Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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Time passed.

The shattered window was replaced with a new one, and the hole in the wire mesh was patched with extra wire and cloth. The children mourned Yellow’s absence, and the giant parents couldn’t bring themselves to buy a new human woman.

Yeonwoo often looked out the window, thinking of Dandelion. He imagined her returning over the window sill with a company employee. At night, he prayed alone in his room to return home.

How many times had the moon risen and set?

“….”

Yeonwoo packed his belongings under the square patch of moonlight streaming through the window.

He changed out of the doll clothes the giants dressed him in and into the clothes he had arrived in. He pocketed his dead phone, his thin wallet, and his human qualification certificate.

Finally, he clutched the key that unlocked their cage. It was the key used to cut the wire mesh, proof of his visit to the giant world.

Every night, Yeonwoo repeated his routine, muttering to himself without any expectations.

“Dice….”

The dice kept yielding failures. Sometimes Yeonwoo wondered what might have happened if he had followed Dandelion.

The streets would be rough, but with Dandelion’s experience and his own survival skills, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe it would even be fulfilling and exciting, unlike the life of being raised in the giant’s house.

As usual, Yeonwoo shook off his melancholic thoughts.

“Home.”

He spoke dryly. He had rolled the dice enough to no longer feel anything about its results. It had become a habit to finish his nightly routine without any hopes.

Rumble—

The dice rolled.

And stopped.

Critical success!

For a moment, Yeonwoo didn’t understand what had happened. Then his eyes widened as the world changed.

From the room where he was kept by giants, he was suddenly back in his duplex studio apartment.

Just like when he had fallen into the giant’s world, it happened without warning.

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“….”

Yeonwoo slowly looked around his studio. The new apartment, where he hadn’t spent a single night, felt unfamiliar. Dust had accumulated, and there were signs that someone had been in and out. Footprints and unpacked items were scattered around.

Above all, the sense of scale felt strange. Like the ground swaying underfoot after disembarking from a ship, the residual perception of the giant world lingered.

Cautiously, Yeonwoo approached the window, opened it completely, and looked out at the bustling daytime city.

“I’m back….”

He saw the busy roads filled with vehicles, the dense concrete buildings, and the tiny-looking people.

A faint smile crossed Yeonwoo’s lips.

But then the smile vanished.

‘I need to deal with the dice first.’

He had experienced firsthand the outcomes of critical success and critical failure. The risks were too high.

He would find a way to relinquish ownership of the dice, whether by rolling for it or requesting the company’s help.

‘There’s a lot to do.’

Yeonwoo found his car keys and started mentally listing his tasks, prepared during his time in the giant world.

‘Report to the investigation team without arousing suspicion. Relay James’ message. ask about the giant world and the human city. Then charge my phone, visit a café, and have a hamburger—’

Without pausing, Yeonwoo dashed out of his apartment.

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Bang!

He flung open the door to the Anomaly Investigation Team. Yeonwoo entered the office with a sheepish expression, meeting the eyes of the team leader and Yoo Ji-yoo.

There was a brief silence.

Just as Yeonwoo was about to awkwardly greet them—

Thud!

“You, you! What are you doing here!”

The team leader raised his computer monitor as if ready to throw it. Yoo Ji-yoo stood up, gripping her chair like a weapon.

Yeonwoo held the giant’s key and raised his hands palms up in a gesture of surrender.

“Team Leader, Senior Ji-yoo. I fell into a strange world. How long have I been gone?”

“It’s been over a month…”

The team leader looked back and forth between Yeonwoo’s face and the giant key before slowly lowering the monitor. Yeonwoo also placed the giant key on a nearby desk and raised his hands in surrender.

“Can I explain?”

“…Go ahead. Close the door.”

Yeonwoo slowly pushed the door shut with his foot. The sound of the door closing seemed unusually loud. Under the wary eyes of the team leader and Ji-yoo, Yeonwoo began recounting his story.

From the day he acquired the dice to his return today.

“…And that’s how I came back today.”

“It’s plausible.”

The team leader frowned.

It didn’t sound like a lie. There was doubt, but the exact circumstances would be for the intelligence department to determine.

Tap-tap-tap—

The team leader typed away on his keyboard, reporting Yeonwoo’s return and reviewing documents related to Yeonwoo’s disappearance.

The documents discussed whether to list Yeonwoo, who had vanished in front of the testing department staff, as a missing person or an anomaly, how to categorize him, and what level of threat to assign.

Based on the team leader’s experience, it would take time and procedure for Yeonwoo to be formally reinstated.

The team leader said,

“Rookie, you’ll have to undergo an investigation. And write a detailed report on the dice, the giant, and everything you experienced in that world.”

“Yes, sir.”

Yeonwoo obediently went to his desk and powered on his computer. As it booted up, he cleaned the dusty desk.

Ji-yoo watched him from a distance with suspicion before speaking.

“Yeonwoo, you’re not an anomaly, right? You’re not a terrorist or a spy?”

“I’m really not.”

The computer finished booting.

Yeonwoo began typing out his experiences honestly. He included the message from Investigator James Kong and finished his report by detailing the human city in the giant world.

The report listed everything he had gone through up until today, from the errors to his return, in a straightforward manner.

“….”

Yeonwoo felt a wave of emotions as he looked at the densely typed words.

‘I really did survive.’

He clicked to upload the report. Then he turned to the team leader.

“Team Leader, I’ve submitted the report.”

“Alright. We’ll wait for a response from the intelligence department.”

Yeonwoo nodded, and the response came a week later.

He was to come to a safe house located on the mountainside for an investigation by the intelligence department.

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An old compact car pulled up on the side of the mountain road. Yeonwoo stepped out, looking up at the mountain with a reluctant expression.

It wasn’t Gwaebaek Mountain, where he had seen the fog monster, but it was still a mountain, which made him uneasy. Especially since he was there for an investigation.

“Nothing bad will happen…”

He muttered to himself as he climbed the mountain path.

Despite the heavy weight of the impending investigation by the intelligence department, Yeonwoo tried to stay positive.

‘If they were treating me as a fugitive, they wouldn’t just call me here. They’d send a team to arrest me.’

Sweating profusely, he soon saw an abandoned house nestled among the dense trees. This was the safe house the intelligence department had mentioned.

Yeonwoo took a few deep breaths before approaching the house.

The safe house was close to being a ruin. Broken windows, overgrown weeds, and the inside visible through the windows looked like a mess. There was no sign of human presence.

Thud! Thud!

Yeonwoo knocked loudly on the door. Besides the startled scurrying of bugs and rats, there was no response.

Yeonwoo cleared his throat.

Bang! Bang!

“Is anyone here? I was told to come today!”

From deep within the house, he finally heard movement. Footsteps hurriedly approached, crushing the remnants of the ruined house beneath them.

Yeonwoo watched as a man and a woman climbed up through the broken window. Their eyes met over the glass shards, and they smiled.

“Oh, you’re here. We couldn’t hear much from below. You must be Lee Yeonwoo?”

“Yes, that’s me. I came for the investigation today.”

“Welcome. Come on in.”

The man with glasses opened the door and gestured for Yeonwoo to enter. As Yeonwoo stepped inside, he noticed the man’s friendly smile contrasted with the woman’s displeased expression.

He passed them and entered the house.

Yeonwoo frowned. For a safe house, it was in worse condition than he had imagined. There was a musty smell, along with the presence of dead bugs and rodents, mold, and dampness.

The man led Yeonwoo to a room while the woman followed behind.

“It’s a mess, isn’t it? This place was abandoned, but we started using it recently. It will take some time to renovate properly.”

“I see.”

Yeonwoo, ever the investigator, was more focused on assessing his surroundings than listening to the man’s words.

A confined room.

It was relatively clean, but the dim lighting and stairs leading down to the basement gave it a grim atmosphere.

With the man leading and the woman’s imposing presence behind him, Yeonwoo descended the stairs. It was too late to turn back now.

Thud-thud-

They descended the bare concrete steps for a short while.

They arrived in the basement.

A single incandescent bulb hung from the ceiling, illuminating a table and four chairs beneath it. Along the wall were rusty cabinets and old monitors, and opposite the stairs was a holding cell.

“….”

Gulp—

Yeonwoo swallowed hard. There was someone familiar in the holding cell.

His fellow recruit, Lee Seoyeon. She had lost a leg to a ninja’s sword and was transferred to the intelligence department. Now, she lay in the cell, her gaze fixed on it.

The man with glasses laughed cheerfully.

“Oh, them? Terrorists. Our department interrogates and investigates people like them.”

“…Is that so?”

Sweat trickled down Yeonwoo’s forehead. The cool, clammy air of the basement clung to his skin.

‘Terrorists? That’s a ridiculous claim.’

If she had been a spy infiltrating a hostile group, it might be believable. But labeling her as a terrorist or a wanted criminal made no sense.

Yeonwoo tried to maintain his composure, looking at the man with steady eyes and a calm voice. But the woman blocked the stairs and spoke.

“You’re caught, idiot. Did you think you could fool a company recruit? Especially an investigator?”

“Oh, really? Well, it doesn’t matter.”

The man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled something out.

Click—

A homemade pistol gleamed dully under the light as he aimed it at Yeonwoo.

“Mr. Lee Yeonwoo? Why don’t you sit down, and let’s have a chat. It could be beneficial for you.”

Yeonwoo chose the cleanest chair and sat down.