Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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The demon worshipper acted as usual. Lost in thought, he summoned a demon he could boss around and gave some vague instructions.

"Let's contact the company directors."

The thief demon, wearing a hood and mask, somehow managed to steal an internet connection and establish communication.

Giggling, the thief demon handed over a phone.

"Connection's ready."

An exhausted voice came through the phone.

"Which demon worshipper? I just fell asleep-"

"The Level 6 worshipper. Humanity Protection Company. Let's create a world without anomalies together."

Silence. After a moment of heavy breathing, a trembling voice responded.

"How did you know that? No, how many people know?"

"Your Yeonwoo knew. He wanted to destroy the company and change the world together."

"How did Yeonwoo- no, damn it! He can't be the only one who knows! Quick, emergency- ugh!"

The sound of someone coughing up blood came through. Seconds later, there was a commotion of footsteps and people shouting.

"Director! Get the medical team here now!"

"We're under attack! Sound the emergency alarm!"

The demon worshipper stared blankly at the phone, then shifted his gaze. Had Yeonwoo done something?

But Yeonwoo was just playing around, customizing the prison demon. The demon seemed to be enjoying it too.

Then the worshipper recalled the director's words. Yeonwoo couldn't be the only one who knew. If not Yeonwoo, then...

"The Club?"

Just as he muttered this to himself, the thief demon was enveloped in golden light. The demon blinked its gloomy eyes.

"Worshipper. Our contract's been terminated. Not just yours, but all the contracts I had with other worshippers too."

That was it. The demon vanished. The contracts of all demons staying in the domain, on Earth through contractual power, had ended.

Through the small window, brilliant golden light lingered like a wheat field before disappearing.

"...So all the demons' contracts have ended. Using this much gold means they have no future, right? No, it's because they have nothing to lose that they're spending it like water."

The situation had taken a turn for the worse. At this rate, instead of a world for humans, it looked like war was about to break out.

'What should I do now?'

As he pondered this, a voice spoke up. The Club chairman's voice. The chairman's face appeared in the air, tinged with amusement.

"Worshipper. I hear you've sided with the Humanity Protection Company. Any chance you'll change your mind?"

"No. Things like us shouldn't exist in this world."

"For the sake of humans?"

"For the sake of humans."

The worshipper's calm voice made the chairman laugh.

"You know the world will be destroyed before that world for humans can be created, right?"

It was simple profit and loss. If they tried to create a world for humans, humans would die. If they gave up, many people would live.

The worshipper frowned at this roundabout statement.

He could feel it. The world was becoming hell. The one who turns the world into hell sensed the world changing into hell.

"...What did you do?"

"The Artist Association President used her power. TV, radio, streaming, internet, videos, text messages, social media. Billboards, she appeared on every medium."

The chairman showed a short video.

People from various countries, looking fanatical, were rushing towards the nearest company outposts.

People looking at their phones went mad. The Association President appeared on urban billboards, and countless people started running like zombies. Military units acted independently, and armed police and firefighters raced with sirens blaring.

Gunshots, shouts, explosions, screams.

The worshipper squeezed his eyes shut. Childhood nightmares resurfaced.

"...If I give up, will this stop?"

"We'll keep it up until we bring down the company."

Because that would tie up a significant portion of the company's personnel.

On top of that, information warfare was already underway. All sorts of false information was being spread to slow the company's recovery after losing its board of directors.

It was made to look like the Club had provided information as the company's ally, or as if the company had figured it out themselves.

The chairman spoke:

"The company is too big and dangerous. It's right to take them out now."

If this was the altered world, the company would eventually figure that out and revert. They had to be eliminated now.

No one knew how long that war would last, or how many people would die during that time. This was a war without even minimal standards.

The worshipper opened his eyes. Determination settled in those eyes. He had made up his mind.

"No. People won't die. I'll make sure of that. There's no death in hell."

He would save people. And at the same time, design the future.

There was a vision of a world without anomalies. As long as people were alive, the company would eventually create tools to achieve that vision. Or he would do it himself.

"People will not die, and a world where we cannot exist will come."

The worshipper had both the power and the will to do this.

The chairman fell silent.

"..."

"..."

The worshipper also hunched his body. The hell they had created would soon become his power. He intended to make the entire surface of the Earth his domain.

Just as golden light flashed in the air and hell contracted like a tightly coiled spring, it happened.

Bang, the ground exploded and Yeonwoo crawled out from underground.

Covered in dirt and ash-like dust, twisting his joints, Yeonwoo crawled out on all fours with difficulty and quickly raised his head.

"Ah!"

The worshipper and chairman's gazes shifted simultaneously.

The worshipper wore a dumbfounded expression, while the chairman's face contorted. They had the same thought.

'Why is that guy out there?'

A strange sense of foreboding swept over them. Yeonwoo, seeing the shimmering golden light in the air, grinned broadly.

"You came to rescue me! Thank you! I'll help now!"

"No, what are you trying to do, just stop for a moment!"

"Yeonwoo! If you move even an inch, you'll no longer be a prisoner but a criminal facing eternal torment-"

Even as the worshipper turned away from the chairman and threatened Yeonwoo, Yeonwoo shook his head.

A regretful voice poured out.

"You're truly a good person."

Wasn't eternal torment the same as eternal life? Anything short of death couldn't threaten him. The worshipper's threat didn't work at all. If anything, it encouraged him to act without hesitation.

Yeonwoo loosely clenched his fist.

"Dice."

In an instant, time stretched out for the three Level 6 entities. Extreme concentration made even time seem to slow down. Threads of probability wriggled out from Yeonwoo's body.

'Damn it!'

The chairman panicked. He immediately cut the connection. That was a bomb. There was no reason to get involved. It was better to let the worshipper take the hit alone.

On the other hand, the worshipper's eyes flashed.

'There's no need to face him directly.'

Now that the chairman was gone, he would turn the world into hell. Whatever Yeonwoo did didn't matter. After all, he wouldn't die anyway.

He murmured:

"Hell will come."

Yeonwoo wore an apologetic expression as he swung his hand.

"If we had met at a different time, in a different situation, we could have been good friends. ...Dice. The possibility of the worshipper's nightmare, the worshipper's hell being realized."

He was giving a personalized hell as a gift to someone who governed the concept of hell shared by many people.

The dice rolled.

Time, which had slowed down, sped up again. Hell explosively expanded its domain, and threads of probability writhed around Yeonwoo simultaneously.

And then, silence fell over the world. The exploding power vanished in an instant.

"..."

"..."

The two men stood staring blankly at each other. The power of anomalies had disappeared from the world. They had become completely ordinary people.

Critical failure!

Because the dice had shown a critical failure. Instead of the worshipper's hell, the worshipper's ideal world was realized.

"No, huh? Critical failure? What?"

"Isn't this... a world without anomalies?"

The two men were confused. Yeonwoo lost all sense of not just the dice, but his survival instinct and even the raindrops, while the worshipper was no longer the one who turns the world into hell, but just a grumpy-looking middle-aged man.

Nevertheless, both men were experienced enough to quickly grasp the situation.

The expansion of hell had stopped, and the moderately-sized hell had become a world without anomalous power.

Yeonwoo, who had been gauging the situation, let out a scream and quickly turned around. He ran away, kicking up dirt.

"Run away!"

He had become weak. A wrong fall could kill him. A wrong hit could kill him. Getting hit on the head by hail could kill him, getting struck by lightning could kill him, a sudden heart attack could kill him. Simply put, the possibility of death had appeared. A lot of it.

He needed to quickly leave this domain and regain his power! To make death non-existent again!

"Stop! Yeonwoo! Let's create a world without anomalies together!"

The worshipper hurriedly chased after Yeonwoo. His eyes blazed with fire as he pursued Yeonwoo.

'The vision! The means to create a world without anomalies! I must catch him!'

The chase began.

Yeonwoo screamed and screamed until he was out of breath, gasping for air, while the worshipper, equally lacking in stamina, stumbled and fell on his own or drooled as he struggled to keep running.

How long did they run? Probably not even a few minutes.

But both men looked years older, their limbs trembling as they pushed their bodies to the limit.

"Yeon, woo! Just, talk, for a moment!"

"No! Stop, chasing me!"

Crash!

Yeonwoo tripped on a rock and fell. He barely managed to get up, twisting his whole body. His heart was racing, and his breathing was labored.

Drip, drip, Yeonwoo, dripping with sweat and saliva, gritted his teeth. He had reached his limit. He had hit the wall of physical exhaustion.

'Move!'

The worshipper, more tenacious than a demon, was chasing him. He had to run away quickly. Even a misplaced punch to the jaw could kill him.

The demon worshipper seemed intent on subduing him, but if that went wrong...

Grind!

The sound of teeth grinding could be heard. Yeonwoo, his hands trembling, barely managed to lift his feet.

The demon worshipper, looking crazed, stretched out his legs. Only willpower moved his physically exhausted body.

"St, op!"

At that point, Yeonwoo gave up on running away.

'I might die if I run wrong. I'd better drive the worshipper away here.'

Fwump, his hand went into his bag. In this domain, it wasn't an anomalous entity, so nothing could be found.

Yeonwoo staggered as he glared at the worshipper. As if pretending there was a gun in the bag.

"If you, come any closer, I'll shoot!"

"In hell, there's no... Oh, there is death now, isn't there?"

The worshipper stopped in his tracks. He bent over, hands on his knees, dry heaving a few times before wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

Time passed as they caught their breath, trying to regain their stamina. The worshipper spoke casually:

"Yeonwoo. Right. I've heard about you. A survivalist who destroys dangerous anomalies he's supposed to protect. Isn't a world without anomalies good for you too?"

Yeonwoo's eyes darted around as he showed signs of trying to run away again. He was slowly backing away.

The worshipper, looking like he was about to lose it, waved his hands frantically.

"I won't catch you! Just listen to me!"

"...Go ahead."

"Without anomalies, it's that much safer. The world won't be messed up because of Level 6 entities like us, and there won't be accidents from suddenly appearing anomalous entities."

His words carried genuine emotion. Yeonwoo responded seriously.

"I probably would have agreed with you before I reached Level 6."

Perhaps at one time, he had wanted a safe world without anomalies. Wanting to be safe from too many accidents.

But now that he had reached Level 6...

"But now that I've experienced a world without anomalies, I'm certain. No. A world where anomalies exist is safer."

"...Why?"

The worshipper, who had been listening intently, asked.

Yeonwoo smiled faintly. This was probably the first time he was revealing this to someone else.

"Because I'm a survivor. I reached Level 6 through my survival instinct, not the dice."

The one who avoids death, who may have even surpassed the limits of lifespan, asked with pure curiosity:

"Why should we change a world where we don't have to die into a world where we must die?"

Natural death, traffic accidents, heart attacks, viruses, stray dogs, falls, fractures, fires, absurd accidents, and so on - why create a world with so many possibilities of death?

The worshipper closed his mouth. He realized they fundamentally couldn't understand each other. He felt the same sense of alienation he had felt when he first saw a demon.

Demons who play around with the concepts they govern as their theme. If he thought of Yeonwoo as a demon of survival...

"I can't ask a demon to give up the concept it governs... Fine. Go. Then we each have our own work to do."

"Agreed. Let's both do our best for our goals."

With that, the two men turned their backs on each other. They walked in opposite directions. Towards the edge of this domain. Towards the world where war was breaking out.

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