Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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Blue flowers grew at the Blue House.

The sweltering heat blew in with the wind on the road. People, sweating profusely, hurried back and forth. Loud voices echoed.

In the midst of the commotion, only the company workers remained silent.

“….”

“….”

Kim Gapdong and Lee Seoyeon, who had been eavesdropping, turned pale. The manager and the man stared into the void, lost in thought, then slowly turned their gaze to Lee Yeonwoo.

The man, who had loosened his grip on the cylinder, spoke.

“So what? What are you trying to say?”

“Can we form an alliance or a cooperative relationship? Honestly, it’s unlikely with just the Clock Repairmen. The more people we have, the higher the chance of success.”

Lee Yeonwoo spoke frankly, saying they needed their help and asking for their strength.

His voice was sincere. In truth, the Clock Repairmen were just a small group of people. His eyes conveyed his emotions directly.

The manager dug into his pocket, pulled out a business card, and slipped it into Yeonwoo\'s eco bag.

“If it\'s something I can help with, I will. I\'ll talk to the factions too, they\'ll probably be willing to help.”

Regardless of the factions, no one would ridicule or ignore the Clock Repairmen.

“Thank you.”

Yeonwoo bowed his head, opened the eco bag, and looked at the card inside. It read, "First Response Division Manager, Intelligence Department."

‘Intelligence Department Manager. He\'ll be a great help.’

As he memorized the phone number, a new business card flew in.

Another business card landed on top of the one from the response team manager. It read, "Operations Manager, Special Forces, Korean Branch." He heard the voice of the man.

“As long as you don\'t interfere with us, we\'ll help. And we\'ll avoid your area of activity as much as possible.”

When Yeonwoo looked at him, he was staring at the blue flowers with eyes where the spark had faded.

“If you succeed, it\'s a good thing. A really good thing.”

He stood at an angle, his expression hard to read. Yeonwoo silently bowed his head again.

The tense atmosphere vanished completely. The manager sighed softly and lifted his phone.

“Cleanup is going to be busy. …Those guys will be a hassle too.”

The company workers turned their heads. From the direction of the main gate, two employees of the Anomaly Management Agency were running frantically. Their hands, holding ID cards, were trembling.

“What happened here! We couldn\'t stop-”

The employee who had approached looked at the operations manager\'s hand. The blue seed was sealed in the cylinder.

At that moment, the company workers\' minds became one.

\'We can\'t let these government agency guys catch us in a weak spot.\'

The road ahead was long. The Anomaly Management Agency, a government organization, would be troublesome if they got involved.

Yeonwoo spoke first.

“We are all company workers. Unfortunately, we couldn\'t prevent the terrorist attack, but we stopped additional attacks. This Special Forces member seized the anomaly from the terrorists.”

At the same time, the manager pointed his phone at them. As a soft pink light flickered, their eyes became cloudy.

The manager echoed Yeonwoo\'s words.

“This is the current situation. An apocalyptic extremist stole the company\'s blue flowers. The company tried to handle it, preventing further attacks. The company is also doing its best to manage the aftermath of the attack.”

“Ah… Is that so….”

“Ah….”

They stood blankly, their voices dull.

When the manager put away his phone, their eyes began to focus again. They blinked a few times, then glared at the blooming blue flowers.

Their eyes and voices filled with rising anger.

“Apocalyptic extremists…! Doing this in our country!”

If it were an apocalyptic extremist, they could certainly do such a thing. They wished for the world to end.

Ding-ding-ding-

At that moment, both their phones started ringing. It was a call from the Anomaly Management Agency. Seeing the screen, the faces of the agency employees instantly turned pale.

In a hurry, they took the call and began speaking while bowing their heads. They repeated exactly what Lee Yeonwoo and the manager had told them.

“Yes, yes. The company prevented additional attacks. They are now doing their best to manage the situation.”

“We haven\'t confirmed any survivors yet. Yes, we\'ll help the company with the cleanup.”

The two, sweating nervously, ended the call and stared blankly at the manager and the blue flower.

“What do we do now? How do we stop that?”

“A special helicopter loaded with a substance to kill the blue flower.”

The manager\'s voice cut off mid-sentence. He couldn\'t take his eyes off the blue flower.

The flower was in full bloom.

An anomaly made of blue flames had blossomed. The roaring sound of the flames consuming oxygen was no longer heard. The blue petals quietly fluttered, burning dust, leaves, and construction materials.

Amid the black smoke scattered like pollen, blue particles occasionally soared like a cluster of stars.

Seeds scattered everywhere, carried by the wind.

“So soon?”

The manager\'s eyes widened. The blue flower was undoubtedly reproducing, growing faster than expected.

The operations manager glanced at the manager as if it were obvious.

“They worked hard to improve it. Like the electric snake used in tasers, to make it a weapon. Damn apocalyptic extremists, how did they know and steal it?”

The blue flower\'s seeds spread everywhere. It was a somewhat dreamlike sight, but the result was horrific. Seeds landed all over the Blue House.

Around the road where they stood, the seeds consumed oxygen, sprouted, grew blue stems, and formed buds.

---

---

“Fire?”

“Put it out!”

People reacted quickly. They stopped running, stomped on the seeds with their shoes, and hit the blue seeds with their jackets. Someone came out with a fire extinguisher and sprayed white powder.

Small buds that hadn\'t grown yet were extinguished.

But where eyes couldn\'t see, the blue flower continued to grow.

Once all the flowers fully bloomed, they would scatter seeds again. Those seeds would become flowers and bloom again.

“If this continues, downtown Seoul…”

The manager\'s eyebrows twitched with a blue tint. As the First Response Division manager, he could predict.

The time it would take for the company to respond, the speed at which the blue flower reproduced, the scale of damage and casualties in the meantime.

The manager began pacing in place.

“The company alone won\'t be enough. What needs to be done now. …Hey, Anomaly Management Agency.”

“Yes, yes!”

The employee, who had been stomping on nearby seeds, quickly looked up.

The manager pointed alternately at them and the Blue House.

“Evacuate the area and contact the fire department to prevent the seeds from spreading.”

The company could also mobilize government agencies, but requests from the national Anomaly Management Agency were more effective.

The employee, dialing a number, paused and looked at the manager.

“Evacuation orders and emergency alerts have probably already been issued. Tell us how to deal with those flowers.”

“Fire. In the end, it’s fire.”

Buds and seeds could be killed by dousing them with water and cutting off oxygen.

But that also took time. The issue was how much the flowers would spread before they started responding.

“We need to deal with the seeds immediately.”

The manager looked at the blue flowers sprouting everywhere.

The flowers were multiplying exponentially. They had to respond on the spot. Killing one seed now would greatly reduce the damage.

The manager, holding a hypnosis app, approached the people around. A woman in a business suit, busy moving, had the app thrust in her face the moment she saw the manager.

“Find a fire extinguisher, walk around, and deal with the blue flames.”

“Yes….”

After hypnotizing a few more people around him, the manager looked back at the company worker.

“I\'ll stay here and hold them off as much as possible. You all go back.”

“We\'ve achieved our goal. I won\'t stop you.”

It was the operations manager holding the cylinder. The manager frowned once but didn\'t argue further. The operations manager walked away leisurely, gradually distancing himself.

Lee Yeonwoo also slung the eco bag over his shoulder. He tapped the two Intelligence Department agents.

“Let\'s go.”

“Oh, yes, we should go.”

Kim Gapdong and Lee Seoyeon staggered with faces drained of life. They had realized the anomaly and the preservation plan while eavesdropping on the conversation.

They walked silently towards the Blue House’s main gate.

They exited the main gate and entered the bustling city streets. The streets were crowded with people. Some were taking pictures of the Blue House with their phones, others were fleeing, and police officers were shouting for people to evacuate….

And the blue seeds that had landed on the street, carried by the wind.

“What is this? It\'s pretty.”

“Shouldn\'t we put it out?”

“Let\'s just take a picture.”

People gathered around the seeds that grew by consuming oxygen, aiming their phones at them. Even when the police tried to evacuate them, people wouldn\'t leave.

“….”

“….”

Yeonwoo suddenly stopped walking. Kim Gapdong and Lee Seoyeon, who had been walking in a daze following Yeonwoo, stopped a few steps later.

Yeonwoo was looking up at a utility pole.

“Mr. Kim Gapdong, did you bring the taser gun?”

“Oh, yes. I brought it.”

“Can you deal with the blue flower using the electric snake?”

“Well….”

Slowly, expression returned to Kim Gapdong’s dazed face.

“It might be possible. But if it consumes too much electricity, it might go out of control. It could cause more trouble-”

Kim Gapdong stopped talking.

The Blue House was in ruins, and the road was a mess. The disaster was already severe. And they were talking about the end of the world. Compared to that, everything else seemed trivial.

Kim Gapdong let out a helpless laugh.

“Fine, whatever. Let\'s give it a shot. How much worse could it get now?”

“I\'ll do it, senior!”

Lee Seoyeon hurriedly opened Kim Gapdong’s bag and took out her taser gun. Before he could say anything, she aimed the taser gun at the power lines hanging in the sky.

“My snake is obedient. It listens well and is friendly with me.”

Click-

The trigger was pulled, and a blue lightning bolt shot out. The blue snake coiled around the power lines.

The snake paused for a moment, then lifted its head and looked down at Lee Seoyeon. Its eyes, which appeared as round voids, seemed to ask if it could really consume this.

Lee Seoyeon nodded.

“Eat up! Then grow big and take care of these flowers!”

The snake turned its head to look at the blue flowers blooming everywhere. Then it plunged its head into the utility pole and began absorbing electricity.

A flashing light. Blue lightning gathered on the ground.

The blue light grew increasingly intense. Yeonwoo shielded his eyes with one hand and made a confused expression.

‘I meant to ask if it could handle the blue flowers blocking our escape route.’

But if they could deal with the flowers here, that wasn\'t bad either. Yeonwoo squinted at the blue lightning snake through the dazzling light.

The snake, rapidly growing as it consumed electricity, wrapped around all the utility poles on the street.