Chapter 2
The age of the great Awakening.
A world where Gates opened and superpowered people spilled out, saturating the news.
Some awakened and became heroes.
Some awakened and became monsters.
"Eight years in prison, huh..."
I was watching the news about an awakened criminal trial with interest. The victims’ families were in tears, but the sentence was only eight years.
With a bitter taste in my mouth, I switched off the screen.
Awakened crime.
I’d hated those words since I was a kid.
Back in school, a close friend of mine had died at the hands of a villain.
That was why I’d started preparing for the civil service exam for the police.
I didn’t think I’d be able to judge them myself, but I still wanted to help, even if only a little.
Haa... why is nothing working out?
My eyes had gone dry from turning page after page of past exam questions.
I tried to check my smartphone and take a breather, but my head was spinning.
Proof that my concentration had hit rock bottom.
The moment I decided I was just wasting time by forcing myself to keep at it, I stood up, dragged on my slippers, and left the gosiwon.
I didn’t have anywhere in particular to go.
I just walked along wherever my feet took me, hoping a little aimless wandering might loosen the knot in my chest, but when I came to my senses I’d drifted into the eerie ruins on the outskirts of Guro.
Years ago, a sudden Dungeon Break had reduced what had once been a famous department store to ruins.
Now it was nothing but a restricted zone, a grim field of shattered concrete and tangled rebar, all of it bleached gray.
Hah... it’s chilly. Maybe I should head back soon.
Then my smartphone vibrated and a notification flashed across the screen.
The screen was filled with a woman’s profile and ID photo.
Another awakened crime, huh. Well, the police’ll catch her soon enough.
The moment I dismissed it and turned off the screen, every sound around me cut out as if it had been severed with a knife.
What the hell?
Even the wind was gone. Even the distant blare of car horns had vanished. It felt as if time itself had stopped.
And then a translucent blue holographic window floated in the air.
Conditions have been met.
You have been appointed administrator of the unique territorial system, Prison Warden.
"...I’m the prison warden?"
I didn’t even have time to laugh at the absurdity of it.
With a thunderous boom, the ruins of the department store before my eyes began to break apart and reassemble in an instant.
"What the—!"
I stumbled backward in shock, and before long a building brimming with oppressive force had taken shape. Its door swung open.
And from that open door came people? Standing figures in crisp uniforms, with not a trace of warmth about them. I couldn’t even see their faces.
They bowed to me in flawless unison.
"Welcome, Warden. We have been waiting a long time."
Before I could even begin to accept the situation, another dazzling system alert burst before my throbbing head like celebratory fireworks.
Awakening complete!
Exclusive Prison Warden status window unlocked.
Before my brain could even process the fact that I’d awakened,
tap, tap-tap—
footsteps came from somewhere nearby.
What now?
The moment I turned my head, a shape burst out of the darkness.
Blood-soaked clothes. Messy hair.
Eyes that were scanning the area with ragged breaths suddenly locked onto me.
Shit...
An alarm bell seemed to ring inside my skull.
It was the very same face I’d just seen on my smartphone a moment ago.
Serial killer Kang Heesu.
Maybe I was so shocked that my face froze.
The woman’s gaze, which had been on me, flickered briefly to my widened eyes before curving into a cold smile.
"You know me, don’t you?"
Her voice was ragged.
At the same time that eerie whisper scraped down my spine, something began to bloom from her fingertips.
I had to dodge!
I rolled instinctively.
Swish—!
Something razor-sharp skimmed past me by a hair’s breadth.
Looking at the spot where I’d rolled from, I saw what looked like an awl embedded in the ground.
"Oh? You dodged? You don’t look like an awakened one, though."
It felt wrong. She was walking toward me, clearly trying to keep talking while closing the distance.
Because her killing intent-filled eyes were fixed only on me.
As if she couldn’t even see the people lined up behind me.
Ah! She can’t see them.
That meant the beings behind me were above her.
The woman kicked off the ground and charged.
It was the first time I’d ever felt the murderous aura of an awakened one.
My legs shook, but with nothing but the desperate thought that I didn’t want to die, I gritted my teeth and ran.
"You think trash like you can outrun me?"
Her mocking voice slammed into the back of my head.
The distance between us kept shrinking.
The woman came at me with an awl in one hand, aiming for the back of my neck.
Tap!
Thank God my foot hit the marble floor of the prison first.
My chest heaving, I turned back.
"Got you!"
The woman who’d been about to rip my throat out was already right in front of my face.
"Save me!!"
My legs tangled and I crashed miserably across the marble floor. Smiling at the sight, Kang Heesu swung the hand holding the awl.
Then, in that instant—
whoosh.
A hand sliced through the air.
The awl in her grasp disappeared as if it had never existed.
"...What the hell!"
Flustered, she froze and stepped back, flailing her hand as she desperately tried to call the ability back up.
Beep—
Then a system window appeared, blocking my view.
A prisoner has entered.
That was enough to understand the situation.
"G-get her! Grab that woman!"
At my frantic command, the people? standing behind me all lunged at once.
Thwack! Crack!
"Aaaagh—!"
Merciless blows of clubs.
No matter how awakened she was, there was no way she could endure that torrent of violence.
After a few desperate screams and spasms, Kang Heesu foamed at the mouth and collapsed unconscious.
The guards twisted her limp arms and legs behind her with ruthless efficiency, bound her up, and bowed their heads to me.
"We will place her in a cell."
"Ah? Y-yes!"
Even after Kang Heesu had disappeared, my heart still wouldn’t settle.
What the hell is this place?
Still sitting on the floor, I stared blankly at my surroundings when a uniformed figure approached from the darkness.
A person-shaped silhouette from some mystery anime, with nothing but pitch-black features and no discernible face.
"Are you all right, Warden?"
With impeccably polite language, a courteous hand reached out and helped me up.
"I am the vice warden of Regina Prison. Please feel free to call me Vice Warden."
The black silhouette, having introduced itself as the vice warden, bowed deeply at the waist.
"I realize this must be very confusing, given the sudden situation, but I will explain Regina Prison to you one step at a time. Please come this way."
As if bewitched, I followed behind.
The first place I was guided to was the warden’s office.
With a head full of expectations, I opened the door and saw a space about the size of the cramped room I’d lived in at the gosiwon.
Small... huh?
The room was nothing special, with only a modest bed and a desk. And yet—
It doesn’t feel cramped at all.
I didn’t feel the suffocating pressure that usually came with a tiny gosiwon room, and above all, it was spotless.
"This is where you will work and rest from now on, Warden. And—"
The vice warden pointed to a button on the desk.
"If you press this button, the guards or I will rush here immediately at any time. At present, the manpower consists of the two guards you just saw and myself, but as the prison grows, the number of personnel can increase as much as necessary."
"So the more criminals I catch, the more it grows, right?"
"It will be easier to understand if you think of it that way. Now then, shall we move to the next room?"
After looking around the room, I followed the vice warden back outside.
The next place we went was the physical examination room.
A cramped space tiled in cold white from wall to wall. A large drain sat in the center, and a crude showerhead hung alone from the wall.
"This is the first place we bring a prisoner before intake. Of course, the prisoner from earlier will be brought here as soon as she wakes up."
Strip the prisoner. Roughly wash her down with ice-cold water. Inspect every inch of her body in detail. Crush that flimsy pride of hers in the first stage.
This really is a prison...
Seeing the prison’s actual rooms instead of the warden’s office sent a fresh tension surging through me.
The next stop was the cell block.
Through the thick iron door, I could see Kang Heesu lying on the metal cot alone inside.
The layout’s a little unusual.
The cells I knew usually let you monitor prisoners through small bars, but here the inside was laid bare for anyone outside to see.
"From the outside, you can see in, but from the inside, you can’t see out at all."
"I see..."
So this was where a person’s right to live like a human being and be free from discrimination disappeared.
The last place we toured was the interrogation room, which also doubled as a counseling room. A cold space under dim lighting, with an iron desk and chair set in the middle.
"This is where you can personally check a prisoner’s level of reformation and train her yourself, Warden."
Reformation.
I rolled the word around in my mouth.
I was supposed to reform awakened criminals like Kang Heesu? Could a normal person like me really do that?
I was lost in thought, still wondering about it, when—
"Now then, why don’t you try doing the job once? I’ll support you actively from beside you."
For some reason, the vice warden’s voice filled me with confidence, and I nodded.
Back in the warden’s office, I sat at the desk and looked at the screen that resembled a computer. The inmate count had changed from 0/2 to 1/2.
So it’s linked to my status window.
This felt easier than that awkward status display.
When I clicked the inmate count with the mouse,
a window opened containing detailed information on Prisoner No. 1, Kang Heesu.
[Name: Kang Heesu (25)]
[Rank: D-class Awakened]
[Unique Ability: Weapon Summoning] - She appears to prefer awl-like weapons, especially light ones specialized for piercing.
Could she have summoned something like a gun too?
Tendency: severe alcohol dependence, impulsive anger-management disorder, extreme aversion to responsibility.
An alcoholic, huh...
[Criminal Record]
First offense (initial incident): While drunk beyond all reason, she drove a car and struck a pedestrian crossing the street in a hit-and-run. Terrified that her life was over, she loaded the victim into the trunk while the person was still alive and secretly buried them in a nearby mountain.
Second offense (awakening and murder): A nighttime hiker who happened to witness the disposal site tried to report it to the police, whereupon she awakened her ability in a state of extreme fear and drunken panic. An awl that sprang forth unconsciously pierced the witness’s throat and killed them. (Presumed to have been an unconscious attempt to silence them.)
Third offense (serial murder): To overcome the fear of killing, she drank again and got behind the wheel. When police attempted a DUI checkpoint, she stabbed one of them and fled. Along the way she abandoned the car and ran, eventually entering Regina Prison.
The grotesque crimes were listed there in dry text.
I could feel the filth of a person who showed no trace of remorse, only ugly selfishness.
A piece of trash who had buried a living human in dirt and stabbed a hole through their throat just to keep them quiet.
The disgust boiling up from my gut made me bite my lip before I realized it.
"...Shouldn’t people like that just die?"
If she got out of prison and went back into society, she’d only hurt someone else again.
At my muttered words, spoken almost like a soliloquy, the vice warden standing behind me opened her mouth.
"What you say is understandable, Warden. But the meaning of Regina Prison is precisely to reform this kind of trash and use them to clean up the other trash running wild outside."
Poison curing poison, is it?
There was a strange persuasiveness in the vice warden’s voice.
Killing her outright would be too empty an ending.
Yeah. I was going to become a police officer anyway.
"Warden, Kang Heesu has awakened. We will bring her to the physical examination room."
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