Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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As the head of the Survival Agency, Yeonwoo had many responsibilities. He traveled through second dimensions creating ordinary spaces, conducted surprise inspections, and sometimes barged into the company to extract information.

All to verify items that could bring about macroscopic changes to the Earth or the world, like the World Alteration Device.

That day, Yeonwoo had crossed over to headquarters to investigate Extinction Defense Devices and the like.

As he sifted through mountains of documents with tired eyes, Yeonwoo suddenly paused at one particular file.

"...What's this?"

He'd initially planned to just skim through, pretending to read. After all, Yeonwoo only needed to keep his seat warm while other investigators did the real brain work.

But there were words he couldn't just ignore. Yeonwoo's expression turned serious as he grabbed a handful of documents.

At the top was written 'Extinction Defense Device: Writer', followed by a list of familiar names. Yeonwoo read them aloud.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Tentative list. Investigation Team Leader, Choi Jae-min, Yoo Ji-yoo, Marine Response Unit Captain, Trapped Man, Kim Gapdong, Demon Hunter, Clock Repairman, Demon of Absurdity, Kang Yeol, Lee Seoyeon, Park Sangjoon..."

Names of people and anomalous entities Yeonwoo had encountered and incidents he'd experienced.

And then.

"Lee Yeonwoo. ...That's me?"

Something, something was off. Why were his name and the names of people he knew on this list? Goosebumps prickled across his skin. An eerie discomfort crept up on him.

"Is there a problem?"

A company employee who had been glaring at the auditors approached. Though they were supposedly from headquarters, they seemed uncomfortable with the current situation of the company being investigated.

Yeonwoo aggressively held up the document. His tone was harsh as he spoke.

"What's this? Why is my name here?"

"Well, that's because you obtained Extinction Defense Device status-"

The employee started to explain based on their assumption but stopped.

The company had granted Yeonwoo Extinction Defense Device status after confirming humanity's survival instinct, and Yeonwoo knew this. They thought he was just picking a fight, but that wasn't it.

This was a device and document even they didn't know about.

"Um... I don't know either."

Their eyes darted about, seemingly flustered. Yeonwoo observed this calmly, as if analyzing a life-threatening enemy.

The employee backed away from that cold, glassy stare. Excuses poured out.

"I really don't know. Only the directors might know about Extinction Defense Devices, or maybe not even them. It's like an independent department that operates on its own."

"Are you sure?"

Yeonwoo clenched his fist. Threads of probability were grasped.

The possibility of speaking only the truth.

The employee wore an aggrieved expression. They were just some random worker thrown in to stand around while others rummaged through company files.

"I really don't know anything. Please contact the director."

"Alright, I understand for now."

Yeonwoo took a step back. There was no point in pressing this person. If it was an Extinction Defense Device, it was something similar to Level 6. If it was a hidden trump card of the company, he needed to approach carefully.

Yeonwoo focused again and started reading through the stack of documents.

'If it's something that interferes like the World Alteration Device, I must verify it. Especially since my name is written here.'

It had been a while since he'd felt this tense. His nerves were on edge, his senses heightened. Thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning.

A tense silence fell over the data storage room. People watched Yeonwoo nervously, careful not to make even the slightest sound of swallowing or turning pages.

Only the rough sound of Yeonwoo tossing aside finished documents could be heard. His expression grew darker and darker.

The documents alone didn't provide accurate information. It was either a truly secret department, an independent unit, or it was written carelessly.

There were no details on what the Extinction Defense Device: Writer was, how the list of people was chosen, or where the department was located. It was as if its existence had been erased.

The only clue, written as if in mockery, was that it was "beyond the wall".

After rifling through documents for a long time, Yeonwoo smiled.

"Interesting. It's been a while."

He'd been getting a bit bored with his safe, peaceful daily life. And now this subtle threat had appeared.

A Level 6-class Extinction Defense Device targeting him? He could have some fun with this, like his squabbles with Golden Omnipotence or the worshipper.

He felt a surge of energy. Yeonwoo stood up vigorously.

"Who's the director in charge of this?"

"I'll check right away."

The employee immediately pulled out their phone to make calls. But after a short while, they shook their head.

"Everyone says they don't know. Not just pretending not to know, but that they have no knowledge at all..."

Yeonwoo stroked his chin, as if he'd expected this. Based on the documents, this was a completed Extinction Defense Device. Not an unfinished project like the World Alteration Device, but something on par with the Ark that even his future self couldn't find.

The fingers stroking his chin suddenly brushed his lips. Yeonwoo realized he was smiling. The corners of his mouth had curled up.

"Hide and seek, is it? A real game of hide and seek..."

Humming a tune absently, Yeonwoo closed his eyes. The threads of probability on his face unraveled, probing the air like tentacles. He also coaxed his survival instinct to sharpen his senses like blades.

'Whatever it is, it must be like a nuclear bomb. I need to know about it to respond to threats to humanity's survival. And my name was written there too. If I'm in danger, humanity is in danger.'

His senses, his condition, rose to their peak.

Thump-thump, listening to the pleasant beating of his heart, Yeonwoo opened his hand. But no threads of possibility appeared above it.

"..."

Yeonwoo's expression hardened. He stared silently at his empty palm.

He'd tried to find the possibility of knowing its location, the possibility of a detailed report appearing before him, possibilities to gain information, but no such possibilities existed.

0 percent.

He couldn't manifest something that didn't exist.

'Ordinariness? No. An ordinary device is impossible. You can't create an Extinction Defense Device with pure science and technology.'

This was Level 6-class information defense. The dice couldn't do anything about it, and even if he turned the world upside down, Yeonwoo couldn't interfere with it.

The light atmosphere sank into heaviness. This was no longer a game.

"This isn't right."

Didn't this mean his options for responding would be limited if the company suddenly went berserk?

People around watched fearfully as Yeonwoo muttered to himself, but he ignored them and closed his eyes.

If his life were at stake, he'd create non-existent possibilities, but it wasn't that serious yet. So he'd find loopholes and work around them.

'The dice are omnipotent. The problem is that I'm the one using that power.'

What good was omnipotence? When the one wielding it was a weak, limited human. The limits of imagination were the limits of omnipotence, and the shackles of perception and senses bound omnipotence.

Yeonwoo spread his wings of imagination wide.

'Information defense. I can't obtain information about the Extinction Defense Device: Writer directly. So then.'

He'd use the clue about it being "beyond the wall". It surely wasn't referring to a simple wall, but some metaphor or jargon. If he could just sense that, he'd be done.

Yeonwoo grasped a possibility.

The possibility of sensing the wall by transcending the limits of perception.

His senses expanded. The extended threads of probability detected something he normally couldn't perceive.

Yeonwoo slowly raised his head to look at the air. A smile spread across his face. His voice came out cheerfully.

"There you are."

He took one big step forward. He crossed the wall.

The nameless department. The intersection beyond the wall where the Extinction Defense Device: Writer was installed, the frame.

In a space where only the sound of typing could be heard, a scream rang out. The doctor, veins bulging in their neck, jumped up and down.

"Stop it! Stop it somehow! Don't let that cockroach find us!"

This place was humanity's last bastion, using meta-power as energy to manipulate the world when faced with extinction crises. No unauthorized person should be able to invade, no, they shouldn't even be able to invade in the first place-

At that moment.

The doctor looked at the wall with terror-filled eyes. A hand suddenly protruded from the wall. Beyond the hand flailing in the air, two gleaming eyes appeared in the black wall.

"Found you."

A shadowy figure stumbled through the wall.

The doctor closed their eyes. It was too late. All was lost. That crazy survivalist wouldn't leave alone something that interfered with him.

"Is this where that Extinction Defense Device: Writer is?"

Yeonwoo approached, cracking his joints, and looked at the doctor and the giant keyboard-tapping mechanical doll. His eyes glowed with faint wariness.

'Level 6?'

He sensed an omnipotent power like Golden Omnipotence or the dice.

The doctor, having given up completely, let out a deep sigh.

"Yes. That's right."

The doctor kicked the floor pointlessly, looking at Yeonwoo with eyes mixed with jealousy, fear, and irritation.

That crazy cockroach. The protagonist.

Yeonwoo first grasped the threads of probability to assess the situation. He manifested the possibility of the other party speaking only the truth.

"What does that device do?"

"It's a device that processes our world into a story form and provides it to the meta-dimension. Thus, it's a mechanical doll with the authority to write the story as it pleases."

That explanation was difficult to understand, so Yeonwoo interpreted it in his own way.

"Story... Novel? Protagonist?"

He remembered the Director he'd seen during training. An artist who manipulated reality like a movie set.

It must be something similar. In a novel, the protagonist doesn't die and somehow solves problems, so it's like creating a protagonist to solve problems when an extinction crisis comes.

But that statement seemed to touch a nerve with the doctor. They suddenly burst out:

"That's right! Protagonist! You! You crazy cockroach! You're not the protagonist!"

The doctor, who had desired the outer dimension, showed clear jealousy towards the protagonist.

"Originally, the goal of the nameless department wasn't this kind of story! An omnibus! A collection of short stories! We were going to express the stories of our world through different protagonists!"

Yeonwoo backed away at this sudden outburst. The doctor even pointed a finger at Yeonwoo accusingly.

"But you! You! You stole the protagonist's position! You interfered with the story and completely changed the genre!"

According to the original plan, Yeonwoo was supposed to exit after the Human Qualification Exam. But Yeonwoo, with his cockroach-like vitality, had changed himself into the protagonist.

Yeonwoo's back hit the wall as he retreated. His face hardened.

'I'm the protagonist?'

His voice trembled as he spoke.

"Then the reason why many people died in my hometown..."

"No. That's just because your hometown was strange."

"...Then the reason I survived in the face of accidents-"

"That's also because you're strange."

The doctor answered coldly. They, the writer, the nameless department, truly hadn't done anything. Yeonwoo had just survived on his own.

If anything, they had tried to kill Yeonwoo.

"We were trying to write stories about how people in our world live. But you arbitrarily stole the protagonist's position and derailed the story, so we tried to kill you."

The Director's intrusion during training, the anomalous entities encountered from his first job as an investigator, the subsequent terrorist attacks by the doomsday cultists using NPCs.

But Yeonwoo had survived. All attempts to kill Yeonwoo and make someone else the protagonist to continue the story had failed.

At this point, Yeonwoo realized.

"Then the reason I experienced so many accidents..."

"That's right. We did that."

Faced with the brazen doctor, Yeonwoo's eyes rolled. An enemy disrupting his peaceful life! A source of anxiety bringing dangerous accidents and threatening his life!

Having grown somewhat, Yeonwoo restrained himself. A question came out.

"That Writer? Will there be problems if I kill it?"

"No. Does a house disappear when you close a window? Does the world vanish when you close your eyes?"

The Writer merely provides their world to the meta-dimension in story form. And manipulates the world with meta-power.

The doctor said:

"It's just like hanging up a phone. Even if the call ends, the person still exists. We just won't know what's happening on the other end of the line. Do I need to explain every little detail?"

"I see."

Yeonwoo's eyes flashed as he pulled out a long thread of probability. The black thread was grasped like a whip.

"Then it needs to die."

His hand drew back. Yeonwoo gritted his teeth. Writer?

"Something that only brings accidents to my life needs to die."

"No!"

The doctor came to their senses. They desperately lunged forward, stretching out their hand, but it was too late.

Whoosh!

Yeonwoo's hand lashed out. The thread of probability sliced through the air fiercely, striking the mechanical doll's neck. The possibility of the mechanical doll, the Writer, being destroyed cleanly severed its head.

Thud!

The massive head fell to the floor. Yeonwoo nodded with satisfaction. Now he wouldn't have to experience accidents anymore. Finally, a peaceful life had arrived.

Yeonwoo turned around. He walked out beyond the wall. To a world no longer visible. To a world closed yet open.

The doctor screamed, and the headless body of the Writer creaked as it slowly moved its fingers.

[The End]

Author's Note

With this, Humanity Protection Company is essentially concluded.

Did you all enjoy it? I hope you had as much fun reading as I had writing.

---

Now for the concluding remarks. Wow. It's really over. I was able to make it this far thanks to you, the readers. Thank you!

I'll start with what you're probably curious about.

There are so many things I want to write for my next work. It'll likely be either a backrooms story mixed with magic, a heavenly horse apocalypse, or a zombie apocalypse. I'm tempted to roll dice to decide.

As for when I'll start serializing again, since writing is my only source of income, I'll probably begin as soon as I finish planning the new work.

To be honest, I wrote and deleted a lot of things repeatedly. But it felt like unnecessary rambling, so I decided to cut it out. Rather than just going on about myself, I think it'd be better to take questions from the readers.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I'll answer them!

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[raei: heya! Another novel complete (￣ー￣)ゞ that list is slowly growing! Anyways I hope you enjoyed the novel. Was quite messy and all over the place at times, but the writing was good, the start was especially strong and overall I really enjoyed it.

It was also the author's first work so they'll only get better from here.

I've picked up the author's next novel, 'Marauder of the Apocalypse.' A zombie outbreak novel. Very good. The protag is quite mad, the writing is great and there aren't a million terms to remember (thank god). I'll be releasing it soon, just gotta get a grip on my balatro addiction.

Hope you guys enjoyed, see ya again soon!]