Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

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Chaos reigned.

"Prepare for the first surgery."

The mechanical humans from Synth Dynamics drew their cold weapons. They'd used up all their bullets during the war. Steel blades, chainsaws, and awls protruded from their forearms, scattering an eerie light.

"Remove unnecessary organs and body parts. Replace them with machines."

And then, noise erupted from their heads.

These things had also gone haywire due to the Association President. Even though she had disappeared, their slightly freed will still moved for her sake.

The ghosts who had survived in the relatively safe battlefield were the same.

Ghosts who had been avoiding the magic circles and scattered powder emitted hatred-filled mental waves.

"Since the afterlife that she desired has been shattered, we must comfort her by turning more of the living into the dead!"

"It's a chance for revenge too!"

It was severe mental contamination. All will and minds were twisted around the Association President.

The hospital's security guards silently took up their weapons. Truncheons, pistols, and taser guns.

"We can handle those things even if we can't deal with the ghosts. We just need to protect the safe zone."

"But you don't have enough manpower on your own. Do you have any spare guns?"

"I do."

Lee Yeonwoo turned his bag inside out. The remaining pistols from the Club clattered out.

'I was going to get these guns from an information broker anyway. No problem using them all up here.'

The Special Forces combat personnel quickly grabbed the pistols. Also, a combatant who had faced Synth Dynamics before rapidly issued instructions.

"Don't use the taser guns. There might be ones that recharge themselves with that. And aim for the human parts. Those things die if they bleed out too."

Advice based on rich experience.

Yeonwoo listened attentively while quickly gauging the forces on both sides.

'I think we can handle those mechanical humans well enough. The ghosts are fine. And it doesn't look like there are any spirits of nuclear explosions or anything here.'

At that moment, Yeonwoo's gaze caught two people.

The magician who had created the protected area.

"..."

After rolling his eyeballs around with his mouth shut, he suddenly shattered his bracelet and disappeared from this world. Seeing the situation looked dire, he had fled.

To another dimension.

After enviously watching that for a moment.

Yeonwoo approached Mark Jung.

"Here... Memory eraser?"

After realizing his memories were gone and assessing the situation, Mark Jung absent-mindedly looked at his phone and fell victim to mental manipulation again, pouring a few drops of memory eraser into his mouth.

Then he became confused due to the lost memories, looked at his phone again, and drank the memory eraser.

He kept repeating the cycle of looking at his phone and drinking again.

At that point, the battle began.

"Fire!"

A thunderous sound erupted. The hospital corridor filled with gunshots. The mechanical humans trudged forward to dedicate themselves to the Association President, to prepare more works for her.

They took the bullets straight to their bodies. Bullets bounced off machine parts and embedded in flesh, spilling red blood or lubricant, with some critical hits felling them.

'It'll be disadvantageous if they close the distance.'

Yeonwoo coolly assessed the situation, then quickly snatched Mark Jung's phone and memory eraser.

"The current situation, that's-"

Mark Jung wore a confused expression as he was robbed, and Yeonwoo held the phone forward without even glancing at the screen.

"Don't look this way, move aside!"

The seasoned company man immediately cleared the way. An empty space opened up in front of Yeonwoo, and he quickly ran forward.

Using the screen forcing them to drink memory eraser as a shield.

In that instant, the mechanical humans' pupils caught that screen. Human eyes and camera lenses all focused on it at once.

"Priority 1 command changed, change impossible, changed, change impossible, changed, zzzzt."

The Association President's influence clashed with the company's imposed control. Mark Jung's body, implanted with suggestions as a direct employee of the director, moved according to orders, but in the mechanical humans' minds, two higher entities purely competed for dominance.

Zzzzt-

The mechanical humans' movements stopped. Even as bullets rained down, their brains and circuits were overloaded and couldn't respond properly.

"Priority 1 command. Return to her with more works. Changed. Drink the memory eraser. Change impossible. Changed."

By the time they started breaking down one by one, the Association President's influence pushed back the company's orders.

"Priority 1 command maintained."

"Make her happy!"

The few remaining mechanical humans charged ferociously but fell under the hail of bullets, and the ghosts sobbed in disappointment.

"To die without even breaching that barrier!"

The company employees who had fended off the mechanical humans wore grim expressions.

"The magician fled?"

"There's no reason for a magician to stay here. They're good at running away too."

"Then those ghosts..."

Yeonwoo narrowed his eyes, looking at the ghosts and scattered remains of mechanical humans.

'Association President... Is that mental contamination?'

A sense of dissonance. The hospital turned into an anomalous zone. The acrid smell of gunpowder and deafening gunshots. Bizarre behaviors and speech. The Association President's influence clashing with mental manipulation.

All the circumstances combined to pound at his mind.

But to doubt her...

'I may not be that emotional, but it's different with the Association President.'

Yeonwoo nudged Mark Jung.

Mark Jung wore a tense expression as he searched his pockets to assess the situation, then was startled to see an ordinary bullet pop out.

"Why do I have this!"

"Hey."

"Ah, Yeonwoo. What's today's date? And what's the current situation?"

Yeonwoo explained briefly.

That the war had gone terribly wrong. That the demon and artist had thoroughly messed it up.

"The war. I remember it was being planned. It seems about a month of my memories are gone. But why the memory eraser?"

Mark Jung looked troubled, but Yeonwoo paid no attention.

"You saw the Artist Association President."

"Ah. So that's why the memory eraser. No wonder my chest aches."

Mark Jung grasped the situation and wore a complicated expression. He had forgotten the Association President, but the empty space left by forcibly erased memories ached with bitter pain.

The pain of losing your most precious memories. The pain of not even knowing what memories you've lost.

And he grew wary of Yeonwoo.

"It seems you didn't drink the memory eraser, Yeonwoo."

"That's right. Is that Association President mental contamination? I keep having thoughts of wanting to return to her."

"It's a bit lacking to call it just mental contamination, but that's roughly correct. Quickly drink the memory eraser."

Mark Jung pointed at the memory eraser bottle Yeonwoo had snatched, but Yeonwoo didn't even glance at it.

Instead he looked at the pistol loaded with ordinary bullets and thought.

'Mental contamination, huh.'

Even now he couldn't believe it. That she had manipulated his mind. But since it was a little safer not to believe, Yeonwoo twisted his thoughts.

'I don't feel like drinking the memory eraser. If it's really mental contamination, I should be able to break free given some time. Let's bury this for now.'

It felt a bit off to roll the dice. Because it felt like the result would come out in her favor, not his own.

Yeonwoo recalled her words.

'Come with me, she said. But she went alone. That promise is already broken. It's strange for me to go find her alone when she said to go together.'

And.

'Where would the Artist Association President be? She'd be at the Artist Association headquarters, right? Am I supposed to go there alone?'

He kept building psychological barriers. The Association President's influence sank lower.

Yeonwoo wore a refreshed expression. How to put it. It felt like shackles had been thrown off.

At that point, the situation began to change.

---

---

The hospital survivors were in the safe zone, and the ghosts glared at them from far away.

The survivors couldn't kill the ghosts, and the ghosts couldn't enter the safe zone, so they just spent time in a staring contest.

"Come out! You cowardly living bastards!"

"You come in here."

"...We don't necessarily have to deal with just them. There are many people here."

One ghost's eyes widened as if realizing something. That magic circle cunningly blocked the corridor leading to the stairs, but there were people on the lower floors too.

Just as the ghosts started showing ominous signs.

The afterlife fused with the hospital encroached on reality a bit more.

Company employees who had died in the hospital started reviving as ghosts. Combat personnel with horrific injuries, sickly researchers, investigators with pain-filled expressions.

They looked around in bewilderment, then blankly stared at their own translucent bodies.

"This is. I'm dead?"

"Two-dimensional fusion? Revived as an anomalous entity?"

At that moment, one combat personnel in the safe zone wore a shocked expression.

"Father?"

At that voice, a middle-aged man in combat gear turned his head. And said:

"I'm not your father. People end when they die. What's in front of you is an anomalous entity."

That cold voice. Just like his father in the combat personnel's memories.

And as the company employee ghosts grasped the situation, they looked at the malice-filled ghosts affected by the Association President.

"...This hospital has become an anomalous entity. Due to two-dimensional fusion. The afterlife seems to have crashed."

"Let's deal with these guys first. They clearly have a high hostility level."

"Since we've been revived as anomalous entities anyway, we should first establish a friendly relationship with the company. Let's work hard."

Their eyes flashed as they charged at the dazed ghosts. In an instant, the ghosts tangled and fought.

As people were taken aback, unexpectedly, an investigator ghost cursed with an exasperated expression.

"Work under the company even after death? Keep facing dangers? I choose eternal sleep!"

Pop-!

The investigator ghost burst. He fell into eternal sleep, free from both danger and work.

---

---

The war command centers of each group quickly recovered.

The company followed prepared procedures and drank memory erasers, with reserve personnel replacing the command.

"Track the fragment locations, and put satellite weapons, elite agents, and doomsday defense devices on standby."

"Anomalous entities affected by the Association President will go berserk."

"Contact the magicians! Tell them to prepare banishment magic or spatial movement! Throw the Red Giant or mind-pecking bird into another dimension!"

The magicians excitedly discussed.

"Where should we send the Red Giant?"

"That place, what was it. Muspelheim? Wouldn't it do well there?"

The Club's chairman regained his senses with a pre-prepared "insurance" and calmly said:

"Bring the gold."

"How much should we bring?"

To the secretary's question, the chairman coldly replied:

"Enough to fight the Artist Association President."

Danger Level 6 is the nuclear bomb of the anomalous world. It had struck the high-ranking officials watching the war. Even the Club, which tries to smooth things over, couldn't sit still on this one.

The company would be busy dealing with the accident, so shouldn't the Club at least warn the Association President?

5/5 Enjoy the chappy!

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