WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The Police Do a Better Job Than Heroes

Chapter 1

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Becoming a Rookie Officer (1)

There was a game called Hero City Simulator, commonly known as HiCiSi. Like most city management games, the goal was to build a city and run it well enough to develop it further, but it had one key difference from the usual fare: the setting wasn't a normal city. It was a city where heroes and villains existed.

Heroes who wanted to protect everyone. Villains who wanted to kill everyone. And standing between them, the player, tasked with managing the city.

Hero City Simulator picked up a decent following thanks to its distinctive concept and engaging gameplay, and it had enough depth to keep some users grinding away for thousands of hours.

-Case solved!

-Public order improves by 5.

-Approval rating rises by 5.

-Affinity with hero 'Devil Finger' rises by 5.

"That do it?"

Kang Jin-ho was a veteran of this game. Sure, there were people who'd racked up more raw playtime, but if you wanted to name the single most eccentric player, it was hands down Kang Jin-ho.

He'd turned the city into a hero-ruled utopia once. Handed the whole thing over to villains another time. Balanced the two sides on a knife's edge to keep things in a stalemate. There wasn't a playstyle he hadn't tried.

Of all of them, Kang Jin-ho's favorite concept was "hero faction stronger, but the villain faction still alive." When the villains had the edge, they just swallowed the city by brute force. But when the heroes were stronger, the villains had to get clever. Charge in head-on and they'd get crushed, so instead they committed crimes designed not to get caught.

"Investigating what these guys pull off, that's the fun part."

As far as Kang Jin-ho was concerned, this mystery-solving element was the crown jewel of Hero City Simulator. Criminals used their powers to commit crimes, and the player only got rewarded by investigating and successfully catching the culprit.

Piecing together the real perpetrator from a tiny clue left at the scene, a recurring pattern in the crimes, witness testimony that kept shifting by the minute, the whole process had an immersive pull that rivaled a proper detective game. Sure, with superpowers thrown into the mix, plenty of the cases got pretty contrived. But for those, you could just memorize the answer and move on.

Still, after clocking thousands of hours treating HiCiSi as a detective-game simulator, one question naturally started to nag at him.

"...why do the police even exist in this thing?"

Hero City had police stations too. They were even designated mandatory buildings, required in every district, and Kang Jin-ho had always wondered why this "police station" thing existed at all.

Heroes caught villains with fearsome powers. Heroes caught ordinary criminals too. When there was an accident with casualties, heroes were first on scene. Heroes even tried to handle small stuff like traffic control or minor offense crackdowns, because it helped build the "down-to-earth, approachable hero" image.

The police? They just sat there. The one properly police-like thing they did was nab the occasional petty thief. Sending drunks home at night, giving directions to lost seniors, that was the bulk of the job. Oh, and rescuing cats stuck up trees. Can't forget that one.

Honestly, from the police's own perspective, it might feel unfair. There were superhumans out there who could fly, teleport across the city instantly. Did an ordinary human officer really need to show up for anything?

Investigations? A superpowered criminal commits a crime, and how exactly is a regular cop supposed to investigate that? Better to dispatch a superpowered investigator to gather clues.

In the early game, the police at least served to take citizen reports and call in heroes, but once the city got upgraded, that function got taken over by "Hero HQ."

Once the Hero HQ upgrade finished, the police just... didn't do much of anything. Ate up the budget. And for reference, their upkeep cost was even higher than a normal city building's, while installing them was mandatory.

-why does the police even exist lol

-useless as hell fr;;

Naturally, players despised the police for sucking up money without doing anything useful, and on the game's forums, "the police" had basically become a running joke.

Theories floated around: the developer had a grudge against cops, it was a leftover from when the game was meant to be a normal city simulator, it was some kind of difficulty-balancing mechanism. None of them were ever confirmed.

If HiCiSi had been real, the police might have had some actual purpose, but as a game, those minor roles just weren't needed...

Well, as far as Kang Jin-ho was concerned, there was exactly one thing he was sure of.

"Ahh, feels like such a waste of money on these guys."

In a city with heroes and villains, the police were basically useless.

*****

"So for the detailed rundown, ask your training officer... rookie?"

"Huh?"

"...what's wrong with you?"

"That, no... yes?"

"...hah."

Precinct Chief Raphael let out a deep sigh, watching his rookie suddenly gape like an idiot. This rookie had apparently been some kind of famous genius at the police academy, which was why he was conducting the interview in person, but the behavior on display right now was more than a little off.

"Rookie. This place is a lot better than you think. Whatever you heard on the outside, it's all wrong, you know?"

When a rookie officer got assigned to Light City, the reaction usually fell into one of two categories.

Either they came in with high hopes and got crushed by reality, or they clawed desperately for a transfer somewhere else. This rookie, apparently, was the latter type. Judging by how deliberately he was playing dumb.

"Heroes and villains fighting? I'll be straight with you. Yeah. They fight every single day. Bad public order? Also true. This place is crawling with absolute scumbags. Coffee? Green tea?"

Precinct Chief Raphael said this while mixing a cup of instant coffee and setting it down in front of the rookie.

"But that's, uh, that's the city center's problem. We're out in the boonies here. This place is basically no different from any other precinct. We hold onto lost items. We send drunks home. Someone complains about noisy upstairs neighbors, we go say a word. Villains? They barely ever show up out here, and even if one did, what would we even do about it? That's all hero business."

"..."

Precinct Chief Raphael flashed a grin, trying to win the rookie over.

"Sure, there's the occasional small-time crook, but that much comes with the badge, right? So drink up, calm down. There's no reassignment coming for you, rookie. Got it?"

"Yes sir..."

Kang Jin-ho, the rookie, nodded mechanically, but inside he still hadn't caught up with what was happening. He'd definitely been playing his game after work and fallen asleep, hadn't he? He could still feel the soft microfiber pajamas, the warmth of the blanket, clear as day.

But at some point he'd come to and found himself in a police uniform, and standing in front of him, grinning, was a hulking black officer.

A dream? But it felt too vivid to be a dream. Reality, then? That was strange too.

The black officer staring him down right now had horns growing out of his head. A pair of them, large and hard-looking.

A demon? A monster? Before either thought could land, one phrase cut through Kang Jin-ho's game-addled brain first: Hero City Simulator. Among the superpowered characters in that game, it wasn't unusual for their abilities to manifest visibly like that.

If that was the case, then this place was... inside the game? He glanced down and saw a nameplate on his chest, an officer's insignia next to the name "Kang Jin-ho."

No way. Seriously? Kang Jin-ho opened his mouth to clear up his doubts.

"Um... where is this, exactly...?"

"Huh? Ah."

The precinct chief blinked, puzzled for a second, then nodded with a playful grin, as if he'd figured out what the question meant.

"This is East Precinct 7 of the Light City Eastern Police District. Make sure you remember that from now on, okay? Oh, hold on. Hello?"

"Uh..."

Left behind mid-sentence as the precinct chief took a call, Kang Jin-ho stood there with his mouth hanging open.

Light City. That was undeniably the name of the city Kang Jin-ho had built in Hero City Simulator. He'd poured effort into making it big, given it enough backstory details that it was practically a labor of love.

Light City. Heroes and villains. That pair of massive horns right in front of him.

His reason screamed that this was inside the game he'd been playing, but his heart hadn't caught up yet. Maybe it was refusing to catch up on purpose.

Fine, getting pulled into the game, he could accept that. But not a hero, not a villain, what? A police officer? Him? Why?

"Your training officer's coming up now, apparently. I'll introduce you."

"Uh, hold on."

Time out. Time out. He wasn't ready to accept the situation yet, if someone could just give him a little time to adjust...

Knock knock.

Whether or not Kang Jin-ho was screaming internally, Precinct Chief Raphael got up from his seat at the sound of the knock.

"Ohh, come in, come in."

A moment later, the door opened and a woman with black hair stepped into the room.

Pale white skin. Eyes of a mysterious crimson tone. Hair pulled back into a neat bun.

"This is Officer Park, the number one beauty of our precinct. Say hi. And this here's our rookie. Officer Kang Jin-ho."

"Nice to meet you. Looking forward to working with you."

The woman offered the greeting with a bright smile, and her nameplate read "Park Eun-yeong." A direct training officer with looks so absurd she might've stepped straight out of a TV drama. Any ordinary man would've been bowing to his ancestors on the spot, swearing to devote his life to the police force.

"..."

Kang Jin-ho just stood there frozen, staring at her with a distinctly uneasy expression.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just..."

If this place really was inside the game. If this really was the "Light City" that Kang Jin-ho himself had built. Then the woman just introduced to him as his training officer was, almost certainly.

'...isn't she a villain?'

Because she was, without a doubt, the strongest villain in this entire city.

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