Five days after joining the underwater base 3,000 meters below, the water started to leak?
Chapter 0. A human's first encounter with the deep sea
The deep sea refers to waters deeper than 200 meters. How far can we descend? The surface of the sea is beautiful, as if diamonds were spread out, sparkling with the light of the sun, emitting a brilliance that dazzles the eyes, embroidered with gold and silver.
If you submerge your head up to your waist in the sea, you can distinguish colors and brightness due to the sunlight. The light is a light green, transparent, or murky if there is a lot of sediment, and you can see blue waves and the bottom. You can't say you've fallen yet. Under the light, warm-blooded animals enjoy the sea. It's noisy, filled with all kinds of sounds, and blindingly bright.
As you go deeper, it gets a bit darker. The color is a greenish-blue, or completely murky, close to a dark blue or indigo. People can dive down, taking a deep breath, and then ascend back to the light using only the strength of their legs.
It's quiet, but if you ascend a little, you can easily encounter light and noise. There are no restrictions on ascending from below, and you can ascend again without any cost even if you descend again. The sea is infinitely merciful to the creatures resting in its belly, but this is the extent of the sea that land creatures can enjoy. Even crocodiles and hippos do not dive deeper. Below this, the sea withdraws all its hospitality and only cruelty remains.
If you go even deeper, you can enter a stage that truly fits the term "diving." Here, it's much darker, close to a deep indigo or blackish green. If your vision is not clear, you can't even see your own limbs. It's dark, quiet, and unfamiliar, but you can still see ahead.
Land creatures are allowed to stay in this sea not by breathing through their lungs but by using air tanks. This is the habitat of marine life and the level where most of the seafood humans eat is found. It's a noisy yet quiet place, a cold sea without sunlight.
If you go deeper, it becomes a realm of secrets. Creatures that refuse to live under sunlight inhabit this area. Since no light penetrates, they can survive without eyes or the ability to see.
Numerous shipwrecks, treasures, countless bodies, and secrets are hidden here, enveloped in a complete and serene darkness. If you think that if you fall, you can never ascend again, this is the only place you can say that. It's the bottom of the limit, the underground of the underground, a geographical abyss. If asked how far you've fallen to the bottom, you can say you've been to the source of the water in the sea, the place closest to the center of a star. No one can hear your screams here. It's the deep sea within the deep sea.
Below this bottom, black gold, oil, is found.
In fact, I lived a life unrelated to oil or natural gas. Although my surroundings in the 21st century are filled with products made from petroleum byproducts, I never thought about what plastic resins or synthetic fibers were. I only knew that disposable items and medicines like aspirin were made from petroleum extracts due to my job, but I didn't need to know more.
I focused on using oil rather than extracting it. I worried about the price of gas while filling up my car, but I didn't need to think about where it was extracted, how much it was refined, or from which sea it was mined.
So when I was suddenly plunged into the deep sea where oil is being extracted, I found it hard to fully grasp the magnitude of the problem.
I was born and raised in the city and could barely swim. I was extremely ignorant about the sea, not just oil. I never thought about the sea beyond eating seafood or traveling. I only had memories of admiring scenes of the Mediterranean coast and underwater views on TV. To me, the sea was just one of the vacation spots and a place where seafood lived.
The feeling of being plunged into the depths where sunlight never reaches is simply bewildering. It's not "Oh, I ended up here somehow," but rather, when I came to my senses, I was already inside the deep sea. More precisely, it feels like falling into a bottomless darkness. In the sea, you can truly feel the common sense of futility and fear that only those who have been dragged into the abyss can experience.
Land creatures always long for the sea, but once they are submerged in seawater, they can never return.