I was surprised to see the people of Engineer Team D smiling faintly at one another or walking along while singing. It was a side of them they almost never showed when people from other countries were around. Back at the escape pod port, most of them had just glared expressionlessly, as if their facial muscles were paralyzed. Among themselves, they didn’t seem to get along all that badly. Why isn’t Carlos here? Did he part ways with Engineer Team D instead of going with them?
As Nikolai walked along singing a Russian song in an obnoxiously lively voice, Viktor and Sofiya listened for a while, then quietly joined in on the repeating chorus. Even the snake following behind them swayed its body slightly as it listened.
The snake seemed completely uninterested in Bak Muhyeon’s mental state. Aside from sweeping its gaze over his entire body once, as if checking whether he was wearing any jewels like before, it simply followed in silence.
Watching Bak Muhyeon walk along with others pushing him from behind, I couldn’t help but sigh. Had he completely lost his mind?
Standing beside myself, I tried shaking and touching my own body, but there wasn’t the slightest reaction. You have to come to your senses. This isn’t the time to be spacing out. I blurted out whatever words came to mind, but none of them seemed to reach his ears.
The people of Engineer Team D acted less cautiously than those of Engineer Team A, and they were much noisier. They were moving through the Central Building in hiding, and regardless of Bak Muhyeon’s mental state, I found myself faintly impressed by the fact that Engineer Team D was taking him with them.
So when someone isn’t in good condition and gets left behind in a disaster, they pick him up and take him along. They don’t just pretend not to see and pass him by. I thought Engineer Team D would abandon him halfway.
The fact that Vladimir, who hadn’t shown much interest even in an underage foreigner, was taking me along after I’d lost my mind did make me suspicious, but seeing this rare display of ethics in the undersea base stirred a quiet sense of emotion in me. Honestly, it was frightening to see myself out of my mind from the ash powder. And yet there were people around taking care of me.
Not long ago, I’d seen myself unconscious in a room, about to drown as it flooded. Still, once I got out of the room, there were people helping me like this. To think I’d end up traveling together with the people of Engineer Team D like this. You really never knew what would happen in life.
While the people of Engineer Team D hid and waited near the warehouse by the Central Plaza, Vladimir approached the two Infinite Church believers keeping watch at the elevator and attempted to negotiate. The believers had their guns trained on him, but after Vladimir said a few words, they began listening closely.
When I went closer and listened carefully, he was saying that he would hand over Bak Muhyeon, whom the Infinite Church believers had been searching for over the broadcast, and in exchange, they should let only the Russians leave the undersea base. ……Of course. Now I understand why Carlos isn’t here. I guess they disagreed and parted ways on the way here or something.
I had nothing left to be disappointed about, so while the snake held me by the waist, I shook my head from side to side. Then the snake, too, shook its head from side to side while holding me in its mouth. Ugh. Fine. If you’re going to sell me off to escape, then at least sell me well and get out.
It seemed there had been a broadcast saying that anyone who found and handed over Bak Muhyeon would benefit from it, but judging by the attitude of the two Infinite Church believers, they didn’t seem to have any intention of keeping that promise.
One of the Infinite Church believers, wearing a bright blue mask, spoke as if dissatisfied with the terms of the deal with Vladimir.
“We could take you hostage right now and force your Russian team and Bak Muhyeon to come out. We’re the ones with the upper hand in this deal.”
As he said that with the muzzle of his gun aimed, Vladimir snorted and asked without any particular tension,
“Do you like hide-and-seek?”
“What?”
“If you refuse, I can cut Bak Muhyeon into seven pieces and make you wander around the Fourth Undersea Base looking for him. And everything getting ruined will be entirely your fault.”
I was briefly startled by Vladimir’s words, but the first thought that came to mind was something like, So they have hide-and-seek in Russia too. Is the snake waiting for that? For me to be cut into seven pieces? Ah. Please. Let me see a little less cruelty, will you?
Even if the Infinite Church people threatened Vladimir’s life with guns and told Engineer Team D to come out, it didn’t seem like it would work at all. Even Nikita, Vladimir’s lover, didn’t look like he had any intention of stepping out. The other team members were listening to the Infinite Church’s words with expressions as if they were hearing a dog bark. I couldn’t tell whether they were loyal or not. Every engineer team really had a different personality.
Nikita, who had been watching the negotiation between Vladimir and the Infinite Church, looked briefly startled when he saw Bak Muhyeon’s face and hair, then frowned deeply.
“Who made him look like this? He was fine earlier!”
At that low voice full of rebuke, Sofiya, Viktor, and Nikolai pointed at one another and tattled to Nikita, each insisting that the others were more at fault. Sofiya pointed at my face and said to Nikita,
“He started drawing on his face first! The only thing I did was what’s drawn in black pen!”
“I’m not the one who tied his hair like this.”
“Huh? This is my fault? He just sat still like he liked this dentist. Hey. You like your hairstyle, don’t you?”
Nikolai grabbed the back of Bak Muhyeon’s head as he sat there blankly and forced him to nod. At that, Nikita got angry at the team members and said,
“You stupid bastards! We might have to hand this man over to those guys with guns! Fix him up right now! He’s already out of his mind, and now he looks even stranger!”
Nikolai looked at the state of my hair and said as if making an excuse,
“Deputy Team Leader. He wasn’t normal to begin with. He can walk around looking weird. Come on.”
“You erase what you drew!”
After snapping at Nikolai in a low voice, Sofiya rubbed Bak Muhyeon’s face with the one remaining sock, trying hard to erase the black flower drawn on his cheek. Beside her, Viktor rubbed spit onto his forehead, trying to get rid of the red star and blue fish drawings, but it wasn’t very effective.
While Nikolai was fighting with the rubber bands he had used to tie Bak Muhyeon’s hair into handfuls at chessboard-sized intervals, Vladimir made a hand signal without the Infinite Church believers noticing. It probably meant the deal had succeeded.
It seemed the desire of the two believers to have Bak Muhyeon receive their personal wishes before the group that had gone to search White Tiger Wing returned had won out over their loyalty to the cult.
Nikita let out a bucketful of curses. Most of the targets of his abuse were the cultist terrorists holding guns, his team members, his hangover, and the flooded room. Then, together with his team members, who were doing idiotic things, he helped Bak Muhyeon to his feet and walked toward the central elevator.
When the Infinite Church believers also saw Bak Muhyeon for the first time, their eyes widened. Their tone, however, was quite polite as they asked,
“……Are you Bak Muhyeon?”
Bak Muhyeon stared blankly downward at a forty-five-degree angle, lips pressed shut, and gave no answer. Nikolai shoved Bak Muhyeon hard in the back once, but his reaction remained the same. Growing anxious, the believer in the blue mask asked Bak Muhyeon again,
“Savior? Are you the Savior of the Infinite Church?”
“……”
The one who had closed his slightly parted mouth was Sofiya, who had done it instead of erasing the doodles because she said he looked less stupid that way. After watching the unusual hairstyle, the shocking drawings on his face, and his failure to answer for a moment, the Infinite Church side also realized that Bak Muhyeon’s condition was not normal. The two Infinite Church believers pressed Engineer Team D as if they had been forced to buy defective merchandise.
“What’s wrong with him? Did you drug him? What is this? What the hell did you do to him?”
“He was already like this. He was like this when we treated him at the dental clinic too.”
When Vladimir shamelessly spouted that nonsense, the members of Team D standing behind Bak Muhyeon each chimed in, saying their team leader was right. I was the only one watching who felt like I was going to go insane and jump up and down. The Infinite Church believers looked suspiciously at the people of Engineer Team D, then noticed the blood on the old T-shirt Bak Muhyeon was wearing as pajamas and asked,
“Did you people assault the Savior?”
“His front was covered in blood, like he’d had a nosebleed, so we just wiped it off.”
“If we’d planned to beat him up, we would’ve taken care of him back in White Tiger Wing and not brought him here.”
The believers looked over Viktor and Vladimir, then wore ambiguous expressions, as if thinking that wasn’t wrong. Then they whispered to each other in low voices. ……They said he had to be alive. We don’t know about his mental state, but he’s alive for now, isn’t that enough? After exchanging things like that, they stepped aside.
As they opened up space so the people of Engineer Team D could board the central elevator, the believer in the blue mask said,
“Send Bak Muhyeon over to our side! ……Savior. Please come this way. We will protect you. Come this way.”
Bak Muhyeon stood still without reacting, no matter who called him. Nikita grabbed Bak Muhyeon from behind and shouted like a villain,
“We’ll hand him over once we’re in the elevator, so wait there.”
Using Bak Muhyeon like a ballistic shield, the people of Engineer Team D continued a minor scuffle with the Infinite Church believers. When the elevator car did not arrive quickly, everyone gathered there grew anxious. Nikita looked at the guns held by the Infinite Church believers, hesitated, then asked,
“Have you seen any other Russians besides us? One woman, one man.”
“No idea.”
“We’re not interested in anything except securing the Savior.”
After hearing the halfhearted replies from the Infinite Church believers, Vladimir looked at the state of my hair, turned his head away after three seconds, and asked,
“What’s so valuable about Bak Muhyeon that you’re doing this? He just looked like a frail dentist to me. ……Savior?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Look. We woke up soaked to the bone. Everything in our quarters got flooded, and we’re walking around without even being properly dressed.”
The Infinite Church believers gave no answer and simply kept their guns aimed. At last, the doors of the central elevator opened. There was a single chair inside, but no people. Using Bak Muhyeon as a shield, the people of Engineer Team D all entered the elevator at once.
When the Infinite Church believers said that they were in the elevator now, so they should hand over Bak Muhyeon, the people of Engineer Team D who had entered the elevator loudly insisted that they would hand him over right before the doors closed. And then the elevator doors, which had been open for a long time, closed.
Bak Muhyeon was still inside the central elevator. Since no one had pushed him out of the elevator, he remained there as he was.