Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

Chapter 16

Yoo Geum-yi, who had been walking quietly, approached Baek Ae-young. Then, hesitatingly, she spoke to her, “Did you see any survivors in the Central District?”

More than 400 people could be accommodated in the Central District, most of them being researchers. It was said that the arrangement was made because the research center was close to Central District.

Baek Ae-young looked at Yoo Geum-yi, sighed, and frowned. She had completely forgotten that Yoo Geum-yi was a researcher. “When we were working outside, we saw that the Central Research Center was breaking apart. Originally, we were also headed to there, but we urgently returned to West District instead.”

Seo Jihyuk tried his best to speak with a gentle voice. “As you can see now, many people probably hace escaped from West District, since the accommodations and escape pod were the closest. They probably escaped before the water came in.”

The fact that more than half of the people who escaped from West District were so drunk they didn’t hear the emergency alarm and were asleep didn’t seem to be much help to Yoo Geum-yi in this situation.

Many researchers and professors, who had been going through the doctoral program together, resided in the Central District and in the Research Center. Yoo Geum-yi’s expression was not good.

I looked at Yoo Geum-yi and asked quietly, as a question came to mind. “Why were you staying in the West District instead of Central District, Ms. Geum-yi?”

I whispered, thinking it might be a personal issue, but Yoo Geum-yi answered with a dark expression as if it was nothing serious.

“Originally, a professor of marine biology from the United States was staying in the room next to mine, but he’s not actually my professor. These days, data is not coming out well, and I was so stressed from writing my thesis that even having another professor next door was too much stress for me. He would ask if my thesis was going well as a greeting. I couldn’t sleep well, so Martina offered to switch rooms with me. …What should I do about Martina? I can’t reach her. I don’t know if I can’t reach her because she’s on a mining shift or because she was in the Central District.”

“Maybe Martina is just busy working and that’s why you can’t contact her? The people outside managing the mining robots might not know the situation here.”

At that moment, Nikita, who had been walking in the front, pointed to a small window.

“Look outside!”

What Nikita pointed to was a rare circular window facing south from West District. In truth, windows were scarce in the 4th underwater base. They were occasionally placed along the corridor, but even the largest circular ones were only about the size of a person’s upper body.

Having expected a large front window, I couldn’t find one anywhere in the 4th Undersea Base and asked Wang Wei, who was in the next room. He simply replied that it was too expensive, and even if there were windows in the deep sea, all you would see outside was darkness.

According to Nikita’s explanation, from the windows of West District, the lights of the Center Research Center, located to the south, looked like stars in the darkness. But nothing could be seen outside the window. Supposedly, you should be able to see dozens of colorful lights turned on at the research center.

They said they had turned on star-like lights at a depth of 3,000 meters below the sea, as if they were lighthouses in the midst of a typhoon, conducting research on deep-sea fish and light. However, nothing could be seen at the end where Nikita pointed. It was pitch black.

“I don’t see anything.” As Nikolai spoke leisurely, Nikita frantically dashed around the room, “What should we supposed to be seeing? There’s no light!”

“Oh, right.”

“Aargh! You idiot!”

While watching Nikita run around, Vladimir looked at Shin Hae-ryang and said, “It seems you weren’t lying after all.”

“If you don’t believe it, go swim and check.”

Yoo Geum-yi, who was looking out the window during their icy exchange, seemed to have lost her mind. When she could only see darkness where the research center next to the Central District should be, she stammered,”Why…isn’t it there? Why are there…no lights? It should be there, right? It must be there!”

“Calm down, Geum-yi. Maybe it’s gone? They could’ve removed it, or turned it off.”

“It’s not supposed to be turned off! It’s a 7-story research center with 4 buildings, and it’s gone!” Yoo Geum-yi, who had been yelling the same thing, stared blankly outside with a lost expression and then staggered away from the window.

Knowing that Yoo Geum-yi likes sweets, I unconsciously rummaged through my snake-filled backpack to take out a flask, but only after taking out the pad and phone did I remember that I had put a snake in the bag. The snake didn’t bite me. No one knew that I had checked the safety of my hand and sighed in relief.

The phone wasn’t working, and the internet was down, but it seemed like the intranet within the base was accessible. I handed Geum-yi a sugar-free apple candy. I put a sugar-free lemon candy in my mouth and asked Shin Hae-ryang, who was passing by, “Would you like one?”

Shin Hae-ryang shook his head. Watching the man’s well-defined jaw move from side to side, I couldn’t help but admire it inwardly. Seo Jihyuk snatched the sugar-free orange candy I was holding in my hand.

From the Russian team, Viktor and Sofia took strawberry candies. While listening to the rustling sound, I accessed the undersea base bulletin board on my tablet and clicked on the first post that seemed to be plastered all over.

Title: We’re in Room 77!

Content:

Help us, please! The room is filled with water! We can’t get out because of the water pressure, and the door won’t open!

There are five of us here! Save usㅠㅠ

Was I the only one here who checked the undersea base bulletin board? Had nobody seen it yet? Or were they pretending not to have seen it? No one was talking about the post. Didn’t Shin Hae-ryang say that the residences were flooded along with the research center? Then what is this post about?

If the residences are not flooded and are perfectly fine, then the entire engineering A-team is lying. They were the ones who insisted on going to North District, but is it right to head there as they wish?

If all the residences are indeed flooded, this post itself is a lie. Someone is hoping for us to come to the residence area. Which side is lying? The central square of the main intersection is coming up soon. From here, it’s south to the residences and north to North District. If I don’t speak up now, it seemed like everyone would pass by the residences without any concern.

“Did you happen to see the post on the base’s internal bulletin board?”nove(l)bi(n.)com

The people walking turned their heads to look at me. Being introverted, I flinched when dozens of eyes stared at me. I mustered up the strength in my fading voice and said: “There are several people trapped in Room 77.”

“So?”

“We have to rescue them.”

Nikita narrowed his eyes. With a voice like a Russian Amur leopard’s claw cutting through the winter wind, she asked, “Who?”

“We will.”

“Why do we have to go?”

As soon as I heard her words, I thought that she must have already seen the post asking for help. My words were caught in my throat as if someone had blocked my mouth. However, there was a clear reason why we had to go to the residences.

“People are trapped in the residence, and we can help them.”

“We saw the flooding in West District. The residence is now sealed off, and we had barely escaped drowning. Do you want us to go back there? Those who go to rescue them might die too.”

“There are five people trapped, and they could be members of your team!”

“Shut up!” Nikita’s face turned pale as she yelled angrily.

Normally, engineering teams consist of 7 to 8 members working together. The other engineering teams were probably drinking and having fun before falling asleep since it wasn’t their shift. Currently, there are 5 people left, so 2 or 3 have either become fish food in the deep sea, escaped by themselves, or are trapped and wandering somewhere in this underwater base. One of the four possibilities.

“······Or they could have escaped first.” I tried to comfort the distressed person with the most favorable assumption.

Although I didn’t know them, I hoped they were still alive. However, they probably already knew what I hadn’t said. I also told this to the engineering team C.

“There could be someone on your team or someone you know among the people trapped in the main control room.”

At that, the Russian team members glared at me with their arms crossed. Carlos didn’t seem pleased either. They didn’t want to go to the flooded dormitory, a dangerous place. Neither did I. I didn’t want to swim in that water again. But there was a message left on the bulletin board asking for help.

“Our four team members have already escaped through the escape route,” Seo Ji-hyuk hesitated to answer but then closed his mouth in the tense atmosphere.

Shin Hae-ryang reached out to me. Thinking it was a gesture of agreement, I quickly grabbed his hand, but Shin Hae-ryang skillfully snatched the pad that was attached to my side. Then he read the newly posted message.

I asked Shin Hae-ryang incredulously, “Mr. Shin Hae-ryang, where’s your pad?”

“Mine’s in room 22, West District.”

Ah. It’s lost forever.

I wondered how much water pressure a fully sealed electronic device submerged in seawater could withstand. Items left underwater without their owner would remain powered on until they either ran out of power or were damaged by the water pressure.

I heard Baek Ae-young had accessed the underwater base’s internal bulletin board with her phone and Seo Ji-hyuk was asking to see it as well.

Yoo Geum-yi bit her lips for a long time before speaking, “I’ll go to the main control room. I may not be of much help, but I’ll try my best to save the person trapped there. I don’t know who it is, but it could be my professor, lab mates, or someone I know.”

There was a high probability that the researchers were still alive in the main control room. Or it could be Martina who had swapped rooms with her. I didn’t know why five people were gathered in one room, though.