WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The Police Do a Better Job Than Heroes

Chapter 46

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Even a Sparrow's Steps Are Steps (2)

Screech!

Detective Mierou's patrol car stopped in a street that ranked among the most luxurious on the outskirts of Light City.

"This way."

The crime scene was the top-floor penthouse of the most expensive-looking building on that already extravagant street. Whoever this businessman was, he'd clearly made a serious amount of money.

"..."

Riding the express elevator to the top floor, Detective Mierou kept busy wiping sweat with a handkerchief. His expression was half anxiety, half relief... and Kang Jin-ho didn't need to ask where the relief was coming from.

"..."

Honestly, I still don't have a clue what kind of case this is.

Kang Jin-ho, arms crossed, was quietly sorting through his thoughts. Some cases you could pin down the moment you heard the basic details. Others stayed frustratingly vague until you dug into the specifics. This one clearly belonged to the second kind.

Ding.

A moment later, the elevator doors opened and revealed the inside of the penthouse.

"...oof."

What greeted the group was a luxury display cabinet knocked over on the floor, an empty safe gaping wide open, and two heroes in front of it looking about ready to throw punches at each other.

"Hey, you idiot. Does what I'm saying not sound like actual words to you?"

"Words are what people say. Dogs bark. Do you answer when a dog barks?"

"You crazy son of a..."

Given the ferocious growling coming off the two heroes, the officers who'd arrived on scene earlier were all staring fixedly at the floor or the ceiling.

To be fair, when two ability users started fighting, what were ordinary people supposed to do about it? Just let it pass and hope for the best. Hard to blame them for that.

"Who's this?"

Eun-yeong nudged with her foot at a middle-aged man sprawled in the corner, drooling. Wait, why was there a drunk guy at a crime scene all of a sudden?

"Ah, that's the businessman, the owner of this place."

"Ahh~"

The businessman in question, the actual party involved in the case, was rolling around the floor with unfocused eyes, and taking the whole scene in, "chaos" felt like the only fitting word for it.

"That's enough, both of you!"

Detective Mierou stepped in between the two heroes.

"Who the hell are you?"

"The police can't just..."

Neither said it out loud, but their glares at Mierou practically screamed how dare a cop butt in. Then.

"I brought Officer Kang Jin-ho here. He'll mediate. So both of you, stop fighting."

"..."

"..."

The moment they confirmed it was Kang Jin-ho's face, both clicked their tongues and stepped back a pace.

Neither of these two heroes had attended the recent hero social, so neither had witnessed Kang Jin-ho's exploits firsthand. But the rumors had spread far enough that they'd at least heard the name and the reputation, and both knew that the A-rank hero Trace kept close to him.

"You're going to mediate for us?"

"Fine, whatever. Since some hotshot third party showed up, let's get a ruling on who's right."

The two of them backed off, folded their arms, and settled into position, and the fact that they'd retreated to opposite sides of the room said everything about the current situation.

"Um... do you both agree to let me be the judge here?"

"They say you're skilled."

"Better than this idiot, at least."

"Then I'll take that as a yes."

Kang Jin-ho shot a glance at one of the officers standing quietly in the corner.

"Before I make any judgment, shouldn't we get an accurate report on the scene first?"

At that, one of the officers stepped forward hesitantly. He'd been the first to respond, so he had the most information.

"R-right, I'll report then. Originally, we were dispatched to arrest this businessman and seize his assets. He had unpaid taxes, plus charges of illegal drug distribution, so we'd already secured a warrant."

The officer outranked Kang Jin-ho but addressed him with careful courtesy regardless.

"But when we opened the penthouse door and went in, the businessman was lying flat on his back in front of the entrance, passed out. We managed to wake him up, but he just looked around with a face completely lost, no idea what was happening."

"When you say lost, what do you mean?"

"After talking to him a bit more, it turned out he had no memory of it at all."

"Hm."

Something about it tugged at a memory, but it was hazy, hard to pin down.

Stroking his chin in thought, Kang Jin-ho's gaze shifted to the safe.

"Was that safe already in that state?"

"Yes, sir. It was already open like that when we arrived... which is strange, actually."

"What's strange about it?"

"It's a cutting-edge model. Requires triple biometric verification to open."

According to the officer's explanation, the safe boasted airtight security. It needed not just a password but fingerprint, retinal, and even vein pattern verification to unlock.

Physically breaking it open or hacking it wasn't impossible, but it would take a long time and normally leave plenty of traces. But this safe looked like it had simply been opened clean, no traces left behind at all.

"On top of that, this penthouse itself has a high security rating. For privacy, the only CCTV is at the entrance, but there are plenty of private security guards around the building, and it's a busy district with eyes everywhere. Sneaking in here undetected is basically impossible on its own, but to sneak in, empty the safe, and get out without anyone noticing..."

Just as the officer finished his explanation and let out a deep sigh.

"My money!!!"

The businessman, who'd been lying quietly collapsed in the corner, suddenly sprang up like a coiled spring and screamed.

"That safe had ten billion won worth of assets in it!!! I was going to use that money to pay off my taxes...! Ugh!"

Unable to contain his fury, he thrashed around wildly, then suddenly clutched his throat, choked, and collapsed with a thud. Just from the reaction, it was impossible to even gauge how furious he really was.

As everyone stared down at the spectacle for a moment.

"Did you all see that?"

The one who broke the silence was one of the heroes. A man in thick glasses. Mind Reader.

"Does anyone here think that looked like a normal state to be in?"

"..."

"No one, right? Overwhelming emotion, clouded reason, nothing left but pure instinct. Textbook symptoms of post-brainwashing aftereffects."

Mind Reader swept a finger through the foam dripping from the businessman's mouth and held it up for everyone to see.

"I see into the human heart. More precisely, I see emotion, and from that I can extract derived information. Right now, this man's mind carries a scar left behind by a mental-type ability, clear as day."

"So you're saying, Mind Reader..."

"Yes. I'm convinced this is the work of a brainwashing-type ability user."

Mind Reader wiped the foam off his hand onto the open safe.

"Doesn't it strike you as strange that the culprit even managed to infiltrate this place? Opening that ironclad safe in a location this heavily guarded, and nobody noticed until the police showed up to arrest him for something else entirely?"

"That does seem like a stretch."

"But if it was the man himself, it's possible. If the brainwashed victim walked into his own home, opened the door, cracked the safe, and handed over the contents himself... that's a perfectly viable scenario..."

"That's a stupid theory."

Before Mind Reader could even finish, the woman standing behind him with her arms crossed, Afterimage, cut in with a scoff.

"Emotion, emotion, that's all you ever talk about. Of course you end up with garbage deductions when you rely on something you can't even see."

"What did you say?"

Ignoring Mind Reader's outrage, Afterimage strode forward on long legs and tapped the safe.

"I can analyze the traces left on objects. The depth of a footprint, the path a fingertip traveled, even how long it took to crack this safe open."

If you had to compare, Afterimage had an ability similar to Trace's.

"So tell me, have you ever actually watched how a brainwashed person moves? A body that's had its will stolen, being puppeted by someone else, might look fine at a glance, but in the finer details it moves stiff and unnatural. But the marks left on this safe's dial are too... natural. There's none of that characteristic stiffness you get from someone brainwashed."

"Maybe that's just because the brainwashing was high level."

"Sure, sure. That could be true. But hear me out to the end."

Afterimage walked over and stopped in front of the collapsed businessman.

"Putting together all the traces left in this room, here's the timeline. Someone came into the penthouse, opened the safe, and took the contents. This someone has a build and physique very similar to the businessman's."

"So that means brainwash..."

"But this person, whoever broke in, deliberately trashed the scene. See that shattered cabinet over there? The scattered items?"

"...you're saying those weren't already broken?"

"Probably staged to make it look like a robbery. If this businessman really was a puppet under mind control like you claim, would he have been capable of leaving marks like that? I don't think so."

At Afterimage's pointed remark, a muscle twitched in Mind Reader's brow.

"That trace of a mental-type ability you claim to have seen? That's probably the residue of an interrogation, used to extract the password. Here's my theory. A villain with a shapeshifting ability kidnapped the businessman, transformed to look like him, and infiltrated the penthouse. A high-level shapeshifter could replicate biometric data well enough to open the safe."

"...but a shapeshifter that skilled is extremely rare. How many people out there can copy not just fingerprints but retinal patterns and vein patterns too?"

Mind Reader pushed up his glasses and shot back.

"Besides, there's a contradiction in your theory. Why would someone capable of perfectly bypassing biometric security bother trashing the room to fake a robbery?"

"That's..."

"It makes a lot more sense if the mind control was starting to break down and triggered erratic behavior. Doesn't it? And more than anything."

Mind Reader pointed a finger at the collapsed businessman.

"This man's subconscious is filled with nothing but loss, grievance, and rage over his entire fortune vanishing. If, like you're saying, he was interrogated to extract the password, there should be at least some trace of fear or pain left behind, right? But there's none of that. Not a trace."

"...you son of a..."

"...what did you just say?"

Both sides had reasonable grounds for their arguments. The two heroes closed in on each other again, ready to grab collars and fight.

"Excuse me, could you both pause for a moment?"

Kang Jin-ho, who'd been listening quietly, suddenly cut in. Having heard this much, he'd finally remembered what kind of case this was.

"Fine, then. Who do you think is right?"

"Tell us quickly."

Pressed close together, the two heroes growled, demanding an answer.

Kang Jin-ho let out a sigh and answered.

"You're both right, and you're both wrong."

"..."

"..."

Both heroes fell silent, dumbfounded, and looked at each other.

What...

What in the world was that supposed to mean?

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