Shin Haesu lifted the scrawny middle-aged man by the neck.

The man was wearing a white coat and holding a surgical scalpel in one hand—it seemed this was the so-called Dr. Yang.

“Kiiik, k-khehk!”

Dr. Yang made strange noises as he flailed his arms and legs. Haesu suppressed his urge to snap the man’s neck and instead threw him to the side.

Crash! Clatter!

Dr. Yang tumbled to the ground along with the surgical tools. A pair of surgical scissors lodged into his cheek.

“Agh… Ugh…”

When he opened his mouth, the tip of the scissors was visible inside. He tried to get up but lost his balance and collapsed again. His nose was red, and his pupils were slightly unfocused—he seemed completely out of his mind.

“Y-you bastard! Do you even know who I am—”

“Yeah, you’re someone who deserves a beating.”

Smack! Thud!

Haesu’s slap sent Dr. Yang flying into the wall.

Whack—! Crash!

His scrawny body was so light that a single slap made him soar several meters.

After three slaps, Dr. Yang rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness. Haesu approached him and checked his forearm.

The man’s arm was covered in so many injection marks that it would trigger trypophobia.

“This lunatic…”

He was a severe drug addict. Judging by his current state, he had likely intended to perform surgery while high.

Haesu twisted his arm behind his back and handcuffed him, then turned to Kim Dong-dong, who lay still on the operating table.

“Hey, Dong-dong, snap out of it.”

Dong-dong rolled his eyes sideways and blinked rapidly in relief upon seeing Haesu.

“Anesthesia? It’ll wear off eventually.”

Dong-dong tried to open his mouth but gave up, instead shifting his gaze toward another man lying nearby with his eyes closed.

“Is that Yeongsik?”

Dong-dong’s eyes moved up and down in confirmation. Then he quickly glanced to the side again.

“Is he alive?”

Haesu approached Yeongsik and placed a finger under his nose. There was a faint breath escaping. His chest rose and fell slightly.

“He’s alive.”

Upon hearing those words, Dong-dong’s eyes welled up with tears before he finally squeezed them shut.

“You’re loyal, huh? Next time something like this happens, come to me first, got it?”

Dong-dong, eyes still glistening, eagerly moved them up and down.

“You’re pretty good at talking with your eyes, Dong-dong. Maybe I should rip out your tongue. Right?”

At Haesu’s words, Dong-dong’s eyes widened in alarm, darting frantically from side to side.

“I’m joking. The paramedics will be here soon. Stay put with Yeongsik.”

Haesu grabbed Dr. Yang by the scruff of his neck and dragged him upstairs.

Upstairs was utter chaos.

“Ahh, oppa, tie me up gently. You want to tie me up that tightly? Do you like this kind of thing?”

“Damn it! I poured a billion won into this place! That’s all my money!”

“I didn’t do anything! I was kidnapped, I swear!”

There were about thirty gangsters, plus the female employees and gamblers, making nearly two hundred people in total.

All of them were under arrest. Sorting out who should be released would come after interrogations.

Haesu had contacted every station near Starry Sky for backup. Even with all available patrol officers, it wasn’t enough, so riot police had been mobilized.

The hideout was deep in the mountains, making it difficult for vehicles to enter.

When the SWAT team arrived late, they were baffled to see the gangsters groaning on the floor.

“What the hell…”

“What happened here…”

Just then, the SWAT team leader recognized Haesu and his squadmate.

“Ah, it’s those detectives again. Should I be happy about this or not? Well, at least we didn’t have to fight. Take them away.”

The gamblers were handed over to the local station, while the gangsters and women were taken to Gangjin Station.

“…So you were sold? Then what’s that on your arm?”

At the detective’s question, the woman hastily covered her forearm.

“Oh, this? Those bastards forced it on me. Said it would keep us from running away…”

“I see. Anyway, do you know which loan sharks lent you money?”

“Of course. Those rotten bastards…”

The women who had worked there had taken out private loans but were deemed unable to repay them, so they were sold to the gang.

The Starry Sky gangsters had paid the loan sharks for the women, essentially buying them.

“…They told us we’d be freed once we paid off our debts by working here. But with the interest and the cost of the drugs, even after working double shifts every day, our debt only grew.”

“…If someone’s body broke down, they were sold to the Chinese.”

The place was called Starry Sky, but for the women, it was an inescapable hell. They had been saved, all thanks to Kim Dong-dong.

Some of the women wiped their tears and bowed repeatedly.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“Yeah, yeah, we hear you. But you’ll have to stay here until everything’s settled. We still need to catch those loan sharks.”

“Compared to that place… this is heaven.”

Meanwhile, the Violent Crimes Unit 1 was interrogating the gangsters who hadn’t been sent to the hospital.

A pile of ledgers and multiple body relinquishment contracts sat neatly on the table.

The team leader ran his hand over the documents.

“Are these guys idiots or just too honest? These contracts are all worthless, you morons. Well, at least we’ll find quite a few missing people thanks to them.”

At his words, a bald man, his speech slurred due to missing six teeth, replied awkwardly.

“We… did n-not kill anyone.”

His pronunciation was a mess.

“You sound pretty confident.”

“We d-did not… sell organs.”

“Where did the organs go?”

“We… d-did not s-sell them. You have… p-proof?”

The bald man met the team leader’s gaze directly. The team leader suddenly recalled something and shot up from his seat, his expression darkening.

“Ha, this bastard… This won’t do. Shin-dol.”

“Yes.”

At the team leader’s call, Haesu, who had been taking statements from other gangsters in the back, approached.

The bald man’s pupils began to quake.

“Have a serious talk with this guy.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Haesu pressed down on the man’s trapezius muscle and spoke in a calm tone.

“Shall we go over there for a little private chat?”

“Huh? Ah, no, why are we moving? Wait, hyungnim? Hyungnim!”

Haesu reached for the bald man’s hair, but his hand missed. Instead, he grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into an empty interrogation room.

Thud! Crash! Bang!

“Whoa, who’s stomping around upstairs?”

The team leader quietly turned off the interrogation room’s recording device.

Screeech.

It took less than five minutes for Haesu to come back out. His white shirt was stained with fresh splatters of blood.

“About 200 meters behind Starry Sky, there’s an incinerator.”

“Yeah? Never noticed it. Damn… So they burned them. What about the organs?”

“They handed them over to the Chinese. Judging by the transport time, the Chinese probably came to Korea to perform the surgeries.”

“I see. Dig deeper. Find out how they made contact and handled the money.”

“Understood.”

Haesu went back into the interrogation room.

“Aaaaaagh!”

The bald man’s agonized screams seeped through the slightly open door.

The team leader quietly closed it all the way.

Behind Starry Sky, an incinerator disguised with thick vegetation was discovered. A large quantity of bones and bone powder, presumed to be human, was found there.

Though no bodies were recovered, the evidence was clear—between the body relinquishment contracts, the names in the debt ledgers, and the missing persons list, everything matched.

The Violent Crimes Unit charged thirty additional gangsters, including the bald man, with murder.

The organ trafficking brokers were identified at their meeting location and handed over to the Chinese authorities.

Word later came that the broker had been swiftly arrested and executed.

This case once again set the internet ablaze.

[Front Page: ‘Starry Sky’—Illegal Gambling, Drugs, and Organ Trafficking; Thirty Gangsters Arrested]

┗ Is this a Chinese story translated into Korean?

┗ No, dumbass, it literally says Jeonbuk, Korea. Can’t you read?

┗ This is terrifying. Execute them all.

┗ These scumbags…

┗ Organ traffickers should have their limbs and heads chopped off with a machete.

┗ Trash like this should be killed on the spot and incinerated!

┗ Exactly, stop wasting my tax money!

┗ Wait, is this the Gangjin Violent Crimes Unit again?

┗ Whoa, you’re right. Is Gangjin catching all the criminals in Korea? Or are all the criminals just in Gangjin?

┗ Chicken or the egg, man.

┗ Detective Shin, I love you! Thanks to you, I got my life back on track!

People reacted as if this was something happening in another world, another country. To the average person, it was too surreal.

A bright, scenic office.

A middle-aged man sipped banana-flavored milk through a straw.

Slurp. Slurp. Gulp.

After finishing it in one go, he looked up at the sharply dressed man sitting across from him.

“So this case was handled by the Gangjin Violent Crimes Unit too?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the team with…”

“Detective Shin Haesu, who’s been trending online a lot lately.”

The middle-aged man removed the straw and neatly peeled off the bottle’s plastic lid before speaking again.

“Is that detective just really good, or does trouble just follow him around?”

“Probably both.”

The man nodded twice at the response.

“Yeah, that makes sense. The public has never been this focused on the police before. If the police’s authority is strong, public safety improves.”

“That’s true.”

“Let’s take this chance to give that unit—no, that detective—a serious push. Set up a meeting with the Gangjin Station chief.”

“Understood, Commissioner.”

A few days later, at the Gangjin Station Chief’s office.

The entire Violent Crimes Unit 1 stood before the chief.

“The Special Investigation Unit?”

“Yep. Special Investigation Unit, the first-ever elite violent crimes task force in Cheongnam. It’s a nationwide unit, so you can think of it as being directly under the Commissioner’s command. But you’ll still be based here, just keep doing what you’re doing.”

The team leader tilted his head.

“So… it’s basically the same? Just with more resources and better backing?”

“Was my backing not enough for you?”

At the chief’s words, Oh Gaeng shot up a thumbs-up.

“It was more than enough!”

“Chief, you’re the best! We don’t need the Special Unit!”

“Quit the overacting. If you guys take this role, Gangjin Station’s reputation will rise even more. Just do it. How many more members do you want? Two?”

The team exchanged glances. No words were spoken, but their expressions conveyed everything.

“Not yet. If needed, we’ll request reinforcements from the Violent Crimes Unit.”

“Alright then. Keep using your current office for now—I’ll get you a separate one set up. This is a direct order from the Commissioner.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you!!”

“Alright, dismissed. Just keep doing what you’re doing as the Special Unit. Oh, Detective Shin, stay behind.”

As the team left, Shin Haesu felt a slight unease.

His previous one-on-one meetings with a superior hadn’t exactly been pleasant.

“…Did you need something?”

“Since you joined, I feel a lot more secure.”

“It’s all thanks to my team.”

“Right, humility is a virtue. Keep next Saturday open.”

The chief had never asked him to keep a date free before.

“As long as there’s no case, I should be available. Why?”

The chief smirked.

“The Commissioner wants to have a meal with us. Just me and you.”