My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 251

The Land of Heat

“Looks like you had a run-in with Hong Geun-jong.”

“He must have come to see you.”

Bae Deok-gi abruptly summoned Park Do-joon.

The first words Bae Deok-gi spoke when Park Do-joon met him were exactly what Park Do-joon had expected.

“Yes, he talked about the pride of a chaebol [family-owned conglomerate] family and asked me to back off.”

“So, what did you decide to do?”

“Well, I sent him away nicely.”

“You did well.”

“Do you know what I said?”

“If you had said something unfavorable to me, you wouldn’t have called me here.”

At that, Bae Deok-gi chuckled. As expected, Park Do-joon had anticipated everything.

“That young punk has no manners.”

It was obvious. Hong Geun-jong wanted to retaliate at all costs, but knowing that Chairman Bae Deok-gi was behind Park Do-joon, he wanted to persuade him to back off.

The police? Chaebols can make even the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency kneel if they want to. So, the identity of a police officer is not scary. But no matter how reckless Hong Geun-jong is, he wouldn’t have the guts to mess with Hyunsung Group, which is much higher in the business world rankings.

“If he did something like that, Chairman Hong Chang-sik wouldn’t stand still.”

“You know well. So, did you provoke him?”

“Rather than provoking him, I figured he would call me if he got desperate. The more he antagonizes me, the more I can demand when I deal with him, right?”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Bae Deok-gi clicked his tongue. He was once again envious of Park Do-joon’s ability to calculate so far into the future.

“Anyway, I don’t think you called me here just to praise me for protecting you.”

“There’s something I need your help with.”

“Did someone cause an accident?”

“It’s not that someone caused an accident. It’s just that there’s a big contract, but the other side isn’t budging.”

“The other side isn’t budging?”

“There’s a big deal regarding the Aranfiate region in Saudi Arabia.”

“Aranfiate?”

“Wait a moment.”

Bae Deok-gi pressed the intercom to call someone from outside.

“Tell them to bring the data.”

-Yes, Chairman.

“I don’t have time to look at all the data coming from a group like Hyunsung, whatever it is.”

“Don’t worry. It’s summarized.”

Park Do-joon nodded at those words. After looking at it for a while, Park Do-joon immediately realized what the problem was.

“China’s Poongjin Construction is the problem.”

“Yes, they are the strongest competitor.”

Aranfiate in Saudi Arabia can be seen as a new city construction project similar to building a new district in Korea. The only difference is that Saudi Arabia does not yet have a large company capable of carrying out such a large-scale project.

Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil money, so it is not a country that is good at doing difficult things themselves. Therefore, in the case of this construction industry, they usually bring in companies with huge assets that can carry out construction from the outside and entrust them with the construction.

“The Aranfiate project can be said to be the largest construction project in Saudi Arabia.”

“Usually, they wouldn’t give this kind of project exclusively to one company, would they?”

No matter how big a company is, it is a scale that creates an entire city. No company in the world has the ability to do this alone.

So, usually, they divide the area and each company is in charge of each area.

“The remaining areas have already been taken by Europe and the United States. You know this, right? This is not just a matter of ability, but also a political issue.”

“Yes, I know.”

If this level of construction is awarded to only one country, other countries may have bad feelings. But the biggest problem is that if construction is entrusted to one country, raw materials are imported only from that country, which causes raw material prices to skyrocket and costs more money.

Therefore, in the case of such large-scale industries, places that are somewhat distant are selected, and usually, work is assigned by continent.

One to Europe, one to the United States, and so on.

“There is only one area left, and that is in Asia. As you know, Asia is also one of Saudi Arabia’s most important customers, right?”

“That’s right.”

If they are completely excluded, there is a high possibility that bad things will be said later, so Saudi Arabia naturally needs to include a suitable Eastern company.

“But China… It’s not easy.”

“Yes, I said they are competing, but it’s ambiguous to see it as competition. But the Aranfiate project is too good to just give up.”

“Is it not worth fighting for?”

“Because it’s China.”

It’s a short phrase, but it contains a lot of meaning at the same time.

‘Because it’s China.’

First of all, the bad reputation of Chinese construction companies is very famous. ‘Roughly done’ is the default, embezzlement is essential, and poor construction is optional.

And China is doing all sorts of atrocities while doing construction locally. In fact, in some countries, they have a history of collectively beating local workers and treating them like slaves while working, so the only countries in the world that entrust construction to China are countries participating in China’s economic alliance called ‘One Belt, One Road.’

‘Of course, most of the results are not good.’

Park Do-joon remembers that. Most of those countries end up heading for national bankruptcy due to China’s atrocities later.

In the first place, economic loans are usually money lent at a low price for the development of the country, but the money lent by China had almost usurious interest rates.

“But since the other party is China, it will offset that.”

“I’m glad you understand quickly.”

There are such bad parts, but conversely, there are good parts… no, there are unavoidable parts. The other party is China. It has a much larger economy than Korea and imports more oil from Saudi Arabia than Korea.

“So, even if the technology for construction is poor, we can’t ignore it.”

“Hmm.”

Park Do-joon stroked his chin at those words. That was definitely the case. From an economic point of view, Saudi Arabia would unconditionally choose China, but the atrocities and low-quality results shown so far are holding them back.

“Do you know what this means?”

“It means they have similar weight.”

“That’s right.”

The weight is subtly similar, so Saudi Arabia cannot reach out to any country.

“Although it’s Asia, there are only three countries that can actually do it: Korea, China, and Japan.”

“Is Japan out of the question?”

“Those kids are calling for such high prices.”

There was a story that Japanese companies were calling for incredibly high costs for some reason.

“Besides, the Japanese method has a structure that can only increase construction costs.”

“That’s the same with China… Well, China has cheap prices.”

Japan and China encourage the use of all raw materials from their own countries. It’s called encouragement, but it’s practically mandatory.

China has cheap prices, so they can at least match the construction costs, but Japan’s prices are too expensive, so the costs are too high.

In the case of Korea, it is just a recommendation, and they do not force the purchase of raw materials from other countries like in other countries. In the first place, Korea has almost no raw materials, so they can’t even cover all the raw materials used in construction.

“It’s a close situation.”

From Saudi Arabia’s point of view, if they entrust it to Korea, China will obviously be uncomfortable, and if they entrust it to China, they cannot ignore the possibility of doing it sloppily, so they are worried.

“But just because China is uncomfortable doesn’t mean we have to give it to them unconditionally, right?”

“That’s right. That’s why it’s so close. If that wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be a fight.”

China cannot complain if they are dropped here. Because China is a customer that imports a lot of oil from Saudi Arabia, but of course, they import it because they need it.

If they complain and cause trouble because they were dropped, they will be in a lot of trouble.

“Besides, Saudi Arabia is one of the few pro-China countries with power, right?”

“Well, that’s right.”

Originally, Saudi Arabia was a pro-American country. But after the crown prince changed, they switched from a pro-American line to a pro-China line a long time ago.

In fact, it is one of the few pro-China countries among powerful countries, so China can’t cause trouble. If Saudi Arabia changes its line to a pro-American line, China will be in a truly difficult situation.

“The balance is precarious. We need something that can turn it over.”

Park Do-joon stroked his chin at those words. When Bae Deok-gi says this, it means he wants him to find a card to turn things around.

“But I don’t think I can do anything. This isn’t Korea, is it?”

In the first place, if he was in Korea, he would help in some way, but it’s Saudi Arabia, not another country.

“Even if I want to take a vacation, I don’t have enough vacation days left.”

“Can you help?”

“It’s possible.”

Bae Deok-gi still remembered what Park Do-joon had said.

He said that people like profilers can use psychological knowledge to lead transactions to their advantage.

“Then leave that to me.”

“Yes? How?”

“Don’t worry. Who am I? I’m the chairman of Hyunsung. There’s almost nothing I can’t do with my power in Korea.”

“No way, a business trip to Saudi Arabia… is this real?”

The team leader said in disbelief when Park Do-joon came to the police station the next day.

“Yes? You’re telling me to go to Saudi Arabia?”

“The Korean Embassy in Saudi Arabia requested the dispatch of a profiler [a specialist in analyzing criminal behavior]. They specifically asked for you.”

“Yes? Me? Why?”

Of course, Chairman Bae Deok-gi said he would find a way, but Park Do-joon did not expect that the Korean Embassy in Saudi Arabia, of all places, would request a dispatch.

“Specifically, only you. Ji-soo can’t go.”

“Eek? Excluding me?”

Lee Ji-soo, who had been looking forward to going on a business trip to Saudi Arabia, suddenly looked deflated.

“What can you do? It’s Saudi Arabia, not another country. It’s a country where women can’t even speak freely, let alone investigate. What are you going to do there?”

“That’s a shame.”

“Go somewhere good later.”

Ji-soo is sad at the team leader’s words. Park Do-joon clicked his tongue and asked back.

“What’s the matter?”

Currently, South Korea does not introduce psychological warfare into politics or policies. Even if they introduced it without Park Do-joon knowing, Park Do-joon is not yet qualified or recognized to enter such a place. But the embassy is calling him?

“It’s because of the Korean rape and murder case that occurred in Saudi Arabia?”

“Korean rape and murder case?”

Park Do-joon frowned at those words.

“Yes, they need to investigate it secretly.”

“Well, I understand if it’s Saudi Arabia.”

People often mistake Saudi Arabia for a developed country because it has so much oil money. But Saudi Arabia is still a dictatorship, and even human rights are at the bottom. Saudi Arabia only has a lot of money, but it does not have an advanced political or judicial system.