
"Then you should've drowned in the seawater."
"The guns were too heavy. Do you happen to know how much a violin weighs?"
Sin Haeryang gave a simple answer to Sato's out-of-the-blue question.
"No."
"Compared to a gun, a violin is like a feather."
Hai Yun touched the torn wound on his forearm, groaned, and asked Sato.
"We dropped all the guns into the seawater. Can we salvage and use them?"
"Why ask me that? Do I look like I'd know?"
"Then can you use a violin if it falls into seawater?"
"Why ask me that either? Why would a violin fall into seawater in the first place?"
Sin Haeryang heard this absurd back-and-forth and sighed. Then he answered one thing for Sato, speaking to Hai Yun.
"Even if guns fall into seawater, you can fish them out and fire them."
"Oh."
So guns can be fished out and used even after falling into seawater. My interpreter device fell into seawater once and became completely dead. Hai Yun took out insulating tape and covered his wound this way and that, then looked at Sato and Sin Haeryang and said with a smile.
"Then the one who picks them up first gets to shoot first?"
Sato threw the blood-soaked handkerchief onto the floor and sighed as he spoke.
"Now I understand why no team wants to work with yours."