I Became a Police Officer in a Superhero Genre

When I regained consciousness, the first thing I saw was not a pure white ceiling, but a dark blue concrete ceiling. Not even painted, just raw concrete ceiling.

I’ve never done construction work so I don’t know the exact term, but seeing what looked like frames on the ceiling and various equipment lying around, this seemed to be a construction site in full progress.

Why am I here? The moment I wondered this, I realized that sound had disappeared from my ears. Feeling the silence hitting my ears, I looked around for a moment.

Feeling pain in my head, I touched it, and my hand came away with bright red blood. My whole body felt drained of strength, and seeing the floor soaked with blood, I could tell I had been unconscious for quite a while.

This is strange. I sat up and calmly examined my condition.

The head wound had reopened and was bleeding steadily, my chest hurt and felt cold, I felt like coughing, and there was a sensation as if my lower back had lost decades of lifespan.

I felt something similar when I was hit by a vehicle driven by a fleeing suspect before.

Was I hit by a car? Trying to recall, I don’t remember being hit by a car. Trying to remember what happened last, the scene before I passed out came to mind.

Right, I wasn’t hit by a car, but by a person emitting something like lightning. I had thrown my body to save a crime suspect from this world’s final boss, and that’s how I ended up like this.

Damn it, I belatedly remembered that the injury insurance I had has a shitty clause saying it doesn’t cover damages caused by superpower users.

I won’t even be able to claim insurance, and my back, a man’s lifeline, is shattered.

I hadn’t committed any sins in my previous life or this one. Is it because I mocked the leader for being bald? Is that sin big enough to throw me into such a disaster?

I stopped trying to escape reality and looked around. Apart from a standing lamp, there was nothing that could be called light, and it was so dark outside the building that I couldn’t see an inch in front of me.

The phone and gun I had in my pocket were missing. It seemed like only a few hours had passed since I lost consciousness, and there were no signs of people around.

Okay, I understand it’s quiet around here. Now there’s only one remaining problem and question.

Why the fuck am I here?

If I had simply been attacked by the suspect and passed out, I should have woken up in a hospital or still lying face down at the scene, but it’s strange to open my eyes in some unknown construction site.

Either I have sleepwalking and walked here myself, or someone brought me here. I can’t know the answer to this right away.

I don’t have my phone, and there’s no one around. It shouldn’t be a problem to go to the police station if I just walk a little to get to the city center, but my back hurt so much that walking was difficult.

“Damn it.”

I curse as I somehow manage to get up. Nothing good will come from just staying here; I can only envision a future where I bleed out and die.

Thinking I need to crawl to the city center if I have to, I slowly went down the stairs heading downwards.

My body aches. As severe pain races through my entire body, I tried to somehow turn my thoughts in a different direction. It was an ugly struggle to forget the pain even a little.

I wonder if they’ll accept a sick leave request for this. If they don’t, I’ll have to pluck out all of the leader’s remaining hair. How did I end up here? More importantly, what happened to that Sai guy?

“Oh.”

In the middle of continuing my thoughts to forget the pain, an important fact suddenly occurred to me.

The reason I ended up like this was because I threw my body to stop someone who was originally a civilian, but currently a suspect, from rushing at this world’s final boss while out of his mind.

After passing out like that and opening my eyes, the important final boss lord is nowhere to be seen? Doesn’t this mean the suspect has already sunk to the bottom of some reservoir, and I’ve been brought here to be buried for daring to push her away?

“Shit.”

If that’s really the case, I can’t even escape from here.

So this is where my short second life ends. If I had known I was going to die like this, I should have just taken off my clothes and run away without thinking about the future.

Right after that, I heard the sound of a metal pipe rolling from below, clang. This place seemed to be about 3 floors up, and it sounded like someone was coming up from the dark below.

Is the person coming up from there someone trying to kill me? I closed my eyes tight and prepared to resist, grabbing a metal pipe lying nearby.

Thump, thump, footsteps slowly coming up. But if the current situation is what I think it is, I could die without being able to do anything. However, I couldn’t just die like this.

My back hurts and I feel my body getting weaker due to losing a lot of blood from my head, so my physical condition is getting worse and worse, but I was confident I could still land one hit.

When I fought 10 to 1 after taking 3 knife wounds, I was in even worse condition than this. I’m sure of it.

Right after, I felt a presence approaching. The stairs of this building still under construction didn’t have handrails or emergency lights, so it was dark,

but the sound echoed loudly, boasting its presence, letting me know roughly where the approaching entity was, so I focused my hearing and held my breath.

The footsteps get louder and louder. With the mindset that if I’m going to die, I’ll at least make them eat shit before I go, I gathered all my strength in my hands, gritted my teeth, and raised my arm-

“Deputy Chief, are you he- Waaah?!”

“Shit!”

As I swung the metal pipe at whoever had come up here, there was a clang as the pipe hit the stairs, pain shot through my arm,

and at the same time, I heard someone with a voice I’d heard before yelling awkwardly in surprise. I frowned and quickly looked at the person who had come up.

Sai was panting, holding a gun in his hand, wearing a gun holster over a white dress shirt. He was covered in dust as if he had rolled on the ground.

Did he come to deal with me personally? What about the suspect? What’s with the gun?

With all these questions tangled under my tongue, I tried to force them out, but the words that tumbled from my mouth weren’t the questions I wanted to ask.

“… How?”

“Ah, well, the suspect kidnapped you, Deputy Chief. Because of the flashing lights, there were many witnesses, so we barely managed to get here by asking around… Ah, damn it! This is the old intersection at Cheonho Market! Officer down! I repeat! An officer is injured in the Cheonho Market old intersection area! Requesting ambulance and police backup! Quickly!!”

Sai had started explaining as if understanding my question to be asking how he got here, but soon he noticed the blood I was losing and started requesting backup on his radio.

I was confused by this. Wasn’t he trying to dispose of me? But thinking calmly, there was no real benefit for her to kill me.

Then why am I here? As I pondered, one possibility came to mind.

What she wanted might have been, as I initially thought, simply to show off her own achievements?

The suspect in this case somehow kidnapped me, but that was a coincidence, and Sai might be planning to raise her stock from her very first dispatch by using this to rescue me.

Thinking about it that way, it’s not entirely implausible.

I’d be too embarrassed to put on such an act myself. I guess to be the mastermind of an entire world, you need to have quite a thick face.

“The suspect?”

“I thought he’d be here, didn’t you see him?”

Ah, right. So you’ve already dealt with him.

I sighed upon hearing the news of the effective death of the suspect I had tried to save even at the cost of my back. At the same time, I felt all strength leave my body and control slipping far away.

As my body collapsed on the staircase, I faintly saw Sai’s face in the dim light of the standing lamp.

Sai’s mouth corners were slightly raised, and her eyes glowing blue seemed to show interest, or maybe not.

… What is this woman really trying to do? That was my last thought before I lost consciousness.

When I regained consciousness again, fortunately, I was in a hospital. In the now-familiar police hospital room, the doctor came as soon as I came to and explained my condition.

A crack in my pelvic bone, bruised back muscles, and my head wound had reopened? Other than that, there were no major injuries, he said.

Who knew having a sturdy body would be helpful even in a situation like this. Anyway, since I had regained consciousness, I was soon moved to a multi-bed room.

In a dazed state as if I had just woken up from sleep, seeing other detectives watching TV or leisurely passing time around me, I could finally realize that I was alive.

The thought that filled my head after that was, “I’m lucky to be alive.” And the thought that came after that was, “How am I going to pay the hospital bill?”

My wallet was already slim because of the foolish act of buying lunch for Mina earlier, and if I have to pay this hospital bill too, it seems like I won’t even be able to eat lunch this month.

No, can I even pay the hospital bill in the first place?

As I lay in bed, swallowing tears at the misery of my wallet, the door to the room slowly opened. Then in came the leader and Sai with a smiling face. Just these two. Of all people, the two I least wanted to see came.

I looked at them with disgust, and the leader swept back what little hair he had left on his shining head and let out a hollow laugh.

“Well, well. Looks like you’re doing fine. Making that shit-eating face as soon as you see us.”

“If you came to pick a fight with someone who’s had their head cracked twice, you can turn around and leave.”

“Seeing your temper is fine too, looks like you could go back to the station right away- Well, whatever. We collected a bit among the team members. It should help.”

Saying this, the leader handed over a thick white envelope. It’s customary for the Special Investigation Team members to collect money for injured colleagues, but the thickness was quite substantial.

“I put in a bit extra. Come back to work soon.”

“Leader…”

I was moved by the leader’s personality shining as brightly as his head and gratefully accepted the money envelope. Just from a quick glance, it seemed like enough that I wouldn’t have to starve even after being discharged.

My sense of duty as a police officer, which hadn’t existed before, increased by one billionth. As I was grinning happily, the leader continued speaking in an incredulous tone.

“Yeah, rest well. And thank your junior. Do you know how much trouble the new recruit went through to save you on his first day? I heard he fought even after getting hit by that light-emitting bastard.”

“… Really?”

Saying he was a brave kid, the leader patted Sai’s shoulder next to him, and I only now noticed that Sai had gauze attached to his face.

So he had a scuffle with that suspect? Now I understand why that guy died.

I nodded, praying that the suspect had passed away peacefully. Now that it’s been proven that Sai’s goal was ultimately to gain achievements, there’s only one thing for me to do.

“Amazing! Wonderful! I’m looking forward to your future! What an incredible guy!”

I’ll show you ass-kissing that even third-rate supporting characters in web novels who only exclaim to hype up the protagonist can’t approach.

The leader seemed to have a lot to say about my words and smiling, his mouth moving visibly, but a call came for him at the right timing, and he left the room for a moment to take it.

And so, only Sai and I were left in the room. Awkwardness instantly settled between Sai and me – or is it just me feeling this way because I’m secretly afraid of her?

There are other patients, but they’re all minding their own business without paying attention to us, so the awkwardness doesn’t improve.

Should I pretend to be out of it and say I’m grateful for being saved and offer to give up my deputy chief position? If I insist to the leader that you’re suitable for this position- Oh, this might actually work?

Anyway, in this damn world, everyone loses their minds when it comes to main characters, so even this nonsensical act might be possible. As I was holding onto hope, Sai spoke to me.

“Excuse me, Deputy Chief. May I ask you something?”

“Huh? Oh. Sure.”

“Back then, when the suspect was about to attack, you saved me, right? Why did you do that?”

The honest answer that it’s not right to let someone die at the hands of someone like you, even if they’re a crime suspect, unless they’ve committed a capital offense, hung on the tip of my tongue, but I held it back with strong will.

If I answer honestly, it would be strange and would be admitting that I’m wary of this woman, so I can’t speak frankly. I tried to choose my words carefully, but,

since I’m not particularly eloquent and not very smart, I only spoke words that weren’t lies.

“Because I’m a police officer.”

At my words, which swallowed the rest, a blue light flashed for a moment in Sai’s black eyes, but as if what I saw was false, she put on the same smile as before and said,

“I look forward to learning a lot from you, Deputy Chief. I sincerely hope you recover quickly. We have to arrest this suspect, don’t we?”

You killed that guy. But does this mean we’ll have to spend months looking for a suspect who’s probably sunk to the bottom of some reservoir by now?

And how much of a hassle will it be if the higher-ups say something about this? While lamenting internally, I was about to say out loud that we should definitely arrest him together when-

“Detective? Are you here…? I heard you were hospitalized, so I came to visit-”

“…”

Mina, who came to visit with a bottle of Bacchus, opens the door to the hospital room. The moment Sai and Mina’s eyes met, it felt like the world stopped.

Life is really fucking shitty, goddamnit.