Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: The Culprit Returns to the Scene
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Canada Windsor International Airport.
Hae-jin and Manager Kim boarded the Chocolate Group's private jet and landed there.
It was to fulfill Chairman Park Sang-yong's request: find and kill the American player who murdered his daughter.
The last place Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter had been found as a corpse was the Detroit River.
Detroit.
America's largest city in the state of Michigan.
So why land in Canada?
Because right across one bridge spanning the river from Detroit was Windsor in Canada's Ontario province, and Windsor Airport was closer to the site of Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter's incident than Detroit Airport.
After landing at Windsor International Airport, Hae-jin and Manager Kim headed straight to the five-star hotel suite in Midtown Detroit that Chairman Park Sang-yong had prepared.
There, Manager Kim set up all sorts of equipment.
He had some of his own gear, but there was also plenty handed over from the Chocolate Group.
Before long, cameras were densely packed throughout the area near where Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter had been killed—dense enough not to miss even a single rat slipping away.
Seeing that enormous array of cameras, Hae-jin asked,
"Will those cameras help catch the culprit?"
"Um, they might not."
"They won't help?"
Hae-jin looked quite surprised at Manager Kim's words.
The amount of equipment installed in their current lodging was staggering.
The number of cameras was insane, yet he was saying they wouldn't help catch the culprit.
Then what was the point?
Manager Kim nodded at Hae-jin's question.
"Yes, because these are setups to capture crimes committed in this neighborhood from now on."
Either way, the culprit these two needed to catch was the one from the past who had killed Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter.
But the equipment Manager Kim had just installed was for monitoring crimes in Detroit's Midtown from here on out.
As such, it would be difficult to precisely identify who had committed that specific incident with Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter.
That said, this was all part of the process for doing just that.
For catching the one who had committed the crime against Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter.
Hae-jin mulled over Manager Kim's explanation.
"The culprit returns to the crime scene. Something like that?"
The culprit returns to the crime scene.
A famous line often used in mystery genres.
It meant the culprit came back out of curiosity to check on the outcome at the scene.
But that didn't apply here.
The incident with Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter was already fully wrapped up.
So Manager Kim provided the precise reason for installing this equipment.
"That's part of it, but more accurately, it's that old saying: 'a dog's habits die hard.'"
"'A dog's habits die hard'?"
"Yes. Guys who've committed a crime once tend to repeat the same crime. Especially those behind the kind of violent felony done to Chairman Park's daughter."
"So you're thinking that unless they've been caught, they'll commit the same crime around here again."
"Exactly. Once the setup's done, we should check out the site itself. Want to come along?"
"Sure, why not?"
Hae-jin had no intention of doing anything until Manager Kim got a lead on the culprit.
So he figured watching Manager Kim work on it wouldn't be bad.
As soon as Manager Kim finished installing the equipment, Hae-jin wandered the area around Midtown with him.
To investigate anyone who might be capable of committing crimes in Detroit.
But the investigation yielded no real results.
After finishing their rounds, Hae-jin and Manager Kim returned to the lodging.
Back at the lodging, Manager Kim sifted through footage this way and that, checking for crimes in the surrounding Detroit Midtown area.
Hae-jin watched along with him, reacting with disbelief.
"No way, what kind of crimes..."
Surprisingly, crimes were happening nonstop around Detroit.
At Hae-jin's reaction, Manager Kim explained.
"That's just how this neighborhood is. Mainstream media might play up San Andreas, Harlem, or Brooklyn as crime-ridden cities, but in reality, Detroit has the most rampant crime in the entire US."
"Even so, crimes cropping up nonstop like that in just one day?"
"If you look at US crime stats by category, Detroit tops nearly every single one."
After hearing Manager Kim's explanation, the two continued monitoring Detroit's crimes.
Assaults, shootings, drugs—those were commonplace.
Violent felonies cropped up fairly frequently too.
Watching them, Hae-jin felt a bit uneasy.
Every time one of those violent crimes popped up, he couldn't help thinking, *Should I save them?*
Seeing his reaction, Manager Kim spoke up.
"You have to hold back."
"Pardon?"
"I get wanting to help, but if you move, we'll never catch the culprit Chairman Park wants."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. And like I just said, this is actually on the lighter side for crimes here."
Detroit had seemed like a hotbed of massive crimes just from what Hae-jin had seen today alone.
Yet Manager Kim was calling even that light, leaving Hae-jin stunned.
"What an insane city."
"Insanely dangerous place. Anyway, no similar crimes among what's happened so far. We need one who attacks, kills, and dumps the body."
That was after Manager Kim had reviewed every frame from while they'd been out investigating.
No one in today's footage had committed anything resembling the crime against Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter.
Which meant no leads on the culprit yet.
Hae-jin asked what to do next.
"So what now?"
"We were wiped from the travel, so let's get some sleep. What about you, Hae-jin?"
"I'll crash too, then."
"Sounds good?"
"Yeah."
"See you tomorrow, then."
"Got it."
With that, the two headed to their respective rooms and turned in.
An hour or two after drifting off?
Hae-jin woke to the presence of someone moving.
The source was Manager Kim.
Manager Kim had gotten up after just two hours.
He headed straight to the equipment set up in the living room.
Reading that presence, Hae-jin thought,
*What's this? Up after two hours to scour the CCTV again?*
The flight to the US had been a long one.
Sure, both were Awakened Players, so they didn't tire like regular people.
But still, they could rest when they had the chance.
Yet here he was, up after two hours to review CCTV.
Hae-jin reflected on it.
*Well, if he dies in the Trials' Arena, he has to leave at least his fortune to his one and only daughter.*
The reason Manager Kim was putting in this much effort for Chairman Park Sang-yong's request.
It was all for his daughter.
If he couldn't survive the Trials' Arena, she'd be left alone in the world.
That's why Manager Kim wasn't about to let slip any opportunity gained through Chairman Park Sang-yong.
"He's really grinding away."
Muttering that, Hae-jin lay back down.
No point going to Manager Kim right now—he had nothing to help with anyway.
He could move when Manager Kim found something.
Moving first might just create a butterfly effect.
And so Hae-jin and Manager Kim spent three days in America together.
"Hm?"
On the third day, craving Korean food, Hae-jin and Manager Kim bought ingredients from a Korean market and set a proper table.
But midway through their stew and rice, Manager Kim spotted a suspicious figure on one of the cameras.
"Hmm, this guy..."
Manager Kim watched him intently.
Seeing that, Hae-jin thought,
*Looks like he found something.*
From Manager Kim's reaction, it seemed he'd spotted someone committing a crime in the exact same pattern as the one against Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter.
Hae-jin asked Manager Kim about it.
"Found a similar criminal?"
"Yes. Out of the crimes in the last three days, there's only one that followed the exact same steps. Location's similar too, and the signature of slashing someone nearly to death before dragging them off... Huh?"
He'd pegged the guy he'd been watching moments ago as the target, since the crime matched what had been done to Chairman Park Sang-yong's daughter.
But then he looked flustered.
Hae-jin wondered what was up.
"Why?"
"He's gone."
"Hm?"
"What the...? Is the equipment busted?"
Manager Kim fiddled with the machine.
The criminal he'd been watching so closely had vanished from view.
Confirming it, Hae-jin smirked.
"Rewind to the montage, mark the body dump point on the map. I'll go grab him."
"He's vanished."
"That's why I'm here—to grab him."
"You can do that?"
Manager Kim looked skeptical it was possible.
Hae-jin just asked for the face.
"Just show me the montage."
"Got it."
Manager Kim rewound the footage to right before the criminal disappeared.
Hae-jin memorized the criminal's face, noted the body dump point, and said,
"Then I'll go catch him."
"Yes."
Fwoosh—!
Hae-jin vanished into shadow.
Manager Kim jumped in shock at the sight.
"What in the...?"
Hae-jin had disappeared right in front of him.
"Where is it."
Hae-jin, who had Shadow Blinked straight to the body dump site.
He looked around.
Hae-jin already had a rough idea of the criminal's profile.
Joo-hyuk had told him about the criminal he'd caught back then.
『The guy's a mage-type Player, specialized in water-attribute magic among them. He used a transparency spell called 'Invisibility' that distorts water for his crimes.』
Invisibility.
The name of the cloaking magic.
That was the trick behind the sudden disappearance.
The guy had cast Invisibility on his way to the dump site after committing the crime.
Normally, detecting Invisibility required a Player stronger than the caster.
But of course, Hae-jin was far stronger.
Hae-jin didn't even cast anything.
He simply focused, and he could read every energy around him.
Focusing his gaze like that, Hae-jin could see it.
The energy aura emanating from every object around him.
Then, invisible to the naked eye but rising like an aura ahead of him—he spotted the energies of two people.
Seeing it, Hae-jin thought,
*Bingo.*
Hae-jin moved lightly.
Pop!
Hae-jin, who had closed the distance in a flash, reached out into empty air.
More precisely, he'd seized the wrist of the criminal who had been about to dump the body into the river.
From the air came a startled male voice in English.
"Wha... what the hell?!"
Hae-jin smirked at the panicking criminal.
"What else? I'm here to catch you."