Chapter 8
System: [Are you going to pass this time?]
[I have to pass. I'm counting on Police Officer Samukawa to grind suspicion values.]
When the unemployed vagrant Samukawa Shinryu walked down the street, even with the 'Black Screen Aura' active, passersby who suspected he wasn't a good person would just suspect briefly, then try to avoid him without interfering.
The suspicion values were scattered and not very sustained.
But if Samukawa Shinryu entered police headquarters, any police officer with a sense of responsibility would definitely pay extra attention to him, suspecting continuously.
When ordinary people saw that Samukawa Shinryu was actually a police officer, their reaction would be much stronger than thinking he was just unemployed—wouldn't the suspicion values come pouring in?
Usuha Izuki's plan was beautiful; he just needed to pass the interview.
He himself was confident, while Hagiwara Kenji was so worried his head might go bald, racking his brains thinking how to prevent the instructors from viewing Samukawa Shinryu through colored glasses.
Actually, just looking unlike a good person wouldn't matter much—there were plenty of fierce-looking people among police officers, many of whom were put to good use in Criminal Investigation Division 4 (Organized Crime Countermeasures Division), going undercover in gangs and such.
The problem was that Samukawa Shinryu clearly had delicate, handsome features, but his overall aura made police DNA restless, which was very troublesome. Many police officers trusted their instincts greatly—if they thought you were problematic at first glance, they'd keep suspecting you afterward.
What to do!
In Hagiwara Kenji's anguish, they reached their destination, ordered their food, and had to chat again.
This time Hagiwara Kenji didn't think about "finding light topics" or anything like that, but directly got to the point, starting to discuss exam-related issues with Usuha Izuki.
After asking about his written exam scores, Hagiwara Kenji felt both relieved and troubled.
Relieved because the written exam scores were really excellent, more than sufficient for the Metropolitan Police Academy. Troubled because such good scores still didn't get him through, showing the interviewers' prejudice was really deep during the interview.
"So the problem really was with the interview." Matsuda Jinpei frowned and joined in. "What did they ask?"
Usuha Izuki maintained Samukawa Shinryu's image, saying expressionlessly: "First they asked why I wanted to become a police officer."
Hagiwara Kenji: "Mm, they usually ask that."
But while others might just be following procedure, Samukawa Shinryu's interviewers probably genuinely wanted to understand the reason...
Matsuda Jinpei was also curious about this: "So how did you answer?"
For this kind of question, after entering Police Academy, they'd also asked a round of classmates they'd gotten familiar with, and had roughly summarized some common answers.
Like "because I think being a police officer is cool," "because it's stable work," "because my family are all police officers," "because I want to better help everyone," "because I was once helped by police, so I admire them"...
Less common ones included "because there's a case I want to investigate," "because I think current police officers are inadequate and I want to purify the force," and such.
Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei thought it over and felt that all the known reasons didn't seem to match Samukawa Shinryu. Now that they finally had a chance to ask clearly, both focused intently on him, waiting for the answer.
The young man with dark blue short hair sitting across from them lowered those heart-palpitating dark red eyes and answered with an indifferent expression.
"Because someone said I'd eventually turn to crime, and I want to prove he was wrong."
Matsuda Jinpei: "............"
Hagiwara Kenji: "............"
Neither of them could find their voice for a while.
Heavy, too heavy!
They never would have imagined that Samukawa Shinryu wanted to become a police officer for this reason!
Although the two of them occasionally had vague suspicious thoughts about Samukawa Shinryu, they knew they shouldn't jump to conclusions, especially about someone who had acted heroically.
Learning that someone had not only suspected Samukawa Shinryu but said such excessive things, both couldn't help but feel angry.
The person who said that was too irresponsible!
Even if Samukawa Shinryu's aura was indeed a bit... was it necessary to use such prophetic language to define someone's future?!
Hagiwara Kenji, who had been smiling, could no longer smile. He asked with a serious expression: "Who said this to you? When did they tell you this?"
"A friend of my elder's, when I was about seven or eight years old."
The anger in Hagiwara Kenji's heart burned even more intensely.
That meant when Samukawa Shinryu was still a child, someone had said such terrible things to him... Didn't they know what serious impact this would have on a child's mental and physical health?
Samukawa Shinryu was already college graduate age but still remembered this incident, showing how much it bothered him. He might have been living in the shadow of these words, which was why he became like this!
"He was just your elder's friend, not anyone important to you. He casually said something but won't take responsibility for you—don't take it too seriously."
Hagiwara Kenji suppressed his emotions, smiled again, and gently comforted: "Do your family members know about this? Did they say anything?"
Normal family parents, hearing someone say such things about their child, would have gotten angry long ago. Careful ones would properly comfort the child, but judging from Samukawa Shinryu's current reaction, it was unclear whether the parents even took it seriously.
"............"
The system waited two seconds, discovering that Usuha Izuki, who had been performing well, seemed to have zoned out, and quickly urged: [Answer quickly! You didn't forget that Samukawa Shinryu's character setting is an orphan, did you?]
Only then did Usuha Izuki snap back to attention, though his reason for silence was ready-made and needed no explanation: "I'm an orphan. The director wouldn't care about such things."
This time it was Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei's turn to fall silent.
They didn't know how many times they'd been silent today. They felt like tonight's meal didn't even need to be served—they were already too upset to eat!
So he was an orphan!! Had they said anything offensive earlier?!
An orphan who, because of someone's words in childhood, vowed to become a police officer—what an inspiring story. The more moved they were by Samukawa Shinryu, the more excessive they felt the person who said those words was.
If this were a normal person, by now he would probably have triggered others' protective instincts and entered a group-favorite plotline.
But here was Usuha Izuki with the 'Black Screen Aura' active.
After momentarily feeling bad for Samukawa Shinryu, Matsuda Jinpei suddenly thought of a problem.
...Orphans seemed to be the easiest to forge identities for and control. Many gangs raised orphans and would pick promising ones to plant in the police force...
No, this was Hagiwara's life-saving benefactor—how could he think of him that way?
But that bomber himself wasn't very dangerous—his lethality came entirely from pre-installed bombs. What if someone was using this opportunity to curry favor with police?
No, if that were the case, they should have chosen someone who looked more approachable. Anyone with brains wouldn't choose Samukawa Shinryu.
But what if it was reverse psychology...
In just a few seconds, Matsuda Jinpei's thinking had gone through several rounds of internal conflict.
He couldn't help but look at Hagiwara Kenji, wondering if Hagiwara Kenji had realized this problem.
Matsuda Jinpei couldn't tell, but the system and Usuha Izuki could see clearly.
These two people's suspicion values were frantically flooding the screen.
The system wept with joy: [So much suspicion value! Usuha, we're rich!!!]
[Basic operation.] Usuha Izuki was very calm. [I already said, with the 'Black Screen Aura,' as long as you choose the right direction, you can easily grind suspicion values. You didn't need to be so anxious before.]
The system became dissatisfied: [Why was I anxious? You kept slacking off in the Middle East. When the newbie protection period ends and you need points to exchange for lifespan, if you find you don't have enough suspicion values, you'll be dead!]
When Usuha Izuki went to the Middle East, he didn't consider methods like sabotaging the Organization to trigger their suspicion. He really just went like a mascot to show his face to Arak Wine's old friends.
Those Middle Eastern bros, upon seeing Usuha Izuki, all nodded repeatedly: "Exactly like your dad described!"
Usuha Izuki had complained internally at the time—there was no actual adoptive son, so where did "exactly the same" come from? It should have been the Undercover System's influence when originally setting up the identity.
To grind trust values, the Undercover System had really worked hard to set up the background, thinking that Samukawa Shinryu using this identity in the Organization would surely be like a fish in water.
Unfortunately, he now needed to grind suspicion values.
Usuha Izuki told the Middle Eastern bros he didn't plan to stay in the Middle East and wanted to live an ordinary life in Japan, and could only be contacted by phone or email if there were problems. The Middle Eastern bros had no objections.
"Your dad sent you to Japan wanting you to live an ordinary life. Live well with your dad's wishes, and call me if there are problems."
Then the smuggling routes quickly resumed operation.
The difficulty felt like it was only finding opportunities to meet with the bros in the war-torn Middle East.
This left Usuha Izuki confused—how did the Undercover System set up this background? The adoptive father it arranged was the real cheat code, wasn't he? The adoptive father was like some kind of overpowered protagonist...
Unfortunately, the Undercover System left early and was still being repaired. The existing adoptive father materials were bare-bones and revealed nothing. He could only wait for the Undercover System to fix its bugs before asking.
In any case, because Usuha Izuki never planned to grind suspicion values in the Middle East, several months of suspicion values could only be described as better than nothing. Just the Organization's Middle East supervisor questioning whether he could handle Middle Eastern affairs and doubting the aid projects—then there was no other income!
Instead, Gin's bank card, having received salary deposits midway, was worth much more than the suspicion values he earned in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, money couldn't be converted to suspicion values. No matter how much money Usuha Izuki had, it was useless if he wanted to keep living.
The Organization originally wanted Usuha Izuki to stabilize things in the Middle East for a few more months, but the newbie protection period was only six months. With time running out, if he didn't start working soon, Usuha Izuki would really die. That's why he ignored the Organization's arrangements and returned to Japan early.
But he still maintained his unhurried attitude, as if only the system was anxious.
[I already said, I need to build up the tolerance threshold on the Organization side before I can grind suspicion values...] Usuha Izuki was casual. [After all, my acting is pretty bad. When mixing in the Organization, I have to be careful.]
Basically just exposing his true nature—expressionless, emotionless, and lacking technique, relying entirely on the 'Black Screen Aura' for support.
System: [If acting isn't enough, scripts will do! That script about someone saying you were suited for crime as a child was good—how did you think of it?]
Usuha Izuki laughed in his mind.
[Of course because someone actually said that to me.]
System: [...?!?!?!]