Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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The building collapsed with a thunderous roar.

Debris rained down as structural elements cascaded like an avalanche along the roadside. The dust cloud had settled, but the investigators were still coughing and sputtering.

They waved their hands to clear the air, stumbled backward, and caught their breath.

Lee Yeonwoo glanced at a fallen air conditioner unit nearby and sighed in relief. He\'d barely escaped from beneath it, narrowly avoiding serious injury.

\'The building suddenly... It was bound to collapse.\'

Recalling the basement, he remembered how concrete and rebar walls had been demolished, leaving haphazard tunnels. The extent of the excavation was unclear, stretching beyond sight.

They must have damaged the building\'s support columns too. It could have fallen at any moment.

Yet Team Leader and Yoo Ji-yoo were still causing a commotion, their perceptions warped.

"A monster! A monster thrashed about! The city will crumble! Quick, call the company!"

"Wow! Everyone must have turned into worms and gone underground! Yeonwoo, make me a worm too! Hurry!"

Team Leader babbled incoherently, his face ashen, while Ji-yoo clung to Yeonwoo, hopping up and down.

Their behavior was a far cry from their usual composure as investigators, now completely overcome by emotion.

Yeonwoo took out his phone and firmly gripped their shoulders.

"I\'ll handle the scene first. You two wait here for a moment."

"No! The monster-"

"I need to become a worm quickly-"

"The dice will take care of both of you, so just rest."

After forcibly seating them, Yeonwoo immediately called the First Response Division.

The sudden building collapse in the dead of night had awakened many. Windows lit up. The company needed to contain the situation before firefighters arrived for rescue and more victims emerged.

"Yes, this is Investigator Yeonwoo. A mental manipulation anomaly was discovered, and a building has collapsed. Please handle this quickly."

"Give me the location and characteristics of the anomaly."

The on-duty response agent asked in a voice heavy with fatigue.

"The mental manipulation feels like danger level 3 or 4, with an effect range of one building floor. It\'s buried under the building now, but contact is dangerous. The location is-"

Danger level 4 could destroy an entire city.

The danger Yeonwoo experienced was evident in his voice. Across the phone, rapid keyboard typing could be heard. The response agent spoke urgently, sleep now gone from his voice.

"Understood! I\'ve issued orders to the relevant departments! We\'re requesting cooperation from government agencies now!"

"Yes, thank you."

The call ended. Yeonwoo sat down nearby, waiting for company personnel to arrive. He slowly dealt with the dust and moisture that had gotten into his bag.

Just then, Team Leader looked at the collapsed building with a calmer expression.

"...Were we mentally manipulated?"

"Yes. It was just a worm."

"No, it wasn\'t. It was the Great Worm Lord. Oh, I need to become a worm too. When will you make me one?"

Ji-yoo lay face-down on the street, wriggling.

Seeing this, Team Leader pressed hard on his bruised forehead, inducing pain. The pain of a hammer striking his head. The shadow over his mind gradually receded as his thoughts cleared.

But pain alone wasn\'t enough. His mind began to warp again.

Team Leader doubted himself and the monster, desperately trying to correct his distorted perceptions.

"Right. Such a monster couldn\'t possibly stay in the basement of a small building like this. The company wouldn\'t miss it either. It\'s just powerful mental manipulation. Not reality."

"I almost fell for it too. I nearly asked the dice to turn me into a worm."

"The Great Worm Lord-"

"Ji-yoo, sleep."

Team Leader put Ji-yoo in a chokehold, and after a few seconds, she went limp. Leaving her sprawled on the ground, Team Leader called for Yeonwoo.

"You\'re the most lucid, so you handle the aftermath. Report to the company, brief the response team when they arrive, that sort of thing."

"Yes. And you, Team Leader...?"

Yeonwoo\'s voice trailed off as he looked at Team Leader\'s forehead. A large, dark bruise spread across the center, with scabs where the skin had been scratched.

How hard had he hit himself?

"I need to get checked when the medical team arrives. My head\'s spinning."

As he spoke, Team Leader lit a cigarette. With a flick, he ignited it and took a deep drag. The exhaled smoke dissipated into the cold night air.

They spent a moment in silence.

Then people arrived.

---

---

The cleanup proceeded swiftly.

Ding-ding, an emergency alert message arrived.

[Building collapse and gas leak occurred at 00:07. Residents, please evacuate promptly.]

Police cars and fire trucks flashed blue and red lights on the road. People caught off guard in the middle of the night walked hesitantly down the street, their faces pale and flushed.

Those working overtime, locals awakened from sleep, drunks from bars open late into the night.

They raised their phones high, filming the collapsed building site and talking among themselves.

"Oh my. What can we do?"

"Wow. This shoddy construction is insane. How can a building just collapse like that? Which construction company was it?"

"Evacuate quickly! It\'s dangerous! There\'s a risk of further accidents!"

Meanwhile, Yeonwoo sat near the ruins organizing his bag when a firefighter\'s boot stopped in front of his scattered tools.

The fully-equipped firefighter stamped his foot.

"When will the rescue operation begin? We need to save the people trapped inside as soon as possible."

"It will start after the evacuation is complete."

"That\'s too late. Can\'t we start bit by bit? No gas has been detected."

Yeonwoo noticed they had already checked with a gas leak detector.

He shook his head.

"There\'s something more dangerous than gas."

"But-"

The firefighter\'s expression turned frustrated, like someone who had stuffed dozens of crackers in their mouth. He\'d heard these people had command authority, but it seemed they weren\'t doing anything properly.

"It\'s our job to deal with that danger-"

Just as the firefighter opened his mouth again.

The company\'s personnel arrived.

A battalion-sized force with glowing blue eyes approached, dragging excavators and spatial containment containers. Team Leader Lee, the cleanup specialist Yeonwoo had seen before, sauntered over.

Team Leader Lee addressed the firefighter.

"Alright, our civil servant friends. Control the roads and keep people out. These folks will handle the rescue operation."

"We\'ll control access. But wouldn\'t it be faster if we worked together?"

"Now, now. These are specialists. You\'d only get in the way, so please leave."

The firefighters and police officers dispersed with uneasy expressions, heading to control access from a distance.

Only company employees remained on the now-quiet street after the evacuation.

People with glowing blue eyes operated excavators or swung pickaxes to clear debris. A steady, metronomic rhythm.

Amidst the noise, Team Leader Lee approached Team Leader Hong, raising his hand in greeting.

"Hey, Hong. What happened to your face? Who hit you?"

"Hey, Lee. Cut the crap and go talk to that guy. He\'s in charge today."

"Him?"

Team Leader Lee looked back and forth between Yeonwoo and Team Leader Hong in confusion. Then he addressed Team Leader Hong again.

"Planning to retire? Is he the next team leader?"

"Retire my ass. My head hurts. Get lost. The medical team you called isn\'t even here yet, sheesh."

"What a temper."

Waving his hand as if shooing away a dog, Team Leader Hong dismissed him. Team Leader Lee grumbled as he approached Yeonwoo.

Tools laid out to remove dust and moisture.

The corner of Team Leader Lee\'s mouth twitched.

"Like master, like pupil. You even learned this stuff from that bastard."

"Everything has its use eventually. More importantly, are those people enough for the cleanup?"

"Yeah. They\'re from the slave battalion. They\'re deployed under mental control, so normal interference doesn\'t work on them."

A force deployed under mental control by the company\'s mental manipulation anomalies.

Using mental manipulation to counter mental manipulation.

Yeonwoo suddenly looked up at Team Leader Lee.

"Are you alright, Team Leader Lee?"

"Oh, that. Well, if I get mentally controlled, I just take sick leave and rest."

Yeonwoo was at a loss for words as Team Leader Lee smirked, saying he got paid while resting.

"But. This is a dangerous entity."

"What isn\'t dangerous in this line of work?"

"That\'s true."

They chatted idly for a moment.

Team Leader Lee glanced at the slave battalion hard at work, then gazed at the collapsed building.

"Clean job. We can just pass it off as a building collapse accident."

Blatantly obvious or unrealistic incidents were hard to cover up, but cases like this didn\'t even need fabrication.

Yeonwoo suddenly asked:

"Hasn\'t secrecy been compromised? Do you still do cleanups these days?"

"We half-ass that stuff now. Hide what needs hiding, and actually expose the small stuff."

"You\'re saying you intentionally expose things?"

Team Leader Lee nodded.

"People who are interested in this stuff and go looking for it. We deliberately expose some things to them and use them like investigators."

He explained that they manipulate algorithms to recommend company-made videos or connect to disguised websites through internet ads.

And the company monitors such people using equipment and AI originally meant for maintaining secrecy.

Team Leader Lee explained, spittle flying.

"Well, they say it\'s adapting to the information age. I don\'t get it. If they\'re going to use civilians, why does the company even exist?"

As Team Leader Lee voiced his complaints, Yeonwoo fell into quiet contemplation.

\'...Wouldn\'t that reduce the need for investigators on missions? Seems good to me.\'

Just then, one of the slave battalion members approached them. Glowing blue eyes, mannequin-like expression, monotone voice.

"Work has started. Is there anything else to hand over?"

"Ah. I\'ll brief you about the anomaly."

Yeonwoo snapped back to attention and began explaining in detail.

"There\'s a worm in a glass box that manipulates minds to perceive it as a great being. Those affected believe they must become worms."

"If it was in a glass box, it likely shattered. This will take longer."

The conversation dragged on.

In the deep night, the sound of company employees laboring echoed through the deserted street. The arrival of the medical team added more activity to the ruins.