In This World, Police Face the Mastermind(8)

The operation to arrest Justice was successful.

The operation I planned from beginning to end was, honestly speaking, barely worthy of being called an operation.

It was more like a gamble: provoking that Justice bastard, pulling him away from his territory, and then injecting the drug by targeting his weak spot as I had done before. Honestly.

Of course, I expected things could go wrong, so I was just planning to provoke him and draw him out if possible, and if not, to irritate Justice and pull him out the next time we moved properly.

And during the subsequent battle, I planned to draw aggro while making Justice go wild, thereby disrupting their plans in return.

But this crazy bastard actually fell for the provocation?

Both I and the police colleagues who moved with me couldn’t find words to express our disbelief after subduing that bastard.

Anyway, this Justice idiot abandons his entire base and charges at us because of one provocation.

As a result, his subordinates were also confused and abandoned their plans, rushing to save Justice, but they were all defeated after meeting Mina, whom I had prepared in advance.

It was a complete annihilation, to the point of being empty. What remained were followers and citizens who were being coerced to act by the supervillains and their followers, but since the supervillains who could be considered the central axis had disappeared, it wasn’t a big problem.

In fact, the followers and citizens all gave up fighting and dispersed after all the supervillains were caught.

The police and soldiers who came to support the cleanup could enter the city without any interference.

As I’ve said several times. Whether a criminal or a police officer, a person needs to have some brains. Then, whatever you do, you do it properly.

No, even with a bad brain, you should at least think before you act.

Looking at that Justice guy, I engraved a determination to study more often in my future life as I looked inside the interrogation room.

Justice, bound in restraints and connected to an IV containing neutralization drug, is rampaging, shouting that there’s no way he would end up like this.

He’s wearing a restraint suit and muzzle like he might appear in the movie “Hannibal,” since he’s supposedly a supervillain, but none of the police watching him genuinely see him as a dangerous person.

If it weren’t for regulations, they would probably have just wrapped him in tape while keeping the neutralization drug inserted.

And they would have crumpled up trash and stuffed it into that damn mouth.

“This can’t be happening! This is a lie! Lee Munsu! Lee Munsuuu!! You dirty worm! Dirty evil!! Die! Die! And release me! I can’t be captured like thiiis!!! I’m so specialll!!!”

“How long has that bastard been like this?”

“One hour. There’s no point in trying to interrogate him. He doesn’t talk like a person.”

How expensive is one pack of neutralization drug for him to be acting like this?

I heaved a deep sigh. And looked at Justice with tired eyes.

The fact that Justice was investigating Sai, whose current whereabouts are mysterious, is already confirmed through interrogating his subordinates.

And they even say he found out something, but when we try to interrogate him to find out what it is, he’s thrashing about like a squirrel with rabies, so we can’t ask.

Meanwhile, the neutralization drug that continues to be injected into his body is so regrettably wasted.

Furthermore, although we brought him in for interrogation, someone high up in the National Assembly is making a fuss, saying that real justice is realized only when Justice is arrested and thrown into prison, so we can’t hold him for long.

He’s probably one of the politicians who previously tried to make Justice an official government hero to cover up his own misdeeds.

It seems he’s afraid that his own actions will be exposed, so he’s making a fuss.

I seriously want to ask if he wants to make such a fuss in this situation. But what can I do? We’re just police officers in this situation.

“Captain. What do we really do with that guy? We have to hand him over in an hour.”

A colleague asks me with a distressed face.

After all this trouble, it’s too frustrating to hand him over without getting anything because of a National Assembly member.

After thinking for a moment, I decided to just try something crazy.

It’s fine if I get fired, and even if I don’t, I’ll leave after this job is done. Wouldn’t someone with such thoughts be helpful in this situation?

“Turn off the camera and microphone for a moment.”

“What?”

“I’ll take responsibility. Just for a moment, please.”

“…Just don’t kill him. No, don’t cripple him either…”

What does this person think of me?

I was dumbfounded and looked at the back of my colleague who was looking down at the power switch of the camera and microphone that record during interrogation, clicked my tongue, and entered the interrogation room.

I had entered several dozen minutes ago too, but as soon as this guy saw me, he thrashed around so much that I couldn’t even speak to him.

This time too, when I entered, he thrashed to the point where I was worried whether the restraint suit would tear.

But this time I have no intention of getting an explanation purely through words. I took the neutralization drug hanging on the IV stand in my hand.

Then I kicked the leg of the chair he was tied to, making it fall backward. There was a thud! Justice made a sound like a squashed frog.

“Guk?! Y-you bastard!!”

Even while lying face down on the floor, he glares at me with fierce eyes, spitting out curses.

It’s quite a baseless confidence without anything to back it up, but I discovered where these guys’ confidence comes from during my time in the Special Investigation Team.

Those labeled as supervillains in this country are dignified whether in an interrogation room or prison, and the source of that dignity is their superpowers.

Being classified as a supervillain means they can easily kill people with their superpowers, and it takes dozens of police officers rushing in to barely arrest them.

The very fact that they possess overwhelming power that is incomparable to ordinary people gives them confidence, so it’s difficult to extract testimony from these guys through pressure.

But conversely, if we break that superpower, it means breaking their pride too.

Once someone has become a superpower user, the only physical ways to stop their superpowers are to throw them in a special prison like Mugan or continuously administer neutralization drugs like now.

But would these bastards know that?

I deliberately smiled more fiercely and looked down at him. Justice seemed to sense something ominous in my gaze and flinched.

“Hey. Park Sooya. Listen to your brother well.”

“Who would listen to what an evil person like you—”

“Shut up and listen.”

I looked down at Justice who was sitting on the floor. This is the kind of action only cops from the 80s would do.

But with the camera and microphone turned off, as long as there are no witnesses, it’s fine, right?

Well, originally I’m doing this because I don’t care if I get caught.

I silently tapped the IV stand connected to Justice. He reflexively followed the IV stand with his eyes. After confirming this, I opened my mouth.

“This drug is quite amazing, isn’t it? Just like what you experienced before, your power doesn’t come out. We call it a neutralization drug. What you’re getting now is a bit more special, you know? Aren’t you curious what’s special about it?”

At my words, Justice rolled his eyes to look at the IV pack of neutralization drug I was holding, making sure it wouldn’t be disconnected or pulled out.

But that action might have been unconscious, because while his face remained the same as before, his pupils were trembling so wildly that it was obvious what he was thinking.

“This is a drug that completely eliminates superpowers if a certain amount is injected. Cool, right?”

“Wh-what?!”

At the mention of superpowers disappearing, Justice, for the first time, lost the overflowing confidence on his face, and the emotion of fear settled in.

It’s unavoidable. Before becoming a superpower user, this guy was what is commonly called a shut-in hikikomori.

In the posts he wrote on the internet, which I confirmed during the process of investigating him, there was a lot of inferiority complex and self-hatred.

But his current appearance is different. The presence or absence of superpowers has changed him like this.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the source of his self-esteem is his superpower.

For such a guy, the words “superpowers will disappear” would be fear itself. It’s denying his self-esteem, or his very existence itself.

The fact that superpowers define his self-esteem, it’s quite pathetic.

Well, he’s that kind of bastard, so he’d do this to his own family too. I clicked my tongue and continued speaking.

“Well, the side effects are severe, so we can’t use it properly yet, but if 1 liter of the drug is fully injected, your ability will disappear forever. That’s what I’m saying. Awesome, right? I pulled some strings.”

“You! You bastard!!”

Justice twisted his body to try to pull out the IV and catheter entering his body somehow.

But he’s tied to a chair, lying on his back, and I’m pressing down on his body. There’s no way he can pull it out.

I calculated the amount of neutralization drug remaining. At the current rate, the time left is about 20 minutes.

This should be enough. It will be enough.

“Once this is all injected, you’ll be an ordinary person like me. That would be fun. People these days just curse at superpower users, don’t they? If you become an ordinary person like this, there won’t be disadvantages when doing things like job hunting. Right?”

“Ah no!! Stop! You bastard! Stop! Please! Please stop!!”

I completely loosened the IV regulator to make the drug drop faster. Justice, enveloped in fear, now starts using formal speech.

But it’s not yet. This guy hasn’t completely surrendered and put the information in his mouth yet. I sat on top of Justice’s fallen body and said:

“I brought this specially, so it’s sad if you react like that.”

“Damn it! I’ll kill you! I’ll definitely kill you!! If you don’t want to die, pull this out right now!!”

“You idiot. If I pull it out, I’ll kill you, so why would I pull it out? I’ll just leave it and make you powerless.”

“Ughk?!”

I deliberately ignored his words and put a cigarette in my mouth.

He screamed, thrashed, and threatened from under me, but soon, as if tired, he started wriggling like a caterpillar, even shedding tears.

“P-please, I’ll do anything… I’ll tell you everything, so please pull this out.”

Good, he’s broken. I raised the corners of my mouth in a grin and said:

“Then, tell me. Everything you know and investigated about Sai, without missing anything.”

“…Damn it.”

He urgently tried to open his mouth, watching the rapidly decreasing neutralization drug. Seeing this, I sent a signal through the window to turn the camera and microphone back on.

As the previously turned-off camera lit up, Justice started speaking:

“I, I wanted revenge since I was arrested last time… I was angry about being used, so when I got out, I was going to kill that Hahoetal guy and those who controlled him…”

“As the prison collapsed, I learned that the one who used me was a person called Sai, but she was too strong… So I was trying to build up my forces and deal with her by ganging up—”

“The introduction is long. Main point. Do you know anything about Sai? Purpose, location. And why you guys don’t fight and run away. Anything is fine. Speak.”

Justice’s lips trembled as if displeased that I cut him off, but I looked at him while touching the IV regulator.

As if resentful. He showed his teeth and continued speaking:

“…I don’t know the location. But I know the purpose. She’s trying to devour this country. But she’s not just trying to kill politicians and take over, she seems to have some perverted thoughts…”

Everyone knows that she’s an insane pervert. So let’s go straight to the main point.

But looking at him, when he talks, instead of having a conversation, he just spouts all he wants to say and then claims he had a dialogue, showing he seems to have no experience talking with people.

Well, being that kind of guy, he’d change his name and go around calling himself Justice.

I kicked his thigh with my heel, making a thud. Justice shed a tear and said:

“I caught one of the guys under her… According to what he said before dying, Sai is now trying to raise the police and hero who are trying to protect this country to the highest point and then drop them.”

“In a situation where even the military has been defeated, she aims to defeat the special task force and New Hope, who are the only hope, plunging people into despair, and then stand above this country, that’s her purpose…”

“Then why do the villains run away as soon as they see us?”

“…They say that’s the only way to beat that woman. I could win face-to-face, but you interfered, so I had to use tactics.”

Justice closed his mouth here.

Is the tactic that spread among villains as a strategy against Mina to avoid confrontation and run in circles?

It certainly has a significant effect on draining stamina. But the problem is that we don’t know whether this popped up in some bastard’s head, or if Sai leaked it to someone.

Justice did investigate Sai, but looking at his face now, it doesn’t seem like he would know this much.

I judged that it would be difficult to get more information about the villains’ strange movements and asked a different question.

“The location where Sai is? You don’t know?”

“I-I don’t know. There’s talk about her being overseas, and talk about her traveling around the provinces…”

This bastard. He really is incompetent, isn’t he?

At Justice’s words, I bit the cigarette in my mouth and looked at him pathetically. There was information saying he had done investigation and obtained information, so I thought there was something great, but he was just an idiot.

I laughed hollowly, but I was fortunate to get a hint about why Sai isn’t visible.

I already knew she was a terrible woman, but to think she had such shitty thoughts.

I combined in my head what Sai had confessed to me and Justice’s testimony now.

That woman is now planning to completely destroy this country. She wants to create a world where laws and everything else are meaningless to uh… obtain me.

For that purpose, she’s currently not interfering with the special task force and Mina, letting them succeed, and when people are filled with hope seeing our success, she plans to defeat the hero and break that hope.

Just like in the original work, to make the state believe they cannot win against Sai, forcing them to surrender.

Oh, damn that woman, she’s really twisted. In the midst of all this, will my limbs remain intact?

Considering Sai’s purpose, I probably won’t die, but thinking about how crazy she is, even if I don’t die, I might end up like a meat doll with severed limbs.

Thinking about that, goosebumps rise all over my body. As expected, for Mina to defeat Sai, she needs to become stronger.

And the completed neutralization drug in my hand will also be a trump card.

Damn, the path ahead still seems so bleak.

With these thoughts, I reduced the amount of the neutralization drug regulator that was controlling the flow into Justice’s body.

Justice brightened at that, but soon realized that the drug was still entering his body and shouted:

“Hey, you promised! You said you’d pull out the drug! Please! I don’t want to become powerless!!”

Justice was begging while crying. I got up from the state where I had him lying down, raising only my body. As I was leaving the interrogation room, I casually threw out words:

“It’s okay. What I said was a lie, so even if you take all of this, your superpower won’t disappear or anything. Hey, if you had quickly spilled what you knew, I wouldn’t have needed to lie like this.”

“What…?”

Justice had a face like someone who had eaten honey and couldn’t speak. I left the interrogation room just like that. Just before I left, he shouted:

“Y-you bastaaaaaard!!! You call yourself a police officer after doing this!!!”

I am a police officer, but if there was one more person like me among the police, things would be more seriously fucked up.

But don’t curse at me. It’s that woman Sai you were aiming for who dragged this kind of pathetic police officer all the way here.

I smiled with satisfaction as I heard that voice shouting in frustration.