"If we donāt take the escape pod, weāll have to use the submarine, mining robots, or the elevator, but we have to pass through Central District no matter which way we goāwhether itās Hyeonmu District, Central District, or Cheongryong District."
What if I get shot by some unlucky bullet as soon as I enter Central District? Am I just being too scared? The shooting might not even happen. People might resolve things through conversation. Thereās no need to resort to violence like in my dream. Humans have the good means of communication.
I donāt know how much time has passed, but we might have spent less time than expected at the Juja District dormitory. If thatās the case, we might have 10 or 20 minutes before the shooting starts.
At that moment, a sound came from a distance. Thud. Thud. It was a very faint sound, like something being stir-fried. I didnāt know what it was at first in my dream, but now I realize itās the sound of gunfire. The gunfire was coming from very far away.
Lee Ji-hyun, like a gazelle sensing a predator, lifted her head and looked down the long corridor connecting Juja District and Central District. No one was at the end of the corridor. The gunfire probably sounded closer because it was echoing in this large space, but it was actually coming from much farther away. Lee Ji-hyunās eyes met mine, her face tense. She quickly asked Kim Ga-young, who was posting updates.
"Is the Juja District Research Center locked? Can you open it, Ga-young-ssi?"
"What? No, no. I donāt have the authority to unlock the entire research center, and I donāt have the ability to do so. I can only open and close the door to my lab."
Lee Ji-hyun thought for a moment, then hesitated as she looked at the closed door of Juja District. She asked me one last question.
"Thereās no way we can survive in Central District with all the people with guns. To get to Cheongryong District, we have to pass through Central District. Even if we close the corridor connecting Central District and Juja District, I doubt we can hold out for long in Juja District."
Lee Ji-hyun, who had been looking at me and Yoo Geum, smiled bitterly and started walking silently like a tiger towards the Juja District Research Center. We quickly got up and followed her.
"I was wondering why our team leader gave me this before we got on the escape pod. I thought it was for our new team leader. But then I remembered that the team leader said he left his pad in the room. When I passed the elevator with that Loacker devil, I saw a pad in the team leaderās hand that I hadnāt seen before."
Lee Ji-hyun quickly accessed the underwater baseās engineering system with the pad and touched the closed barrier in front of the Juja District Research Center.
[Do you want to open the closed barrier?]
"Before we got on the escape pod, he handed this to me. I suddenly thought it might be Michael Loackerās pad, the head of the deep-sea engineering system."
When she pressed the [Yes] button, the barrier, which looked like concrete about the thickness of an arm, started to open automatically. Isnāt the barrier usually this thick? I thought it would be as thin as a fire shutter. The Juja District Research Center was revealed, but Kim Ga-young looked uneasy as she looked at the path to the research center.
"I donāt know who blocked the path between the research center and Juja District, but maybe they did it because the research center was in chaos."
"Thatās very possible."
Lee Ji-hyun agreed with Kim Ga-young. However, I looked towards Central District, where screams and gunfire were getting closer, and said as we entered the barrier.
"I feel like a bullet is going to hit the back of my head. I donāt want to get shot."
Yoo Geum quickly entered the barrier and said.
"We might run into someone we know. Ga-young-ssi, people who couldnāt escape. And we know the way around here well."
Kim Ga-young sighed deeply as she entered.
"Or maybe itās the creatures that couldnāt escape. The cargo elevator in the research center might still be intact if weāre lucky."
Lee Ji-hyun hurriedly closed the barrier again. As the door closed automatically, we could feel the screams and gunfire getting closer. Once the barrier was completely closed, the sounds disappeared.
I entered the Juja District Research Center for the first time. It felt a bit strange. Even though I had spent a few days at the fourth underwater base, the mere existence of such a massive research facility under the sea made me feel odd. The air smelled of bitter gunpowder.
The discomfort I felt when I first arrived at the underwater base swept over me again. It felt like entering an environment artificially created for human habitation, like an airplane or a hospital. It was as if I was being included in a new ecosystem, like a terrarium, aquarium, or dollhouse. Lee Ji-hyun flicked the words "Deep-Sea Biology Center" on the wall with her finger.
When the sea level was rising and climate change and food crises were at their peak, the idea of developing the ocean was discussed similarly to space development. However, ocean development was considered more expensive and would cause more marine pollution, so space development gained more support.
Later, it was revealed that space development was a way for advanced countries to form their own league with their vast funds and technology, excluding other countries below a certain line.
Personally, I think that if those technologies were shared globally, space development would have achieved more than it has now. Am I being too naive? Even in this situation, do we still need to argue over whose technology is whose?
In the case of ocean development, it was like children could block the seawater with their hands and build their own sandcastles. Thinking of the ocean as a refuge from a burning Earth is not just a human idea. Fish began to live in colder waters deeper than their usual habitats or started dying because they couldnāt adapt to the changes. Only those that could survive despite the tides invading their habitats began to produce the next generation.
Even as various shapes of houses disguised as vacation homes began to be built in flooded rivers and under the sea level due to relaxed construction regulations, there was a lot of talk about why research centers were built underwater instead of underwater apartments.
There were more suggestions to build underwater apartments. Now, I think that building research centers instead of a large number of apartments in an underwater special autonomous city was the best effort of all the scientists who lived in the North Pacific 30 years ago.
Underwater apartments, huh? I guess only a very special few could live there. Ordinary people like me would never be able to move into such an apartment. They say that people sent to space must have at least a masterās or doctoral degree, and their health and genetic conditions must be checked up to their grandparents. For a mere ant like me, who barely makes ends meet, being able to enter the underwater base is already a stroke of luck. But seeing how we are now, with water rising and fleeing, I have to reconsider whether it was really good luck.
"Initially, this place was built with money pooled by various countries to drill for oil. As development progressed, more people came, and accommodations and research centers were built. If it werenāt for this place, people with marine-related majors would starve to death. And the extinction rate of marine life was faster than my graduation, so I thought I would definitely be unemployed."
Yoo Geum, a marine biologist, explained this to me as she looked around and led the way with Kim Ga-young. Despite walking, they seemed quite calm. Maybe itās because theyāre in a familiar place.
I thought there would be an access control system, but even after passing through the barrier and walking quite a distance, there was none. I suddenly had a question and asked the scientists ahead.
"Is there no card or biometric system to block visitors? No intrusion detection system? At least a speed gate?"
I mean, like the speed gates that block you if you donāt tap your card when you enter the subway. Kim Ga-young looked at me with a puzzled expression, then said softly, "Ah," and shook her head.
"Initially, there was a proposal to verify the authorization of people entering the research center and control access. They suggested issuing recognition cards and registering fingerprints, faces, irises, voices, and passwords to block people from entering the facilities."
"Is there a reason not to do that?"
"First, it costs money to install, and it costs money to maintain. Researchers can only pass through their own lab with fingerprints or irises. They canāt enter other areas anyway. What would they do if they entered? Vandalize the research logs? Set fire to the place? Do research for me? All our research records are automatically uploaded to MARIA, the underwater data system. Anyone with internet access can see them. The research content here isnāt confidential. Weāre not working to fill someoneās pockets."
All the research at the underwater base is aimed at the sustainability of humanity, right? Lee Ji-hyun, who had been listening, sighed and shook her head.
"Iām already struggling to fix the things that are broken. If you ask me to fix those detection systems too, Iāll run away."
So, can anyone just enter the research center? ...It seems like the research center is a place for even more naive people than me. I thought research centers would have a lot of dangerous things like sulfuric acid and various gases. Is security really this lax? Am I just overthinking it? I donāt know if this is how security is usually handled because I havenāt been to other labs. My biology friendās lab always seemed to have people around. Is it the same here?