Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule: 5/week

Illustrations: None.

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A hotel room.

Mark Jung finished his call with Lee Yeonwoo and closed his laptop. He immediately took out his phone and called his direct superior, the Director.

Riiing-

The monotonous dial tone seemed to go on forever. Finally, a tired voice came through, cutting across the sound of several people shouting in the background.

"What is it?"

"Understood."

The call was about to end abruptly. Mark Jung pressed the phone close to his mouth and whispered.

"Yeonwoo wants a spot in the Ark and has asked to visit it. He seems scared by the news of the intruder and is trying to find a way to survive. What should we do?"

"...The Ark?"

The Director muttered, his voice uncertain.

"I don't know about the Ark either. Maybe I knew once, but erased it from my memory. Originally, only those involved should even know about the Extinction Defense Device."

"Then what should I tell him?"

"...I'll put in a proposal for Yeonwoo's position. That much I can do. But tell him visiting is impossible."

Mark Jung reopened his laptop and began typing a message to Yeonwoo with one hand. The message formed slowly, one letter at a time.

Visit impossible.

Verbally, he reported other minor matters.

"Ah, and the Korean branch has dismantled an organization called Creating A Better World, and recovered the anomalous entities there-"

"What was that name again?"

A question suddenly interjected. Mark Jung answered immediately.

"Creating A Better World. They said they would create a good world with anomalous entities-"

"Haha. How amusing."

"Pardon?"

The Director's voice, weary with fatigue, suddenly filled with vitality and amusement. Even as Mark Jung wore a bewildered expression, not understanding the situation, the Director began laughing to himself.

"Creating a good world with anomalous entities, they say. A truly good world is one without anomalies."

Only the Director's laughter echoed.

Anomalies are countless, and their characteristics all different. It's inevitably difficult to respond to each one, and eventually, cracks will appear somewhere. In the end, the world the company ultimately dreams of-

Suddenly, an excited shout came through the phone.

"We did it! We broke through! That's right! As long as they're human, there should be limits to reaction speed and processing capacity!"

"Is this even human? We deployed such numbers and still mostly failed?"

"Director? What's going on? Ah, if it's something I shouldn't know-"

"It's not a big secret. We've partially succeeded in tracking the intruder."

Data obtained by exchanging numbers with the intruder who had been responding to all sorts of different tracking methods one by one.

And like how Yeonwoo dealt with the Eraser, a method of pushing with numbers to exceed the opponent's processing ability.

Thus obtaining the limits of processing ability and information about the intruder.

The Director left with a final word.

"Things are about to get busier. The ability to block so many tracking methods.... You'll have your work cut out for you too."

The call ended. Mark Jung put down his phone and rubbed his face.

"Work.... I need to change the furniture in the shelter."

After sending Yeonwoo a message saying it would be difficult to visit the Ark, Mark Jung began looking at anomalous entities like blankets and beds. After all, that was his job now.

---

---

A hamburger joint.

The future Yeonwoo, having 'persuaded' an employee to give him hamburgers, sat in a corner seat and took a big bite out of one. The taste of civilization, of factories, that couldn't be tasted in a ruined world.

"This is it."

Grinning to himself as he wolfed down three hamburgers at once, he tapped on his phone while drinking cola.

A phone connected to the company's information network.

He first looked at how they solved the climate anomalies and what happened afterwards, when suddenly he burst out laughing.

"So the Eraser died like this? I should have seen it myself. I shouldn't have refused back then."

After reading the report about how parallel world Yeonwoos had defeated it for a while, he suddenly closed his eyes.

'The Eraser....'

The Eraser remained a trauma for him too. After all, it had killed him once. Because of that, he lost his human body.

The memory of that time remained a deep wound, becoming a nightmare that wouldn't fade.

Wandering a world destroyed by climate anomalies, barely finding a shelter. Just as he managed to persuade the manager to let him in, the shelter's ceiling flew off.

"This won't do. This can't happen. Everyone must die."

With that crazed voice and the Eraser's trajectory greatly drawn down, catching his body.

Fumbling, the future Yeonwoo suddenly felt his head and chest. Though he felt the warmth of human skin in reality, he was made of probability and possibility.

"...As long as I'm alive, it's fine."

After dying and coming back to life, half his body replaced by anomalies, becoming one with dice and gaining the sense to measure probabilities.

That's how the future Yeonwoo and the Eraser fought, one pouring out probabilities and the other erasing them, and in the end, didn't he win with greater output?

'It's more helpful for survival than a pure human body. It wasn't an entirely bad death.'

The future Yeonwoo picked up the wrapped hamburger bag and prepared to leave.

He was in the middle of pouring leftover cola and paper trash into the recycling bin.

"..."

He suddenly stopped. He stared quietly at his hand, pausing mid-pour. A gloomy expression and voice.

"I couldn't block it."

While flicking away possibilities approaching him, for a moment, a wave-like group of possibilities rushed in.

Even at a glance, there was remote portraiture, golden omnipotence, map hack, remote viewing, oracle system, tracker, Big Brother's demon, and more....

With different intentions and all different kinds of possibilities, he couldn't block them all at once.

A few strands of possibility flowed between his fingers, becoming reality.

"Excuse me. If you're done cleaning up, could you move aside?"

Someone waiting behind urged him. The future Yeonwoo glanced at him and was about to snap his fingers, but changed his mind and quickly finished cleaning up.

As he immediately left the hamburger joint, he muttered quietly.

"As expected, a normal world is dangerous."

No matter the opponent, he was confident he could survive in a one-on-one fight, but a normal world wasn't so easy.

There's a reason why companies or groups move in pairs of at least two.

If you let your guard down, if your weak point is struck, if you're ambushed, even the most extraordinary entity can be taken down.

"Focus. Don't let your guard down. You know the power of a normal world well."

Tightly clenching his fist, he disappeared.

---

---

No matter how he thought about it, this wasn't a decision he could make alone.

Sitting in the situation room, Yeonwoo organized his thoughts. He had more or less reached a conclusion on whether to inform the company about the future Yeonwoo.

'I should ask the person himself.'

He had just received a message saying it would be difficult to visit the Ark. Though only a day had passed, it was worth calling for an interim report.

Just as he was about to call for the dice, raising his head, Yeonwoo suddenly felt a sense of discomfort and turned his head.

The future Yeonwoo was standing there, holding a hamburger bag. A voice tinged with bewilderment flowed from Yeonwoo's mouth.

"...It hasn't even been a full day. What brings you here?"

"The company has figured out some of my information."

"How much exactly?"

Yeonwoo tensed up. If information was strangely exposed, suspicious gazes might be directed at his current self.

Aren't their appearances and abilities identical? He might even be seen as a potential threat.

The future Yeonwoo shook his head.

"I don't know either. The moment I tried to find out, I'd expose even more information."

This was an information war using anomalies. The moment the future Yeonwoo set out to investigate, his defenses would weaken, and all sorts of anomalous entities would rush in to tear at him.

Yeonwoo gulped. The search for the Ark hadn't even properly begun, but the situation didn't look good at all.

Yeonwoo opened his mouth with difficulty.

"...Why don't we just be honest and ask for cooperation?"

"No way."

A firm answer.

The future Yeonwoo slightly averted his eyes.

"I'm an illegal immigrant. It won't end there. I'll be investigated."

"If you're investigated-"

"No. How thorough do you think the company is? Whether anomalies are at work, whether I'm lying, how much is true, what happened in the past, what I'm thinking now, they'll plaster me with all sorts of equipment and investigate. And the questions, there are so many."

Certainly, it was something to be reluctant about. But it wasn't a condition to avoid at all costs either.

As Yeonwoo was about to say something, the future Yeonwoo waved his hand, indicating he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"I have a past that's hard to reveal. Just look at the refugee ship. I totally messed up and everything was ruined. I did some bad things to survive. More than that, how's the investigation going?"

Hurriedly changing the subject, Yeonwoo replied, not wanting to pry into the future Yeonwoo's apparent discomfort.

"The request to visit the Ark was rejected. I'm not sure how to proceed with the investigation from here..."

Like the trailing off of his words, the situation was bleak.

He didn't even know where to start. Even when he asked the research institute director who dealt with broken clocks, he knew nothing about the Extinction Defense Device.

The future Yeonwoo rubbed his chin, then said lightly as if in passing.

"This won't do. We're out of time. Let's strike fast and hard."

"What? So suddenly?"

"If we waste more time, it'll be dangerous."

All sorts of bugs would swarm.

Doomsday cultists trying to learn from the destruction of other worlds, artists seeking inspiration from rare material, the company trying to protect humanity, demons finding amusement, the Goldberg Club for social maintenance or profit-making.

Face one and two appear, face two and four appear, face four and.... The danger increases endlessly.

The future Yeonwoo, not wanting to think about it anymore, shuddered and suddenly grabbed Yeonwoo's neck.

Now was the safe opportunity while the company was focused on information warfare. The goal was just to confirm and recognize the identity and location of the Ark.

"Let's go. Let's start by hitting the final shelter."

"Do I need to go?"

For Yeonwoo, on the other hand, it was a bad situation. A voice flowing out desperately, really not wanting to go.

What was he supposed to do in the future if he participated in attacking the company?

"I don't have the ability, I just-"

"You're a totem. You have the possibility of finding the Ark. If I take you and look for other high-probability things, we should be able to find clues."

"No, what about me then-"

Ignoring Yeonwoo's words entirely.

He clenched his fist tightly.

In a world changed in an instant, Yeonwoo, wearing a tearful expression, suddenly harbored doubts.

'...Doesn't he live in a ruined world? How does he know the company's investigation process in such detail? And, is this the only world where he's searched for and visited the Ark?'

He felt a chilling danger.

Being dragged along to participate in harming the company.

And the reason why the future Yeonwoo is avoiding investigation.

'If it's like this, I can't just cooperate blindly either.'

Yeonwoo's eyes sank and flashed, searching for a way to survive.