The Mad Prosecutor Picked Up AI - Chapter 25
Only Noblemtl
Episode 25: Chief, would you like to play billiards?
Wi Jun-woo and I were sitting side by side in the car, looking at the building in front of us.
The restaurant building was on the corner of the street, so from where we parked, we could only see the back of the building.
Anyway, what we had to check was the illegal parking of cars on the street in front of the building. We couldn’t see inside the restaurant, but we could see the street, so it didn’t matter.
The building we were facing from the car was next to a restaurant building around the corner. I stared at it for a while across the street before asking.
“How many minutes have passed?”
“It’s been exactly 4 minutes, 27 seconds, 28 seconds, 29 seconds since I asked the question earlier.”
“oh my.”
It was a bit tiresome to just sit and watch. Nothing spectacular was happening, and I wasn’t tracking down the culprit.
It was really boring and dull to watch cars park on the empty roadside. On top of that, cars only started coming after 9pm, so I had to stay for at least another hour.
Wi Jun-woo also yawned as he sat next to me.
“Should I go somewhere else and come back later? It’s still over an hour away. Should I just grab something to eat? I leftover some food from earlier.”
“Well, how about there?”
He was pointing to the building right next to the restaurant building, the building we could see right in front of us.
The building was also three stories, with a gold shop on the first floor and a billiards hall on the second. The third floor was apparently closed, as there was a large sign on the window that said “For Rent.”
“Excuse me? A billiard hall?”
“Yes. Manager, do you want to play billiards?”
“You still don’t know, sir. People used to ask me where my wings were. I can fly as soon as I grab the cue stick.”
“My nickname was Fly Swatter. Because I swatted away all the flying people.”
Suddenly, the two of us in the car started glaring at each other, trying to figure out if the other was telling the truth or bluffing.
[That’s 100% true. Even if Wi Jun-woo lies, it’s obvious right away.]
‘Of course you’re joking. I’m joking too.’
“Well then, there’s no reason to hesitate. Let’s go.”
“Yes, let’s go.”
The two of us got out of the car without saying who would go first, crossed the street, and approached the building. The stairs leading up were on the right side of the gold shop, and in front of them were two sturdy young men laughing and joking.
As we were about to go up the stairs, a man who had been laughing and talking blocked our path.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to the billiard hall here.”
I was about to go inside, pointing upstairs with my finger, but this time both men stuck out their arms and blocked my way.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t come in.”
Although he said that, his face didn’t look apologetic at all.
“why?”
“We are currently full, so we cannot play the game.”
“Really? Then let’s go in and wait a bit. There might be a seat available soon.”
“No, no. There won’t be a seat right away.”
When we showed no signs of backing down, the man standing next to us said,
“No, there’s a billiard hall on the second floor of Omija Snack Bar if you go down the alley over there. Go there.”
The entrance to the stairs was completely blocked by two large men determined to block it.
I can understand why there are prayers guarding the front of a nightclub with good water, but how can there be prayers guarding the front of a billiard hall? Does that make sense?
‘That’s funny. What kind of a backwater billiard hall is full? Does that make sense?’
[That’s right. That sounds like just a roundabout way of rejecting Hyungwang and Wijunwoo.]
‘Could it be because of me?’
[sure?]
‘Do you really have to say that? Even though you’re an AI, you have to be mindful of your surroundings. Do I really have to say it and kill our poor Wi Jun-woo twice?’
It’s obvious. They must be blocking Wi Jun-woo from entering because he can’t wear clothes.
I glanced at Wi Jun-woo and raised one eyebrow.
How is our Wi Jun-woo? He’s wearing neat clothes now and he’s worth seeing!
“Isn’t this okay for us?”
“yes?”
I suddenly felt sad as I recalled the sad memory of my poor college days, when I pooled my money with my friends and went to a nightclub in Seoul, only to get kicked out because the water was too cloudy.
“What’s wrong with our team leader? He looks so normal. If he just doesn’t say anything, he’ll never get in trouble!”
The two men blocking the stairs looked puzzled, as if they didn’t understand what I was saying.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Wi Jun-woo didn’t even realize that I was trying to help him and instead scolded me.
“Anyway, you can’t come up now.”
“Go somewhere else.”
When the two men stubbornly refused, Wi Jun-woo also grabbed me and dragged me away.
“Okay, let’s go somewhere else.”
There was a clear look of embarrassment on his face.
“Shrug your shoulders, Chief. There’s no need to feel embarrassed about being turned away at the entrance! Those people who judge people by their clothes and turn them away should be ashamed of themselves.”
“Ah, hey! Be quiet!”
Wi Jun-woo looked around and kept covering his mouth as if he was afraid someone would hear.
[Hyun-kwang. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem like Wi Jun-woo is embarrassed by being rejected.]
‘That’s nonsense. So, what? Are you ashamed of me or something?’
[… … .]
There was a bit of a scuffle, but we didn’t really need to go to this billiard hall, and since it was past 9 at night anyway, we were just killing time, so I just left without a fight.
“Yeah. Well, it’s not like there’s only a billiard hall here.”
As I was walking back, two men passed us in front of me. I had a strange feeling, so I looked back and saw that the two men were entering the billiard hall.
“Welcome!”
“Have fun!”
The two large men who had been blocking us from going up the stairs bowed their waists in greeting.
‘No, what the hell?’
It’s not like I’m discriminating against anyone, what the? Are you saying that those people dress better than our Wi Jun-woo? Even so, you’re saying that!
As I immediately turned around and headed towards the billiard hall, Wi Jun-woo was surprised and hurriedly followed me. I questioned the two big guys blocking the entrance to the stairs.
“You said the seats were full? Why are you sending those people up?”
Then one of them smiled as if it was nothing.
“You have a reservation. We operate on a reservation basis.”
* * *
The next day at 6pm, we were parked in the same spot again, looking at the building across the street.
“Inspector, there’s something I’m really curious about.”
“yes.”
“Why are we here?”
“Yeah.”
“We already checked the parking problem yesterday.”
Yesterday, we were kicked out of the billiard hall, so we went to a nearby chicken place in a fit of anger, ate two chickens, and then went back to our original spot.
It was really hard eating only chicken without beer because I was still working.
They said that cars would start coming in after 9 PM, but in reality, they didn’t start coming in until after 11 PM.
“But isn’t it a bit ambiguous to consider that as illegal parking?”
“Right. There were cases where the car was stopped instead of parked. Even in cases where the car was parked, it was sometimes gone within 10 minutes.”
The problem with illegal parking there isn’t just because ‘the guy with the Benz ticket gets slammed like a piece of shit and the car crashes.’
Because the restaurant building was right on the corner, parking in front of it meant that pedestrians crossing the street would not be seen and there was a high risk of hitting them with the car.
It was a road marked with a yellow dotted line. Parking was therefore prohibited, but stopping for less than 5 minutes was permitted.
After 11 p.m., cars would occasionally stop in front of it. However, most of them were still in their cars, meaning they were stopped. Then, they would pick up passengers or co-passengers and then start again.
Of course, strictly speaking, this could be a problem, as the stopped state often lasted more than 5 minutes. In addition, there were also many cases where the driver got out of the car and parked it.
Because, just like the restaurant owner said, he got out of his car and smoked a cigarette in front of it, as if he was waiting for someone.
Strictly speaking, it was illegal, but it was an ambiguous situation where it was difficult to crack down on it unconditionally. It might be okay in the center of a big city, but in a rural area like this, it wasn’t a crowded place at 11 p.m.
After 11 p.m., it might seem harsh to ticket cars that only stopped for 10 minutes at most.
We concluded yesterday after observing the situation that it would be better to clearly post no-parking signs, install trash cans to prevent people from carelessly throwing away cigarette butts, and have an education period.
Since he went home after finishing the on-site investigation late at night and taking me to the official residence, Wi Jun-woo must have fallen asleep quite late as well.
But I’m starting to get annoyed that they asked me to come out here again today.
“We already reached a conclusion yesterday. In cases like this, let’s not be strict and apply strict standards. Let’s first provide guidance and then deal with it.”
“Yes, it was.”
“Then you can just write the report like that. Why are we out here at this hour?”
“Chief. When you looked around here yesterday, didn’t you think something was a bit suspicious?”
Wi Jun-woo said, recalling yesterday’s events.
“It was suspicious. The cars would stop for a moment, then pick up people and go again.”
“That’s right. Those cars weren’t taxis, so they were either picking up acquaintances or using valet parking. Think about it. This isn’t a big city downtown, so there’s nowhere for all those people to go after 11 p.m..”
“So was that real estate the problem then?”
I shook my head.
“The real estate was definitely suspicious. It wasn’t a place where you would do business. However, the interior wasn’t that big. Crucially, when I went yesterday, there were no signs of many people coming and going.”
“Then?
“There’s only one place around here where it wouldn’t be strange for that many people to gather: that billiard hall.”
Only then did Wi Jun-woo look around the street through the car window. The restaurant buildings were all occupied by noodle shops, nail shops, and real estate agents. There was no place where people would be crowded until late at night.
People in cars parked on the street sometimes came out of the noodle restaurant building, but most of them came out of the billiard hall building. When we pointed to the billiard hall where we were refused entry yesterday, Wi Jun-woo tilted his head.
“Hey, no way. What kind of rural billiard hall would be crowded that late at night?”
“Then, do you think those people would have come out of the gold shop? The only place around here where people gather until late at night is that billiard hall.”
The same was true of other buildings. Perhaps because it was in the countryside, most of them were closed by 9 p.m. when I checked yesterday. The only place where prayers were guarding the entrance late into the night was the billiard hall.
“But if those people were guests from the billiard hall, wouldn’t they have parked their cars in front of the gold shop? Why did they turn the corner and park in front of the restaurant?”
“I don’t know. If I go that way, will the main road appear faster?”
“So, what you’re saying is that we should put aside the illegal parking issue that was reported and investigate that billiard hall?”
As expected. If you pretend, it’ll turn out well.
“That’s right. No matter how I think about it, the billiard hall is suspicious.”
“Well, I wasn’t that bad.”
“Hey. What are you talking about? First of all, it’s strange that you discriminated against the manager based on his clothes.”
“That’s not it!”
“It’s not even Cheonghak-dong… … .”
“Cheongdam-dong.”
“It’s suspicious that a billiard hall that isn’t even in Cheongdam-dong operates on a reservation basis.”
“hmm.”
Wi Jun-woo, who had been nagging me from the side, thought about what I said and then nodded quietly.
“I see. It’s suspicious that so many people use a billiard hall in a rural area like this, and it’s also funny that they only have reservations.”
“What I’m saying is! Now it makes sense.”
“So what do you do?”
“We need to investigate what kind of place it is.”
Wi Jun-woo looked around.
“Then, should we start by investigating? Or should we ask the police? Have there been any reports or complaints related to this?”
“Why are you going around in circles like that? Just go into a billiard hall and see.”
“How do I get in? These days, you can’t get in without a warrant.”
The law is really good, but it’s frustrating at times like this. Even if you want to investigate something suspicious, you can’t just barge in.
But they won’t issue a search warrant based solely on the clues we’ve found. And since they only accept guests by reservation, we can’t go in pretending to be a guest.
“Don’t worry. There’s a way.”
[Ah, Hyungwang! I think there might be a way!]
“Oh, really? Is there a way?”
“Yes? To me?”
“No, not the manager.”
Ignoring Wi Jun-woo, who was looking at me with an expression like he was looking at a crazy person, I quickly urged Aliotta on.
‘What is the method?’