Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: posted in discord

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The company\'s official notice and the information spread by the Ghost of the electronic world reached various groups almost simultaneously. News about headquarters was top priority, so the information quickly made its way to the highest levels.

A director of the Artist Association went deep into the Seoul Arts Center. The door, beautifully crafted from gold, jewels, and stone, was tightly shut. The director spoke from beyond the closed door.

"President, we\'ve received information about headquarters. It seems they\'re in crisis. What should we do?"

Silence hung in the air beyond the door.

The Association President usually stayed in a private room to minimize the effects of beauty. In a dark room, illuminated by soft lighting, they were observing a piece on the wall when they raised a hand to their ear, listening to the world\'s whispers.

The sound carried by the wind. The whimpering of the world struck by the Warrior, the world\'s drunken-like mumbling, confused by the dice\'s chaotic nature.

This alone wasn\'t enough to understand. Something had clearly gone wrong, but...

"Show me," the President said. It was a request from the world\'s most beautiful being. The world obliged.

Moisture and light in the air shifted, recreating the scene at headquarters like a mirage.

The parking lot flooded with mealworm heads. The Warrior\'s punches making the mealworms burst, and Yeonwoo, swept up by mealworms with only tentacle-like threads poking out.

"Ack!"

The President squeezed their eyes shut and flapped their body. It was a literally horrifying sight. Mealworm heads gathered in swarms. A disgusting scene that made their whole body shiver.

Goosebumps rose on their skin. Sensing this reaction, the world quickly erased the mirage.

The President trembled, forgetting their usual communication tablet, and shouted:

"Don\'t worry about headquarters! It\'s not beautiful there!"

The mealworms were obviously disgusting, the Warrior was the embodiment of destruction, and Yeonwoo had changed into something wrong, like a loach. His movements, slipping and sliding to avoid danger, were appalling. Even the world seemed shocked.

They didn\'t want to bring such things to the Arts Center.

"Ignore headquarters!"

That sincere voice, more beautiful than any song, rang out and captivated the director\'s mind. The director, losing all sense of self, faithfully carried out the order.

Thus, the Artist Association was the first to choose to ignore the situation.

Other groups reacted similarly.

Demons of chaos, gambling, and the like sensed headquarters and recoiled.

The naturally flowing concepts and information made them step back. That place was \'real\'. It wasn\'t a game stirred up for fun or interest.

"That\'s... We can\'t handle that kind of chaos."

"No, no. Gambling with those things would cost us our necks."

It was practically a battlefield with three Level 6 entities clashing. Space shattering, the world screaming, doomsday approaching.

Even demons were terrified by this accident. They had never created such chaos in the first place. They didn\'t have that ability. At most, they might take advantage of a war to topple a stronghold.

Faced with a real disaster, even the demons regained their senses.

"What\'s headquarters doing? Aren\'t they going to stop this? What if the world gets completely destroyed while they keep fighting?"

"No, look. Two of them belong to the company."

"Are they crazy? This could go horribly wrong. Shouldn\'t we step in and try to resolve this?"

As conceptual beings from hell, a negative second dimension, demons fed on and weaponized human thoughts and concepts. Humans were their friends.

They could play pranks occasionally, but they couldn\'t let everyone actually die.

"..."

"..."

The demons wore serious expressions.

The battlefield\'s destruction was slowly exceeding safe levels.

Broken and cut space no longer repaired itself. The Warrior had completely beaten down the surrounding world.

The fallen world began to change strangely under the possibilities Yeonwoo had unleashed. Gravity malfunctioned, causing debris, cars, and mealworms to float around. Concrete fragments and rebar moved on their own, illusions overlapped.

And on top of that, the endless downpour of mealworms.

The world and order had collapsed. Even an archdemon, governing many vices and high-dimensional concepts, would die instantly if caught up in this.

"Can\'t Abaddon, the demon of pestilence, control those multiplying bugs? Oh, they\'re corpses."

"We\'d die just entering that place."

"The demon worshippers in hell... No good. It would make things worse."

The demons\' mouths gaped, then their heads drooped.

There was no solution. If demon worshippers, more dangerous than demons, came to this world, it would fall apart faster.

That worshipper who willingly entered the demon world to avoid hurting people was one who turned the world into hell.

The powerless demons said:

"...The company will handle it. Let\'s check on the demon self-governing region and call in some worshippers."

The mealworms, Yeonwoo, and the Warrior were all forces unleashed by the company. The company must have a plan.

Having forced this rationalization, the demons gathered in their self-governing region.

Meanwhile, the Goldberg Club\'s decision was the slowest.

On the top floor of a downtown skyscraper.

The Chairman glared at the gold bar in his hand. His furrowed brow revealed deep contemplation. There was only one concern.

"What question should we ask?"

The question to pose to Golden Omnipotence before taking action.

Unlike simple displays of power, the cost of information was hard to gauge. Sometimes, information obtained at the price of massive gold was difficult to use properly. Understanding and utilizing the value of information wasn\'t easy.

Information about headquarters was inherently expensive to begin with.

The Chairman, turning the gold bar over in his hands, saw his own eyes reflected in its surface.

\'I should see the scene with my own eyes first.\'

He swiftly moved his hand, offering gold to Golden Omnipotence. Seeing distant places was cheap in this era. It was even cheaper now that the Warrior had destroyed security measures and the like.

Headquarters came into view in the Chairman\'s gold-tinged eyes.

Mealworm heads, Yeonwoo, the Warrior. The chaotic parking lot. He quickly interpreted the information as he shifted his gaze.

\'The mealworms seem to be an anomaly the company had hidden. Yeonwoo is the company\'s elite agent. The Warrior has reached Level 6. Other headquarters personnel...\'

Security guards and employees had mostly evacuated. High-ranking officials didn\'t seem to be at headquarters to begin with.

It looked like they were repelling the Warrior at just the right level. Of course, the talk of headquarters falling was nonsense. Were they using this as an opportunity to test other groups\' true intentions? Or perhaps minimizing damage by borrowing other groups\' hands?

The Chairman made a decision. Picking up another gold bar, he said to his secretary:

"The Club will not intervene in this matter."

Headquarters would suffer significant damage, but that wasn\'t the Club\'s concern.

If it were a disaster that the real Humanity Protection Company couldn\'t handle alone, that would be different. But why offer support for a simple fight? Recklessly jumping into a battlefield where Level 6 entities like nuclear bombs were clashing would only result in losses.

There was no need for the Club to share in headquarters\' losses. Though the fight\'s aftermath was serious, the company would handle it well.

"Let\'s just issue a statement after the company resolves the situation."

"Yes. I\'ll prepare a draft."

Just as the secretary was about to leave:

- Are you enjoying the show? Is this entertaining?

The Warrior, his body submerged in the waves of mealworms, suddenly looked into space. His face red with anger, gritting his teeth, crushing the endlessly pouring mealworms, he sensed a gaze.

The Chairman\'s and Warrior\'s gazes met across space.

- If it\'s so fun, come fight too, or get lost!

The Chairman quickly withdrew his gaze, but he was a bit late. In his darkening vision, the Warrior\'s fist came through space.

A fist aimed precisely at the Chairman.

"Ugh!"

Blood flowed from the Chairman\'s eyes. He staggered back a few steps, covering his eyes. The life insurance he had prepared glowed, healing the wound, but the recovery was slow.

It was a strike from the Warrior that could destroy worlds. Though it had only grazed him from a distance, the injury was terrible.

"Chairman!"

"Quick, get medical attention!"

The surrounding secretaries approached in alarm, but the Chairman waved them away. Blood dripped from his hand.

A calm voice emerged.

"It\'s fine. This is actually good. We can say we were also attacked by the Warrior."

He had been hit by an attack best avoided. The Chairman decided to play dead completely.

Thus, three groups chose to watch from the sidelines.

The company, more alarmed by the situation\'s severity than expected, began preparations to end the accident quickly.

They prepared to burn the multiplying mealworm heads, using that heat to boil water and permanently run turbines.

And they issued the order to kill the Warrior.

"Tell the Ghost to move. Stop rummaging through headquarters."

------

Swept up in the wave of mealworms, Yeonwoo first held his breath. He tightly closed his mouth and used both hands to cover his nose, mouth, and ears.

\'I can\'t swallow these bugs.\'

These were multiplying mealworm heads. If they entered through his ears or nose and divided inside, he could be torn apart from within.

Swallowing them wasn\'t safe either. What if they multiplied faster than stomach acid could dissolve them? His stomach would burst.

\'Still, it\'s less dangerous than that Warrior.\'

Poof, Yeonwoo\'s head poked out above the flood of mealworms, and he looked at the Warrior.

"Damn it! How is this any different from a punching bag!"

The Warrior wore an irritated expression as he threw punches. Like bombs exploding underwater, mealworm heads burst into fountains.

Mealworms caught in the Warrior\'s attacks were completely crushed and destroyed.

The surrounding world had also reached its limit. The broken, cut, and torn world couldn\'t recover, and the damaged world was contaminated by the possibilities Yeonwoo had unleashed.

Order vanished, and chaos arrived.

Dust fell like stones, and broken cars melted into liquid, oozing down. Rebar poking out between concrete walls wriggled and slipped out like worms.

Yeonwoo rolled his eyes around.

\'Should I make a run for it now?\'

A clear chance to escape appeared. The Warrior was just wary of him. The company would handle the mealworms. It was the perfect moment to flee.

Thoughts flowed through Yeonwoo\'s mind.

\'I\'ve stalled for enough time. I\'ve said all the right things as a company employee, and it\'s actually the Warrior who\'s destroyed everything.\'

Surely the company\'s perception of his danger level had decreased somewhat?

Just then, the perfect opportunity arrived.

Suddenly, the Warrior looked into space and burst out angrily.

"Are you enjoying the show? Is this entertaining?"

It was the prying gaze of the Club Chairman.

Yeonwoo felt that gaze too, but he didn\'t feel discomfort. Rather, he felt grateful.

The Warrior\'s attention was completely focused on the Chairman now. It was a chance to escape without interference.

\'Dice! Movement, to the investigation team-\'

"If it\'s so fun, come fight too, or get lost!"

And then, a gunshot rang out.

Bang-!

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