Why were mining robots the size of cars sitting right in the middle of a plaza where people walked around? Had they wandered in and run out of power or something? When Seo Jihyeok heard my question, he leaned back against the machine called [Crocodile] and patted it with his palm.
“Sometimes sea creatures or plastic trash get sucked in by mistake, or something like those manganese nodules is too big and gets stuck halfway through the intake. When they break down like that, they need repairs, but they can’t do that kind of work outside, so they bring the broken robots inside like this and fix them.”
Seo Jihyeok craned his neck forward, observing the area ahead, then said slowly to me.
“But you’re right, big machines like this aren’t supposed to be left where so many people walk around. Since it looks like it’s past working hours, they either dumped them here and left, or they left them here while evacuating. One of the two.”
Kim Jae-hui glanced over the exterior of the mining robot and asked Seo Jihyeok an eerie question.
“Wasn’t there a rumor that robots like these suck people in too?”
“There’s also talk that the mining team guys chew up rocks. And there’s that weird rumor that our team leader has cast iron embedded in the back of his hand. It’s the same kind of thing. What I remember most is that the guys here once made the mining robots fight each other and bet money on it.”
Both [Crocodile] and [Earthworm] looked like the mouth of a vacuum cleaner. How did they make these things fight?
“Which machine won?”
“Crocodile. Since it’s a machine that swallows rocks, its intake is wider, so it swallows faster. They stole three sacks of beans from the cafeteria, dumped them in the plaza, and ran the machines.”
“You said if the metal being collected is too big, it gets stuck halfway through the intake. How do they break those apart?”
Like scaling tartar off teeth? Or was drilling saving the world after all?
“When an obstacle is too big and needs to be broken up, I heard they use a small amount of explosives.”
Guess not. Dentists don’t do that. If you did that inside someone’s mouth... I didn’t even want to imagine it. Apparently, explosives could be used underwater too. Thinking simply, the noise must be no joke. I was afraid to ask how the creatures living on the seafloor managed to stay alive.
“Before I came to the undersea base, I thought mining robots and oil drilling machines were all the same thing.”
I had thought robots probably mined oil, mined minerals, gathered undersea life, and people only occasionally handled repairs or tallied up the minerals that had been collected. The undersea base guidebook only had brief illustrations explaining how oil and natural gas were extracted and what mining robots did. Just as a mosquito inserts a long tube into human flesh, an oil drilling machine inserts a long tube into the seabed. And just as a mosquito draws up blood, the drilling machine draws up soil or sand containing oil—oil sands. In the process, they also obtained natural gas as a bonus.
I had thought mining robots handled that process, but as it turned out, drilling machines were separate, and mining robots roamed the seafloor like vacuum cleaners, eating up dirt and rocks.
The guidebook said the mining process on the seafloor minimized damage to the ecosystem and extracted oil and minerals in a commercially sound and safe manner. If what Seo Jihyeok was explaining to me now was true, then everything in the guidebook about the natural environment seemed like a lie.
“I only had a rough idea about the ones that carry loads or remove explosives, or drones. Who would think there were robots crawling around 3,000 meters below?”
Seo Jihyeok seemed familiar with mining robots the size of mid-sized cars, slipping between machine and machine like a loach. After weaving around, Seo Jihyeok gestured for us, who were trailing after him, to crouch, and we bent at the waist accordingly.
To my eyes, Hyeonmu-dong felt five times larger than Baekho-dong. Especially because large machines, robots, and equipment were strewn everywhere, the ceiling was higher than in other places, and the corridors seemed about four times wider than ordinary corridors.
Seo Jihyeok, watching the backs of the people heading from the plaza toward the escape craft port, called quietly to Kim Jae-hui.
“Jae-hui.”
“Yes.”
Kim Jae-hui answered slowly.
“If a fight breaks out between the Infinite Church and our team, whose side are you going to take?”
“Is it the kind of situation where I’d have to join in and pick a side? I’d have to think about it.”
As Kim Jae-hui lightly looked over his own body with his eyes and answered, Seo Jihyeok turned his head to look at me and asked.
“What about you, Doctor?”
“I’ll side with Engineer Team A.”
“Jae-hui. You see that? Answer me before I start crying. The Doctor here has only met me twice, and he says he’ll side with our team unconditionally.”
Seo Jihyeok spoke to Kim Jae-hui in a slightly moved tone. It wasn’t just twice with you. I saw you for a few more days. I forced down the words rising into my throat. Since there was no way to explain it, I simply nodded vaguely and looked at Kim Jae-hui.
With a wounded expression, Kim Jae-hui asked me in a sorrowful, plaintive gaze.
“Is the savior abandoning the believers of the Infinite Church?”
“...I never picked them up in the first place.”
My voice came out colder than expected. The people who called themselves believers of the Infinite Church should keep a distance of 3,000 meters from me. Kim Jae-hui let out an exaggerated sigh and spoke to Seo Jihyeok, who had hidden himself beside [Earthworm]’s intake.
“Hyung. I’d like to just watch and then side with whoever wins.”
“You’re a believer of the Infinite Church, but you’re also an employee of Engineer Team A. Pick one. You can’t have both.”
“If I’d believed sincerely, I wouldn’t be here empty-handed. I’d be armed with a gun at the First Undersea Base or the Second Undersea Base.”
“But if you hadn’t believed, you’d be in Korea, not at the undersea base.”
Kim Jae-hui grinned and said to Seo Jihyeok,
“Hyung. Haven’t you gotten too smart? Maybe because your resignation is coming up, your intelligence seems to be going up bit by bit.”
So his intelligence had gone down while he was working for the company? While I stood there dazed beside them at Kim Jae-hui’s ambiguous verbal abuse, Seo Jihyeok just stared at Kim Jae-hui. Kim Jae-hui, meeting Seo Jihyeok’s eyes, thought for a moment, then jerked his chin toward me and said,
“I shall stand with the side supported by the savior.”
“...Good.”
Seo Jihyeok shrugged, then now asked me another question. Perhaps because he was in a good mood, his tone was slightly cheerful.
“Doctor. If Engineer Team A and Engineer Team B fight, whose side will you take?”
“Do I have to keep answering these hypothetical matchups?”
“If you answer this one, that’s the end. I won’t ask any more.”
“Can’t I stop the two teams from fighting beside them? I work in a completely different department.”
“No. You have to choose one side.”
I had talked to the believers of the Infinite Church, and although we spoke the same language, conversation itself didn’t work. Talking to someone absorbed in religion was like speaking a different language.
What about the engineers? They might not be able to resolve the resentment from the past, but couldn’t they at least cooperate when it came to escaping this undersea base? But seeing the Three Kingdoms team leaders talking earlier, it seemed they didn’t have much interest in cooperation either. Even if I tried to persuade them from the side, it would probably just sound like nonsense from a dentist who had only recently joined the company and knew nothing. Or they might think I was favoring only Engineer Team A.
If grown adults old enough to know better had no intention of coordinating opinions through conversation and only understood things through violence, how were they different from animals? The world now had translators that could interpret the words of people all over the world, so why was communication still impossible? ...Was the world originally not meant to solve problems through dialogue or empathy, but to handle them through violence and slaughter first, then pretend to talk afterward?
“...I’m thinking.”
Why was I suddenly worrying about an imaginary mock battle right now? Did Seo Jihyeok think a fight would break out at any moment?
“Are you abandoning our team?”
Seo Jihyeok clasped both hands together and looked at me with plaintive eyes. As I froze, flustered by Seo Jihyeok’s behavior, Kim Jae-hui said to him,
“Hyung. You’re acting exactly like me.”
“It’s different, you wicked bastard.”
In an instant, Seo Jihyeok, who had been treated like a cult believer, grimaced. But he immediately gave me a warm smile. He probably thought that if he pulled me in, he could bring Kim Jae-hui over to his side all at once too.
“...Doctor. You’re someone who knows how to negotiate, unexpectedly. It can’t be helped, then. I’ll tell you what benefits you’ll receive if you side with our team. First, as a premium benefit, you’ll be able to secretly consume Jae-hui’s snacks, Team Leader Gangbu’s cup noodles, the forty packs of dried seaweed I’ve hidden, various cans of tuna, and Team Leader Shin’s nuts. I’ll also steal you a few pairs of socks or gloves.”
That didn’t sound secret. I was certain at least one person would notice. Like a treacherous minister, Kim Jae-hui covered his mouth and whispered beside me.
“Is this really good? Of course, if the savior tells me to offer them up, I’ll tearfully offer my snacks, but no matter how I look at it, the benefits are terrible. Let’s go cheer for the rich Engineer Team B instead.”
“I’ll also take responsibility for stealing the napa cabbage kimchi and nabak kimchi Team Leader Gangbu’s parents sent him. Oh, right. There’s also the kkakdugi Sanghyeon’s parents sent.”
“Whenever the Japanese guys go back to the mainland, they sweep up whole bundles of snacks and cakes from convenience stores and department stores. Let’s stick beside them and eat cake or pudding. Why kimchi?”
Like a lawyer reviewing an unfair contract, Kim Jae-hui obnoxiously threw cold water on it. Seo Jihyeok spoke as if pulling out his trump card.
“I’ll throw in eighty servings of dried seaweed I bought. It’s nice to make soup with when you need broth. ...Ah. I used ten servings. If you don’t want to eat it, lie to someone you don’t like and tell them it’s jerky, then feed it to them.”
Kim Jae-hui was about to whisper beside me, then looked up at Seo Jihyeok as if he found it absurd. Wasn’t that seaweed for birthdays? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. My mind went blank and laughter came out. This was the first time I’d ever heard such unattractive benefits. Even after Seo Jihyeok resigned from here, I didn’t think he should make a living in sales.
“And if there’s an employee at the undersea base you’ve taken a liking to, I’ll actively play Cupid for you. The reverse is also true.”
“Instead of Cupid, can’t you take on the role of mediating the fight? If it’s you, Jihyeok, I think you could manage it.”
“I can’t. There’s someone I want to hit too. Of course, I’m sure there are people who want to hit me as well.”
Seo Jihyeok clenched his fist and grinned mischievously. I answered with a sigh.
“This time, I’ll side with Engineer Team A. You don’t have to give me the seaweed.”
It would be best if the two teams didn’t fight, but if they did start actively punching each other, could I stop them? I’d rather side with Engineer Team A and get the less-injured members of Engineer Team A out first. While cleaning up the violence Shin Haeryang had committed in Deep Blue, I had felt it keenly, but no matter how I thought about it, if Engineer Team A and Engineer Team B fought, I could only imagine the people of Engineer Team B getting beaten to a pulp.
And once Engineer Team A escaped from this undersea base, I would automatically have no choice but to side with the remaining Engineer Team B.
“Jae-hui. You’ll naturally obey the words of this person who’s a savior or a goji berry or whatever, right? My intelligence is so low I’m mixing up words.”
“Yes. That’s right.”