Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule: 5/week

Illustrations: None.

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Lee Yeonwoo's message quickly made its way up to the Director through Mark Jung.

A frantic phone call echoed in a hotel room.

"We got a message from Yeonwoo. I just sent you the details. Have you checked it?"

"I have. Good work. We've just gained some extra info and roughly figured out their identity and goal."

Despite delivering good news, the Director's voice carried a mix of worry and determination. Sensing the tension, Mark Jung hesitated before asking:

"It's the worst-case scenario we were worried about."

"You don't mean..."

"I'll send you the files too. Sum up the key points and pass them on to Yeonwoo."

Ding ding-!

An alert sounded from the laptop. Mark Jung opened the message right away, revealing several video, photo, and text files.

Still on the call, he checked the photos first. One showed a human-like figure made of black thread-like material running from the attack of a strange weapon.

"I've looked at the photos. Is that thread-like thing the intruder?"

"Yes. It's a moment from a parallel world we spotted using the info we got. That intruder attacked several worlds."

"When you say attacked..."

Mark Jung's voice shook. Dark scenes flashed in his mind - terrible curses, contamination, signs of doom.

The Director added something more real and scary than Mark Jung's vague fears.

"At the very least, they're making climate anomalies worse by bringing loads of strange entities from parallel worlds."

Click. Mark Jung switched to another photo as the Director spoke.

It showed the intruder carrying all sorts of weird entities, then dumping them into the sea.

"They've caused various crises across multiple worlds. Destroying the final shelter, wrecking the Mars base, attacking the company headquarters..."

He flipped through the photos one after another.

A mushroom cloud rising over the final shelter, the Mars base returning to the harsh Martian environment, a blurred image of the company headquarters seemingly falling apart...

A threat more evil and real than he'd imagined.

Mark Jung pressed a hand against his shaking eyes and asked quietly:

"Are they trying to end the world?"

"Probably."

Based on what they knew, the intruder seemed to be someone who wanted to destroy everything.

Mark Jung and the Director fell silent for a moment. If the intruder was threatening humanity, the company had no choice but to fight. No matter how strong or dangerous the enemy.

Finally, the Director spoke:

"He said the intruder's after the Ark. They likely want to destroy our last hope. I'll call a meeting and suggest tightening the Ark's security."

"What should I do?"

Mark Jung's voice and eyes filled with resolve.

"Get in touch with Yeonwoo. He'll be our secret weapon."

"But the intruder's right next to him. If we contact him and set them off-"

"It doesn't matter. The intruder won't care. They want to cause chaos to find the Ark. They might even like it."

The Director went on:

"I can guess where the intruder's headed. If they're after the Ark, there are certain places they'll visit. The final shelter that was hit in the parallel world, the Anomaly Research Society, and a few others. Form special teams and send them to these places."

"Got it!"

Mark Jung's face lit up at the Director's words.

After feeling sidelined looking after one key person, being given such an important job filled him with purpose.

"I'll put together the special teams using our best agents."

"...Give them normal bullets too."

The company only had 13 of these ordinary bullets left. After using 2 and losing 4 in research accidents, just 7 remained.

Mark Jung paused, then started typing with renewed energy.

---

---

Yeonwoo looked around as he entered the control room. The room his future self had tensely called dangerous, with hidden threats.

Naturally, Yeonwoo examined every little detail.

The control room was huge. Massive screens along the walls acted as windows, showing the view of an unknown city. At the far end, people who looked like shelter managers were talking among themselves.

"We need to finish the disguise work first-"

"No, we should finish the inside work first. Do you know how hard it is to work inside after the disguise is done?"

"Director? The company cut our budget, so we need to choose what's most important-"

As the department heads arguing about money all turned to the Shelter Director, he rubbed his forehead, looking annoyed.

"With the money we have now, it's hard to finish even one thing, you idiots..."

Even though the door had opened wide and a person plus something not human had walked in, they seemed completely unaware, still arguing.

Yeonwoo, who had jumped in surprise, carefully watched them and spoke softly.

"They don't seem to notice us. Is that safe?"

"No. I must have messed something up when I changed how they see things. Now that I've interfered, I'm more likely to end up in trouble."

Yeonwoo barely kept a straight face, covering his mouth.

'Could that be because I sent the message...?'

He glanced at his future self, but the other didn't seem worried and started walking somewhere.

"More importantly, we need to find the Ark."

Future Yeonwoo went to one of the screens and put his hand on it. The thread-like being worked the screen easily. Soon the screen changed, showing a communication system.

As the shelter managers kept arguing, future Yeonwoo stepped aside.

The screen showed a grayed-out communication target: the Ark.

"Here. Try turning on the Ark's communication network first."

"...How?"

"However you can. Try making a call, or roll the dice."

Yeonwoo obediently tried to make a call and even rolled dice to suggest turning on communications, but nothing worked.

Future Yeonwoo spoke gloomily:

"Not working, huh."

"Should we try rolling the dice to find the Ark?"

Even as Yeonwoo quickly suggested this in the tense atmosphere, future Yeonwoo tilted his head.

"Would that work? The Ark seems to be outside what's possible or likely... No, you're different. Give it a try."

"Okay."

The dice clattered-

Failure!

"It didn't work..."

"Let's go to the next place."

Future Yeonwoo reached for Yeonwoo's neck, then moved his hand to rest on his shoulder. And with that, the world changed.

---

---

The small containment room of the Anomaly Research Society.

Yeonwoo saw the tree person. The tree person who had shown him the future was now so withered it was hard to recognize.

Whatever had been done to it, all its leaves had fallen off leaving only bare branches, and even those branches were shriveled and few.

Suddenly, as the tree person's eyes slowly opened and met Yeonwoo's gaze, its branches stood up straight.

"You...! Because of you! I'm worse off than a prisoner-"

"Quiet."

Future Yeonwoo said one word as his threads rippled. Only then did the tree person's eyes notice the monster-like thing beside Yeonwoo.

Its eyes widened.

Crack, crack crack, its branches shook as if caught in a storm, and the thin twigs snapped and fell.

"The one I saw from the future! What brings you here to see me?"

In a flash, its thoughts became gentle waves. Not daring to even think of causing trouble, it stayed as calm as possible.

Future Yeonwoo spoke:

"You. You said you saw the Ark in the future. Explain that. Or show the Ark to me and him."

"Of course. I clearly saw the Ark in the future..."

For a moment, its thoughts blurred. The tree person frowned as if trying hard to remember, then slowly looked down.

"I'm really sorry to say this. The truth is, I lied. I've never seen the Ark."

In an instant, the threads of possibility tightened sharply. The threads surrounding future Yeonwoo like a cocoon.

"Don't mess with me."

"It's true! Really! I only lied to convince this human! I haven't even seen anything like the Ark!"

Its thoughts were clear with honesty.

"..."

Silence fell. The threads unraveled again, then crawled through the air like insect legs. The tree person shook like a leaf, eyes tightly shut.

As Yeonwoo nervously watched for any trouble, a soft voice suddenly came from future Yeonwoo.

"This is a security measure I've never seen before."

A big change in how things are seen, or rather, a basic change in information itself.

"Good. It seems to be working properly. We should be able to find the Ark this time."

"What do you mean by security?"

"What are you talking about?"

Questions came at the mysterious statement.

Future Yeonwoo chuckled. The possibility he always held was growing along with both his chances of getting into danger and the likelihood of finding the Ark.

A more hopeful situation than ever.

'So they figured out I'm after the Ark. I can be a bit rougher now.'

Things were looking good.

The more chaos he caused, the harder the company would try to protect the Ark, and the more frantically they moved, the more important clues they'd leave behind.

Plus, he had this world's Yeonwoo - someone who made finding the Ark more likely.

'Let's really scare the company. That way they'll use other ways to protect the Ark.'

Future Yeonwoo raised one hand. He pulled back most of the power he was using elsewhere, putting it all into this attack.

Changing what's possible from far away. A curse-like power aimed at the company.

'If I break multiple facilities and systems at once-'

The mass of possibility threads swirled like a whirlpool. Just as they were about to become real all at once-

Yeonwoo, who had been watching future Yeonwoo carefully, instinctively reached out his hand at a strange feeling.

Like a cat swatting at moving grass, he swung his palm.

And with that, a single thread of possibility was knocked away.

"..."

"..."

The storm of possibilities stopped. Future Yeonwoo froze. He turned only his head at an impossible angle to look at Yeonwoo.