WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The Police Do a Better Job Than Heroes

Chapter 8

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Get Famous First. (2)

It wasn't just Light City. Around the world, superpower crimes had low arrest rates. Minor cases even more so.

If someone used their ability with enough finesse, no real evidence remained at all, and even when evidence did survive, proving that the criminal themselves had used it was next to impossible.

Of course, calling in a hero with the ability to "tell lies from truth" or "read minds" made catching a superpowered criminal possible... but abilities like that were astronomically rare, and their price tags climbed into the stratosphere to match.

There were already several superpower crimes happening every single day. Calling in an information-type hero for each and every one wasn't remotely realistic.

So among Light City's superpowered population, a saying had taken root, one that wasn't quite a proverb but might as well have been.

"So you're saying I've been keeping the girl upstairs from sleeping?"

"Yes."

"Nope."

If you'd done something that might land you in trouble, deny it flat out. Nothing would come of it.

"Would you mind if I took a quick look inside?"

"Whoa, don't come in. I never said you could come inside. You got a warrant? No, right?"

Police couldn't force their way into a private citizen's home without evidence. That held true even for superpowered suspects. The man downstairs clearly knew the relevant procedures in some detail, and looked ready to hold the door only halfway open and stonewall indefinitely.

"Yeah, I'm a telepath, that's true. Here, I've got my registered ability license and everything. But me, tormenting the kid upstairs? I never did anything like that."

"Hmm."

Officer Park Eun-yeong glared at the man's shameless face for a moment, then turned and whispered to Kang Jin-ho.

"This is a problem. Like he said, we can't get inside without a warrant. What should we do?"

"Hmm."

Kang Jin-ho hadn't expected things to go this way either. In the game, he'd had access to all sorts of heroes and had gone through the man's apartment down to the color of his underwear, so he knew for a fact that solid evidence was sitting inside.

I've never actually seen the place. How am I supposed to say there's evidence in there?

No matter how much of a genius he was pretending to be, how could he possibly claim to know evidence existed in a home he'd never set foot in?

Kang Jin-ho wanted to come across as an interesting genius, not a prophet or a psychic. If he built that kind of image now, there'd be no recovering once people found out he had no powers at all.

"Hm, well, let's see..."

He racked his brain, but no good answer surfaced. Heroes carried a certain degree of legal immunity, so forcing entry wouldn't hurt them much. Police officers, on the other hand, still had their hands tied.

"Heh. Stuck, are you?"

Eun-yeong had been quietly watching Kang Jin-ho think. Suddenly she stretched out a hand and wiggled her fingers, like she was rummaging through something invisible. Shadows behind the man's back stirred to life, busy and quick, and carried something toward the front door.

"Looks like you don't have a warrant, so I'm not cooperating with this investigation. So if you'll excuse..."

There was a soft clatter.

Cutting the man off mid-sentence, a cylindrical object rolled out through the gap in the door. Park Eun-yeong bent down and picked up the small ampoule lying on the floor.

"What's this? Looks like an illegal mana amplifier... why would something like this be rolling around in the hallway?"

"Uh, huh?"

"Oh my, you were carrying illegal drugs? I'm placing you under emergency arrest for possession of a controlled substance."

"That, uh, this, why, here."

"You'd know better than me. I'm cuffing you, don't resist. Jin-ho, go inside and search the place."

"Yes, ma'am!"

A moment ago, Kang Jin-ho had watched the shadows quietly bring the mana amplifier over.

But instead of mentioning that, he decided to focus wholeheartedly on searching the criminal's apartment. There was an old saying about overlooking the mistakes of crazy people and superiors. And what about the mistakes of a crazy superior? Best to erase it from memory entirely.

"Let's start here."

"Whoa, hold on, that's..."

Kang Jin-ho gave his own cheek a couple of light slaps, then wandered through the man's apartment as naturally as if it were his own bedroom.

"What's this? 'How to Educate the Neighbors Upstairs,' 'Mosquito Wing Flapping, 10 Hours,' 'Dentist Drill Sounds,' 'Chalkboard Scratching'... why do you have all this downloaded?"

"How did you even get my computer password... and that stuff, the algorithm recommended it, I downloaded it by accident."

"What about this diary here? Wednesday. The kid upstairs is finally starting to lose it, looks like. Nice."

"That was hidden under my bed, how did you..."

"Every single mana amplifier use was in the evening, huh? Guess you had some real need to use your ability specifically at night."

"That, no. How do you know that?"

"I have my methods."

While the man's true colors kept surfacing, Kang Jin-ho clicked his tongue.

"Wow."

Still holding the man restrained, Park Eun-yeong wore a mischievous grin, watching Kang Jin-ho.

"Our Jin-ho. You're really something. This is your first time in this apartment, isn't it? How'd you find all this stuff so fast?"

"Ah, ha ha... criminals' patterns tend to all look the same, don't they?"

"And modest on top of it? How strange. Where did a rookie like this just fall out of nowhere? Did you drop out of the sky or something... fascinating."

"...Thank you!"

He'd clearly just been praised, but a cold sweat ran down Kang Jin-ho's spine for some reason. Was it fine to keep going with this image? He still needed to earn karma, after all. This was the right call.

Forcing himself to look away from Eun-yeong's gaze, Kang Jin-ho drove the final nail in as he waved the man's phone screen around.

"Wow, you even posted about it on a forum? 'Been keeping the girl upstairs from sleeping lately, feels honestly amazing.' This is your post, right?"

"...Yes."

"Physical evidence and a confession. Indictment conditions met. I'll be filing charges for illegal drug possession combined with aggravated assault using a superpower."

"..."

The man who'd been tormenting the girl upstairs with telepathy hung his head, all the fight gone out of him.

He'd scraped together the courage to commit a crime he was sure would never be traced back to him. Even by his own estimate, the odds of getting caught had been close to zero.

Getting caught by two lunatic cops and taken down like this. Did that even make sense?

-Case resolved. Karma decreased by 500.

**

Three days later.

"Yo, Jin-ho."

Kang Jin-ho was in the middle of writing up a verification report when a voice called out to him and he turned around.

"Officer Ahn Seong-sil?"

"Yeah. What are you doing right now?"

"Writing a report."

"Wow, working hard I see."

Officer Ahn Seong-sil clapped him on both shoulders like he was congratulating him on a job well done.

Officer Ahn Seong-sil was a senior officer on the same patrol team as Kang Jin-ho, a man in his thirties with a slippery, easygoing air that didn't quite match his name, which literally meant "diligent."

Whenever things got slow, he liked to sneak off to a corner and nod off, or play mobile gacha games, and generally found ways to slack off whenever he got the chance. Still, when it came time to actually work, he handled things properly enough that even Precinct Chief Raphael couldn't openly lecture him about it.

Kang Jin-ho didn't dislike Ahn Seong-sil either, honestly. The man's cheerful, laid-back nature made him fun to be around.

"Anyway, what brings you here?"

"Oh, judging by the look on your face, you haven't seen this yet, huh? Check this out."

Ahn Seong-sil shoved his phone screen in front of Kang Jin-ho. On it was a video with a thumbnail showing a man's shocked expression, titled "For the First Time in My Life, the Police Actually Helped Me."

"What's this?"

"You remember that case you solved a while back, Jin-ho? The one where the guy downstairs shot telepathy at someone to keep them from sleeping. Ring a bell?"

"Yes, it's only been a few days. I remember."

"Turns out the husband in that household is an X-Tube creator or something. Reviews seafood for a living, and this time he posted a video saying the police actually helped him out."

"Ah, I see."

Kang Jin-ho scrolled through the phone screen, and the comment section was absolute chaos. This guy doesn't seem like the type to fake things, but I still can't believe it. There's no way the police actually did good work. Isn't it more likely a superpowered hero solved this and just let the regular cop take the credit? And on and on.

Overall, plenty of people found it hard to believe, but since the channel owner had a reputation for being genuinely diligent and likable, nobody really questioned whether it had actually happened. The fact that someone who'd spent the whole channel reviewing seafood suddenly brought up a police story out of nowhere only added to the credibility.

"View count's already past a million?"

"Right? At this rate, aren't you gonna get a commendation or something? Maybe a special promotion to senior officer?"

"Ha ha ha, I've still got a lot to learn."

"This guy. Too much modesty gets annoying, you know. If there's a guy like me coasting through, there's gotta be someone competent and hardworking like you too. That's how an organization keeps running. If it was a truck full of guys like me, the police force would've collapsed a long time ago."

"You think so? So maybe I can get my hopes up a little?"

"Don't forget about me later if you end up big, alright?"

"Of course not, ha ha ha!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

While Park Eun-yeong had stepped out for work, the warm sound of the two men's laughter filled the substation.

There was a jingling sound.

Breaking through the laughter, a bell rang and the substation door opened. Officer Ahn Seong-sil, who'd been wearing a loose, easy grin, snapped instantly into his friendly-cop expression.

"Yes, this is East Precinct 7. How can I help..."

Ahn Seong-sil never finished the sentence. He'd recognized the woman who'd just walked into the substation.

Wavy brown hair. An elegant Ulster coat. An exotic look that matched the rumor that she was half British.

Nothing about her clothes stood out much on their own, but the hero badge gleaming on her chest confirmed exactly who she was.

"I'm A-rank hero Trace. I heard there's an officer here who solved a noise complaint retaliation case... which of you two would that be?"

She was A-rank hero Trace, a rising supernova among information-type heroes these days, and no small topic of conversation for her striking looks either.

And more than anything else.

"Yes, that's me. What can I do for you?"

There you are, my karma.

She was the person Kang Jin-ho had been craning his neck for, waiting three days straight.

He only had four days left to fill his karma quota!

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