Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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The dimensional portal was built inside a vast structure resembling an aircraft hangar. At its center, an oval-shaped blue door rose vertically, surrounded by a magic circle intricately adorned with precious gems and gold. This doorway was the passage to the giant dimension.

"Container coming through!"

"Hold it! It's time for the other side to come over!"

Beneath the blue light, countless people, transport equipment, and machinery bustled about. Workers in fluorescent safety vests frantically waved light sticks and shouted instructions, while heavy machinery roared with exhaust-spewing engines.

The magician assigned to this task trembled, looking as if they'd rather be anywhere else.

"If only I'd managed to escape from my damn master, I wouldn't be stuck doing this crap."

This wasn't magic - it was just managing a portal, nothing more than being a cog in the machine.

'Should I make a run for it?'

This was no way to live. Infinite second dimensions awaited. Adventure! Discovery! Exploration! Just as the magician was about to grasp their jeweled necklace, Yeonwoo suddenly appeared beside them.

"Inspection time."

The magician startled. Yeonwoo had built quite a reputation.

Tracking down escaped magicians. Pursuing and kidnapping them faster and more accurately than even master-level magicians - he was the magicians' nemesis.

"I-I won't run away."

The magician's voice quivered with premature fear.

Yeonwoo's gaze swept over them. He naturally saw the possibilities that would unfold in the future. Out of 10 potential futures, the magician fled in 9 of them.

Yeonwoo sighed deeply. These damn crazy magicians. He couldn't understand why they'd run away after signing contracts to work as a group. It seemed they lacked even the most basic concepts of trust and promises.

"If you want to run, go ahead. I'll just catch you again anyway."

"..."

An ordinary person would have taken this as a warning. But the magician was different.

'Sounds like he's giving me permission to escape.'

If I'm capable enough, he's saying I can run. This is implicit permission. As the magician's eyes darted about and their hand tightened on the jeweled necklace, Yeonwoo clenched his fist. ṝἈ₦ôВЁş

"This is ridiculous."

He manipulated probability and possibility. This fixed the future. The magician's future, their possibilities, narrowed. To a future where they didn't escape.

'Ah.'

The magician snapped to their senses. For now, there was no way to escape in front of Yeonwoo. The right move was to prepare thoroughly before taking action.

'One year. I'll prepare hard for a year and then make my escape.'

At that point, Yeonwoo strode forward. He glanced around.

Magicians managing the dimensional portal, the company advancing into the second dimension, other groups monitoring the portal. Yeonwoo looked at some of the scanners and devices.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

'Let's see. What I need to check is...'

Scanners? Detectors? He just needed to verify the devices installed to prevent the company from developing ordinary nuclear backpacks or ordinary biochemical weapons in the second dimension and bringing them over.

Yeonwoo approached the complex machinery installed next to the dimensional portal. The Club member in charge of the device bowed their head.

"Hello, sir."

"Hello. I'm here to inspect if the machine is working properly."

Yeonwoo pulled a small metal case from his bag. Inside was a single ordinary bullet. The moment he took out the case, changes occurred.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!

The machine screamed. There was a discrepancy between the scan results from the scientifically constructed detector and the anomaly-based detector.

True to its nature as a security system designed to analyze 'ordinary' objects, it immediately identified the issue. Complex strings of characters flashed across the monitor.

- Discrepancy rate: 12.2668082408326657

In an instant, red lights flashed throughout the department. Sirens wailed madly, and warning broadcasts blared.

- Ordinariness detected! Ordinariness detected!

Yeonwoo nodded.

'Working well.'

He just needed to confirm it was functioning properly. Of course, the employees who suddenly found themselves in an emergency situation ran around like headless chickens.

"Containment! Containment! Containment!"

"What's the company doing! How long has it been since we signed the treaty!"

"Aaargh! The company's gone berserk! Report this quickly!"

Yeonwoo didn't try to stop them.

How swiftly and properly they moved when ordinariness was detected was also part of the inspection. It was a kind of drill.

He glanced at the Club member.

"I'll be on my way now."

"Did- did you inform the higher-ups about the inspection?"

"Yes."

They were probably evaluating things like reporting time, containment strictness, and such remotely.

Yeonwoo leisurely clenched his fist. The job was done, so he'd cross over to the giant world.

------

He moved to the company outpost built in the giant world.

Temporary barracks and container buildings, structures being diligently constructed with concrete and steel. All of this was creating a human city atop ruins.

After casually creating a few blocks of ordinary space, Yeonwoo slowly walked through the city. The outpost manager followed behind him.

"We've found out that this used to be a human city. A place where street humans tried to make the legend of the human city a reality. It's perfect for the company's outpost."

The legend of street humans and pet humans. A city by and for humans.

But it was just a legend of salvation, and when some humans tried to build an actual human city with hope, it was ultimately destroyed by the giants' Foreign Species Management Bureau.

Still, since humans following the legend kept coming here, it was suitable as a company outpost.

Yeonwoo looked around the city, lost in memories. Company employees building the outpost worked alongside people from other groups. Occasionally, scruffy people ran about excitedly - clearly street humans from the giant world.

"A human city! Our salvation has come!"

Voices and eyes shining with hope and passion.

Naturally, the face of a certain person came to mind.

'What was her name again? Dan- Dan- Dande-something.'

He remembered the woman he'd seen when stranded in the giant dimension. The one he'd almost escaped with.

Yeonwoo, who had grasped the threads to recall his memories, stopped walking and looked at the outpost manager. He asked:

"Is there a woman named Dandelion here? A human born in this dimension."

"I'll check."

The manager tapped away at their phone. The profiles of street humans who had already arrived in the city were registered.

Yeonwoo waited with anticipation, and after a short while, the manager shook their head.

"There's no one by that name."

"...I see."

It would have been nice if she was alive. It would have been great if she could see the human city, the salvation of the human world, with her own eyes.

Yeonwoo hesitated, then selected a thread of probability. The possibility of moving to where Dandelion was.

But before Yeonwoo could clench his fist to move, the manager grabbed him. There were a few things they needed to brief him on, regardless of what he was planning.

"Mr. Yeonwoo! There are some things I need to tell you first. First, please try not to kill giants if possible. The Foreign Species Management Bureau isn't much of a threat, but test results have shown that giants are also human."

The first thing the company did after crossing over to the giant world was to kidnap giants and put them in labs.

To determine whether to wipe them out or establish cooperative relationships, they analyzed their genes and existence.

But giants were just a type of human, massive and sturdy due to the laws of their dimension.

"No..."

Yeonwoo wore a dumbfounded expression. He wasn't some doomsday cultist - why would he randomly kill giants? Unless he'd been neutered during his time stranded here.

"I won't kill them."

"Just in case... Oh, and please don't randomly rescue street humans and pet humans."

The manager pointed at the city under construction.

"We don't have enough space or food to accommodate many humans yet. In about a month, we should have sufficient infrastructure."

Bluntly put, if Yeonwoo were to manifest the possibility of all humans except giants moving to the city, things would get complicated.

"Yes, yes."

Nodding, Yeonwoo grasped the threads of probability.

The world changed. He had moved.

------

A blue field, beneath dandelions as massive as trees in the original world.

Dandelion was leaning against one of these giant dandelions. With her blonde hair and mixed-race features that made it hard to pinpoint her ethnicity, she was shaking dandelion seeds in one hand. She looked up, her eyes widening.

"You- you."

"Hi."

Yeonwoo smiled. He approached and sat down beside her.

"Did you find the human city?"

"What the- Why are you here?!"

Dandelion jumped up, looking down at Yeonwoo. Her eyes were full of doubt, as if seeing an illusion.

This was the field she'd reached after escaping from the giant's house and traveling a long way through all sorts of hardships. It was far too distant for the weak Yeonwoo she knew to have found.

"I told you I'd escape on my own."

"But how did you get all the way here! Are you hurt? You'd die the moment you set foot outside, you know."

Yeonwoo wore a sour expression. He had certainly shown her his extremely lacking physical abilities.

But time had passed, and he had become Level 6. Yeonwoo waved his hand. Threads of probability rippled around it.

"I have the power to do this now."

"...Isn't that what the Management Bureau uses? Those giant bastards?"

While it was a power far beyond that of small groups without Level 6 entities, Yeonwoo just nodded vaguely. He reached out his hand towards Dandelion.

"Remember I mentioned a company?"

"The Humanity Protection Company?"

"Yeah. People from the human world have come to save humans. They've built a human city. Let's go together."

Dandelion's eyes sparkled. They looked as if stars had been embedded in them. Hope welled up like a spring.

"Alright!"

Dandelion grasped Yeonwoo's hand. At the same moment, Yeonwoo moved through space.

They vanished from the field as if they had never been there. A warm spring breeze blew. The dandelion they had been leaning against swayed.

Pure white dandelion seeds scattered on the wind. Just like humanity and the company.

Humanity had already spread to many second dimensions. Now the company would follow humanity outward, and both humanity and the company would flourish like dandelions.

The flower of humanity, which had tenaciously survived in the face of dangerous anomalies, was beginning to bloom everywhere.

And Yeonwoo, tougher than any weed, would survive forever.

---

[raei: one more chapter left!]