Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 164

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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No Different (3)
“It seems like I’m dreaming of betrayal, just as you said.”
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s expression transformed completely.
The warm gaze he’d maintained until now vanished, replaced by the cold calculation of a predator eyeing its prey.
From his lips came a slow, heavy voice.
“Who?”
“Chief Prosecutor Jung Jun-woo. I heard some strange things a few days ago.”
Seo Jin laid out everything he knew without reservation.
How Chief Prosecutor Jung Jun-woo harbored different ambitions.
How he’d made contact with Opposition Party members regarding this case.
And finally, how he was attempting to enter politics.
With each revelation, Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s eyes gleamed with terrifying intensity.
When Seo Jin finished, Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun gazed out the window and murmured that name.
“The Opposition Party and Jung Jun-woo….”
Seo Jin expected Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s thunderous wrath to strike down upon them next.
But his reaction defied all expectations.
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun rolled up his sleeves deliberately and spoke with measured calm.
“Unexpectedly, I’ve become entangled with the political sphere. I’m curious—how far will this small beginning expand?”
A satisfied smile played across Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun’s lips.
As if genuinely entertained.
As if they were all beneath contempt.
Witnessing that smile, Seo Jin’s eyes narrowed.
‘What is this?’
This was a moment where he could be branded as the Prosecutor General aligned with the Ruling Party.
Yet Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun treated it as inconsequential.
He even casually withdrew a cigarette and placed it between his lips.
Their scheming posed no threat whatsoever to Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun.
And as he tapped ash from his cigarette, Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun spoke with evident pleasure.
“Seo Jin, pretend you know nothing about Chief Prosecutor Jung Jun-woo.”
“Understood.”
“And… one more thing. Do you think you can catch that criminal?”
His voice returned to its former warmth.
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun had already devised multiple paths to crush them.
Among them, the optimal route was for Seo Jin to apprehend the criminal.
“If you catch the criminal, I can throw all of them into the abyss.”
With those words, Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun smiled with chilling brilliance.
*
*
*
Having entered the District Prosecutor’s Office, Seo Jin stepped out into the Outdoor Break Room for a moment.
When my thoughts grew tangled, taking a walk or sitting outside provided immense clarity.
‘They’re all the same.’
Chief Prosecutor Jung Jun-woo, seeking to enter politics through this case.
The Opposition Party, attempting to devour the Ruling Party by exploiting it.
And Kim Young-jun, the Prosecutor General, plotting to kill them all and seize control of the Prosecution Service.
There was no difference between them.
They were all identical.
The victim remained invisible to them.
They only contemplated their own advancement by manipulating the situation.
‘This…’
I bit my lip.
Until now, my goal had been simple: ‘I will have everything,’ ‘I will not live like Seo Jun-kyung.’
Vague aspirations, nothing more.
But as I lived this new life, I drew closer to the grotesque shadow of power, and my thoughts crystallized into something concrete.
I had to seize power itself.
Unless I transformed that place by wringing out the corruption with my own hands, it would remain perpetually infested with greedy monsters.
And my ambition now was no longer a child’s naive dream.
I possessed wealth, and I had connections—Shin Ji-yeon, the eldest daughter of the Shinma Group.
Moreover, I was learning the methods of acquiring power directly from Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun.
‘I can change it.’
I clenched my fist tightly.
My goal was power.
Enough force to overturn South Korea itself.
I, too, had resolved to devour everything with ruthless ambition.
‘First, this case.’
I brushed my hands clean.
This case was an opportunity.
It operated on an entirely different level from loan sharks or unsolved cases from before.
This would capture attention not only domestically but internationally as well.
The scene where politicians and businessmen from various nations would arrive.
Protesters clashing violently before them.
Poison.
Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun had promised to make me a hero.
That was no empty promise.
*
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“Eleven individuals on the list.”
Days later.
Detective Jin Yu-kyung slapped the documents down onto the table.
Documents piled high like a mountain filled this conference room at Gangnam Police Station.
Jin Yu-kyung wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand and opened her mouth.
“I’ve brought everything you requested.”
Jin Yu-kyung hoped Seo Jin would be surprised by the sheer volume of documents.
But the person across from her was Seo Jin.
“Thank you.”
Seo Jin offered a light expression of gratitude, then simply sat down and turned through the documents one by one.
The police had classified it as a purposeless murder of unspecified victims, but I didn’t see it that way.
The culprit was someone with a prior connection—someone who could naturally hand over coffee and engage in conversation for five minutes or more.
South Korea’s society is small.
Two degrees of separation and everyone knows everyone else.
Once I found the intersection among these eleven victims, the culprit would be revealed.
Jin Yu-kyung quietly observed Seo Jin, who was buried in the documents and concentrating intently, then left the conference room.
She wanted to buy him a cup of coffee.
‘He’s working hard.’
Seo Jin was a prosecutor who had arrested a police officer.
Not many people in the police department viewed Seo Jin favorably.
Everyone found him uncomfortable.
Even if it was the right thing to do, given the relationship between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police, it was unavoidable.
Some even called him the police’s enemy.
Even if Seo Jin had a mild temperament, that gaze wouldn’t feel comfortable.
Yet Seo Jin didn’t summon Jin Yu-kyung to the Prosecutor’s Office—he came here himself.
I could feel his consideration for Jin Yu-kyung.
*
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Moments later, as Jin Yu-kyung climbed the stairs carrying two cups of sweet caramel macchiato.
A junior detective coming down the stairs saw Jin Yu-kyung and asked.
“What do you think of him?”
“Who?”
“Prosecutor Seo Jin.”
“Why?”
The junior detective grinned.
“Why? The guy upstairs is the type they tell us to just brush off what he says. No manners whatsoever.”
Jin Yu-kyung’s brow furrowed when a sharp voice suddenly cut through the air.
“What—a prosecutor who comes all the way to the police station to investigate, and you’re talking like that?”
It was the detective who originally handled the poison case.
His name was Hwang Ki-seung, and with a menacing expression, he glared at the junior detective as he climbed the stairs.
Thump, thump—his footsteps echoed with an intimidating sound.
As the junior detective shrank back with a tense expression, Hwang Ki-seung stared at him with cold eyes and continued speaking.
“You take a salary to follow orders from above? You take a salary to cuff criminals. If you can’t help, then at least don’t get in the way….”
“I apologize.”
“Do your job properly.”
Hwang Ki-seung jerked his chin toward the door, and the Junior Detective fled down the stairs.
“Damn punk….”
After glaring at the Junior Detective’s retreating figure for a moment, Hwang Ki-seung turned his gaze toward Jin Yu-kyung.
His expression shifted, his eyes now warm and friendly—a stark contrast to the look he’d given his subordinate.
“Is that prosecutor in the conference room? Man, after chasing that useless bastard around, I finally get to see Prosecutor Seo Jin’s face.”
Hwang Ki-seung had been ordered by his superiors to step back from this case.
A petty instruction: give Seo Jin no information whatsoever.
But Hwang Ki-seung was different.
He had no interest in his superiors’ political squabbles—only an urgent desire to catch the killer.
Eleven cases over the past two years.
The tears of the bereaved families he’d encountered along the way.
The last victim was the mother of a baby barely past its hundredth day.
Her husband had wept bitterly, and the infant, oblivious to everything, whimpered for its mother.
I never wanted to see that sight again.
If I could just see the killer’s face, I’d shake hands with the devil himself.
“This one’s mine, right?”
“Pardon?”
Without waiting for Jin Yu-kyung’s answer, Hwang Ki-seung took both takeout coffees from her hands.
Jin Yu-kyung thought to herself that one of them was supposed to be hers, but it was already too late.
Hwang Ki-seung was already humming as he walked toward the conference room.
And he asked Jin Yu-kyung the same question he’d just posed to the Junior Detective.
“So, what do you think of Prosecutor Seo Jin?”
“Pardon? In what regard?”
“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to meet Prosecutor Seo Jin. The prosecutor who solved every cold case in Dongnam County and even resolved that suicide case at Jongno Police Station. Is he really that sharp? Does he seem to know everything? You went to the scene, right? Did you find anything? Where did you start at the scene? Huh?”
Jin Yu-kyung smiled faintly and shook her head at Hwang Ki-seung’s rapid-fire questions.
“Ask him directly. He’s already here.”
They’d arrived at the conference room door.
Hwang Ki-seung opened the door without hesitation, his voice bright and cheerful.
“I’m Hwang Ki-seung from Gangnam Police Station, the detective originally assigned to this case.”
“I’m Seo Jin.”
Hwang Ki-seung handed over the coffee he’d taken from Jin Yu-kyung with an easy grin and exchanged greetings.
After the brief pleasantries, their conversation continued over the documents spread across the table.
Hwang Ki-seung picked up one of the files and spoke.
“You’re starting with the victims’ personal information? I thought if we were close enough for me to hand you coffee, there might be something there, but we found no common connections.”
“…You’ve checked everything?”
“Everything?”
What Seo Jin pointed to with his finger were credit card transaction records, call logs, and even graduation rosters from elementary school through university.
Credit card records can reveal the Victim’s movements, and call logs can identify her known associates.
And the alumni roster provides a possibility of connecting to her past network.
“Ha!”
Hwang Ki-seung let out a hollow laugh.
At that sound, Jin Yu-kyung tensed.
Hwang Ki-seung was known for his fiery temperament and had been handling this case for the past two years.
The problem was that Seo Jin’s actions amounted to pointing out those two years Hwang Ki-seung had spent on it.
What had he been doing for two years without spotting a single record like this?
Jin Yu-kyung swallowed dryly and studied Hwang Ki-seung’s expression.
The situation was on a knife’s edge.
If Hwang Ki-seung’s volatile nature exploded, I’d have to stop him somehow.
If he hurled insults at a prosecutor…
‘This can’t happen.’
But it went against Jin Yu-kyung’s expectations.
Hwang Ki-seung pulled out a chair with an awkward expression and sat down.
“I never thought to investigate this thoroughly. I just assumed that if an acquaintance committed murder, there had to be some deep-seated grudge.”
“Looking at recent murders, many happen over simple jealousy.”
He even began chatting casually with Seo Jin while organizing documents.
Jin Yu-kyung, who had been watching Hwang Ki-seung, exhaled with relief and smiled quietly.
‘Come to think of it…’
Hwang Ki-seung was someone who habitually said he’d kneel if it meant catching the culprit.
And he’d always wanted to see Seo Jin, the unsolved case specialist, in action.
When you thought about it, his temperament was fiery, but he didn’t get angry over trivial matters.
Past two in the morning, and the case had made no progress.
My neck was stiff and my eyes felt gritty, but I just kept flipping through documents like searching for a needle in a desert.
Seo Jin looked up to stretch briefly, then gazed at Hwang Ki-seung and Jin Yu-kyung.
Everyone I’d met over these past few days was someone exploiting the case to seize power.
But these two before me were different.
Without any such ulterior motives, they genuinely wondered about the culprit’s face.
Looking at them, Seo Jin smiled slightly.
‘This is nice.’
The morning sun was already brightening the sky.
From the investigation conducted through the night, seven people were suspects.
Of course, according to the records, no one was connected to the Victim across the board.
Rather, seven people were paired with two or three victims each.
But there was a need to investigate them.
Seo Jin clapped his hands and spoke.
“Anyone want some ox bone soup?”
After an all-nighter, I figured breakfast should be ox bone soup.
“I’ll pass.”
“Goodness, I need to get some rest too.”
The two detectives left the conference room, remarking, “Youth really is something. You’ve still got energy to spare.”
*
*
*
That afternoon.
Seo Jin met with the first suspect.
A person connected to all three victims.
But his alibi was airtight.
According to the card records from the time of the incident, he was somewhere entirely different.
The second and third suspects were the same.
As Seo Jin continued to pursue leads outside and failed to produce any results, whispers within the Prosecutor’s Office grew louder.
“Doesn’t look like it’s going to work this time?”
“I asked Gangnam Police Station, and they said they have nothing.”
“Damn it, suddenly solving a case that’s been gathering dust for two years—is that even human?”
“His luck has run out.”
“I heard the media caught wind of it. You hear about that?”
“Really? So that bastard Seo Jin is going to take the fall and take responsibility?”
“Surely not… His uncle is still the Prosecutor General.”
“Doesn’t matter. He still has to take responsibility. He’s the one in charge.”
I heard every bit of gossip, but I kept my focus solely on the case.
This wasn’t the time to react to such talk.
I wasn’t the only one facing criticism.
Detective Jin Yu-kyung and Detective Hwang Ki-seung were also receiving cold looks from within the police department for helping me.
I had to solve this case and reverse the entire situation.
And a few days later.
As the sun began to set, Seo Jin sat in a coffee shop.
To meet the fourth suspect.
‘This place…’
The coffee shop was directly across from the bus stop where the last victim was murdered.
Seo Jin took a seat and gazed out the window.
Then, suddenly, the world drained into black and white.
If it hadn’t turned monochrome, I wouldn’t have even realized that psychometry had begun.
*
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*
The same place.
And a woman gazing out the window.
She, who had been fiddling with her phone, broke into a faint smile.
*
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*
The psychometry ended there.
And in that instant, the woman I’d just seen through psychometry was sitting right in front of me.
“You’re Prosecutor Seo Jin, correct?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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