Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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“Oh. It’s here.”

His voice echoed eerily off the dark sewer walls. In the pitch blackness, the Trapped Man tilted his head back to look at the concrete ceiling.

Yeonwoo, who had been browsing the internet, turned his phone to shine the flashlight at the Trapped Man.

“Sorry, what’s here?”

The Trapped Man, his face illuminated by the white light, slowly lowered his head. His eyes, reflecting the flashlight, stared at Yeonwoo without blinking as he raised his left hand.

“Something like me. One, two, three. Four including me?”

He folded each finger starting from his thumb, leaving only his pinky extended.

“What do you mean—”

Yeonwoo instinctively moved towards the Trapped Man but stopped short. His right foot wouldn’t move. It felt as if it were firmly rooted, nailed in place.

Swallowing hard, Yeonwoo slowly looked down. The phone\'s light followed his gaze. There was no foot, only his calf.

Below his ankle, his leg was embedded in the concrete.

“Oh, oh…”

Before he could fully understand what was happening, the Trapped Man spoke gloomily.

“It’s alright. The world is breaking down like me. You\'ll be able to get out soon."

“You mean, something like you has arrived?”

Faced with this bizarre situation, Yeonwoo tried to stay calm. From past experiences, he knew that losing his composure could be deadly.

‘Four NPCs. Level 4. The anomaly is spreading across the city—’

Thud—

Before he could finish his thought, his body was flung towards the ceiling. His vision darkened instantly; there was no light inside the concrete.

As he passed through the concrete, he glimpsed the vertical passage of the manhole. The wall was lined with rungs.

Yeonwoo frantically reached out and grabbed the ladder. The phone, still in his hand, flew into the air, spinning and casting erratic shadows.

“Ugh!”

Hanging from one hand, his body swung like a pendulum, slamming painfully against the dirty wall. Stifling a groan, Yeonwoo flailed his feet, desperately seeking the ladder. He finally found a foothold and steadied himself, gasping for breath.

More troubling than the filth, the car crash, or the pain was the realization that dawned on him.

The phone, spinning in the air, began to rise like a coin tossed in zero gravity.

The situation was clear.

Yeonwoo banged his head against the wall.

‘Damn it. What do I do? Should I climb up? Stay here?’

If he got thrown again and ended up stuck inside the concrete, he would be dead.

‘It’s just as dangerous to go up.’

There were plenty of buildings, cars, and trees aboveground. Even if he soared into the sky and fell, he would still die.

For a moment, hanging midway up the ladder, Yeonwoo glanced up and down. The darkness swayed with the phone\'s spinning light.

He made a decision.

‘The backup plan. If I kill the Trapped Man, the anomaly might weaken.’

Just then, he heard the sound of someone climbing from below.

Yeonwoo looked down.

The Trapped Man was climbing up, holding the knife that had fallen earlier.

“Sh*t.”

Sweat dripped down his face.

‘Will the Trapped Man let himself be killed?’

This was the guy who had complained about back pain from being stuck in a door. Even if he respawned, he would still feel pain. And now he had a knife?

A bead of sweat fell.

The Trapped Man frowned as the droplet hit his forehead.

“Are you really scared? This is just a regular day for me.”

“Well, it\'s just that…”

“I guess if you’ve never experienced it, it would be scary. Even other people, too. We come back to life, but others don’t.”

“Yeah, right. Once I die, it’s over.”

During their conversation, Yeonwoo forced himself to stop looking at the knife. He couldn’t let the Trapped Man think he was planning to kill him.

‘How do I take it? How can I kill him?’

As Yeonwoo was engrossed in these thoughts, the Trapped Man began to speak as if in a daze.

“Honestly, I hate being like this too. Why was I made to ruin the world? I understand why the company keeps us locked up like nuclear bombs. But still.”

The Trapped Man adjusted his grip on the knife. As the phone spun upward, the Trapped Man was momentarily enveloped in darkness.

“That doesn’t mean they should treat us poorly, right? They don’t feed us, just perform weird experiments. I’m still a person. So.”

The phone completed half a spin, and its white light shone back down on the Trapped Man.

“Employee whose name I don’t know. Survive and testify. Say that the Trapped Man sacrificed himself for humans. So next time, treat us like people.”

Thunk!

The knife plunged into his neck. The Wedged Man’s pupils dulled.

In the next moment, the phone completed its full rotation, and the ladder, once again illuminated, was empty. Only the echo of the knife clattering to the ground remained.

“...”

Yeonwoo was speechless, staring down at where the Trapped Man had been.

‘...This benefits him too. He’ll come back to life anyway. Dying once to demand better treatment from the company...’

But isn’t he afraid of dying? Stabbing his own neck must hurt terribly.

‘I wouldn’t have done it. Even if the anomaly spreads, I wouldn’t do that. There’s no reason to suffer.’

He tightened his grip on the ladder. Without realizing it, he looked upward. To the surface, where other NPCs and anomalies might be.

‘...One gone isn’t enough. I need to reduce more to survive. This is the right thing to do.’

The phone floating in the air was proof. An anomaly was still affecting the area. Muttering to himself, Yeonwoo climbed the ladder.

Step, step, step. He reached the top and pushed the manhole cover with his forehead. With a light touch, the cover lifted off.

Yeonwoo emerged onto the surface.

---

---

It was chaos.

It looked like a game with a broken physics engine.

Yeonwoo’s first impression as he set foot on the ground was that he had entered a buggy game.

Cars were flying through the air. Sometimes they teleported to new positions instantly or spun rapidly at high speed, crashing into buildings or people.

Many objects were distorted beyond recognition, like broken graphics. Some moved without casting shadows.

Floating—

Yeonwoo’s body slowly lifted. He grabbed a street tree that had grown through a car to anchor himself and gazed at the street with dazed eyes.

‘Four, no, five.’

Among the chaos, the anomalous entities stood out. He could see them at a glance.

A woman whose limbs and features grotesquely expanded and contracted, constantly transforming into a monster.

A man repeatedly running the same short distance.

Another man falling from the sky, piercing the ground, then falling from the sky again.

And the wanted criminals.

“This wasn’t part of the plan! We’re caught up in this mess! What do we do now?”

“I didn’t know it would spread this fast!”

The boy with the game controller swam frantically in the air. Not far away, the man with the toy gun was also running hectically.

At the end of their gaze was the blue hole in the middle of the road.

But they couldn’t get close to it.

“Damn! I got sent back again!”

“F*ck!”

Sometimes they were sent back to their starting point, other times they were flung far away from the hole.

Yeonwoo watched the two, unable to escape the anomaly, with bewildered eyes.

‘Are they suicide bombers? Why are they still here?’

The Hijacker, who flew near Yeonwoo, didn’t even look around. Screaming like a madman, he swung his gun wildly and pulled the trigger.

"Damn it! Damn it! The specialized unit will be here any minute!"

Click click click click—

A near-random spray of bullets. Yeonwoo flinched and backed away, but nothing changed in the direction the gun was aimed.

To be precise, the holes weren\'t opening properly.

The gunshots aimed at the air only pierced through seconds later, and even then, the openings were distorted and irregular.

Even the anomalies they possessed were being corrupted by the glitch. The Driver was no better. Every attempt to control the vehicles resulted in cars flying wildly or crashing into the ground or buildings.

The notorious criminals were helpless.

“...”

Yeonwoo looked around the street with weary eyes. The street was completely consumed by the anomaly. His shoulders slumped, and his muscles relaxed.

He had come up, ready to do anything, full of bravado. But there was nothing an individual could do.

It was impossible to approach. Even the wanted criminals couldn’t move freely.

\'Should I just go back down the manhole?\'

It would be safer than a road filled with flying cars and trees. Yeonwoo glanced at the manhole. The dark vertical passage and ladder beckoned.

It had only been a few minutes. The Trapped Man, his voice, came to mind.

\'...\'

He could hear the Hijacker cursing and the Driver\'s complaints in a youthful voice.

\'...\'

Even in a world where physical laws were broken, voices carried without issue. Yeonwoo shut his eyes tightly and took a deep breath.

\'Deal with the Error NPCs. Make them act like the Trapped Man did on their own.\'

Yeonwoo decided to persuade them.