I Became a Police Officer in a Superhero Genre

Two months of suspension period. I returned home and devised ways to survive during the suspension.

The money I could use in my bank account and on hand was about 230,000 won. Originally I had a bit more money, but since I spent quite a bit paying for Mina’s hospital admission this time, I don’t have much left.

Of course, I have no regrets. Because Mina came back all healthy.

Though it bothers me a bit that ‘Mina’ disappeared somewhere after just saying we should meet later, and the smile she was wearing looked similar to the forced smile she puts on when trying to hold back during difficult times.
“I’m an adult now too. I’ll be fine, Detective.”

Since she said that, what else could I do but believe her?

I picked up my phone while looking at the superpower neutralization drug I obtained through this case and my now healthy arms and legs.

Searching online, it says you can grow bean sprouts with just a plastic bottle. Not just bean sprouts, but you can easily grow mung bean sprouts at home too.

With just a light-blocking cloth and plastic bottles lying around the house, you can grow them. Aren’t bean sprouts and mung bean sprouts gifts from God for poor civil servants like me?

After stopping by Daiso and the supermarket to buy what I needed, I thought while shivering in the cold weather.

With this, I’ve found a way to survive for 2 months. I have enough rice and ramen, so there’s no problem living.

Now I just need to stay holed up at home, rest well, and then return to work in the general violent crimes unit when I go back to the station.

From what I heard from colleagues before leaving, being transferred from the special investigation team to the violent crimes unit due to disciplinary action means future promotions are out of the question.

Even among fellow colleagues, I’ll be looked down upon and so on and so forth, and in the future I’ll just be pushing a pen comfortably or writing chrysanthemum but meaning maple leaf, instead of ever getting a real chrysanthemum rank insignia, they said.

But no matter what others said, I was just vaguely happy.

Honestly, I’m very, no really, sometimes unable to sleep due to anxiety that Sai let me go so easily, but-

My nerves have long since changed into something like shape memory alloy that adapts very well to this kind of situation, so this anxiety doesn’t last very long.

Doesn’t escaping from the special investigation team like this mean I’ll have fewer chances of getting entangled with shitty superpower cases and that damn Sai?

Even if the next incident follows the novel’s plot exactly, with Sai revealing her identity and the country being completely turned upside down in a great chaos event, even if she suddenly took leave and went missing-

Think positively. Positively. She might have made a mistake. She might have lost interest in me.

There’s a saying that in companies, people who say “fuck the world!” last longer than those who try hard. So I’ll live with a “fuck the world!” mindset too.

As long as I stay away from the special investigation team that’s at the center of incidents, I’ll survive somehow.

Beep! Beep! I enter the door passcode while carrying my bags. Now I just need to set up a simple bean sprout and mung bean sprout farm at home and today’s tasks will be done, I thought as I entered the house, but-

The moment I entered, I froze at the smell of oil wafting through the house.

When I looked to see what it was, Mina was in the house. As our eyes met while she was piling something up in the living room, Mina smiled brightly and said:

“Detective!”

“Oh- yeah. Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes! I’m completely fine! So I came to see you, Detective!”

Why did she come visit again when we already met once after she was discharged? As I looked at what she had piled up in the living room with puzzled eyes.

They were chicken boxes from some franchise chicken place. And the smell that kept wafting over was the smell of chicken. Looking roughly, there were about 5 boxes.

I asked Mina to confirm:

“What’s that?”

“Well… I was so grateful this time. So… I worked part-time to earn money and bought these!”

Mina started saying she was so grateful and sorry, and apologized for not being able to visit when I was sick, but.

5 boxes of chicken. Did she buy this for me to eat?

I examined Mina’s face wondering if she was mocking me, but the child’s face only showed apologetic feelings towards me, not looking like she was teasing or joking.

Okay, so that means. She really bought this huge amount of chicken for me to eat.

I’m worried about where she got the money to buy this from, but I also think she’s such a thoughtful kid for thinking of me.

I recalled how long it takes for chicken to spoil and licked my lips.

“Let’s eat together. Uncle’s stomach gets upset if he eats fried food now.”

“Eh.”

You’ll understand when you get older too… no, does that not apply to superpower users?

More importantly, how did she get into the house? I didn’t tell her the changed passcode. I slowly looked around the house once.

For reference, this apartment is on the 5th floor. To enter my room, you have to either enter the passcode to get inside, or come in through the window.

Judging from the footprints on the windowsill and the water bottle on the balcony that had been moved, it seemed certain she had come in through the window like a thief.

Well, I guess she could come in through the window too. Let’s think of it as Santa Claus coming a bit early.

It’s a bit different that she brought chicken instead of gift packages, but- having meat when I was about to start living on just sprouts, isn’t it good to think positively?

I had a late lunch? Early dinner? with Mina.

5 chickens. But the chickens she bought were “00 two-chicken” boxes, so each box contained 2 chickens.

That means there were a total of 10 chickens in my room. Well, for Mina, 10 chickens shouldn’t be a problem. Probably.

But Mina didn’t eat properly, as if telling me to eat it since she brought it, so 5 chickens were left.

No matter what, is this little one disrespecting an adult? I lightly hit the child’s tiny head with my fist.

I packed up the leftovers for Mina and sent her home. I told her the passcode this time, telling her to come in through the door instead of the window.

Day 1 of suspension. Thinking it was quite a good start, I flopped down on the floor.

…Oh no, I fell asleep just like that.

Realizing I had fallen asleep without preparing to grow the mung bean and bean sprouts as I had originally intended, I scratched my head.

The time was already 1:03 AM. My mouth felt stuffy from falling asleep without washing up or brushing my teeth.

I got up to quickly wash up and tried to go back to sleep, but maybe because I had fallen asleep so early, I couldn’t fall asleep.

As I blankly stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep, it felt like I was just wasting time, so I got up.

I haven’t been exercising properly lately and feel stiff, so I should go for a light jog. My belly is sticking out a bit, and if I stay like this I might become a rice ball instead of a police officer.

I changed into old sweatpants instead of my usual clothes and headed out for a jog at this early hour.

The late night street with closed doors and turned off lights was a familiar yet unfamiliar sight.

Although I’m currently suspended, as a police officer it’s routine to be up and about at this hour. There was nothing particularly scary.

How could it be scary with so many streetlights anyway? I trudged to the park near my house and started stretching.

While my joints were creaking in protest. Why? It’s clearly the same early morning street scenery as usual, but something felt strange about the street in front of me today.

A detective’s intuition? No, no. What should be called survival instinct is screaming at me to just go back home.

Why? What’s making me so uneasy right now? I chewed my lip while looking around, and then decided to quietly give up on jogging and go back home as my instinct was telling me.

Come to think of it, in horror movies, doesn’t the first victim also sense something strange but ignore it thinking it’s just their imagination, and then get attacked by a ghost or killer?

You think I’d fall for such a cliché? I already felt my sense of reality had deteriorated after constantly getting caught up in strange incidents when I charged alone at the Chosen Ones this time.

If I don’t come to my senses now, I’ll end up dead on the street like a cop in a superhero genre.

I ran straight home without looking back. Thinking I’d die if I stopped here, I ran at full speed while holding my breath and barely made it to the front of my house, but my relief was short-lived.

Under the streetlight in front of my house entrance. I saw someone sitting down.

It was a person. The person sitting under the only light source, the streetlight shining down under the pitch black sky without a single moonbeam, was a woman.

At first glance, I thought the woman was a child. She was short, small in stature, and curled up as if cold.

I thought she might be a middle school student who had secretly left home after fighting with her parents, or a runaway student, but-

The moment I looked closely at the child, straining my eyes, I felt chills run down my entire body.

The child’s hair was golden. The long golden hair, though covered in dust and filth, shone like woven gold threads in the light.

Her eyes, trembling with fatigue, fear, and terror, shone blue. Her huge chest stood out even in her curled up posture.

The child, curled up as if shivering from cold, smelled terrible and was covered in filth as if she had rolled around in a trash heap, but her beautiful appearance could not be hidden at all.

The girl under the streetlight was a being that could be described as a diamond hidden in mud.

It was a too familiar face.

No, I had only seen her directly once, but that one meeting had remained so vividly etched in my memory.

But did emotions like fear and confusion suit that woman’s face? Was she someone who would look like a corpse like this?

I couldn’t understand her current appearance at all.

“Who… are you?”

As I stood frozen like a statue, the woman seemed to notice my gaze and spoke to me.

Her blue eyes focused and I was clearly reflected in those pupils. Seeing that, I continued to ponder how I should react here.

“Who… who are you? I don’t know, I don’t know anything… I can’t remember my name, my age, what I liked, I can’t remember anything… I’m cold, I’m in pain. I’m so scared… Please, please help me… I’m so scared…”

As I was pondering, the woman started wailing in her spot. Watching the woman wail that she couldn’t remember anything, I took out my phone to call for help but stopped.

This will cause trouble if I report it, right?
Looking at that woman gazing at me as if clinging and begging for help, I bit my lip as I looked at ‘Sai’.

This crazy psycho has started some weird stuff again.

If I call the police, the officers who come will get involved and die. Coming this far, this woman looked more human than a devil or something like that.

Mere beings moving on God’s subcontract couldn’t act this cruelly. Yeah.

Day 2 of suspension life. The peace was shattered in 24 hours and things started flowing in a fucking terrible direction.

Fuck, if I knew this would happen I should have just gone jogging and come back.

So much for trusting my instincts. I forgot that when people live however the hell they want, they get fucked over.

My life is truly fucking- I’m going to die.

It was winter.