Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: posted in discord

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Yeonwoo realized it. The fact that the baby was an anomaly. An unsettling light gleamed in Yeonwoo\'s eyes, and shadows fell across his slightly bowed face.

He was like a bomb with a burning fuse.

Jae-min felt like his head was about to explode. All sorts of thoughts surged in his mind.

\'I have to protect the baby. But how?\'

Fight and subdue him? Impossible. Though he might be a bit stronger physically, that guy went crazy when survival was on the line. If a lawless person like that ignored the rules while armed with anomalous equipment...

In the end, Jae-min\'s thoughts led to one conclusion. Persuasion.

Jae-min hung his head low. His voice came out trembling, choked with tears.

"Yeah... It doesn\'t have parents... That baby doesn\'t have parents. But it\'s not danger-"

At that moment, just as Yeonwoo nodded and Jae-min quickly raised his head to look at him:

"Y-you-!"

The grandmother\'s face contorted. Her wrinkles deepened even more. Tears welled up in the old woman\'s eyes. Somehow finding the strength, she abruptly stood up and glared down at Jae-min.

"You little bastard! I\'m that baby\'s mother! I raised that baby with love! It\'s not a baby without parents!"

"Uh, huh? No, grandmother, that\'s not what I-"

Jae-min awkwardly stood up, waving his hands, but it was too late.

Thanks to the fluorescent vest, Yeonwoo\'s words were ignored, and the grandmother\'s anger was directed entirely at Jae-min.

Whoosh-!

The grandmother grabbed a bamboo broom. She swung it roughly, swatting at Jae-min repeatedly. Even as Jae-min frantically tried to escape, the broom persistently chased after him.

"Ack! Ack! Grandmother, calm down for a sec- Ack!"

"You little brat! You! You!"

Dust flew everywhere. Yeonwoo rolled his eyes around, assessing the situation, then quietly stood up.

He hurriedly ran towards the entrance.

"Run away!"

He had figured it all out. There was no reason to stay any longer. He shoved his feet into his shoes haphazardly and dashed out the door.

Jae-min, still letting out short yelps, quickly followed Yeonwoo out of the basement room. The grandmother chased after them for a few steps, then stopped at the entrance. �

Thud, the broom fell. The grandmother, breathing heavily, suddenly lost all strength and collapsed on the spot.

"..."

After hanging her head for a moment, the grandmother fumbled around and pulled out a photo. A family photo taken at a studio long, long ago.

In the faded photo, a younger version of herself held the baby in her arms, smiling as if she owned the world. Her wrinkled hand caressed the baby in the photo.

A soft whisper escaped her lips.

"Live well, my child."

As a beloved baby, it would live well wherever it went, whoever became its parents.

In the basement room where only the hum of the old refrigerator could be heard, the grandmother stood up, clutching a damp rag. The baby was gone, and she would soon be gone too. She hoped the place she left behind would be clean.

Shadows of people passed by the basement window, and the voices of Jae-min and Yeonwoo faded into the distance.

------

"Ah, I got dust in my eye."

Jae-min wiped away tears, rubbing his eye with one hand. Dirt had gotten in while he was being hit with the broom. His eye felt itchy.

Yeonwoo neatly folded the fluorescent vest and stuffed it into his bag, then glanced sideways at Jae-min.

\'How could he say something like that in front of the grandmother?\'

Though he himself was fine because he wore the fluorescent vest, Jae-min should have been more careful with his words. He looked more like someone spewing insults than a parent detector. This guy must have personality issues too.

That suspicion deepened with Jae-min\'s next words.

Jae-min glanced nervously at Yeonwoo with bloodshot eyes. He fidgeted with his fingers, and his steps dragged.

"What are you going to do with that baby? Like, like, exclude or elimin-"

"What?"

Yeonwoo, who had been walking ahead, stopped in his tracks. He turned around, his eyes wide with shock. Trembling, he pointed at Jae-min.

"No, no. How could you think that?"

"Huh?"

Jae-min looked at Yeonwoo in confusion, but Yeonwoo recoiled, stepping back a few paces.

"That\'s really messed up. Exclude? Eliminate? A baby?"

Were these words a person should even think of? Was he devoid of emotions? Even he, who had shaken off the baby\'s emotional manipulation, hadn\'t thought like that.

Suddenly, Yeonwoo\'s expression grew very serious.

\'Did he have thoughts like that while under emotional manipulation? Or was he originally so emotionless that the manipulation didn\'t work?\'

Either way, there was a serious problem with his mind. Of course, it might have some value in crisis situations, but it was still worrying.

Yeonwoo spoke seriously:

"You know, I know a counseling center. You should try getting some counseling. It\'s not weird or dangerous, it\'s run by the company."

"Ah, !"

Jae-min shouted. Intense indignation was written all over his face. His expression crumpled, and his face turned bright red.

All sorts of words surged up in his throat but got stuck.

"Ah, ah! Ah! That\'s not it! No, really!"

Yeonwoo looked at Jae-min like he was looking at human trash, while Jae-min jumped up and down, expressing his frustration and indignation with his whole body.

"How to handle the baby-"

"Even the word \'handle\' is a bit..."

"Aaargh! I was just asking what would happen to it!"

"I don\'t know about that. We just report it to the company and they\'ll take care of it, why should we worry about it?"

Thinking about it, it really was a pointless concern. What was the investigation team\'s job? To encounter anomalies and report them to superiors.

They had encountered an anomaly in the form of a baby, so reporting it would be the end of it.

Yeonwoo came to a conclusion.

\'The protective instinct the baby instilled made us act with good intentions. Wanting it to go to a good environment.\'

He vaguely understood why the baby had smiled at him too. A being headed towards a future where survival was guaranteed. Wouldn\'t he be the best protector? It had instinctively found a safe person.

Ignoring Jae-min\'s grumbling, Yeonwoo sank into thought.

\'Isn\'t my Human Qualification Certificate getting stronger? I\'ve been certified as a suitable guardian for the baby. Isn\'t that very human-like? Or not? Ah, well. It is older than me after all.\'

And so they returned to the investigation team\'s office.

------

The investigation team\'s office smelled of baby formula. While Yeonwoo and Jae-min had been investigating, someone had bought bottles and formula, and the team leader was feeding the baby.

Ji-yoo was taking pictures or poking the baby\'s cheeks and feet. She turned her head slightly.

"Oh, you\'re back? How did it go?"

The baby also turned its head to look at Yeonwoo and giggled. Yeonwoo nodded and smiled faintly. It was definitely emotional manipulation.

Looking at the baby\'s innocent face, his emotions suddenly changed. A desire to protect, parental love, such things colored his heart.

\'It won\'t work on me.\'

After running through his thought circuits a few times, he said:

"It\'s an anomaly. We should report it to the company and let them handle it."

"An anomaly?"

The team leader looked up. Jae-min nodded weakly, wearing a deflated expression. He was about to answer right away but hesitated, choosing his words carefully before speaking.

"Yes. It was a child with a disease that prevents it from growing. The grandmother said she\'d been raising it since she was young."

"...Jae-min. Can\'t you see?"

He meant the parents. Jae-min answered briefly.

"No."

"Then you should have said so from the start."

The team leader was about to start lecturing in earnest when the baby squirmed, and he quickly adjusted his hands to support it. He couldn\'t bring himself to raise his voice.

"So, uh. It\'s finished eating. Should I burp it?"

"Yes. Shall I do it?"

Ji-yoo reached out her hands. She patted the baby\'s back gently and spoke in a regretful voice.

"Then it\'ll live in a company department for its whole life. Poor thing. As a baby forever..."

"That\'s the best option. It\'s good for the baby too. ...Still, just in case, we should send an auditor later."

In case they might try to develop technology to stop aging through experiments.

Yeonwoo watched this scene from a few steps back. It was a sight of people thoroughly caught by the baby\'s emotional manipulation.

Perhaps because it didn\'t threaten life and only drew out natural human instincts, even veteran investigators seemed to accept it without feeling any dissonance.

Though they seemed to have resisted somewhat, unlike ordinary people.

\'I wonder how dangerous it could be if things like this came together in synergy?\'

If an accident happened, they might waste resources trying to live with the baby, and it could take advantage of that waste.

Yeonwoo was imagining a new form of threat when he quickly snapped out of it.

"There\'s emotional manipulation too. It makes you feel like you want to protect it and want it to grow up well in a good environment."

"Huh?"

Suddenly, all three people turned to look at Yeonwoo. They stared at him with eyes full of doubt, then spoke in worried voices.

"Yeonwoo... It\'s normal to feel these emotions when you see an abandoned baby."

"No! Is that why you tried to send me to counseling?"

Ji-yoo, in particular, filled her eyes with wariness as she hugged the baby tightly. He was a person who murdered love. Even if he felt emotions normally, his perception and expression were strange.

"No, Yeonwoo. Don\'t touch the baby."

Who knew how the sympathy and protective instinct he felt towards the baby might be expressed.

The team leader looked at Yeonwoo with pity.

"You\'ve developed paranoia. Right, that can happen. When you experience a lot of anomalies, you can start doubting your thoughts and emotions. There are many people like that."

Yeonwoo\'s jaw dropped. He was dumbfounded.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then gave up trying to persuade them. It wasn\'t seriously dangerous anyway, and if he shook off the influence and then really developed paranoia, that would be troublesome.

\'Let\'s just send the baby away quickly.\'

Yeonwoo reported directly to his superiors. A baby that doesn\'t grow, a baby that manipulates emotions.

The higher-ups quickly came and took the baby away, while the investigation team members saw it off with sadness and sympathy. Well-wishes for the baby and requests to the company employee followed.

"Bye-bye, baby."

"Make sure they don\'t do anything stupid with the kid. I\'ll be coming for an audit anyway. Pass on the warning."

"Yes, yes. I\'ll make sure to pass it on."

Yeonwoo stood apart, fiddling with his gun. He was a bit worried about the investigation team members.

\'If they\'re still under its influence after some time passes, should I point a gun at their heads or something?\'

After all, threats were the most effective immediate cure for shaking off interference.

And so the investigation team\'s day passed.

The next day, Yeonwoo received a letter.

- Human Qualification Certificate Cancellation Notice Name: Lee Yeonwoo

As this certificate can no longer guarantee that you are human, we hereby notify you of the cancellation of your human qualification.

"My Human Qualification Certificate!"

The Human Qualification Certificate had disappeared.

A spark flashed in Yeonwoo\'s eyes. Though losing the certificate didn\'t turn him into an animal, taking away something he possessed... Blocking his way to reach Level 6 with the dice...

Yeonwoo read the notice again with shaking eyes, then muttered to himself:

\'Can\'t guarantee? No. They must guarantee it.\'

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