Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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Lee Yeonwoo's mind snapped back to clarity. As his memories returned with lucid clarity, his whole body trembled.

'Irresistible mental contamination. Beauty that manipulates even reality.'

A transcendent being straight out of mythology. One whose mere sight drives humans mad, something that can't be prevented, closer to cosmic horror.

At least that was Yeonwoo's perception, so he trembled as he barely managed to speak.

"I really can't do it. How could I possibly-"

The Club's request. That demand to slightly provoke the Artists' Association President must not be granted.

But Yeonwoo hastily stopped mid-sentence. He realized his opponent was the Club.

'...They're on a similar level, aren't they.'

The president fighting the Association President and Golden Omnipotence.

Having acutely felt the Association President's power, Yeonwoo reassessed the Club's strength, and his confidence in being able to somewhat deal with Golden Omnipotence instantly vanished.

He hurriedly changed his words.

"I can do it, but if I get a failure or critical failure, it could only benefit the Association President. You know that, right? This has a huge risk."

"A minor roll will suffice. Your eyes feeling itchy, fatigue building up, getting sleepy."

The secretary replied with a slightly flustered voice, but Yeonwoo shook his head vigorously.

"It won't work because the distance is too far. It only works at close range... I really want to help, but..."

Yeonwoo was on the verge of sobbing.

'It's not even like a shrimp getting crushed between fighting whales. I just want to stay out of it.'

He hated war and didn't want to get involved in monsters fighting each other. Carelessly intervening would be fatal even with multiple lives.

The secretary fell silent for a moment. Two types of noise could be heard through the phone.

A rustling sound of something being moved and poured. The continuous voice of someone, perhaps the Club president. That voice sounded savage even just listening to it.

'Please give up.'

As Yeonwoo anxiously tapped his feet, the secretary spoke again.

"The distance is fine. We can move you. And."

After saying they'd resolve all minor issues, words to persuade Yeonwoo followed.

"If you're worried about retaliation, there's no problem. The Association President won't be able to move freely after this. Even if you participate now, she won't have the leisure to attack you."

"No, that's not-"

"The artists won't have the mental capacity to seek revenge either."

It was awkward to refuse, yet also difficult to agree.

Just then, Mark Jung burst through the door. Seeing Yeonwoo on the phone, he nodded.

"Yeonwoo. We got a call from the Director. He says to cooperate with the Club."

On top of that, the secretary added:

"The Artists' Association headquarters and directors have been kidnapped by a great demon, I hear. You don't need to worry about revenge."

"Ah."

Yeonwoo let out a light sigh. With the situation progressing this far, it became difficult to refuse like a petulant child.

In fact, there was no worry of retaliation, and some safety was even guaranteed.

'It's a war. They won't go around taking out their anger on individuals. And they won't have time to bother with me while dealing with Golden Omnipotence.'

Yeonwoo resigned himself and muttered softly with an office worker's sorrow.

"I won't be responsible for whatever results..."

---

---

Golden Omnipotence moved Yeonwoo. From the hospital room to an unknown mountaintop.

Three meteor fragments streaked across the sky. The Association President was on one of them. Yeonwoo glanced up briefly, then brought his phone to his mouth.

"I've arrived. You'll need to move me back once this is roughly finished."

"Of course we'll return you. It should be no problem. I'm counting on you."

They made some pleasantries about how even a minor provocation would be plenty helpful and that he could expect compensation, but Yeonwoo ruthlessly ended the call.

This was no time to focus on such conversation.

Yeonwoo took several deep breaths. It was no small matter - he was about to provoke that Association President.

"Prepare, prepare."

Though it didn't feel as dangerous as expected, he still needed to be cautious. Yeonwoo took out a fluorescent vest and stone, stuffing his pockets full of time-buying bills.

He stood still for a moment, thinking, then took out a sleep mask and earplugs to cover his eyes and ears. Just in case the Association President revealed herself, it might help a little.

'I feel like they'll fall off on their own if the Association President comes. But it's better than nothing, I guess.'

Pitch-black vision. Muffled hearing.

In the darkness, only the dice in a corner of his mind were visible.

'Dice. Let's do this.'

Yeonwoo clenched his fist, preparing for a roll. The minor roll that the Club and headquarters wanted.

'Chance of blinking becoming bothersome, chance of choking on saliva, chance of feet itching, chance of catching a cold, chance of suddenly feeling sleepy, chance of being overwhelmed by the feeling of forgetting something but not remembering what it was.'

The dice rolled chaotically. Then, the results came out.

Failure, failure, failure, failure... All failures.

'I figured as much.'

Yeonwoo calmly continued to roll for the next judgments. The world was already moving for the Association President's benefit anyway. It would affect the dice results too.

So the dice rolled, and as if the probabilities were rigged, only failures came up.

"..."

Roll, failure, roll, failure.

He tried changing the judgment a few times to roll for outcomes that would help the Association President, and they ghostly came up as successes.

By this point, Yeonwoo felt a surge of competitive spirit. More accurately, he felt anxious.

"It doesn't work at all to this extent?"

Didn't that mean resistance was entirely impossible? If something like that tried to kill him, wouldn't he just have to die?

The dice stopped. Yeonwoo rolled no more. In the pitch-black vision, he recalled the Association President from his memory.

A blurry figure, now barely remembered clearly. The one the world had praised.

'If she asked me to die for her.'

As if all the blood drained from his body, his hands and feet grew cold, and his vitality faded.

'It's dangerous just to look at her, but I was forced to see. I have no way to resist except the dice, but even the dice doesn't work.'

This wouldn't do. It couldn't be like this.

No matter how dangerous the opponent was, even if they were Danger Level 6 and a core anomaly of a top-tier organization, he couldn't have zero means of resistance.

Yeonwoo gritted his teeth.

'Just heightening my senses isn't enough.'

He could feel it even now. All results would only come out in ways that benefited the Association President.

He had to forcibly draw the desired result. At least once, he needed to fix the outcome according to his will, not the Association President's. At the very least, he had to make the results random.

'Focus, focus, focus. I need to have the ability to escape.'

His heart pounded. Yeonwoo bit his lip so hard it nearly tore. Instead of the dim vision and stifled hearing, the scent of blood grew strong.

He told himself:

"This is an opportunity."

This was a chance to learn how to face unavoidable death. A chance to improve survival skills. An opportunity to face an anomaly on the level of the Association President.

Yeonwoo concentrated intensely. As if an ordinary bullet was aimed at his head. As if the Association President stood before him.

"..."

His heightened senses faintly detected possibilities. Possibilities tilted in the Association President's favor. Possibilities of Golden Omnipotence moving. Possibilities that could be manipulated with dice.

'I need to move this. But how?'

He waved his hand, stared intently at the sleep mask with eyes wide open for no reason, and clenched his fist as if grasping probability.

But nothing worked. The probabilities and possibilities didn't budge an inch.

"Can't I do it?"

Yeonwoo scratched his head dejectedly. It seemed impossible after all. The dice must be less contaminated.

That's when it happened.

He felt a gaze. The sleep mask slipped down. The earplugs firmly blocking his ears fell with a soft thud.

"..."

The world suddenly rushed in. Yeonwoo saw clearly with both eyes. The meteor suspended in the middle of the sky, and the gaze from the meteor that seemed to be looking at him.

It was the Association President. She had cast her gaze. Looking for whatever had been bothering her. The perception-distorting gear lost its power. It couldn't deceive her.

At that clear gaze, his heart plummeted. Yeonwoo's mind went blank.

'This is...!'

Though her form wasn't visible yet, it was only a matter of time. The recent past flashed rapidly through Yeonwoo's mind.

His contaminated mind. The Association President moving the world. An insurmountable danger!

His instincts screamed. Yeonwoo screamed too. His blanked mind couldn't process complex thoughts and exploded with a single, desperate idea.

"Escape! No! Move!"

An action purely driven by instinct. A body moving like a beast, without thought or calculation.

The dice rolled.

Roll-

In the stretched-out moment, Yeonwoo sensed the possibility. The possibility tilting towards failure to prevent Yeonwoo from escaping, for the Association President's sake.

'No!'

Before the stirring possibility could fully solidify, Yeonwoo flailed his hands like a drowning man and-

The result changed.

Success!

The world Yeonwoo saw changed in an instant. From the unknown mountaintop to the hospital room he had been in.

"Uh, uh, uh."

Yeonwoo clutched his forehead, drenched in cold sweat. His pupils trembled ceaselessly as he looked around. Mark Jung, who had been resting in a chair, wore a puzzled expression.

"You're back?"

"I-I'm back? Yes, I think I escaped."

Yeonwoo rambled. Even now, he couldn't quite understand. Did he really escape? For real?

'...How did I do that? No, as long as I got away from that thing, it's fine.'

Yeonwoo collapsed onto the bed, drained. It felt as if tightly stretched nerves had suddenly snapped.

He said to Mark Jung:

"I won't take requests like this again. Really..."

"No, what on earth happened?"

Mark Jung asked, and Yeonwoo briefly explained while trying to calm his pounding heart.

That the Association President had seen him. So he ran away.

At those words, Mark Jung's expression became subtle.

'The Association President shouldn't have had the leisure to attack right now, so she probably just glanced over. But he still managed to escape?'

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