Not only in Light City, but across the entire world, superpower-related crimes had low arrest rates. All the more so for minor incidents.
As long as one used one’s ability with enough finesse, there would be no proper evidence left behind. And even if evidence did remain, proving that the culprit themselves had used it was close to impossible.
Of course, if one called in a hero with an ability like “detecting lies” or “reading people’s minds,” it was possible to catch superpowered criminals… but such abilities were phenomenally rare, and their asking price had reached astronomical levels.
There were already several superpower crimes happening every day; it was not as if they could summon an information-type hero for every single case.
Because of that, among the superpowered people of Light City, there was a saying that was not quite a saying.
“So, you’re saying I kept the girl upstairs from sleeping?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t, though?”
Even if you had done something that might become a problem, deny it first. Then nothing would happen.
“May we take a look inside your home for a moment?”
“Uh, don’t come in. I didn’t give you permission to enter my home. Do you have a warrant? You don’t, right?”
Without evidence, the police could not force their way into an ordinary citizen’s home. The same applied in the case of superpowered individuals. Perhaps the man downstairs knew the relevant information in quite some detail, because he seemed determined to hold out without opening the door all the way.
“It’s true that I’m a telepath. Here, I even have my superpower registration card. But you’re saying I harassed the kid upstairs? I never did anything like that.”
“Hm…”
After glaring for a moment at the man’s brazen face, Patrol Officer Bak Eunyeong turned her head and whispered softly to Gang Jinho.
“This is troublesome. Just like that man said, we can’t go inside without a warrant. What should we do?”
“Hmm…”
Gang Jinho, too, honestly had not expected the situation to play out this way. In the game, with help from all sorts of heroes, he had searched not only the man’s home but even the color of his underwear, and through that had learned that proper evidence remained inside the house.
‘How am I supposed to say there’s evidence in his house when I’ve never even seen it?’
No matter how much of a genius he was, how could he be certain that evidence remained inside a house he had never entered?
Gang Jinho wanted to look like an interesting genius, not a prophet or a superpowered person. If he tried to play that kind of character and it was later revealed that he was powerless, the fallout would be impossible to handle.
“Hmm, so…”
Even after wracking his brain, no suitable answer came to him. Heroes had a certain level of immunity, so it would not matter much even if they forced their way in here, but in the case of the police, their range of movement was still limited.
“Heh. You’re worrying about it?”
Eunyeong, who had been quietly watching Gang Jinho agonize, suddenly stretched out her hand and moved her fingers as if she were rummaging through something. Then the shadows behind the man busily shifted and quietly brought something over to the front door.
“From the looks of it, you don’t have a warrant, and I won’t be cooperating with the investigation. So if you’ll excuse—”
—Roll.
As if cutting off the man’s words, a cylindrical object rolled out through the crack in the door. Bak Eunyeong bent down and picked up the small ampoule lying on the floor.
“What is this? It looks like an illegal mana amplifier… Why is something like this rolling around in the hallway?”
“Uh, ah?”
“Oh my, you were in possession of illegal drugs? I hereby place you under emergency arrest for violating drug possession laws.”
“Th-that, uh, how, why, is that here?”
“That’s for you to know. I’m putting on the cuffs, so don’t resist. Jinho, you go inside and search and seize.”
“…Yes, ma’am!”
Just now, Gang Jinho had seen the shadows quietly bring over the mana amplifier.
But instead of going out of his way to mention that fact, he decided to focus on searching the criminal’s home. It was said that one should turn a blind eye to the mistakes of lunatics and superiors. And if it was the mistake of a lunatic superior? Then one had to erase it from memory entirely.
“First, from here.”
“Uh, there…”
After patting his cheeks a couple of times, Gang Jinho naturally began rummaging through the man’s home as if it were his own bedroom.
“What is this? ‘How to Teach the Upstairs Neighbor a Lesson,’ ‘Ten Hours of Mosquito Wingbeats,’ ‘Dentist Drill Sounds,’ ‘Chalk Scraping on a Blackboard’… Why did you download garbage like this?”
“How did you know my computer password… And that was recommended by the algorithm, so I downloaded it by mistake.”
“What’s this diary here? Wednesday. The kid upstairs finally seems to be going crazy. Serves her right.”
“I hid that under the bed, so how…”
“You used all the mana amplifiers in the evening, didn’t you? I suppose there was some reason you absolutely had to use your superpower around evening.”
“Th-that’s not… How do you know that?”
“There are ways.”
While Gang Jinho was clicking his tongue at the man’s true nature as it was revealed—
“Wow.”
With the man still restrained, Bak Eunyeong was looking at Gang Jinho with a mischievous smile.
“Our Jinho. You’re really amazing. Didn’t you just enter this house for the first time? How did you find all this so quickly?”
“Ah, haha… Criminals’ patterns are all more or less the same, aren’t they?”
“You’re even humble? How fascinating. Where did a rookie like this drop from? Did you fall from the sky… How interesting.”
“…Thank you!”
He had clearly been praised, yet for some reason, a cold sweat ran down Gang Jinho’s spine. Was it really okay to keep going with this concept? In any case, he had to earn karma. This was right.
Desperately avoiding Eunyeong’s gaze, Gang Jinho drove in the final nail by waving the man’s cellphone screen.
“Wow, you even posted on a community board? ‘Been keeping the girl upstairs from sleeping lately and it’s seriously sweet as hell.’ You wrote this yourself, didn’t you?”
“Yes…”
“Physical evidence and a confession, too. The conditions for indictment have been met. I’ll submit the report combining charges of illegal drug possession and aggravated assault using an ability.”
“…”
The man who had been tormenting the girl upstairs through telepathy powerlessly lowered his head.
It was a crime he had committed after mustering his courage precisely because he thought he would never be caught. Even by his own estimate, the odds of being caught had seemed practically close to zero.
And yet, did it make any sense that he had run into two insane police officers and gotten arrested like this?
—You have resolved an incident. Karma has decreased by 500.
**
Three days later.
“Yo, Jinho.”
Gang Jinho, who was writing up a verification report, turned around at the voice calling him.
“Corporal An Seongsil?”
“Yeah. What are you doing right now?”
“I was writing a report.”
“Man, working hard, huh.”
Corporal An Seongsil patted his shoulder as if to say good work.
Corporal An Seongsil was a senior officer on the same patrol team as Gang Jinho. Contrary to the name Seongsil, which meant diligence, he was a man in his thirties with a slick, lazy-looking impression.
Even on normal days, whenever things seemed quiet, he would secretly nod off in a corner or play mobile gacha games, taking every chance he could to slack off. Still, when it was time to work, he handled things properly, so even Raphael, the police box chief, could not openly lecture him.
Gang Jinho did not particularly dislike Corporal An Seongsil either, because the man was cheerful and easygoing to begin with, which made him fun to be around.
“More importantly, what brings you here?”
“Uh, from the way you’re talking, looks like you haven’t seen it yet? Look at this.”
An Seongsil shoved a phone video in front of Gang Jinho. On it was a thumbnail of a man with a startled expression, along with the title, “For the First Time in My Life, the Police Actually Helped Me.”
“What is this?”
“You know that case our Jinho solved a little while ago? The one where the downstairs neighbor was shooting telepathy at them and keeping them from sleeping. You remember, right?”
“Yes, it was only a few days ago. I remember.”
“Turns out the husband in that house was an XTube creator. He reviews seafood professionally, and this time he uploaded a video saying the police helped him out.”
“Ah…”
When Gang Jinho subtly moved the phone screen, he saw that the comments were an absolute mess. This guy isn’t the type to fake something, but I still can’t believe it; there’s no way the police did their job well; maybe a superpowered person actually found the culprit, and they’re just handing the credit to a powerless police officer; and so on…
Overall, there were many reactions saying it was hard to believe, but because the channel owner was fundamentally such a diligent and likable person, no one was doubting whether it had actually happened. The fact that someone who had always reviewed seafood had suddenly started talking about the police also added to its credibility.
“The views are already over a million?”
“Exactly. At this rate, aren’t you going to get a commendation? Maybe you’ll even get specially promoted and make corporal?”
“Hahaha, I still have a lot to learn.”
“You punk. Too much modesty gets annoying, man. If there are people like me who coast along, there have to be capable and diligent guys like you too. That’s how an organization runs. If there were a whole truckload of guys like me, the police would’ve gone under ages ago.”
“Is that so? Then is it all right if I get my hopes up?”
“Even if you make it big later, don’t forget me, okay?”
“Of course, hahaha!!!”
“Hahahaha!!!!!”
While Bak Eunyeong was away from her seat for work, the warm laughter of the two men echoed throughout the police box.
—Jingle.
And as if to break that laughter, a bell rang and the door to the police box opened. Corporal An Seongsil, who had been laughing with a loose, melting expression, instantly put on the face of a kind police officer.
“Yes, this is Eastern Police Box No. 7. How may I help—”
An Seongsil could not finish his sentence. Because he had recognized the woman who had just entered the police box.
Shimmering brown hair. An ulster coat with an elegant air. An exotic appearance befitting the rumor that she was half British.
Judging only by her clothes, there was nothing particularly special about her, but the hero badge glittering on her chest proved her identity.
“I’m A-rank hero Trace. I heard the police officer who solved the retaliatory noise-between-floors case was here… Which of you is it?”
She was A-rank hero Trace. A rising supernova among information-type heroes in recent days, and also someone whose beautiful looks had become quite the topic of conversation.
And more than anything.
“Yes, that would be me. What brings you here?”
‘You’ve come, my karma.’
She was also the person Gang Jinho had been waiting for with his neck stretched out for three whole days.
There were only four days left until he had to fill his karma quota!