My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 332

“Let’s go.”

Park Do-joon drove to the scene. It was a quiet road, with the body lying beside it.

Ordinarily, one might assume the body had simply been dumped there. But the location wasn’t the primary issue; it was the way the body was arranged.

“Ugh!”

Lee Ji-soo stopped short as she approached. A large pot, the kind you’d find in a cafeteria, dominated the scene. It wasn’t hard to guess its contents, making it difficult for her to get closer.

“Are you okay?”

“Well… I need a moment to prepare myself.”

Lee Ji-soo nodded, and Park Do-joon returned the gesture.

“That’s understandable.”

“How are you so unaffected, Senior?”

“I don’t know? I guess I’m used to it…?”

“But there’s not much difference between when you and I joined the force, is there?”

“Hahaha.”

Park Do-joon laughed awkwardly, but a feeling stirred within him.

‘I don’t remember, but this definitely happened to me before.’

Specifically, this had occurred before his regression [time travel/reincarnation]. The regression’s side effects clouded his memory, yet the feeling was familiar.

“Wait here.”

“Pardon?”

“Look at the photos later.”

“But Senior, you said you need to see the scene to profile accurately?”

“That’s true. But if the profiler is mentally shaken by the scene, how can they profile effectively?”

“That’s true, but…”

Even seasoned police officers can be shocked by gruesome scenes. Allowing that shock to cloud judgment makes it difficult to think clearly.

“Still…”

“Of course, you’ll have to face it eventually. But it’s best to wait until you’re ready to handle the mental impact, especially given your situation.”

“My situation?”

“Lee Chang-man [referring to a previous difficult case] was a pain, so your mental state can’t be normal.”

Lee Ji-soo offered a wry smile, acknowledging the truth in his words.

“Stress weakens you, and that affects your work. Avoid excessive shock until you’ve recovered. Looking at photos won’t make much difference in this case.”

“Yes.”

Knowing what’s inside, a direct viewing offers no additional insight for a profiler. Avoiding the shock is the better option.

“Let’s go.”

When Park Do-joon addressed Seo Joo-won, Seo Joo-won handed him a white protective suit, saying,

“It won’t be a pretty sight, you know?”

“I’m mentally prepared.”

“That doesn’t guarantee you’ll be okay.”

Seo Joo-won offered a weary smile.

“I can’t get used to it either.”

“You seem to be exclusively dispatched for this case.”

“How did you know?”

“Because it’s a case any normal person would avoid.”

Everyone would try to dodge it, likely pressuring someone who’s been involved before to take it on again. Moreover, Seo Joo-won is often pushed around in the National Forensic Service, making it hard for him to refuse.

“Haa~ That’s right. When I was first assigned…”

The other employees avoided coming altogether after hearing about the case.

“Let’s go for now.”

Park Do-joon frowned and slowly approached the pot. Even covered, a spicy odor emanated from the lid’s gaps. Seo Joo-won opened the large pot and sighed.

Park Do-joon peered inside, sighed deeply, and shook his head.

“Cover it up.”

“Have you seen everything?”

“Yes.”

“Then this is my job from here on out.”

Seo Joo-won covered the pot and moved away. He then brought a large tent and began setting it up with the other officers.

This was to prevent distant photos from being taken. The case was so disturbing that secrecy was paramount, but someone might leak it to the media for money.

“Hmm.”

Park Do-joon frowned, stepped back, and began slowly reading the reports from a distance. By the time he finished the four existing reports, Lee Ji-soo, pale-faced, approached.

“You saw it?”

“It’s a wall I have to overcome eventually.”

“You don’t have to push yourself.”

“I can’t just avoid work because the team leader is scary.”

Park Do-joon chuckled.

“So, what do you think?”

“I don’t know. It’s shocking, and I don’t have any experience with this kind of case in the first place…”

Having no experience with cannibalism cases, Lee Ji-soo struggled to form a profile.

“They don’t seem completely sane.”

“Well, that’s not wrong. But the cannibalism itself isn’t the key. I told you, don’t get caught up in the shock.”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s go back.”

Park Do-joon stood up.

“We have to present the profiling.”

Park Do-joon surveyed the scene once more before returning to the special investigation headquarters. Announcing his profiling presentation for the next day, he was met with the deathly faces of the assembled officers.

“You all seem to be having a hard time.”

“Having a hard time? It’s like dying. The higher-ups are pushing us like crazy to solve it.”

But the culprit remained elusive. No DNA, no evidence, no traces at all.

With no CCTV footage near the location, the police had nothing to track.

“How do you catch a culprit like this? A cannibal.”

“A cannibal… Well, I don’t think so.”

“Pardon?”

The officer tilted his head, looking at Park Do-joon.

“I’ll explain when everyone gathers.”

Park Do-joon waited. When all the special investigation team members were present, he calmly presented his profile.

“First, the culprit is a man in his 30s or 40s and will be using a 1-ton truck. He will be someone with a lot of social dissatisfaction. In particular, he will have a history of being harmed by women. He will feel that he has not been protected socially from such harm and will have a great resentment towards women because of it. He will be living in an area with few people and is unlikely to have much wealth. And he is likely to be full of hatred for the police. He probably has both paranoia and schizophrenia and is obviously not taking medication. And the target of his delusions of persecution will be two groups: women and the police. He will be living alone and will have no contact with people around him. Of course, he is unlikely to have any other family members. He may not be an orphan, but he has probably lost his parents. He may have brothers, but he will not have sisters. He will have almost no social communication skills. He was probably isolated from those around him after the onset of his mental illness, and of course, he will have been ignored a lot by those around him because of it. So he will have an extremely hostile mental illness towards others.”

The officers exchanged puzzled glances. The core of the case was cannibalism, yet the profile lacked analysis of that behavior.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Why aren’t you talking about the cannibalistic behavior?”

“I did mention it?”

“Pardon?”

“I just told you?”

“When?”

“Just now.”

“No, because he committed cannibalism, socially speaking, he’s mentally ill or something…”

Park Do-joon scratched his head, understanding the officer’s point.

“It seems you remember what the previous profilers said.”

“Yes? Ah, yes. That’s what the others said last time?”

“It’s somewhat correct, but it’s actually wrong.”

“Wrong?”

Everyone frowned. It was unusual for someone to confidently contradict a colleague, so they were surprised.

“Why?”

“Because this cannibalism case is the first in Korea.”

Park Do-joon sighed, seemingly apologetic. Five women had died, and perhaps the number of victims could have been reduced, but the police’s incompetence had caused delays.

“Are you doubting the abilities of your colleagues?”

Someone glared at Park Do-joon suspiciously.

‘It seems they’ve heard bad things about me.’

But do they know that the reason he hears bad things is because he is outstanding? If he was really someone who was meddling without ability, they wouldn’t have called Park Do-joon for this kind of case. But they are now completely forgetting that and only remembering the bad things they heard about Park Do-joon.

“I guess I’ll have to explain it to you first. The mental illness theory that you heard from other profilers is based on overseas cases. And it’s a judgment error that occurred because you were caught up in the shock.”

“Judgment error?”

“Yes.”

Park Do-joon nodded.

“The body was cooked.”

“I know.”

“But that’s not the end of it.”

“It’s not the end?”

“We are forgetting an important fact because of the shock.”

Park Do-joon paused, looking at the assembled officers, then spoke quietly.

“There is cooking, but there is no cannibalism.”

“…?”

“What?”

“Are you kidding me!”

Everyone was dumbfounded and raised their voices. The case was causing a commotion because of cannibalism, but there was no cannibalism?

“We need to be precise. It is true that the body was damaged. But there is no evidence of whether it was eaten in the process.”

“No evidence?”

“Everyone’s judgment is clouded by the shock, like my junior yesterday.”

All eyes turned to Lee Ji-soo, who coughed awkwardly. But soon, she nodded in agreement with Park Do-joon’s words.

“Yesterday, I also thought it was the work of a mentally ill person. But as I listened to Detective Park Do-joon, I thought it was strange. It was definitely very different compared to the existing cases.”

“Very different?”

“First of all, everyone knows about the first victim. Other profilers have explained that part, right?”

“Yes.”

The culprit harbors anger towards women. The victims, women in their 20s and 30s, were all murdered, and their bodies were subsequently damaged.

“In this case, you can see that they act like that because of anger towards women. The part about the vehicle will be the same.”

It’s a pot big enough for a person to enter. Because they put the body in whole without cutting it up and cooked it as it is, they need to use a much larger pot, but even an SUV, let alone a regular van, has too little space to move that large pot.”