The man was in a position where pulling the trigger would shoot between his legs, and the gun pointed at him seemed like it wouldn't miss his face or chest. Even as Seo Ji-hyuk aimed his gun at the man's side, he spoke.
"We survive in any situation."
...Amazing. I would have been too scared to say a word.
"Do you want to spend your whole life sitting and fighting?"
The chill ran down my spine at Baek Ae-young's voice. As Baek Ae-young's gun moved from the man's head to his chest and then to his lower abdomen, the man gave up his gun and raised his hands. Shin Hae-ryang slowly switched arms and took the gun the man had abandoned. Seo Ji-hyuk shuddered as he looked at Baek Ae-young.
"U... You don't understand what kind of threat that is."
"None of my business."
While listening to Baek Ae-young's icy voice from behind, I approached the man lying on the side. As I approached the man who seemed to have fainted, Seo Ji-hyuk stopped me.
"The carotid artery is cut. He's 100% dead. ...Why did you come out when I haven't called you yet?"
I thought Baek Ae-young was telling us to come out, but it seems that wasn't the case.
"I... I thought you were going to catch him alive."
"......If my legs were fine, that would have been possible."
Looking at the man's neck where Seo Ji-hyuk had been standing, it was so gruesome I wanted to look away. The blade of the scissors, which someone had taken from the convenience store, was almost entirely inside the man's neck, and the flathead screwdriver Baek Ae-young had was through his neck. Whether seen up close or from a distance, he was already dead.
A pair of scissors and a screwdriver were stuck in a person's neck. In a person's neck.
As I tried to check the man with my trembling hands, Yoo Geum pulled me back. I was dragged back helplessly by her much smaller hands. The small fountain of blood, about the size of a thumb, continued to flow from the man's neck, creating a pool of blood.
I stared blankly at the bleeding areas. It shouldn't bleed this much. Even when a tooth falls out, it doesn't bleed this much. It shouldn't bleed this much.
My heart was pounding in my ears. My chest felt blocked, and I felt extremely dizzy. Yoo Geum was covering my eyes with her small hands, and I realized I had collapsed on the floor. The questions from Shin Hae-ryang sounded like a buzzing in my ears. My vision went dark.
What are you guys doing?
Who's the ringleader?
How many armed personnel are there in the undersea base?
How did you bring the guns in?
Even as my vision spun, the small, cold hands covering my eyes made me feel a bit sorry.
I took a water bottle from my bag and drank some water, then absentmindedly rolled a candy in my mouth. It was lemon-flavored and sweet. I usually avoided sweets because I had seen so many people suffer from tooth decay.
Of course, I also dislike sweet foods. I react strongly to sweetness, so even a little bit makes my head ache. I never touched chocolate or candy, and I rarely drank carbonated or liquid beverages. I hate alcohol and never smoked. I tried it for a month because some friends gave it to me, but it didn't suit me and was expensive, so I quit. In the past few hours, I had consumed more sweets than in the past few years. My teeth and pancreas must be in shock. I was absentmindedly thinking this when Yoo Geum said,
"Mr. Muhyeon is under a lot of stress."
"......Everyone here is under the same stress."
"Not everyone is the same. People react to stress differently. How they feel is also different. A spider crawling on the bed is nothing to me, but my brother would scream and try to burn the whole room."
I felt embarrassed by Yoo Geum's attempt to comfort me and wiped my nose and eyes with the back of my hand.
"Still, you're holding up well, Geum."
"......Really? I don't feel very good. Just."
"Just?"
"Just holding on. ...Blood. I see it often. In experiments."
"Oh... right."
She was a researcher. I tried to focus on Yoo Geum's words while holding my spinning head.
"Still, I've never seen blood gushing from someone's neck like that."
"Right. I've never seen a pair of scissors stuck in someone's neck like that."
"Seo Ji-hyuk must have done it. I saw him hide scissors in his leg splint at the convenience store."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
There was a moment of silence. After Yoo Geum dragged me into the kitchen, I quickly returned to my normal state just by sitting quietly. The man with scissors and a screwdriver in his neck and his eyes rolled back was just a few meters away, but the fact that I wasn't looking at him helped me calm down. It was a mild shock.
"Hang in there, Mr. Muhyeon. We managed to escape from the fourth undersea base, after all."
"......That's true. We were trapped in an elevator not long ago."
"Right. We screamed together when the elevator fell."
Yoo Geum smiled faintly, and I smiled too. I felt much better. I wasn't gasping for breath or endlessly scared like before. I suddenly looked at Yoo Geum and said,
"Thank you, Geum. I feel better because of you."
"It's nothing."
Her small, cold hand gently patted my back. I felt embarrassed. A fully grown man, not a child, being comforted by a younger, shorter woman in such a terrifying situation made me feel so pathetic that I wanted to die. Ha. Embarrassing. What a ridiculous thing to do. I need to pull myself together.
When we came out of the kitchen, it wasn't clear if the interrogation was over or if we had just stopped. The dead man from earlier was covered with an unknown cloth up to his chest. Seo Ji-hyuk was sitting against the wall, aiming his gun at the man, and Baek Ae-young was doing the same but occasionally scanning the surroundings. Shin Hae-ryang, keeping his gun aimed, said to the man in front of him,
"......It seems dangerous to take the nearest elevator."
"Indeed, they say people are guarding the elevators above."
"Yes."
Silence. After a few hours, I finally understood. Shin Hae-ryang's personality seemed to be like this. He wouldn't tell you anything unless you asked specific questions or requested explanations. I asked the most pressing question.
"Who are these people?"
Seo Ji-hyuk tried to show a shark-like mark he had apparently taken from the dead man's arm but hid it when he saw the blood. Shin Hae-ryang, sighing at Seo Ji-hyuk's actions, said,
"They are a religious group of people who like Greenland sharks."
"No! This heretic!"
The man, who had shouted in anger, fell silent again when he felt Baek Ae-young's gun at the back of his head. I was startled by his voice and Yoo Geum's reaction of hiding behind me, and I calmed myself down.
"The three elements of a religion are the founder, the doctrine, and the congregation, right? Who is the founder, the person who created the religion?"
Shin Hae-ryang was struggling to find an answer. The interrogation didn't seem to yield much. After rolling his eyes, he finally said,
"......A seafood-loving psychopath, it seems."
"No!"
Baek Ae-young pressed the gun to the back of the man's head, and he fell silent again. I asked Shin Hae-ryang again,
"W... What is the doctrine? The teachings of the religion?"
Shin Hae-ryang looked at the man in front of him, hesitated, and then answered ambiguously,
"......Mass human slaughter?"
"You bastard!"
Baek Ae-young tapped the back of the man's head with the gun.
"Do you want a small, unhealing hole in that big head of yours? Huh? I'll blow air through the hole."
The man, frustrated by Baek Ae-young's threat, was grinding his teeth. He seemed more aggrieved by Shin Hae-ryang's answer than Baek Ae-young's actions. Shin Hae-ryang, ignoring the man, said,
"They are extremely exclusive, aggressive, and antisocial, and are armed in front of the second undersea base elevator. They apparently shoot everyone who comes up. We can't trust this man's answer, but if it's true, there are about a dozen to twenty of them."
I frowned at the number of armed personnel, but Yoo Geum, looking at the shark on the man's arm, frowned.
"Does this mean Greenland shark?"
"......Yes. You seem to be the smartest among the unbelievers here. We live with the immortal shark! We survive in any danger and hardship!"
Yoo Geum, seemingly amused, said,
"If a bullet hits your head or a pair of scissors pierces your neck, you die."
As soon as she said this, the man glared at Yoo Geum. Yoo Geum glared back, but after a few seconds, her eyes dried, and she blinked a few times before quietly hiding behind me. Damn. Did something get in your eye? Yoo Geum, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, said from behind me,
"I've heard of a religion that worships the 600-year-old Greenland shark and desires an immortal life. It's called... the Old Shark Religion, right?"
"It's the Infinity Religion!"
As the man shouted, Seo Ji-hyuk looked around, on guard. Yoo Geum, seemingly ignoring the man's voice, said,
"Living forever is impossible!"
"Fool. Ignorance is a sin. Research on immortality is already underway in places you don't know. Don't speak rashly about what you don't know!"
Yoo Geum, looking angry, crossed her arms and began to speak.
"Ah. There was someone like you in the lab I was in. A complete moron. When the temperature drops, the genes that suppress aging activate. To adapt to the cold sea, they have to lower their metabolism and grow very slowly. The Greenland shark is the only shark that lives in the coldest regions, so it lives a long time! Humans, according to the DNA genes, live up to 38 years! Even with the development of modern science and medicine, the human lifespan is limited to 150 years! If you throw a human into the freezing sea like the Greenland shark, the human lifespan would be 10 minutes! Living forever is absurd. Even living 200 years is impossible!"
"The Greenland shark is the longest-living vertebrate on Earth. Humans are also vertebrates!"
At the man's barking, Yoo Geum, a marine biologist, looked like her blood pressure was about to spike.