Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Shin Haeryang, who was looking at the blueprint of the Undersea Base, spoke up.

“There is an escape pod in the third underwater base too, but given how things are going, it seems better to take the elevator. Probably, most of the staff working at the third base escaped using the escape pods. There are three elevators connected to the second underwater base, so let’s find a functioning one and go up as far as possible. The elevator nearest to us, from the Blue Dragon elevator we boarded, is the Archelon1 located on the left.”

Archelon? That’s an unusual name. Is there any place in this undersea base without a name?

“It seems that even the elevators have unique names.”

“There was a massive turtle image inside the elevator. Perhaps that’s the turtle’s name. Let’s make that our first target. If we can’t board it, we’ll go to the second or first elevator. There are escape pods around here as well.”

“Telephone!”

Yoo Geum-yi suddenly shouted next to me, startling both me and Shin Haeryang.

“The phone isn’t working.”

At my words, Yoo Geum-yi shook her head and spoke quickly, “No, no. There’s a landline phone in the bakery! It has an external connection! I saw the first floor operations team asking if all the bread was sold out over the phone! They once tried to install landlines inside the undersea base but due to budget problems and the contractor’s bankruptcy, only the phone line in the bakery remains. They even dug -2000m into the seabed to install it.That place wasn’t originally meant to be a bakery! It was supposed to be occupied by the operations team that manages the entire undersea base. But the operation grew larger than expected, so they seized a ward on the island for use.”

“Who did you hear this from?”

Huffing and puffing, Yoo Geum-yi spoke, “From Olivier Martin of the bakery. You know, the short man who makes excellent croissants, he came from France! (Shin Haeryang had a puzzled look on his face) He can’t make macarons and fruit cakes, but he makes fermented bread really well!”

Seo Jihyuk, lying down, asked as if he understood Yoo Geum-yi’s words.

“Oh, the mustached guy with gray hair who’s obsessed with wine?”

“Yes, that’s him!”

“I did manage to get some French wine from that old man. He was furious at the operation team, asking why they wouldn’t allow him to sell wine at the underwater base.”

As Yoo Geum-yi and Seo Jihyuk talked, Shin Haeryang, who was listening, suddenly rubbed his eyes with his fingertips, looking weary.

“Let’s prioritize escape over sending a rescue request. If those who escaped with the escape pods made it out successfully, they would have automatically requested rescue. And to get to the bakery, we need to pass through the central elevator area, but I’d prefer if we avoided that area as much as possible.”

“That American team leader and Kim Gayoung we saw earlier also said they were taking the central elevator,”

“I’d prefer if we moved to the 0th floor while avoiding contact with others as much as possible.”

Without realizing it, I found myself looking towards where Hai Yoon was and then nodded in agreement with Shin Haeryang. Shin Haeryang knelt down and held Seo Jihyuk’s arm and shoulder. I immediately lifted Seo Jihyuk’s arm on the opposite side. Seo Jihyuk stood up, putting force on his right leg. He used his right leg to stand, grabbed the elevator handle, suppressed a groan, and balanced on one leg.Gett your favorite novels at no/v/e/lbin(.)com

Yoo Geum-yi took one of my bags and went into a corner. She covered the cat, which was either sitting or lying down in an unidentifiable posture, with the bag and confined it again. I surrounded the snake bag. It felt a lot lighter, maybe because I had been drinking the water inside. Baek Ae-young had already stood up and was looking at us as if nothing had happened.

“Stop whining.”

“You try enduring this.”

“Getting hit by a stray bullet and all. Tsk. It’s embarrassing. If you knew the opponent was going to shoot at your knee, you should’ve lifted your leg!”

At those words, Seo Jihyuk covered his mouth and shook. It seemed that laughing hurt him. I just laughed, and Yoo Geum-yi, holding some water and a few convenience store breads, also chuckled. Shin Haeryang, who was looking through the drinks, glanced at us once because of the sudden laughter, then picked out a few sports drinks. Seo Jihyuk, who had been trying not to laugh for a while, seemed unjustly treated.

“Laughing hurts my whole body.”

Yoo Geum-yi was tearing open bags of bread from the convenience store shelf one by one, handing them out to people. Shin Haeryang intercepted the bread intended for Seo Jihyuk, shaking his head.

“Jihyuk is now fasting, except for water.”

Even if the world was coming to an end, I doubt Seo Jihyuk would pull such a face. I chimed in at Shin Haeryang’s words.

“He needs surgery. There’s no other way.”

When I started packing fever patches and painkillers, Yoo Geum-yi asked why I was grabbing fever patches.

“Do you have a fever?”

“No. I’m packing them for Seo Jihyuk-ssi.”

“Why?”

“I think he was shot in the knee.”

“When a bone breaks, does it cause a fever?”

“Yes.”

Apparently, the marine creatures Yoo Geum-yi studies don’t get fevers when their bones break. Or maybe she had never experienced a broken bone before. Shin Haeryang urged us to move right away. Supporting Seo Jihyuk was much easier than before once we had set a splint to his leg. Shin Haeryang and I almost carried Seo Jihyuk as we moved.

Following the directions of Baek Ae-young, who took the lead, we passed by a sandwich shop and a café at the third underwater base. A good layout. If it were me, I would have bought a sandwich, then grabbed a drink from the café next door. We could see one elevator at the third underwater base. Baek Ae-young signaled. It was a stop signal. Now I clearly knew the difference between the ‘lay down’ and ‘stop’ signals.

As we stopped near the café, Baek Ae-young pulled out a flat-head screwdriver from the gap between her suit’s ankle end and her shoes. She probably got it from the convenience store. Wow, I wonder when she picked that up. After looking around the elevator, Baek Ae-young came back.

“The elevator is stopped at the second underwater base. Should we call it, or should we go somewhere else?”

If we press the button to call the elevator, we have to wait more than three minutes. Given that we have an injured person, I suggested it might be better to use the elevator here to move. After hearing my opinion, Shin Haeryang looked at Seo Jihyuk’s leg for a moment, considered, then glanced at Yoo Geum-yi and me before proposing that we take the one here after only three seconds. Isn’t that too frank? ...It seemed Shin Haeryang thought that Yoo Geum-yi and I, rather than Seo Jihyuk who can’t move on his own due to his injured knee, were more of a hindrance to their movement.

An extinct turtle[↩]