River Ward, NCPD detective.
Driven by a longing for justice born from childhood experiences, River Ward had joined the NCPD at a young age, hoping to uphold fairness within its ranks.
But the NCPD of the past had never given him that.
River Ward had once believed he could accomplish a great deal, but in the face of reality, he had merely been treated as a troublesome thorn, suspended and reprimanded time and again. Aside from maintaining a little fairness on the streets, there was nothing else he could do.
That only began to change after KK arrived.
KK's arrival had freed the NCPD from countless shackles and brought the long-lost word "justice" back to the job.
He had allowed every officer walking the streets to no longer fear ending up dead in some back alley for refusing the bribes and threats of corporations and gangs.
He had also truly filled the wallets of ordinary NCPD officers, who had once needed all kinds of side jobs just to scrape by, allowing them to focus wholeheartedly on order itself without worries.
To be fair, no matter which NCPD officer you asked, none of them could possibly be ungrateful to KK. The more senior they were, the more they understood the darkness of the past and the old NCPD, and the more they felt that way. Because of that sentiment, practically every NCPD officer instinctively defended KK.
Just as though they were defending their own future and lives.
As one of them, River Ward naturally benefited from the changes KK had brought.
The latest-model body armor, combat cyberware, and firearms that had replaced everything on his body were proof enough. Yet inwardly, River did not feel anything close to the worship his colleagues felt for KK, much less "reverence."
That was not