Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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Many small groups shared a modest wish.

They wanted to possess a danger level 6 anomaly that was controllable, with manageable risks and consequences, and that fit their group's concept!

In that respect, the Green Association was lucky.

They had obtained seeds of a great tree that met their conditions. They had gained the opportunity to sprout that great tree.

In that respect, the Green Association was also unlucky.

'I've completely restrained him. I've prepared for all the rolls Yeonwoo might make. His life is in our hands. And yet...'

Kim Podo gulped. He looked at Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo was bound in different ways by anomalies, analog devices, and electronic equipment. He was threatened with death and under constant surveillance, with only his face exposed.

In that powerless situation, Yeonwoo had regained control of the conversation.

Not just in momentum or logic, but in reality.

"Maybe I won't die at all."

Yeonwoo's eyes sank deep. His senses transcended physical limits. Like an insect's antennae, they protruded slightly, searching for rolls with a high chance of success.

'Dice.'

Something seemed to squirm within Yeonwoo's dark pupils.

It was probability. Possibility. The probability that squirmed around the dice every time Yeonwoo made a roll. The dice rolled in his mind.

Clatter-

In an instant, the squirming probability stopped. One possibility was pulled into reality.

Success!

The bomb-like fruit suddenly withered. As if it had been in a fruit dehydrator for hours, it lost its moisture and vitality, its life snuffed out.

'Two booby traps left.'

One was an explosive, and the other a bucket filled with strange liquid. The moment Yeonwoo broke free from his restraints, the moment the connected string snapped, the explosives would detonate and the toxic substance would spill.

'How should I handle this? Move? No, feels like that would fail. Destroy the bucket? That feels like it would fail too.'

Just as Yeonwoo's senses were busily twitching, Kim Podo snapped back to his senses.

'No! I can't let this go on!'

Minds connected through a single tree aided him. He clasped his hands together, his thumb hovering over some kind of button.

"Stop! Make another false move and I'll detonate it immediately!"

"Go ahead."

"The seed planted in your body will grow at the same time! You can't stop it! If you value your life-"

"I said detonate it."

Yeonwoo's lips curled into a sneer.

Would they really give up the chance to nurture the great tree like this? The situation had already unfolded, and if they couldn't grow the tree, only a ruinous future awaited them, right?

'They can't detonate it.'

A strange certainty led by thought and sensation.

Sure enough, Kim Podo's expression suggested he was about to lose his mind. He needed to use Yeonwoo somehow.

He clasped his hands tightly.

Creak, crunch-

A part of the tree roots binding Yeonwoo constricted tightly. That pressure. The sensation of bones bending to the point of fracture.

Kim Podo spoke menacingly.

"Resurrection. It's the dice, right? There's no way you'd risk an action with a high probability of failure, a high chance of death."

A survivalist wouldn't gamble with their life. It was a bluff. A bluff to regain control and find a way to survive.

There was no way either of them would rush towards mutual destruction.

"Don't roll the dice anymore. If you touch the explosives, bucket, tree roots, or seed even once more, we both die. However."

But facing off against each other head-on was slightly disadvantageous, so Kim Podo took a step back. His tightly clasped hands loosened, and the roots eased their pressure.

"If you cooperate obediently, we'll obviously let you live. We'll remove the seed and treat all your injuries."

What was there to fear if they just grew the tree? Yeonwoo's dice were dangerous but a double-edged sword, and he wouldn't throw himself into danger out of a desire for revenge-

That's when Yeonwoo, who had been silent, laughed.

"You gave me too much time."

Enough time to roll the dice sufficiently. Time to find his own path to survival without trusting others' empty promises.

While they were talking, the dice rolled and rolled and rolled.

The detonator of the explosive malfunctioned, the spring to push over the bucket rusted and broke, and the seed implanted in his body became defective.

Now only the tree roots threatened him.

And finally, even the last tree roots suddenly moved on their own, retreating beneath the soil.

"No!"

Kim Podo reacted instinctively. He had to threaten decisively. As he put his hands together, the seed planted in Yeonwoo's body stirred.

The seed Yeonwoo had swallowed while unconscious had spread its roots. Into the stomach wall, into the internal organs. To grow using a human as nutrients. And so the flower growing inside a person...

'...What? Why isn't it growing?'

The flower didn't grow. It was defective. It extended its roots a little and ran out of energy. At this rate, it would just be digested in Yeonwoo's stomach.

"Damn that alchemist!"

He had clearly told him to prepare the most reliable item!

There was no time for this. One link in the iron chains binding Yeonwoo broke, and they began to clank and fall away.

That thing was breaking free from its restraints. They couldn't threaten that thing. They couldn't use that thing.

'The plan has failed. I must at least kill that thing! Then we all need to flee!'

After sending an alert through the faintly connected minds, Kim Podo immediately pressed the button. The button to trigger the explosives was pressed firmly.

Tick.

A weak sound was heard.

"This is broken too? When?"

Kim Podo stared blankly at the explosive before realizing. It wasn't broken. The seed wasn't defective.

Yeonwoo had done it. The dice had rolled.

Kim Podo dazedly looked at the bucket. Even though the string was pulled as Yeonwoo broke free from his restraints, the mechanism to launch the bucket didn't activate.

Kim Podo's gaze turned to Yeonwoo.

Despite having been searched once, a lighter and bills that Yeonwoo had hidden somewhere in his clothes appeared and began to burn.

It was as if fortune was blessing him.

This wasn't about the accidentally swallowed seed being defective, the explosives and mechanisms breaking down, or the iron chains shattering.

"How can you succeed this much? Contamination? There's no way you could be contaminated to this degree in such a short time?"

Normally, rolling multiple times should have resulted in some failures. And they hadn't given him enough time to roll until he succeeded.

But Yeonwoo didn't answer.

'I can sense rolls that seem likely to succeed. It would be really disadvantageous if this information leaked.'

He had tasted the bitterness of the specialized response team. Honestly, if they hadn't intended to capture him alive, if they had only intended to kill him, he would have died in that thatched house.

Whoosh, the bills burned, and the bag, phone, and pistol they had confiscated appeared before his feet.

Yeonwoo naturally picked them up, frowning. The pistol felt light. The normal bullets had been removed.

'Did they not bring normal bullets because the bills are anomalies?'

It was a shame, but there was no time to look for them.

Yeonwoo quickly took out a bundle of bills from the bag and set them on fire again. His goal was escape.

"I'm leaving. Look forward to seeing how angry the company will be."

He didn't want to get further entangled with these bastards. This was the first time he'd suffered damage to this extent.

Revenge?

If he reported to the company, they'd take care of it.

"Wait! Negotiate! Let's negotiate! Money, anomalies, whatever-"

Kim Podo approached Yeonwoo urgently and desperately, but the bundle of bills had completely burned. Yeonwoo vanished as if he had never been there.

Kim Podo fell to his knees with a despairing expression.

He shouted towards family members who belatedly approached to extinguish the fire.

"He's escaped! Flee immediately!"

---

---

The vanished Yeonwoo appeared on the mountainside.

'Where is this? No, before that.'

He called Mark Jung. Mark Jung answered immediately.

"Yeonwoo? What's going on? We lost contact with both you and the friend who drove-"

"That's not important right now! The Green Association is-"

Yeonwoo summarized the key points concisely. That they were trying to grow a danger level 6 tree. That he was attacked instead of the battlefield being chosen.

Yeonwoo expected something. Having said this, wouldn't the headquarters or the Korean branch take some action? It was a danger level 6, after all.

But Mark Jung spoke calmly.

"Then the tree has failed for now. The only method left is to grow it on the battlefield, but we'll eliminate it the moment it shows itself. We can't let it fully grow."

"...You're not retaliating right away?"

Hearing Yeonwoo's disappointed voice, Mark Jung hesitated before speaking.

"Well, headquarters is in the midst of war preparations, so they can't afford to waste resources..."

"What about the Korean branch? Don't you have the special forces?"

"Considering the time it would take to mobilize and arrive, wouldn't they have all fled by now? I'll request deployment just in case."

It was disappointing. He thought they'd smash everything to pieces.

But given the company's situation, Yeonwoo understood and suppressed his desire for revenge, changing the subject.

"Anyway, my injuries are severe. I was hit by a bomb, buried under a collapsing house, bones broken. Send medical support or something."

The pain was starting to rise. Hearing this, Mark Jung was startled.

"You're that badly injured? No, how... Where are you currently?"

"I'm not sure. It's a mountain, but I escaped by burning bills."

"Then I'll send help by tracking your phone location. Please wait there. A helicopter will come."

Just as they were about to end the call.

Yeonwoo mentioned something he suddenly remembered. The only thing he couldn't retrieve.

"Oh right. I lost the normal bullets. I couldn't find them with the bills, so I fled without-"

"W-what did you lose?"

Mark Jung's voice flipped. There was a crash, the sound of something falling and breaking.

Yeonwoo answered puzzledly.

"The normal bullets. These guys confiscated them while I was unconscious."

Wasn't it just one of the company's anomalous equipment? Used in a limited way?

But Mark Jung was about to pass out.

"If those fall into their hands, no, where, where are you!"

"I told you I don't know just now-"

"Ah! Then this, for now! Get down from that mountain quickly!"

Then he abruptly hung up.

Feeling a sudden wave of unease, Yeonwoo burned another bundle of bills and fled far from the mountain, and.

A few minutes later, a meteor fell from the edge of the sky.

It was a satellite. Something that fell from an artificial satellite. Shining like a small star as it plummeted, it pierced the mountain without a shockwave, creating a transparent barrier that isolated the mountain.