Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: posted in discord

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The prison demon spoke gruffly:

"I don\'t communicate with prisoners."

It was a basic principle, but the entity before him was especially dangerous and required extra caution.

The demon\'s shoulders sagged under various burdens: the fact that the worshipper had personally requested surveillance, the sense of crisis he felt as a prison demon, the weight of the title "Level 6," and so on.

Yeonwoo, oblivious to the demon\'s inner tension, wore a blank expression.

"That\'s fine."

Yeonwoo made a fist-clenching gesture without much thought.

\'I can do it alone, or I can play with this demon.\'

The moment the demon entered his sight, its possibilities were in Yeonwoo\'s grasp.

He could feel the demon\'s possibilities at his fingertips as he reached into the air. The possibility of the demon vigilantly watching Yeonwoo as a faithful guard. It was the most probable future, and one Yeonwoo could easily manipulate.

The demon\'s future, existence, thoughts, and sense of self - everything was in Yeonwoo\'s hands.

More precisely, they were caught up in the dice\'s chaos. Everything about the demon was no longer its own.

\'Still, I shouldn\'t do anything too extreme, right?\'

After all, it was a living being just like him. Plus, the demon worshipper was probably watching.

As Yeonwoo started fumbling through the threads of possibility, the demon broke out in a cold sweat and opened his mouth wide. A threatening shout burst forth:

"Don\'t move! If you do anything strange-"

"Oh. I\'m just moving my hands. That\'s too much. I\'m a legitimate prisoner, you know."

Yeonwoo pouted. He felt wronged. He was about to do something, sure, but he hadn\'t actually done anything yet. Wasn\'t it going too far to stop him from even moving his hands?

"This is too much. I can\'t take it."

"Stop!"

Clank-

The demon pulled out a long skewer from his waist. It was a tool for torturing prisoners. The rusty skewer with dried blood on it gleamed ominously in the torchlight.

Yeonwoo frowned.

"Torture is really crossing the line. Listen. I\'m not a criminal, I\'m a prisoner who surrendered voluntarily. You should treat me accordingly."

"Stay still!"

"Wow, now you\'re even speaking informally. Listen to what I have to say."

The iron skewer poked through the bars, as if telling him to shut up. Yeonwoo quickly assumed a surrender pose and spoke rapidly:

"It\'s normal for guards to converse with prisoners and help with hobbies for their mental health. Right?"

"You\'re not an ordinary person! Who knows what you might do!"

Crunch!

The demon gripped the skewer tightly. Veins popped out on the back of his hand.

\'Persuasion.\'

The dice rolled.

Clatter-

Success!

The threads of possibility wavering at Yeonwoo\'s fingertips touched the demon. The demon, who had been brandishing the skewer, suddenly stopped. A confused look crossed his face.

\'He\'s right. He\'s Level 6, isn\'t he? I shouldn\'t be acting this way towards him.\'

He wasn\'t an ordinary criminal. The demon had overreacted.

The demon awkwardly withdrew the skewer.

"You said you wanted to play a dice game? I\'ll bring some dice."

"I have dice. More importantly, let\'s change this blanket and chair first."

Yeonwoo casually patted the ragged blanket. The blanket, more like a rag, and the mattress, which looked like it had been chewed by rats, sent up clouds of dust.

"Yes!"

The demon hurried off.

How much time passed like this?

The musty, old cell transformed into something like a hotel room. Hell-fire lanterns hung from the bars like decorative lights, and comfortable beds, blankets, and furniture lined the walls.

Most importantly, the cell door was open.

"Well, this time it came up as a failure."

"So I won."

"Congratulations."

Yeonwoo sat comfortably on the bed, fidgeting with his hands.

Across from him, the demon sat docilely in a chair, but horns had grown on his head, and he now had six fingers.

All these changes were the result of playing dice games with Yeonwoo.

\'This is getting boring too.\'

Yeonwoo wore a bored expression again.

Mindful of the demon worshipper, he had only given the demon meaningless physical changes - or rather, free plastic surgery - to the demon who could change its name and appearance at will, but it was starting to lose its appeal.

The demon asked:

"What should we bet on this time? Skin? A tail?"

"Wait a minute. I want to do something more interesting."

Yeonwoo fell into deep thought.

\'What could help with the dice\'s contamination, be fun, and not cross the line with the demon worshipper?\'

Various ideas flashed through his mind, but none met all the conditions.

Making the prison his domain, reversing the concepts the demon governed, making an unfair contract in his favor...

That\'s when it happened.

Suddenly enveloped in golden light, the demon\'s eyes widened. A short, questioning voice burst out.

"Huh? Why is the contract-"

The demon vanished with a whoosh. As if it had never existed, the demon\'s presence disappeared from Earth.

Yeonwoo blinked, slowly realizing what had happened.

\'This feels more like a return.\'

Such things didn\'t happen without reason. Yeonwoo looked up at the ceiling with a bright expression. He could sense it. Golden Omnipotence\'s golden light was seeping through the stone ceiling.

Like the sun rising, the golden light illuminated the demon\'s domain.

Yeonwoo jumped to his feet. Rescue had arrived. He couldn\'t just sit still now. He had to help the Club by causing chaos from the inside.

"Dice! Get ready!"

As he boldly stepped through the wide-open door, Yeonwoo wore a troubled expression.

Just causing confusion or making a mess would be enough to distract the demon worshipper.

\'But how do I cause chaos? Ah, I don\'t know. I\'ll just have to roll the dice like crazy.\'

Yeonwoo ran down the prison corridor, lit only by flickering torches, threads of probability creeping out around him.

------

The Club chairman, having restored his domain, was trembling in the top floor of the building. The Artist Association President, who had suddenly requested a conversation, had shared some terrible information.

The Humanity Protection Company. The enemy that had created a world hostile to anomalies and now sought to annihilate them.

"...Please wait a few minutes."

"Okay."

The Association President, connected through Golden Omnipotence, quickly nodded.

The Club chairman gestured to his secretary.

"Bring gold bars."

"How many should I bring?"

"A lot. As many as possible."

The secretary hurried down in the elevator, while the chairman paced restlessly around the top floor. He swayed from side to side and rubbed his forehead.

Countless thoughts raced through his mind.

\'If this information is certain... No, first I need to verify the information.\'

And when the secretary returned with labor robots carrying gold bars, he poured all of them into Golden Omnipotence.

The goal was to obtain truthful information.

"Please verify the truth of the information the Association President shared."

Golden Omnipotence answered that it was true, and the chairman\'s body stiffened. He made his eyes glow golden and slowly gestured. Keep inputting gold.

"Tell me what was discussed at the recent board meeting."

This was a matter of life or death for the Club. He wouldn\'t spare any gold.

"World Alteration Device. Humanity Protection Department. Sabotage. Plan for mass-producing ordinary bullets. Reversal of safety measures that protect anomalies. Ha. Haha."

Having obtained all the information from the board meeting, the chairman laughed. The secretary standing beside him opened his mouth in shock after hearing the chairman\'s muttering.

"Ch-Chairman. If the situation is like this-"

"Wait. ...Please give me the documents and information related to the ordinary bullets."

The chairman finally obtained information about the ordinary bullets. He knew everything else, but that was completely new to him.

Golden Omnipotence couldn\'t reveal the ordinary bullets themselves, but project reports and documents related to them were engraved in the chairman\'s mind.

They were bullets that nullified anomalies.

It was definitive proof that the Humanity Protection Company dreamed of and aimed for a world that didn\'t allow anomalies.

The chairman let out a hollow laugh.

"Ah. War. War. A war with nothing but losses."

War only brings losses. But if it\'s a war for survival, where losing means extinction and winning means survival...

The chairman glanced at the fidgeting secretary. He completely changed his expression and said:

"Prepare for total war."

It was a war with no way back. No matter how much gold they had to burn, they had to win. Even if it meant destroying the society they had protected for the sake of business and steady profits.

The secretary snapped to attention. The criminal enterprises the Club had prepared immediately came to mind.

"We\'ll attack banks and gold storage facilities around the world right away."

Because the Club was as well-integrated into normal society as the company, they had incredibly detailed plans in place.

Spies bought with gold, blueprints and security systems for each facility, and plans for attacks and transport using anomalous entities like Golden Omnipotence appropriately.

The chairman added:

"Stop all business and switch to a war footing."

As the secretary pressed his phone, signals were transmitted, and robots inside the building began to move busily. Boxes full of time-buying bills piled up on each floor.

Then, the members who had evacuated returned and set fire to the bills.

There was only one thing to buy time for with the bills.

Offering gold bars to Golden Omnipotence.

Time was shortened, and gold bars were moved. In a brief moment, countless gold bars entered Golden Omnipotence\'s mouth.

The chairman spoke coldly:

"Please kill all the company directors."

It was a request the chairman wouldn\'t normally make. Because it took too much gold to kill protected directors.

But conversely, it meant that anything was possible if enough gold was offered.

With the Club facing a crisis of extinction, the chairman\'s eyes had gone wild, and Golden Omnipotence, having received its payment, granted the wish.

In an instant, the directors died.

"Next, tell me who our enemies are in the current situation. ...The demon worshipper, I see. Good. Let\'s start by canceling the contract between the worshipper and the demons."

The gold stockpiled in the building for emergencies was rapidly consumed.

As another wish was granted, the Artist Association President, who had been waiting quietly, spoke:

"What should I do?"

"...You should broadcast. I\'ll help you broadcast simultaneously worldwide through all media."

"Sounds good!"

"For the broadcast script, yes. I\'ll give you the locations of the company\'s strongholds. Please ask the people who see you to rush and attack those places."

The nuclear bombs of the anomalous world began to detonate. The apocalypse was coming to the world.

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