Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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The agent\'s pupils dilated. Though he threatened as if he would detonate the bomb at any moment, he kept a broad view of his surroundings.

The old basement was visible under the hanging incandescent light.

New recruit Lee Seoyeon, sleeping soundly, and a man stamping his feet in frustration, and Lee Yeonwoo with a gold bar protruding from his pocket.

The agent assessed the situation. He pointed at the gold with his prosthetic leg.

"Stop messing around and grab the gold bar first! If you say anything else, I\'ll blow it up!"

"Ha... Mr. Lee Yeonwoo, please return the gold bar."

Yeonwoo took the gold bar out of his pocket, hesitated for a moment, then threw it with all his might at the man. There were no specific instructions on how to return it.

The gold bar, glinting golden, flew and was caught deftly by the man’s hand. The man frowned.

"This isn\'t good."

The gold, which forced obedience, returned to its owner. The force that bound Yeonwoo was gone.

\'This is good.\'

Yeonwoo slowly stretched his limbs. Standing in an awkward position, his blood-starved limbs were now feeling refreshed.

\'Should I roll the dice? No, hold on.\'

The situation looked favorable. There was no need to risk rolling the dice. It seemed he didn\'t need to do anything drastic.

The man looked back and forth between the bomb-implanted prosthetic and Yeonwoo, then slowly raised both hands.

"Okay. I won\'t do anything stupid. So, calm down first. If that thing goes off, both of us will die."

"Is there an agent who isn\'t prepared to die?"

"Didn\'t I say I\'m a Special Forces member? We\'re all the same. Or are investigators different?"

The man and the agent\'s gazes turned to Yeonwoo.

Unlike Special Forces members or agents who achieve their goals even in death, investigators survive by any means to deliver information. There was a fundamental difference in purpose and behavior.

The man subtly tried to persuade him with his gaze, while the agent cautiously backed away.

But Yeonwoo shrugged nonchalantly.

"Don\'t mind me, go ahead and blow it up."

He couldn\'t ruin the atmosphere by backing down. It didn\'t seem like they would actually go as far as to detonate it.

"Mr. Lee Yeonwoo, if you do that, we\'ll all die?"

"I think I can survive."

Yeonwoo made a rolling sound with his mouth, imitating the dice. The man\'s expression darkened.

"From what I saw, it only failed-"

"Since it failed that much, it will succeed now. Agent, continue."

But the agent kept retreating until he reached the corner of the detention center. The agent checked Yeonwoo\'s face. He mumbled.

"Yeonwoo... you were supposed to be interrogated. Don\'t move! If you move, I\'ll blow it up!"

"Haah..."

Yeonwoo ran a hand over his face, then raised both hands like the man and sat down heavily. He looked up at the agent.

"I\'ll stay still, so do what you need to do, Agent."

The agent watched Yeonwoo for a moment, then turned to look at the man. The man was now sitting in the chair, tapping the desk with his fingers. In front of his fingers was the agent\'s ID.

"The name is... Kim Gapdong? Is this your real name? Sounds like an alias."

"I told you not to move!"

"Then blow it up. But we\'re not in a situation to go to such extremes, are we? Let\'s solve this through conversation."

Agent Kim Gapdong shouted.

"If you want to talk, hand over the external hard drive and documents first!"

"Oh, that... they\'re not here."

The man shrugged. He spread his hands and gestured around the basement.

The open cabinets. The empty basement with nowhere to hide anything.

In an instant, Kim Gapdong\'s face turned ghastly. His face turned pale as if the blood had drained from it. His lips quivered as he looked at Yeonwoo, as if asking if it was true.

Yeonwoo nodded.

"The woman who was with us took it upstairs."

"Then! Tell her to bring it back! Quickly!"

The man leisurely crossed his legs.

"It\'s too late. That’s the rule in my unit. If there\'s no contact for more than five minutes in a separated situation, we consider it a death. They must have already guessed there was a problem and left."

"Ah, f*ck. We\'re screwed."

Kim Gapdong let his prosthetic leg droop. The edge of his thigh hit the floor of the detention center with a thud.

Lee Yeonwoo quietly backed away from the prosthetic while still sitting, and the man clapped his hands.

"Okay, I got the gold bar back and didn\'t pull out my gun. Agent Kim Gapdong has calmed down. Let\'s talk."

"I don\'t negotiate with traitors..."

"Don\'t be like that."

Kim Gapdong looked at the man with a defeated expression, but the man pointed at the prosthetic and Kim Gapdong with a relaxed smile.

"The Intelligence Department puts bombs in people\'s bodies. Do you really want to keep working for them? Take this opportunity to join the Goldberg Club."

Then, the man’s gaze shifted to Yeonwoo.

"If you help, we can retrieve the dice and clean up the scene nicely."

After ensuring there were no issues, the plan was to kill Lee Yeonwoo and retrieve the dice.

---

---

Yeonwoo spoke indifferently.

"I\'m going to roll the dice. Let\'s see that bomb explode."

At this point, killing only Yeonwoo would be meaningless.

It was too late to just kill Yeonwoo; he was already free. With his life in danger, he had nothing left to lose.

"Roll for the bomb, roll for the basement collapse, roll for a heart attack, roll for a gun explosion, roll for everything. One will succeed."

Then he glared at the man, mimicking Agent Kim Gapdong.

"Whether it\'s the gold bar or the gun, if you make any suspicious moves, I\'ll roll."

"If you make a mistake, you\'ll-"

"Better than dying alone and getting my anomaly extracted."

The man looked carefully into Yeonwoo\'s eyes. They were cold and calm. It wasn’t a bluff or fake madness. The situation supported it.

Yeonwoo also spoke to the agent standing beside him.

"The same goes for you, Agent. Don’t do anything weird. Just do your job."

"Okay, got it."

Agent Kim Gapdong, trembling, pressed his back tightly against the wall of the detention center. The prosthetic leg dragged on the floor.

For a moment, the three of them stayed silent. None of them wanted to die here. After a while, the man spoke.

"Let\'s do this. Let\'s part ways cleanly here. I\'ll escape, and you stay and do your job."

"No way!"

Agent Kim Gapdong shouted. He pointed at the empty basement with his prosthetic leg and glared at the man.

"Do you know how severe the punishment is just for losing the information? We have to catch you at least!"

"Do you think I\'ll let myself be caught? Kim Gapdong, use your head."

With a frustrated expression, he pounded his chest and then swiftly and naturally pulled out the gun from his chest, aiming it at the prosthetic leg. The gun still smelled of gunpowder.

The man spoke emotionlessly with a blank face.

"If I get caught, I\'ll be sent to the penal unit. I\'d rather die here."

There was only one bomb, but all three of them could detonate it. And if it came to that, they were all ready to do so without hesitation.

In that tense moment.

Roll-

The man\'s eyes widened as he sensed something strange and looked at the gun. The gun exploded. All the loaded bullets and the ones in the magazine exploded simultaneously, scattering fragments.

Red flames flared up and then disappeared.

The man looked at his shredded hand with a horribly twisted expression and then looked at Yeonwoo.

"You!"

Yeonwoo, his eyes unfocused, stared into space before lowering his gaze to the man.

"I told you, didn\'t I? If you pull out the gun, I’ll roll."

The dice that rolled for the gun explosion had succeeded.

---

---

The man\'s weapon was gone.

In the next moment, Agent Kim Gapdong sprang forward. Raising the prosthetic leg like a sword, he struck it against the incandescent light with a powerful blow.

Buzz-!

Under the shaking light, the man covered his head and charged low at the agent.

Thud-!

The prosthetic leg that struck the man\'s back rolled on the floor. The agent hit the man\'s back with his elbow and kneed him, but couldn\'t overpower him and was shoved into the bars of the detention center with a crash.

Agent Kim Gapdong shouted urgently.

"Yeonwoo! What are you doing? Help!"

Before Yeonwoo could react, the man shoved the bloodstained gold bar into Kim Gapdong\'s pocket.

Kim Gapdong received the gold bar.

"Agent Kim Gapdong. Stop Yeonwoo from following me! Keep going!"

Bound by the gold bar, Kim Gapdong gritted his teeth and entered the detention center, raising his hand to subdue Yeonwoo.

The man, standing up, laughed.

"Good luck! Take your punishment well!"

Bleeding from his damaged hand, the man climbed the stairs.

Kim Gapdong reached out towards Yeonwoo but stopped. Yeonwoo was sitting with his hands raised, showing no intention of chasing.

---

---

"I\'m not planning to chase him. I can\'t catch him alone anyway."

"...So, I don\'t need to stop you?"

"Of course. What can I do alone?"

The gold bar\'s command was fulfilled. With Kim Gapdong freed and Yeonwoo not wanting to fight, they awkwardly looked at each other before proceeding with the same task simultaneously.

"Trainee Agent Lee Seoyeon, this is not the time to sleep."

"Seoyeon, wake up."

They shook her shoulders and slapped her cheek. Lee Seoyeon, drooling in her sleep, opened her eyes.

"Uh...? Ah!"

Raising her upper body, she looked around and then widened her eyes at Yeonwoo.

"Yeonwoo! When did you... no, what’s going on... Ah!"

Her drowsy eyes cleared as she recalled the past events.

Disarming two people suspected to be from the Goldberg Club, Senior Agent Kim Gapdong had a gold bar slipped into his pocket, and she took the gold bar herself to save Kim Gapdong, who fell asleep because of it.

"The Goldberg Club! What happened?"

"Trainee Agent Lee Seoyeon. First, restrain me. I\'ve been affected by the gold bar."

"Oh, right. Just a moment."

Lee Seoyeon loosened her belt, hopped on one foot, and tied Kim Gapdong\'s hand to the leg of the steel desk.

Agent Kim Gapdong sighed.

"Now, let\'s report to the higher-ups. The two suspicious individuals were indeed from the Goldberg Club, they stole information, and we will start interrogating Investigator Yeonwoo."

The two intelligence agents looked at Yeonwoo.