Starting a Criminal Takedown Broadcast

It was when I was taking a walk along the Han River for patrol.

While I don’t have a criminal sensor, a man in black clothes who looked suspicious to anyone passing by caught my attention a bit.

And what do you know. After arguing with a woman, he started using his ability.

The moment electric spears rose around the man, he received the same treatment as if he had fired a gun.

Simply put, it’s no different from pulling the pin of a grenade.

Even if he puts the pin back, the moment he has enough intention to kill the other person, it’s treated as attempted murder.

So what does that mean?

There’s sufficient justification for suppression.

A weapon for suppressing electricity ability users.

Commonly known as a lightning rod.

It attracts electricity and then converts it into energy to enhance physical abilities.

It would be nice if he had stopped there, but the man tried to use his ability again.

I subdued him with a 4-hit combo to the crown, solar plexus, stomach, and chin.

‘Tsk tsk. He should have stopped when told to.’

Finally, I use mana-sealing handcuffs, and it’s done.

Now even if he wakes up, he can’t harm people.

If the police come and collect him, it’s over….

‘That’s a drone, right?’

A broadcasting drone.

I don’t know how many viewers there are, but I’ll be kind here.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m usually kind, but I’m showing an even kinder appearance now.

I’d like to smile kindly too, but my facial muscles are dead, so I can’t control them at will.

When I force a smile, I only get evaluated as having a murderous (physical) smile.

More importantly, looking at the broadcast screen, I can see the number of viewers steadily increasing.

In a short time, has the news spread?

‘Can I use this?’

Anyway, as my news spreads, the number of viewers will keep increasing, so it doesn’t matter how many there are now.

A natural opportunity to appear on a broadcast.

“Can we talk for a moment?”

Sorry, but you don’t have the right to refuse.

The broadcast can grow too, so isn’t this a good proposal?

Since we couldn’t conduct an interview at Hangang Park, we came to a nearby cafe.

A space with a private room where we won’t be seen by anyone.

The green-haired young lady in front of me doesn’t seem to understand this situation, as her eyes keep trembling.

“Shall we begin? The viewers seem to be waiting.”

“Ah… Yes! The person in front of me is Tia, ranked 31st in the world. She saved me from a stalker, and now we’re conducting this interview.”

My identity was confirmed by the police who arrived late.

Until then, no matter how much I explained, there was a lot of debate about whether I was real or not.

Since I had never been to Korea before, it seems few people believed me.

“Um… I’ll select questions by looking at viewers’ chat.”

[User ㅇㅇ has donated 10,000 won.]

Why did you suddenly come to Korea?

-ㅇㅇ You’ve never come even once until now.

-Even Korean hunters always met you abroad.

-Did you come because you want to be a hunter?

“Everyone, overly aggressive tones aren’t good.”

Is my image worse than I thought?

I went to all other countries but not Korea, so they might think I was ignoring them.

‘I didn’t even bother to explain because it was troublesome.’

Since I have to work in Korea now, should I talk about it before leaving?

Of course, I won’t tell everything, just give a nuance.

“I came to review and solve the problem of Awakened crimes in Korea.”

“Is there a reason why you took on this task?”

“Normally, I would have refused, but since it was the Association President’s order, I had no choice.”

“Was it forced?”

“Not exactly, but I’ve received a lot of help from the Association President, so I couldn’t refuse.”

“Ah~ It’s gratitude. How did you meet the Association President?”

The guidance went better than expected.

A professional journalist might sense something strange, but she’s an ordinary streamer.

She doesn’t even know why she’s here, and she can’t make eye contact with me, just glancing at the chat window. It makes me feel a bit sorry.

‘But I saved her.’

Let’s consider it the price of her life.

“When I returned, I almost experienced unfair treatment. At that time, the person who saved me was the Association President.”

“Come to think of it, I’ve heard there are many people who scam returnees.”

“There are many cases where people can’t think normally due to the joy of returning to their original place. There are always humans who try to exploit such moments.”

-She got screwed in Korea.

-What the hell happened for her to never come to Korea?

-Was she deflowered or something? (This message has been deleted.)

-But still, that’s not a reason not to come, right? After all, it’s public authority.

-Is Tia Korean?

It should be fine since I didn’t say it was the government, right?

If I leave it like this, it might flow into strange stories, so it would be good to change the subject.

I lightly tapped the table, signaling to Fran.

“Scammers are so bad.”

But after hearing my story, her eyes became moist.

-Why is she like this?

-She joined a guild but it was a black guild.

-They cleverly avoid the law to deceive.

There’s one more scam victim here.

‘Ah. I didn’t suffer damage.’

This story is good for changing the subject, and resolving the case will also help with future work.

And if I pass over a scam victim without addressing it, bad news might come out.

‘Korean journalists are scary.’

Even if I postpone the promotion, I need to solve this case.

I took her hand and made eye contact.

She was surprised by the sudden action, but this is the best time to push forward.

“Can you tell me what happened? Since I came to resolve crimes, I’d like to hear cases directly.”

“Ah. That… suddenly talking about myself during an interview…”

“I said we would have a conversation. I never said it was an interview.”

“Ah… That. So, I’m sorry.”

“So, will you tell me your story?”

After meeting many humans, including criminals, for 5 years, my observation result is:

Fran is a type who is weak to requests.

“Yes…”

But it’s too easy.

I should give her a warning later.

♦♦♦

The year she turned 20, Fran awakened.

The ability she awakened was debuff resistance.

Poison, mental magic, etc. She had resistance to all debuffs.

Fran was full of joy with an ability that guilds would welcome with open arms, but reality didn’t go as she wanted.

Her skill had several flaws.

First, her resistance value was too low.

She could certainly raise it if she invested time, but it would take too much time and money.

On top of that, her second flaw became a problem.

She had no talent for close combat.

The positions where the advantage of ignoring debuffs works most significantly are tanks or close-range dealers.

Ranged positions need it too, but mages have resistance to mental magic, and other debuffs can be blocked by tanks or supporters.

So it’s more efficient to find someone with attack abilities than debuff resistance.

Eventually, a person approached Fran, who hadn’t found a guild for over 6 months.

A man who introduced himself as the sales manager of a medium-sized guild recruited her with good conditions and even showed her the actual guild.

She also searched the internet just in case and checked if there were any unequal clauses.

But as a society rookie with few connections, it was impossible for her to see through everything.

Every time she blocked monster attacks with a shield, she was told her contribution was low and received less money.

The healer lacked mana in the dungeon and healed slowly, and outside demanded money, saying they weren’t in a raid.

In the end, she had to self-heal, leaving little of that small money, and she had to work side jobs during her free time to earn living expenses.

Even though she wanted to escape, she couldn’t because of the 3-year slave contract, and after completing the period, she left the guild as if being kicked out without severance pay.

After that, she tried to find a guild, but all results were miserable.

In an era where even those who awakened as minors and received systematic education find it hard to enter good guilds.

The world wasn’t lenient enough to hire someone who couldn’t do much for 3 years.

At least, because she ate monster meat to save money and raised her poison resistance, she was able to survive through bizarre food broadcasts.

‘I didn’t think I’d come back here.’

Yujin Guild, which she thought she would never even look at again.

The building is still magnificent, but knowing what’s inside, she was so terrified she could hardly breathe.

“You don’t need to worry.”

Tia held her trembling hand and told her to trust her.

Her expression didn’t change, but her words conveyed concern and trust.

The belief that she would protect her no matter what happened.

‘The person in front of me is ranked 31st in the world.’

A person who can’t be defeated by a black guild, let alone a large guild.

I held Tia’s hand tightly and entered the guild.

♦♦♦

I can smell it.

That hair neatly styled with wax.

A suit without a speck of dust.

Shiny shoes.

Glasses I want to break.

Ah. The last one includes my personal preference.

Anyway, doing this job, you can smell a scammer from a person with such an impression.

“Nice to meet you. I’m James from Yujin Guild’s sales department.”

“I’m Lee Da-hyun.”

See? Despite looking Korean to anyone, he uses a foreign name, which obviously makes him a scammer.

“I came because I heard there was a fraudulent transaction.”

I took out a fake police badge I had made for times like this.

Blonde hair with blue eyes. Name: Lee Da-hyun.

I used a recognition-hindering magical tool, so the chance of being recognized is almost none.

‘Less famous than abroad, but just in case.’

If I reveal my identity from the beginning, the other party might get scared and hide secrets, so I disguise as an ordinary person who seems harmless to Awakened.

“Sigh… Police officers visit us for such matters every time. But officer, there’s no problem with our contract.”

Of course there wouldn’t be any problems with the contract.

How strict do you think hunter laws are these days? You’d get caught right away if you messed with contracts.

What if problems arise in a privatized matter involving human lives?

The government would be heavily criticized, and guilds could be nationalized.

That’s why the laws are somewhat strictly structured.

But there are many lacking areas elsewhere.

For example, not being able to notice that the man talking in front of me is secretly using his ability.

If an ordinary person comes thinking it’s fraud, or even if an Awakened comes but isn’t skilled, they can’t tell if the other person is using an ability.

Usually, those who interfere with the mind must report to the association, but there are always people who don’t do this.

They say schools conduct regular checks, but there are children who don’t attend school, and there are illegal immigrants.

So when there’s a fraud case, you should first check the ability.

But they just pass it off as simple fraud.

Beep beep-

An alert sounds from the watch on my wrist.

A magical tool that rings when mana changes occur above a certain amount.

“I’ve secured evidence, and the ability handler team has surrounded the building. There’s nowhere to run now, so stop using that crappy ability.”

“No. What are you saying? Ability? I’m an ordinary person.”

“If you continue to use your ability, you will receive a more severe punishment.”

“Ha. Does the police have the right to do this? This is abuse of power.”

Bang-

You should at least turn off your ability while talking.

Then I would have just shut your mouth.

“It’s a stun bullet. He won’t die.”

“You startled me by shooting suddenly. By the way, did that person use an ability?”

“It’s the ability to distract concentration, making people unable to see small text or pass by without reading properly. There were a few foreign cases, and now it seems it has come to Korea too.”

Highly manipulated mental magic is no different from gaslighting.

And the act of gaslighting itself is not punishable by law.

There are guys who exploit this and pretend to be skilled in speech to deceive, but I didn’t expect to see one here.

“If there’s a victim but it’s not revealed as fraud, suspecting an ability is the protocol.”

“If you have any damages, report to the ability handler team now.”

I looked at the hidden drone as I spoke.

Crime resolution broadcast. Success.