Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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A room where the 1st Deputy Director, Chief of Staff, and Planning Director were meeting.

The atmosphere was cheerful as the counterattack had concluded successfully. They leaned back comfortably, smiles on their faces, their voices tinged with laughter.

The 1st Deputy Director shuffled through some documents and grinned.

"The Ghost stole - no, confiscated - all the anomalous objects from three galleries. We also took legal action to seize several Club assets using government authority.

Those bastards don\'t even have a penthouse to hold meetings in anymore."

"That investigator blew up one of their businesses entirely. I like that the best!"

As the Chief of Staff guffawed, the 1st Deputy Director glared at him.

"The Special Forces didn\'t do anything. Why are you so pleased?"

"Hey now. We\'re the ones who do the bloody work. You guys should handle this kind of stuff."

The Chief of Staff smiled contentedly, then suddenly glanced at the Planning Director\'s expression.

The Planning Director was lost in thought, looking at a particular document. He suddenly raised his head and firmly pressed his temples.

It wasn\'t all successful.

"This is all well and good, but... we can\'t use that investigator anymore. He gave up the Eraser, so we have no leverage to make him work."

"Can\'t we just give him ample compensation, whether cash or anomalous objects?"

"It probably won\'t work."

A screen displaying Lee Yeonwoo\'s information appeared on the monitor. It shifted to the psychological assessment and company compensation sections.

"He\'s estimated to have an aversion to risk itself, and he lacks nothing, wants nothing."

The company had provided him with ample money, and the Dice could replace all anomalous objects.

But if they tried to force something...

"If we mishandle this, it\'ll blow up in our faces. I can\'t even predict how big the losses would be if things go wrong."

"Investigators put their lives on the line just like us. If we mess around, we\'re screwed."

The Chief of Staff quickly grasped the situation.

There were hardly any missions without mortal danger. For people who couldn\'t even guarantee they\'d be alive tomorrow, they wouldn\'t tolerate absurdity. They\'d rather take revenge.

As company employees who had climbed up from the bottom themselves, they\'d seen all sorts of sh*t.

Shooting an unlikeable superior in the head, stealing wallets while wearing a fluorescent vest, spiking coffee with memory erasers, firing taser guns at computers or phones.

Recalling unpleasant memories, they fell silent for a moment and skimmed through Yeonwoo\'s information.

"Ah. Still, it\'s a shame to let him go. Isn\'t he an elite agent at this level? With someone this capable, I\'d like to pile on the work."

"You think the head office brought him in for nothing?"

"Those head office bastards. If they claim all the competent ones for themselves, what are we supposed to do?"

"There must be a way to motivate him though."

They grumbled while flipping through documents for a while.

Suddenly, the 1st Deputy Director made a strange expression.

"Why is the information so sparse?"

It was too thin for an employee\'s profile. Just a few lines on Yeonwoo\'s achievements and experience, a few lines on the anomalous objects he possessed, a few lines of psychological assessment.

Even for a simple employee, it couldn\'t be this short. For a special management target, a profiler should have written an extensive psychological analysis.

The Planning Director let out a hollow laugh.

"He\'s a newbie who hasn\'t even had his health checkup yet. What can you do?"

The regular health checkups included psychological counseling. It was to manage the mental health of employees who saw a lot of brutal things.

Yeonwoo was still a rookie who hadn\'t been there for a year, so he hadn\'t received that psychological counseling yet.

"But still, just analyzing the reports and actions he\'s submitted so far..."

"There\'s a health checkup coming up soon anyway. We can analyze based on the psychological counseling data then. It\'s not too late."

The 1st Deputy Director nodded with a sigh.

Well, from what they\'d seen, he seemed to be a diligent employee when it came to company work. It wasn\'t an urgent issue.

The Planning Director wrapped up the conversation.

"Anyway, let\'s finish messing with other groups here. Keep your guard up in case they attack, and as for Yeonwoo the special investigator..."

The Planning Director paused briefly, glancing at the calendar. The health checkups for all employees were conducted slowly over the course of a month.

"The Planning Department will handle it. After the psychological analysis is done, we\'ll try to negotiate."

If they were human, they had desires, and in exchange for satisfying those desires, they could assign them work. Whether it was simple money, safety, belonging, recognition, self-actualization, whatever.

The Planning Director felt somewhat confident.

---

---

"Team Leader, Senior Jiyoo. Here\'s a gift."

Some time had passed. The exploration was over, and Yeonwoo had finished writing all his reports.

It was the day when the villagers had come out of their cramped space and contracted with the company to become a new combat unit, and the company had promised to kill them when they wanted.

Yeonwoo took out several bundles of bills from his bag and distributed them to the Team Leader and Yoo Jiyoo. For each person, 10 50,000 won bills and 50 10,000 won bills. The two accepted the money with bewildered expressions.

Suddenly giving them money like this?

Jiyoo\'s eyes suddenly lit up with realization as she looked at Yeonwoo. Her mouth gaped in astonishment.

"You used the Dice, didn\'t you? You used it to win the lottery! I didn\'t think you\'d use it for something like that!"

"What? No, no."

"Yeonwoo. This isn\'t right. If you give a bribe this openly, the Audit Department will catch you. Give it to me in, you know, cryptocurrency."

The Team Leader chimed in with a mischievous look. He\'d figured out what this was, but chances to tease this rookie didn\'t come often.

"No, this is..."

Yeonwoo waved his hands in the air, then suddenly nodded. His hand moved towards the money bundles.

"It is a bit much, isn\'t it? I\'ll take it back."

"Too late!"

Jiyoo quickly hid the money behind her back, and the Team Leader nodded as he counted the bills. One million won. Enough to buy one million won\'s worth of time.

"This\'ll come in handy. Did you get it from the exploration?"

"Yes. I got quite a lot."

At that point, Jiyoo caught on too.

"Is this an anomalous object?"

"It\'s what those Club bastards use. The ones who don\'t make much money use it. Or humans with too much money to spare."

Most used gold bars, they rarely used ambiguous bills like these.

They said it bought time, but the amount paid varied depending on the user\'s value, and impossible things didn\'t happen for the user.

After briefly explaining, Yeonwoo demonstrated.

He took out a 10,000 won bill and set it on fire with a torch. The bill burned without smoke, and Yeonwoo looked at the trash can.

"Empty the trash can."

As soon as the bill completely burned away, the trash bag disappeared. It probably went outside, neatly tied up.

Jiyoo\'s mouth hung open. She carefully pulled out a few bills and tucked them into her wallet, clothes pockets, phone case, and shoe soles. Stockpiling for emergencies.

Then she stared quietly at Yeonwoo\'s torch.

"Do you have to set it on fire?"

"Probably? I\'m not exactly sure either..."

"Yeah. You have to burn it with fire."

When the Team Leader answered, Jiyoo made an ambiguous expression.

"I guess I\'ll need to buy a lighter. Still, I\'ll put it to good use!"

"It\'s not a good item. It\'s a bit tricky to use in a real emergency."

It had some drawbacks making it hard to use in a critical situation. Taking out the bill, lighting it on fire, then waiting for it to burn completely. It was rather cumbersome.

Jiyoo casually stroked the bundle of bills, then suddenly looked surprised.

"It\'s better than nothing. ...Wait a second. Did you say the Club? What crime did they commit against you to keep getting robbed?"

"They were trying to kill me. So while escaping, I grabbed this and that. Oh, I also have rice and water."

Yeonwoo opened his bag wide and started taking out supplies one by one.

Water, rice, ramen, kimchi, fruit, alcohol, condiments, generator, computer, folding barricade, tent, blanket, gas burner, drone, handgun, bullets...

As his hands moved busily, the endless stream of supplies left the Team Leader and Jiyoo unable to laugh or cry. Yeonwoo looked pleased, but after all, these were spoils of war obtained by risking his life.

The Team Leader waved his hand.

"Stop, stop. Yeonwoo, stop taking things out. Unpack it all at your place. How can we keep all that here?"

"Ah, about that."

Yeonwoo scratched his cheek. Embarrassment showed on his face.

"My shelter got blown up, right? So I was planning to stay here until I find a new place. Will that be a problem?"

"There\'s no problem, but..."

The Team Leader quietly averted his eyes.

Would the building Yeonwoo stayed in remain intact? His studio building was erased, and the shelter was erased too. If something happened to the office they just renovated...

The Team Leader let out a deep sigh. Was the building important? People were what mattered. And he even received bills that could buy time.

"Alright. There\'s an empty room over there, use that."

Yeonwoo smiled brightly as he put everything back in the bag, then went into the small room and took out a sleeping bag and gas burner.

After roughly turning it into a livable room and coming back, the Team Leader and Jiyoo were chatting while looking at the monitor.

"Damn. What\'s with this health checkup? It\'s just a hassle."

"Still, it\'s better to get it. It\'s free, after all."

"It\'s a pain in the ass."

Yeonwoo tilted his head.

"Did something come up?"

"Oh. Health checkup season\'s here."

Yeonwoo\'s expression hardened. A company examination? Honestly, he didn\'t have good memories of it, and it didn\'t seem like anything good would come of it.

He got thrown into the Giant\'s world while trying to avoid an exam, and now his physiology had changed from digesting rainwater. If this was discovered in a blood test, it was clear what would happen.

\'The researchers will covet my blood.\'

Yeonwoo asked in a subdued voice.

"Is it mandatory?"

"The psychological counseling is mandatory. You can skip the physical exam."

"Ah. That\'s a relief."

Yeonwoo sat down with a much more relieved expression and checked the company\'s message.

It said to check the exams he wanted to receive, so he only checked the mandatory psychological counseling and confirmed the date and location.

\'The date is the day after tomorrow. And the counseling center is assigned to a place close by.\'

And then, time passed and the day of the counseling arrived.