66 - Fairy Tale
Illustrations: None.
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Lee Yeonwoo stroked his chin for a moment, gathering his thoughts, then spoke slowly.
"I\'ve found a way. Now the question is how to act on it."
"Indeed. In my view, we need to gather as many people as possible. Not just domestically, but internationally too."
Tap- Tap- Tap-
Yeonwoo tapped the desk with his fingernail. Countless options swirled in his mind, from directly commanding through his connections to forming an alliance under his own name.
The safest path among them.Tap-!
His hand stopped. Yeonwoo\'s eyes gleamed as he looked at the director.
"Let\'s spread it worldwide under the Humanity Protection Company\'s name."
"Spread it? Using our company\'s name?"
The director faced Yeonwoo with a bewildered expression. He looked like he couldn\'t understand Yeonwoo\'s thinking. In more ways than one.
"It doesn\'t seem like a good idea. Your reputation would be at stake, and I doubt people would follow even if we publicize the solution."
"There will definitely be those who act."
People with excessive drive and decisiveness, like those in the Extermination Company or Management Company. Even if they\'re skeptical, they\'ll at least move to verify.
If they act, doubts will vanish, and they\'ll do everything to secure and destroy the anomaly list.
And as for the fame of being the one who found the solution to the climate crisis...
"I don\'t need honor, glory, or rewards. Living on a normal Earth is enough. So please keep my name a secret."
The director gazed at Yeonwoo with sunken eyes. Yeonwoo met that gaze, conveying sincere emotion with desperation.
\'It\'s dangerous. If I gain that kind of fame, I\'ll become the top target for doomsday cultists.\'
Restoring a doomed Earth? Would the doomsday cultists just stand by and watch?
The future shown by the Tree Person was vivid. The doomsday cultists\' attack that wiped out the final shelter. Yeonwoo didn\'t want to become the target of such monsters.
Yeonwoo intended to show the way without anyone knowing, and make others walk that path.
The director let out a sigh that could have been either admiration or resignation. He bowed his head politely.
"I\'ll do as you say."
"I\'ll give you a contact. He\'s the Manager of the First Response Division from the Management Company faction. Ask him to release the information."
A business card emerged from the bag. A card received directly from the First Response Division Manager during the previous terrorist incident.
The card slid across the desk, arriving in front of the director. He carefully tucked it into his wallet.
"Then I\'ll contact him right away. We\'ll try to persuade Boreas and Helios, or rather, the North Wind and Sun."
And that day.
The information was released. To everyone living in this strange world.
---
---
The solution, spread with all the might of the Intelligence Department.
Coupled with details on the climate anomalies and preservation plans, it was emailed to every company employee through the company intranet.
Through the company\'s official and unofficial networks, contact was made with every group and various members within those groups, continuously spreading the information.
"Could this be real...?"
A scrawny demon worshipper muttered, looking at his phone as he roamed the city shadows, seeking potential converts before the apocalypse.
Beside him, the Demon of Absurdity clutched its stomach, laughing until tears came.
"That bastard... I\'ve got to hand it to him! To think the predetermined apocalypse would be stopped so absurdly!"
"Lord Demon..."
"It\'s real."
"That\'s not it. Demon of Malthus[1]... Didn\'t this demon change its name too?"
The demon worshipper stared at his phone, trying to remember.
A demon presiding over inevitable limits and the resulting end.
In the past, when theories emerged that land and food production couldn\'t keep up with population growth, it used the name Demon of Malthus, but...
Now with climate anomalies approaching. He seemed to recall it changed its name to the Demon of Global Warming, or was it the Demon of Climate Anomalies?
The Demon of Absurdity cackled.
"Who cares? Let\'s catch it and turn it over to the company."
"But it\'s still a fellow demon..."
"I never liked that bastard anyway."
Ignoring the demon worshipper\'s somewhat uneasy expression, the Demon of Absurdity snapped its fingers in succession.
Snap, snap, snap!
"Summon the boring bastard. Knock him out. Tie him up."
Absurd reality engulfs Demon of Malthus.
A gloomy scholarly demon was suddenly summoned, immediately lost consciousness, and was promptly bound with severed electrical wires, sprawled out on the asphalt road. The Demon of Absurdity placed its foot on top of it.
"Kekekeke."
With that frivolous laughter in the background, the demon worshipper reluctantly dialed a number on his phone.
"Hello...? Is this the company? I want to report a demon... Our location is..."
Similar incidents occurred all over the world.
In a meeting room in the Vatican.
The saints gathered there discussed the company\'s message, then sighed.
One saint spoke.
"We must have misunderstood the revelation."
"Perhaps Satan used God\'s voice to tempt us. Anyway, things are returning to normal, so this must also be part of His plan."
One day, while praying, they simultaneously received a revelation:
- Human depravity has reached the heavens and turned the world into hell, so cleanse the Earth with a flood and establish a millennial kingdom with a new humanity as the sacrificial lamb.
- But taking pity on you, I open the door of salvation.
- On the day when 13 plagues befall the world, find my son and pierce him with a spear. Then the dead shall live in my kingdom, and the living shall ascend to meet me in heaven.
"Come to think of it... It was a theologically nonsensical revelation."
"Then we\'ll consider the salvation plan null and void. I\'ll return the Spear of Longinus to the holy relic repository."
The biblical plague that would trigger the great flood and turn countless Christians into non-humans disappeared at the planning stage.
And so, one by one, the anomalies were dealt with.
A wizard in a cabin.
"Master, look at this."
"What is it?"
The young disciple held out his phone screen and explained, gesturing excitedly. Climate anomalies and the anomaly list. Among them, Surtr\'s Sword that the master possessed.
The white-haired wizard quietly looked at the anomaly list, then shifted his gaze.
"So that\'s the problem?"
A red sword gathering dust in some corner. Surtr\'s Sword, once obtained while exploring Muspelheim.
"Yes. So, Master, it\'s not an important item to you, right? What if we move it to another dimension?"
"Very well."
The old wizard fumbled with his hands. He drew a magic circle with various powders and dyes.
Magic. A method of interacting with other dimensions.
The old wizard carelessly picked up Surtr\'s Sword and tossed it into the magic circle. The circle glowed, and Surtr\'s Sword vanished.
The disciple asked curiously.
"Where did you send it?"
"Tossed it in Asgard. Let\'s use this chance to clean up some trash."
The old wizard, seemingly uninterested, had his disciple throw useless odds and ends and garbage into the magic circle.
The Goldberg Club also took action.
On the top floor of a downtown skyscraper.
In front of a massive golden face sculpture, a man draped in custom-made luxury clothes from head to toe lifted a gold bar.
The gold bar entered the sculpture\'s mouth. It disappeared with a gulping sound.
The man spoke.
"Is this solution true?"
- Yes.
"Will the climate anomalies disappear?"
- Yes.
One gold bar for each question.
After finishing his inquiries, the man nodded. Then he called his secretary and ordered. Bring all the gold they had stockpiled.
Also, compile a list of anomalies from the anomaly list that the Goldberg Club could use to curry favor with the company.
He fiddled with his expensive watch.
"To make money and live well, the climate anomalies must go."
In the past, as soon as they noticed the climate anomalies and asked questions, they were told that it was beyond the Goldberg Club\'s capabilities to resolve.
So they focused all their efforts on building underground cities, but with the situation changing like this, their actions change as well.
Rattle-
Gold poured in endlessly. The man put all the gold into the sculpture\'s mouth while reading through the compiled list one by one.
A butterfly that causes typhoons with its wings. An anomaly difficult to locate.
"Please kill the Butterfly Effect."
- It\'s dead.
"Good. Next."
The golden omnipotence, granting wishes in exchange for gold, dealt with the anomalies one by one.
The company\'s activities also reached their peak.
Regardless of faction, night or day, land or sea, numerous special forces, intelligence agents, and investigators cooperated to secure, utilize, and destroy anomalies.
Each time, the climate anomalies receded a bit.
The rapid rise in temperature stopped. The weather that had been heading to extremes gradually returned, and severe natural disasters slowly disappeared.
---
---
And on an island surrounded by blue sea.
The storm that started at Yeonwoo\'s fingertips engulfed the Earth, and this island was no exception.
"..."
A bald man with a sturdy build stood on a cliff, gazing at the sea. A sea clearly visible. It shouldn\'t be this clear.
It should look hazy and blurry, like a drawing about to disappear at any moment, or a sketch that\'s been erased once.
The man twisted his face in anguish as he rolled the eraser in his grip back and forth.
"...The apocalypse is disappearing?"
A higher-up doomsday cultist. A wanted man who possessed the eraser and caused numerous terrorist attacks with it.
Having spent so much time with the eraser that he had half-merged with it, thus gaining a sense of apocalypse, he instinctively realized that the climate anomalies were disappearing.
"This won\'t do. This can\'t happen."
He whirled around to glare at the small mansion where he was staying, then lightly swept his hand.
The eraser passed through the air. The mansion in its path vanished as if it were a lie.
The doomsday cultist strode forward. To find the cause of the disappearing climate anomalies, and to erase that cause.
---
[1. raei: Malthus\' Demon changed to Demon of Malthus for naming consistency. Malthus btw, was an English economist and demographer best known for his theory on population growth. He argued that population growth tends to outpace the production of food and resources, leading to inevitable shortages and societal problems.
In case you were wondering why its name is such.]
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