Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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Lee Yeonwoo and Mark Jung talked for a long time.

Should they make a contract or not? If they did, how should they modify the clauses? If they didn't, how should they act to prevent information leaks? Could they gain something regardless of negotiations?

Yeonwoo rubbed his temples, his face tired. Reading through the complex and abstruse clauses and the club's contract examples had overheated his brain.

Yet no conclusion was reached.

"Honestly, there are things I like and dislike about both options."

If he signed the contract, the limitation on the dice was what he disliked most.

But refusing the contract and butting heads with the club...

"Golden Omnipotence? Is that real?"

"Yes. It's the club's core entity."

"Christ, what kind of anomaly is that?"

It granted any wish for the right amount of gold? No risk of critical failure, truly omnipotent. And the club had stockpiled tons of gold, still buying more.

Golden Omnipotence and the system built to maximize its use.

Yeonwoo shuddered in fear before snapping back to his senses. Even so, it seemed foolish to let Golden Omnipotence scare him into an unfavorable contract.

'This won't do. I can't reach a good conclusion like this.'

His mind was cluttered, and his head spun trying to wrap itself around this otherworldly contract for the first time.

He needed to clear his head, like being doused with cold water.

Yeonwoo reached for the gun he had tossed onto the hospital bed. He immediately handed it to Mark Jung.

"Point that gun at me."

"What? Oh."

Mark Jung looked bewildered, glancing between the gun and Yeonwoo before realizing.

He was trying to create danger to focus his mind.

Mark Jung hesitated briefly, then set the gun down. It wasn't a refusal. Instead, his hand went into his suit's inner pocket.

"If we're doing this, let's do it properly."

"This gun is enou-"

Yeonwoo's pupils dilated.

In Mark Jung's hand was the gun Yeonwoo had possessed until recently.

The gun loaded with ordinary bullets.

Mark Jung stared intently at Yeonwoo. He gripped the gun with both hands, assuming a textbook shooting stance.

"I kept this in case you changed your mind and asked for it back. Haha. If I pull the trigger now..."

You'll die. Really die.

Rain? It couldn't regenerate gunshot wounds. Resurrection? Wounds from ordinary bullets remained.

Blood vessels appeared in Yeonwoo's eyes. His hair stood on end as a chill ran down his spine. His pounding heartbeat drummed in his head.

'Think, think, think.'

The rapidly circulating blood supplied oxygen to his brain. Thoughts flashed through his mind.

'Use the dice to knock him out, give him a heart attack, or break the gun. No, that's not it.'

He barely corrected his thoughts as they veered sharply towards survival, forcing himself to consider the Goldberg Club, the contract, and the information issue.

"..."

"..."

Silence fell over the hospital room.

Mark Jung swallowed dryly. Yeonwoo's bloodshot eyes staring at him were terrifying.

'What if he suddenly attacks me? This is making me nervous.'

Mark Jung's eyes wavered, and the gun's muzzle trembled. He wanted to lower it. But since he hadn't said anything specific, it felt awkward to stop now.

How long had Mark Jung been frozen like that, unable to act either way, shaking with anxiety?

Yeonwoo suddenly spoke.

"It's virtually impossible to protect the information, right? So tell me this. Can you detect if information has been leaked?"

"That's possible. We may not notice immediately, but we can find out. And the more resources we invest, the faster we can detect it."

"Good. I won't sign a forced contract."

He had been too fixated on the contract enforced by anomalous entities. It was fine without enforcement.

Yeonwoo spoke in a calm voice.

Mark Jung sighed in relief as he put the gun back in his pocket, then looked at Yeonwoo.

"So what do you have in mind?"

"That manager mentioned it. Coexistence bound by mutual benefit."

Yeonwoo traced his fingers wildly, drawing a complex web.

"I considered the club's perspective. Since money is their priority, I'll be tied to those bastards through losses and gains."

"How...?"

Mark Jung asked puzzledly.

Yeonwoo clenched his fist. Then he made an awkward punching motion.

"They'll suffer terrible losses if they sell my information."

It wasn't just anything, but the dice. If things went well, if luck was on his side, if his senses were heightened to the extreme, he might even trade blows with Golden Omnipotence.

This was a threat the club couldn't ignore. The old man hadn't come to negotiate for nothing.

'Even if the situation escalates to the extreme, they'll only end up losing.'

Mark Jung viewed it negatively.

"Well. You can threaten them. But if you openly blackmail them, who knows how the club will react. They might try to eliminate you."

"We'll be tied by profits too."

The dice could be rolled for targets other than Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo made a sound with his mouth, imitating dice rolling.

"I plan to sell dice usage rights. They pay me, and I roll the dice for them."

Selling opportunities to roll the dice. This was an offer they couldn't refuse.

It also reduced one factor threatening Yeonwoo.

"I'm not just selling this to the club. I'll sell to anyone who wants to use it."

The result of intense thinking in the face of ordinary bullets.

'Without the dice, there's hardly any reason for me to be targeted, right?'

Yeonwoo recalled a point he had overlooked and came up with this proposal.

'If I sell opportunities to use the dice, it should reduce the number of people who'd attack me to get them.'

Even the Green Association.

If he had been selling dice usage rights, they might not have attacked at all. They might have bought the rights and asked him to germinate some unknown seed.

Mark Jung grasped the context quickly despite the exhausting situation. He nodded.

"This is better than that kind of contract."

What they'd gain by turning Yeonwoo into an enemy. At minimum, property loss; at maximum, economic depression. Perhaps, an unpredictable battle between the dice and Golden Omnipotence.

What they'd gain by making Yeonwoo a partner. The chance to use those dice.

It was a relationship where both sides profited by joining hands.

"The profit and loss are clear. This way, the club won't think of selling information either. And those targeting the dice will prioritize negotiation. But."

Mark Jung pulled out a document.

"What about that information broker? Isn't all this just negotiation with the club?"

"Ah, that. Well, you know. I'll use him as a promotional target. To show what's possible with the dice. And I'll get compensation too."

Even the old man claiming to be the information broker's proxy left without saying much about the broker. Didn't that mean he wouldn't interfere with however Yeonwoo handled it?

'He must pay for selling my information.'

Yeonwoo's eyes sparkled as he took the documents.

There were two types: one detailing the information broker's assets and business status, the other containing the company's analysis of dice research records.

Yeonwoo looked at the dice research records first.

---

---

No, please, when assigning research projects, at least give us something feasible!

Analyze the dice? With just a few reports and video recordings? Without even rolling the dice in a lab? Without using specialized observation equipment or conducting experiments?

What kind of results do you expect from this! Even if we produce results, they'd be hypotheses with zero reliability, not even worthy of being called hypotheses!

Fine. I'll give you my opinion.

The dice could be reality manipulation, or dealing with luck and misfortune, or handling possibilities and probabilities, or overturning fate, or really anything!

How can we know what it is without data right now?

If we're looking for similar cases, it's slightly, very slightly similar to the Blessed Child or the President of the Artists' Association.

The Blessed Child with bizarrely good luck, the Association President loved by the world.

When someone tries to shoot them, the gun breaks itself; would-be assassins suddenly have heart attacks; if they're locked up, doors open on their own; when they're thirsty, it rains; when they're hungry, fruit appears - those kinds of anomalies.

I think the dice might implement similar results probabilistically, categorizing them as critical failure, failure, nothing, success, and critical success.

Consider this just speculation that doesn't even qualify as a hypothesis.

If you want definitive results, bring the dice and its user here.

---

---

Yeonwoo blinked as he read the opinion disguised as a research record.

'It seems I determine the judgment, and it randomly implements possibilities or probabilities.'

Anyway, it was good that the company couldn't get a grasp on it.

Even if fragmented information like delays had leaked, they couldn't fundamentally prepare to counter the dice.

More important was the information broker's data. Yeonwoo turned the page with a rustle, revealing a photo of a surprisingly young person.

"Is this the information broker? The one who sold my information?"

"Yes. The company is good at having its information stolen, but even better at stealing information."

Mark Jung watched Yeonwoo's reaction nervously. The club had just predicted an economic depression, after all.

"Yeonwoo. You must refrain from judgments that could have widespread consequences."

"I know. I just got an idea I want to roll."

Yeonwoo glanced briefly at the other documents before moving on.

The information broker's assets, concentrated in stocks and currency. He could mess with this and get a critical failure or success.

But instead, he wanted to twist the cases he saw in the research records.

"The opposite of luck is misfortune, right? I'm going to try bestowing misfortune."

"If it fails, won't he become lucky?"

"Then it's good promotion. The dice can do this. And I'll get compensation from the information broker."

Just keep tormenting him with the dice until he coughed up the reward.

Yeonwoo casually summoned the dice.

"Dice. Bestow misfortune on this person."

The dice remained still. It seemed unable to find its target, frozen in place.

Yeonwoo was taken aback by this unfamiliar response.

'Huh. Can it not work if the target isn't right in front of me? Or because it's not directly related to me? Or is this not a judgment the dice can make?'

No. Yeonwoo intuitively realized.

'Possibility. Probability.'

It was because of the distance. There was no possibility or probability to manipulate here.

Yeonwoo's eyes suddenly darkened. Not because he recalled his past bravado about tormenting some sculptor. He realized the dice's weakness and how to break through its limits.

'The dice's limits are my mental limits. Then the possibility I can implement now is...'

Like toppling dominoes, the possibility implemented here must reach the enemy through countless real-world possibilities.

Yeonwoo chose his judgment. Moving beyond simple dice play, closer to the essence of the dice.

'The possibility that my enemy will experience misfortune.'

The dice rolled.

Clatter-

Success!

Probabilities and possibilities fluctuated around Yeonwoo. The result emanating from him spread outward.

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