Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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The Extinction Defense Device: World Alteration, still unfinished and bearing a temporary name reflecting its purpose, was designed to rewrite the world.

If extinction threatened, it would erase that crisis, declare the Earth was actually flat, claim climate anomalies never existed - a device to alter reality.

But this was the result of forcibly activating an incomplete device.

Bang-!

The device exploded. Red lights flashed in the secretly constructed department building, and sirens blared loudly.

"See? I told you we should've taken it slow! We didn't even start the experiment and we've already blown up the device!"

Three directors who had come to observe were frantically running away.

They had finally created a chance to make a strange world, but reckless progress had only resulted in the device's destruction.

Another director running alongside them gasped for breath and managed to shout. His strained voice burst out like a scream.

"Look, we're the only ones trying to protect anomalies even after searching through all the parallel worlds! How could we not rush?"

"But rushing got it blown up! Do you know how hard it'll be to rebuild that thing?"

Even as they ran breathlessly, they started arguing, pointing fingers at each other. The board of directors was inherently an organization where members kept each other in check. There was no love lost between them.

"I clearly opposed this!"

"Oh, come on! Really?"

As the red-faced directors were about to start a real fight, another director screeched:

"Let's focus on escaping- I mean, strategic retreat first. The board meeting should be in session now, we need to attend that!"

Directors were the brains of the company. They were just as soft and fragile. As ordinary people, even a brush with debris from the accident could be dangerous.

If these three directors were incapacitated at once, a significant portion of the company would be paralyzed.

Remembering their mission of anomaly protection, they fled with grim expressions.

They quickly left the department, entered a nearby safe house, caught their breath briefly, and then hurriedly connected to the video conference.

Sitting in front of computers in separate rooms, their microphones connected first. The director who had observed spoke gloomily.

"We couldn't even start the experiment. The device just exploded."

With those words, the director squeezed their eyes shut. As the strongest advocate, they had nothing to say. Someone would likely try to assign blame and tear into them.

But even as time passed, there was no response. No, faint sounds of hollow laughter, choking, and despairing groans drifted through.

The directors who had observed looked at the screen in confusion.

"Why do you all look like that? Even if we failed, it's not a bad situation."

"I was against it, but... it's not an accident that should disappoint the supporters this much."

The screen showed directors with disheveled hair, cracked glasses, dull eyes, and ragged fingernails - all in terrible states.

One of them giggled and said:

"The experiment? It succeeded. But it failed. Haha. We've forgotten who we are, haven't we? We've lost our mission by our own hands?"

"What do you mean...?"

The observing directors wore puzzled expressions. They didn't understand.

The world hadn't changed.

Anomaly Protection Company. A company that protects anomalies hostile to the world. The only company in countless parallel worlds that protects anomalies.

Only they bore the noble mission of protecting anomalies.

Just then, the giggling director gestured.

"Here's the data we backed up before starting the experiment. Look at the experiment plan and contingency documents we kept in a different dimension from the ordinary room. See what we originally were."

The data was transmitted. The highly secure files opened slowly.

The observing directors felt uneasy as they watched the loading bar creep up. Something had gone wrong. Their mouths went dry, and their hands trembled.

Then the document opened.

Experiment plan.

Test operation of the World Alteration Device before creating an ordinary world. Purpose: Materialize Safety Measure 001. Create a world where the force suppressing anomalies exists naturally.

Record document.

Our mission: Protect humanity from anomalies. We are the Humanity Protection Company.

"This, this."

"...Are you sure? Isn't something wrong here?"

The shock hit their heads. All sorts of emotions welled up instinctively.

"This doesn't make sense. My memories, the records left in the world are so clear! We're people who protect anomalies! Those poor anomalies whose very existence is denied!"

Denial.

"Isn't there some problem with this data?"

Doubt.

"...Even if we were the Humanity Protection Company, there's no need to protect humanity in this world. It's not bad to protect anomalies like we are now."

Compromise.

They quickly went through the same process other directors had already experienced, and like those directors, they swiftly accepted reality.

A sigh escaped.

"We're screwed. Even we were altered. Even the company."

Even the company had been rewritten. Their most precious mission had been flipped upside down.

The directors accepted this reality. They suppressed the burning mission of anomaly protection in their hearts with cold reason. They forcibly reminded themselves of the goal of protecting humanity.

Suddenly, someone raised a question.

"Why did this happen? Let's say the world hostile to anomalies was an excessive result from the device going haywire. But why were we altered?"

"We don't know. There are many possibilities."

An elderly woman with white hair began counting on her fingers.

"The possibility that the World Alteration Device produced unexpected results. The possibility it collided with Golden Omnipotence. The possibility the Association President moved the world. The worshipper-"

"It's not the worshipper. If they had interfered, the Earth would have become hell."

That rebuttal was accepted as a matter of course.

If someone who turns the world into hell had meddled with world alteration, such a moderate world couldn't have been created.

Even now, around the demon worshippers who were out guarding the demon self-governing region...

The old woman nodded, then belatedly continued.

"...What about Yeonwoo? If the dice reached Level 6, it could have interfered, right?"

"That's unlikely too."

If the dice had interfered, a different result would have occurred.

They believed Yeonwoo had reached Level 6 with the dice and didn't grasp the exact situation.

Originally, this accident would have created a world that annihilated anomalies, but Golden Omnipotence weakened the alteration, and the survival instinct and dice combined forces to flip the company.

The reason the survival instinct turned the Humanity Protection Company into the Anomaly Protection Company slowly emerged.

"...Anyway, the experiment results are positive. Let's think about the future now."

It was a world hostile to anomalies. Even if it wasn't an ordinary world where anomalies didn't exist at all, it was favorable for the goal of protecting humanity.

For example, forcibly excluding anomalies with power.

"In a world like this, couldn't humanity's power alone be enough to destroy all other anomalies? There would be casualties, but we could annihilate them."

But the directors laughed hollowly. Even the director who had suggested this immediately shook their head.

"It's impossible. The employees won't listen."

Employees with a sense of mission to protect anomalies wouldn't easily follow the directors' orders. They might think the directors had gone crazy and try to replace them with a new board.

It was like brain A being implanted in person B's body. The body wouldn't follow the brain's orders.

And above all:

"They may be weaker than in the original world, but they're still Level 6."

The standard for Level 6 in this world. Those who oppose the world. Those who overcame the world's pressure built castles and reigned as kings of the anomalous world.

Whether it was Yeonwoo roaming alone or a king who had built a fortress, they were as dangerous as nuclear weapons.

"If only the company was intact, we might have had a chance to fight..."

Sighs full of regret drifted from all around. A formidable enemy they should have fought in peak condition, but their body was in shambles.

Just then.

The director in charge of Yeonwoo received a call and their eyes trembled.

"We have a problem."

"Bigger than the alteration? We can't even think of anything we can do right now."

"In a way."

After a brief silence that drew the other directors' attention, they spoke:

"Yeonwoo is contacting other groups. According to information from the Intelligence Department, he simply says this world is uncomfortable to live in, so he wants to join hands and fix it."

"...What kind of world does he want to create?"

In response to the anxious question, the director answered:

"An anomaly-friendly world."

Because this world is uncomfortable and a bit dangerous for Yeonwoo.

An ominous thought crossed the mind of the director in charge of Yeonwoo.

'Yeonwoo. Can he work with us?'

Could he share their goal of an ordinary world, which was now unfamiliar to them? Perhaps they should eliminate him now, while they had the world on their side?

------

Yeonwoo stood slack-jawed in front of a skyscraper in the middle of the city. The building gleamed brilliantly. As if they had money to burn, its exterior was plastered with gold.

No, it wasn't just simple gold.

"Contamination? No, wow. It's coloring the world?"

This was a world infiltrated and contaminated by Golden Omnipotence. The Club's headquarters, their royal castle built with gold. A land carved out by Golden Omnipotence as it opposed the world.

Level 6 entities had maintained their existence to match the rewritten world.

Yeonwoo took a deep breath. Breathing was easy. The world here held no hostility.

'So this is how it's done.'

Yeonwoo marveled at the method of fighting the world to create one's own domain. Though he couldn't replicate it with his survival instinct, he felt he could form a similar domain if the dice reached Level 6.

Just then, the building's main entrance opened and a secretary with a gloomy expression approached.

"The chairman is waiting for you on the top floor."

Yeonwoo grinned broadly.

As expected of a friend. He'd asked to talk about changing the world, and they immediately agreed to meet.

"Let's go quickly."

Yeonwoo followed the secretary into the building, and the skyscraper began to emit a dazzling golden light. It was as if a warning light had been turned on.

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