Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea-Chapter 155

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As I was moving the unconscious person in the same elevator as before, I remembered Hai Yoon covering her face. What if… What if? What if we leave John Doe behind and end up repeating the same mistake as last time? What if John Doe dies here just like Hai Yoon?

Looking at the group moving, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Tumanako seemed just like Yu-geum from before. The two people are completely different, so why do they feel similar?

I steeled my resolve by exhaling all the air in my lungs, then hoisted John Doe, who seemed about my height, onto my back. He wasn’t so heavy that I couldn’t carry him since he was lean, but suddenly having to move while carrying an adult male on my back made me want to curse at the weight. … Shit.

John Doe was heavier than Henry and Sumire. More precisely, it felt like carrying both Sumire and Henry together would be similar to carrying John Doe.

Maybe Shin Hae-ryang’s opinion that we should abandon him here and go is really the most rational and correct one? Am I making a completely abnormal and illogical decision? Perhaps leaving him here would actually be safer for this person. While with us, hasn’t he been knocked out by a punch to the solar plexus, had his mouth and hands tied, been unwillingly carried around on someone’s back, and fainted from having his neck squeezed?

The thought crossed my mind that staying away from such a violent group might be a better choice for John Doe’s life. Moreover, even if we abandoned him here, it didn’t seem like anything major would happen. If he really was a Muhanikyo believer, the Muhanikyo people wouldn’t kill him when they found him.

It would be dangerous for him to lie alone on the floor until someone found him or he woke up, but isn’t that really less risky than the other dangers? Think carefully, Park Mu-hyun. Aren’t you doing something completely stupid right now?

I bombarded myself with reasons why I shouldn’t take the unconscious John Doe with us. Then I started moving while carrying him. As I took two or three steps following Baek Ae-young and Tumanako while carrying John Doe, Shin Hae-ryang, who seemed to be bringing up the rear of the group, came back silently from the other end of the corridor and asked when he saw my state:

“Are you really going to take him?”

“Yes.”

I said while walking and looking at Tumanako’s back. Come to think of it, this person was abducted by Seo Jihyuk from South District. If you abduct someone, shouldn’t you return them to where they belong? Of course, you shouldn’t abduct people in the first place, but if you did, shouldn’t you show at least that much responsibility? Such thoughts ran through my mind before I ended the chain of thoughts, realizing that if he were truly responsible, he wouldn’t have abducted someone in the first place. Shin Hae-ryang spoke to me glumly:

“I think that person would welcome being abandoned here too.”

I had no response to that, even if I had a hundred mouths. We haven’t done anything good for John Doe. Maybe, if John Doe were conscious and asked whether he wanted to be abandoned here or come with us, he might choose to be abandoned.

But in the middle of escaping from a disaster situation, I couldn’t just leave someone behind because they had fainted. I decided I would ask John Doe when he regained consciousness: Do you want to part ways with us or come along?

“I’ll ask when he wakes up. And I’m scared of repeating exactly the same mistake as before.”

If we leave John Doe behind, we’ll be down to five people: Shin Hae-ryang, Baek Ae-young, Seo Jihyuk, Tumanako, and me. I felt like I would go crazy with anxiety if I imagined these five familiar yet slightly different people moving somewhere in the underwater base to escape. I wanted to artificially create a group of six or seven people instead.

To break away from a situation flowing similarly to before, there need to be variable factors. In experiments, the results depend on how well variables are controlled, but people aren’t lab rats, this isn’t a laboratory, and on top of that, I myself don’t change much.

No matter what choices are presented to me, I’ll probably produce similar results to before. So if I don’t change, there needs to be a bigger change from the outside. Shin Hae-ryang looked at me carrying John Doe on my back and said:

“Then we must definitely gag that person. You have to agree to that if you want to bring him along.”

I nodded at Shin Hae-ryang’s words. Baek Ae-young kept turning back to check if we were following well. As we followed Seo Jihyuk’s lead, we were going in the completely opposite direction from before. We were heading in the complete opposite direction of the convenience store we had visited before, and I could clearly smell that we were getting closer to the bakery.

The Babylonia Bakery was located slightly off-center of the Third Underwater Base, almost close enough to tumble into from the central elevator. However, it seemed that the Engineering Team A was trying to avoid getting too close to the central elevator. Just in case, I asked Shin Hae-ryang, who was coming from behind:

“Are we going to stop by the bakery?”

“No.”

Shin Hae-ryang, who was watching our surroundings, answered. Seo Jihyuk, who had entered the nearest clothing store [Coatre Bandit], signaled for us to stop here.

I laid John Doe down where Shin Hae-ryang designated and crouched down together with Tumanako. Seo Jihyuk, who was holding a gun, knelt on one knee and looked at the floor, only his ears moving occasionally. Baek Ae-young was quick to lie down flat whenever there was any spare time. Shin Hae-ryang sat leaning against the wall in a place that wouldn’t be perpendicular to the door.

Since half of the luggage I had packed in my carrier was clothes, I didn’t think I needed to buy any more clothes. So this was my first time entering a clothing store here, and this store seemed to sell all kinds of clothes. They were selling raincoats and pajamas, wetsuits and formal wear, underwear and swimsuits all at once. They also seemed to be selling traditional outfits from various countries. Moreover, the range of clothing sizes was surprisingly diverse. As I turned my head this way and that, taking in the sight of this amazing clothing store, Baek Ae-young said:

“Lower your head more.”

“Like this?”

Seeing me and Tumanako lowering our heads to the point of almost lying on the floor at those words, Baek Ae-young, who was lying on the floor, whispered:

“I’m saying this just in case, but don’t buy clothes here.”

Tumanako, who was closer to me, asked in surprise:

“Why?”

“It’s a rip-off. Plus, I don’t know which warehouse they dug these out from, but some of the clothes have moths.”

Tumanako’s expression wasn’t good, as if she had already bought something. Shin Hae-ryang silently took down two scarves hanging on the wall, rolled them up, put the small one in John Doe’s mouth, and tightly wrapped the long one around his mouth and head to prevent any sound from escaping. A new gag, huh.

Seo Jihyuk gestured for us to move, and we got up and moved to the shoe store [Barefoot] right next door. Inside the shoe store, they sold all kinds of shoes just like in the clothing store earlier. The shoe sizes ranged from 220mm to 320mm. Socks were also sold in the corner.

I looked around curiously at the sight of flippers, sneakers, bathroom slippers, and safety shoes all being sold together. Inside the shoe store, sandals were displayed by type under pictures of people walking barefoot on a sandy beach. Seo Jihyuk saw my brain working hard and said as if it was funny:

“Doctor. Enjoying the tour?”

“Are we going to that hat store in front too?”

“Yes. I’m Seo~ Jihyuk, your Engineering Team A package guide responsible for your Third Underwater Base tour today. Please give a perfect score without complaints in the customer satisfaction survey, and strictly obey the guide’s instructions. The guide is not responsible for anything that happens during the package tour. Take care of your own lives, and make sure to prepare hefty insurance in advance.”

Baek Ae-young, who had been frowning, heard Seo Jihyuk’s words and said with disgust:

“What kind of tour is this? I’m going to kill the guide! Give me back my money!”

“The guide is currently working for free. Pay a lot of money and work me hard.”

Tumanako responded enthusiastically to Seo Jihyuk’s robotic tone:

“Guide Seo! I’m going to escape from here. Right now! By any means necessary!”

“In the case of this product where the guide conducts the itinerary, it may be unavoidably changed depending on local circumstances, and will proceed without the customer’s request or consent.”

Seo Jihyuk looked at Shin Hae-ryang, but Shin Hae-ryang was silent, focused on watching outside. I looked at the clock inside the shoe store and asked Seo Jihyuk:

“When do we eat lunch?”

I don’t expect it. But I asked just in case. In my case, I wasn’t particularly hungry. But it’s usually lunchtime by now. Maybe the others are hungry. Seo Jihyuk nodded seriously and answered:

“Right now, the guide who didn’t even eat breakfast properly is so hungry that he wants to eat the customers. If you’re so hungry you can’t stand it, chew on your own fingers or gnaw on those leather shoes over there.”

No one tried to gnaw on the leather shoes Seo Jihyuk’s fingertip was pointing at. Eventually, following Shin Hae-ryang’s signal, Seo Jihyuk moved people through another exit of the shoe store. Shin Hae-ryang, who was the last to leave the shoe store, erased traces like our footprints with clothing items that seemed to have been pilfered from the clothing store.

Seo Jihyuk, who had been peering into the hat store [Excellent Choice for Your Head], grabbed the entrance handle and his eyebrows curved. Baek Ae-young, who approached next, looked at the door and took out a knife. She scraped the handle vigorously, created a gap, shook it back and forth while inserting the knife between the door and the lock. Then she did something and the door opened. … Where do you learn things like that? I thought a theft prevention alarm would go off, but there was nothing like that. Well, even if you stole something in the underwater base, it would still be within Daehan Island.

As Baek Ae-young put away the knife and silently pushed the door open to enter, Seo Jihyuk followed right behind. Only I, Tumanako, and the unconscious John Doe remained with Shin Hae-ryang at the shoe store exit. We tried to follow the two who had gone ahead, but Shin Hae-ryang stopped us.

Only after Seo Jihyuk’s signal that it was safe did Shin Hae-ryang allow us to go. Tumanako moved like a shot, while I had no choice but to walk slowly because of John Doe on my back. Only when Shin Hae-ryang entered the store last did I breathe a sigh of relief. Seo Jihyuk, who had put on a navy baseball cap backwards nearby, muttered like a sigh while looking towards the exit:

“Now that the doctor mentioned lunch, I’m hungry.”

Having only had sugar-free candies, chocolate bars, and water from morning to afternoon, he seemed to have gotten hungry. Shin Hae-ryang was busy checking the few remaining escape pods and the elevators, stores, and buildings around them. Baek Ae-young was the same, but Seo Jihyuk whined to the two of them:

“I want to eat sour and sweet bibim-guksu. With 7 boiled eggs on top.”

Baek Ae-young responded to Seo Jihyuk’s words as if in disbelief:

“Is that egg noodles or bibim-guksu?”

“The more boiled eggs, the better.”

“I need it slightly spicy and without cucumber.”

“So picky. Quickly put your cucumber on top of my imaginary bibim-guksu. What about you, Team Leader?”

“You can eat mine too.”

Shin Hae-ryang gave a perfunctory answer to Seo Jihyuk. It’s more surprising to be hungry at this moment.

“I’m not hungry though.”

“Me neither.”

Tumanako agreed with my words. My throat is a bit dry, but I don’t feel particularly hungry. Shin Hae-ryang answered briefly:

“In disaster situations like this, you usually won’t feel hunger. Your body instinctively knows it’s not the right situation for that.”

Tumanako looked at Seo Jihyuk as if he were a monster.

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