2026-04-02 18:00:57
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CHAPTER 10: Bitter Victory
Baek Si-Hoon froze, realizing what he had just screamed into a microphone in front of a district judge. The color rapidly drained from his face. He slumped back into his chair, his chest heaving, his eyes wide with sudden terror. I took a slow step back, letting the silence stretch out, letting his own words hang the noose around his neck. [Opponent Argument Broken][Combo Multiplier x2][Judge Approval: +60%][Victory Probability: 95%]"She didn't have any money," I repeated softly, the words carrying perfectly across the room. "But you testified you chased her because she stole the cash. You testified you were trying to retrieve five hundred thousand won. But just now, you admitted she didn't have it on her in the alley. Because she dropped it when you cornered her."I turned my back on him and looked directly at Han Seo-Young. She was standing perfectly still, her face an unreadable mask of cold stone, but her hands were trembling slightly by her sides. She knew she had lost. "Y
CHAPTER 9: Fatal Flaw
The courtroom went dead silent. The only sound was the low, steady hum of the air conditioning vent above the jury box. Baek Si-Hoon blinked. He reached up with his left hand, his fingers lightly brushing the thick white foam of the cervical collar holding his neck rigid. He forced a confused, nervous smile. "I... I don't understand the question, Attorney Jin," Baek stammered, his voice trembling perfectly. "It wasn't a question," I said. My voice was calm, but underneath it, my heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I took a step closer to the witness stand. The polished wood floor creaked under my cheap shoes. "It's an observation. You testified that you grabbed the defendant's hoodie from behind while she was fleeing, and she turned and struck you in the head with a steel pipe.""Yes," Baek nodded weakly. "That's what happened.""Objection," Prosecutor Han Seo-Young drawled from her table, not even bothering to stand up. "Relevance, Your Honor? Is defense counsel
CHAPTER 8: The Real Victim
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, my voice completely hollow. I dropped to one knee, forcing myself to be at her eye level. The smell of her unwashed hair and cheap soap filled my nose. "Ji-Won, why didn't you tell me this yesterday?"She looked up at me, her dark eyes utterly broken. "Because I have two shoplifting charges on my record," she whispered, her voice cracking into a ragged sob. "Because I live in a slum. Because I have no parents. Because you're a cheap public defender who looked at me like I was garbage the second you walked into that interrogation room." Her words hit me like a physical blow to the stomach. "Who is going to believe a thief over a guy working a minimum wage night shift?" she cried, burying her face in her knees. "Even if I told you, you wouldn't have believed me. You would have told me to plead guilty anyway. So I just wanted to hide it. I thought if they didn't have the video, I could just take the theft charge and it would go away."I stared at the
CHAPTER 7: Fifteen Years
Fifteen years.The words hung in the dead air of Courtroom 302, heavy and suffocating like a thick wool blanket soaked in freezing water. I couldn't feel my fingers. I gripped the edges of the defense table so hard my knuckles turned a bruised, bloodless white, but the wood beneath my hands felt like miles away. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic, agonizing rhythm that sent a sickening wave of nausea up my throat. I tasted copper. I had bitten the inside of my cheek without realizing it.Beside me, Lee Ji-Won was no longer breathing. She was frozen, a statue wrapped in an oversized green detention uniform. Her eyes were fixed on the black screen of the monitor, reflecting a horror so profound it seemed to hollow out her skull."Fifteen years," Prosecutor Han Seo-Young repeated, letting the number echo. She didn't shout. She didn't need to. Her voice was a perfectly calibrated weapon, slicing through the silence. "The prosecution formally submits the amended charges, Your Ho
CHAPTER 6: The Steel Pipe
I gritted my teeth. The system was tracking his shifting bias in real-time. Han was erasing my progress with every word."Furthermore," Han continued, pacing slowly toward the center of the room. "The defense claims she acted purely out of survival. But true desperation leaves a trail of regret. The defendant showed no remorse when apprehended. She lied to the arresting officers. She attempted to construct a false alibi involving a local PC cafe. She only confessed when backed into a corner by her own counsel."Han stopped pacing. She turned her head slightly, locking eyes with me. Her gaze was cold, sharp, and utterly merciless. "A suspended sentence does not rehabilitate this kind of behavior, Your Honor. It validates it. The prosecution stands by its recommendation of two years in a federal facility."Judge Yoo leaned back in his chair, tapping a gold pen against his desk. The dull sound echoed in the quiet room. He looked at Ji-Won, his expression entirely devoid of pity. "Attor
CHAPTER 5: Guilty Plea
The walk from the basement holding cells to Courtroom 302 felt like marching to my own execution. My cheap leather shoes scuffed against the polished marble floor of the Seoul Central District Court. The air conditioning was blasted on high, chilling the nervous sweat that clung to my back, but I couldn't stop wiping my damp palms on my trousers. In the upper right corner of my vision, the blue translucent text remained fixed, a cruel, glowing tombstone. [Victory Probability: 0%]I had the truth. Lee Ji-Won was guilty. In any normal scenario, a swift guilty plea for a nineteen-year-old first-time major offender facing extreme poverty would open the door for a suspended sentence. I could throw her on the mercy of the court, cite the threatening text message from her landlord, and get her community service. So why did the system still say zero? I pushed through the heavy, oak double doors of Courtroom 302. The scent of lemon floor wax and old, dusty paper hit the back of my throat.
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