Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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The team leader and Yoo Ji-yoo returned to the office leisurely after finishing lunch. They carried a few cups of coffee from the cafe, swaying in their hands. One in the team leader's hand, two in Yoo Ji-yoo's.

As Yoo Ji-yoo entered the office, she held up a cup of coffee.

"Yeonwoo, have some coffee-. What are you doing?"

Yoo Ji-yoo stopped abruptly at the doorway. The team leader, who was sauntering in behind her, opened his eyes wide.

The office was a mess. Not only were guns and time-buying bills scattered about, but all sorts of tools were strewn around haphazardly. There was even a smell of gasoline.

He was loading a gun, checking magazines, soaking time-buying bills in gasoline.

"Did you enjoy your meal?" Yeonwoo asked.

"Yeah, the food was good, but... what are you doing?"

The team leader quickly scanned Yeonwoo's equipment. Just ordinary tools.

At that point, Yeonwoo hastily gathered up a document and handed it to the team leader.

"It's the real estate contract. This building is in your name, right? Use this to exercise the rights of the building owner."

The real estate contract that exerted force as the owner of the land. The team leader, who had received the Goldberg Club's core anomalous entity, looked bewildered.

"Don't you only have one of these? You're giving it to me?"

It seemed too generous to accept as a simple gift.

But Yeonwoo nodded seriously. It didn't seem like a situation where he could afford to be stingy.

When he put his hand on his chest, his heart was still pounding. The sense of danger he had felt while walking on the street earlier kept swirling in his head.

"I have an ominous feeling. We need to be fully prepared."

"Wh-what? You're saying it's dangerous?" Yoo Ji-yoo choked on her coffee, which she had been sipping through a straw. Even as she hunched over coughing, she looked at Yeonwoo with trembling eyes.

Yeonwoo wore the most serious expression in the world.

"Yes. It doesn't feel like a doomsday scenario, but I sense danger coming for me. If that happens, this building will be attacked too, so it's better to use the contract now."

The team leader and Yoo Ji-yoo realized the gravity of the situation. Without another word, they began preparing for the unknown danger.

If Yeonwoo was reacting like this, it must be no ordinary threat. It was probably on the level of a dangerous anomalous entity or the remnants of the doomsday cult attacking with full force.

The team leader contacted the higher-ups and renewed the contract, while Yoo Ji-yoo poured out all sorts of ideas. Ideas to share the danger with others.

"Yeonwoo, you're a special investigator, right? Why don't you contact headquarters and request security forces or something like that?"

"Ah. I'll do that."

Indeed, shared danger is half the danger.

The things attacking him would be enemies of the company too, so the company had an obligation to help.

Yeonwoo, who had been fiddling with complex cables like a spider's web and charging tools, pulled out his phone.

But Yoo Ji-yoo stopped him.

"Wait, listen a bit more. Don't just request manpower, ask for a location too."

They could prepare for battle on a larger scale. Special forces could stand by for long-range attacks, set up ambushes, or prepare a building full of traps.

The team leader agreed. He looked up from scribbling with a pen.

"That's right. Honestly, what can three investigators do? If your intuition is correct, it's better to coordinate with the Intelligence Department or Special Forces."

No matter how powerful the land contract was, it couldn't match the company's full-scale preparation.

"Intuition..."

Yeonwoo hesitated. Was it enough grounds to request professional troops? Would they send combat units just because he had a bad feeling?

'...They should.'

He wasn't an ordinary company employee, after all. If worse came to worst, he could throw a tantrum like a child and insist.

That's how strongly Yeonwoo felt the sense of crisis. The sensation he had felt then was that level of danger.

His heart racing at full speed, adrenaline pouring out, vision narrowing, fingers trembling.

Yeonwoo gripped his phone resolutely.

"I'll get support somehow-"

That's when it happened.

Boom!

Explosions sounded from outside the building. Not just once. Explosions erupted in various places.

The investigators all looked out the window at once. Loud noises and explosions were occurring all over the street. On top of that, masked individuals were spraying bullets as if shooting indiscriminately.

Civilians screaming and fleeing.

It was an attack.

------

While Yeonwoo sensed a crisis, the doomsday cultists on the brink of collapse felt an equally strong sense of urgency.

So much so that they couldn't afford to take their time.

The woman who had stepped back immediately called the Ghost of the electronic world.

"It's difficult to approach him personally. It'll take a lot of time."

"We don't have time to wait."

As the Ghost of the electronic world, who had popped out of the phone screen, muttered anxiously, the woman twisted the ends of her hair.

Even at this moment, all sorts of groups were moving to annihilate the doomsday cultists. They needed to recruit forces like Yeonwoo as quickly as possible.

The woman understood the situation and glanced at the Ghost of the electronic world. The Ghost wore a thoughtful expression.

At that point, the woman spoke up.

"It might be a bit contrived, but shall we stage an event?"

"What kind of event?"

The woman pulled out a gun from her chest. Pointing it at her own head, she smiled faintly.

"Doesn't love bloom in danger? Use the remaining doomsday cultists to stage an attack."

She would approach Yeonwoo naturally in the midst of a staged terror attack.

Yeonwoo's personality had already been analyzed, and a scenario played out in the woman's mind. A scenario to gain Yeonwoo's goodwill as much as possible before using the perfume.

"He's a survivalist, right? If we experience the same crisis, I help him through it, and give the impression that I won't be a burden to his survival, won't the perfume work properly?"

It was a scenario prepared to maximize the power of the perfume, as simply spraying it hadn't been enough.

The Ghost of the electronic world looked uncertain. They really didn't know much about this kind of thing.

"If you say so, I guess that's how it is."

Wearing an expression that said "whatever you think is best," they sent out a call signal to dozens of doomsday cultists. Those cultists would use anomalous entities to transfer here immediately.

"These are the elite doomsday cultists who've survived until now. I'll put them under your command for a bit."

The doomsday cultists, who usually maintained horizontal relationships and acted separately, had united as one in the face of their group's impending extinction.

In less than 10 minutes.

The Ghost of the electronic world, a high-ranking doomsday cultist, prepared the people, while the woman replayed the scenario in her head.

The woman mentally named the operation.

'Let's call this Operation Suspension Bridge. Danger will be the fuse. The perfume will be the spark.'

------

Chaos erupted on the streets.

Masked robbers, armed terrorists, serial killers, and wanted criminals moved as one.

They blew up cars driving on the road one after another, blocking traffic. An EMP went off, disabling communications in the area. Someone set fire to buildings and gas pipelines.

It was an organized attack. A group assault by skilled doomsday cultists.

"Don't kill them! They're just unarmed civilians anyway! Just injure them! Keeping them alive will overload the medical system and spread fear!"

"Don't we have any viruses? Or mind control?"

"I don't see any kids. Kids are perfect for flaunting as hostages."

The doomsday cultists, who had come out determined to attack, spread terrible fear. They didn't need grand anomalous entities. Basic weapons were enough.

The once-peaceful street turned into a scene from hell. Screams, the smell of gunpowder, groans, the scent of blood.

A doomsday cultist who had been in hiding for a long time and had just come out muttered with gleaming eyes.

"This is it. This is who we are. Even if we die tomorrow, we should kill at least one more today."

This was the true nature of doomsday cultists. The enemy that almost every group in the anomalous world wanted to eliminate. Madmen who desired the destruction of the world and the annihilation of humanity. Those who had crossed the line and committed insane acts.

At that point, one of the doomsday cultists shouted.

"Don't forget our purpose! Move quickly!"

Those with eyes gleaming with madness began to move slowly. Like hunters herding prey, like fishermen's nets capturing fish, they drove people towards a certain building.

Towards the building of the Anomaly Investigation Team.

The three members of the investigation team stood side by side at the window, looking outside.

People screaming, bleeding, limping ran with terror-stricken faces.

"Those doomsday cult bastards."

The team leader clenched his fist. Anyone could see it was the work of doomsday cultists. Such an organized terror attack in Korea.

Yoo Ji-yoo spoke glumly with a dark expression.

"Worms..."

The victims she had seen in the worm cult. The images of people who had cut off their own limbs, deceived by the worm's hallucinations, overlapped.

Innocent victims in the face of the anomalous world.

The battlefield unfolding before her eyes put considerable stress on Yoo Ji-yoo. Complex emotions and intense pressure. All sorts of thoughts floated around.

If only her sister, the ghost from the Intelligence Department, were here, if only she could do something, if only she weren't in danger herself.

Finally, Yoo Ji-yoo muttered dejectedly.

"I wish I could become a worm. I didn't have thoughts like this back then."

"Stop it. Don't have useless thoughts. It's all those bastards' fault, we don't need to feel guilty. Instead, let's think about how to save people."

The team leader gritted his teeth.

Before being an investigator, he was a company employee. There was a value more important than his own survival. Protect humanity. He had lived as an investigator for over 20 years solely for that one value.

The team leader decided to save as many people as he could within his reach. He made a cool-headed judgment.

"Let's guide people to our building. We have the contract, so we can sufficiently block the doomsday cultists. We can provide first aid too."

Yoo Ji-yoo snapped back to her senses and looked for a megaphone. It was in the pile of tools the team leader had roughly brought.

Yoo Ji-yoo crouched under the window, sticking out just the megaphone towards the window. To guide the fleeing people this way.

At that point, the team leader looked for Yeonwoo.

"Yeonwoo. Can you use the dice or bills to buy us time? I'm going to call the Extermination Team now, we just need time until they-"

The team leader, who had the button to call the Extermination Team as the investigation team leader, was looking for the button when he suddenly stopped speaking.

Something was off about Yeonwoo's state. He was staring blankly out the window where gunshots and explosions were raging. Completely exposed, as if he might get shot in the head at any moment.

His eyes were even glazed over. His hugely dilated pupils stared at the road beyond the window.

The team leader glanced out and saw a woman frantically running across the road.

'...Isn't that the woman who caused the car accident before? Why is Yeonwoo acting like this?'

Yeonwoo muttered with trembling lips.

"Ki- ki- ki-"

The love potion he had been addicted to before was still in effect. The world narrowed. He saw only that woman. His heart pounded as if it would burst out of his chest. Adrenaline poured out like a waterfall.

Yeonwoo now understood. It was that woman. She was the cause of this sensation. The source of danger. Therefore.

"Kill!"

He had to kill her.

In an instant, Yeonwoo moved at high speed, shouting. A gun appeared in one hand. With the other, he flicked a lighter, setting fire to the bills.

The fuse was lit.

The pile of time-buying bills soaked in gasoline burst into flames in an instant.

Bills that instantly performed labor equivalent to their value, to a person's worth. In a moment, empty magazines clattered around Yeonwoo. The labor of killing had been carried out.

His thought process, which had done a complete 180, made an accurate judgment, eliminating the conspirator.

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