The Police Do a Better Job than Heroes - Chapter 67

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 67: Fame Is Often Exaggerated (4)

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Inside South District 4, Kang Jin-ho and Jeong Do-man entered a pleasant-looking apartment.

"Honey, the officers are here. Say hello."

"...Ah, yes. Hello."

The husband had been sitting blankly on the living room sofa, but he rose to greet them. He was said to have applied for leave and been resting at home after his condition started becoming strange.

"Thank you for coming all this way. You're here because of my condition, right?"

"That's right."

"Ha ha, this is... Someone as famous as you coming all this way because of me."

The husband... looked perfectly fine. His complexion was healthy, he spoke clearly, and his eyes were focused. He looked like any ordinary middle-aged man.

"Ahem. I'll begin the official recording. I'm Officer Kang Jin-ho. Could you state your name?"

"Yes, I'm..."

The husband, who had been about to answer with that same normal expression, suddenly froze with his mouth open.

"I'm..."

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

"...Kim Seong-jae. I'm Kim Seong-jae."

Could taking three seconds to answer when asked your own name possibly be normal in this day and age? Even elderly people with dementia often remembered their own names.

"..."

Kang Jin-ho's face hardened as he grasped the situation. Seeing that from the corner of his eye, Do-man realized how serious it was and began firing off questions.

"I'm Officer Jeong Do-man. Mr. Kim Seong-jae, has anything unusual happened recently in connection with places you've been or people you've met?"

"Well... I don't think so. I go to work, then come home. That's all."

"Any physical symptoms? Dizziness, perhaps, or being pricked by something?"

"None of that. I'm perfectly healthy."

"Even something minor is fine. Has anything happened that was different from your usual routine?"

"...I'm not sure."

"Understood."

After organizing the testimony he had gathered, Do-man naturally pulled out his notebook and looked at Kang Jin-ho expectantly. Given how things usually went, this was the point where Kang Jin-ho would launch into some brilliant deduction.

"..."

Kang Jin-ho, on the other hand, had been deep in thought with a grim expression the whole time.

'This is bad.'

Seeing it in person made him realize it. This was Body Snatcher's work.

After making that emergency escape not long ago, Body Snatcher must have run out of money and burned through too much influence, leaving it cornered. To use its last resort now, on such a massive scale...

"Senior?"

"Give me a moment."

Kang Jin-ho held up a palm to Do-man as he organized his thoughts.

First, this was one of Body Snatcher's rituals.

Body Snatcher's ability was to steal another person's body. A ritual had to come first. Usually, the ritual put the other person's sense of self to sleep, then Body Snatcher took over the vacant body.

But the ritual Body Snatcher was conducting now stole the sense of self itself. Losing one's sense of self didn't kill a person or suddenly make them act strange. It only made them gradually unfamiliar to themselves. Naturally, hospitals couldn't find anything wrong. There really was nothing physically wrong with them.

Body Snatcher usually did one of two things with the selves it collected. It either used them as ritual materials to steal the body of a powerful hero or used them to strengthen its current body.

There was a reason Kang Jin-ho remembered Body Snatcher's rituals so vividly. In the early days of playing HiCiSi, Body Snatcher had been the bastard responsible for causing an abrupt game over.

Once the body of a hero he had raised by pouring the city's resources into them was stolen, there was no coming back from it. The balance between heroes and villains would collapse. Order could only be maintained when those protecting it were far stronger. The moment the two sides reached similar strength, things turned into a struggle.

'...But something is strange.'

The problem was that Kang Jin-ho had never seen anything like this, even in the game.

Using a ritual on ordinary people was plausible enough. But considering that three victims had appeared in Kang Jin-ho's precinct alone... the ritual itself had to be enormous in scale.

HiCiSi's Body Snatcher had never conducted such an obvious large-scale ritual. Body Snatcher had restrained itself despite having the power to do so, but now it was suddenly moving this aggressively? Why? Had using the escape ritual dealt it such a heavy blow?

"...Do-man."

"Yes, Senior."

Kang Jin-ho cleared his throat, then briefly explained what he had figured out. It appeared to be Body Snatcher's method, a ritual that gradually stole people's selves. He explained why the victims appeared normal and why hospitals could find nothing wrong with them.

"Th-there's an ability like that..."

Do-man was about to hurriedly scribble something in his notebook, but suddenly stopped.

"But Senior, what do you think Body Snatcher's goal is? Why would it push itself this hard to perform a ritual like this?"

"Most likely... it wants to steal the body of a powerful hero. At least an S-rank."

"Could it be targeting your body instead of a powerful hero's? I heard it held a grudge against you after the party at the Gallon estate."

"...Hmm."

Kang Jin-ho had been about to argue that made no sense, but he soon admitted Do-man's opinion was plausible.

Who was the most prominent information-type ability user in Light City right now? Who had captured a 2-rank villain despite not being fully awakened, driven off a 1-rank villain, and become buddy-buddy with a 1-rank hero? What officer had even caught the attention of the number one-ranked hero?

Of course, Kang Jin-ho was only an ordinary person who knew a few things and had become a bit tougher... but he was the only one who knew that truth. To Body Snatcher, he would look exactly like a prospective hero with a ridiculously powerful ability.

'And that bastard said it'd come for me soon.'

Something clicked into place in his mind. Then he considered what would happen if his body really was stolen.

What if HiCiSi's knowledge fell into Body Snatcher's hands? What if it used that information for evil?

That would be a problem. A very, very big problem.

'...The problem is how to catch it.'

Kang Jin-ho rubbed his chin with his right hand.

Catch it alone? Body Snatcher was a 1-rank villain. It had used an escape ritual, so it was probably inside its real body now, but Kang Jin-ho couldn't handle it by himself.

Ask Eun-yeong for help? She had disappeared somewhere.

Call in heroes for an arrest operation? Catching Body Snatcher itself would be difficult. Tienrang's sense of smell was only useful when he was nearby. How long would it take to search the entire city by sniffing his way around? This city had the highest population density in the world.

If they wanted to arrest it, finding it first was impossible. They would only have a chance if Body Snatcher revealed itself first.

"A trap..."

In the end, they had to set a trap.

But to set a trap, they needed bait. The bait had to be something it would want, and what it wanted was...

'Hm?'

The moment that thought reached its conclusion, Kang Jin-ho snapped his fingers and shot to his feet.

A perfect plan had come to him. If it worked, they could finish Body Snatcher for good and prevent the serious damage that would follow.

How much time was left? About... four days, maybe? That would be enough.

"Heh heh..."

"S-Senior?"

Do-man swallowed as he watched the corners of Kang Jin-ho's mouth rise.

"Listen carefully, Do-man. From now on, we're going to..."

"Yes!"

"Do nothing."

"...Pardon?"

Do-man was practically a follower of the Church of Kang Jin-ho, but even he could only scratch his head as though he had misheard.

"...Is that really okay?"

"Yeah."

In fact, they had to do nothing.

* * *

A space whose location was impossible to determine. A woman in a white dress walked through a space so strange it was hard to believe it existed somewhere in this city.

Tap, tap.

It was Eun-yeong. For some reason, footsteps echoed where there was nothing even resembling a floor. Then she stopped at a certain point.

Whiiir.

Space flipped over, and someone emerged from the gap.

An old man wearing a filthy, tattered hood. Nothing but darkness could be seen beneath it.

Hermit.

A living abyss said to have existed from the moment superpowers were born into this world. He stood motionless, silently staring at Eun-yeong.

"It's been a long time."

Eun-yeong greeted him first.

"You moved, didn't you? I felt it."

"..."

"It's been years, hasn't it? Why did you move?"