Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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The three teams descended the mountain path they\'d climbed earlier. Up front, the squad leader quickly scanned the operation document.

Top priority: subdue the Grammar Nazi Robot. Secondary objectives: eliminate aerial weapons, rescue survivors, and maintain isolation of other anomalies.

He quickly grasped the hidden intent behind those words and this temporary team\'s role.

Looking at the other leaders he said, "We\'re basically buying time. We\'re bait to keep the aerial weapons in the lab from reaching civilian areas until the main force arrives."

"Bait, huh? Those bastards," team leader grumbled, stomping down the slope before glancing at Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo wasn\'t cut out for this kind of operation. He wasn\'t one to throw himself into danger, and as a special investigator, he could refuse missions.

But Yeonwoo\'s eyes gleamed suspiciously as he alternated between looking at the EMP grenades and bags in others\' hands.

\'This might be...\'

Rustle-

Flipping through the document revealed specs of the expected remaining aerial weapons and a map of the institute.

As they studied the map intently, they found themselves back at the drone control clearing.

The squad leader stopped at the area littered with fallen drones.

"All teams, straight to the main building."

The main building housed the Grammar Nazi Robot\'s containment room.

Everyone nodded silently, and the three teams crossed the clearing. Above, drones that survived the EMP blast followed.

---

---

The clearing was far from the main building. They moved quickly.

"..."

"..."

No one spoke on the way to the danger zone. Some clasped their hands in prayer, others wore determined expressions, and a few hopped in place to release tension.

Someone muttered, "Just don\'t die. Just don\'t. Losing a limb is fine."

Overhead, drones cast faint shadows as they pursued. A dull whirring sound and watchful camera lenses tracked their movements.

\'No attack drones. But we can\'t let our guard down.\'

Yeonwoo kept glancing skyward, staying alert. Even without weapons, a high-altitude drop was still deadly.

Sure enough, as they neared the main building, the drones suddenly tilted almost vertically and began to plummet.

A kamikaze-like body slam. The rapidly growing engine roar and darkening shadow caught Yeonwoo\'s eye.

"Watch out!" Yeonwoo shouted, diving forward. The others scattered in all directions.

Bang-!

A drone crashed into the empty space. It wasn\'t just one. The drones that had been following them fell one by one.

Bang bang bang!

Kagagak-!

Drones smashed into the ground, their tilted wings scraping the floor with an ear-piercing screech. And still more drones fell.

Bang!

After deflecting a falling drone with his bulletproof plate, the squad leader staggered and yelled, "Hurry to the main building!"

His urgent gaze swept beyond the path. Yeonwoo followed his line of sight.

Weeeing-!

From the weapons development building, a swarm of drones rose like a cloud of bees.

Organic drones resembling giant flies, mosquitoes, or lumps of flesh; steampunk drones spewing steam. They radiated danger at a glance.

\'We can\'t face them in the open!\'

Pitter-patter-!

Yeonwoo took off without looking back. The investigators followed, then the Intelligence Department agents, researchers, and Special Forces troops.

Gunshots rang out against the bizarre drones as more crashed down around them with thunderous booms. The noise was deafening.

"Uh..."

Arriving at the main building amid this chaos, they found it tightly sealed.

A steel door blocked the main entrance, and blast shutters covered every window. It looked impenetrable.

"Emergency lockdown? Defensive mode?"

"Looks like the robot\'s taken over completely. Damn it. We\'ll have to fight them here."

To make matters worse, drones were swarming in. As people turned, gritting their teeth and aiming their guns, the team leader gently pushed Yeonwoo\'s back.

"Can you open it?"

"...I don\'t think I can manage the main entrance."

A vague intuition.

"What?"

"Wait, just a second."

Yeonwoo narrowed his eyes, heightening his senses. Whether intuition, survival instinct, or probability calculation, he desperately tried to perceive beyond what his eyes could see.

Finally, his gaze settled on a certain window.

"I think I can open that window."

"Do it quick!"

The team leader shouted while firing at the organic drones. Yeonwoo immediately called upon his dice.

\'Dice, open the window.\'

Roll-

Success!

With a chrrk, the shutter suddenly rose. Beyond the glass lay a storage room piled with odds and ends.

Yeonwoo smashed the window and hurriedly climbed through. The team leader followed and shouted outside.

"This way, come in!"

The others swarmed in, reaching for the narrow window like zombies, squeezing through one by one.

"Hurry up! They\'re coming!"

"Argh!"

People climbed in, ignoring cuts from glass shards. The cramped storage room filled up in seconds.

Even the last Special Forces soldier who\'d stayed behind to hold off the drones made it in, wedging his bulletproof plate into the window frame. But the mood was grim.

Weeeing-!

Pook! Bang! Chiiik-!

Drones pounded the makeshift barricade, and their numbers had dwindled.

"Six dead..."

In that brief moment, six people had died. Hit by falling drones, sliced by spinning blades, attacked by organic drones.

The squad leader surveyed the survivors with a dark expression. "Two injured. You okay?"

A pale-faced researcher shook his head. A high-speed blade had sliced his forearm.

"Does this look okay to you?"

The wound visible through his torn sleeve was serious. A mangled forearm and flowing blood.

Another person was also critically injured.

Special Forces troops and Intelligence agents provided emergency treatment, but proper medical care was urgently needed.

Just then, Yeonwoo looked up from studying the map.

"The infirmary, security room, and armory are all on the first floor. If we can open the doors for sure, we might have a chance."

"Is there a way to open doors under lockdown...?"

Everyone looked at the storage room door. A blast shutter had come down over it.

"Can\'t we use the same method you used to open the window?"

"It\'s risky. We might not be able to open it. If it goes wrong, we could be trapped forever."

If a critical failure occurred, who knew what might happen. It was too uncertain to trust his senses.

At that moment, the team leader looked around the storage room and chuckled, tapping a tool.

"There\'s a cutter here."

A large cutter with a circular blade. Not just that, but oxygen tanks and cutting torches were also gathering dust in the storage room.

Not the mini-tools Yeonwoo carried, but proper, industrial-grade equipment.

The team leader grabbed a tool with a nametag, likely discarded after use in the institute.

"Let\'s break down the door and get out."

After a moment of ear-splitting noise and dazzling sparks as the blast shutter was ground away, a hole large enough for a person to pass through gaped open.

"Let\'s go!"

People ducked through the hole. Supporting the injured, watching the front, looking back.

Yeonwoo stayed at the very back, eyeing the window with the wedged bulletproof plate. The twisted metal was quiet.

\'It\'s silent.\'

The outside, which had been a cacophony of drone sounds, was now eerily quiet. The robot had probably opened a door or window and sent them there.

Yeonwoo glanced at the others who\'d gone ahead, then quietly stuffed a few dust-covered tools into his bag.

\'They\'re not using these anyway. I\'ll just take a few. Doing such dangerous work, I should at least get this much.\'

Slinging the still-light bag over his shoulder, Yeonwoo caught up with the group.

---

---

Not just the doors, but the corridors too had shutters down as if there was a fire. With no emergency exits, each one had to be cut through.

"What a pain."

Just as the team leader readjusted his grip on the cutter-

Chrrk-!

The shutters rose all at once. Their blocked view suddenly cleared. However, not all shutters went up, only those leading to a specific destination.

Yeonwoo checked the map and muttered, "The robot\'s containment room."

It was the path to the underground containment room. The lockdown was lifted just up to the stairs leading down.

\'What\'s it thinking?\'

It was clearly the robot\'s doing. But the intent was unclear. There was no reason to open the path like this.

Before he could finish his thought, drones suddenly began swarming in behind them. They filled the narrow corridor.

Steampunk drones cocked stake-like appendages with a click, while mosquito-like organic drones raised their stingers.

Yeonwoo made a quick decision.

\'We have to face them here.\'

It was clearly a ploy to open the path and drive them in. That was the situation.

Yeonwoo pulled out his issued taser gun and pulled the trigger. Lightning flashed, and annoyance spread across his face, bleached white by the flash.

\'We should\'ve raided the armory first...!\'