As we were quietly walking through the aquarium, Yu Geum-i, after mulling something over, spoke to me.
“I thought carefully about what that cultist said earlier. It must be some important day, which is why they’re doing this today. But no matter how much I think about it, all I can come up with is that May 31st is Ocean Day in Korea.”
“There’s such a thing as Ocean Day in Korea?”
At my stupid question, Shin Haeryang narrowed his eyes as if gazing into the distance and said,
“······It’s probably the day Jang Bogo established Cheonghaejin.”
I was dumbfounded. They even designate a day like that as a commemorative holiday? Then is there an Earth Day too?
“There’s even a day to commemorate that?”
At my exclamation, Yu Geum-i said to Shin Haeryang as if surprised,
“Mr. Shin Haeryang, how do you know that?”
“I know someone in the navy. How do you know it, Ms. Yu Geum-i?”
“My hometown is Wando.”
Seo Jihyeok groaned and added a word.
“No Tobacco Day! No Tobacco Day. Today is No Tobacco Day. In that case, it’d honestly be more believable if the cult leader were Korean, or if today were the cult leader’s birthday.”
“Does he hate cigarettes or something?”
Yu Geum-i hummed and was about to sink back into thought. I pulled Seo Jihyeok’s slipping arm more securely around my shoulder and tried to fish Yu Geum-i out of her thoughts.
“What are you thinking about, Ms. Geum-i?”
“If we know our enemy, our chances of survival should go up, so I was thinking about the cult. They did all this to obtain infinite life, right? If today isn’t definitely the right day, I wondered if maybe the cultists would just stop what they were doing and go back.”
Seo Jihyeok chuckled, then grimaced in pain.
“Good grief, Ms. Geum-i. If you think those cult bastards are going to say, Ah! We got the date wrong! and meekly disappear, you’re dead wrong. Those bastards took guns and carried out a terrorist attack on a four-story undersea base. Terrorists like this spend a very long time and a lot of money preparing.”
Seo Jihyeok did not say anything like, What the hell is this naive young lady thinking? Because the stupidest human being in the process of escaping this undersea base was probably me. Yu Geum-i not knowing about terrorists or cultists wasn’t something to criticize. Ordinary people didn’t go around with that kind of knowledge stuffed in their heads.
As we walked, Yu Geum-i asked me while I was supporting Seo Jihyeok.
“Um······what was it again, Mr. Muhyeon? What did you call the elements of a religion? You mentioned it at the Third Undersea Base.”
“The founder, the doctrine, and the organization?”
“······May I ask how you know that?”
I was about to explain my family, but it seemed like it would get too long, so I shook my head.
“I don’t particularly want to answer that.”
To my surprise, Yu Geum-i backed off obediently.
“Is that so? Then please tell me when you feel like answering. ······The founder. The person who created the religion would be the cult leader, right? Hmm······and the teaching of the religion is to obtain eternal life. But I was a little surprised that there were more definite rules than I expected. Things like putting something in their teeth. Or being told to take up guns precisely today. Or investing a lot of money even in people who aren’t especially interested in religious rites. I thought it was usually the opposite. If they explain things as vaguely as possible, it should be easier to brush things off later when problems seem like they’ll arise. And this is the first time I’ve heard of cults investing money for the sake of the followers they’ve recruited.”
Listening to Yu Geum-i’s explanation, I quickly nodded and said,
“You’re right. It’s the first I’ve heard of it too. Most religions are only interested in using faith as an excuse to suck people’s money like mosquitoes. They have absolutely no intention of giving it back to the believers. I was a little surprised by the shark part. If you joined the wrong way, you might think they were an environmental group.”
“Why did they set up that kind of concept? As far as I know, cults are originally created as a means for the cult leader to draw in the labor or funds of the believers.”
I imagined a religion with an incredible amount of money. No matter how I thought about it, it seemed like a gathering of lunatics, but they gave you a lot of money if you joined. There were plenty of people in the world who needed money. If someone wasn’t especially sensitive about religion, they might even line up to join. The word infinite was the same. Why promise infinity? There was nothing infinite in this world.
“If the cult leader was rich to begin with, wouldn’t there be no need to draw in funds through the followers?”
“Then that means some fabulously rich person believed today was the proper day to live an eternal life, paid out of his own pocket to give his followers dental treatment, had them bring in firearms and kill people en masse, and then intended to enjoy infinite life.”
“······Right?”
Yu Geum-i thought for a moment, then frowned at my answer and pointed out exactly what I had been wondering about.
“But this infinite life thing is strange too. Living forever? How long do you have to live for it to be forever? Before time, lifespans are fixed. Even Earth has a fixed lifespan.”
Shin Haeryang, who had been quietly listening to the conversation between me and the marine biologist, said,
“······I’m not even sure there’s any reason one must live an infinite life.”
“Mr. Shin Haeryang, if you could live forever, would you choose to?”
“No.”
It was a knife-sharp answer. Apparently he didn’t want to live forever. Well, I supposed there were people who didn’t. When I looked at Seo Jihyeok, he groaned and said,
“Eternal life or whatever, I’d rather my leg just get fixed. I’d have no other wish if I could get a shot of morphine.”
Baek Aeyeong, standing at the very front, rolled her eyes twice and said,
“It would be nice to live a long time. Vampires are cool, aren’t they? But living forever all by yourself is a bit much.”
As she said that, Baek Aeyeong shook her head. Her long hair, like a horsetail, swayed softly along with it. Yu Geum-i also thought for a moment, then furrowed her brow.
“I don’t have the confidence to live like a jellyfish. I’d rather live a finite life and die.”
I asked in surprise,
“Do jellyfish live infinitely?”
“Some of them have abilities that are almost close to immortality.”
Seo Jihyeok also asked in surprise,
“Wait, so there are things that live that long besides that damn Island or Greenland or whatever shark?”
“But jellyfish don’t have brains or hearts.”
At Yu Geum-i’s words, I let out a groan. Oh dear. Good grief. They lacked something that important. Seo Jihyeok shook his head.
“······There’s a price for everything, I guess. Earlier you said the Greenland shark didn’t have eyes.”
“What about you, Mr. Muhyeon?”
“Keep living eternally like that, alone, without my family? What if I get sick of living someday? I’ll live as much as I’m meant to, then die.”
If the Infinite Church wanted to recruit any of us as believers, it seemed they would have to offer something else in return. It would be hard to tempt us with the words infinite life. Money, perhaps? But right now, escaping safely looked more appealing than receiving money.
Near the end of the deep-sea aquarium, Baek Aeyeong waited. At her gesture to lower ourselves, Seo Jihyeok and I practically lay down on the floor, while only Shin Haeryang and Yu Geum-i crouched. Baek Aeyeong very slightly stuck her head out beyond the aquarium. Then she soon came back. In a low voice, Baek Aeyeong said,
“There are sixteen of them just within my field of vision. Three in front of the central elevator, five in the central plaza, three at the right-side escape craft port entrance, two in front of Café Black Pearl, and three at the second elevator. If there are three each by the first and third elevators too, then there are at least twenty-two.”
“If we assume about twenty each are stationed at the Third Undersea Base and the First Undersea Base as well, then Tyler’s words were right.”
About sixty. We had to break through those bastards and escape? No, if I tried to think positively, assuming there were twenty at the Third Undersea Base, then that meant there were now only about forty armed people left in front of us. Was that a bit hopeful? ······Whether it was sixty or forty, there didn’t seem to be much of a change in how hopeless it was.
Everyone’s expressions were grim. Yu Geum-i’s face had gone pale. It seemed none of the gun owners were harboring the grand dream of seizing the Second Undersea Base while engaging in a gunfight against at least twenty-two people. I didn’t know about Seo Jihyeok with his injured leg, or Yu Geum-i holding a gun for the first time, but Baek Aeyeong or Shin Haeryang were probably the humans closest to having a chance. After hearing my action-movie delusion, Baek Aeyeong smiled. Shin Haeryang shook his head, and Seo Jihyeok only cackled.
“Reality is different from movies. If someone like James Bond or Ethan Hunt jumped out in that situation, the bullets would avoid him on their own, but in reality, numbers are king. Do you think ten people shooting at one person is the same as one person shooting at ten?”
“······I’ll give you my gun, so I’ll quietly wait for Mr. Muhyeon to take care of it and return.”
Shin Haeryang said this while rubbing the corners of his eyes as if tired.
A few steps from the exit of the deep-sea aquarium, it immediately connected to the entrance of the exhibition hall. They said we had to pass through the exhibition hall to get to the cable car boarding area. The problem was that when we opened the door of the deep-sea aquarium and went out, the people in the central plaza would briefly see us. Yu Geum-i looked at the distance outside the aquarium door and said,
“It’s about······five meters. If we run······we’ll be exposed to people’s eyes for about four to five seconds. I hope no one sees us during that time.”
“What if someone does see us?”
Yu Geum-i looked flustered at my question, but Seo Jihyeok simply let out a sigh deep enough to make the ground collapse.
“What do you think? We get caught.”
I wondered if Seo Jihyeok was using up all the sighs he would ever breathe in his life right here. Since he probably couldn’t cross that short distance quickly, someone would have to help him, and he seemed to hate becoming baggage.
“I can carry you.”
“Thank you very much, Team Leader.”
When Yu Geum-i asked what she should do with the gun while running, Baek Aeyeong silently held out her hand. Yu Geum-i handed the gun over to her without hesitation. Assuming we ran those five meters, what if we got to the exhibition hall and someone was there? What if someone was waiting there armed?
“What if there’s someone in the exhibition hall?”
At my question, Baek Aeyeong looked at me and answered simply,
“I’ll handle it.”
I see. Baek Aeyeong seemed to handle every problem simply. I wanted to talk to her someday about that simple philosophy of life. Perhaps every problem would be solved easily.
When Baek Aeyeong looked at the door, tension settled over everyone’s backs. I didn’t know whether the exhibition hall door was open or closed. What if we pushed and it didn’t open? Seo Jihyeok, looking at the closed exhibition hall, said to us,
“It’s probably open.”
“How do you know?”
Under everyone’s gazes, Seo Jihyeok paused before answering.
“I visited there yesterday, and it was open.”