Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea-Chapter 164

I was terrified that the door might not open due to the water, but fortunately, it opened, albeit slowly. Perhaps because there was water everywhere inside and out. I grabbed just one towel and splashed out of the room, hearing the emergency alarm ringing throughout the West District dormitory.

I had never been in the room until it got to this state. This is insane. Really. As I wiped my face, which was a mess of nosebleed, tears, saliva, and seawater, with the towel, I came out of the room to find no sign of anyone. I was the only one wandering around the West District dormitory where the emergency alarm was urgently ringing. Had all the Russians left? What about Carlos? Is Yoo Geum-yi not in her room because she left in an escape pod?

I waded through the water rising up to my calves and checked Carlos and Yoo Geum-yi’s rooms. Both rooms were empty, without their owners. All sorts of odds and ends were floating in the cluttered rooms. Only the water level was quietly rising.

It was unclear whether Yoo Geum-yi’s absence was because she had left in an escape pod in the previous iteration, or if she had been in her room but I missed her leaving because I overslept.

Do people who go up to the surface disappear from within this underwater base? Is that why the snake and cat are gone too? If Yoo Geum-yi isn’t in the current underwater base because she escaped in an escape pod, then Henry must be gone too. Then what happened to Tumanako? Did Tumanako successfully leave the underwater base? What if she’s still in her room?

If Yoo Geum-yi didn’t disappear from this underwater base like the snake or cat, but left while I was sleeping, then Henry would be left alone, asleep in this flooding dormitory. Moreover, if Shin Haeryang, Seo Jihyuk, and Baek Ae-young failed, Tumanako would be here too. Would she be listening to music with headphones on, unaware of the emergency alert, like before? I stood in the hallway, pondering where to go.

Should I go check Henry’s room, or should I go check Tumanako’s room?

I licked my parched mouth with my tongue. Why is it always like this? Why can I only go to one place? The corridor was rapidly filling with water, not waiting for me to make up my mind.

Judging by this noisy emergency alarm, Vladimir must have taken his team members out.

After a brief deliberation, I decided on a direction and started walking. As the water now rose past my calves to my thighs, even moving forward was not easy.

…Yoo Geum-yi left in an escape pod. Henry left then too. They won’t be in this underwater base. If they were, the cat and snake should have remained too.

What if the cat and snake are suddenly in the room? What if Henry is in the room, and all my thoughts are wrong? Anxiety began to creep up, trying to gnaw at my mind. I tried to steel myself. Once I’ve made a choice, don’t waver.

As I waded through the water, I had just passed room 24. Room 23 was Baek Ae-young’s room, and I was about to pass it like the other rooms when I paused, seeing the dressing table inside.

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The accessory box on top of the dressing table had [Touch and lose your wrist] written in various languages. According to Baek Ae-young, there should be items made of gold and diamonds in there. She regretted leaving them so much, would she be happy if I brought them to her? …Let’s just quickly grab the accessory box and go. As soon as I made the decision, I rushed into the room.

I was about to reach for the dressing table that was just about to be submerged when I realized my hands were a mess with nosebleed. Deciding that both wasting time washing my hands in dirty seawater and touching someone else’s belongings with blood-covered hands were equally terrible options, I wrapped my hand with the towel I had around my neck. Then I reached for the jewellery box, which was beautifully and lavishly decorated. As soon as I touched it, my body froze.

Only after I managed to remove my hand thanks to the towel did I realize what had happened. My left hand, which had touched the box, was trembling and convulsing.

I don’t know what Baek Ae-young had installed on her dressing table, but it seemed like she intended to burn off the palm of anyone who dared to touch her jewelry box at will. Even with my hand wrapped in the towel, it was tingling and shaking. Thanks to the towel I survived, but if I had grabbed it directly, I might have died of a heart attack in this flooded place.

I backed away at the chilling thought. Every object in Baek Ae-young’s room now looked like a trap.

As I hurriedly left that room, a pad on the desk in the next room caught my eye. This was fine before. Would it be okay this time too? I carefully picked up the pad from Shin Haeryang’s room. There was no hidden electric shock or anything. I sighed in relief as I left the room and walked back into the corridor.

Kicking through the water, I approached Tumanako’s room. As I walked to room 12, I could hear singing, despite being quite far from room 8. I was both very glad and incredibly sad to hear that singing. …She didn’t make it out.

Like a boatman enchanted by a siren’s song, I headed towards Tumanako’s room. The New Zealand siren was lying on the top bunk, wearing headphones and singing vigorously. The lyrics of a very old song flowed into my brain.

[We’re just lost stars trying to light up the dark!]

It seemed she was completely unconcerned that the West District dormitory was flooding and that the Grim Reaper might be swinging his scythe right up to her side. Tumanako’s confidence and joy, which we hadn’t seen during our journey together, were bursting out from the top bunk of room 8. For a few seconds, her carefree voice and lyrics made me forget the reality that we were trapped underwater, unable to leave.

I called out to Tumanako with a smile from outside the room, but my voice was drowned out by her singing. I entered the room, intending to remove her headphones or shake her arm as before. I was afraid that if I touched her leg, she might kick out in surprise.

Using the metal drawer below as a foothold, I climbed up and grabbed her arm to shake it. At that moment, a startled Tumanako let out a short scream and sat up. Anticipating her reaction, I had pushed my hand between the ceiling and her head. Her head, which would have hit the ceiling directly, ended up hitting my hand as a cushion instead. I spoke to Tumanako as our eyes met.

“Water is leaking in, we need to get out quickly.”

“Huh? Oh? Okay.”

Tumanako took off her headphones and, looking down at the flooded floor from the top bunk bed set so high it almost touched the ceiling, uttered words similar to curses.

While Tumanako was coming down, I heard a very faint noise from the corridor of room 8. Along with the emergency alarm, it was too far to hear properly, but it sounded like someone shouting from a distance. The empty corridor had nothing but floating objects.

Nevertheless, the sound could be heard faintly from afar. The moment I recognized it as definitely a human voice, I felt my heart sink. Could someone have failed to escape? Could it be Henry? Was my judgment wrong? As I walked towards room 11, wading through the water that had now risen to my waist, following the voice, Tumanako called out to me.

“If you go that way, we’ll run out of time! We need to go this way.”

At that moment, someone shouted very softly.

“…Jihyun-ah!”

At first, I couldn’t make out what was being said, but after hearing the shout five or six times, I finally heard “Jihyun-ah!” I shouted back.

“She’s not here! She’s not here!”

Tumanako, seemingly frustrated by my muffled voice, took a deep breath and shouted loudly in my place.

“She’s not heeeeeeere!”

…Maybe she should be a singer? I was startled by Tumanako’s voice, which was loud enough to burst eardrums. Tumanako grabbed my forearm and started walking quickly towards the stairs next to room 1.

It wasn’t easy to walk through the water that was already rising to our chests, and Tumanako, who was walking ahead, almost slipped twice. I, who was more like bouncing and floating than walking, barely managed to catch Tumanako before she slipped. Having become accustomed to walking in water, I was a bit scared of the rapidly rising water, but I wasn’t as panicked and terrified as before.

We managed to reach the stairs just as the water rose from our shoulders to our necks. After climbing the stairs and closing the door, we could finally catch our breath. Everything was soaked except for the pad I had been carrying in my hand and later almost holding in my mouth.

“We almost died.”

“Yeah, we did.”

“I’m Tumanako. And you?”

Tumanako introduced herself while wringing out the bottom of her long-sleeved T-shirt. I, also soaking wet, coughed and answered.

“I’m Park Moohyun. I’m a dentist.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m a hair designer.”

We walked down the wet corridor until we reached the central staircase, where we found a group of engineers gathered. Two people were holding one person down like in a wrestling match – the person being held down was Seo Jihyuk, and the ones pinning him were Baek Ae-young and Viktor.

“Let go! Fuck! Let go!”

“Stay still!”

Seo Jihyuk was hurling curses at Viktor, who was restraining his lower body. Baek Ae-young, who had twisted and pinned Seo Jihyuk’s arms with her legs, was venting her frustration at him.

Viktor was using his entire body to press down on Seo Jihyuk’s legs, but unlike the other two, he remained silent. His strength was so impressive that despite the two of them clinging to Seo Jihyuk, Baek Ae-young’s legs were being dragged around by Seo Jihyuk’s arm strength.

Nikolai was closing the stairway door, where water had reached the threshold, seemingly determined not to get involved with the three rolling around behind him. After barely managing to close the barrier door connected to the stairs using his body, water still leaked out, overflowing. Baek Ae-young spoke to the struggling Seo Jihyuk.

“Give up.”

“I definitely heard it!”

Baek Ae-young, frowning, spoke again. Her expression suggested she wanted to beat Seo Jihyuk but was holding back.

“Give up.”

“I’m telling you, someone called me!”

Baek Ae-young punched Seo Jihyuk’s face with her left fist. The punch was so natural that the fact that Baek Ae-young had hit someone’s face took a moment to register.

“Give up.”

“…No!”

“What are you doing?!”

I felt that if I didn’t intervene, Baek Ae-young would punch Seo Jihyuk again. Even though people knew we were approaching from a distance, they didn’t let go of Seo Jihyuk. Nikolai took his hands off the barrier door and spat out Russian curses as he spoke.

“This guy wants to go in there! He’s completely crazy!”

“I definitely heard a woman’s scream!”

“Whether it’s a woman’s scream or a man’s scream, give up!”

“Jihyun might have called out after hearing my voice from inside.”

“Jihyun isn’t in there.”

At those words, Seo Jihyuk’s struggling body suddenly stopped. Everyone’s eyes turned to me. Seo Jihyuk calmly asked me.

“How do you know that?”

“I checked from room 38 to room 1, and there’s no one there.”

“But I definitely heard a woman’s scream.”

Nikolai said irritably to Seo Jihyuk.

“That’s something only you, who’s lost your mind, heard!”

“My ears are better than your bullshit about it being a Rusalka (Russian ghost maiden) sound!”

Seo Jihyuk snapped back.

“Um, I think that might have been because of me shouting.”

Tumanako hesitantly answered, and Seo Jihyuk stared at her for a long time. As Seo Jihyuk’s body, which had stopped resisting, began to go limp, Viktor looked at Baek Ae-young. When Baek Ae-young nodded, Viktor released Seo Jihyuk’s legs.

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