The Police Do a Better Job than Heroes - Chapter 10

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ The Police Do a Better Job Than Heroes

Chapter 10

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Get Famous First. (4)

The luxury sedan had gone quiet, quiet enough that even the driver's and Officer Ahn Seong-sil's swallowing sounded loud.

Kang Jin-ho straightened in his seat, laced his fingers together in front of his mouth, and began.

"First, let me ask you something. What is a transaction?"

"Are you trying to play riddle games with me right now?"

"No, I'm starting from the fundamentals."

"..."

Normally Trace wouldn't have had the patience to indulge something like this, but the sheer weight he was putting behind it made her think there had to be a reason. She sighed and answered.

"A transaction is an exchange, both sides giving and receiving something. In this case, money and drugs changed hands."

"Right. That's the key point. If a transaction happened, then drugs must have changed hands."

"Do I look stupid to you?"

Trace's face twisted with irritation.

"I know how drug trafficking organizations operate! Dropping a plastic bag in a flowerbed and walking off, leaving something in a subway locker to pick up later, you think I don't know that?"

"Hm."

"I went over that subway station carefully, again and again, that day! And there was nothing suspicious!"

"Is there some rule that a drug organization has to make its exchange look 'suspicious'?"

But Kang Jin-ho didn't flinch. If anything, he tilted his head to one side, at ease, and pushed the question back at her.

"Tell me. At that subway station, at noon, what were the plain, ordinary exchanges of goods that took place?"

"...All of them?"

"Yes. All of them."

"Ugh."

Trace clenched her jaw like she was already sick of this.

"People buying things at the convenience store. A homeless person stealing an entire roll of toilet paper from the restroom. A woman handing out wet wipes near the exit. A bakery selling bread. Someone trading handmade goods secondhand across the turnstile. Someone buying coffee at the takeout café. Someone getting a can from a vending machine. A signature drive booth handing out badges. And friends meeting up and passing each other shopping bags."

She rattled off the long list of "transactions" she'd confirmed in the past, one after another, sharp and fast. Her mind was quick and her memory was excellent, so she never stumbled once.

"Do you honestly think a drug deal could've happened in the middle of all that? You think they hid drugs in flyers or in some street snack? It was all just ordinary people going about an ordinary day. I checked every single one of them with my own two eyes."

Trace trusted her eyes. If even she, who could watch the past with perfect clarity, hadn't caught it, then what could some regular cop who hadn't even looked yet possibly know?

Despite Trace's sharp tone, Kang Jin-ho stayed calm. No, more than calm, inside he was practically cheering. Sometimes in the game, Trace worked out the answer on her own. But this Trace, right now, clearly had no idea what the answer was.

"Did you check the street snack, like you mentioned? There could've been drugs hidden inside."

"...Ha. Yes, I checked. I reached into the past and tore one open myself, checked the inside."

"I see. Then I'm now certain what method the criminal organization used."

"?!"

"What?"

At Kang Jin-ho's confident tone, not just Trace but the driver and Ahn Seong-sil, who'd been quietly listening, all jerked in surprise. There was a way to identify the culprit in that?

"But before I get to that, I'd like to ask about the specifics of your ability, Trace-nim."

Kang Jin-ho crossed his legs slowly and asked.

"My ability?"

"I mean I'd like to compare what I've heard about you online with what your ability actually does."

"...If that's what you want."

Trace hesitated a moment, then answered quietly.

"I can personally experience any moment in any space I choose. I can fast forward or rewind time, and the space itself is reconstructed to be exactly identical to that past moment."

"Truly identical?"

"...What do you mean by that?"

"Is it truly, 'perfectly' identical to reality?"

"Officer. What I see is a record of the space itself. Are you questioning my ability right now?"

"No, I'm not questioning it. But what about taste and smell? Can those be reproduced too?"

"...!!!"

Trace's eyes trembled slightly. Kang Jin-ho had hit precisely on the thing she'd been hiding, and it left her rattled.

"Am I right? Sight, touch, and hearing can be perfectly reproduced within the space... but smell and taste can't be synchronized."

"...How did you know that?"

"Because syncing all five senses is close to impossible, even among information-type abilities. I just pointed out a structural limitation of the power itself."

Kang Jin-ho had seen countless superpower users in HiCiSi. Which meant he knew the traits and limits of information-type abilities extremely well.

An ability strong enough to reproduce sight, hearing, and touch would almost certainly stop short of reproducing smell and taste, he'd figured.

"And I think the drug organization knew about your limitation too, Trace-nim."

"...No way."

"One of the ordinary transactions you listed earlier. 'Someone buying coffee at the takeout café.'"

Kang Jin-ho leaned back into his seat and finally delivered the answer.

"There should be a large-size item on the menu there. Something over a liter. Did anyone buy that?"

"...A few people bought one liter bottles of 'cold brew concentrate.'"

Ahn Seong-sil's eyes slowly widened, and the driver, who'd been silently gripping the wheel, glanced at Kang Jin-ho through the rearview mirror.

He hadn't even seen the past himself, and yet he could name the exact detail?

"You probably opened one and checked, too. Inside was a dark liquid sloshing around, so you assumed it was just a normal product."

"That's right."

"But if you'd been able to smell it, the moment you opened that bottle you would've been hit with a foul chemical stench. My guess is they mixed black food coloring into the liquid drug. Any other color would clash with the drug's natural tint and look strange, but black covers everything, no risk there."

"Ah..."

"Since it's cold brew concentrate, it's not strange that no one drinks or tastes it on the spot, people usually take it home and dilute it. A lot of concentrates have a thick, syrupy texture too, close enough to a viscous drug that there's no real difference."

Kang Jin-ho finished, firm and certain.

"I don't know whether the café worker was in on it or just handed over the concentrate without knowing a thing. But the buyers definitely knew it was drugs. It's a clever trick that exploits the fact you can't perceive taste or smell, Trace-nim. Why not track down the buyers?"

There was no hard evidence. No airtight logic.

But Trace could tell, on instinct alone. This was the answer. This was the truth. If there was a solution to the problem that had been eating at her for a week, this had to be it.

Honestly, at first she'd suspected him. How does he know my ability? Are these guesses of his really pure insight? Was he secretly a superpower user himself, hiding his ability while working as a cop?

Now she had to admit it. That terrifying instinct. That confidence that left no room for being wrong. Trace had thought she was the best there was when it came to intuition, but what Kang Jin-ho had just shown her overwhelmed her completely, without even trying hard.

Trace's whole job was chasing people down. She prided herself on reading people.

That man was a gem. A genius. She couldn't let him slip away.

Could someone become a hero's assistant right after quitting the police? There was a lot to look into once she got back.

"...That's insane, seriously."

Meanwhile, Officer Ahn Seong-sil muttered under his breath, sucking in a startled breath without meaning to. He'd only ever heard people call Kang Jin-ho a genius in passing, but seeing him nail the truth like that, right in front of his eyes, it didn't even feel real.

"For now..."

Trace said, her head bowed low.

"For now... I'll have you sent back to the station. I'll reach out again later."

"Of course."

Kang Jin-ho answered evenly, but inside, he was cheering.

-Case resolved. Karma decreased by 1000.

Probably because it was such a big case, his karma dropped by a full 1000 in one shot this time.

This case was only the beginning.

Now, if Trace spread word of him among the heroes around her, and other heroes started showing up asking for his help, and if he even landed a commendation from the top brass at the police department...

Might actually be able to pay off this karma soon?

Just as he'd finally gotten his hands on the fame he'd wanted so badly, the young-and-rich life felt one step closer.

Not much longer to suffer through now!

One week later.

-Amid growing signs of clashes between the Black Faction and the Axe Faction...

"Jin-ho, can you shred some paper for me?"

"...Yes, ma'am."

With the TV playing in the background, Kang Jin-ho fed sheets into the shredder.

Contrary to all the expectations he'd had, he hadn't gotten famous at all.

Why? Why not? Trace was supposed to spread word that there was a strange, gifted cop out there, and other heroes who heard the rumor were supposed to come flocking. So why was he still standing here running paper through a shredder?

Kang Jin-ho hated this situation more than he could say, but he couldn't exactly go around complaining about it either.

"Jin-ho, sounds like you had fun hanging out with that hero?"

"Not at all!"

"What do you mean, not at all. I heard everything from Officer Ahn. You really put on a show, huh? Aren't you going to end up working as a hero eventually?"

"Not at all, ma'am! Being with you, sunbae-nim, is the best thing there is!"

"Yeah? Right~ You'd rather keep working as a police officer with me, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, exactly!!!"

Ever since he'd come back from that outing at Trace's request, Park Eun-yeong's attitude had shifted in a way he couldn't quite place.

Before, Park Eun-yeong had acted like a cat batting at a new toy from a distance. Now she'd gotten strangely kinder... and strangely more terrifying.

"Ha ha, you two get along well today too."

"He's a hardworking junior, gotta look out for him, right? Hehe."

"Right, sure. Keep up the good work!"

Right after Precinct Chief Raphael passed by, coffee mug in hand, Park Eun-yeong spoke, her smile never wavering.

"Jin-ho, want to go on patrol with me?"

"Huh, patrol, that's kind of sudden..."

"Let's go."