Chapter 314: Professional Hero Work

Honestly... Ignoring the fact that Singa Sister was a real chatterbox, who I believe was only talking so much because it’s the first time she got a partner to talk with while working like this, she’s a pretty cool superhero.

When it came to apprehending the criminals or backing me up, she handled herself professionally.

But once we were done with the thugs, she would just flip back like a switch had been flipped and start her gossiping all over again.

I was used to dealing with this since my sister would also follow me around the house and just gossip about everything back when we were younger so I knew how to at least engage with her by giving her noncommittal answers from time to time.

It wasn’t really annoying to me at least but it certainly was a little distracting to have her constantly be talking behind me while I tried to pay attention to search for more criminals to deal with.

I was actually a little glad that I had someone to accompany me since it was a little lonely dealing with this on my own while Sergei wasn’t with me.

As much as I would like to bring Dan along, it is unfortunate but he isn’t able to keep up with the abilities he possesses.

Well... He knows that I still go out to do vigilante activities and he also knows that I now do it with Sergei and he’s fine with it. Though sometimes when I want to take it easy, I would invite him along and we’ll just have a stroll through the more problematic parts of the city to see what we could find.

Most of those days we don’t see anything so we end up just chilling and talking about anything that comes to mind.

So having Singa Sister as my other companion for this past time of mine... I guess I can see this as a good thing.

Looking up, the sky was already beginning to darken and I turned to her while she was still in the middle of talking.

"... so my parents still don’t see my choice of this work as something that they think is good enough, you know? They say that I wouldn’t be able to find a husband like this and I’m going to end up single for the rest of my life. But come on, I’m still barely in my twenties so couldn’t they just cut me some sla--"

"Singa Sister," I interrupted her.

She paused before looking down at the streets below, probably thinking that I spotted another crime in progress but found nothing below.

"Ah, no. There’s no criminals," I informed her helpfully, prompting her to turn her gaze back to me. "I just wanted to point out that it’s getting late so... Do you have like a... Umm... Standardised working hours or something?"

She looked up at the sky that was tinged orange from the setting sun before reaching behind her to pull out her phone, which made me curious where she was even keeping that considering she was wearing a skintight costume to begin with.

"Ah... Right. My ’shift’ technically ends in another thirty minutes. I guess that’s just part and parcel of being a government worker. One thing that I envy you vigilantes for... You guys can just work whenever you want."

I raised an eyebrow, though it was hidden behind my mask, "You mean you have to stick to your allotted time to be a superhero?"

"Not exactly. But it’s the time that I get paid for. If I go overtime, unless there’s a good reason for it, then I don’t get paid for the overtime I put in. Though I guess there’s also a partial reward for each trouble I deal with so technically I can still get paid for that but the reward paid for it is kind of miniscule compared to my hourly pay."

"So you’re in it for the money then?"

"I won’t lie, the money is a big reason for why I’m doing this, the stability is the second one. I guess the third would be the fact that I thought I could at least do something useful with my powers while still making a living off of it. My family’s not well off enough for me to do this as a hobby."

That’s understandable... You can’t just feed yourself on heroics after all.

And if you’re good at something, don’t do it for free.

"So I guess you’re clocking out?" I asked.

She grinned, "I suppose so. There’s other supers who are taking the night shift so if I work too late, I would end up cutting into their work as well."

I rolled my eyes, "This is why I don’t want to register as a professional hero... Too much bureaucracy."

"Fufu~ I totally understand. Sometimes you just want to save people and cut out the needless paperwork right? Why is there even paperwork involved when saving someone? That’s why vigilantes exist and I fully support you guys in doing so, as long as you don’t go around making things worse of course. But society still needs the people in their shining suits and acting as their beacons of hope to not lose faith in society itself. That’s why there must be a balance between the two."

"I didn’t know you were into philosophical things like that."

She waved her hand in front of her, "Oh, no, no. I am definitely not. I just majored in Psychology so I know how people think. This is just a fact of our lives. Even before people gained powers, people only trusted the society they live in when the law enforcement is just and effective, even though there might be other people who would happily step in to help uphold the law. Without an official group that people can depend on to maintain the order, society would descend into anarchy pretty easily."

Well... I guess there’s some truth to that...

She then floated closer to me, "So what about you? Are you also clocking out? Or are you still continuing your... Activities?"

I looked out towards the setting sun for a moment before shrugging, "I’ll stay for a bit more. Usually these criminals are more active at night anyway."

"Fufu~ That is true. Which is why I sometimes take the night shift as well. And it also pays more. Anyway, I suppose we might be seeing each other more frequently now."

"What makes you think that?"

"Hmm? Did you expect this to be a one time partnership? I think we’re working together pretty well, don’t you think? Here."

She reached behind her again and pulled out a notepad and pen which really made me question where she was storing those things.

She scribbled something on one of the pages and tore it off to hand it to me, which I realised her number was written on it.

"There, you can give me a call when you are doing this little vigilante work and need a partner or something. Maybe if you run into some trouble and need some backup, call me for help too. Don’t worry, it’s my work phone so I’m not worried about you posting it online and doxxing me."

"I wasn’t thinking about that. But I guess... Thanks? And I’ll see you around then."

She smiled and gave me a two finger salute before flying off, disappearing into the distance.

I looked down at the note and folded it carefully before stuffing it in my pocket.

I don’t really intend to call her for this but... I guess it doesn’t hurt to have more options.

Speaking of which, I guess I should also get myself a work phone or something, since calling her with my personal phone would probably be a bad idea.

Actually... That brought another issue to mind...

I pulled out my own phone and searched through the government’s hero database where they showed the information on the various different professional heroes that were registered with the country.

There were quite a number of them though most were only part timers and very few were full time heroes working professionally.

Our country is pretty small after all and even though there’s still crime, it’s not on the level of having some crime happening every few feet. So there’s not a lot of work to be done here.

On the page itself, I could see Singa Sister’s profile and there were various pictures and articles that were written about her and her achievements.

It seems like she even has her own social media in various different platforms and one of it was the platform Y, which was a social messaging app that allowed people to post short messages on the page.

She had various different posts and I realised the newest ones were literally of the recent arrests we made of those criminals where she took pictures and even selfies of the criminals being apprehended by the police.

Hmmm... I wonder if I should also create my own social media profile?