Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: posted in discord

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Yeonwoo wanted to shore up his weaknesses.

He needed enhanced perception to counter his vulnerability to attacks, regeneration to overcome the fragility of the human body, and risk management to alleviate his fear of the dice\'s failures.

Now he\'d found a way to maintain his sense of self, but in a way, there was something even more important.

\'A blessed child... If one was by my side, wouldn\'t I avoid accidents and incidents?\'

Hope sparkled in Yeonwoo\'s eyes as he looked at the monitor.

Until now, he\'d just accepted that this was how his life was, but if he could change the fate that brought dangerous accidents...

\'I could live peacefully, right? No, calm down. Don\'t get too excited.\'

Whoo-

Yeonwoo took a deep breath and moved the mouse. Having grown from the observatory experience, he started by looking up relevant information.

The blessed child. True to being an anomalous entity, a child followed by incomprehensible luck.

\'Stocks this kid picks hit the upper limit, isolation attempts fail due to problems, gacha pulls succeed in one try. Attackers get lost, trip, have accidental discharges.\'

The observation records and experiment lists were quite long. That ridiculous luck.

Yeonwoo muttered in a small voice.

"I\'d like to meet them once..."

It was worth testing his fate.

Yeonwoo put his hand on the mouse. The cursor hovered right over the accept button. And just as his finger moved to click-

His hand stopped. Yeonwoo blinked.

\'Am I really going to work right after that chaos yesterday? This doesn\'t seem right.\'

It was just yesterday that he\'d dealt with Pluto\'s contamination. Living like a workaholic, taking on requests day after day, wasn\'t like him.

After going through something big, he should rest for a while to recover his physical and mental strength.

Whoosh-

The mouse moved, closing the company system. Yeonwoo leaned back in his chair leisurely.

\'Let\'s rest for a few days.\'

As Yeonwoo picked up his phone, Yoo Ji-yoo, who was also killing time, turned her head.

"Did you choose a request?"

"I did pick one. But I\'m going to rest for a few days since I overdid it yesterday."

"..."

Yeonwoo was tapping on his phone when he felt a gaze from the side and slowly turned his head.

His eyes met Yoo Ji-yoo\'s. She was looking at Yeonwoo with eyes full of envy. Pure envy.

A one-person department. He was both the department head and the only employee, with no one to give him orders.

"You only work when you want to? No quotas? No mandatory requests?"

"Not really..."

Just then.

Their phones rang simultaneously. Thinking it was an urgent message from the company, they hurriedly checked their phones, their faces twisting strangely.

"Have the doomsday cultists gone mad? Well, they were always crazy, but why are they acting up like this?"

"Did the doomsday cultists really send this?"

Yeonwoo also stared blankly at his phone. An advertisement message mass-sent by the doomsday cultists.

[♚♚Doomsday Cultist♚♚Join now$$Everyone becomes anomalous entity☜☜100% guaranteed※♜♜Free explosives￥ Mass murder§§High-ranking doomsday cultist§§★★Chance to gain position@@@ Start terrorizing now]

\'...Are they short on people?\'

Yeonwoo thought slowly. It seemed they were trying to recruit like this because they lacked manpower.

Though he wasn\'t sure if there were any humans who\'d become doomsday cultists because of this.

---

---

Time passed.

After resting for a while, Yeonwoo accepted the request to see the blessed child. There were some accidents like the internet cutting out or the mouse cord coming unplugged, but he managed to accept it without problems.

Yeonwoo, ready to leave, stood up from his seat and gave a slight bow.

"Then I\'ll be going."

"Oh, alright. Be careful."

"Take your time coming back."

The team leader and Yoo Ji-yoo nodded with bright faces, waving their hands cheerfully as they sent Yeonwoo off.

Yeonwoo left the office with an uneasy expression.

\'I guess I\'d dislike having someone like me around too. Still, it feels a bit off.\'

With that, Yeonwoo got in his car and left.

His destination was the Bird Migration Center, where the blessed child was said to be.

"Ah, driving. It\'s such a hassle."

Though the company covered gas costs, the act of driving long distances and moving around was work in itself. Yeonwoo stepped on the accelerator, sharpening his tired mind.

Winding through national roads, then onto the highway. He drove towards the far-off destination.

During the drive, he received a phone call. It was Mark Jung.

- Have you left?

"I\'m on my way. Is something wrong?"

Yeonwoo listened intently to the sudden call. His eyes focused on driving, but his ears concentrated on Mark Jung\'s voice.

Was there something he needed to avoid at the Bird Migration Center?

Mark Jung spoke lightly.

- Nothing much. I just checked the request too, and there doesn\'t seem to be anything you need to avoid or not do.

"...Then why did you call?"

Yeonwoo asked curiously, and Mark Jung answered with a voice mixed with some expectation.

- Headquarters is also interested in this experiment. It\'s a potential Level 6, but we don\'t know how long it\'ll take to reach that level. They\'re very interested in whether it can be doped with other anomalous entities.

"..."

Yeonwoo kept his mouth shut.

\'It feels like if the results are good, I\'ll be deployed on dangerous missions with the blessed child.\'

Something felt off. An uneasy feeling.

Yeonwoo quickly changed the subject.

"By the way, the doomsday cultists have been sending out advertisement texts lately. Aren\'t they plotting something strange?"

- Ah. No, they\'re purely short on people. It\'s all thanks to your achievements.

The Reptilian plague ran wild at their gathering, and later they were unluckily hit by afterlife fragments.

The doomsday cultists had taken such a blow that they could barely operate normally.

- Above all, didn\'t you take out the doomsday cultist with the eraser? Actually, their downfall was predetermined from that moment.

Mark Jung explained with a chuckle.

The doomsday cultist who erased even his own name. The doomsday cultist who had been blocking various sabotage attempts from other groups. From the moment he died, their future was decided.

The doomsday cultists would wither and die.

- Plans have already been drawn up. We\'ll steadily carry out operations in all sorts of ways, but can they hold out?

"Ah."

Yeonwoo suddenly realized. The one he\'d luckily defeated with a critical success, the one multiple versions of himself had to gang up on to overcome, had been playing the role of a Danger Level 6 for the doomsday cultists.

Well, it had taken five dice rolling together to even have a chance of winning.

\'Was he at a level approaching 6?\'

At that point, Yeonwoo arrived at his destination.

The Bird Migration Center.

"I\'ve arrived."

- Yes, good work.

The call ended. Yeonwoo parked his car in the outdoor parking lot and got out leisurely.

He looked around and took a deep breath.

Maybe because it was a Bird Migration Center built on an empty plain, but the atmosphere was really nice. The air was clear, and an overall peaceful energy flowed.

It was enough to naturally relax his tension and mind.

\'It already feels good.\'

Yeonwoo stood still for a moment. He savored the safe feeling, as if he\'d entered a shelter.

"Who are you?"

"I\'m Lee Yeonwoo from the Gambling Eradication Center. I\'m here for the collaborative experiment today..."

As he stood there, a security guard cautiously approached, and Yeonwoo went through security procedures to enter the center grounds.

Various birds greeted Yeonwoo with different cries. Also, a researcher who walked out slowly nodded his head towards Yeonwoo.

"The child is waiting inside. Let\'s go quickly."

"Alright."

Yeonwoo followed the researcher, looking around as he walked and said,

"This place is just like a zoo. Are those birds anomalous entities?"

Cages surrounded by wire mesh or glass walls, with birds leisurely walking around inside.

The researcher glanced at the cages and nodded.

"This is a place to isolate bird-form anomalous entities. The names of those birds over there are Nuclear, Drone, Aircraft Carrier, F-15, UFO."

"What kind of bird names are those."

Did that mean they had that much firepower? Yeonwoo looked at the birds with tense eyes, but the birds were just stupidly nodding off.

They looked like completely ordinary birds.

The researcher said,

"When detected by radar or information resources, they\'re recognized as their names. As nuclear missiles, aircraft carriers, or fighter jets."

"Ah."

Yeonwoo exclaimed in admiration, looking at the birds anew. Safe anomalous entities. No special secrets, no potential danger factors.

\'How long has it been since I\'ve seen such simple and ordinary anomalous entities?\'

He felt something like emotion. It was like experiencing the daily life of an ordinary company employee.

The researcher looked at Yeonwoo as if he were a strange person, then hurried his steps.

"Here it is. The room where the child stays."

They went to a room in the center building. A nameplate hung on the door like a child\'s room, with various stickers and drawings attached.

The researcher knocked briefly and spoke in a kind voice.

"I\'m coming in."

"Okay!"

An innocent child\'s voice was heard. Yeonwoo, full of curiosity, watched the slowly opening door.

Beyond the wide-open door was a child\'s room. Toys, books, and bird dolls were scattered around, and a children\'s anime was playing on the TV.

In front of the TV, a child who looked about kindergarten age was fixated on the screen.

\'The blessed child?\'

Though they looked like an ordinary kid, something was different. From the moment he entered, Yeonwoo felt his mind relaxing. An intuition close to certainty that this place was safe.

At that moment. The child who couldn\'t take their eyes off the TV suddenly turned around, waving their hand happily and-

Their eyes met Yeonwoo\'s. Yeonwoo put on the most harmless smile he could manage. After all, it was a child. And he didn\'t want to appear as an enemy and suffer misfortune.

He timidly raised his hand slightly and waved.

"Hello?"

"Uh, uh, uwaaaaah!"

In an instant, the child\'s expression changed. The child who had been happily watching the children\'s anime looked at Yeonwoo as if seeing a nightmare and started crying as if they couldn\'t breathe.

Tears and snot poured out, their face turning white. The researcher hurriedly approached.

"Child? This mister isn\'t a bad person-"

"Bad!"

Both Yeonwoo and the researcher were taken aback. In that brief moment, the child jumped up and, before they could stop him, darted past the two of them and ran away with quick steps.

Thump, they hit Yeonwoo\'s thigh with their hand as they passed and disappeared down the corridor.

Yeonwoo blankly watched the child\'s retreating figure. Staff trying to catch the child tumbled over. The child vanished from sight in an instant.

"...What? No, really, what?"

Yeonwoo muttered in bewilderment.

\'Do I look scary enough to make them wail like that? I don\'t think so? There must be another reason?\'

But before his thoughts could progress, the situation rapidly unfolded.

The researcher sighed and turned towards Yeonwoo. He spoke firmly.

"We\'ll cancel the request. With the child reacting like this, the experiment is impossible. To be honest, I didn\'t really want to do the experiment either."

"Ah, I see."

And so, Yeonwoo was confusedly kicked out of the Bird Migration Center. Standing in front of the center\'s main gate, Yeonwoo blinked.

A request ended in an instant without any incident. The blessed child who ran away.

Having finally grasped the situation, he muttered in a daze.

"So not encountering me is considered lucky?"