Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule: 5/week

Illustrations: None.

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The Association President gesticulated wildly as he raised his voice:

"If we create just a few proper anomalies, there'll be no limits. Infinite energy, food, space, lifespans-"

"Hey."

The agent rolled the eraser in his palm before clenching his fist. His slightly tilted helmet faced the Association President directly.

"Because of you, we erased an entire building. There were countless victims inside. And now you're saying this?"

Though muffled by the helmet, the anger in his voice came through clearly.

The Association President looked away.

"That was an accident. It wasn't intentional... I thought it would only cause spatial displacement. If I'd known it was that dangerous-"

"Ha."

The agent's voice lowered. The eraser rolling in his palm was caught between his fingers.

As his hand twitched, about to move, Lee Yeonwoo grabbed it firmly. He tilted the eraser slightly away from himself, as if moving a gun barrel.

"Calm down. Let's hear him out first."

The agent remained still, then leaned back in his chair. As if leaving it to Yeonwoo, he turned his head away.

Yeonwoo quietly observed the Association President. His eyes and voice seemed calm on the surface.

"So why did you call us here? To create anomalies with dice and erase dangerous failures with an eraser?"

"Exactly! What safer method is there? Compared to our current haphazard creation process, isn't this revolutionary?"

The Association President clapped excitedly. Yeonwoo leaned forward, resting his hands on the table.

"I get your intentions. But I have two questions. Answer them first."

"Go ahead."

"How do you control the anomalous entities?"

At that question, the Association President wiggled his ten fingers. The gesture resembled playing a piano or typing on a keyboard.

"There's a computer-like anomaly. It can give one command to a specific entity. For example, 'don't harm humans,' 'find the dice,' and so on."

"..."

Yeonwoo stared at the Association President without blinking. Various thoughts flashed through his mind.

'If I could control the dice with that computer...'

He sensed the dice at the edge of his consciousness. Yeonwoo quietly looked at the dice, then shook his head slightly with a sigh.

'I don't want to resort to that.'

The dice wasn't hostile towards him. It rolled resistance on its own when time stopped, and they had overcome numerous trials together. Despite it being less than half a year, he'd grown attached to it.

Moreover, there was the path shown by his future self, and that strange feeling he had while confronting the people at the door. The sense that, given time, they could become one without the need for control.

Yeonwoo opened his mouth to ask his final question.

"How did you know about the dice?"

"It's an anomaly we've been searching for a long time."

"...The dice?"

The Association President smiled.

"That dice is probably one of the closest things to omnipotence among anomalies. Most people couldn't handle it, but you're using it just fine."

The power of probability manipulation.

Yeonwoo neither denied nor confirmed. He thought that if he reached the level of his future self, it would indeed be close to omnipotence.

'And yet, the Earth was still ruined in that future.'

There are many anomalies comparable to the dice. The eraser alone is terrifying. Not to mention the numerous doomsday scenarios the company anticipates.

He had no more questions. The man before him wasn't worth dealing with in many ways.

Click-

Yeonwoo pulled a pistol from his bag. Even as the Association President's expression hardened, Yeonwoo tilted the gun to aim at his head.

"I've no intention of helping you, so tell me what compensation you'll offer."

His attitude made it clear - if the compensation wasn't satisfactory, if its value was less than the man's life, he'd take that life as compensation instead. His finger on the trigger held the Association President's life in balance.

Faced with that cold gaze, the Association President lowered his head slightly. He spoke softly.

"Ah, I see."

Then he smiled.

"Very well. If you refuse, there's nothing we can do. I'll give you one anomaly as compensation."

"No, what- I don't want any dangerous anomaly-"

"It's safe. It's just a TV. It occasionally broadcasts strange programs, which could be quite helpful. Let's go see it directly."

The Association President stood up and gestured lightly towards the conference room exit. Yeonwoo frowned but left the room first.

Outside, the sounds of company employees moving about flooded in.

"Move carefully! It's a machine-type anomaly!"

"I know, I know. How many years of experience do you think I have?"

Several people worked together to move a large sleep capsule-like shaping machine, as if moving a refrigerator.

On one side, others were packing oak barrels into boxes or carrying beds out.

The Association President watched them with cold eyes, then pushed past Yeonwoo towards a certain room. Yeonwoo and the agent followed, listening to his explanation.

"Usually it's just a TV with static, but occasionally it broadcasts something like news."

"...What kind of news?"

"Events? Accidents? Caused by anomalies. It gives advance warnings, but it's not very useful to us."

The Association President opened the door to a quiet room where no other employees were present.

Inside was a single old-fashioned television. Its screen showed black and white static, accompanied by crackling noise.

"Let's go in and take a look."

"...No thanks. Just send it to the company for now."

Yeonwoo spoke in a slightly softer voice. He was already prone to getting involved in incidents and accidents; if he could know about them in advance, it would be a great help.

Of course, he planned to have the company inspect it first to ensure there were no real issues with the item.

In any case, he liked the TV itself. Yeonwoo looked at the Association President.

"I'll let this slide. But if you mess with me one more time-"

Just as he was threatening the Association President.

- Today's news.

Suddenly, a fluent voice came from the TV. Turning his head, Yeonwoo saw a blurred, pixelated figure sitting behind a desk, speaking.

- A 'muder disease' has been leaked from the Creating A Better World Association factory. As a result, several people from the Humanity Protection Company's Korean branch have been injured, killed, or mutated...

"A leak? What's going on..."

Yeonwoo and the Association President locked eyes.

The Association President looked panicked but gritted his teeth and moved quickly. He took out his phone and pressed a button on the factory management system.

Pop-!

Sprinklers activated simultaneously, spraying misty streams of water. Liquid containing the muder disease filled the factory.

---

---

Shoooosh-

Before he could react, Yeonwoo was drenched. He quietly bowed his head. Water droplets dripped from his chin.

The TV broadcast, the pouring water, the Association President who rushed to the room with the TV and locked the door.

"You're broadcasting this? Damn it! I was planning to spray it at the right time!"

Shouts and the sound of the TV being smashed came from beyond the door.

Splash-!

Yeonwoo quickly pulled out an umbrella, but it was too late. He hadn't reacted in time.

Faced with multiple unknown threats, he failed to identify which was most dangerous and couldn't decide what to address first.

"Ah..."

And so, Yeonwoo was infected with the muder disease. He felt the symptoms in both body and mind.

His vision turned red and his heart pounded. Causeless rage welled up from deep within, making him want to kill people indiscriminately.

Barely clinging to his senses, Yeonwoo called out to the dice with trembling hands.

"Resistance, quick!"

Roll-

Failure!

"Ah."

In the time it took for the dice to roll once, the murderous disease had reached his brain. The urge to kill people filled his head. Cold, efficient thoughts flashed through Yeonwoo's mind.

'How to kill people.'

He could amplify the disease's infectiousness. He could roll for natural disasters. There were many methods. People die for various reasons. Even if most fail, success in just one would easily kill.

'Killing is easier than surviving.'

Just as a red glint flashed in Yeonwoo's water-soaked eyes, he suddenly looked at the agent.

A helmet with various protective functions, leather rider's clothing, gloves and boots. The agent, who had avoided infection, was watching Yeonwoo intently.

The agent reported into his helmet's microphone:

"The muder disease has been dispersed. Investigator Lee Yeonwoo is infected. His eyes are red. I'll respond on-site."

The hand holding the eraser turned towards Yeonwoo.

In that moment, memories resurfaced. The destruction that began at the doomsday cultist's fingertips. The eraser that erased clouds, split mountains in half, and even erased the dice's results.

Yeonwoo's gaze cleared. His trembling hands steadied.

"Wait, wait a moment. I'm fine. Really."

Hands raised in surrender. The umbrella in his hand rose high, jabbing the ceiling.

Yeonwoo muttered internally.

'Kill what? I'm the one who's going to die.'

Though his eyes were still red, aggressive thoughts and murderous impulses sank beneath his survival instinct.

"...Are you sure?"

"Yes. Enough time has passed for the dice to roll a few times. But I haven't done anything."

"What about murderous urges-"

"What kind of idiot would I be to get myself killed while trying to kill others? I won't do it. More importantly, let's catch and kill that Association President first."

The agent kept a suspicious eye on Yeonwoo for a while, then turned his hand.

The eraser briefly swept through the air. A gap appeared in the pouring water, pushed aside by the following streams, and the locked door was erased.

"Because of a damn TV like this...!"

In the room where water poured from the sprinklers.

The Association President threw the TV against the wall, then stomped on it furiously before freezing in place. He turned only his head to look at Yeonwoo and the agent.

"Agent, you need to erase the dice first! Who knows what disaster it might cause-"

Bang-!

A bullet pierced his thigh. A stream of blood spurted out. The Association President let out a short scream and collapsed to the floor.

Yeonwoo lowered his gun to aim at the man's head, calmly looking down at him.

'He showed interest in the dice. He'll keep being a nuisance in the future. So I'll kill him here.'