Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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The chef moved busily. He minced meat to make hamburger patties, cut meat into bread shapes since there was no bread, and fried thinly sliced meat to resemble lettuce.

Sizzle-

The sound of meat hitting the hot frying pan. The sizzling of meat frying like the sound of rain.

Soon, the delicious smell of cooking meat filled the air, and the investigators glanced at Yeonwoo.

"Yeonwoo. Shouldn't we just deal with this and leave?"

Yeonwoo briefly glanced at the chef, then spoke loudly as if for him to hear:

"If I don't like the hamburger, I'll deal with it."

In truth, he'd already decided to deal with it. This was clearly an anomalous entity that killed people, so there was no reason to let it live.

This was merely tormenting a monster that had ruined a good occasion, or rather, righteous punishment of a murderous anomalous entity by the representative of Survival Agency.

That confident voice reassured the investigators but put pressure on the chef.

The chef's knife-wielding hand trembled as he muttered inwardly:

'Where did such a monster come from.'

He was clearly intimidated and scared. His shoulders were hunched, and his hands were shaking.

At that point, Ji-yoo relaxed too and took a deep breath. The smell of cooking meat. A smell that automatically made one hungry.

"It really smells good. Well, meat can't taste bad when it's grilled."

Growl, her stomach screamed from hunger.

But the others, who were quicker to catch on than Ji-yoo, wore dark expressions. What else could those ingredients be?

Jae-min, who had been looking at the person hanging in the kitchen, clenched his fist tightly as if he'd never joked around. He whispered:

"That's really a person."

"Ugh."

Ji-yoo covered her mouth and dry heaved as she realized the meat's identity. She felt horrible for thinking the smell was good just moments ago. In an instant, the smell of grilling meat turned into a terrible stench.

"It's done!"

The chef, who had been using his best skills during this time, hurriedly brought the meat, no, the hamburger. His busy movements made the hamburger-shaped stack of meat on the dirty plate wobble unsteadily.

The chef swallowed hard.

"Sir. It's a meat burger. I thought you must have had plenty of ordinary burgers, so I made a special..."

The chef, who had been explaining only to Yeonwoo without paying attention to the investigators, stopped speaking.

Yeonwoo's demeanor as he looked down at the hamburger was ominous. Holding threads of probability in one hand, he sensed the possibilities of what might happen if he ate this burger and let out a deep sigh.

'There's no strange problem. But.'

It was made from a person. It was a horrific act.

Jae-min finally vomited after seeing the parents' names clearly floating above the hamburger.

Yeonwoo closed his eyes. A small mutter escaped him.

"I can understand why the company wants an ordinary world."

With anomalous entities like this popping up everywhere. Of course, they'd want a world where such things couldn't exist in the first place.

But just as not all humans were doomsday cultists, not all anomalous entities were evil. Yeonwoo recalled the Trapped Man he'd seen long ago.

An NPC that caused errors when gathered. He had died for the sake of people. The Blessed Child he'd unintentionally tormented was just a child, and the baby that triggered protective instincts was just a baby.

Yeonwoo had experienced and met too much to wear the colored glasses of prejudice. He opened his eyes and slowly stood up.

"No one wants to eat this, right? Let's leave."

Screech-

The chairs made a loud noise as they were pushed back. The investigators, in a foul mood, almost threw their chairs as they stood up. For a moment, their eyes full of hostility glared at the chef.

The chef hurriedly tried to follow Yeonwoo, but it was too late.

"Sir! At least taste it-"

"..."

Yeonwoo, who had sent the investigators out first, looked at the chef expressionlessly. Then, he clenched his fist.

'The possibility that this never existed from the start.'

A thin thread of probability was caught in his grasp. That was the end of it. The chef and the meat restaurant were denied existence. Their existence was erased.

There would be no more accidents threatening Yeonwoo. Without reaching the imaginary realm of Level 7, it would only be an annoyance.

"Entities that threaten human life should die."

Muttering this, he went outside to find the investigators sitting down, clutching their stomachs, and spitting repeatedly, their faces pale.

They had merely been moved to an anomalous entity's space, so the original meat restaurant still existed in reality, spreading the smell of meat, which was causing psychological pain to the investigators.

The team leader, covering his nose, said:

"Yeonwoo. We can't have a company dinner. We can't eat anything."

The other investigators nodded their pale faces in succession. They had completely lost their appetite.

Yeonwoo unconsciously reached out his hand.

'The possibility of their appetite returning... No, this isn't right.'

Wasn't that a bit inhumane? After turning various thoughts over in his mind, Yeonwoo scratched his head.

"Should we grill some meat in the office later? I feel like we'll just run into accidents if we go out anywhere."

The investigators, who were already prone to encountering incidents, gathering for a special occasion. The probability of suddenly encountering an anomalous entity was high, like at this farewell party.

"Not meat. Let's order something else."

"I don't think I can even look at meat for a while."

And so the investigators agreed with Yeonwoo's opinion, and they parted ways there.

------

Time passed.

Yeonwoo moved busily. He checked the constantly revised treaty, pondered on how to establish Survival Agency, and how to obtain the resources needed for the group.

A group naturally needed money to be maintained, and Yeonwoo decided to obtain money through legitimate means.

Survival Agency, which pursued the joint survival of anomalies and humanity, needed a method befitting that goal, not some underhanded trick.

"Rather than creating money with the dice, wouldn't it be cleaner to receive sponsorship? So please sponsor Survival Agency. Regularly."

Another meeting was held.

Yeonwoo confidently made his request, looking at the screens in the air. Given how much compensation he had provided, he should receive something too.

Of course, people agreed. It wasn't with the intention of controlling Yeonwoo using sponsorship money as a leash. Doing something like that would backfire.

If Yeonwoo wanted, money could literally be copied.

The chairman, in a good mood, said:

"Investment is fine. How do you plan to do it?"

This was a matter involving large sums of money. Naturally, there were many ways to do it, and as many as there were ways, it was complicated.

Yeonwoo's expression said he didn't know about such things. He blinked. Wasn't it just a matter of sending money? What more was needed?

A director asked glumly:

"This Survival Agency? Has it actually been organized?"

"No. I was going to ask about that too. What should I do?"

The directors and the chairman closed their mouths. It felt like they'd gotten involved in someone else's business. Their heads throbbed. Yeonwoo was Level 6, but they wondered if Survival Agency should really be considered a top-tier group.

Of course, the answer was one. With a Level 6 entity there. Even if he just went into an abandoned building alone and declared it a group, they'd have to acknowledge it.

In the end, they found an appropriate solution.

"We'll send people from the company."

"The Club will help too."

They would send people to help establish the group.

On the other hand, the Association President and the worshipper just blinked blankly. They were just as amateurish as organizations. Almost at the level of a club.

In any case, Yeonwoo smiled brightly.

"I'd be grateful for your help."

Right, there was no need for him to do the brain work himself. Couldn't he just leave it to experts? He just needed to exist as a Level 6 entity.

After briefly discussing the Survival Agency issue, they tapped their heads.

"The conversation went off track. More importantly, we need to talk about the issue of smaller groups and dimensional portals."

A new order had been created.

Of course, there would inevitably be discord. Synth Dynamics, which kidnapped people and modified them into machine humans, remnants of the doomsday cultists, numerous smaller groups with different intentions.

The chairman frowned.

"It's a waste to use gold on each of those small fries."

"Should I ask them?"

The Association President, who had been shaking their head with a bored expression, spoke, but the directors shook their heads.

"Let's send out an official notice once the treaty is signed, then respond based on their reactions. More importantly, the magicians are a problem. They're not interested in creating and maintaining dimensional portals."

The second dimension where the company would advance. They had planned to subcontract the portals to magicians, with magicians maintaining them. All groups would participate in management and surveillance.

The company could do it sufficiently, but that was checked.

They were also worried the company might create ordinary nuclear bombs, ordinary nuclear backpacks, such weapons in the second dimension and bring them over.

"I know a bit about magicians too."

The worshipper stepped forward. They'd been enjoying daily life in an ordinary world lately, and their complexion looked very good.

The representative of black magicians, who were practically a branch of magicians, smiled.

"Provide one ordinary space."

"...Will that be enough?"

Suspicious responses came back.

Magicians weren't ordinary humans. Dimension-traveling wanderers. Terrorists who would throw a bomb and run if they felt like it. Even moderate magicians would abandon everything and flee if they got annoyed.

Magicians, masters of escape, weren't the type to stick around for tedious work like dimensional portals.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

But the worshipper smiled slightly and raised their hand in the air. They twirled their fingers, drawing something like a magic circle.

"Magicians are obsessed with discovery, pioneering, and adventure. The fact that their magic doesn't work in ordinary spaces means there are dimensions they can't visit with their magic."

If there were dimensions that rejected magic like ordinary spaces, wouldn't they naturally want to discover them?

They would cooperate even just to develop magic that would work in ordinary spaces.

Of course, only master-level magicians would focus on development and research while their disciples below would do the labor, but that was the hierarchy of magicians. Masters were the kind of people who would chase their disciples to the ends of hell to catch them.

Only magicians who could escape their master's pursuit could be considered full-fledged magicians who had outgrown being disciples.

The directors nodded.

"Then let's contact the magicians. That's all we need to discuss today."

And so the meeting concluded.

Yeonwoo stretched widely, then slowly got up from his seat. He had finished the farewell party with the investigators, but he hadn't moved his belongings yet.

He had no intention of moving until Survival Agency was properly established.

Feeling bored, Yeonwoo went to the Investigation Team's office.

He heard shocking news. Jae-min looked carefully at the space above Yeonwoo's head as he spoke cautiously:

"It says your parents are in an injured state. Did you know?"

"...What?"

Without even time to think further, Yeonwoo grabbed the threads of probability and moved through space.

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