Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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As Yeonwoo grasped the threads, his surroundings changed in an instant. It was his first visit home since starting work. The scent of childhood memories wafted through the air, and the house looked exactly as he remembered it.

The living room was cluttered with drying vegetables - a stereotypical countryside scene.

But there was no time for nostalgia.

Groans of pain echoed from the main bedroom. Yeonwoo rushed to fling open the door.

"Mom!"

His mother, her leg in a cast, lifted her head slightly from the bedding. Her wrinkled eyes widened at the sight of her long-absent son.

"Am I seeing things? Is it my time already?"

There was no way her wayward son would suddenly show up like this. It wasn't like him at all.

'Is he the Grim Reaper?'

She quickly grabbed a nearby water glass, ready to throw it.

Yeonwoo noticed the cast and medicine packets, signs of medical treatment. He relaxed a bit and sat down beside his mother.

"What happened?"

"Is it really you, Yeonwoo?"

"Of course it's me, who else..."

It could be someone else. A doppelganger or some anomalous entity manifesting memories, or hostile groups trying to take a Level 6's family hostage.

Yeonwoo pushed those thoughts aside and changed the subject.

"How did you get hurt?"

"A wild boar got me. I dodged quickly enough that it only got my leg. I'm lucky to be alive. Don't worry. But why did you come all the way here?"

"Ah. A wild boar."

Yeonwoo recalled his childhood memories.

The rural village where he grew up. A battlefield between humans and wildlife.

Packs of feral dogs roamed the streets, hungry for blood. Wild boars and deer raided crops, while snakes lurked in the grass like assassins.

That wasn't all.

In the sky, magpies, sparrows, and birds of prey circled, searching for prey. On the ground, scavengers waited for corpses, while underground, moles and earthworms tore up the earth.

They were all enemies of the farmers. From a young age, Yeonwoo learned that life formed atop death.

'This place was always like this.'

Yeonwoo smiled awkwardly.

He remembered hearing about deaths quite often.

The neighbor who died eating poisonous mushrooms, the old man who perished fighting wild dogs, the young student who crashed his motorcycle into a stream...

It was the dynamic rural life where life and death intertwined.

'Maybe I survived thanks to my survival instinct?'

As Yeonwoo pondered whether his survival instinct had been awake from the start, his mother threw off her blanket and sat up.

"You look better since you started working, but why are you so thin? Have you eaten?"

"Ah, yes, I have."

Yeonwoo firmly rejected his mother's concern. He had more pressing matters.

"Where's Dad?"

"Don't even ask about that man. He said he wanted to live as a hermit and built a house up in the mountains. Who knows if he's dead or alive?"

His mother grumbled as she hobbled out of the room on crutches. She ignored Yeonwoo's refusal. Whatever brought him here, she intended to at least cut some fruit for him.

Yeonwoo hurried after her.

"No, wait! I'll go see Dad too. I'll come back for dinner later."

"Absolutely not. Kim and Park went up to hunt that wild boar. Hunters from other villages are up there too. Don't go wandering around and get shot."

Accidental shootings during hunts weren't uncommon. There had even been cases in this village.

Of course, a mere hunting rifle wouldn't hurt Yeonwoo, but he couldn't exactly say that.

There was no need to suddenly reveal the reality of anomalous entities and monsters to his parents who had lived as ordinary farmers.

'So right now, the possibility...'

Yeonwoo hid one hand behind his back. Threads of probability rippled above it as he sensed the possibility of his family's death.

After a quick check of the death probabilities, Yeonwoo let out a sigh of relief.

'No major issues. Let's just eat.'

As his mother took out some fruit, Yeonwoo called out:

"Mom, I'll have dinner!"

"It's too late. Eat this fruit before it goes bad. Fill up on fruit."

His mother, who had gone to the kitchen to check the fruit, replied coldly.

------

A plate of bruised apples and overripe bananas appeared. In a few more days, they'd be fit only as bait for traps.

Yeonwoo reluctantly put the fruit in his mouth. It tasted awful. Well, the fruit itself wasn't bad, but his mother's nagging killed his appetite.

She bombarded her long-absent son with endless worried questions.

"So what exactly do you do for work? You don't even come home for holidays, and you say you make good money. It's not dangerous, is it?"

She had picked up hints of danger from the bits of information Yeonwoo had let slip.

"Are you seeing anyone? All the kids your age around here are married now."

The typical holiday questions flowed non-stop.

Yeonwoo's face darkened. He chewed the apple with his eyes tightly shut. The head of Survival Agency, a Level 6 entity in the anomalous world. Was he really going to cave to nagging?

Yeonwoo shoved his hand in his pocket. He grasped the threads of probability and manifested a possibility.

'The possibility of recovering well without side effects or issues.'

He couldn't exactly make her think he was never born or manipulate her memories and mind.

After bestowing an ordinary level blessing, Yeonwoo smoothly changed the subject.

"I quit my job."

"Good, that's good. I always thought it was suspicious. Are you thinking of moving back?"

His mother smiled brightly, oddly pleased with her improved condition.

"Take over the farm. It makes enough to live on."

"What do I know about farming?"

"Don't be silly. Times have changed. You can just hire workers for everything."

Time-honored farming methods rather than modern technology. Just provide the land and hire people. You could even rent tractors when needed and employ farm workers.

If you didn't know something, you could just ask the villagers or copy what others were doing.

"Even with labor costs, it's enough to live on."

"No thanks. I already have plans for my next job."

Yeonwoo shook his head quickly. Farming? If he farmed, he'd probably end up creating and selling strange anomalous entities like the Green Association.

'Would that be fun, though?'

Ideas popped into his head. Fruit that provided a full day's calories and nutrients in one bite, plants that boosted regeneration, tea leaves that enhanced mental power.

It seemed fitting for Survival Agency and could be a good source of income for the group.

As they chatted, evening fell.

Yeonwoo, who had filled up on fruit, stood up. Before going to find his father, there were people he needed to meet.

"Um, are there any recent newcomers to farming around here?"

"There are. Poor young folks, struggling with all the local prejudice."

His mother's expression turned sympathetic, feeling sorry for the young people suffering from rural discrimination.

Yeonwoo asked casually:

"Do they live nearby?"

"In that house where the village chief stacked fertilizer bags against the wall."

They were surely company employees sent to protect Yeonwoo's parents. Yeonwoo left the house.

------

Smelly fertilizer bags of unknown origin were piled high along the wall. Inside was a two-story building with an overgrown yard.

Yeonwoo peeked through the makeshift iron gate and called out:

"Hello! Anyone home?"

After a moment, a young man emerged from the building. With dark circles under his eyes, he held his nose against the foul fertilizer smell, his face etched with stress.

He'd had his fill of rural eccentrics. Another incident sparked more irritation than curiosity.

"What is it no-"

The man's movements froze as he opened the gate. He couldn't fail to recognize Yeonwoo's face.

A moment of panic struck him.

'We're doomed!'

Yeonwoo's mother had been hit by a wild boar. He must be here to reprimand them for failing to prevent it. None other than a Level 6 entity and leader of an allied group.

"I'm so sorry. Due to our inadequate protection-"

He reflexively bowed his head, but Yeonwoo grabbed it to stop him and pushed him inside.

"The boar incident is fine. These things happen occasionally. More importantly, thank you for your hard work coming all the way out here."

"No, no, not at all."

Despite the man's repeated protests, Yeonwoo felt bad for him.

An elite company employee secretly guarding the family of a top agent. He felt sorry for the man's suffering, unnecessarily dispatched to the countryside.

"I'll be counting on you in the future as well."

Yeonwoo grasped the threads to bestow a weak blessing of luck. Having said his piece, he was about to leave when the man quickly grabbed his sleeve.

"Mr. Yeonwoo. There's something suspicious about this incident. Our agents are searching the mountain."

"...Something suspicious?"

Yeonwoo stopped. If it was a simple accident, there was no need to worry. But if it was a plot targeting him...

A strange light gleamed in Yeonwoo's eyes, and the man gulped.

"It's not the season for wild boars to come down the mountain. But not just boars - many wild animals fled down as if escaping something."

"Did something happen on the mountain?"

"It's definitely suspicious. For now, the agent we stationed near your father is scouting the area."

Yeonwoo turned his head. The dim evening light was falling. His gaze swept over the darkening mountain.

He grasped the wriggling threads of probability in his hand. Unlike before, when he'd only roughly checked his parents' survival, he now examined all related probability threads in detail.

When that wasn't enough, he sometimes manifested the possibility of gaining knowledge, mixing in abilities like clairvoyance or past viewing.

Yeonwoo's eyes darted about, probing the air as he clumsily imitated omniscience with his omnipotent power. A moment later, his expression changed.

"A magician?"

Someone had clumsily opened a two-dimensional door in the mountains. Not quite a magician - more like an amateur who caused an accident while imitating magic with a spellbook they'd stumbled upon.

The man was startled.

"A magician is involved?"

"Not exactly, but something similar. I'll handle this. We should resolve it quickly."

In the past Yeonwoo had seen, the amateur magician had turned a clearing into a mass of flesh. That door was still open. In the future, the contamination would spread, turning the entire mountain into flesh.

'Ah, why another incident?'

Yeonwoo clenched his fist irritably and teleported.

An amateur magician who'd taught themselves from a spellbook without a proper teacher. He'd have to kidnap - no, arrest them and hand them over to the company. Let them manage dimensional portals or something.

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