Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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It was his fourth time taking the civil service exam.

Even though he had turned thirty and his age started with a new digit, Lee Yeonwoo had become worn out and fallen behind, just like the old hoodie, faded jeans, and worn-out sneakers he was wearing now.

His aging body started to break down one part at a time.

His mind and spirit, worn out from the long life of a civil service exam taker, were slowly being chipped away and decaying.

Thinking about his parents, who had also deteriorated while supporting him, made it even harder to endure.

‘This time, I will definitely pass. Definitely, for sure.’

Yeonwoo sat in the exam hall, reading his study materials with bloodshot eyes.

There were parts he hadn’t memorized.

There were only a few minutes left until the exam started, but he tried to imprint even one more word into his mind.

He wasn’t the only one.

The examinees sitting around him were similar.

Some had just graduated from high school and were taking the exam immediately, some had just graduated from university, and some had been taking the exam longer than Yeonwoo.

They all flicked through their study materials with a dim hope in their eyes.

‘Please, let the questions be ones I know.’

The heightened concentration stretched the time longer than ever, but the flow of time couldn’t be stopped.

The exam supervisor and the assistant supervisor entered the classroom.

The supervisor, younger than Yeonwoo, stood at the podium and checked his electronic wristwatch before giving a long list of instructions.

“Please put away all your study materials. Only have your pen, writing tools, exam admission ticket, and ID card on the desk. You are not allowed to have any communication devices or electronics during the exam. If found, it will be considered cheating.”

There was a flurry of sounds as books closed and were put into bags.

Yeonwoo, trying to be as slow as possible, closed his book while reading the final sentences.

He was the last examinee to put his book into his bag.

As the sound of Yeonwoo closing his bag\'s zipper ended, the supervisor said,

“We will now distribute the answer sheets.”

The assistant supervisor walked around distributing the answer sheets.

Yeonwoo closed his eyes tightly, recalling the sentences he had just read.

White letters floated up on the black background of his mind.

‘Don’t forget, don’t forget.’

Meanwhile, the assistant supervisor approached and placed the answer sheet on Yeonwoo’s desk.

Yeonwoo immediately opened his eyes and picked up his pen.

As he carefully marked his name, candidate number, and date of birth on the answer sheet, the distribution of answer sheets was completed. The supervisor, looking around the exam hall, continued.

“We will now distribute the exam papers. Please check your paper type.”

To prevent cheating, the exam papers were shuffled, and each had a different type.

The assistant supervisor distributed the exam papers in a zigzag manner, and Yeonwoo’s paper was marked as type A.

Confirming the type, Yeonwoo clenched his cheap pen and nodded to himself.

‘A. Good. This feels good.’

Based on his experience from retaking the exam three times, he usually did better with type A than type B.

This time, he really felt that passing was within reach.

In the meantime, his electronic wristwatch, synchronized with the internet clock in the morning, signaled exactly 10 o\'clock.

At the same time, the old speaker in the high school classroom emitted a piercing bell sound.

Ding-dong-dang-dong-

“The exam begins now.”

Rustle!

The sound of turning the first page of the exam paper filled the room. Not wanting to fall behind, Yeonwoo also turned his first page roughly.

And then, he stopped.

For a few seconds, a strange silence fell over the exam hall.

‘Human Qualification Exam…?’

It was supposed to be the local civil service level 9 exam.

The exam paper, which should have had subjects like Korean, English, Korean history, and two optional subjects, had a strange title written on it.

Human Qualification Exam.

‘What is this? Did they mix up the exam papers? No, there’s no such exam in the world. Then is it a prank? Why? Time is already tight, why!’

Anger and fear filled Yeonwoo’s mind.

His vision narrowed, his heart pounded, and the hand holding the cheap pen trembled.

He raised his head abruptly from the exam paper.

He was about to raise his hand roughly to protest.

Someone moved before Lee Yeonwoo.

“Hey! Supervisor!”

It was a man with a scruffy beard.

Just by looking at him, it was clear he had invested at least five years in the civil service exam.

His desperate eyes gleamed with a wild light as he shouted in a rough voice.

“The exam paper is wrong!”

“The exam paper?”

The supervisor seemed a bit flustered and quickly came down from the podium.

Meanwhile, hands were raised all around the exam hall.

“I think something’s wrong too.”

“What is this? Are we being filmed? Did anyone get our consent?”

“Hey! Is this a joke? Why are you doing this with such an important exam!”

Verbal complaints were the least of it.

Another long-time exam taker, whose life depended on passing this exam, stood up and began pointing fingers.

Chaos erupted in an instant.

There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t angry.

In the midst of all this, Yeonwoo quietly lowered his hand.

Thanks to the uproar others were causing, his anger and fear quietly dissipated.

‘What is this? Is everyone’s paper wrong?’

If only one person had a problem, it might be overlooked. But the whole exam hall had a problem.

It wasn’t a situation that could be easily ignored.

‘At the very least, there will be a retest.’

At worst, it would be a day, at best, a few days. He could think of it as more time to study.

Yeonwoo tried to think as positively as possible.

‘Not bad. I didn’t sleep well last night, so I wasn’t in good condition anyway.’

On the other hand, the supervisor was facing a harsh trial.

“No, this can’t be happening.”

“If it can’t be, then what is this! Who are you? Which department are you from? State your name and position!”

“I’ll file a complaint and post about this online, so be prepared!”

“Well, first of all, everyone, I’m sorry. Let me check with the exam headquarters, so please quiet down and wait for a moment.”

Facing the wave of complaints from the shouting examinees, the supervisor raised his hands, trying to calm them down, sweat dripping from his forehead.

Then, as if escaping, he ran to the front door of the classroom and put his hand on the tightly closed door.

Screech—

It was when the sliding door of the classroom was half-open.

Crackle—

The old speaker emitted noise.

The supervisor and the examinees stopped as if in disbelief.

‘Is this an announcement? Is the problem not just in this classroom but everywhere?’

Similar thoughts crossed everyone’s minds.

The supervisor stopped his hand on the door, and the examinees lowered their raised hands.

Everyone listened intently to the announcement coming from the speaker.

However, the announcement betrayed their expectations.

A voice, crackling with noise, echoed strangely.

-Anyone leaving the exam hall during the exam time will be considered a cheater and will fail the Human Qualification Exam.

It was hard to understand.

The idea that such a test even existed, and that it had replaced the civil service exam, didn\'t feel real.

So while everyone was stuttering and struggling to accept reality, the announcement continued.

-This also applies to the exam supervisors. Supervisors who violate the rules are no longer considered human.

With that, the announcement ended.

The speaker fell silent, no longer emitting strange noise.

But the strange phenomenon didn’t end.

Stagger—

The supervisor, who had half-opened the classroom door, stumbled backward as if he were drunk and collapsed. With wide, shocked eyes, he looked around the exam hall and opened his mouth wide.

“Kweeeek! Kwiik! Kwieeeeeek!”

The cry of a beast.

What was there was no longer a person.

It looked like a person, wore human clothes, and walked on two legs, but it was just a beast.

“Kweeeek!”

The beast that had been the supervisor crawled on all fours, then suddenly stood up and ran to the front door of the classroom again.

Kkdeudeuk-

The beast couldn’t even think to use its hands to open the door.

It squeezed its body through the half-open door.

The door was forced open by its body.

The beast passed through the door in an awkward posture and ran down the hallway.

Tatadak!

Beyond the classroom window facing the hallway, the beast’s head bobbed up and down, and with an echoing howl, it disappeared into the distance.

Then, the door of the adjacent classroom, where the same series of civil service exams was being held, opened.

The supervisor of the neighboring classroom peeked in and murmured.

“What kind of animal got up here? Anyway, everyone, the beast has gone down to the lower floor, so—”

Thud, the door closed, cutting off his words.

Instead, there was a loud sound of someone collapsing into a chair.

“Uh, uh.”

It was the long-time exam taker who had been shouting the most aggressively.

He sat down so hard on the wooden chair that it should have hurt, but he showed no sign of pain.

He just stared at the door where the beast had passed with bewildered eyes.

He wasn’t the only one.

The assistant supervisor, standing frozen at the back of the classroom, and the examinees who had been watching the beast, including Yeonwoo, all had their minds go blank, completely paralyzed.

“This doesn’t make sense. This, this is just nonsense.”

Someone muttered in a trembling voice.

Everyone had seen it clearly with their own eyes.

The person who had been standing right in front of them, the supervisor who had become a civil servant at a young age, the person who had achieved the stable future they all desperately wanted, had turned into a beast in an instant.

Even though his appearance, clothes, and voice were the same, he was just a beast.

He looked like a human, but he was no longer recognized or thought of as one.

No matter how you looked at him, he was human, but he wasn\'t.

It was as if something transcendent had stripped away the human component from the supervisor.

A situation that made no sense at all.

...

In the midst of this shocking silence, Yeonwoo barely managed to grip his pen.

His palm was drenched in cold sweat, making the pen slip.

After repeatedly adjusting his grip with trembling hands, he finally managed to place the pen on the exam paper.

‘Human Qualification Exam… If I fail, I’ll become a beast like the supervisor.’

No matter how unreal it seemed, that’s what he had seen.

He didn’t know what it was, but that’s what he felt.

“Ugh.”

His vision swam, and the text on the exam paper blurred.

He felt a wave of dizziness. His breathing was rough.

‘No. I can’t fail. I have to pass this.’

He closed his eyes tightly and desperately tried to steady his breathing.

Even though he had lived like less than a person for four years as an exam taker, he didn’t want to become an actual beast.

He wanted to remain human.

To repay his parents who had supported him devotedly, to see his friends again, friends he had lost contact with due to his feelings of self-reproach, and most importantly, for himself, to live like a human being.

He had to pass this bizarre exam.

Yeonwoo opened his bloodshot eyes and examined the exam paper carefully.

Tick-tock, tick-tock—

Even at this moment, the second hand of the clock placed in front of the blackboard was diligently moving.

As people gradually accepted the reality, they started moving their pens over the exam papers, dripping with cold sweat.

The time allotted for the exam was 100 minutes.

There were 100 questions to be marked on the answer sheet.

In this inescapable enclosed room, where making a mistake would turn you into a beast,

the exam was proceeding urgently.