Engineer Team Da ascended to the 2nd Undersea Base via the central elevator without a hitch. By the time they arrived at the 2nd Undersea Base, Park Muhyeon’s face was already so densely packed with doodles that it almost looked like tattoos.
Viktor and Sofia had drawn dolphins, seals, butterflies and bees, bears, the Russian flag, and the like all over his face and the nape of his neck with blue, black, and red pens as if competing, and not a strand of hair remained unbound by a rubber band. Nikolai, who had planted over a dozen palm trees made from hair on Park Muhyeon’s head, showed off his ultimate masterpiece created with all his soul to the team members, exclaiming things like “Ta-da! Finished!” Nikita had tried to stop the team members midway, but he seemed to have given up on halting the doodle progress since they were using indelible permanent markers.
Vladimir was silent for a moment before offering his impression. He expressionlessly muttered things like “I truly can’t recognize him. What savior? No one would think he’s the same person as that doctor we met at the dentist,” then pretended not to see the team members’ minor transgression. They were probably all still not fully sobered up.
When the elevator stopped and opened at the 2nd Undersea Base, the Engineer Team Da members defiantly stared at the terrorists who commanded them to get out while pointing gun muzzles at them. However, realizing there were more armed personnel than expected, they were obediently bound. Next to the Engineer Team Da members, Park Muhyeon, his hands and feet tied behind him, was also tied up and made to lie face down. The devotees seemed unable to imagine that the savior they sought would be dragged around in such a ridiculous state.
They looked at Park Muhyeon’s bare feet, his eyes blankly staring into space, his body that wouldn’t move unless someone pushed him, and his disheveled hair, then averted their eyes slightly. And after comparing the hastily thrown-on clothing of the Engineer Team Da members, their bare feet or mismatched socks, their eyes loosened by alcohol, the smell of liquor wafting from their mouths, and so on, they naturally assumed they were on the same team.
“Look at the state of these team members! Lie face down and stare at the floor! Don’t squirm!”
The Engineer Team Da members, who had been slightly worried that they might be singled out with sudden accusations like “Why does your savior look like this?”, inwardly sneered at the terrorists for making such careless and foolish judgments. And they seemed to willingly accept Park Muhyeon as their insufficient extra manpower—as insurance for escaping the undersea base and a shield to be used when needed someday.
Since they were bound anyway, the Engineer Team Da members tried to find Irina and Dmitri by asking other hostages in the same predicament if they had seen any Russian-born engineers today. Those who had awoken unexpectedly while treading seawater quite literally struggled to gain even a little more information. They writhed like earthworms, bumping into the people beside them or draping their heavy legs over others’ bodies, forcibly demanding answers. Jennifer, her cheek pressed to the floor, responded in a small voice to the various actions of the Engineer Team Da members.
“The terrorists kick us mercilessly with their feet, so stop making noise and shut your mouths!”
Having heard the warm and heartfelt advice of the Engineer Team Ma leader, who had been tied up first, Vladimir retorted, “Do you think I won’t hit you if there’s no answer?” and they ended up bickering. Even though the terrorists were circling around like eagles, the two engineer team leaders amicably exchanged questions about where each other’s team members had gone along with well-wishes for a swift death. The hostages who had already been tied up erupted in collective complaints due to the rough greetings of the newly joined Engineer Team Da.
“Shut up! Be quiet! If we’re gonna get beaten anyway, let’s get beaten together. If you want to get hit, take it alone! Haven’t you seen Irina? I don’t know! Just in case, let me explain: Irina looks like a gymnastics fairy, and Dmitri looks like a bald carrot growing in a nuclear waste zone. He looks like a typical Russian thug on the outside with a trashy personality, but he’s unexpectedly a bit of a cowardly bastard. Have you seen him by any chance? I don’t know! There’s one right in front of me now! What the hell do you even know! Is your brain empty? ……What? Were you talking to me? Come here! I said come here, you bastard!”
Nikolai wriggled and kicked the person next to him whom he disliked several times with both feet. When one of those being hit quickly shouted to a Church of Infinity devotee as if suggesting, “Please execute these Engineer Team Da bastards!”, Nikolai yelled in an even louder voice, “The bastard who just shouted is also from Engineer Team Da! Kill him with us!” and so on.
Surprised by that answer, the opponent screamed things like, “I-I’m not from Team Da! I’m from Engineer Team A!”, and the clamor of “I’ve never seen Irina or Dmitri either, so please shut up” reached the ears of the Church of Infinity devotees.
Within seconds, all the hostages ended up being kicked by the devotees. “Ack! Ack! Ughack! Keok! Kek! I wasn’t making noise! Aaack! Don’t step where you already stepped! Kick that bastard twice!” Joseph, who was managing the hostages, kicked the buttocks, waists, and calves of the prone people while shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Quiet! Shut your mouths voluntarily! Do we have to gag you too on top of tying your arms and legs? Should we accidentally block your noses too! Keep talking, you bastards who don’t want to breathe! Open your mouths one more time! I’ll tear you to shreds! If you don’t want to spend three days coughing up bullets before you die, stay still like dead mice on your own! Do you want us to go too far! You bastards! You’re only talking because you’re comfortable!”
Joseph walked among the hostages, performing unpracticed kicks, and nearly tripped over a hostage’s leg. However, since all the hostages were looking at the floor, Joseph’s misstep was fortunately seen only by the devotees. A devotee nearby saw that and snickered. Joseph shook his head with an embarrassed expression for a few seconds, then shouted at the hostages again.
“If you don’t want to be hit by bullets or kicks, shut your traps! There’s a limit to how much we let you off! Next time, I’ll make you an extra shithole in your ass!”
The Church of Infinity devotees had been ordered to shoot if the hostages resisted, but they seemed reluctant to raise their guns if possible. Listening to Joseph’s crude curses while lying as if bitten by a snake, words that made one wonder if that person was truly a believer of a religion came out in succession. After Joseph and the devotees’ kicking passed, those with their hands and ankles tied behind their backs now sported one or two large bruises each and were pouring out whispered curses toward the Engineer Team Da members.
Armed Church of Infinity devotees got off the central elevator all at once. The armed personnel who had been dispatched to the 4th Undersea Base seemed to have returned to the 2nd Undersea Base. They conveyed the unfortunate news that they had submerged into the flooded Baekho-dong quarters to meet the savior candidate and other devotees, and had even gone to Deep Blue located in Jungang-dong to find the savior, but had failed. The devotees of the 2nd Undersea Base who heard this news looked enormously disappointed.
The expressions of the two devotees who had guarded the front of the elevator were noticeably bad. Especially the devotee wearing a blue mask looked so deathly pale his entire face had taken on a bluish hue. The two discovered Park Muhyeon tied up and lying face down among the hostages and whispered among themselves. They appeared to have not reported their blunder at the 4th Undersea Base to anyone.
Some devotees were offering opinions that they should search the 4th Undersea Base again where the savior might be, or suggesting bringing Engineer Team Na and Team Ra, who knew the 4th Undersea Base well. The two, who had been conflicted for a moment about whether to report that their savior was tied up among the hostages, exchanged glances as if to say “There’s no way that person is our savior” while looking at Park Muhyeon’s outer appearance, then shut their mouths.
I and the giant serpent stayed among the hostages who were lying down, but I couldn’t figure out how Park Muhyeon would end up dying in this situation. Nikolai, who was groaning the loudest about how much it hurt from being kicked by Joseph, had already somehow half-undone the rope around his wrist. He was watching the devotees’ movements while rubbing a knife he had somehow hidden against the rope. And he exchanged kicks with the guy next to him who had cursed at him.
The same was true for Sofia and Nikita beside her. Upon closer look, Sofia, whose wrists were exceptionally small, pulled her wrist out through a gap in the ropes, then used her necklace pendant to light a fire and spread it to those around her like Hestia from Greek mythology. The fingernail-sized necklace pendant Sofia wore was an ultra-miniature lighter. It looked like nothing more than an ordinary women’s accessory, but Sofia seemed to normally use this necklace lighter for smoking.
Sofia burned Nikita’s wrist ropes while avoiding the devotees’ eyes. Since she was burning the ropes by guesswork, she sometimes missed and scorched the back of Nikita’s hand; hearing Nikita’s pained groan, Sofia immediately stopped and spoke in a small voice as if perplexed.
“I can’t see where the rope is······.”
“Keep going. It’s fine.”
When a Church of Infinity devotee turned his head toward them, Nikita slowly turned his body the other way and pretended nothing was happening. Then Vladimir, lying next to him, turned his bound body and took the back of Nikita’s hand into his mouth, licking it like a dog. Nikita giggled softly at the sensation of the tongue licking the wounded area, then turned his body back toward Sofia and held his saliva-soaked hand and the rope to the fire.
As Nikita’s rope was almost undone, Sofia grabbed the rope draped over her own wrist, watched for an opening, and then began untying Viktor’s rope on the opposite side as well. A few seconds later, Viktor realized the damage to his wrist was somewhat more serious than the damage to the rope and complained softly to Sofia. His thick, low voice hesitated before speaking to Sofia.
“I think my wrist is being grilled in the fire.”
“Endure it.”
Sofia sharply snapped at Viktor, maintaining her composure.
“······.”
Viktor was barely able to untie the rope before losing a wrist to the lighter.
When Sofia turned her body to the side again, Nikita and Vladimir were kissing with their wrists still bound together. Sofia sighed at that sight, then turned her head to look at the bound Park Muhyeon’s wrists. Taking the place of the team leader and vice team leader who looked busy, Sofia asked Nikolai.
“Should we untie him too?”
Nikolai looked toward where the Church of Infinity devotees had passed while slicing away at his wrist, then answered.
“······I don’t know? It seems like he won’t have any use for both hands.”
Nikolai completely freed his own wrists, then intermittently sliced at the rope tied around my wrist as if to pass the time. It was such a half-hearted act that one couldn’t tell if he was cutting the rope or my wrist.
Nikolai also asked the guy he had been kicking to his heart’s content earlier what he would do for him if he untied his wrists. When the flustered opponent responded with “What nonsense, I have nothing to give you but kicks,” Nikolai replied, “I’m so disappointed by what you said that I want to stab you in the side with the knife I have.”