Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule:

Illustrations: None.

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‘But how do I persuade them? What should I say?’

Lee Yeonwoo, who had confidently taken a deep breath, couldn't bring himself to speak. His mouth remained tightly shut, and all the words swirling in his head disappeared.

‘Should I ask them to die? Sacrifice themselves for the world? What's the problem with respawning? I wouldn't do it either.’

He wasn't good at speaking in the first place. Simple greetings or business conversations were manageable, but he had no eloquence to persuade others. Even if he had it, it had disappeared while living as a civil service exam candidate.

Especially in a critical situation where he had to persuade someone to die.

Yeonwoo's lips parted, and a feeble voice came out.

“Excuse me….”

It was a voice no one heard. Neither the NPC nor the criminals paid attention. Yeonwoo inhaled deeply and raised his voice.

“Excuse me! Excuse me!”

“….”

The hijacker reacted. The hijacker, who bounced off beside Yeonwoo, quickly scanned him.

Dirty clothes and shoes soaked in sewage. Even his hand in a cast. The gaze swiftly passed from head to toe.

“Civilian?”

As if it wasn't worth paying attention to, the hijacker ran towards the blue hole again. Yeonwoo didn't grab the back of his head. The criminal wasn't the problem right now.

“Hey! NPCs! Please listen to me!”

NPC.

Everyone reacted to that word.

The criminals, realizing Yeonwoo was an employee, belatedly became cautious. They gripped the gun and controller tightly.

The NPCs turned their heads to look at Yeonwoo. The woman's bulging eyes, the man's eyes shifting between looking at Yeonwoo and elsewhere, and the eyes of the man falling from the sky.

Three pairs of eyes he had to persuade to die.

Yeonwoo squeezed his eyes shut. No persuasive words came to mind. His head turned white. So, he decided to speak honestly, saying whatever came to mind.

He shouted.

“The Trapped Man committed suicide! Please die as well!"

A moment of silence. Then the broken woman opened her mouth wide. From her torn mouth, the voice of a young girl shot out.

“No!”

“Listen. I heard you are being treated unfairly by the company!”

"That's right."

The repeating man raised his hand to stroke his chin while he spoke. The gesture repeated. He continued.

“They lock us in a isolated room without even a blanket, don't feed us because we don’t die of starvation, just experiment on us. No matter what we say, it's an anomaly, they don't even pretend to listen."

"Ah."

Yeonwoo let out a short sigh.

‘Crazy f*cking company.’

It's only natural to hold a grudge against the company. The Trapped Man was no exception. He doubted he can persuade them.

As if to seal the deal, the broken woman burst into a scream-like laugh.

"Die! The company should die more! You too!”

The broken woman swung her tentacle-like arm, hitting the surrounding cars. Like balloons being hit, the cars floated up and stopped, then rose to the sky.

“Die! Die!”

The broken woman huffed and hit the cars and trees a few more times but didn't reach Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo didn't move a step from his place, biting his lip hard. Then he opened his mouth again.

“Don’t you want to improve your treatment? If you sacrifice yourselves now to stop this anomaly, I will report to the company and testify. And I will ask them to improve your treatment-”

"Who are you?"

The falling man asked shortly and disappeared below the ground.

Yeonwoo bowed his head. He looked down at the ground where the man had disappeared. He couldn’t answer that he was an investigator.

Even if an investigator made a suggestion, would they pretend to listen? Words he couldn’t even believe himself, he could only mutter inwardly.

The repeating man turned and said,

“I don’t particularly want to kill anyone. But I don’t want to die painfully either.”

Then he started running again.

“If I just get out of the error range, it’ll shrink back. So leave me alone. I’ll handle it.”

He ran back to the starting point, repeating his running again. It was meaningless.

Next, the falling man quickly spoke.

“I can’t die anyway, physical interactions almost never happen-”

He fell through the ground. Yeonwoo watched for a moment, then looked at the last remaining NPC.

The broken woman. She tapped the road with her pointed feet, then quickly turned her head away as if she didn't want to see.

‘I'm really screwed.’

He couldn't persuade a single person. If he could just persuade one, the danger level would drop to 2, like the monsters seen in the fog.

As he repeatedly wiped his face dry, the hijacker who had been quietly watching Yeonwoo stepped forward. If the error decreased, he could escape. With eyes shining, he urgently spoke.

“No. It’s better for you all to die. It’s good for you too.”

“I don’t want to be in pain.”

The repeating man answered roughly, but his voice was more amiable than when he addressed Yeonwoo. Not only him, but the other two also focused more.

"I got you out, so just listen for now."

The hijacker raised his gun and pointed around once. Even from a distance, the world was visibly ruined.

“This is a large-scale anomaly. The company must know. Not only my specialized unit but a unit to capture you will come. Do you want to go back to that horrible place?”

“I don't like that.”

The repeating man stopped running and listened. The broken woman also glanced at the hijacker.

In front of the gathered gazes, the hijacker pretended to shoot himself in the head with his toy gun.

“It’s better to die and get a moment of freedom. What if you respawn in some remote place? That would be great.”

“Hmm.”

The repeating man pondered with a look of hesitation. Seizing the moment, Yeonwoo quickly added.

“No, it’s not about dying for a moment of freedom. It’s about sacrificing for the world and getting freedom as a bonus. I don't know how much my words will matter, but I will report to the higher-ups that you sacrificed to reduce the error.”

Persuaded by both the criminal and the investigator, the repeating man let out a deep sigh.

“…So how do we die? You need to give us a weapon.”

It worked. Yeonwoo quickly scanned the surroundings. A weapon, something to use as a weapon.

Just then, a knife floated up above a manhole. The knife used and dropped by the Trapped Man. Yeonwoo kicked off the tree, quickly flew to the manhole, grabbed the knife, and paused for a moment.

‘How do I hand this over?’

He wasn't confident he could reach the repeating man safely. Not only Yeonwoo, but everyone else was silent. If moving were that easy, the criminals would have escaped long ago.

‘Leave it to luck.’

Yeonwoo took a deep breath and threw the knife with all his strength.

Swish-

The knife left his hand and cut through the air. Yeonwoo’s desperate eyes and the hijacker’s urgent eyes followed the knife’s trajectory.

'Please, no problems. Please.'

The knife narrowly avoided a flipping car, just missed a suddenly appearing soda can, passed through the tentacle-like broken tree branches. Finally, it reached the repeating man’s hand.

Clack!

The repeating man looked down at the knife, sighing heavily.

“Of all things, a knife. This will really hurt.”

He looked around at Yeonwoo, the hijacker, the driver, and finally the falling man and the broken woman. He said,

“Employee. Keep your promise. Whether it works or not, report it. Tell them to treat us like humans.”

“Yes. I will report exactly as I said.”

With that answer, the repeating man steeled his resolve.

Determined eyes.

Firmly grasped knife.

The repeating man stabbed himself in the throat. The repeating man stabbed himself in the throat. The repeating man stabbed himself in the throat. The repeating man stabbed himself in the throat. The repeating man stabbed himself in the throat. The repeating man stabbed himself in the throat. The repeating man stabbed himself in the throat.

Thud- thud- thud- thud- thud-

The stabbing didn't stop. He couldn't even scream. Screaming wasn't part of the repetition. His dilated pupils showed the horrific pain he was feeling.

“….”

Yeonwoo met his eyes. Bloodshot whites, pupils shaking erratically as if in a spasm. Yeonwoo nodded, promising to keep his word.

Thud!

In the next moment, the repeating man vanished as if he had never existed.

Now, only two error NPCs remained.

The error shrank. From a city block to a small clearing or a narrow playground.

The intensity of the error also weakened.

Bang! Boom! Bang!

Cars and trees floating in the sky fell like rain. Yeonwoo, who had fallen from a few steps high, curled up and looked up at the sky.

Luckily, nothing heavy was falling on Yeonwoo’s head. He only got hit by bouncing soda cans and plastic cups. Yeonwoo laughed in relief.

“Ha, ha.”

Danger level 2 was still threatening, but it was only at the level of fog monsters. Much safer.

---

---

The situation wasn't over yet.

Of course, the two criminals had already escaped. As soon as the error subsided, they threw themselves through the blue hole without looking back.

But with two error NPCs still gathered, the error remained.

Thud- thud- thud- bang-

Yeonwoo looked at the war-torn street. Crumpled and smashed vehicles and trees.

Small items scattered everywhere, like soda cans, bounced around like rugby balls, hitting trees or the ground. If mishandled, many people could be severely injured or even killed by the error.

It needed to be resolved.

“….”

Yeonwoo looked at the remaining error NPCs.

The man falling endlessly with a relaxed expression. And the broken woman, who, although seen briefly, seemed more like a young girl than an adult woman.

‘I need to persuade the broken woman. The falling man can't interact physically anyway.’

Unfortunately, she was the most hostile NPC.

The hijacker, who at least pretended to listen, was also gone.

But Yeonwoo spoke to the broken woman in a gentle voice.

"Do you want to go get some food?"

"...Food?"

“If you don’t like a meal, we can have bread. Or snacks.”

“….”

The broken woman looked at Yeonwoo with her balloon-like eyes. Yeonwoo nodded.

‘No need to kill. No need to persuade to die. Just getting out of the error range will be enough.’

The broken woman hesitated, then looked at the falling man. A brief exchange of glances. The falling man quickly spoke.

“I don’t need to eat anyway, I can’t eat because I pass through-”

“…Liar. It’s a lie.”

The broken woman, with a voice full of distrust, though her grotesque and exaggerated monster-like appearance made it hard to be certain, spoke to Yeonwoo.

“Liar! You can’t show me to other people!”

“No.”

Yeonwoo smiled slightly and took out a memory eraser from his inner pocket. The memory eraser remained unbroken despite the chaos.

"If it comes to it, I can just use the memory eraser. I can always get more, so it’s no problem."

“….”

Maybe she decided to trust him. The hesitant broken woman silently approached Yeonwoo. Yeonwoo led her, walking towards the other side of the street, to a world without errors. The two disappeared beyond the street.

The falling man remained alone on the street.

“Ah-. I want to try eating too-”

How many times did the falling man penetrate the ground?

Soon, even the remaining error subsided. The bouncing objects settled on the street, and the small items stuck here and there remained embedded like modern art.

Thus, the error that had come into reality was fixed.

---

---

It was the moment he led the broken woman out of the error range. From the sky, where the error was being restored, a small object suddenly popped out and hit Yeonwoo on the head.

“…What is this?”

When Yeonwoo turned his head, a six-sided die that had fallen in front of him was spinning alone. While Yeonwoo watched blankly, the dancing die stopped and showed one side on top.

Critical Success!

“What the hell.”

At the same time, the die disappeared from reality. Instead, it appeared in a corner of Yeonwoo's mind.

Whether his eyes were open or closed, he could vividly sense the die. Yeonwoo’s expression twisted in confusion.

‘What is this now?’

He looked up at the sky where the die had fallen from, but there was only the usual sky.

The broken woman, who had stopped walking, looked up at Yeonwoo.

“…Why? Are you going to kill me because the error is fixed? As expected, the company-”

“No, it’s not that. Just a moment, just a moment.”

He had no time to worry about the broken woman. The die he could feel in his mind. Upon closer inspection, the six sides were marked with Critical Success, Critical Failure, Success, Failure, Miss, and Miss.

A die that was definitely anomalous.

‘It's all over! Why is this happening to me! Why!’

Yeonwoo clutched his head.