WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The Police Do a Better Job Than Heroes

Chapter 9

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Get Famous First. (3)

There were plenty of superpowered people in Light City. Enough that when someone announced themselves as one, the usual reaction was a flat "oh, okay" and nothing more.

Most of that came down to the powers themselves. Most were weak, or just useless. The power to keep bugs from approaching you. The power to lift a speck of dust. The power to slightly win the favor of cats.

"Right, please have a seat here first. Fill out this application form. You're A-rank hero Trace, correct?"

"That's right."

Heroes were different, though. Even to register as the lowest tier, C-rank, you had to pass an exam, and that exam was no small hurdle.

There was a written test on law and situational judgment, and then a practical exam evaluating how well you could actually apply your ability. Plenty of people with genuinely impressive powers still failed, which was exactly why hero exam cram schools existed.

And passing wasn't the end of it, either. Starting from C, climbing to B, then A, and finally S... an endless string of competitions against other heroes, proving over and over that you were better than the rest. Trace had climbed all the way to A-rank in barely a year, a colossal prospect by any measure.

"Here, I filled it all out."

Trace slid the completed form forward, then looked at Kang Jin-ho and tilted her head.

"Come with me."

"...Come with you? I'm on duty right now..."

"When a hero requests cooperation, the police are obligated to comply. You think I filled out this paper for fun?"

Trace waved the paper in front of Kang Jin-ho. Beside him, Ahn Seong-sil put on an awkward smile.

"Sorry, but Officer Kang Jin-ho here is a rookie. His training officer's out right now, so it'd be a bit of a problem for him to go with you alone."

"Is that so? Then you, um, Ahn Seong-sil? Officer, was it? You can come along too. That works, doesn't it?"

"Yes, well..."

"Let's go. My car's outside."

Trace headed for the substation door first. Ahn Seong-sil watched her for a moment, then muttered under his breath, "Tried to stop it and all... didn't work," before following her out.

"Guess I should call this a good thing."

Kang Jin-ho hurried to put on his jacket and get ready to leave. The method had been rough, sure, but he'd known from the start that Trace would come looking for him. He'd more or less engineered it himself.

And so the three of them, Trace, Kang Jin-ho, and Ahn Seong-sil, left the substation.

About an hour later.

"Jin-ho, I'm ba..."

Park Eun-yeong, coming back late.

"...ha ha."

She stared at the empty spot where the two of them had been sitting, eyes glinting strangely.

As if she could see something there.

**

Inside a top-tier sedan with a driver. Sitting on a ride far more comfortable than any patrol car, Trace crossed her legs and got straight to the point.

"That noise-complaint telepathy case. I heard you solved it, Officer Kang. Funny enough, I caught a similar guy once myself. Even I had to use my ability just to barely track him down, so hearing that a regular police officer nailed the culprit on the spot kind of surprised me."

"Not at all. I just got lucky."

"No need to be modest. From what I looked into, you also caught the culprit who'd turned himself into a cake, on your very first day on the job. And you were apparently something of a genius at the police academy too."

"...Thank you."

"That looks better on you."

This had all been Kang Jin-ho's doing, in a sense. In the game, Trace sometimes gained affinity out of nowhere when she noticed a case similar to one she herself had solved.

That was why, after clearing the "apartment telepathy case," he'd hoped Trace might come looking for him. And sure enough, she had, all the way to the substation.

"Anyway, let me get to the point."

The look in Trace's eyes as she watched Kang Jin-ho mixed curiosity, expectation, and suspicion in equal parts.

"I just need advice. I'm not asking you to solve anything, I just want some proper input."

"What kind of advice, exactly?"

"A few days ago, I received solid intel about a fairly large drug deal near XX Station. Given how reliable my source is, the odds of it being false were close to zero. So I went in myself."

"Hm, with your ability, catching the culprit should've been a piece of cake, right? Ha ha ha."

Ahn Seong-sil's attempt at humor got him a sharp look from Trace.

"If it'd been a piece of cake, would I have come all the way here? To a substation outside my jurisdiction? To ask a regular police officer for help?"

"...Fair point."

"Ugh. Anyway, my ability is Memory of Space. I sync my senses to a specific place at a specific time, and I can see everything as vividly as if I were standing there myself."

Pride ran thick through her voice as she talked about her power.

Kang Jin-ho already knew what her ability was, but he nodded along like he was hearing it for the first time. In truth, Trace's power really was one of the more useful and rare abilities among the information-type category.

"But when I actually went to XX Station and looked into the past there... there was nothing."

"You're saying there was no sign of the drug deal itself?"

"Right. No one exchanging suspicious bags, no one trading sketchy glances, not even anyone using the station lockers. It was just... an ordinary day at an ordinary station."

Arrogant, but backed up by real ability, that was Trace. She hadn't failed to close a single case on her way up to A-rank, and having her first unsolved case now had her pride badly bruised.

"So, I figured that 'gut instinct' everyone's been talking about, from that regular officer, might catch something I missed."

Trace hadn't brought Kang Jin-ho along expecting much. But she'd figured that even a small clue would be worth the trip.

Didn't it happen sometimes, when the answer was right there, itching at the edge of your mind but refusing to surface, that some offhand comment from someone nearby suddenly sparked the insight you needed?

"Hm..."

Kang Jin-ho caught on and fell into thought.

His original plan had been to get to the scene, poke around a bit for show, then drop a hint naturally, like an "aha!" moment. That way he'd solve the case, earn karma, and pick up a bit of fame along with it.

But now, seeing how little Trace actually expected from him, he changed his approach. He'd solve it right here, in the car.

Fame. He needed fame.

A month into police work had taught Kang Jin-ho something. At this rate, he might just barely scrape by on the monthly karma quota, but four hundred and eighty million karma wasn't something he'd ever pay off in a lifetime.

Sitting quietly at some neighborhood substation, picking off the occasional petty theft or burglary that happened to wander in, wasn't going to cut it. Not even a full lifetime of that would clear four hundred million karma.

He needed to get famous. Famous enough that the big cases would come looking for him on their own. And for that, he desperately needed the title of "genius cop who cracks any case."

If he got famous enough, there'd eventually be an opening to get close to the number one ranked hero too...

And as an opportunity to build that fame, the A-rank hero sitting across from him right now was almost too perfect a target. She was beautiful, successful, and genuinely skilled.

He needed to burn his name into Trace's mind, right now. Not just drop a passing hint and call it done, he needed to hit her with something sharp enough to stick.

Once he'd made up his mind, Kang Jin-ho murmured quietly, almost like he was letting it slip.

"Actually, I think I know who did it without even needing to go to the station..."

"What? What did you say?"

"I said I think I know how the criminal organization fooled you, Trace."

"...Wait a second. Driver, could you stop the car?"

Trace called out to the driver, her voice edged with confusion.

Screech!

The sedan came to a sudden stop mid-drive, and for a brief moment, an odd silence settled over the car.

"Just now, did you say you know who did it?"

"Yes. More precisely, I think I know how the crime was carried out."

"...Huh. I see. Is that so."

Having just heard something completely absurd, Trace turned a sharp glare on Kang Jin-ho.

Her ability let her experience the past firsthand. Being able to relive the past alone would already be an impressive enough power, but she could bring up to five people along with her to experience it together.

Which was exactly why they were currently driving toward the very place she'd been talking about this whole time, XX Station. Her plan had been to let the two officers experience the past there, then ask them what she might have missed.

But now, what? He was going to sit right there in his seat, listen to her explain it, and claim he already knew who'd done it? Without seeing the scene, without hearing a single witness statement, just from the bare information that "a drug deal happened and Trace couldn't catch it," he thought he could uncover the truth of the whole crime?

That should be impossible. Trace had already decided that if this man started spouting baseless nonsense, she'd throw him out of the car right then and file a complaint with Precinct Chief Raphael.

But if this man really was enough of a genius to work out the whole truth of the case sitting right where he was...

"So, how exactly did they pull off a drug deal at the station?"

A brilliant detective needed a brilliant assistant.

And Trace was a brilliant detective.

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