Kim Jaehui looked at Shin Haeryang’s expression and added,
“I didn’t think you would understand, Team Leader.”
Shin Haeryang pondered Kim Jaehui’s explanation for a moment before answering in a reluctant tone.
“······I don’t know why lunatics believe they’ll live a better life after they die.”
“In our case, we go back to the past. Well. From the team leader’s perspective, it might look similar to those guys going on about the afterlife.”
“I’m not going to kill myself.”
“Your savior says he has no intention of giving up on life.”
Kim Jaehui looked at me with mournful eyes.
“Savior, don’t you feel even the slightest sympathy for my opinion? It’s not such a bad option.”
The very fact that she considered suicide a viable option suggested Kim Jaehui’s mental state was already quite poor. How had she passed the psychological evaluation? Had it been rigged because Infinite Church believers were deployed heavily over there?
“I’m just an ordinary person, so I can’t relate to this grandiose title of ‘savior’ to begin with. I’ll live my best until I die.”
“If you change your mind, call me.”
I’m not calling! I wanted to yank the suicide option embedded in Kim Jaehui’s head and sink it beside the Simcheong-7. Shin Haeryang explained to me and Kim Jaehui with bloodshot eyes.
“There are generally four ways to exit the Second Underwater Base. First is using the three types of elevators. Second is taking the cable car that was recently completed. Third is taking any remaining escape craft. And fourth is leaving via submersible.”
With so many ways out, I wondered how many we could actually use.
“Which of these can we use immediately?”
“I’m not sure if I saw correctly while entering the lounge, but all the manned submersibles seem to have already left. I’m not sure if any escape craft remain. And in the case of the elevators and cable car, we won’t be able to avoid a clash with the ones who killed the engineers at the submersible port.”
I recalled the gunfight that had taken place at the Second Underwater Base. My entire body was in pain, and my mind felt bruised as well.
“Isn’t there a way to move around quietly without engaging them in a gunfight?”
“······I’m considering it.”
I briefly told Shin Haeryang about the deployment and numbers of the armed personnel, as well as the state of the hostages, which Baek Aeyeong had told me about earlier. Recalling how all the hostages had been tied hand and foot behind their backs, lying face-down with their foreheads pressed to the floor, I explained in earnest. A brief silence followed.
While her team leader was agonizing over engaging twenty-two armed terrorists with just three critically injured people, his team member Kim Jaehui cheerfully proposed surrender. I grabbed the back of my neck the moment I heard it. ······It was fortunate that Shin Haeryang possessed such patience.
“You shout for mercy and get caught as a hostage. Since you’ll be coming with me, they won’t treat you too roughly. If you don’t resist, they won’t kill you either. What the Infinite Church believers want is to go to the past, not to slaughter people indiscriminately.”
Well. I had gotten slightly entangled with the Infinite Church recently, and considering Jeong Sanghyeon, Baek Aeyeong, and Shin Haeryang standing right before me, it didn’t seem like a religion overflowing with love and mercy. Shin Haeryang asked Kim Jaehui in an exhausted voice,
“While a gun is pointed at you, doing whatever they say?”
“There are more people than you’d think who prefer servitude to freedom. Why do you think people voluntarily join companies? And since we’re fellow believers, they won’t treat us too unfairly. You just lie face-down with a gun pointed at you and stay still. Since they don’t have to work today, some of the employees held hostage might be terrified on the outside, but inside they’ll be thrilled.”
Kim Jaehui’s suggestion was immediately dismissed by Shin Haeryang. She seemed to be proposing such ideas simply because she didn’t want to struggle moving around while in pain.
I didn’t have any decent suggestions either, so I mentioned a place I wanted to visit in the Second Underwater Base. With someone going around suggesting suicide and surrender, a request like mine shouldn’t be a problem.
“Um. Now that we’ve arrived at the Second Underwater Base anyway, I’d like to stop by the exhibition hall. I just want to walk around inside for a few minutes to check it out. It won’t take long.”
“Are you planning to meet someone or retrieve something?”
“No. I heard some jewels are being exhibited there, and I wanted to take a look.”
Supposedly, my name was engraved on a diamond, and I was curious how they had done it. I had also heard that some of the displayed jewels were broken, and I was curious about how they were damaged. Of course, it could be a lie. It might be a trap the Infinite Church believers set to lure me to the exhibition hall. But what if I went and smashed all the jewels there? Gems were supposed to be incredibly hard; wouldn’t it be normal if they didn’t break at all?
Shin Haeryang stared blankly at the person declaring they would tour the exhibition hall like a tourist while their entire body ached as if trampled by an elephant. Then he too voiced his own opinion.
“We need to stop by a restaurant.”
“······Are you hungry?”
At Kim Jaehui’s incredulous voice, Shin Haeryang shook his head and said,
“No. We’re not going there to eat.”
“There are several restaurants in the Second Underwater Base. Which one do you want to go to?”
“There’s a restaurant called [Bread and Salt]. It’s located in the middle of the dining area, and we need to head there. Even if the people here get scattered, let’s promise to regroup around that restaurant.”
“Are there guns or other weapons at that restaurant?”
Shin Haeryang laughed, somewhat deflated, and answered,
“I wish there were.”
The restaurant’s name was truly unusual.
“······Do they really only serve bread and salt?”
At my question, the two of them laughed softly. Shin Haeryang reflexively moved his hand toward his bloodshot eyes, then consciously pulled it away and answered,
“It’s an ordinary Russian restaurant. When welcoming honored guests, the proprietor brings out bread and salt on a tray. It means welcoming the guest with the two most important foods in the world. I hear it’s considered polite for the guest to repay the gesture by eating a little of the bread and salt.”
It was at moments like this that I keenly felt how the underwater base wasn’t a rice-based food culture, but rather a mix of nations associated with wheat. So there was a Russian restaurant at the underwater base too. Well, they had said the first and second underwater bases were meant to accommodate tourists.
“What happens if you don’t eat the bread they offer?”
“······Nikita said that if a guest throws away the bread or nitpicks about the taste, a fight with the proprietor begins right then and there.”
Were there really people who would refuse and throw away food when the proprietor was offering it?
“Are there really people who do that?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never received such hospitality from Russians myself. They did serve a lot of tea, though.”
Kim Jaehui thought for a moment about whether she had ever stopped by the restaurant called [Bread and Salt], then spoke.
“That restaurant’s borscht soup is quite good. It’s just a bit pricey. They also sell a porridge called kasha there. Before the dental clinic opened, it was amusing to see people who had been beaten up by our team leader occasionally eating porridge there.”
So they even sold porridge at the underwater base. I tilted the teapot, filling the empty mugs, and thought about how there had been times when we drank tea so peacefully. Then Gang Soojeong suddenly came to mind, and I asked Shin Haeryang,
“What if we set a fire inside the underwater base to make everyone, terrorists and hostages alike, flee?”
Kim Jaehui looked at me with a startled expression, ruminated on my suggestion for a moment, then said,
“Wow. You really are a scary person. Someone who doesn’t know the situation is always the most extreme.”
I had expected him to dismiss it as nonsense, but surprisingly, Shin Haeryang nodded slightly after hearing my suggestion.
“······It’s not a bad idea. However, if a fire breaks out in the Second Underwater Base, it will be extremely difficult to contain. The terrorists will abandon the hostages they’ve tied up and flee. And we, too, will have to escape the Second Underwater Base quickly. The probability of dying from smoke inhalation is much higher than burning to death.”
Why was suffocation faster than burning to death? Was smoke really that quick?
“How do they usually extinguish fires in the underwater base?”
After asking, I thought to myself—the underwater base was also a workplace full of people, so would there have ever been fires? Probably almost never.
“They use firefighting equipment to put it out, or if that’s impossible, they cut off the air supply to the affected area to lower the oxygen levels.”
If a fire broke out, the people in the Second Underwater Base would likely all die if they were unlucky. Having only ever thought of extinguishing fires with water, the idea of putting one out by cutting off the air felt somewhat surreal.
“Isn’t there a way to bring in the surrounding seawater to put out the fire temporarily?”
All I could see outside was seawater, so I wondered if we couldn’t bring in enough to surprise the terrorists. I had asked because water seemed less dangerous than fire, but Shin Haeryang answered, pointing outside the lounge with a clenched thumb,
“Then the Second Underwater Base will become a giant Simcheong-7.”
Ah. The water would rush in unstoppably due to the tremendous pressure, compressing the air. And we’d have to breathe that air. Cases of decompression sickness among the three of us here would appear one after another. Or we might die before even developing decompression sickness.
Kim Jaehui, who had been quiet since my suggestions to set the building ablaze and fill it with seawater, stared blankly at me and spoke.
“I don’t know how you two will act, but if your conclusion is to set the entire Second Underwater Base on fire, I won’t help either of you. I want to do a lot to help you, Savior, but I’m not keen on cooperating with arson.”
Then, with gloomy eyes, she looked around the lounge and said,
“I joined a company underwater because I hate fire, but nothing much has changed.”
Kim Jaehui, who lived at the underwater base, sighed and asked me,
“If a fire breaks out and the hostages in the central plaza are abandoned, what do you plan to do with them, Savior? Do we just go by ourselves? Or do we take them with us?”
“We’ll get out of the underwater base together.”
“We might all die trying to escape together. Muhyeon and I are both in terrible shape right now. You should really consider running away alone. Your chances of survival would be much higher.”
“Why are you worried about that, Jaehui? If I die, I’ll just return to the starting point anyway.”