Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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A few days passed.

Choi Jae-min, who had worn a new suit, started coming to work in casual sportswear. Under Yeonwoo's bad influence, even the little professional mindset he had as a new employee had completely disappeared.

Click click click!

Jae-min's face contorted as he furiously clicked his mouse, leaning forward.

"Come on, what's our team doing!"

He had died while playing a team game. As always, blaming others, Jae-min's eyes glowed blue.

Those eyes could see the parents of his teammates. Above their nicknames, he saw their parents' situations. Some parents were sick, some had passed away.

Jae-min, who was about to type passionately, hesitated for a moment. His irritation subsided instantly. Mentioning parents and cursing here would be a bit...

"Ah, we lost."

As Jae-min scratched his head, feeling deflated:

Whack-!

Yoo Ji-yoo, who had returned from vacation, smacked the back of Jae-min's head hard. His head snapped forward, then bounced back like a spring.

"Ow! What was that for!"

"You're just blatantly playing games?"

Ji-yoo glared at him, and Jae-min pouted his lips.

When there was no investigation work, they had so little to do that it was practically like resting on standby. At most, they might take out the trash or clean the office.

Couldn't he play games during that boring time?

But Ji-yoo didn't accept such complaints. She shouted at the team leader:

"Team leader, look at this kid! He's practically turned this into an internet cafe!"

"Uh..."

The team leader, who had been dozing off sprawled in his chair, opened his eyes with difficulty.

Just that was enough to make Jae-min flinch and back off a bit. He owed the team leader for saving him when he was about to be isolated and experimented on as an anomaly.

Jae-min looked at his desk. The computer he had bought with money saved while working as an apprentice investigator gleamed brightly.

The gaming mouse and keyboard flashed in rainbow colors.

'Is it a bit much?'

Come to think of it, he hadn't seen any teachers working like this in the staff room.

The team leader spoke hazily, still drunk with sleep:

"That, what is it. Keyboard. Right, don't slam the keyboard. It's noisy."

It didn't matter if he played games or whatever. As long as he did his investigations properly. You need to put in effort when needed, and rest when you can.

The team leader started dozing off again, and Ji-yoo wore a dumbfounded expression.

Wasn't this too much freedom?

Ji-yoo looked at Yeonwoo.

"Yeonwoo. Say something to this kid."

Yeonwoo, who had been browsing some donation websites, glanced over. The flashy, glowing keyboard and mouse. Plus a high-spec computer. He shook his head.

"You should've bought tools with that money."

Every item lacked practicality. Wasn't it wasteful to buy such things when he didn't even have personal equipment?

Besides, even though Jae-min could detect anomalies by identifying parents, he lacked the ability to survive encounters with anomalies.

Jae-min blinked.

"Don't I have a gun?"

"What'll you do when you meet an anomaly that's immune to guns? Or if you fall into some strange space? You should at least carry a survival kit-"

Ji-yoo smacked her forehead. She was at a loss for words in front of these hardcore investigators. She wondered if maybe she couldn't understand the investigator's mindset because of her family's influence as company employees.

In the end, Ji-yoo gave up, lightly smacked Jae-min's head, and turned her attention to Yeonwoo.

"Are you making donations?"

Yeonwoo had opened various donation websites and was browsing through them. He smiled awkwardly.

"I'm thinking about trying it out."

No matter how normally he lived, his Human Qualification Certificate showed no signs of stirring.

He planned to try various actions he wouldn't normally do and observe the results. Make donations, do volunteer work.

'Or maybe do something bad instead...?'

Just as a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes:

Yeonwoo received a phone call. He answered immediately. A tired voice came through the phone:

- Please help the less fortunate. My insurance company has completely collapsed. I don't even have food to eat today. Please help me.

Yeonwoo was about to hang up on the spam call he occasionally received, but he changed his mind.

"Alright. Give me your account number."

- If you help me just once, I'll repay-. What? Really?

Yeonwoo replied calmly to the excited voice:

"Tell me the account number."

- Then I'll tell you right away!

Yeonwoo immediately sent a considerable amount of money to what seemed to be a foreign account, given the unfamiliar bank name and strange number format.

The other person burst into pure, joyful laughter and repeatedly expressed their gratitude. Their voice was so heartfelt that Yeonwoo could almost imagine them bowing their head over and over on the other end of the line.

- Thank you, thank you so much! I'll repay you right away!

"You don't need to-"

- I'll tell you the day you'll die!

Yeonwoo's eyes suddenly widened. Various thoughts raced through his mind. Was it a scam? An anomaly?

It couldn't hurt to be careful. Yeonwoo quickly made a decision. He wouldn't listen. In case it was an anomaly. In case it might create and fix his death date.

Just as Yeonwoo was about to end the call, a bewildered voice came through the phone:

- Huh? Huh? Why can't I see your death date?

"...An anomaly?"

At that quiet voice, everyone in the investigation team turned their heads. The dozing team leader suddenly sat up, grabbing the contract, and Ji-yoo approached the fluorescent vest storage.

Jae-min looked around, unsure what to do, then gestured for Yeonwoo to show him the phone. To identify the parents.

But Yeonwoo waved his hand. A panicked voice came through the phone:

- Wh-who are you? I've really never done anything bad. I just took money and told people their death dates, and helped them resurrect in the afterlife!

Yeonwoo thought for a moment. There certainly wasn't a sense of danger. It didn't seem to be at the level of fixing death like a curse.

Normally, he'd report this to the company right away, but Yeonwoo decided to do a good deed for once.

"I'll give you the Club's number, so try doing business with them. Telling people their death dates could be profitable, right? Say you came on the recommendation of Yeonwoo, a friend of the Club."

This was a win-win. The Club would give him gifts, and he'd introduce them to a product.

'I'd like to get more time-buying bills.'

Mixing in some greed, he gave the number for the Korean branch manager of the Goldberg Club, and the call wrapped up.

- Thank you! I'll engrave this kindness in my bones and never forget it!

With that, the call ended.

Yeonwoo felt the investigation team members looking at him incredulously. They stared at Yeonwoo with their mouths slightly open.

Ji-yoo said:

"What kind of anomaly makes phone calls? No, before that, is it okay to hand it over to the Club without reporting to the company? Ah. I guess it's fine for Yeonwoo."

She answered her own question. Even her sister, the Ghost of the Intelligence Department, freely stole confidential information...

Yeonwoo, a similar elite agent, seemed to have some freedom from the rules too.

Yeonwoo shrugged.

"I'm planning to report it to the company too. And if that's dangerous, isn't it a bit safer for it to talk to people screened through the Club rather than calling just anyone?"

An anomaly that hadn't been fully identified yet.

If there was any danger, they could use the Club as a filter to screen out indiscriminate civilians during the time it would take the company to contain it.

Jae-min's eyes lit up.

"Won't you get dragged off to the Intelligence Department?"

"...Jae-min. You'd get dragged off if you did this. He's, well, his status is special, so it's okay."

The team leader sighed deeply and shook his head. At least it could be seen as an action for the safety of ordinary people.

Still, he felt worried. He didn't know that Yeonwoo's treatment had changed after reaching Level 6. Yeonwoo hadn't particularly mentioned it.

"Still, be careful. Even elite agents are part of the company, so while the company might turn a blind eye, they won't overlook defection."

Just as he was finishing up some minor nagging and Yeonwoo was starting to feel anxious about possibly making a mistake:

Waah——!

A faint baby's cry was heard.

Everyone looked towards the office door, and the team leader quickly moved his mouse to turn on the CCTV screen.

Through the camera, they could see a baby wrapped in a blanket crying loudly. A baby abandoned inside the office building's entrance was wailing.

Ji-yoo was startled. Here it comes, her wariness spiked. In the end, Yeonwoo's accident had brought an anomaly to the investigation team-

The team leader, who had rewound the CCTV footage, stood up from his seat.

"...An old lady left the child and went. I'll bring the baby in for now."

"It's not an anomaly?"

Ji-yoo asked again. The team leader nodded with a gloomy expression. The screen he had glanced at showed a hunched old lady gently caressing the baby's cheek before carefully leaving the child.

------

The team leader brought the baby in. Wrapped in a tattered blanket, the baby was squirming in Jae-min's arms. Jae-min looked down at the baby with shaky eyes.

The investigation team members gathered around, each wearing a different expression as they looked at the baby.

The child, eyes wide open as if able to see, looked up at the ceiling while wriggling its body.

Ji-yoo poked its chubby cheek.

"The baby's not crying and is so well-behaved. Even in an unfamiliar place. So cute."

They all felt the same emotions. Pity and bitterness, and a desire to protect. As if half of themselves was this child. Like looking at their own offspring.

Meanwhile, the team leader was reading a letter. A yellowed paper that had been tucked in the blanket.

Written in crooked handwriting with poor spelling, it seemed to be from the grandmother who had left the child. Soon, the team leader sighed deeply and neatly folded the letter.

"The grandmother says she has no family or relatives, and she's dying soon so she can't raise the child anymore. She says it's a good and lovable child, so please... Ah."

A deep sigh filled with complex emotions escaped him.

Yeonwoo blinked as he looked at the baby. Would he feel these emotions if he had a child? A sense of relief and comfort circled in his chest.

'50 percent of my genes.'

Even if he died, if he had a child, half of himself would remain in the world. Such thoughts came to mind.

That's when it happened.

Jae-min swallowed hard and looked at the team leader.

"Team leader. What are you going to do with this child?"

"Well..."

The team leader looked at the child with emotional eyes. It was hard to respond professionally to a child that strangely tugged at his heartstrings and made him feel a parental love.

Normally, he would contact the company and send the child to a connected protection agency, but the team leader hesitated and said:

"Let's keep the child for a while. We should try to find that grandmother."

He wanted to hear the full story. If possible, it would be better for the child to live in the hands of ordinary people in a normal world rather than with a company institution.

They all nodded, feeling a familial love for the child.

But suddenly, Jae-min shouted, his voice cracking:

"Then! Let me investigate!"

"You?"

"I just became an official investigator, right? I want to try investigating on my own. It's not dangerous work anyway."

The others gave him strange looks but let it slide.

"Then go with Yeonwoo. I'll look after the baby."

"With, with Yeonwoo?"

Jae-min looked at Yeonwoo with shocked eyes, then back at the child. He saw the blank space above the child.

[Father : ]

[Mother : ]

It was an anomaly.

An anomaly that would make Yeonwoo freak out. That was the impression Jae-min had gotten from talking with Yeonwoo over the past few days while learning the job.

"Th-that, that! Wouldn't it be better training or practice if I do it alone?"

The child needed to be protected. Even if it was an anomaly, it should live as a human. Just as he wasn't a monster, the child wasn't a monster either, and it had the right to live as a person.

He couldn't let the child be handed over to the company, have its identity exposed, and be locked up in a lab for life. And he definitely couldn't let it near a dangerous person like Yeonwoo.

'If I find the grandmother and talk to her, and if I sense anything strange...'

Even Yeonwoo wouldn't go that far, but Jae-min, with his strongly distorted impression, sincerely believed so.

But Ji-yoo reached out and took the baby into her arms.

"How are you going to investigate? The grandmother's probably long gone by now. It'll take days if we report it to the police. It'd be better for Yeonwoo to use his connections."

"I do have some acquaintances in the Intelligence Department, and I can borrow company resources."

The baby in her arms looked up at Ji-yoo with innocent eyes. Then it glanced at Yeonwoo nearby and giggled.

A faint smile played on Yeonwoo's lips.

"It's better to live safely in the ordinary world."

It wouldn't be good if the child grew up in a company protection agency and ended up becoming a company employee, living each day twisting their body.

Jae-min's expression darkened slightly, but in the end, the two decided to search for the grandmother.

The two left the office.

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