Shin Haeryang briefly put some distance between himself and the café before speaking to me.
“Jaehee seems to have gone into the diving zone to use the decompression chamber at the hyperbaric oxygen therapy center. There are two decompression chambers stationed at the First Undersea Base.”
“Oh. Then we should head there too.”
The sooner decompression sickness is treated, the greater the chance of a full recovery. By now, Kim Jaehee was probably already using the decompression chamber. People who had spent a long time in hospitals were forced to learn just how important it was to receive treatment quickly.
I wanted to shove Shin Haeryang, who was right beside me, into that decompression chamber immediately. And I wanted to keep him from coming out until he was completely treated. Of the three people who had been aboard the submersible, Shin Haeryang seemed to be in the worst condition, probably because he had been the last one to leave the submersible.
Unaware of what I was thinking, Shin Haeryang silently gazed at [The Garden of the Hesperides] before answering.
“I don’t think Jaehee intends to harm you, Teacher. Go to the diving zone alone and receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy through the decompression chamber. If there’s medical staff waiting there, you’ll be able to use it more comfortably. If not, the medical AI will guide you through the process.”
What about you? From his tone, it didn’t seem as though Shin Haeryang had any intention of heading toward the diving zone.
“Where are you planning to go if not to the diving zone, Mr. Haeryang?”
“When you enter the garden, there’s a small storage room in one corner. I’m going to stop by there briefly before heading to the submersible port. From here on, I think it would be better for us to act separately. You can go ahead.”
His tone made it sound as though he was merely stopping by a convenience store for a moment. But why did someone in such terrible condition need to visit a garden crawling with cult terrorists instead of flying straight to the diving zone for treatment?
The gun slung over Shin Haeryang’s shoulder kept catching my eye. Was he planning to launch a surprise attack alone while Jang delivered the food and the Infinite Faith believers let their guard down for a moment? When I imagined a battle between more than twenty armed gunmen and Shin Haeryang alone, it seemed absurdly reckless. Shin Haeryang probably understood the importance of numbers even better than I did. Was there anything more urgent than treatment or escape in the current situation?
“……Please explain in detail.”
Shin Haeryang hesitated for a moment before beginning his explanation.
“……If the locations and quantities of the items inside the storage room haven’t changed much, then the garden’s storage room contains ammonium nitrate used as fertilizer. And in the diving zone, there should be nitromethane and diesel fuel used for the engines. We’ll need a few more supplies, but we should be able to give those terrorist bastards in the garden a present.”
A present from Shin Haeryang to the Infinite Faith believers? I didn’t know what that meant, but it didn’t sound particularly safe. It took me a moment to interpret the word ‘present.’ So, this was that, wasn’t it? That…….
“Are you saying that you plan to make a bomb?”
I asked in a voice lowered as much as possible. No way. Surely not. I had to be mistaken. He would surely reply by asking what kind of nonsense I was talking about. But Shin Haeryang gave a slight nod and said,
“Yes. I’m going to install it in the garden. They flooded my room, destroyed the company I used to work for, and put my team members in danger. I want to pay them back, at least a little.”
My first thought was whether revenge or escape was more important right now. But……to be honest, some part of me also found Shin Haeryang’s proposal rather exhilarating. Oh. So he knew how to make bombs out of ordinary fertilizer? Come to think of it, that sounded pretty good. I’d already died several times—what was so frightening about dying once or twice more? I had never died in an explosion before, but surely it couldn’t be a stranger death than being bitten in the side by a shark. Besides, I had already set fire to an undersea base once. Since we were at it, why not put on a grand fireworks display for those cultists?
I’d been trapped in this undersea base because of those damned bastards and had endured every kind of terrifying ordeal. Wasn’t it something to fight back even once? If I were alone, I couldn’t have made anything more complicated than a bomb shot, but the fact that Mr. Haeryang could make something like that was immensely reassuring.
The rebellious spirit that had been cowering in a corner, terrified, raised its head at the sight of an opportunity. Revenge. It was such a beautiful and alluring word that gooseflesh rose across my back and a smile naturally formed beneath my mask. I wanted to burn through every moment of the life I had left and utterly destroy the lives of the Infinite Faith believers.
I don’t care what losses and grief you suffered in the past. Why should I have to go through this here? You should all suffer equally—just as much as I’ve suffered, grieved, despaired, struggled, and hurt!
In my imagination, the believers inside the flower garden were already screaming from the agony of the explosion. Fierce flames were roaring as they melted their vulnerable bare flesh, or the outer walls of the undersea base were collapsing, searing the flesh and bones burned by the vicious seawater. You won’t be able to escape this pain. If I die and wake up again this morning, you’ll live through it again, tormented by pain and suffering whose cause you don’t even understand. You can’t go back into the past to live! Instead, the savior you created will drag you into an infinite hell! In this dark undersea base, live forever like blind deep-sea fish, without brains or hearts!
“…….”
My delight at the prospect of avenging myself through bomb-making lasted only a brief moment. I……first felt grateful that I was wearing a mask. I had put it on in case one of the Infinite Faith believers recognized Bak Muhyeon’s face, but now I was glad that I didn’t have to show anyone my face, which had been so horribly ruined.
When I realized that the time had come to make a choice, it felt as though time had begun to move slowly.
I looked at Jang and Rico’s tired hands as they loaded trays onto the cart. Then I took in Shin Haeryang, sweating coldly and breathing heavily, apparently in poor condition. I looked at the empty [Taiga] Café, devoid of tables and chairs, and at the sign marked with a blue arrow pointing toward the diving zone, as well as the sign marked with a green arrow pointing toward the Garden of the Hesperides.
The thought of making bombs with Shin Haeryang and gleefully throwing them at the cultists circled through my mind at the same time as the thought of fleeing with everyone here to the diving zone.
Was revenge worth more than their lives?
If we failed to leave the undersea base for certain this time, when would these people ever be able to get out?
If we spent the time making bombs and succeeded in detonating them, we might not only kill the Infinite Faith believers but sink the entire First Undersea Base. Since the undersea bases were connected by the central elevator, we might even be able to damage them in a chain reaction. But what would we gain by doing that?
I would open my eyes again at 7:02 in the morning, while Kim Jaehee, Shin Haeryang, Jang, and Rico would remain trapped on the seafloor, unable to leave. The believers who had died horribly would suffer without knowing why, but after an hour or two, they would be walking around perfectly fine again.
Would it be easy for me to return to the First Undersea Base? ……It certainly wouldn’t be. We only had another fifty meters to climb before reaching Daehando. Should I really spend this precious time and strength making bombs? Wouldn’t it be better to use all the time remaining to escape instead?
……Then what about everything I had suffered because of these lunatics! No matter how many times I died, no one would remember or even care! No matter what choice I made, no one would remember it! Covered in jewels from head to toe, I screamed silently in outrage. If, if this life were the first life I had ever experienced and the last one I would ever have—
What choice would I make?
“……It sounds as though making that kind of present would take quite a while. You aren’t planning to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the First Undersea Base, Mr. Haeryang?”
“I’ll receive treatment at a hospital in Daehando when I have time.”
I folded up my revenge, piece by piece, at Shin Haeryang’s answer.
“……Treatment is something you make time for. The most important thing for us right now is figuring out how to escape this undersea base safely and in good health. Nothing else matters. Forget the bomb and everything else—let’s go to the diving zone together. Then let’s escape as quickly as possible and find our team members.”
Shin Haeryang hesitated, then gave a small nod, apparently troubled by the team members who had escaped ahead of us.
Perhaps because drinks were either picked up at the café or eaten at the tables, there was no cart specifically for café use. I spoke to Rico and Jang, who were temporarily stacking the trays onto a cart used by the engineers to carry supplies and turning it into a delivery cart.
“Have you considered stopping what you’re doing and escaping the undersea base?”
The instant Jang heard my question, he blurted out an answer almost by reflex.
“Me! Me! I want to get out of here! Right now!”
Then he fiercely turned to Rico beside him. Rico looked at Jang, me, and Shin Haeryang as if Jang might shoot lasers from his eyes, then spoke hesitantly.
“I……I want to stay here. As long as I’m working here, those terrorists won’t kill me. If I cooperate, they might even let me live. They’ve threatened me with guns, but they haven’t killed me so far. Maybe they’ll just eat their fill and leave.”
“How do you know when they’ll kill you like a toy just because they’re in a bad mood? How do you know whether they’ll kill you because the coffee’s gone cold, because the syrup is too salty, or because the bread is too spicy?”
Rico retorted at Jang’s answer.
“If I cooperate, they might let me live! If I stay here, at least there’s a chance I’ll survive. If I run and they catch me, they might just kill me! They said they’d let me live if I obediently did as I was told.”
“How can you believe that, Rico? We have to get out of here! They’re terrorists who believe in a cult religion. Those bastards don’t see you as human at all! That’s how all religious fanatics are! Everything they believe is right! Everything other people believe is wrong! They’re people who believe that God will treat only them specially! And besides, they have guns, don’t they? Ah, sure, maybe they won’t shoot. But they’re carrying guns because they think people will listen to them better if they have one, right? Conversation is mutual communication between people on equal footing. You can’t talk to someone holding a gun. I hate having too much work, but I can handle it! But I can’t stand dealing with someone who can’t communicate! A difficult customer? Fine. They might show up. But how am I supposed to deal with a difficult customer carrying a gun?”
Mage Jang spoke to Rico with tears in his eyes.