I Became a Police Officer in a Superhero Genre

I know this might sound random, but what comes to mind when you think of a police officer in a typical superhero genre?

For me, it’s the background characters that swarm in after the incident is over.
People so incompetent you wonder how they even graduated from the police academy.

Sometimes there’s a character who’s almost as righteous as the protagonist, but ends up getting beaten by the supervillain to awaken the main character.

In the worst case, they’re corrupt officials in league with villains. Or they’re antagonistic, jealous or hateful towards heroes.

While being a police officer is generally a tough job with a rock-bottom image, in superhero stories, the treatment of police is strangely harsh.

If you think about it a bit, the answer becomes clear. If the police were competent, what would superheroes do?

If criminals get caught and judged by a proper legal system, and crime prevention systems are in place, what need is there for superheroes?

What was it… I remember seeing something online saying that a society that needs superheroes is a failed society-

…Let’s lightly skip over the fact that I can’t imagine a world where superheroes aren’t needed.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that being a police officer in a world with superheroes is a pretty painful job.

You don’t understand? Alright. Let’s imagine. Let’s say you’re a righteous and diligent police officer. Imagine that you, as a police officer, worked your ass off and got recognized for your competence.

What do you think your future would look like? Do you think you’d be able to climb the ranks and enforce justice? No, not at all.

What you’ll see is people above you who got there through bribery and political maneuvering, and below you, pathetic juniors making a mess.

In the end, you’ll be stuck in an awkward position, taking all the blame alone, working your ass off until you finally meet a superhuman supervillain – and well, I don’t need to spell out what happens next.

This is the life of a diligent police officer in the superhero genre.
Since the dedicated juniors, seniors, and colleagues I’ve seen so far were similar, I, Lee Mun-su, a detective sergeant in the Violent Crimes Unit 1 of Gangdong District, Seoul, decided to become a lazy police officer who only does the bare minimum.

Does it sound strange to say I “decided” to become one? Well, I guess I’m not really cut out to be a police officer by nature, but anyway.

There’s a reason I’m spouting such nonsense. It’s because I’m a reincarnator.

…I know. You might be thinking, should someone like this even be a police officer? But please, hear me out.

Even though I’m a reincarnator, I don’t have any special superpowers like in typical novels, nor am I particularly exceptional in any way. I’m just a person with a slightly tougher body than average.

In my previous life, I died in an unfortunate accident, and when I came to my senses, I was a child. Then I grew up normally and became an adult.

Wondering how to make a living and spend this second life comfortably, I decided to become a public servant, following the truth I learned in my previous life that being a civil servant meant no worries about making a living.

But in this life, my brain was just as bad as in my previous one, and the only thing I could rely on was my sturdy body. So I aimed to become a police officer where I could make good use of this body.

However, I briefly despaired when I realized that to become a police officer, I first had to pass the civil service exam.
I somehow managed to overwork my brain to barely pass the civil service exam and get into the police academy. In the end, I became the civil servant I had hoped to be.

The work was tiring and shitty, and both my supervisors and juniors were all hopeless.
Engraving the truth that everyone is an idiot in both my previous life and this one, I lived with a Buddha’s heart, working harder than just for my salary.

But then, as I was racking my brains over the sudden appearance of criminals using superpowers, not long after, I heard news of a strange pervert in tights flying around and beating up gangsters.

The moment I learned that this weird guy’s name was New Hope and saw his appearance, it struck me like lightning that this world was the world from the novel “Secret Hero Rise”.

“Secret Hero Rise” was a novel about people suddenly developing strange superpowers one day, causing chaos in society.

From what I remember, it was about the protagonist, uniquely born with superpowers, experiencing tragedy and then using his powers to stop crime and grow as a hero.

The city was in chaos, the government was incompetent, the police were corrupt, and the world was one step away from a post-apocalyptic state, but it was an interesting novel about how the protagonist somehow protected people.

But now I’m in that world.

Do you know how dumbfounded I was? I thought this was just a second life, but it turns out it’s actually the world from a novel I read in my previous life!

Now that I’m at an age where it’s hard to find another path, who could understand the sorrow of an old man who just realized the true nature of this world?

Thinking back, I could have realized this world was from a novel sooner. The appearance and names of the people I met at the police station were familiar, and their personalities were as unique as the characters in the novel.

Recently, the number of people using superpowers to commit crimes has increased, causing headaches, and then the higher-ups suddenly start giving these bastards code names. Even those code names seemed somehow familiar.

After realizing the truth about this world, I initially considered quitting, but then I resolved to live even more quietly as the number one lazy police officer.

I recently had a big accident, and as a violent crimes detective, I’m aware that I could die at any time, but I still didn’t want to die horribly by getting caught up in fights between superpower users.

So I intended to just do the kind of work police officers in superhero stories do – cleaning up after superhero and supervillain fights, getting stabbed by local thugs occasionally, and so on.

But goddamnit, my life just wouldn’t go the way I wanted it to.

Just like right now.

“Detective! Why was Minus released? You saw how terrible the things he did were, didn’t you? How… how could such a guy be found not guilty? There was so much evidence! What’s wrong with this country’s laws, with people?! How can this happen?!”

A small-bodied girl, trembling with anger and even shedding tears, unable to bear her frustration. The hero currently famous among people. New Hope came to me and shouted accusingly.

This rookie hero, who had only recently started fighting as a hero, seemed unable to understand or even want to understand the current situation where a supervillain had not been judged despite committing evil acts.

I rolled my eyes to examine New Hope’s appearance. She was wearing just a black full-body leotard with an aviator jacket, and her face was covered with what looked like a wrestler’s eye mask, which was all she had done to hide her identity.

It made me question if she really intended to hide her identity, but that appearance was certainly exactly the same as the protagonist’s appearance in the illustrations I remembered from the novel.

I first met this hero about a month ago when I started handling the mass murder case committed by a rich pervert named Minus.

And right in front of me, this hero had caught Minus and handed him over to me, but Minus was released due to lack of evidence just this morning.

The eyes of this little squirt with two small heads showed a sense of betrayal, as if wondering if I was in cahoots with them too. This puny kid’s real name is Mina.

I’ve only met her directly for hero business a month ago, but she’s making a face like she’s been betrayed, which is ridiculous.

As I tried to swallow my anger by taking a deep breath, the kid said something that provoked me even more.

“Really, even you… Are you like that too? How much did you receive? How… how could this happen…?”

“Huh.”

If I had received anything, I wouldn’t be in this situation.

Hearing the kid’s tone that suggested she absolutely couldn’t understand this situation, I gritted my teeth and pulled out the crime scene photos from Minus’s arrest to show her, so that even this little brat could clearly understand why this had happened.

The crime scene photo I reflexively took when I arrived at the scene after receiving the report. The photo labeled as Evidence #1. What was in that photo was the image of a completely collapsed building.

“You completely destroyed the entire building along with whatever evidence there might have been, so nothing was left.”

The photo depicted a scene of devastation that made one wonder if a war had broken out.

Logically, such devastation would be hard to occur unless a missile had exploded, but what created this ruin was not a missile but the joint work of the superhero and supervillain in front of me.

What this photo meant was not only proof that the kid in front of me and the criminal named Minus were unbelievable monsters, but also the reason why the supervillain Minus was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

“Ah.”

New Hope’s eyes turned to dots as she froze, seeming to understand the meaning. I had a burning desire to light a cigarette, but the kid in front of me was a minor. She was just a brat whose blood hadn’t even dried behind her ears.

I suppressed my urge to have a smoke. The vicious glare in her eyes had weakened, but still grinding her teeth as if she couldn’t accept it, the kid kept talking.

“Ugh?! B-but I took photos of all the evidence and sent them! Isn’t that enough?!”

“E-vi-dence~? Hey, what do you think would happen if we took that to court? There are no witnesses. No actual physical evidence. If all we have are photos, that bastard’s lawyer would claim they’re fabricated, how could we win against that?”

At my words, long black hair became visible and the red eyes showing beneath the eye mask trembled incessantly. She truly seemed to believe that a few photos like that would solve everything.

This is really unbelievable. I couldn’t hold back and said one more thing.

“You really thought that would be enough? Hey, is your head filled with rice water or something?”

Fucking hell! Please! Is it because you only watch stupid Detective Conan that you think the law and police are complete idiots!! I’m a pretty dumb guy myself, but!! This is too much!!

Swallowing the words I really wanted to say, I sighed and sent the kid home. Though dissatisfied, the kid seemed to know her fault and left without a word.

Well, it’s a typical story in superhero fiction where the hero does well but the criminal gets released because the police or law is shitty.

But fuck, I spent months busting my ass to catch that bastard, and now months of effort have gone up in smoke because of one rampage by this superhero lady. What am I supposed to do in this situation?

I’m really frustrated and pissed off, but I forcibly changed my thinking to suppress my anger.

As I mentioned above, even though I’m a reincarnator, I don’t have any special superpowers or anything extraordinary. I’m just one of many detectives.

If this happened in this world setting, then it couldn’t be helped, and due to the world setting characteristic where detectives need to be incompetent, the gap between the common sense I know and reality is enormous, so there’s no point in arguing about it.

This incident is simply an event where I get branded as an incompetent police officer by the protagonist, so she won’t expect anything from me anymore, and we probably won’t meet again.

Come to think of it, to meet that hero again, I’d need to get involved with supervillains like this, but that won’t happen to me. They’re creating a special investigation team that specializes in chasing supervillains.

The Supervillain Specialized Special Investigation Team, was it? It’s a team that was described in the novel too. They say it’s an investigation team formed by selecting the best people among the police to deal with supervillains, but…

In reality, it’s a team that serves as a power level measuring stick to show how strong the supervillains are, constantly getting blown away. It’s a team that combines all the shitty aspects of police officers that appear in the superhero genre.

But that’s not something I, who’s ostracized even within the Criminal Investigation Division and has rock-bottom evaluations, should worry about, right? People better than me will go to the special team and get beaten up by supervillains and end up in the hospital.

Thinking this way, I tried to live as a moderately lazy police officer like before, but-

“Hey, Mun-su. From now on, you’re assigned to the Supervillain Specialized Special Investigation Team. We don’t have many people yet, but you’ve got some experience, so you should be fine, right? Do well.”

“Did you get shot in the brainstem?”

The police chief suddenly tells me to go die.

In this absurd situation, I begged him not to lie. How could I possibly go there? I even got on my knees saying I’d rather take a full month of night shifts, just please spare me. But looking at me like that, the chief said as if mocking me:

“Your performance has been good lately, hasn’t it? It seems the special investigation team has set their eyes on you after seeing how hard you worked to arrest Minus.”

Fuck! To think I’d die for the crime of working halfheartedly hard!

Half-losing consciousness from the futility of the world and the chief’s death sentence, when I came to my senses, I had already officially moved as a member of the Supervillain Specialized Special Investigation Team.

Not long after, because all the people with more experience than me ended up in the hospital, I was saddled with the unwanted title of deputy leader of the special investigation team.

As I was blankly stuck in the police station, mixed with regret, despair, and reflection on life, New Hope, who visited late at night, said with a mysterious face mixed with joy and guilt:

“I look forward to working with you, Detective. Let’s protect the city together from now on. … I’m sorry. For a moment, I didn’t trust you. I’m really sorry.”

… Are high school girls these days even more sensitive? I can’t keep up with these mood swings.

I glared at New Hope with a face like I’d just bitten into a bug, but the deputy leader hat forced onto my head didn’t come off.

Alright. Let’s sort this out. Right now, I’ve become a police officer in a superhero genre novel, and among police officers, I’ve even become the deputy leader of the special investigation team that always gets beaten up by supervillains.

In other words, to sum this up-

“Fuck.”

Realizing that the situation was completely fucked, I immediately submitted a transfer request to a local police station. Of course, it was rejected.