Free Web NovelAs expected by the audience, the next patient was—
“Hellooo!”
Influencer 1.
With a bright, energetic greeting, Influencer 1 sat down.
“Yes. What brings you in today?”
“I was referred here. Um, that... diet pills.”
There are prescription standards (BMI), and due to concerns about misuse, diet pills are, on the surface, prescribed very cautiously.
The conversation has to proceed as if it’s medically valid—only then can the doctor avoid any trouble.
“Lately I’ve put on a bit of weight. And in photos, I don’t look as good as I do in real life. I mean, if you see me in person, honestly, I’m pretty, right?”
“Yes.”
“But in pictures, because of my cheek fat, I come out looking... cuter?”
“Yees....”
At the doctor’s businesslike smile, Influencer 1 removed the hat she was wearing. As she brushed back her bangs, the moment went into slow motion.
-Pretty....
Her personal BGM kicked in.
But the doctor immediately cut through it.
Tap-tap-tap.
The rapid typing sound shattered the act. With a neat smile, the doctor spoke.
“How often do you exercise? Do you tend to binge eat, or do you experience changes in sleep patterns or concentration if you don’t eat excessively?”
Because of the doctor’s composed demeanor, the consultation room felt oddly dangerous.
But Influencer 1, as if refusing to accept that atmosphere, lightened it effortlessly.
“Exercise? Walking! When I shop, I walk a lot. Binge eating? Sometimes. You know how girls have those times, right? When you just have to eat chocolate and tteokbokki? You know? When that happens, it’s like—”
A hint of fatigue began to show on the doctor’s tidy face.
Oblivious, Influencer 1 had already started treating him like a friend.
“I usually sleep well. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. And concentration—see this? My hair? The curling iron is perfect. It’s seriously hard to get the left and right sides symmetrical like this.”
“...Although your BMI is below the threshold, you seem to have difficulty regulating your eating habits, along with hypersomnia and hyperfocus tendencies, so it would be better to manage it with medication.”
There was a faint irritation in his voice. freewebnovel.cσ๓
But he still acted like a professional.
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes. I’ll prescribe a one-month supply. If you experience insomnia, dry mouth, or palpitations, stop taking it.”
He took a deep breath and changed his expression.
Once again, his face became that of a perfectly upright, principled doctor as he continued.
“However, when you stop taking it, you may experience a rebound effect, so you should keep that in mind. Your weight category might even shift.”
“Gasp! My weight category?”
“If you just think of it as moderate assistance, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Influencer 1 nodded with an uneasy expression.
“Oh—hey, unnie, it’s me—”
As she left the pharmacy, she called someone.
As if she had already forgotten the fear she felt just moments ago.
* * *
Influencer 1 and the other woman ended up following the same route next.
They met at a dermatology clinic.
“Choi Hyeonseo. You may come in—.”
The moment her name was called, the woman hurriedly stood up.
At the same timing, Influencer 1 got up and followed her inside.
“Do you have a reservation?”
“Yes. Seven o’clock.”
While confirming her reservation at the desk, Influencer 1 looked at the woman walking down the hospital corridor and admired her.
“Wow... do a lot of celebrities come here?”
Her eyes sparkled with expectation—thinking that if she took the diet pills, she could become like that too.
It was a light, harmless curiosity typical of someone her age, almost cute.
That night.
Influencer 1 tossed the medicine bag carelessly onto the table and went to take a shower.
At the same time, the woman installed Tgram on her phone.
“I’m a pretty! girl!”
Unable to sing well, Influencer 1 sang to herself in the shower, completely absorbed in her own mood.
Meanwhile, the woman entered an illegal chat room.
“Ahh, refreshing—so refreshing—”
With a face mask on and drying her hair with a towel, Influencer 1 came out and drank a glass of cold water from the fridge.
Meanwhile, the woman made contact with a man hiding his face behind a stack of cash.
“Oh, right. I should take the medicine.”
Influencer 1 picked up the medicine bag she had thrown on the table.
Because she hadn’t organized anything, it was mixed in with her usual supplements and other pills—but she grabbed the outermost packet anyway.
Gulp.
Both of them took the pills.
“I wonder if it’ll work?”
Lying comfortably on her bed, Influencer 1 chatted on the phone with her friends while adding clothes she wanted to wear after losing weight into her cart.
“But unnie, isn’t this a bit too much? The reviews say the fabric is like, the size of your palm?”
While she laughed and rolled around on the bed, the other woman had already fallen into a deep sleep.
Thud.
“Ugh....”
A collective gasp spread through the theater.
The woman, who seemed asleep, suddenly opened her eyes.
A deep darkness covered her face, casting heavy shadows.
With trembling hands, she reached for the water bottle on the bedside table.
Bang!
But perhaps the tumbler was too heavy for her frail wrist.
She dropped it without taking a single sip.
“...Thirsty....”
She murmured weakly and stood up.
Splash.
The sound of bare feet stepping into water echoed.
She walked forward. Forward. Forward....
“...Thirsty....”
With a dry, cracked mouth, she muttered as she opened the window.
The wind brushed past her face. Her long hair fluttered.
Dangerous music played—a tense, anxious synthesizer.
“...Thir—”
Whoosh.
Her body tilted out the window in an instant.
Crash!
She hit the ground and stared blankly at the sky.
People rushed over at the loud noise.
“Aah!”
“Oh my god, someone fell!”
“Call 119, 119!”
Dark red blood slowly spread around her.
Her lips moved silently.
Thirsty.
One of the long-term side effects of diet pills was sleepwalking.
Wooo—wee—!
The sound of a siren—ambulance or police—rang out.
Bang!
<War with the Rule of Law 2>
The screen went black, and the film’s logo appeared.
Now, it was time to truly look into the dark side of the city.
* * *
“Another suicide case?”
“This area’s always like this.”
The police clicked their tongues as if it were nothing unusual.
Someone approached the scene, marked off with yellow police tape.
Upbeat, energetic music played.
The moment people saw the broad back, they smiled.
The one who could never lose—Detective Kwak—had arrived.
“Alright. Any signs of foul play?”
“None so far.”
“Are we sure she fell from her home?”
“Let’s take a look first.”
Detective Kwak entered the woman’s house.
Investigators were already inside, taking photos and collecting evidence.
“What the hell? Why is there nothing in the fridge but... this kind of crap?”
The refrigerator was empty.
Bottled water, barley tea, oolong tea—and more water, water, water.
There wasn’t a single proper thing to eat.
A clean, yet bizarre home.
“She was taking medication.”
An investigator approached, holding out the pills.
Detective Kwak took them and examined them sharply.
“This....”
Gulp.
As everyone wondered what the pills were—
“...What is it?”
The investigator sighed.
“Aren’t you supposed to be a veteran? You don’t even know this?”
“I don’t know, you bastard. If I knew every drug in the world, I’d be a pharmacist, not a detective.”
For now, Detective Kwak collected the evidence.
Lately, there had been a surge of suicides in this area.
This might be the lead.
* * *
Mapo Police Station, Seoul.
Inside the meeting room, many officers had gathered.
“Recently, the suicide rate among women in their twenties has increased significantly. There’s a pattern.”
Detective Kwak looked at the projector screen.
“They were all taking diet pills, and their refrigerators were filled with water.”
Photos of the victims appeared.
All of them were so thin, it was hard to believe they had been concerned about dieting.
“After checking their phones, we found that they were active on Tgram right before their deaths. The chat rooms were all deleted, so we couldn’t fully recover the conversations, but....”
[How much is it?]
[This really works, right? I’m in a hurryㅠ]
[Yes, front gate of Hyeonnoncho at one]
“There’s clear evidence of drug transactions.”
Click.
The meeting room door opened, and Detective Yoon entered.
Unlike the other detectives in their worn-out clothes, he was impeccably dressed in a suit from head to toe.
“The test results are in.”
Detective Yoon took out a zip bag from inside his coat.
Inside the transparent bag were identical pills found in all the victims’ homes.
“Yeah. So what the hell is it?”
“It’s a newly manufactured drug.”
The room stirred.
“A newly manufactured drug?”
“So we don’t even know its name?”
Drugs on the market come with clinical trials, ingredients, reactions, and data.
But this unknown substance had none of that.
Its side effects, reaction speed, and duration were all unclear.
“Is it a narcotic?”
“The forensics team says it contains psychotropic substances—especially a mix of rilfetamine and lopedrine. In fairly high concentrations.”
If this drug spread through Tgram, it would be a disaster.
Once it became untraceable by health authorities, the situation would spiral out of control.
“Is this those Nonhyeon bastards again?”
Before the Cheongdam group rose with their crypto wealth at Club D.K, there had been the Nonhyeon group.
Closely tied to the underworld—and just as hard to catch.
“Who knows.”
Unlike the Cheongdam group, who lacked powerful backing, the Nonhyeon group mostly came from influential families.
“We won’t know until we lock them all up.”
Behind his glasses, Detective Yoon’s eyes sharpened.
* * *
Director Sa entered a high-end bar.
On the table were fruit platters, whiskey—and a cup of tea for him.
“Let me pour you a drink!”
“Hey, don’t you know Director Sa? His self-discipline is insane.”
“I heard you’re making your public broadcast debut soon? Damn. No matter how many old doctors go on TV, it doesn’t matter. Director Sa, your face is like an actor’s.”
Holding the teacup and savoring its aroma, Director Sa looked completely out of place.
He was too different from this environment.
To his right sat a thug in a black shirt.
After quietly setting down the teacup, Director Sa signaled with his eyes.
The quick-witted thug waved the others away.
“Hey. Get out.”
Once only the two of them remained, Director Sa’s expression shifted ever so slightly.
“For now, we’re cutting off Rotichelli supply. Pull out from ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Tgram too.”
“What? You can’t do that! We just started taking off!”
Rotichelli.
The name of the new drug created by Director Sa—taken from the painter of ‘The Birth of Venus.’
A drug with tremendous effects on appetite suppression and concentration.
Because it made both the body and mind “beautiful,” it was given that name.
“It’s time to be careful.”
“Ah, hyung! Think about it. Right now we—”
Splash.
Without any change in expression, Director Sa poured tea onto the thug’s face.
The fragrant liquid ran down slowly.
“Listen.”
With that single command, he removed the watch from his wrist.
Even that movement was neat.
With his now-lightened wrist, he struck the thug’s cheek.
Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!
The relentless blows made the audience hold their breath.
The camera alternated between the thug being beaten and Director Sa’s calm face.
There was no anger, no irritation, no contempt.
He was simply beating someone—
with absolutely no change in expression. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
“Ugh... Director... Director.”
The thug collapsed to the side, his face covered in blood.
Director Sa grabbed his hair, lifting his head, and spoke close to his face.
“Do as you’re told.”
His tone was like scolding a delinquent teenager.
Things proceeded according to Director Sa’s orders.
As Rotichelli became harder to obtain on Tgram, the investigation hit a wall from the very beginning.
