I Became a Police Officer in a Superhero Genre

What would be a good word to describe that place? If it’s someone’s first time there, they could sufficiently understand if that place was described as a church sanctuary.

Candles are lit creating a holy atmosphere, church pews densely fill the interior, and there’s a platform at the very front.

Up to here, it’s similar to the atmosphere of any church or cathedral, but if there’s one difference, would it be that instead of a cross where there should normally be one, there’s a strange structure?

The pattern of what looks like a person standing inside a circular ring seemed like a poorly imitated version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man that you might see in a textbook.

And a man kneeling with his head bowed in front of such a pattern. A man who failed to kidnap superpower children and nearly got caught by Detective Lee Mun-su but luckily escaped thanks to his other comrades.

He was sweating profusely and thinking tens of thousands of thoughts in his head.

The failure of the mission, no, not only did he fail but he sacrificed his comrades and returned here alone. Even to the point where their story came out on the news.

This man, defined as ‘skinny’ by Detective Lee Mun-su, is objectively not a smart person at all.

He didn’t join this place because he was attracted to the doctrine of being saved by killing evil superpower users to protect humanity’s purity as ‘Human Center’ says,

but because he could kill monster superpower users who are unpleasant and kill people, and through that, feel like he’s become a lion of justice.

But even such a man could understand that the current situation was by no means good.

This gathering. Although ‘Human Religion’ hasn’t been around for long, quite a lot of people have gathered thanks to its unique doctrine that exploits the anxiety and fear about the suddenly increasing superpower user crimes, but.

That doesn’t mean there are many ‘zealous believers’ who will actually carry out the doctrine.

It might be different later, but currently, most believers are people who joined thinking of it as just a gathering where they can enjoy talking about their antipathy and hatred towards superpower users.

But until now, even though they were few in number, they hunted superpower users by gathering strength with like-minded comrades, under the pastor’s command and with thorough preparation using strange tools obtained from somewhere, but today they failed.

And the cause of that failure was himself.

Unable to contain his anger at even young children becoming corrupted into monsters, instead of just kidnapping the target children and coming back, he messed up the set plan by trying to take care of the children’s parents.

Because of that, they lost most of their comrades, and this religion was also exposed. What will the pastor do to me? If he finds out that I’m the cause of all this incident, what will happen to me?

As the man was pressing his head to the floor sweating cold sweat, the door behind the platform leading to the pastor’s room opened with a creak.

The man flinched and bowed so deeply that his forehead touched the floor, and while doing so, he painfully raised his eyes to observe the being coming out of the pastor’s room.

An eccentric wearing priest’s robes that Catholic priests might wear and a mask on his head that looks like it was made by cutting out only the face part from Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

He approached the man slowly with steps like those of a noble aristocrat. It was eerie that no footsteps could be heard, but even eerier was the gaze beyond the mask.

The bishop of Human Center. A being who calls himself not a human but a ‘person’. But those eyes.

The man thought that those eyes staring at him unwavering beyond the mask didn’t feel like a person at all.

No, not just the eyes, but his overall behavior was like that of a machine-like being. A man who never raises his voice, mechanically follows only the goal, and administers terrifying punishments when failing.

There was not a hint of emotion felt there, making people who see him think, could he be a purifier sent by God to kill monster superpower users and purify the world?

“[You failed, I see]”

But in the voice of such a being. There’s anger in it now. The man swallowed a scream feeling as if his heart had risen to his head and then fallen to his toes.

Does he know everything after all? The man trembled in fear wondering what kind of punishment this being would inflict on him.

The punishments this man carries out include cutting off fingers, sometimes cutting off ears. Or gouging out an eye, making you pay a clear price for failure.

But no matter how long he waited, after uttering his first words, he neither took any other action nor spat out words of rebuke. He just stood in front of the man silently looking down at him.

What on earth is he thinking? The man felt even greater fear at the sight of the bishop in front of him saying nothing, and rolled his eyes to lower his gaze, then gritted his teeth.

How terrible, how terrible a punishment is he going to inflict? Why is the one who usually silently carries out punishment on those who fail missions and leaves so quiet now?

As time passed silently like that for 1 minute, 2 minutes. When the man was struggling in the deepening swamp of fear and even breathing started to feel painful. The bishop opened his mouth as if satisfied.

“[Raise your head. Brother.]”
“Ye-yes!”

At the bishop’s words, the man hurriedly raised his head. The bishop slowly raised the man up with a tone and gesture that seemed almost loving, as if the anger in his voice earlier had been a lie.

The man stared blankly at the bishop, whose behavior was so different from his usual image, but of course, he couldn’t read the expression of the man wearing a mask.

But the bishop gently patted the frightened man’s shoulder as if soothing him. Tap tap, a touch so gentle it was creepy.

The bishop even dusted off all the dust on the man’s knees, then slowly turned his body behind the man. Then, as if warning of something, he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and continued speaking.

“[Due to your dullness and stupidity, brothers who shared our cause have been captured by Satan’s messengers. Yes. It’s an absolutely unforgivable thing.]”

“I’m, I’m sorr-”

Crack. As the man tried to apologize, strength entered the hand on his shoulder, and pain rushed through the man’s shoulder.

Looking at the man who couldn’t finish his words due to the pain, the bishop shook his head.

“[Apologies are meaningless. The wall that blocked our great work arose solely because of you.

But there’s an old saying. Humans commit sins and God forgives. I’ll give you a chance to be forgiven. This is a divine oracle directly from God. God has directly given you a chance.]”

The bishop said this while putting one hand into his bosom, then with a very leisurely hand movement, took out a syringe.

Inside the disposable 10CC syringe was a liquid glowing so red it could be mistaken for blood at first glance.

But unlike ordinary blood, this liquid glowed with a slightly scarlet light and pulsated very slightly as if it were a living creature, but. Anyone who saw it would soon deny that.

Because if that living creature is contained in that syringe, they would have to admit that something so disgusting exists in this world.

“[He who acts shall be saved. Brother. Honestly, I envy you. If I could, I’d like to take this role instead.]”

Immediately after, the bishop inserted the syringe into the man’s neck without hesitation. The man trembled at the sudden pain, but

as soon as the liquid in the syringe entered his body with a squelching sound, he immediately rolled his eyes back and started shaking.

The man’s body trembling was at first just trembling as if surprised, but as time passed, it changed to trembling at the level of having a seizure.

As the trembling intensified, the man twisted his body as if feeling pain, and at the same time, strange changes began to occur in the man’s body.

Strange tentacles starting to sprout on the man’s body. As strange objects reminiscent of spider legs began to grow from his back, the man trembled as if feeling terror, but

the bishop looked down at such a man with emotionless eyes, and contrary to the man trembling in fear, as if performing a sacred ritual, he took out another syringe filled with red liquid from his bosom.

“[Since you have been chosen by Him, let me tell you the ‘real’ doctrine of our Human Center. The word of God we follow is just one.

Killing false prophets other than the God we serve and faithfully following His words is our salvation. Ah- I hear it. I will follow.

For God’s world, sadly, someone needs to become a false prophet to teach fear to the ignorant and foolish.]”

Squelch.

“Uu-uwaaaaah!!!”

As the bishop inserted an additional syringe into the man’s body, the man screamed loudly as if unable to bear it. Even greater changes began to occur in the man’s body.

From the level of change where spider legs grew on the man’s back, the man began to change more bizarrely.

The spider legs that had sprouted on his back gradually changed to be like human arms, and a total of 4 pairs of arms grew on the man’s body including his original arms.

The man’s face only had his eyes strangely enlarge, then soon change like an insect’s compound eyes, and starting from his hair, all the hair on his body fell out and became like an insect’s antennae.

Would it look like that if you clumsily mixed an insect and a human? Looking at what used to be a man now spewing liquid from his mouth that should be expressed as saliva, or perhaps body fluid,

the bishop held out a few syringes filled with white liquid and a photo in front of ‘it’ as if to look closely.

The liquid in the white syringes was the strange drug that ‘neutralizes’ the power of superpower users, which the man had used once before becoming like this.

The photo was blurry as if taken secretly and the body was half hidden by a wall, but the face was sufficiently recognizable and what the outfit was could be seen.

It showed a cute-looking child with a student uniform, red eyes and long black hair, seemingly wiping sweat as their hand was waving.

Kiruruek, the monster’s sound. As if certain that the thing in front of him that was uncertain whether it was human or what understood his words, the bishop spoke firmly.

“[This is God’s power, and God’s word. I heard the word to bring a trial. Even false gods lose their power if you use this drug. Ah- we are just faithful servants who follow. You can be forgiven for your sins at the end of this path.]”

The bishop spoke while spreading both arms. As if that gesture was a signal, whatever used to be the man immediately stood up and ran outside making animal sounds.

As if understanding what it had to do, it packed the case with syringes using its 4 pairs of arms, then disappeared breaking down the door using its bizarrely twisted legs at a swift speed.

And in the sanctuary left alone after the strange creature departed, the bishop who remained alone looked at where the creature had left, then silently approached the platform and turned on the power of the tablet placed on it.

The bishop rolled his eyes under the mask to take in what appeared on the tablet screen.

What appeared on that screen was a photo of a tired-looking man with blood flowing from his head against a background that looked like ruins.

The bishop stared at that photo for a long time, then soon smashed the tablet.

“[At 00:00 this morning, an incident occurred in the middle of Seoul where a group of over 20 people attempted to kidnap children. Thanks to the efforts of a detective who happened to be passing by, the kidnapping was foiled and the children were safely rescued.

Most of the suspects have been arrested, but a small number are currently on the run. They revealed themselves to be members of Human Center.

Currently, the police suspect that the purpose was not just simple kidnapping, given that both kidnapped children were superpower awakeners, in addition to the kidnappers’ statements, and further investigation is being conducted-]”

“You did that, right?”

“Yes.”

“You fought 20 people alone?”

“No.”

“You’re really crazy. Sheesh.”

No. If you’re not going to believe what people say, why ask?

I narrowed my brows at the doctor’s brazenness as he stitched my palm, but knowing that if I talked back to the doctor’s words while getting my wounds treated, I might get stitched more painfully, I kept my mouth shut.

You say even a doctor wouldn’t do that? Because I get injured so often, we’ve met too often and become close enough to call each other ‘you bastard, you son of a bitch’.

Through that, I learned this guy’s true nature is that he’s the type to tell patients to just endure it even if he makes a mistake during treatment.
If I upset him, he’d probably commit a ‘mistake’ [not really] by inserting the needle into a part that isn’t anesthetized while keeping a straight face.

Since I can’t arrest this guy for medical malpractice, I snorted and changed my thoughts.
Today’s incident. 16 out of the guys who chased me were caught at the scene, but 5 of them managed to escape from the scene.

Considering that only about 8 local police officers responded to the scene, it’s a lot of arrests, but since it’s an incident big enough to make the news, the police won’t be able to rest easy either.

To begin with, both the police and I, the first witness, will inevitably be busy trying to figure out what crazy bastards tried to kidnap children in broad daylight in an organized manner, but-

Quite amusingly, because the Special Investigation Team members and the police who responded to the scene think I heroically fought 20 people while rescuing the children and got a cut on my palm, I’m here at the hospital like this.

Why doesn’t anyone listen to me when this misunderstanding would be cleared up immediately just by looking at the suspects’ statements and CCTV?

It’s quite depressing that people’s ears are blocked. But there was something even more depressing than that.

That is, now that 20 believers of the pseudo-religious cult ‘Human Center’, the main group causing the Superpower User Suppression Incident in the original work, have been arrested. We don’t know how the incident will unfold from now on.

In the novel, there was a description that Human Center rapidly grew by exploiting the anxiety and fear caused by the suddenly increasing superpower user crimes, becoming a pseudo-religious group with many people gathered, but

usually, even pseudo-religious groups have an initial point of existence, and in the end, the most important thing for establishing a pseudo-religious group, regardless of the doctrine, is the number of people.

As a result of a brief investigation before coming to the hospital after the incident broke out, contrary to my expectations, the pseudo-religious group called Human Center is said to have not been around for long.

We can’t know yet whether those guys are already serial killers with experience hunting and killing superpower users as I know, but,

The members of a religious group that hasn’t been around for long appeared on the news for an attempted child abduction case. And not just as some unnamed religious group, but with their name directly mentioned and nearly 20 people arrested.

Of course, quite a lot of ordinary believers will escape too. How many zealous believers willing to commit murder directly will remain?

At this level, isn’t the religious group itself in danger? Then what happens to the Superpower User Suppression Incident?

I can’t know how things will turn out from now on.
By the way, I don’t have even a micron of thought that nothing will happen from now on because we’ve arrested many Human Center members in advance.

Since this incident was also orchestrated by Sai, the incident will happen even if it means a new kind of group has to be created.

As I was sighing worrying about what kind of bastards will cause trouble next, the doctor stitching my palm seemed to misunderstand my sigh and spoke as if scolding me.

“Hey, even so, when 20 people rush at you, shouldn’t you run away? You need to be alive to save kids or do anything else.

I know you’re tough, but really, take care of yourself a bit. You’re just a few years away from your 40s.”

“No, I did run away.”

“Sigh, fine. I didn’t think you’d listen to me anyway.”

Why do people, including the local police officers who responded, think I obviously had a face-off with those lunatic bastards?

I silently watched the needle going in and out of my palm where there was no pain due to anesthesia. After some time passed, the flesh was completely stitched.

“There, 6 stitches just on your palm. I don’t know whether to call this a big wound, or say it’s amazing that you only got your palm injured fighting those guys.”

“Yes, yes. Thank you.”

While listening to the familiar but mostly unkeepable words like don’t use your hand for a while, don’t let water touch it, don’t drink or smoke, I was about to drive my car back.

But before I left my seat, a nurse approached the doctor and whispered something in his ear, then the doctor furrowed his brow. He approached me saying he had a favor to ask.

“Hey, I’m not sure if I should ask this, but. They say a strange car giving off a terribly foul smell just entered the parking lot?

The tinting is so dark you can’t see inside, and the smell is so bad that even the security guards can’t approach. If you could check it once, I’ll cover your hospital bill for today, so please just check once.”

A car with a severe rotten smell and heavy tinting. It was certainly a car that brought unpleasant things to mind. It was worth checking out, and since he’s offering to cover the hospital bill as a favor to an acquaintance, I nodded readily.

“Thanks. They say that car is in the parking lot over there? A pitch-black Starex, and the license plate number is-”

Certainly, I thought I just had to check once and accepted, but hearing the license plate number and car model the doctor said next, I laughed.

That’s because. That’s my car.

I’ll definitely catch and lock up that green stink terror bastard. I burned with resolve.