My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 194

“This time will be the same.”

It got to the point where even the U.S. government was conducting human rights investigations into Shinan. Usually, such investigations target the least developed countries, nations with collapsed law and order, or dictatorships. In Korea, Shinan was the only place to become such a human rights monitoring area.

“Jo Pal-gyu will probably try to find a way out.”

“They’re coming out!”

At that moment, the reporter who was looking at the house through binoculars spoke with excitement. Park Do-joon also picked up his binoculars and looked in that direction. They saw four people rushing out of the house in a hurry.

“The one in the lead, shouting, seems to be Jo Pal-gyu.”

“Probably. The other three seem to be slave overseers.”

They seemed flustered, shouting at each other as they rushed over. They hurried to the house where the slaves were confined, opened the door, and began dragging the resting slaves out.

“What are they doing?”

“They’re probably trying to move the slaves somewhere.”

And the new exclusive that Park Do-joon predicted was precisely that: they would definitely hide the slaves.

“How did you know?”

The reporter next to him looked at Park Do-joon with a curious expression, as if Jo Pal-gyu and his gang were moving exactly as Park Do-joon had foreseen.

“Rescuing slaves isn’t easy. There are many slaves in Shinan, but the truth is, acquiring slaves isn’t easy. There aren’t many places that deal in slaves.”

“But slave incidents happen in other places too, don’t they?”

Park Do-joon corrected Lee Ji-soo’s understanding.

“It’s true that slave incidents happen, but Shinan is the only place where there’s organized protection at the local level.”

Slave incidents occur all over the country. Even in the United States and Europe, where human rights are valued, slave incidents still occur. Regardless of regional human rights or development, human greed for money is so strong that it can override existing social order.

“That’s why acquiring slaves is harder than you think.”

There are many people with disabilities, but most of them are under the protection of their families or institutions.

Taking people who are not protected by anyone and selling them as slaves is never easy.

“From the perspective of a slave supplier, Shinan is safer than an unknown slave owner.”

“I guess so.”

If they gave slaves to other regions and got caught, they would probably be thoroughly investigated, but Shinan would protect them thoroughly.

“Even so, they can’t dispose of over 100 slaves at once.”

Kill them all? They’re already identified. If they kill them all at once, it’s a guaranteed death sentence. No matter how much the Shinan organization shields them, they can’t protect murderers who killed 100 people.

“They probably can’t sell them to the outside either. When an incident like this happens, Shinan conducts a large-scale investigation.”

Of course, they know that the investigation is very brief and that things return to normal after some time, but for the salt farm owners who are using slaves, it’s just a nuisance.

“So, even if they try to sell them elsewhere, it’s difficult. And the price is no joke.”

The price of a slave in this day and age is unknown, but it certainly won’t be cheap. It’s hard to find them in the first place, and even if you do, you don’t know how long it will take for them to give up everything and do your work.

“Well, if it’s 100 people, even if it’s 10 million won [approximately $7,500 USD] per person, that’s 1 billion won [approximately $750,000 USD], right?”

“Right, I told you? If slaves can’t be easily replenished, they’re valuable labor, so they won’t kill them easily.”

Of course, it’s a bit different from protecting them while allowing them to live a human life, but at least they won’t kill them with their own hands.

“So, they’ll hide them somewhere. Probably somewhere on this island.”

As expected, Jo Pal-gyu and his gang began leading the slaves somewhere.

“Oh? They’re coming this way!”

“Hide, quickly!”

Park Do-joon hadn’t expected them to come this way, so he hurriedly moved.

“Aren’t you worried they’ll find out we were there?”

“We have to hope they don’t.”

Fortunately, they were too busy driving the slaves to pay much attention to any traces of people, as they might be raided by the police at any moment. Or rather, they wouldn’t have the mental capacity to do so.

“But where are they trying to hide them?”

“Who knows?”

It’s a whopping 100 people. There aren’t many places that can hide that many people. Park Do-joon quietly followed them into the forest. Then, he saw the slaves entering the ground one by one.

“Underground? Did they build a secret base underground?”

Lee Ji-soo was horrified and gaped.

“That’s impossible.”

Even if this island is practically theirs, building a base underground requires a lot of money, time, and resources.

To build such a secret base on this island, you would need a budget of at least 1 billion won [approximately $750,000 USD].

They wouldn’t spend that kind of money to hide slaves. It would be cheaper to hire foreign workers with that money.

“Then…”

“Shh.”

Park Do-joon told her to be quiet, and the four men who had put all the slaves underground hurried back to the house. Park Do-joon waited for them to get far away before slowly heading there. Only then did he realize what it was.

“An underground reservoir.”

“An underground reservoir?”

“Yes. There are often some on islands like this. Judging by how old it is, it was built a long time ago.”

There’s no running water on the island. So how do the island’s residents get water? The first is groundwater. But groundwater alone cannot solve the water shortage.

There are seawater desalination facilities that can convert seawater into fresh water, but they haven’t been developed for long, and the installation costs are quite high.

“So, in the old days, they built these huge underground reservoirs.”

To collect rainwater when it rained and use it as water.

“But now it’s useless.”

80% of this island is owned by Jo Pal-gyu, but the residents of this island are only Jo Pal-gyu’s gang. The people who own the remaining 20% don’t live on this island.

“It seems to be a reservoir that was used in another village.”

The reporter’s eyes sparkled as she tried to approach the reservoir. She looked like she wanted to take pictures and upload them right away.

“Not yet.”

“Yes?”

“Not yet. If we don’t tie them down properly, they’ll get off again, saying it’s just a custom or something.”

The methods of the people who have been holding people as slaves have been obvious. They claim they provided food and shelter. The court has accepted that so far.

“Even if we get those people out now, they have nowhere to go.”

That’s why Park Do-joon was thinking of calling other people to get them out.

“Huh?”

At that moment, Lee Ji-soo made a strange noise. When he turned his gaze to where she was looking, smoke was billowing from the direction of the salt farm.

“Could it be?”

“Let’s go.”

Park Do-joon and the others ran towards it. What they saw were the burning dormitories.

“They certainly didn’t have time to clean up.”

Even if they did clean up, it would be impossible to erase the traces of over 100 people living there. So what’s the solution?

“Burn it all down.”

“Yeah. And judging by that, those guys must be corpse dumpers.”

The destruction of evidence was too fast and swift. That means they’ve done it a few times.

“They must have heard warnings that they would be investigated a few times.”

At that time, they would just empty the salt farm for a while. It’s strange that there isn’t a single person on that huge salt farm, but the investigators would have just passed by without paying attention.

“But now that there will be an external investigation…”

So they burned all the evidence that they were there.

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? Now that the time we’ve been waiting for has come, we have to work.”

Park Do-joon said that and picked up his phone.

-Detective?

“Yeah, is everything ready?”

-Yes, everything is ready.

“Proceed.”

Jung I-yeon received a special request from Park Do-joon. Even though Park Do-joon is a police officer, it’s impossible to solve the case when the higher-ups are trying to cover it up.

Of course, Park Do-joon is affiliated with Seoul, so he has nothing to do with Shinan, but the power of an ordinary police officer in Seoul is completely different from the power of the Mokpo police chief. No matter how many reports Park Do-joon writes, one phone call from the Mokpo police chief is all it takes to end it.

That’s why Park Do-joon chose a different method: to hide himself thoroughly and bring a lawyer instead.

Of course, even if a lawyer gets involved, it’s obvious that the region will try to cover up the case.

But if it proceeds in a different way than the lawyer directly intervening, the story changes.

“It’s here.”

Dozens of ships entering Jangjeong Island. There were several people on each of them.

“Is it true that they’re keeping slaves here?”

“Yes, according to an anonymous tip, it’s certain.”

An anonymous tip is a vague statement, but it was enough for them to move.

After all, wasn’t this Wolgwang Law Firm?

“Let’s go.”

Dozens of ships heading towards Jangjeong Island. Naturally, Jo Pal-gyu discovered them and his eyes widened.

“Who are you people!”

Seeing the ships docking at the pier, Jo Pal-gyu approached them as if he would kill them right away.

“We’ve come to rescue the slaves you’re holding.”

“What nonsense? Slaves? There are no slaves here!”

“Don’t lie. Don’t you know that the rumors have already spread?”

Jung I-yeon said confidently. Of course, the exact location or address was not published in the newspaper. Only the fragmentary information of Shinan was released.

But that alone made it easy to confirm that this was the place. There aren’t many people who have recently inherited salt farms. In most cases, even if they inherit a salt farm, their children sell it off and do other things.

Most of them didn’t want to do salt farm work, which had a bad image and didn’t make much money.

“Get out if you’re going to talk nonsense!”

Naturally, Jo Pal-gyu tried to resist by raising his voice. But resisting couldn’t stop dozens of people.

“Why? Are you going to shoot us or something?”

Jung I-yeon said confidently. Just because she likes Park Do-joon and acts cute in front of him doesn’t mean she’s not a lawyer.

Rather, she was known as a venomous woman in court, to the point of being called a viper.

“I saw on the news that you carry guns? Why don’t you try shooting us?”

Jung I-yeon approaching step by step.

“I’m curious. What will the police behind me do the moment you shoot?”

“Police?”

Only then did they see the police. Two in uniform, and four behind them who weren’t in uniform but still looked like police officers to anyone.

“Go ahead and shoot.”