The Police Do a Better Job than Heroes - Chapter 80

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 80: Darkness Sometimes Feels Comforting (7)

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An entirely white room, empty of everything. Director Baek sat blankly in a chair, staring up at nothing.

Officer Ahn Seong-sil had taken leave. Taking leave? That could happen. But the problem was that he had taken it “now,” of all times.

It could have been bad luck, something easily dismissed as coincidence. But Director Baek was someone who did not believe coincidence existed in this world. The world was a place where inevitabilities interlocked to create results. So it was not difficult to work backward from a result and find its cause.

Was Ahn Seong-sil the sort of person to suddenly take leave at a time like this? Based on what Director Baek had read, no. He was the sort who enjoyed using his leave as efficiently and shamelessly as possible. If he absolutely had to take time off, he would attach it to a Friday or Monday. There was no way he would use it on an ordinary weekday for no reason.

Therefore, the first assumption. Kang Jin-ho knew that Director Baek was targeting him. Anyone could arrive at that conclusion, but...

The second assumption. Kang Jin-ho knew that Director Baek would target Ahn Seong-sil. And that naturally led to a question.

How? Director Baek's face, even his appearance, was not properly known. So how did he know Director Baek's methods and approach?

And naturally, Director Baek reached a terrifying conclusion.

“...My opponent is reading me.”

A “heh-heh” laugh slipped from his lips on its own. Right. The man who read people had been read in return. He thought he could finally understand why the people caught in Director Baek's schemes had worn such stunned expressions. Having your actions read really was an absurd feeling.

But who was Director Baek? Just as his opponent could read him without leaving their seat, he could recognize that he had been read without leaving his own.

Now he knew the cause. And once he knew the cause, he could devise a countermeasure.

“If I'm being read... then I'll use a method that cannot be read.”

Director Baek waved his hand through the air once more. Drawing paper unfolded, and a brush appeared. This time, he did not write down a name. Instead, he intended to draw a line splitting the paper in half.

Director Baek did not cling to things. Even if it was the method by which he had lived until now, he could abandon it for perfection.

“Then I will discard my method.”

What Kang Jin-ho had read was Director Baek's method. Reading people, then designing cases based on their tendencies. The method that had made Director Baek what he was today.

So he would discard it. He had used it for too long, which meant there was a high chance it had been read. To face Kang Jin-ho, he needed to devise a new method.

“...Wait.”

The brush, which had been about to sweep across the page, stopped. Could Kang Jin-ho really not know that Director Baek had reached this conclusion? Kang Jin-ho had already read Director Baek perfectly. Then he would have read Director Baek's attempt to change methods as well.

Then what could he do? How could he oppose an opponent who read whatever he did?

“...”

Director Baek sat silently in his chair, pondering for a long time. Ink dripped from the brush and ran beneath the desk, but the drawing paper did not change at all.

After a long while, when the brush had completely dried out.

“...Director?”

Dolsoe, who had brought tea because they were worried about their master, found Director Baek.

“Heh... heh-heh-heh...”

Director Baek had covered his face with one hand and was letting out a hollow laugh.

“Dolsoe.”

Director Baek put down his brush. Then he opened a drawer and took something out.

“Roll this.”

“This is...”

Dolsoe cautiously stepped closer amid the ominous atmosphere. Surprisingly, the item Director Baek handed over was...

“A die?”

It was a die.

As Dolsoe turned it over with a puzzled look, Director Baek began drawing small boxes on the paper. Each box contained a number and a day of the week.

1. Monday. 2. Tuesday. 3. Wednesday. 4. Thursday. 5. Friday. 6. Again.

“Roll it.”

The result was four.

“Thursday. Roll again.”

While Dolsoe rolled the die once more, Director Baek wrote something on the paper.

“Three? Light City East, District 2. Then somewhere closer to the central area.”

Each time the die rolled, a list of conditions accumulated. Director Baek snickered as he recorded the numbers.

“Six. Oh, one of Kang Jin-ho's hero acquaintances. Not bad.”

“...Director. What are you doing right now?”

Unable to bear it any longer, Dolsoe finally spoke.

“What does this even mean?”

“I am making a plan.”

“With dice?”

“With dice.”

Director Baek looked down at the drawing paper, pointing to the numbers one by one with a finger.

“Thursday. East. Somewhere close to the central area. One of Kang Jin-ho's hero acquaintances. The die determined all of this.”

“...What does that mean?”

“It means nothing. That is the point.”

Director Baek picked up his brush again and drew a thick line along one side of the paper.

“If Kang Jin-ho reads me, it means he reads my thoughts. What I will choose, why I will choose it, and in what order I will choose it. Everything that comes from my mind can be read.”

“...Yes.”

“Then what about something that does not come from my mind? Something chosen completely at random? Could he read that?”

Dolsoe fell silent for a moment. Then they slowly imagined it.

Director Baek may have set up the dice-based process itself, but its outcome had nothing to do with him. Until this plan was made, even Director Baek had not known what sort of plan would result.

“But Director, if you decide things randomly like this, won't the plan become a mess?”

“The conditions may be decided at random. But within those conditions, I make the decisions.”

Director Baek unfolded several more sheets of drawing paper.

“And there will be five plans at once.”

“Five... all at the same time?”

“If I throw them out one at a time... Kang Jin-ho will stop them. So there will be five. Five plans containing variables even I do not know, happening simultaneously.”

The only thing the cases would have in common was that they would be connected to Kang Jin-ho in some way. Everything else would be determined purely by chance, making them almost impossible for Kang Jin-ho to predict.

Director Baek had one goal. It would be good if Kang Jin-ho could not solve the cases, but it did not matter if he could.

“The goal is to draw Kang Jin-ho out.”

At the moment, Director Baek did not understand Kang Jin-ho at all. He could not even tell whether the person the public knew was Kang Jin-ho's true self or merely an act.

“So I will observe how he solves the problems I throw at him... and deepen my understanding of him. That is the first objective.”

And after he had deepened his understanding of Kang Jin-ho.

“In the end, I will draw him to the place I want him to be.”

Then he would use his ability to understand the person called Kang Jin-ho completely.

Let us see whether he could read this as well.

* * *

At the same time, Kang Jin-ho sat at a desk in the precinct with a map of Light City spread out before him.

“He's probably rolling dice right about now.”

Even in HiCiSi, Director Baek would do something similar whenever he was cornered. If the player followed the Director Baek quest route to the end, there was an event in its final stage that relied on this kind of randomness. It was the moment a genius, realizing he was being predicted, struggled to escape prediction.

Randomly generated cases were certainly threatening. There was no way to know where or what would happen, so walkthroughs became useless. The player had to monitor the entire city, yet could not make proper preparations.

“Still, there is a solution.”

Kang Jin-ho muttered to himself as he spun his pen.

Director Baek's methods ultimately revolved around people. Even if he chose things randomly through dice, he still designed cases based on what he had read about people.

So the solution was simple.

“Um... Precinct Chief Raphael.”

“Hmm? What is it, Jin-ho?”

“With my current standing, how much can I ask of the police organization?”

“Uh... Probably almost anything?”

“Then... would it be possible to send everyone in our precinct on leave and bring in temporary personnel from other precincts?”

“...I think that would be possible.”

He would overturn the board. He would make the people Director Baek had already observed useless.

“That leaves Trace and Tienrang, I suppose...”

Since they were heroes, sending them a message would be enough. Director Baek's plan was based on them continuing their normal activities as they had until now. If the premise itself changed, the plan could not succeed.

What if Director Baek caused an unrelated incident somewhere with no connection to Kang Jin-ho?

That was not Kang Jin-ho's jurisdiction. In the first place, as long as Director Baek's goal was to read Kang Jin-ho or damage his reputation, making such a plan would only let Director Baek make money, and that would be the end of it.

“What will you do now?”

He was constantly on the defensive, but Kang Jin-ho was confident. The impatient side would ultimately be the other one.

* * *

“...Director.”

Dolsoe reported in a gloomy voice that they had been unable even to attempt the plan.

“...”

After listening to the entire report, Director Baek remained silent for a moment.

Kang Jin-ho... had read him. He had not read the dice results, but he had read the fact that Director Baek would use dice.

That made it clear. Director Baek could not predict Kang Jin-ho, while Kang Jin-ho could predict Director Baek. This imbalance could not be overturned through planning.

“...”

For those who devised plans, and for those who enjoyed battles of wits, it was a despairing gap in strength.

“Not yet.”

Director Baek did not give up.

“...There is still hope.”

“Yes?”

“Kang Jin-ho reacts to my plans. Reacting means moving, and moving means there is an opening.”

Director Baek's eyes gleamed.

“If my plans are certain to be stopped, then I only need to make Kang Jin-ho move by making him stop them.”

There was only one goal.

A plan that would force Kang Jin-ho to come stop it himself! And then, read Kang Jin-ho!

* * *