Kim Jaehui told me to shower and change into casual clothes, so I’d lain on the floor staring at the ceiling as if I’d stay there forever, then groggily gotten up. The endlessly depressing thoughts and feelings had mostly been washed away by the hot water.
Maybe because I’d been set on washing quickly and getting out, Kim Jaehui was still in the shower even after I came out. I’d heard that the longer you’re soaked in saltwater, the more your stamina drains, so I had washed diligently, and after showering, I felt like I’d regained some strength.
I quickly dried my whole body with a towel that looked like someone had used and left behind, then put the terrorist outfit back on. I wished I’d never have to wear it again. With the towel over my head, I looked in the mirror and saw my pathetic face.
What on earth was I doing here?
The reason you shouldn’t ask yourself philosophical questions in a difficult situation is that the answers that come back are rarely positive. I’d tried every possible way to escape after learning that seawater was leaking into the building of the company I’d just joined and that pseudo-religious cultists were swarming everywhere, but I failed. Whatever.
Why did I fail?
Because the underwater base was too wide horizontally and too tall vertically, and while seawater was flooding in, there were selfish people and gun-wielding lunatics everywhere. And even if I broke through all those obstacles and tried to get out to Daehan Island, something always grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go.
What could be the reason I couldn’t get out?
When I exited the shower room, the lapis lazuli necklace was lying on the floor exactly where I’d dropped it. I picked it up, held it in my hand, and touched the lapis lazuli gemstone as I thought.
Hearing the mining staff who’d come to the dental clinic cursing, the engineers apparently scurried all over the underwater base like cockroaches every day. Seeing Shin Haerang’s flustered expression, it seemed he’d never once been obstructed crossing the boundary between sea and land because of the necklace he’d been wearing until now. Given Shin Haerang’s personality, if he’d known early on that there was something wrong with the lapis lazuli necklace, he would have left it in Underwater Base 4 or thrown it away; he wouldn’t have kept wearing it and exposed his teammates and himself to the risk of drowning.
Seeing how I was going through this ordeal without a single jewel on me, was it really because of the titanium used in my spinal surgery?
Then was it only titanium? What about dental prosthetics? Were gold or zirconia okay? What about dental implants? Silicone implants? Even if dental implants were fine, there must be people with vascular system medical device components embedded in their bodies, like stents or pacemakers. Considering the disastrous security of this underwater base, there were probably people with orthopedic prosthetics too. And joints didn’t use only titanium alloys—stainless steel and cobalt alloys were also used. Was titanium the only problem?
Thinking like this, the human body contained quite a lot of minerals. The human body was a veritable mine. A jeweled paradise.
Considering the number of personnel working in this vast underwater base, statistically there should be two or three more people who’d had major surgery due to accidents like me, so why was I the one going through this? I don’t know.
If there were people wearing necklaces and such on the outside of their bodies like Shin Haerang, what about people wearing prosthetic legs or arms like Kim Jaehui? There would also be people wearing multiple earrings or rings like Elizabeth, and people with piercings. What about tattoos? If the ink contained metallic components, it was practically the same as applying a thin layer of metal to the skin. What about hearing aids, glasses, or contact lenses?
If the more metal one possessed, the easier it was to be selected for this strange loop, wouldn’t someone with the maximum amount hanging off the outside of their body be at an advantage? Was I chosen because I shot Elizabeth with a gun? There had been other candidates besides Elizabeth, so why was I the one suffering like this instead of them?
Shin Haerang, who had been unable to ascend to the sea surface because of the lapis lazuli necklace, had been able to leave without restriction the moment he abandoned the necklace. Unfortunately, assuming I’d been caught by the pseudo-religious cult’s conspiracy and the white shark’s teeth, compared to Shin Haerang’s situation, did that mean I had to pull out my spine to leave? Surely not my eyes too?
A suddenly more horrifying thought came to me: what if even after pulling them out, I still couldn’t leave?
Ah. Please. Just kill me. Kill me.
As I imagined all kinds of anxious and horrible assumptions from various realistic angles, I felt the hard, cold stone at my fingertips and cut off my thoughts.
I had failed to escape the underwater base this time too; was this attempt clearly a failure?
At least I could confidently answer no to that question. Until now, Yu Geumi, Shin Haerang, Seo Jihyeok, and Baek Aeyeong had gotten out. The people who’d suffered together in the early days, crawling on all fours up dark staircases and sharing life and death, had all escaped. Just getting those people out of the underwater base had involved so many twists and turns.
Ah. Words couldn’t express how desperately I’d wanted to help them escape from the underwater base. If only I’d been a little more helpful, they might have escaped even sooner. Looking back, there were so many things I regretted.
As my physical condition improved somewhat, the events that had unfolded during the dive just moments ago began replaying continuously in my head. Listening to the sound of water in the distance, I was seized by the impulse to leave Kim Jaehui behind and go.
There was probably only about an hour left, two at most, before this underwater base collapsed. I thought the chances of Kim Jaehui getting out of the underwater base on his own within that time were practically nonexistent. Aside from trying to persuade him with a few words, what more could I do for Kim Jaehui?
If he were a minor, maybe, but he’s an adult who’d chosen to join a pseudo-religious cult and walk the path of a terrorist of his own volition. How could I possibly talk sense into someone like that? Even family can’t stop a person brainwashed by religion. They spend countless hours persuading, using family members’ names to shame and criticize, bringing all sorts of scientific data to refute them, but it’s no use. They try coaxing, even kneeling and begging. They hurl countless curses and threaten that they’ll never see them again if they leave like this. And yet in the end, he leaves as he pleases and returns as a corpse.
Kim Jaehui arbitrarily believed I was a savior, but I was no such thing. I was merely someone suffering terrible pain without knowing the cause or reason.
A savior? Honestly, that unearned title obtained less than a day after meeting me could go to the dogs. I was someone who couldn’t even save my own life right now. In the first place, sound-minded people don’t want some omnipotent being messing with their lives as they please, nor do they put themselves in situations where they have to entrust their lives entirely to something unreliable.
What Kim Jaehui needed wasn’t a dentist whose company was buried under the sea, but a psychiatrist located near home. And one who specialized in treating PTSD. He’d been fooled by the pseudo-religious cult’s antics, ruined his career, missed the escape route right in front of his nose, and even got stabbed by someone like me who wasn’t a savior.
Lee Jihyeon, who’d wanted to leave a few people behind in the elevator, suddenly came to mind. Was the current situation similar to then? I supposed I was reminded of Lee Jihyeon because I was thinking of leaving Kim Jaehui here and going alone.
Had I said that just because we’d seen inhumane and immoral things didn’t mean we had to make inhumane choices ourselves? What an arrogant, impudent bastard. Lee Jihyeon had done her best at the time. Who could blame her for leaving those people behind? Unless it was a special situation, people made choices advantageous to themselves rather than disadvantageous ones. What good would acting humanely do for my situation? When the other party had made an inhumane choice first.
I’ve changed a lot too.
But then another thought occurred to me. What if the first person from Engineer Team Alpha I’d met during the disaster had been Kim Jaehui?
If Kim Jaehui had been one of the people I’d evaded gun-wielding pseudo-religious believers with, built bonds with while walking up dark staircases, shared scarce food with, and supported the injured alongside—would I be thinking these thoughts now? I probably would have tried somehow to get Kim Jaehui out of here. I definitely wouldn’t have been thinking of dumping him in this underwater base and leaving alone.
But I doubted whether Kim Jaehui would have been as cooperative and self-sacrificing for others as the companions I’d first met. I had the feeling that if Kim Jaehui hadn’t considered me a savior, I wouldn’t have received even the help and kindness I’d gotten so far. I was truly curious how he’d act toward me if the title of Savior disappeared.
The continuously running water stopped. I’d been thinking things like “Should I bolt right now?” but decided that even if I went alone, I should tell him, and if I took him with me, I should tell him and take him—so I waited for Kim Jaehui to come out.
After a few minutes, I heard Kim Jaehui’s footsteps, and he came out of the shower. He was wearing only pants, his upper body completely bare, and his torso was a mess of burn scars. Several spots showed skin restoration from laser treatment, and it seemed he’d later covered the entire burn area with tattoos.
As if knowing a storm had been raging in my head for quite some time, Kim Jaehui looked at me, smiled, and spoke.
“When I came out after washing, I thought the Savior might not be here for the Apep dive.”
“I was contemplating whether to go alone.”
“Is that so? Then please continue contemplating and let me know when you reach a conclusion.”
“What would you do if my decision is to go alone, leaving you behind, Jaehui?”
“You’re going to abandon me and leave? Look at my eyes.”
I looked at Kim Jaehui’s eyes, but all I saw were two perfectly ordinary eyes. What was I supposed to do about that?
“What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Heuheuheu. You’ve sucked me dry and now that you don’t need me, you’re trying to discard me without hesitation. Don’t you pity me? My thigh that the Savior stabbed suddenly hurts terribly.”
Watching Kim Jaehui’s behavior, I could only sigh. I was currently feeling tremendous guilt over stabbing his thigh, but even that guilt was going to disappear.
“I don’t really pity you. Is the condition of your leg very serious?”
“You cut it shallowly so the bleeding stopped. If I say I can’t walk, you’re going to leave me here, aren’t you? Heuheuheu.”
Kim Jaehui made fake crying sounds with his mouth alone while his eyes stared at me perfectly intact.
“Can’t you just grab something to wear?”
“Do I look terrible?”
“I don’t particularly want to keep looking at you half-naked.”
Kim Jaehui went down to the first floor and entered the shower room where Shin Haerang had tied up the Infinite Church believer. And a few minutes later, he came out wearing a black long-sleeved T-shirt.