Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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The scenery of the port city flashed quickly past the speeding truck.

The short buildings wore old, peeling coats of paint, with their dark, unlit eyes shut tight in sleep.

There was no one to wake the buildings up, so the city seemed to sleep quietly.

It was the landscape of a decaying port city.

The only thing out of place was the lone truck speeding down the empty road.

Vroom-!

Ignoring the red light, the truck bounced heavily over a speed bump.

Lee Yeonwoo’s head was helplessly knocked side to side, banging against the window and headrest. Despite his headache, he held a piece of paper with one hand, reading its contents.

What was written was far more dangerous than reckless driving.

“Danger Level 4? Doomsday Cultists? So, this means...”

Yeonwoo quickly summarized the information and placed the paper roughly on his lap, looking at the driver.

“So, to put it simply, we’re carrying nuclear bomb materials in the cargo hold, and crazy people who want the world to end are attacking us to steal it?”

“You understood correctly.”

“No. No.”

At the driver’s calm reply, Yeonwoo picked up the paper again and read it. On the first page was a photo.

The foreigner and the door he had glimpsed earlier. More specifically, a foreigner wedged through a door.

[Trapped Man]

-Hostility Level: Orange

-Danger Level: 1

-Importance Grade: B

-Details: A humanoid anomaly that overlaps with doors, walls, or objects.

‘It would be fine if it ended here.’

Like a bugged character sometimes seen in games. The problem was the next part.

-Error NPC: A series of anomalies defying physical laws. The more Error NPCs gather, the more reality-distorting errors increase, raising the danger level. Two together make it 2, three together make it 3.

-Currently, the company has discovered five Error NPCs.

Considering those not yet found, the potential danger level could rise to 6 or 7.

The driver spoke.

“The doomsday cultists have stolen three NPCs under strict company management. The company is secretly transporting the remaining two NPCs elsewhere. One of them is the Trapped Man in the back.”

“What did you mean by an attack?”

“We’ve been compromised.”

“…What?”

Yeonwoo moved the document aside and looked at the man in disbelief. The man’s eyes darted continuously, watching all directions, licking his dry lips nervously.

“The doomsday cultists discovered our transport operation and have invaded Cheonghae Port. That’s why there’s no security. The 1st Security Company and Strike Company are engaged in battle.”

As soon as he finished speaking.

Boom! Bang!

Explosions echoed from the direction of the port, a series of sounds as if waking the sleeping port city.

Yeonwoo quickly turned his head to look out the window but saw nothing unusual. Instead, he noticed people emerging onto the streets, startled by the explosions.

A woman with wide eyes pulled out her phone, and an elderly man hurriedly retreated into a building.

‘I want to get out of this truck too. ...Can’t I get out? Maybe if I ask nicely?’

Yeonwoo mumbled under his breath, watching the man.

“Why did you call me...? You don’t need an investigator....”

“We originally planned to disguise this as an investigation activity. Sorry, but given the situation, we need your help.”

“What exactly do you expect me to do?”

Yeonwoo raised his cast-wrapped arm and the hand holding the document in a gesture of surrender.

“I don’t have any weapons, and even if I did, I can’t fight. Look at this hand. I can’t even do physical work.”

“We don’t need your hand. You’re an investigator. You’re experienced in detecting and identifying anomalies. We need you to quickly identify and alert us to any signs of attack or ambush.”

“No...”

As Yeonwoo tried to speak, the man turned his head, locking eyes with him. His eyes were serious and desperate.

“Please, I’m asking you. We don’t know how many doomsday cultists there are or what kind of anomalies they’ve brought with them. If we make one mistake, it’ll be like dropping a nuclear bomb on our country.”

His desperate voice didn\'t reach Yeonwoo.

If a nuclear bomb is falling, you run away from the blast zone. How can one person stop that?

“Look, I’ve only done investigative work once—”

He was trying to persuade him to let him out.

As Yeonwoo was raising his voice, his eyes suddenly widened. He shouted more urgently than the man.

“Look out! There’s a car ahead!”

A car was speeding towards them from the opposite lane. It looked like a normal car, though a bit over-speeding. It wasn’t driving in the wrong direction.

However, through the wide, clear windshield, there was no driver.

Vroom-!

In the next moment, the car crossed the center line, speeding directly towards the truck.

Crash-!

---

---

A parking lot at Cheonghae Port.

The parking lot, echoing with the sound of crashing waves, was stained red.

Blood-soaked corpses were strewn everywhere. Security guards in suits and Strike Company members in combat gear lay scattered like trash on the ground.

Around them, skid marks marked the asphalt, and cars lay chaotically scattered. Some were on fire from explosions, others were crushed.

In the middle of the chaos stood two peculiar individuals.

Click, click! Thud!

A boy, leaning against a car with his eyes closed as if asleep, suddenly moved his fingers on a game controller. He opened his eyes and raised his hands triumphantly.

“Yeah! We stopped them by crashing!”

“What’s their location?”

The man with the glowing blue toy gun asked abruptly. The boy blinked.

“No idea. I’m not from this country, how should I know? But I know the roads to drive on.”

“Then we’ll have to ride in the car you’re driving.”

“Cool! There are no cars on the road here, so it’s fun to speed.”

“Drive safely when we’re in the car.”

“That’s no fun.”

The boy stood up, steadying himself on the car. Suddenly, he swung the controller again.

“Looks like the company guy with the NPC isn’t dead yet. Shouldn’t we just crush them like we did with the others?”

“No. If the NPC gets caught up and dies, it’ll respawn somewhere on Earth. It’d be a hassle to find it again.”

“Boring... Shall I block the road with other cars so they can’t go anywhere?”

“That sounds good.”

The boy sat back down, gripping the game controller with both hands. He closed his eyes, his consciousness leaving his body, controlling distant cars as if playing a virtual reality game.

The man, holding the toy gun, looked down at the boy.

Someone was watching them.

A Strike Company member with his lower body crushed.

“….”

The Strike Company member swallowed the scream and blood rising in his throat. He couldn’t make any noise. With trembling hands, he clutched a grenade.

Click, click-

Using the sound of the controller as cover, he removed the safety clip and pin. The man didn’t notice. With a feather-light push, the Strike Company member rolled the round grenade.

Roll, roll-

The grenade, soaked in blood, rolled silently across the road. The Strike Company member watched with unblinking eyes through his shattered helmet.

His eyes met the man’s.

The man reacted swiftly.

In an instant.

Click, click-

He shot the grenade with the blue toy gun, then fired at the distant sea. Nothing was launched from the gun. Instead, a blue hole appeared where the gun was aimed.

The grenade rolled into the blue hole and fell into the sea. A high water spray erupted in the distance. A faint explosion echoed from afar.

It failed. He knew by the sound. The Strike Company member coughed up blood and spoke in a faint voice.

“The hijackers... and the driver... I reported to the higher-ups... A specialized unit will come for you...”

The hijacker, who had been watching the subsiding water spray, slowly looked down at the Strike Company member. Then he moved his wrist, shooting at the sky, before lowering the gun to aim at the Strike Company member.

“That specialized unit isn’t here.”

A dry mutter. Followed by a gunshot.

A blue hole opened in the ground where the Strike Company member lay, and he fell from a hole in the sky. His landing point was a car in the parking lot. Crash, he plummeted through the roof. The car\'s body bent, and its windows fogged.

“...We still shouldn’t let our guard down.”

The hijacker moved each corpse to the sea, ensuring no survivors remained.

Click-click-click.

How many times did he pull the trigger? Only red blood and a ruined parking lot remained.

The boy, the driver, sprang up puzzledly.

“Blocked them all! ...What? Why the cleanup?”

“Not cleanup, confirmation kills.”

“Really? So, shall we go?”

“Let\'s go.”

They got into an unlocked car. The driver lay comfortably in the backseat, clutching the controller again. The hijacker in the passenger seat fastened his seatbelt and spoke.

“Support.”

“Oh. So I don’t have to use the brakes?”

“Do that. We might be short on time.”

“Then here we go!”

With closed eyes and a distant consciousness, the boy manipulated the buttons with his fingers. Simultaneously, the car, without its engine even running, accelerated toward the row of trees ahead.

Vroom-!

The hijacker in the passenger seat fired consecutively at the tree in front and a spot on the road visible through the parking lot exit.

The wildly speeding car shot through a blue hole onto the road, racing ahead without slowing down.

The man thought.

‘The primary goal of this attack is hijacking. If that’s not possible, then kill the NPC. If that’s impossible... we probably won’t reach the third option.’

Click-click.

Even while thinking, he continued to open blue holes in space. On straight roads, he shortened the distance, and at times, he cleared obstacles blocking the way. Up into the sky.

The two red-grade wanted criminals swiftly closed in on the company truck. On the road they passed, the obstacles sent flying into the sky rained down as a shower of steel and flesh.