Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea - Chapter 93

I asked Jihyun about what worried me the most in the dreams related to the elevator.

“Will it be okay even if there are several power outages?”

The despair I felt when I found out that the elevator Yoo Geum-yi and I were in stopped with about 160m left to the 3rd undersea base. I’m not confident I can jump or fly up vertically even 3 meters.

This main control research center’s freight elevator moved 3000m in a straight line. If it goes up well without stopping, it will reach the ground level (0th floor) right away. However, I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if it stopped midway. Will it be okay even if there are multiple power outages this time too?

“If there’s a power outage, the elevator will probably stop? Actually, elevators aren’t my main field, so I’m not sure.”

What kind of talk is this? Jihyun looked at my expression and laughed softly, “Hehehe.” The water droplets in her short hair trembled finely at the laughter and fell to the floor. Jihyun spoke to me in a carefree tone.

“Don’t tell this to others. …… Honestly, I am worried. My major is naval architecture and ocean engineering, so I learned these things after coming here. Ae-young is good at fixing elevators. Each engineer has something they’re good at or good at fixing. Ji-hyuk is good at fixing automatic doors or lighting. There are people good at repairing outer walls, and the only ones good at fixing everything are the engineering team leader and deputy team leader. We don’t have any tools or anything right now, and I’m the only engineer here. Well.”

I was inwardly appalled at Jihyun’s words as she shrugged her shoulders. No. How can she act with such clear confidence, commanding ten people, regarding a field she herself can’t be sure about? Even now, Jihyun’s tone had no anxiety about her attitude.

I imagined myself explaining something similar to a patient lying in a unit chair. I’m not sure if I can fix your tooth or not, but I’ll give it a try. …… If I were the patient, I would have run out of that dental clinic. The person in question has no fear, but I’m the one getting scared, so I asked Jihyun.

“So…… can you fix it?”

Jihyun, who had been watching the water drain on the 1st floor with her head raised, said.

“We’ll have to go check in about 5 minutes. I roughly know.”

…… It’s better than the people here. Rather than entrusting elevator repair to me or that axe-wielding man, it would be more trustworthy for Jihyun to repair it with her eyes closed. I let out a deep sigh from the bottom of my stomach.

“This place is operated by cogeneration or something, right?”

I don’t know what that is, but it must be dangerous. Jihyun’s eyes sparkled as she looked at me. And with a faint smile, she replied.

“You must have read the undersea base guidebook. Most people usually skip those parts and only read about the amenities.”

I didn’t read it properly either. On the amenities page, I only looked at parts like the restaurant, restroom, laundry room, exhibition hall, coffee shop, and bakery, and read the free facilities section diligently. The reason I was forced to gain knowledge about the escape pods and elevators was that, unlike the English version, the Korean translation placed the escape and undersea base equipment section at the very front. I asked with a bit of concern.

“Will the research center be okay until we escape?”

“I was surprised that the research center was in better condition than I thought. The rare earth center seems to have turned to dust though. Look. We all swam out of the water, but it’s not terribly cold, right?”

That’s right. When I went into the water, it was as cold as immersing my body in ice water. After wiping off the water and getting dressed, it didn’t feel like my body temperature had been greatly taken away.

“The temperature is constant. It’s maintained at 25 degrees Celsius. It should be fine for now, right? Actually, even if it’s broken, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

The engineers I saw in my dreams seemed to have a lot of worries. Jihyun seemed to worry less the more difficult the situation was. Is it because she hands over her worries to God? At least that’s fortunate. Where else is there someone among the people here who is less burdened by the pressure and anxiety of survival?

I stopped talking with Jihyun and approached Yoo Geum-yi and Kim Ga-young. The two were talking to each other and asked me with their eyes what was going on when they saw me.

“May I ask what religion you two are?”

“Religion?”

“Why?”

“We’ll have to take the elevator with those people when it starts operating, so I want to pray a bit. Won’t the gods who listen to prayers listen better if there are many of them?”

Kim Ga-young, who laughed hollowly, spoke as if it was difficult.

“I don’t really believe in anything. My grandmother believes in Buddhism, so sometimes I go to temples with her, so should I count that as Buddhism?”

“Right. Let’s count it as Buddhism.”

Yoo Geum-yi answered while leaning on the railing.

“I don’t have any. If I had to choose, I believe in science.”

“I see. I also believe in science.”

…… None of us three will pray. I should do it at least.

Scientists. Please let me out of here. Esteemed physicists. Please ignore all the laws of physics you have discovered so far and send me and these people back home immediately. If all the people in the undersea base return home safely, I will light a candle every year on this date until I die to commemorate you and your achievements. I’ll burn incense too. Please. Get me out of this damn seabed right now!

As I spat out a messed up prayer and threat in my mind, I thought I would be lucky if dead physicists didn’t rush to beat me up.

I glanced at the woman far away from people and asked Kim Ga-young, shaking my head slightly.

“Do you know that person?”

“Well. I know her, but we’re not very close. Emma mostly hung out with a guy named Lucas she was dating in their lab. We just greeted each other when we saw each other.”

Seeing that woman alone, I don’t know what happened to the man named Lucas. He escaped, ran away, or died.

Now that I know at least one person’s name, I should ask about someone else. Without realizing it, I took a deep breath and asked, trying my best not to look in that direction.

“By any chance, do you know who the person who came with the axe is?”

“I know.”

Yoo Geum-yi said, openly looking at where the other person was, unlike me.

“It’s Kevin Roy from the deep-sea creature center. He’s Canadian, and he usually walked around the lounge with a cup of coffee in one hand, laughing. …… This is the first time I’ve seen him like that. He liked riding bicycles, so he was someone who boasted about his bicycle he rode in Vancouver, but he probably asked if he could ride a bicycle inside the undersea base and was told no.”

Kim Ga-young said, snapping her fingers.

“Ah. I remember that. Starting from bicycles, inline skates, electric kick scooters, electric wheels, and everything else were all concluded to be prohibited. I think everything was banned except for assistive devices for the disabled and medics.”

Is the 4th undersea base wider than I thought, and we have to walk or run on two feet everywhere? There seem to be a lot of things that can’t be done in the undersea base.

“Why? Is there a reason you can’t ride them?”

Kim Ga-young tried to recall the past and said.

“If you ride those, because it’s a building built in the deep sea, the vibrations do this and that, and the continuous noise generation causes stress to the brainless deep-sea creatures this and that.”

Yoo Geum-yi, who studies deep-sea creatures, giggled at that jumbled explanation. As everyone around looked at Yoo Geum-yi because of that laughter, Yoo Geum-yi’s laughter gradually disappeared.

Yoo Geum-yi, who covered her face with both hands from people’s gazes, asked me through her palms.

“Why about Kevin?”

“I thought it would be good if we had weapons like that. If we stick together, we can fend off attacks from outside.”

“If we’re a messed up ally, wouldn’t it be more dangerous if we have weapons? The blades will point at each other.”

Kim Ga-young, who heard Yoo Geum-yi’s words, lowered her voice and said.

“An axe? Haha. Seeing that our engineer isn’t saying anything, it seems like she’ll just take him along to ride the elevator together.”

Kim Ga-young, with an awkward expression, seemed to think that if that man caused a commotion with an axe in the elevator, no one would be able to stop him. Looking at the towel wrapped around the man’s calf, I asked Yoo Geum-yi.

“Will I get hit by the axe blade if I approach that person saying I’ll treat him?”

Instead of the towels in the backpack, I put a lot of items from the first-aid kit. Whether that person is our ally or not, it seemed better to treat him as much as possible here rather than going into the water while bleeding from his calf. If the water doesn’t drain completely anyway, everyone will have to ride the elevator together with the blood he sheds and the cold water.

Just imagining that made me feel like I was going crazy hygienically. It felt like putting a bloody gauze used in one patient’s mouth into another patient’s mouth.

Moreover, looking at Yoo Geum-yi, Kim Ga-young, and Jihyun, I seemed to be the only one with even a little knowledge of treatment. And among them, I was also the only one with items that could be used for treatment.

Although I’m not a doctor, not doing it even though I can felt like ignoring that matter. Even if the part where I can provide professional treatment is at most the head.

Yoo Geum-yi, who heard my question, let out a long sigh.

“The Kevin I saw in the lounge or cafeteria was just an ordinary person, but I’m not sure now.”

As Yoo Geum-yi shook her head this way and that while watching Kevin turn the axe handle, I looked at Kim Ga-young. Kim Ga-young said while stretching her neck and shoulders.

“To tell you not to do it…… I’m not in a position to say anything because I’m someone who was rescued. Who am I to interfere with someone trying to help others?”

Looking around, everyone was trying not to care about each other. Or they had no interest at all.

I slowly approached the man named Kevin in a straight line. The man, who had been touching the axe handle with his fingertips, immediately looked at me. To be exact, I felt the gazes of all the people around piercing my back. Having those gazes on me made my back and the back of my head feel hot.

“Hello. I’m a dentist working at this undersea base……”

“Piss off!”

Kevin shouted at me in a hoarse voice. Uh…… Judging by his shouting, he seems quite sane.