My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 11

“Is everyone here?”

Jo Man-seong, the president of Hyunseong Games, surveyed the gathered directors with a nervous expression.

“Yes, everyone is here.”

“Seriously, what’s going on? It’s almost 3 a.m.”

“I don’t know either. But if the call came directly from the secretary’s office at this hour, it must be a serious matter.”

People who had been sound asleep were urgently summoned at 2 a.m., and told to come immediately.

Naturally, no one knew what was happening.

“Let’s head in for now.”

As they made their way to the president’s office in the main building, a chilling atmosphere permeated the air. Unfamiliar people were glaring at them, and the secretaries were completely frozen, merely watching.

‘Who are these guys?’

President Jo Man-seong swallowed hard, looking at them, and then spotted someone he recognized.

“Secretary Jo, what’s going on?”

Just as they were about to ask questions to glean some information, Secretary Jo stepped in and cut them off.

“The Chairman is waiting. Please go in.”

“Ah, right.”

They nodded and went inside, where the Chairman was sitting on the main sofa in the center of the office, looking directly at them.

“You’re here?”

“Yes.”

“Good, now that everyone is here, let’s talk.”

Bae Deok-gi began, his expression thunderous.

“I’ve just heard something utterly ridiculous.”

“What do you mean…?”

“Detective Park, you explain.”

“During the recent Hyunseong Bae Game Tournament, the matches were rigged.”

“What?”

“What are you talking about?”

The directors flinched for a moment. A fear that they had been caught crept into their minds, but they tried to hide it and raised their voices in protest.

“Who would do such a thing?”

“So, I want to ask. Why is this happening, President Jo?”

Suddenly, the accusation was directed at him, and Jo Man-seong was horrified.

“No, Chairman, it’s not me! It’s really not me!”

“What do you mean it’s not you! The evidence is all here! You ordered the match-fixing in this competition!”

“I’m being framed!”

Jo Man-seong raised his voice, vehemently claiming he was being framed, but Bae Deok-gi didn’t even pretend to listen.

“You know how much money our company has invested in the Korean game market over the past decade. And you dare to play with me like this?”

“No, I’m really being framed.”

“The players have already confessed everything!”

“Yes?”

“Detective Park, play the report.”

“Yes, sir.”

Park Do-joon played the recording loud enough for everyone to hear. And within it, people’s voices could be heard.

-I was asked by President Jo Man-seong. He said he would give me money to fix the matches because if Kang Soo-do, who he was pushing, didn’t perform well, his head would roll…….

-I agreed to lose to Kang Soo-do in exchange for money.

-I also received entertainment with Kang Soo-do. Was the name of the bar Julia?

“Are you still going to deny it?”

“No! I really don’t know anything!”

Jo Man-seong cried out in frustration, but Bae Deok-gi already had all the evidence in his hands.

“Framed? You say framed! When there are all these photo evidences!”

Bae Deok-gi threw a file onto the table, and photos from the file scattered across the surface.

Everyone’s faces hardened as they looked at the photos. It was a scene of the players receiving entertainment at a bar, and Kang Soo-do was there with them.

“Jo Man-seong, you bastard. You dare to deceive me?”

“Ch, Chairman, I, I really didn’t!”

Jo Man-seong collapsed as if breaking down, pleading his innocence. But his words did not reach Chairman Bae Deok-gi’s ears.

“You directors are all the same. You bastards, you all knew but pretended not to know, didn’t you?”

“No, well, we…….”

“We didn’t know.”

“We really didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know? You didn’t know about this?”

“Yes. We…….”

“I sent you down to monitor, and you didn’t know? I’ll have to cut you all off.”

At Chairman Bae Deok-gi’s words, everyone’s faces turned pale. If they were cut off as directors, it would be impossible to find a job or anything now.

Who would hire an old director who was fired for incompetence, not honorably retiring? Moreover, they were directly targeted by the chairman of Hyunseong, a large corporation.

“Alright. There must be one guy here who did his job properly. Bring me the evidence that Jo Man-seong did this. I’ll give that guy Jo Man-seong’s position. The rest of you are all fired!”

At those words, everyone started looking at each other, and Bae Deok-gi shouted.

“Aren’t you moving? Do you all just want to be fired!”

At those words, the directors rushed out, and Jo Man-seong froze in place with a bewildered expression.

“President Jo.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“You go to the next room. I’ll talk to you later.”

The secretaries picked up Jo Man-seong, who was sitting down, and took him to the conference room next door. Bae Deok-gi looked at the empty chairman’s office and asked.

“Will evidence appear like this?”

“It will. Just wait a little longer.”

And before long, the directors came back with evidence. And they began to submit the evidence one by one.

“Unbelievable.”

The evidence was surprisingly solid. From detailed situations such as where they received entertainment to fix the matches, how much they gave, to photos from the scene and cost processing.

“You didn’t know about this?”

“I’m sorry, Chairman. But President Jo Man-seong’s power was so strong…….”

“As you know, we are not a major affiliate, so we had no way to contact the headquarters.”

“Is that so.”

Chairman Bae Deok-gi looked at it for a while and clicked his tongue. Then he looked at Park Do-joon.

“You seem to have a lot to explain to me.”

“The night is still young, Chairman.”

“Alright. It seems like we’ll have to pull an all-nighter for the first time in a while. Bring Jo Man-seong.”

At Bae Deok-gi’s words, the secretary brought Jo Man-seong from the conference room next door and stood him up. And Bae Deok-gi said to Jo Man-seong in a serious voice.

“Alright. There’s plenty of evidence. A bountiful harvest of evidence. Do you have anything to say to me?”

At those words, Jo Man-seong knelt down and begged.

“I’m sorry, Chairman. It’s… my fault. I was foolish.”

“No, that’s a relief.”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

“Call Prosecutor Yoon right away. Arrest all these bastards and handle it cleanly.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

At that moment, the secretaries and employees who were standing outside the door rushed in to prevent the directors from escaping.

“Ch, Chairman?”

“Why are you doing this to us?”

“Are you trying to pull the wool over my eyes? I knew from the start that you guys were trying to rig it, not Jo Man-seong.”

At those words, the directors’ faces turned pale.

“We’re being framed, Chairman!”

“We’re really being framed!”

“Framed? You brought the evidence yourselves and you’re saying you’re being framed? That’s ridiculous. Drag them out.”

“Ch, Chairman!”

“We’re being framed!”

The directors cried out that they were being framed, but with the evidence in his grasp, Bae Deok-gi had nothing to fear. The directors were dragged away, and Jo Man-seong was dazed, thinking he had been betrayed.

“Jo Man-seong!”

“Yes? Yes, Chairman!”

“We’re not going to ruin the game industry that we’ve invested in for over 10 years, are we?”

“No!”

“Call all the people involved, come up with a solution, and kick out all the related players. It doesn’t matter if they’re from other companies. Warn them that we’ll destroy them if they hire those bastards as players.”

“I understand!”

“Get out.”

“I’m sorry, Chairman!”

Jo Man-seong hurried out as if running away, and Chairman Bae Deok-gi, who was left inside, looked at Park Do-joon and asked.

“Alright. Now, shall we get to the explanation?”

“The job of a profiler is to predict behavior. You have to be able to predict future behavior by looking at past behavior, and you also have to predict what they’re thinking.”

“So, what does that have to do with those guys bringing the evidence themselves this time?”

“I gave them a chance.”

“A chance?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

They committed a crime. It’s certain that they colluded with Kang Soo-do to rig the matches.

“The reason I had you suddenly call them in the early morning was to prevent them from having time to coordinate their stories.”

Sleeping time. If they’re told to come immediately at that time, they have no choice but to rush out as soon as they open their eyes.

“Moreover, 2 a.m. is a time when the roads aren’t congested.”

There’s no way to delay the time by using traffic as an excuse.

“It will take about 20 minutes to wake up, get ready, and start driving.”

Furthermore, their drivers are off work. If they wait for their drivers, they’ll be late. Naturally, they have to drive themselves.

“It’s impossible to figure out the situation and coordinate their stories while driving quickly.”

There’s no one-to-many function in phone calls. There is in messaging apps, but they can’t use messaging apps while driving.

Naturally, they would have rushed over without even anticipating the situation.

“On top of that, I presented a scapegoat first.”

“You mean President Jo Man-seong?”

“Yes.”

If the company found out about the rigging, there would definitely be punishment. But in that situation, Jo Man-seong became the target?

Jo Man-seong has nothing to do with the rigging, but the important thing is that he’s the president.

“Human instinct is obvious. There’s a scapegoat, and he’s being suspected, so let’s pin the blame on him.”

In a desperate moment where they’re told to bring evidence immediately, it’s hard to come up with a genius solution. In the first place, no one will try to take the blame alone.

“If we had only said it, they probably would have thought we had no evidence, but we already have the recording and photos.”

“You knew they would believe that?”

Bae Deok-gi asked back in disbelief. The people in the recording weren’t players. They were the voices of the secretaries. The secretary’s office has to be running at all times while he’s working.

“They don’t know the voices of the secretaries.”

Even the key executives wouldn’t know the voices of people who aren’t their main secretaries, so would the directors of Hyunseong Games know the voices of the secretaries?

“But they would have thought that the Chairman wouldn’t lie. In fact, there’s no reason for someone like the Chairman to lie.”

In other words, they would have been convinced that something had happened as soon as they heard the recording.

“And what made that conviction even stronger was these photos.”

Park Do-joon said, handing over the photos he had organized earlier.

“But isn’t this a photo from Kang Soo-do’s social media?”

There’s no way to suddenly get photos of the players and Kang Soo-do. If you take photos with other people, it’s obvious that they won’t believe it.

In order to deceive them, Kang Soo-do has to be in it.

“I know. But would they know? The Chairman doesn’t even use social media, does he?”

“I guess not.”

People who are around the age of a director of a company usually don’t use social media. They’re not interested, and even if they do, they tend to do what they’re interested in.

Would they follow and watch a young guy posting on social media with women at a bar?

“They probably think this is a tip-off photo.”

There are players in this photo. Of course, not all of them were involved in the rigging. But there are definitely players, and in the first place, the directors wouldn’t have memorized the faces of all the players involved in the rigging.

Pro Profiler