Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea-Chapter 161

Thanks to the hair salon’s proximity to the escape pod port, we were able to move to the port without any problems. When opening the door to the escape pod port, people quickly slipped inside like infiltrating shadows, pausing only briefly to check the interior.

After confirming there was no one inside, Shin Haeryang first checked the positions of the escaped pods. Seo Jihyuk surveyed the interior of the port and then approached Tumanako and me. His attitude suggested that something might attack us even if there were no people.

It was my first time entering the Third Underwater Base’s escape pod port, but its structure looked similar to those in the Fourth Underwater Base. The first thing that caught my eye upon entering was the mess on the floor.

I couldn’t be sure if people had fought or if it was due to injuries sustained during escape, but someone had bled on the floor, and various shoe prints had dragged through it in all directions.

The floor was a mess with blood-stained clothes, slippers with only one side removed, smashed phones, hair ties that had lost their owners – perhaps loosely tied, a few coins that seemed to have fallen from pockets, broken bead accessories that could have been bracelets or necklaces, shattered watches, and broken glasses.

It felt like we had arrived after a massive human storm had passed through the escape pod port. Fortunately, there were no corpses inside the port.

The front panel showed the escape pods that had left this place floating on the sea surface like jellyfish. While looking at the escape pods, I noticed that Baek Ae-young wasn’t among our group.

“Ae-young is missing.”

Seo Jihyuk replied without looking at me.

“She’s keeping watch outside.”

Following Seo Jihyuk’s gaze, I saw water trickling down the wall from the ceiling. An engineer who noticed the leak made a face as if he wanted to curse but quickly shifted his gaze elsewhere, holding back.

Shin Haeryang was checking the status of the escape pod waiting on the launch pad. As I stared blankly at the number [ 1 ] displayed for the remaining escape pods, Tumanako looked at the two busy men with a gloomy expression. Seo Jihyuk muttered while helping Shin Haeryang inspect the escape pod.

“How did you know there would be one left here? Do you know how creeped out the guys working under you get every time this happens?”

Shin Haeryang made a face that said ‘not my problem’ and checked the complete sealing of the escape pod without answering. Seo Jihyuk, who was looking at the compressed air connected to the escape pod, asked the team leader checking the engine on the opposite side in a whining tone.

“How do you know these things?”

“I didn’t.”

“Don’t you have something like being born with a silver spoon, hearing the voice of God, or your toothpaste foam forming the shape of Jesus?”

“No.”

Although they were chattering, the two were quickly checking the condition of the single escape pod, seeming to spend more time on the inspection than before. While the Blue Dragon District escape pods were prepared for the Engineer A team members to use, they seemed to think this escape pod itself could be a trap. Seo Jihyuk said in a sing-song voice.

“It’s so, so scary. Really. This is the scariest thing. It’s not the thugs waiting with knives in a dark room that’s scary, but that my workplace superior can discern whether this bastard is slacking off or not with ghost-like intuition, even with his eyes closed. That’s what I find scariest in the world.”

Watching Seo Jihyuk move his hands and mouth incessantly, Tumanako said,

“I’m most scared of this situation where there’s only one escape pod left.”

“What’s there to be scared of? We can use high-value people like us for just the price of a chocolate bar.”

“Is that a good thing?”

Tumanako looked at Shin Haeryang and Seo Jihyuk, then asked back with a doubtful expression. Her face seemed to question whether these guys would actually help her escape. It seemed she felt this way because the Engineer A team people hadn’t been much help in her escape so far. Shin Haeryang smiled lightly, and Seo Jihyuk, feeling the nozzle to check if someone had made a hole in it, raised the corners of his mouth and answered.

“Of course it’s good. You have three people on your side until we leave Daehan Island.”

Tumanako closed her mouth for a moment at those words, then opened it. Her voice was full of disbelief.

“Couldn’t we get support from outside?”

“Should we shout from here? Maybe a dolphin will come.”

Despite Seo Jihyuk’s nonsense, Tumanako persisted with her question.

“The people who left earlier in the escape pods could help us, right? Since they’ve escaped the underwater base.”

Can the people who left in the escape pods really help those still inside the underwater base? Both men answered simultaneously to that question.

“Well…”

“It seems unlikely.”

Tumanako asked worriedly in response to their negative answers.

“Why?”

“If there are swarms of these guys outside too, it might be even more troublesome.”

“Those people will be facing their own problems.”

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Judging by their attitude, both seemed certain that there would definitely be armed Infinity Church believers on Daehan Island as well. And they seemed to think that life on the island wouldn’t be very comfortable either. In these people’s minds, the fact that those who left in the escape pods might not be able to drive boats didn’t seem to be a big problem. Recalling the memory from the South District elevator, I said,

“Don’t you think the people who left first would have successfully left the island by boat?”

I imagined Emma wearing sunglasses, with a cat and snake wrapped around her shoulders and neck, singing and coolly driving a boat with one hand. Water splashing here and there as a single boat endlessly advances towards the endless horizon under the sunlight. Far enough that no bullet could reach, where the coastline is completely out of sight.

Seo Jihyuk hesitated a bit before answering me.

“I hope they got away quickly and well. But it’s a bit ambiguous. I think it would have been better if Ae-young had gone out in an escape pod too. Well, can’t be helped.”

“Wouldn’t those people be waiting for us to escape on the surface?”

Tumanako seemed to want a helping hand to come from outside to the underwater base where she was. Shin Haeryang simply trampled on Tumanako’s hope and said,

“I hope not. I hope they left Daehan Island quickly, abandoning us.”

“Don’t you feel hurt? When someone just leaves you behind? Not taking me along.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind.”

With a sigh, Tumanako hesitated a bit before saying,

“…I’ve been thinking about it, and wouldn’t it be better to surrender to these Infinity Church people? They wouldn’t dare kill people recklessly because of fear of international attention, right? Eight advanced countries participated here, including the United States.

No matter how I think about it, wouldn’t it be safer to be held quietly as hostages? Isn’t running around trying to escape more of a waste of energy? Couldn’t the US rescue us along with their own citizens?”

Shin Haeryang, while checking the exterior of the escape pod, said to Tumanako,

“Are you suggesting we voluntarily hand over our weapons and beg for sympathy and mercy, hoping they won’t kill us? And if we get rescued as a bonus later, that’s good?”

Tumanako was momentarily flustered by Shin Haeryang’s words, then recalled her own statement and said,

“Wait a minute. …Was my statement that defeatist and negative? I thought it was quite rational. …Wasn’t it?”

“From the moment you give up fighting, you become prey.”

Shin Haeryang spoke as if he had lived his entire life fighting. I’ve never heard such words in my life. Is it because I’ve lived without fighting? No, it’s not like I’ve lived only by compromising either.

Seo Jihyuk sighed, briefly looked over Tumanako with his eyes, and said,

“Well, they might tie you up well and put you in a corner. If I were them, I’d give a woman like you a gift of one or two bullets while you were a hostage, or make a hole in this man’s forehead and tie him up so he can’t come to his senses. Our team leader would probably get about three bullets to the head. I’m against surrendering, like the team leader. Ah, Ae-young would probably be against it too. She’s an ultra-violent extremist.”

Tumanako made an expression of disbelief at their answers and then looked at me standing beside him. Is she asking about surrender? Jennifer’s eyes that I met for a moment. Those eyes had looked at me as if they still wanted to keep fighting.

“I’ve just realized that I think I’m allergic to bullets.”

Tumanako shook her head in disbelief. Seo Jihyuk, dusting off the soot and moisture from his hands, gestured towards us.

“Doctor, you can board the escape pod now.”

Shin Haeryang also looked at Tumanako and me while dusting off his hands. Tumanako, receiving that gaze, said to me,

“Honestly, I feel like I’m going crazy wanting to get on that escape pod right now. I can’t trust them. I want to push you aside and get on the escape pod so badly.”

I nodded in agreement to Tumanako’s words. I couldn’t believe that I was going to get on the escape pod and leave. It felt like I was floating, as if in a dream. Why am I able to go first? There’s Tumanako here, and Baek Ae-young, and Yoo Geum-yi.

“…You go first. I’ll have another chance.”

Tumanako’s face contorted at those words. She looked like she was about to cry.

“I don’t like that either. Because we promised! Even if I don’t like it, a promise is a promise. You might not know, but you’re in really bad shape right now. You look like you might collapse at any moment while walking. I’d rather you be selfish. I wish you were a mean and selfish bastard so I wouldn’t need to feel guilty about cursing at you.”

Tumanako handed me the bag she had been carrying. As I hugged the bag with both arms, Tumanako said threateningly,

“Get out first and escape well out there. You must return it. If my plant dies, I won’t leave your hair alone when I get out.”

Shin Haeryang told me to stand in the designated position.

“It’s okay to look around the island for people who left first, but staying in the escape pod isn’t a bad choice either. The escape pod’s life raft deploys at a point far from Daehan Island’s beach.”

Seo Jihyuk said while hitting the button with the back of his hand,

“Well, if all else fails, just float around in the escape pod like a jellyfish. When I get up there, I’ll give you a drive in the Zhu Shi’an boat.”

The escape pod enveloped my body, and in an instant, it was launched.

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