Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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The exam hall, which had been noisy with people packing their belongings, fell into a fearful silence once more.

People who had been gathering their stationery, slinging their bags over their shoulders, and standing up to leave happily now looked at the speaker with stiff faces.

Then, a voice mixed with noise echoed.

-Anyone leaving the exam hall during exam time will be considered a cheater. Any examinee who stands up during exam time will be considered a cheater.

“No, no! This can\'t be!”

Faces that had been relaxed with hope and relief were now filled with despair. Their expressions were contorted, and their voices hoarse.

Someone swung their hand, roughly pushing the desk away, causing the legs to scrape sharply against the classroom floor.

A student collapsed beside the displaced desk, covering their ears tightly with their fists.

With eyes tightly shut and head shaking from side to side, their rapidly moving lips mumbled.

“No, no, no. This can\'t be real.”

The announcement continued.

-Cheaters are immediately disqualified from the Human Qualification Exam. Disqualified persons are no longer human.

Simultaneously, the howls of beasts erupted.

The chorus of beasts, indescribable and offensive, seemed to mock humanity.

Then, 13 beasts rampaged, escaping the exam hall.

Chairs toppled over.

Desks were pushed out of place.

Test papers and answer sheets were trampled underfoot, leaving clear footprints of the beasts.

The orderly exam hall became a complete mess.

As the beasts passed by, the students, who had clung to their desks with their heads down, raised their heads, trembling.

Their unsteady gazes turned towards the hallway.

The hallway was filled with rampaging beasts.

“Graaaaagh!”

The beasts ran, roared, leaped, and smashed nameplates and water dispensers.

From the bathroom in the middle of the hallway, a beast that had been the long-time exam taker emerged, its hair wet, joining the pack of beasts.

It was a horrific scene.

From various directions, the sounds of supervisors urgently emerging could be heard.

“What on earth is happening? Is this a terrorist attack? How did beasts get to the third-floor hallway? Did someone deliberately release them?”

“How many got in? And why today, of all days?”

“The exam headquarters contacted 119 for support. Everyone, please handle the examinees.”

Voices treating them as beasts, not even considering they were humans just moments ago.

They hadn\'t noticed anything unusual.

“Hoo.”

Yeonwoo took a deep breath as calmly as he could.

Rubbing his head, which had been hit by a beast, he gathered his scattered thoughts.

Fortunately, seeing it a second time was less shocking than the first.

He even felt a sense of relief.

‘13 of them. Including the long-time exam taker, 14 have been disqualified. I don’t know how many will pass, but this is good.’

Fifteen minutes had passed during all this.

There were 70 minutes left and 99 questions remaining.

Yeonwoo began answering from question 2.

The sound of pens clicking, faint sobs, shaking legs, and severe coughing were no longer distractions.

They were positive signs that his competitors couldn\'t concentrate.

This put his mind at ease.

‘...2. ...2. ...2. Is this right? Three consecutive 2s? No, there’s no time. Just move on.’

Even if it seemed strange, he read and answered without stopping.

His eyes moved from the questions and choices to marking the answers with a V. He worried if these were truly humane answers, but there was no time.

He worked diligently, solving all 100 questions before the exam time ended.

He had spent about 30 seconds per question. After 50 minutes, he had 20 minutes remaining.

Pop-

Yeonwoo checked his electronic watch, then set down his pen.

‘I’ll mark only the ones I’m sure about first. I’ll come back to the confusing ones later.’

Scribble, scribble, scribble—

The black sign pen went back and forth three times on the firm answer sheet.

Yeonwoo carefully marked the correct answers, checking the question number and marking spot repeatedly.

He made sure the marks didn’t stray from the circles, were not too light, and were completely filled.

‘Okay, it looks good. Number 30, option 1. Number 31, option 4. Number 32 is confusing, so I’ll come back to it later. Number 33.’

Thus, the initial marking was completed.

After confirming that his personal information was correctly filled, Yeonwoo hurriedly opened the test paper again.

He quickly searched for the questions he had marked with triangles.

The questions he had delayed marking because they were confusing.

‘There are 10 minutes left. Hurry.’

He had spent 10 minutes marking too carefully, leaving little time to deeply consider the confusing questions.

Tick-tock, tick-tock—

The second hand of the wall clock raced.

A moment of hesitation meant the second hand completed one round, and one minute passed.

A longer hesitation meant it went around three times, and three minutes passed.

When he reached the last question, there was less than a minute left.

Yeonwoo checked the time and deliberated until the end.

‘My heart says 2, but 1 seems more humane. Should I change it? No, if I change it, it’ll be wrong. Go with 2. But 1 is... Oh, just pick one.’

With a sense of resignation, he marked the last question.

Screech—

The clock hands narrowly pointed to 11:40. The 100-minute exam that started at 10:00 had ended.

Ding-dong-dang-dong—

The bell that signaled the start of the exam now signaled its end. Yeonwoo placed his pen on the desk carelessly.

He looked down at the answer sheet with vacant eyes.

A sense of exhaustion, as if all his energy had been drained, overwhelmed him.

It felt like he had been dreaming.

‘Really? Is it over? Was it real?’

He felt a sudden sense of disbelief and an unrealistic sensation.

Slowly, he looked around the exam hall. Everyone else was staring into space with vacant eyes.

Scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble—

However, even after the ending bell had rung, someone was still using their pen.

A hand hurriedly marked the answer sheet, moving frantically between the answer sheet and the test paper. The disheveled head shook wildly.

“Number 1, number 3, number 3, number 2.”

A small, rapid muttering.

A voice mixed with noise flowed from the speaker.

-Writing on the answer sheet after the exam has ended is considered cheating, and the examinee will be disqualified.

“No! I finished it all! The announcement was late—!”

The examinee, who had been writing on the answer sheet after the exam ended, stood up abruptly and ran out to the hallway.

“Aaaaagh!”

The examinee, who had not followed the rules, turned into a beast.

The beast fled the exam hall, roughly pushing aside other examinees coming out of different classrooms.

“Ah! What’s that?”

“Isn’t that the one that was making a lot of noise earlier?”

“What kind of animal is that? Judging by the clothes, it must have an owner, right?”

A commotion erupted, but it was outside the classroom.

“….”

“….”

Even though the exam was over, the classroom Yeonwoo was in remained quiet.

The examinees who had taken the Human Qualification Exam didn’t dare leave their seats.

Although the exam seemed to be over, they were afraid of making a mistake and turning into beasts, so they didn’t move carelessly.

Thirty minutes passed in silence.

12:10.

A long time had passed since the exam ended.

It was lunchtime.

The sound of growling stomachs echoed from all around.

It was only then that it felt like they woke from a dream.

The examinees, glancing at each other, slowly began to rise from their seats and leave the classroom.

They left without incident.

A wave of departures began.

With a dazed expression, Yeonwoo also joined the exiting examinees.

‘Is it over? It’s really over.’

He remembered nothing of what happened next.

It was all a blur.

It seemed like he wobbled out of the high school building and walked back to his room in the goshiwon.

"Ah."

He thought suddenly at the door.

The exam was over. He had solved all the problems.

Yeonwoo instinctively opened the door to his gosiwon room and went inside.

A small room without even a window.

In front of the desk, dimly lit by a white desk lamp, Yeonwoo turned on his phone.

A schedule app reminder popped up, blinking to remind him that today was exam day, and a message from his mom, sent around 9 a.m. that morning, was displayed at the top of the screen.

[Son, it\'s exam day. Make sure to eat well, and even if you don\'t pass, it\'s okay—]

He couldn’t read any further and turned off the screen.

He tossed his phone onto the desk, causing a stack of study materials to topple over.

2025 Local Government Level 9 Civil Service Exam Solution Guide.

2024 Local Government Level 9 Civil Service Exam Solution Guide.

2023 Local Government Level 9 Civil Service Exam Solution Guide.

The years Yeonwoo had spent as a civil service exam student flashed by in reverse.

Each flashback ended with his failures.

‘Since I couldn’t even take the exam this time, I’ll need to buy the 2026 solution guide...’

Yeonwoo slumped into his chair, burying his head in his arms on the desk.

He hadn’t even taken the civil service exam.

He didn’t know the results of the Human Qualification Exam, which he barely managed to take.

‘When will the results come out?’

Would he have to live in fear, trembling about when he might turn into a beast?

As Yeonwoo’s face twisted with these terrible thoughts, he noticed an envelope on the corner of the desk, as if it had always been there.

‘What’s this...?’

Slowly, he reached out and opened the envelope.

Inside was something the size of a child’s palm.

It looked like a passport or a small notebook.

‘Could it be?’

His hurried hands flipped open the leather cover.

Inside was Yeonwoo’s identification photo, along with his name, date of birth, and the dates of passing and issuance.

Yeonwoo’s eyes stopped at a sentence in the middle.

-This entity is certified as human.

It was confirmation that he had passed the Human Qualification Exam.

His vision blurred, and a faint cry escaped his lips.

“Huuu. Huuuuu.”

A sense of relief washed over him. He no longer had to live in fear.

Then, looking at the certificate, he thought suddenly.

‘Human. I am human.’

He couldn’t control his emotions.

He wept until someone in the next room knocked on the wall, and until his mom called to check on him.

It was his fourth time taking the civil service exam.

Yeonwoo survived and began preparing for his fifth attempt.

---

[1. raei: From the author: in the actual civil service exam, it seems that before the starting bell rings, examinees can\'t even check the test booklet or mark personal information. Please consider the actions in the exam episode as creative license for the sake of the story.

]

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