Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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The woman stared at Lee Yeonwoo in disbelief as he settled into the clean chair.

“That’s my chair.”

Yeonwoo ignored her. He pulled the chair up to the square metal desk and placed his hands comfortably on it.

The woman pointed her homemade gun at him.

“Can’t you see the gun?”

“You’ve already seen my information.”

Yeonwoo glanced over the papers spread out on the old metal desk. Among the stacks of documents, he saw his resume and reports on top.

They had been reading them just moments before.

“It would be a waste of my experience to be scared of a gun.”

They had asked for a conversation, which implied they wouldn’t kill him. Still, a gun was a gun, so he didn’t completely dismiss the threat.

The man with glasses laughed and sat across from Yeonwoo.

“Right. People don’t seem to fear guns anymore. They’ve seen things scarier than guns. Yeonwoo, do you know that fairy tale?”

“What fairy tale?”

Yeonwoo half-listened, his eyes on the holding cell.

Inside, Lee Seoyeon and an unknown man lay as if dead. Their chests rose and fell, and there was no smell or sight of blood, indicating they weren’t in immediate danger.

Just then, the man tapped the metal desk with the gun barrel.

“What was it? The Carrot and the Stick? That fairy tale with the sun and the storm.”

“Idiot. The North Wind and Sun.”

“Close enough. Anyway, people don’t fear guns, but they can’t ignore this.”

The man set the gun down and pulled a bar of gold from his pocket. It shone brilliantly under the incandescent light.

Yeonwoo’s eyes were drawn to the gold.

“…What’s this?”

“A gift. Show a bit of loyalty to us, and it’s yours. What do you think? We’re not asking for much.”

The man slid the gold bar towards the center of the table. It was within arm’s reach. Yeonwoo swallowed hard, and the man’s voice became soft and persuasive.

“You’re an investigator, right? Just a heads-up about anomalies before you report them to the company. That’s not too hard, is it? We’re not asking you to hide anything.”

Yeonwoo’s eyes remained fixed on the gold bar. The clear engraving read 1,000g. One kilogram of gold.

The man watched Yeonwoo with interest. Yeonwoo closed his eyes, shaking off the temptation. When he reopened them, his gaze was clear and steady on the man.

“First, you need to tell me who you are.”

“Oh, if you had grabbed it right away, I would’ve been suspicious.”

The man laughed, and the woman crouching by the stairs answered.

“We’re also company employees.”

“Were, until a few days ago.”

Their gazes shifted to the holding cell. Real intelligence agents lay there, appearing dead.

“But we got caught despite our loyalty. We overpowered them during questioning. Now, we’re recruiting before we escape.”

The man leaned forward to make eye contact with Yeonwoo. His eyes twinkled with amusement behind his glasses.

“You understand, right? The company pays well, but not enough for the work we do. And.”

The man leaned back casually in his chair.

“We’re not doomsday cultists or demon worshippers. We’re not doing anything harmful to humanity.”

It was the story of employees selling company information to hostile groups for money. When caught, they decided to fully switch sides.

“…You still haven’t answered. What group are you with?”

Yeonwoo stared at the man, who chuckled.

“By now, you must have guessed. We’re with the Goldberg Club. Heard of it?”

“…No, I haven’t.”

“Really? You must be joking… You’re serious?”

The man blinked in surprise, and Yeonwoo subtly avoided his gaze. The woman muttered under her breath.

“He’s really new.”

“No way. What am I doing with a newbie?”

The man suddenly looked deflated. He took off his glasses and wiped them with his suit jacket. Putting his glasses back on, he looked at Yeonwoo with a more relaxed demeanor. He crossed his legs and draped one arm over the back of his chair.

“Rookie, didn’t you even get the basic training? Like, don’t accept bribes from the Goldberg Club, and always use a taser first on artists?”

“Idiot, keep it short. We need to recruit this guy and get out of here.”

“…Right.”

Yeonwoo watched them and slowly relaxed his mouth.

For whatever reason, it was good if they let their guard down. Yeonwoo deliberately acted more naive.

“I really haven’t heard of it… Should I know about it?”

“It’s basic training… Oh, you’re an investigator. I guess you wouldn’t know about hostile groups.”

The man seemed to accept this explanation. Investigators were usually assigned to smaller, uncertain anomalies.

‘He wouldn’t know about dealing with hostile groups, so it makes sense.’

He sighed and relaxed a lot more.

At that moment, the woman adjusted her grip on the gun, her finger on the trigger, ready to fire.

“Don’t be careless. This guy has been through all kinds of things. Remember what you read.”

“…Right. But how? Why is an investigator handling us? Is he an anomaly? Yeonwoo, are you really an anomaly?”

The man adjusted his posture and subtly readied his gun. Despite his casual tone, he still aimed it at Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo sighed.

“Let’s stop with the nonsense. Explain the Goldberg Club to me.”

“It’s simple. Eat well and live well. Make money from anomalies. A lot of money. How about it? Want to join us?”

Yeonwoo stared at the metal desk, lost in thought, then responded a bit late.

“I’ll join.”

---

---

He had no intention of actually joining. It was a lie to get out of the current situation.

‘I can’t trust anything they say.’

Yeonwoo kept his eyes from blinking, hiding his true thoughts.

‘Their talk sounds good, but they got caught and had to run.’

They managed to overpower the intelligence agents and lock them up, but they were ultimately discovered and needed to escape.

Moreover, Yeonwoo was already under suspicion by the company and needed to clear his name. Joining a hostile group now made no sense.

Yeonwoo glanced at the two homemade guns still pointed at him.

‘I need to report this to the team leader as soon as I get back. They threatened me with guns.’

The man with glasses relaxed and smiled, lowering his gun slightly.

“You’ve made a good decision. Many people have a foot in the Goldberg Club. Don’t worry about it. Just think of it as earning more money for the hard work you do.”

“…So what’s next? An initiation? Ceremony? Or will you contact me later?”

The man pointed at the gold bar with his gun.

“No big ceremony. Just take this as a token of trust.”

He gestured for Yeonwoo to take the gold bar. Yeonwoo looked at the shining gold but didn’t reach for it.

“Is this just to leave evidence that I accepted a bribe? To have something on me?”

“Well, sort of. If we transferred cash to your account, it’d be easily traced. Physical goods are better.”

All he had to do was put the gold bar in his pocket.

But Yeonwoo hesitated. His instincts were ringing alarm bells.

‘…Why a gold bar?’

Most of all, the man’s offhand comment about not accepting bribes lingered in his mind. It was something the company would teach about hostile groups.

Instinct and experience told him to be suspicious. This wasn’t an ordinary gold bar.

Under the white light of the incandescent bulb, Yeonwoo froze like a statue. The man waited for a moment and then pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The gunshot echoed through the narrow basement, painfully loud. Yeonwoo twisted his body in shock, but the bullet hit the wall behind him.

The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder. The man twisted his wrist, aiming the gun at Yeonwoo again.

“Mr. Yeonwoo, I didn’t ask for anything difficult, did I? Get shot or take the gold bar. Is that hard? Why complicate things?”

Suspicion turned into certainty. Yeonwoo slowly reached out. His hand, now slick with cold sweat, trembled under the harsh light.

‘They’re going this far? This isn’t just any gold bar. What is it? What should I do? The dice? I could die if it lands on a critical failure.’

Squeezing his eyes shut, Yeonwoo grabbed the gold bar. For now, he was being recruited. His life wasn’t in immediate danger. And he still had the dice as a last resort.

The man, eyes wide and unblinking, watched as Yeonwoo pocketed the gold bar, then lowered the gun.

“Haha. Isn’t this better? No wasted bullets.”

“…I’ve taken what you wanted me to. Is that all? Or is there more?”

Yeonwoo checked himself for any physical or mental issues, but finding nothing wrong, he glanced at the stairs.

The woman blocking the stairs showed no intention of moving. She had put her gun back in her pocket but remained in the middle of the steps.

The man laughed.

“There’s more. Since you took the gold, you need to pay for it. Mr. Yeonwoo, answer honestly.”

Yeonwoo’s body tensed. His head turned involuntarily to watch the man’s mouth, waiting for the question.

“Do you intend to join the Goldberg Club? Truly? Without lying?”

Yeonwoo responded.

“No.”

“Oh, really? Then you plan to report back?”

“Yes.”

Yeonwoo squeezed his eyes shut. His mouth moved on its own, out of his control. Even as he tried to stop himself, his hands wouldn’t obey.

“So you lied to us?”

“Yes.”

The man narrowed his eyes and glared at Yeonwoo.