In front of the ambulance.

Shin Haesu felt his heart drop at the girl's words, saying she had no feeling in her legs.

‘Reset, reset, reset!’

He kept shouting "reset" inwardly, but nothing happened. He had already used reset once today, so there was no way he could go back.

Haesu followed the ambulance to the hospital as the girl's temporary guardian. Before her guardian arrived, she was taken into emergency surgery.

In front of the operating room.

“My baby, my baby, oh my poor baby!”

An elderly woman rushed in, gasping for breath. She was wearing a red apron, suggesting she had been at work when she got the call.

After receiving a brief explanation from a nurse, she collapsed on the spot, unable to even take a seat. Haesu quickly supported her and helped her sit on a chair.

Noticing Haesu for the first time, the grandmother asked, “W-Who are you…?”

The nurse answered for him.

“He's a police officer who was at the scene. If it weren’t for him, your granddaughter’s condition might have worsened.”

“Oh, thank you. Thank you so much…”

“It’s nothing. I just did my duty.”

The grandmother grabbed Haesu’s sleeve tightly with both hands, tears streaming down her face.

She kept thanking him over and over, but her trembling hands and endless tears showed her overwhelming concern for her granddaughter.

After a while, a middle-aged man and woman, who were apparently neighbors, arrived to take care of the grandmother. Haesu left the hospital. Until then, the perpetrator was nowhere to be seen.

The next day.

Haesu had stayed up all night, and before heading to work, he stopped by the hospital again early in the morning.

The grandmother was still sitting on the bench in front of the operating room. The surgery had already lasted over eleven hours.

“Grandma, are you alright?”

“Officer… what do I do about my Hyun-ah? She still hasn’t come out…”

“The surgery will go well. Please try not to worry too much. By the way, has anyone else come to see you?”

At his question, the grandmother’s tired eyes briefly flashed with anger.

“That, that damn woman came by earlier. With some men in black suits! Do you know what she said? ‘Is she alive?’ That’s all she said before leaving!”

Haesu’s brows furrowed sharply. There was no law requiring it, but morally, that was inexcusable.

Just then, the operating room doors opened, and a hospital bed carrying the girl was wheeled out.

“Hyun-ah, my Hyun-ah, Hyun-ah!!”

The girl on the bed looked deathly pale, lying there as if she were dead.

The nurses hurriedly held back the grandmother while an exhausted-looking doctor wiped his sweat and explained the situation.

“She suffered intestinal rupture, pelvic fractures, and spinal fractures. Fortunately, the intestinal rupture wasn’t too severe, so her life is not in danger.”

“Thank you! Oh, doctor, thank you so much!”

“However… there is no response in her lower body’s nerves.”

“…What? What does that mean?”

The doctor hesitated before speaking.

“The broken spinal bone tore through her nerves, causing paralysis in her lower body. We won’t know for sure until some time has passed.”

The grandmother, with her mouth half open, collapsed to the floor. Haesu quickly supported her.

“This… this can’t be… She’s only seventeen… How can she be paralyzed at seventeen? How can heaven be so cruel? Take me instead! I’m old, just take me instead…”

She was lost in despair for a long time until she heard that her granddaughter had woken up. She immediately rushed to the hospital room.

Watching the grandmother and the girl embrace each other, sobbing uncontrollably, Haesu left the room with a heavy heart.

On his way to work, a thought suddenly struck him, and he took out his phone.

- “This is Ahn Seo-eun. I didn’t expect you to call so soon. What’s the matter?”

“A patient diagnosed with lower-body paralysis—can they receive better treatment than at Shinjeong Hospital? The perpetrator will cover the medical expenses.”

- “Yes. If the patient agrees, I can send someone to transfer them immediately.”

She didn’t ask any questions. She didn’t probe into the situation or the patient’s relationship to him. He got the feeling that this was how she would handle things whenever he needed her help.

“Understood. I’ll call you again at lunchtime.”

- “Alright, I’ll be waiting.”

Gangjin City, Dongbu Police Precinct.

Shin Haesu sat there with a serious expression, thinking about the girl.

Just then, the precinct doors burst open, and a middle-aged woman strode in. A man in a black suit, presumably her escort, followed beside her.

The moment Haesu saw her, his gaze turned ice-cold. It was the woman who had run over the girl.

As soon as he stood up, the woman spotted him and pointed a finger at him, yelling.

“So you really are a police officer! This country is going to hell with people like you… I’m here to file a report! This man broke my car window and dragged me out of my own car! I even fell and scraped my knee—look! I have a medical report and everything!”

The precinct team leader and officers, not knowing the situation, exchanged bewildered glances between Haesu and the woman, remaining silent.

Haesu stared down at her coldly and asked, “Did you apologize to the girl?”

“What? Apologize? I’ll just compensate her! She didn’t even die! It wasn’t on purpose, so why should I apologize? Do you know how much this mess has cost me? You should be apologizing to me! Look at my knee! And what about my car? There’s no way your salary could cover the damages!”

“Your car?”

“Yes! My car!”

Through the glass doors, Haesu spotted the white sedan parked outside. The driver’s side window was still shattered, apparently left unfixed on purpose.

Without another word, he stepped outside, reaching for his baton at his waist.

Swish—

“This car? This car.”

Without a moment's hesitation, he swung his baton at the passenger window.

Crash!

“How much should I pay for this?”

“Kyaaah! What are you doing?!”

Not only the woman but also her attendant and the officers at the station were stunned. But Haesu didn't stop there.

Next was the front windshield.

Smash!

“And this.”

Then, he slammed the baton hard against the hood.

Bang! Bang!

“And this!!”

The impact was so strong that the baton snapped. Tossing it aside, he slammed his fist into the hood.

Thud!!

A clear dent was left where his fist struck.

Haesu raised his bleeding hand, pointing his index finger at the woman.

“Don’t drive anymore. Is this worthless car really important right now? Because of you, that student will never walk again!”

“Y-you're crazy!! Call the police! Call the police!”

“Ma’am, we are at a police station.”

Even her attendant, overwhelmed by Haesu’s terrifying presence, didn’t dare to step forward and instead tried to calm her down.

Frightened, she backed away and screamed at Haesu.

“You, just wait and see! Do you even know who my husband is? Some lowly cop like you! Get ready to be fired and thrown in jail!!”

She fled from the station in a hurry.

Only then did the station chief and Officer Lim approach Haesu.

“What the hell… happened here?”

“Officer Shin… are you okay?”

Haesu bit his lower lip and nodded.

“I’m fine. Sorry, Chief. I’ll explain inside.”

Once inside, Haesu explained the situation, and his colleagues, treating it as their own matter, were furious, cursing the woman.

However, regardless of the reason, smashing someone's car in front of the police station was unbecoming of an officer, so he had to write a report about it.

During lunch, Haesu immediately went to visit the hospitalized student.

Her name was Kang Hyun-ah, a first-year high school student—still at the peak of her youth.

She lay in bed, quietly staring out the window.

“Kang Hyun-ah.”

Slowly, she turned her head to face him. Her eyes were moist, as if she had been crying just moments ago.

“Who…”

“Uncle Police. Where’s your grandmother?”

“Grandma went to work… Ah, you’re the one who helped me…”

As Haesu remained silent, simply watching her, she lowered her head and began to cry again.

“Thank you…”

Kneeling on one knee to lower his eye level to hers, Haesu spoke as gently as he could.

“I know someone at Daeseong Hospital. When I told them about your situation, they said they’d do everything they could… If you’re okay with it, would you like to transfer hospitals?”

“Okay. Thank you… Hhic.”

Hyun-ah’s tears streamed down as if a broken button had been pressed.

To suffer paraplegia at such a young age—not because of her own mistake, but because of someone else—she must have felt as if the world had collapsed.

After getting her grandmother’s permission, Haesu immediately contacted Ahn Seo-eun.

Within less than an hour, Seo-eun sent Daeseong Hospital’s medical team, who carefully transferred Hyun-ah.

Since she had undergone surgery at Shinjeong Hospital, they gathered all her medical records and patient status reports.

Once Hyun-ah was safely loaded into the Daeseong Hospital ambulance, Haesu called Seo-eun again.

“Hyun-ah just left for Daeseong Hospital. Thank you. Please take good care of her.”

- “You’re going out of your way to help when you don’t even have a drop of blood in common. Are all cops like this? No… not all of them.”

Speaking with certainty, Haesu shook his head.

“Most of them are.”

- “I hope so. Anyway, I’ll make sure to pay extra attention.”

After ending the call, Haesu returned to the station.

But something was off.

The officers' expressions were strange.

Just then, the station chief approached him.

“The precinct just called. That woman? She officially filed a complaint against you—for causing distress, property damage, and assault? Ha! This is ridiculous.”

As expected, Haesu wasn’t surprised. At that moment, Officer Lim approached, holding out her phone.

“Officer Shin, take a look at this.”

It was a video uploaded on YouTube. The title read…

“K-Police, Assaulting a Civilian Woman?”

The video showed Haesu running up to the car, smashing the window, and dragging the woman out. Above his head, the caption read: ‘Officer Shin XX of the Police.’

The video was posted by a popular clickbait YouTuber known for provocative content, and the views were skyrocketing.

Haesu let out a dry laugh.

“Ha… Haha… This woman… is she an idiot?”

At the same time, inside the CEO’s office at Daeseong E&M.

Ahn Seo-eun was watching the same video.

“Haha.”

Already aware of the full context, she laughed in disbelief, just like Haesu. But then, her expression turned cold.

“Chief Kang.”

“Yes, Director?”

“Have you finished gathering footage from the accident?”

“Yes, we’re currently working on censoring Hyun-ah’s face.”

“Upload it. Also, activate the Digital Task Force.”

“You want to mobilize the Digital Task Force… for this case?”

As the CEO of an entertainment company managing celebrities, Seo-eun had built her own special team.

The Digital Task Force—also known as the ‘Comment Army.’

They didn’t spread falsehoods or manipulate facts, but they were highly effective at shifting public attention or amplifying information based on actual events.

“Yes. Crush that YouTuber and that woman completely.”