Chapter 123
The bunker that Viktor said he would pay for in advance came into Jinseong's hands within a few days.
Of course, it didn't completely come into his hands.
Legally, it belonged to Viktor.
But what does that matter?
Viktor intended to give this to Jinseong anyway, and it would fully come into his hands the moment Jinseong became an adult.
What was important was that it was Jinseong’s bunker.
And that the bunker was in a very good location.
"It truly holds a good chill."
Jinseong looked at the lake that reflected the sky and held a deep blue color.
The lake was showing off its vastness with rippling waves that seemed to embrace the sky all the way to the distance, and with islands here and there, it seemed to say it wasn't just a lake but a small sea. Moreover, under the rippling waves, fish that looked similar to salmon were swimming, and a seal was constantly moving its body, chasing after the busily swimming fish.
Then, as if it had lost its prey, it shook its body in frustration, came up to the surface, and repeatedly dipped its head in and out one, two, three... several times to calm its anger before going back in to search for food.
It was a peaceful scene.
Jinseong approached Lake Baikal and scooped up some water with a plastic cup.
The water of Lake Baikal, which was thought to be made of deep blue color, was incredibly transparent.
It showed off its cleanliness by letting sunlight pass through directly, and it looked similar to the water of the Alps that had maintained its purity by freezing over time. Moreover, its coldness was enough to make one's mind clear, and the way it rippled according to the movement of Jinseong's wrist was like a seductive dance that made one want to take it into their body.
Jinseong, as if unable to resist the temptation, let the water flow into his mouth.
But instead of enjoying the water of Lake Baikal like a gourmet, he busily moved his fingers, scratching various parts of his body with his fingers. This was like using his fingers as a brush to write on his skin, and sharp red scratch marks appeared one by one, forming the shape of characters on his body.
No.
Could this be called characters?
Could something that looked like ice fragments arranged to create a pattern be called characters?
The red scratch marks engraved on his body rose and fell repeatedly according to the flow of water, drawing a picture on his body. It looked like the strange-shaped scars that people who had been struck by lightning were said to have, or like the shape of a tree freezing from a sudden blast of a cold wave, or like the shape of snow crystals seen under a microscope.
This was something that was characters but not characters.
Infinitely close to a picture, but containing meaning.
It created meaning by repeatedly appearing and disappearing on Jinseong's body.
Jinseong, after confirming that his body was full of red marks, walked towards the lake.
His appearance was very similar to that of an ancient saint who was said to have walked on water, but.
Splash.
Unlike that miracle-performing saint, Jinseong helplessly fell into the lake.
His feet sank into the cold water, then his legs, then his waist, and finally up to his neck.
As Jinseong walked, his body gradually sank into the water.
But his steps were unwavering, and as his head was completely submerged and he went deeper, his breath was cut off. But Jinseong moved through the water as if he was on land, without any trouble.
Was the lake annoyed by this sight?
The lake started to torment Jinseong.
Waves surged over his tightly closed mouth, trying to invade and submerge his lungs, and water rippled trying to enter his wide-open nostrils but was blocked by something invisible at the entrance.
When its attempt to drown him with its body failed, it reduced the light pouring from above as if annoyed, made all sorts of sediment float in the water along with Jinseong's footsteps to confuse his vision, and tried to put foreign substances into his wide-open blue eyes.
But Jinseong lit flames in his eyes and burned away all the foreign substances trying to enter, and with his eyes enhanced by sorcery, he moved through the dark bottom of the lake as if walking in broad daylight. And he walked and walked, using sorcery that emitted weak electricity to drive away the fish that were attracted by the light of the flames burning in his eyes.
How long did he walk like that?
A huge cliff appeared before Jinseong's eyes.
A cliff of enormous size that one couldn't imagine existing at the bottom of a lake.
Wouldn't it look like this if you miniaturized an underwater canyon in the sea?
A majestic and enormous canyon shape that one could hardly believe nature had sculpted, yet seemed impossible to create without nature's sculpting, was captured in his eyes.
At the bottom of the canyon was a terrifying darkness.
Bizarrely shaped deep-sea fish swam ceaselessly like impure things swimming in the darkness, and snow-white marine snow, so similar to winter snow, fell to the bottom, retaining the nutrients that corpses would have once held.
A space full of darkness where white snow fell.
A space where some bizarre things might exist.
Jinseong quietly looked at it and then sat down in front of the cliff.
As he sat down, sediments piled up at the edge of the cliff moved, slightly dirtying the water, and it mixed with the marine snow and slowly sank to the bottom of the deep sea.
"-----."
Jinseong created vibrations in his body while looking at this.
The vibration that started from his neck fully resonated in his stomach, and his lungs, which had shrunk due to the deep-sea pressure, moved along with his vibration and expelled air bubbles inside his body. This was evidence of life possessed by land creatures, and it was also something that shouldn't remain in his body to perform a ritual at the bottom of the lake.
Jinseong felt his mind becoming hazy as all the air in his lungs escaped.
Perhaps if he stayed like this for a little longer, his consciousness would completely disappear, and the extremely cold lake water would fill his lungs and drown him. And his dead body would partly become fish food, and the rest would decompose over a long time and become marine snow falling in the deep sea now, becoming food for other creatures.
Yes.
That would surely happen.
So he had to do what he needed to do before dying.
Stab!
Jinseong stabbed a syringe he had prepared into his arm.
Then he kept taking out syringes and stabbing them into various parts of his body, all in places that had become ugly with scratch marks. The injections supplied oxygen to his blood even though Jinseong wasn't breathing, and resonated with the vibrations he kept making, making his mind clear.
Jinseong sat cross-legged and slightly raised his head to look at the surface above.
Darkness and floating matter, and the small light emitted by fish attracted by the flames in his eyes.
The sight was similar to stars swimming in the sky.
The eyes of the fish became stars.
All sorts of things floating in the water became clouds.
The lake water became air, and its flow became wind.
This was like clouds changing their shape and constantly changing their position as they're pushed by the wind.
The movement of the fish was like the movement of stars.
Jinseong looked at it as if it was the will of heaven he had to read, and tried to read auspicious times for himself using the sparks that burst when fish approached as shooting stars.
When no more fish approached, he lowered his head as if satisfied, and quietly looked at the hole where snow was falling.
Snow was falling in the hole below the canyon that reminded one of the mouth of a huge deep-sea monster, and looking at that sight quietly made Jinseong feel as if he was sitting on a cloud making snow fall.
There was no fairy sprinkling snow, nor scissorhands cutting clouds into snow and dropping it on the ground.
But the place where snow fell was a cloud, and sitting on top of that cloud indicated the ability to control snow.
At this moment.
Jinseong's body became one that could hold coldness.
"-----"
Jinseong quietly closed his eyes and created vibrations.
Unlike earlier when he vibrated his throat and stomach, this vibration made the extremities of his body vibrate.
And along with this vibration, the coldness held by the water began to enter Jinseong's body as if being sucked in.
The coldness entering his body didn't stop at once.
As if it was meant to be, it repeatedly entered and exited Jinseong's body many, many times.
And after this was repeated several times, Jinseong's ears began to become as cold as ice.
Even though they didn't turn bright red, they became so cold that they reminded one of ice, and hardened so much that it seemed they might shatter if touched. And starting from his ears, a chilling sensation invaded Jinseong's joints, and a terrible pain of freezing from the bone marrow enveloped his body.