What on earth had Kim Jae-hui been thinking, asking me to go with them? Did they think I’d say, I’d love to! and happily tag along? Did they not imagine I might refuse and spill everything to Shin Haeryang? Did things like their relationship with the team or working at the undersea base not even exist in their head? Lying still in the darkness, all sorts of thoughts ran through my mind.
“It might be hypoglycemia or dehydration, so drink some water, lie on the floor for about ten minutes, and then let’s go.”
If you made someone who’d fainted and just woken up walk right away, they might faint again. If I had to choose between delaying here for ten minutes so Shin Haeryang could walk up to the forty-fifth floor on his own two feet, or having him faint again and struggling to carry him up on my back, there was no contest.
I screwed the cap back on the half-empty water bottle and threw it toward where I could see the light from Shin Haeryang’s necklace. Only a few minutes later did I hear the sound of him opening the bottle cap.
Who knew medical knowledge would be this necessary in my life? Maybe I should have studied harder and gone to medical school instead. The moment that thought occurred to me, I forced the idea that my choice had been the right one back into my head.
I shouldn’t regret even the things I did in the past. I can’t change them now.
I’m only thinking like this because reality right now is hard. Let’s not attach “what if” to the past. If I make a mistake, I might come to my senses and find myself an Infinite Cult believer. Focus on the reality in front of me. Just worry about walking up forty-five floors.
“Haeryang. How long does it take you to climb fifty flights of stairs alone?”
There was the sound of him drinking water, followed by a brief silence, and then his answer came back.
“……Normally, about ten minutes. In my current state, I’m not sure.”
Lying spread-eagled on the floor, I heard Shin Haeryang’s answer and burst out laughing in disbelief. Hahahahaha! For some reason, it felt like the first time I’d laughed since coming to the Second Undersea Base. Ten minutes, he said. In this situation, surely he wasn’t bluffing. I felt like it had taken me about ten minutes just to come up five floors a moment ago.
In my head, I multiplied Shin Haeryang’s answer by five. If I were the one climbing, I’d have to assume it would take about fifty minutes. Even if I climbed well at first, there would be crises along the way, and if I didn’t rest, I wouldn’t be able to go on. I’d probably be completely exhausted by the time I reached the top.
Still, climbing fifty floors would be much better for my stamina than that time we climbed one hundred and eighty. Or would it? ……Now that I thought about it, climbing one hundred and eighty floors with five people had been much better mentally. Back then, it had been frightening and terrifying, but Seo Ji-hyeok had been there, Baek Ae-yeong had been there, and Yu Geum had been there too. Shin Haeryang had been there with us as well. I shook off the gloom and longing and spoke to Shin Haeryang to focus on reality.
“Do you think the Second Undersea Base will be all right? We set it on fire.”
The guilt was overwhelming. How did arsonists live like this? I didn’t think I could live with the anxiety.
“They said they’d put out the fire, but how exactly does the fire get extinguished?”
“They supply high-concentration carbon dioxide and lower the oxygen concentration to put out the fire. When fires break out on large ships, offshore plants like this, or various bases, they use this method to extinguish them.”
Oh. I’d never heard that before. Right. Ships could catch fire too. Shin Haeryang began explaining in a calm voice.
“They say it works on the principle that if the oxygen concentration in the air is lowered below 15%, the fire will be automatically extinguished. According to the safety training staff, for a fire to start, there has to be at least 16% oxygen in the air.”
The light from Shin Haeryang’s necklace moved slightly each time he breathed.
“They said they lower the oxygen concentration inside the undersea base to below 13%, and fill it with carbon dioxide up to 38%. Then almost every fire will be put out.”
I remembered that the air had an average oxygen content of 21%. Nitrogen, which made up the most, was probably around 78%. In science class, I’d memorized that the two added up to 99%. Normally, I only cared about oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations inside the body. As I listened, I got an ominous feeling. If you inhaled high-concentration carbon dioxide, you’d die in less than a minute or two.
“That sounds extremely dangerous.”
“The biggest problem with carbon dioxide fire suppression systems is the risk of suffocation. Once the alarm ends and the fire suppression system starts operating, the oxygen concentration drops below 13% within one minute. Then, after it automatically detects the temperature in the fire zone and it falls below a certain point, the ventilation system should activate through the fans and expel the carbon dioxide.”
Then hadn’t the Infinite Cult believers run away by themselves while knowing that, as the flames were brought under control, all the hostages would suffocate to death? Nora and the others might all be……
“We freed their arms and legs, so they should have escaped on their own.”
Even though it was too dark for him to see my face, Shin Haeryang spoke in my direction. His tone was like he was saying that since we’d released livestock tied up inside a burning pen, they should survive in the wild on their own.
Well. Maybe they had escaped just fine on their own. Among the people who had just been tied up and then freed, there had even been someone who’d entered the exhibition hall to steal jewels. If they were that capable, they’d probably escape well enough. Even if they stole jewels, they wouldn’t be able to get away with them anyway, so what were they thinking…… When my silence dragged on, Shin Haeryang seemed to think of something and added one more thing.
“To prevent suffocation accidents, oxygen respirator cabinets are placed in several locations throughout the undersea base.”
“Oh. I see. ……I just remembered something. There’s a jewel-related exhibition going on in the exhibition hall right now. The android inside the exhibition hall explained that if you steal a jewel there and take it out, all the elevators stop operating and an alarm sounds.”
Now it was Shin Haeryang’s side that went quiet. After a short silence, Shin Haeryang hesitated briefly before asking me a question.
“What did you steal?”
You damned bastard. I didn’t steal anything. It seemed Shin Haeryang thought I was confessing to a crime. Nora had been like that, and now Shin Haeryang too—why did they naturally assume I would steal something?
“……I didn’t steal any jewels. I did bring some ash with me, but the android even saw me off, so I don’t think it would be right to call it stealing. But I thought that if someone inside that exhibition hall stole even a single jewel, everyone in the Second Undersea Base might lose access to the elevators.”
I hoped the person who’d stumbled in while escaping left the exhibition hall without stealing anything. And I hoped the hostages escaped safely, even if it was by taking the elevator. If that was impossible, then I hoped they at least used oxygen respirators properly. Or that there were a few more magical secret passages I didn’t know about.
“The opposite could also be possible. The bastards in the other undersea bases won’t be able to come down to the Second Undersea Base through the elevators.”
As I thought about that for a moment, Shin Haeryang coughed a few times because of the dust, then asked as if curious.
“Why did you steal ash?”
Maybe he was curious because I’d said I wanted to go to the exhibition hall, only to leave the jewels supposedly lying everywhere untouched and bring back nothing but ash. Groaning in every possible way, I struggled to sit up and took out one of the socks from my pocket. Then I shook it lightly to see if there was ash inside. Fortunately, the ash was sitting quietly inside the sock.
“Haeryang. Could you touch this ash just a little with your fingertip?”
“……”
“It seems like ash left behind after a jewel burned up. When you touch it, you see something I can’t tell is a strange hallucination or a well-made VR. I wanted to know if it happens to people other than me too. Nora touched it, but she didn’t see anything and was perfectly fine.”
Even if Nora had touched it and seen nothing, Shin Haeryang might have some strange experience when he touched it.
As I explained everything I knew about the ash to Shin Haeryang, I felt like I was saying something incredibly stupid. I felt like a rookie drug dealer promoting a new kind of narcotic. If someone I met today obtained some unknown powder from some unknown place and then made an offer like this, I absolutely should not touch it, and I shouldn’t even go near that person. Only after I’d been explaining for quite a while did it belatedly occur to me that Shin Haeryang might refuse.
At the same time, I suddenly thought it was fortunate Kim Jae-hui wasn’t here. If I had made this offer to Kim Jae-hui, they probably wouldn’t have just touched it with a fingertip, but inhaled it right away. It was a good thing I’d sent Kim Jae-hui ahead by elevator. They had escaped the Second Undersea Base safely, hadn’t they? If they had come with me, they would have had to climb a fifty-floor staircase with a prosthetic leg.
The blue necklace that had been lying far away on the landing got up and approached. Shin Haeryang took the sock and asked me in a low voice.
“Is it transdermal absorption?”
“It just needs to touch the tip of your finger lightly.”
This guy really thinks it’s drugs. Is he brave or reckless? Shin Haeryang’s hand went into the sock. Then he didn’t move at all. After about a minute of silence, he cautiously asked me.
“How long does it take for the effect to appear?”
“It appears immediately. Do you see anything? Is there someone around? Or do you see some strange scene?”
“I don’t see anything.”
“……Yes. Then, well. That’s normal. Other people couldn’t see anything either.”
It seemed I was the only one who could see it. I carefully put away the sock and stuck it in my pocket. Since we were up anyway, the two of us started climbing the stairs. Shin Haeryang, who had light from his necklace, walked in front, and I followed two steps behind.
Climbing with only my own body to take care of, instead of carrying 105 kilograms on my back, it felt like I was practically flying up the stairs. We climbed the stairs without resting even once until we reached the tenth floor.
On the fifteenth floor, we rested for about five minutes, panting, then climbed the stairs again in silence. This time, we rested again on the twenty-fifth floor, and by then we needed to rest for about ten minutes. Shin Haeryang sat on the stairs to rest, but I lay flat on the landing. We’re halfway there. No. We’ve already come halfway.
I was surprised we were climbing faster than expected. Never in my life had I climbed stairs this quickly. And Shin Haeryang did not give out rest breaks easily.
He would say, “Let’s go up just two more floors and rest,” and when I had no choice but to nod and drag myself up those two floors, he would coax me by saying we should go up just one more floor and then rest. When I climbed while making him promise that if we really went up just one more floor, we’d rest, he said that if we went up just two more floors, instead of sitting on the stairs to rest, we could lie down and rest properly. Before I knew it, I came to my senses and found myself lying on the fortieth-floor landing. I was panting, trying to catch my breath, but Shin Haeryang didn’t seem to be struggling much.