The officer froze.
From far away, he had looked exactly like the photo — same height, same build, even the face under that hood looked close enough to make anyone second-guess.
But up close, the difference was clear. He looked same as Park Joon Ho from the side but completely off from the picture in his hand.
He exhaled sharply, lowering the picture. "Negative," he said into the radio. "Doesn't match. I repeat, doesn't match."
The man blinked, looking confused.
"Something wrong?"
"No, sir. Go ahead," the officer said, stepping aside.
The man nodded faintly and walked past, disappearing into the stream of people moving toward the stairs.
The officer stayed there a second longer, watching his back.
The radio buzzed again before he could think more.
"Unit 7, report!"
"Still no match at Gate B!"
"Keep checking! He's somewhere in there!"
Near the stairs, a few officers stopped another man, checked his ID, then waved him off.
Others ran up and down the platform, calling out over the noise.
"Anyone matching the description?"
"Negative. Still no sighting!"
One officer wiped the sweat off his neck. "Damn it, he was supposed to be on this train," he muttered.
But while they were still busy shouting and checking each passenger, someone had already walked past them.
Hyun Woo.
He was out of the platform now, hoodie low, hands in his pockets.
The flow of people made it easy — one step, then another, and he was out through Gate B without even slowing down.
Outside unit 12 officers checking random passengers, but none of them looked twice at Hyun Woo.
To them, he was just young boy face.
He walked down the street quietly, the noise of the police car siren fading behind him.
The faint glow flickered in his right eye again.
[ Echo Mask — Cooldown: 5h 38m ]
[ Alias Impression — Inactive ]
He let out a short breath. "Good," he said. "Don't need it."
Almost an hour passed, and one by one, the radios went silent.
No one had found anything.
No sight of Park Joon-ho anywhere.
Park Joon-ho had vanished.
Back in the Cyber Division, the monitors still showed the same station feeds — officers walking, questioning, then slowly clearing out.
Kim leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "That's it," he muttered. "They didn't find him."
Choi stood behind him, still staring at the monitor.
The blue light from the screen lit his face.
Then he crossed his arms, leaning slightly to one side, eyes narrowing just a little.
His face was calm, almost too calm.
Then a small smirk tugged at his lips.
"Someone played us," he said quietly. His voice had no anger in it — just thought.
Then that faint smirk returned.
"And he's good."
He stayed like that for a few seconds, watching the empty feed.
"From start to finish," he murmured, "every move planned… one step ahead."
Kim turned to look at him. "You sound impressed."
Choi's eyes didn't leave the screen. "Maybe," he said softly. "Finally… someone worth chasing."
He stayed like that for a few seconds, watching the empty feed.
"From start to finish," he murmured, "every move planned… one step ahead."
Kim turned a little in his chair, brow raised. "You sound impressed."
Choi's eyes didn't leave the screen. "Maybe," he said softly. "Finally… someone worth chasing."
Then one of Kim's smaller monitors blinked red.
A faint beep followed — short, sharp.
Kim's grin disappeared. He leaned forward fast. "Wait…"
His fingers started moving over the keyboard. "That's not a system alert. That's mine."
Choi looked over, calm but curious. "Yours?"
"Yeah," Kim muttered, eyes narrowing. "My crawler just bit something."
He tapped a few more keys — a new window opened, lines of text flashing fast across his screen.
"I set a personal web-trace — deep subnet. It picks up anything tied to Underworld Judge or similar encrypted posting chains."
Choi watched silently as Kim's fingers kept typing.
"Meaning?"
Kim smirked faintly. "Meaning someone just moved."
The monitor beeped again — the data froze on a username.
[ Underworld_Judge ]
Kim's chair screeched as he spun halfway toward Choi. "Detective… you might want to look at this."
He hit one key.
The big central display in the Cyber Division flickered and switched to his feed.
For a second, the screen stayed black.
Then a post came up, timestamped just a few minutes ago.
It was the reply to the SNS post.
[Underworld_Judge]:
A photo attached under the comment.
It wasn't a random post. It was a reply.
Right under the same thread from [Street_King97], the one that had mocked him before.
And attached to it — a new picture.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The clicking of keyboards stopped, and everyone just stared at the screen.
Then people started talking all at once, voices low, like no one wanted to believe what they were seeing.
The photo on the big screen looked too real.
A boy's face — pale, eyes open, a white sheet pulled halfway over his chest.
No blood. No wounds. Just that still look that told everyone what it was.
No one spoke for a moment. Then a few voices started whispering.
"Is that… a body?"
"Wait, this can't be real…"
Choi's eyes narrowed. "Kim. Run a trace. Find out who that is."
Kim's hands were already moving, fingers tapping across the keyboard. "On it."
He pulled up the image, fed it into the facial recognition line.
The screen filled with numbers and data boxes, matching one frame after another.
A few seconds later, the result popped up.
[ Match Found: Yoo Chan — Student, Gyeongbuk High School ]
Kim's face went stiff. "Detective… it's him. The same kid from that bullying case."
Choi's eyes stayed on the monitor, quiet for a second.
"Yoo Chan…" he said under his breath. "So he finally got his judgment."
Director Min stepped forward, face tight. "What the hell is that!?"
He turned on Kim right away. "Who gave you permission to run unauthorized code? You think this is a playground, huh?!"
Kim froze, halfway turning in his chair. "I—sir, it's a private trace I set up earlier—"
Before he could finish, Choi turned his head.
Just one look.
Min went quiet instantly. His breath hitched for a moment before he forced out a stiff laugh.
"Good work, Kim," he said quickly, voice uneven. "Who needs authorization, right? Right… we need to capture him at any cost."
Kim blinked, unsure, then nodded slowly and went back to typing.
The other officers just looked at each other, not saying a word.
Kim exhaled once, barely a whisper. "He… he posted it."
Choi walked closer to the screen and read the post.
He didn't say anything for a while.
[Underworld_Judge]
> He filmed a boy crying while they laughed.
Made it a joke.
Called it "fun."
Mocking my law comes with a price.
(read more)
The reflection of the light moved across his face as he stood there, reading it again and again.
Kim looked up at him. "This was just uploaded. Timestamp matches right when we were chasing Park Joon Ho."
Choi's jaw tightened a little.
"So while we were after a ghost…"
He paused for a moment.
"…he was already delivering justice."