My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 379

## A School of Anchovies is Still Just a School of Anchovies

Fortunately, So Sin-oh was the type of person who kept his recordings relatively well-organized. He didn’t have very old videos, but he had at least the last five years’ worth. And since the snuff film wasn’t made more than five years ago, it was reasonable to assume that the space was discovered around the same time it was produced.

“Is it here?”

“I think it’s around here.”

Then, they found a video of a shaman visiting spiritual hotspots. It was a typical spiritual program video where they went around claiming there were ghosts here and there. Judging by the quality, it didn’t seem to be for broadcast, but rather for personal use. A broadcast program would have been filmed by more than just one or two people.

“Huh? If it’s something like this, it’s meaningless, isn’t it? Shit, what’s wrong again?”

Kim Si-deok said with a strange expression. If it had been released on the internet, all sorts of people would have flocked to the location.

“That’s true.”

Park Do-joon frowned, equally puzzled. He searched for the shaman’s videos just in case.

“The channel is gone?”

The channel had disappeared without a trace. A channel that doesn’t exist?

“They must have spent some money to scrub it?”

Even casual filming with a professional cameraman isn’t cheap. To hire someone like that, film the videos, and then erase everything doesn’t make sense. And if it had been released, people should have gone there. The answer came more easily than expected.

“That shaman was arrested for fraud.”

Lee Ji-soo clicked her tongue after looking up the information.

“Fraud?”

“Yes, she allegedly extorted over 800 million won [approximately $600,000 USD] in 12 installments, claiming she needed to perform a ritual. There’s even news about it here.”

The news had been reported because it was such a big case. Well, if she made someone spend 800 million won over 12 installments, that’s truly malicious.

“The timing is about five years ago… Ah, it’s shortly after the filming date.”

“Is that how it happened?”

Kim Si-deok roughly understood the situation and sighed in relief.

‘If you promote it like this on the internet, many people believe it and come. And there are a lot of guys who scam them.’

Then the fraud was exposed, and the shaman went to jail. Since So Sin-oh wasn’t the channel owner, there was no way to upload it, and no reason to, so he just left it alone. But he must have known about the place.

“It’s not a big place. How could such a place have been operating?”

“The laws were different back then.”

In the past, the government provided funding for the care of vagrants. Most of these mental hospitals, though called mental hospitals, forcibly dragged in vagrants and locked them up to receive money from the government.

“They even kidnapped disabled people to get money.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

A considerable amount of money was provided per kidnapped person, but it didn’t cost that much to keep them as inpatients. Because of that, even small places like this could make money by forcibly accommodating vagrants.

“To be exact, these small places were *better* at making money.”

Big places inevitably become targets of surveillance, but small places in the provinces are relatively relaxed in that regard.

“But everything changed when the law changed.”

As the vagrant support policy showed all sorts of side effects, the government changed the law. Initially, the law was created to accommodate genuine vagrants, a tragic reality in a poor Korea.

However, it turned into a crime. People were kidnapped to receive money, or even people in property disputes were kidnapped for money, registered as vagrants, and locked up. The government revised the law, and now it’s impossible to do such things like in the past.

Because of that, most of the small mental hospitals that just locked people up and took money without proper treatment capabilities had no choice but to go bankrupt.

“This place is one of those places.”

A place built on cheap land where people don’t go, used as a detention center. The road isn’t paved, and even that is covered with bushes because no one has been coming for a long time, so you can’t even see the road.

So, a space that most people wouldn’t know unless they knew about it and came looking for it.

“I know where they got the beds.”

As soon as they entered, there were three or four rusty bed frames in what appeared to be a hospital room. There were mattresses as well, but the fabric had rotted over time, and the springs were all sticking out, rendering them unusable.

“Let’s go to the basement first. If your prediction is correct, there will be something.”

Since the crime scene was in the basement, the group, led by Park Do-joon, went downstairs. There, Park Do-joon nodded.

“The air is clean.”

“Huh?”

“This is the basement, and it’s been abandoned for a long time. But the air is cleaner than I thought. Someone deliberately ventilated it.”

There were traces of someone coming and going. The dust on the stairs showed footprints, and the padlock on the basement door, which was supposed to be locked, was broken.

“Is it here?”

Kim Si-deok swallowed hard and went inside. He saw lights set up on all sides. When he turned on the lights, he saw a blood-soaked steel bed frame in the center and well-organized torture tools in one corner.

“Found it.”

Kim Si-deok clenched his fist tightly, relieved that he had finally found it.

The place was found. The victims’ DNA was found on the bed frame and torture devices. So Sin-oh and Lee Hang-bal’s fingerprints were found on the installed equipment. So far, there were no problems.

“Damn it.”

He knew that Kang In-sal and Lee Ja-won were in charge of the torture, but there was no evidence of that.

“It makes sense.”

Perhaps So Sin-oh and Lee Hang-bal were filming without much thought, which is why their fingerprints and DNA were found on the camera. But Kang In-sal and Lee Ja-won were completely covered up during the torture.

They were even wearing gloves. Judging by the traces, they even perfectly cleaned the things they wore after the torture and murder were over.

Of course. The smell of blood is terrible, and if you leave it alone, it will stink so badly that you won’t be able to wear it later.

The problem is that there is no DNA of Kang In-sal and Lee Ja-won because of that.

“Is it impossible to pressure So Sin-oh and Lee Hang-bal to confess?”

“I think it’ll be difficult.”

One way or another, they can’t avoid the death penalty. In that situation, there’s nothing to be gained by telling on their accomplices.

“Confession also needs to have benefits.”

But So Sin-oh and Lee Hang-bal have nothing to gain.

Furthermore, Baek Man-yeon and Joo Gwang-dae also have no DNA. Perhaps Joo Gwang-dae was only in charge of sales.

“Then what should we do with this?”

“The best thing is to turn them against each other.”

“Isn’t that impossible?”

They are one organization. And it’s not an organization where some of them survive and some of them die. That’s what Kim Si-deok thought.

“No, people misunderstand that a lot.”

“Misunderstand?”

At those words, Kim Si-deok tilted his head at Park Do-joon’s words. Lee Ji-soo nodded as if she understood.

“Well, I thought so too until I went to school and learned about it: that criminal organizations are one community of fate.”

“That’s not the case?”

“No, it’s not. Even if they are the same criminal organization, they are not a community of fate. In fact, they are closer to a cluster.”

“Close to?”

“Have you ever seen a school of anchovies?”

“Well, I’ve seen it on TV.”

“If they are gathered together, can they resist a huge predator, like a whale?”

“Huh? Of course not.”

In the first place, no matter how many anchovies there are, they are just anchovies. They are just small creatures that are sucked in by the tens of thousands when a whale opens its mouth once.

“In a way, the existence of a school of anchovies is a very vulnerable form of survival.”

Because they are gathered together, they are easily noticeable, and because they are gathered together, they are easily eaten. At one time, there was a theory that if they gather together like that to look big, other large predators would think they are large fish and not approach them, but realistically, if that were the case, there shouldn’t be any species that eat anchovies.

“What does that have to do with this case?”

“It’s simple. It just lowers the probability.”

“Probability?”

“Yes.”

What if one anchovy wanders alone? There are many bigger fish in the sea than that, and most of them are carnivorous. And no matter how fast a small anchovy moves, it’s slower than them.

“The probability of dying is 100%.”

“But not for a school of anchovies?”

“That’s right.”

Even if they meet a predator, the probability of dying is reduced to 1/n. And the more groups there are, the more that probability decreases.

Of course, there are very few species that can capture a group as it is, such as whales or human nets, but most fish can only eat a few hundred at most even if they encounter such a school of anchovies.

From the perspective of a school of anchovies that gather in at least hundreds of thousands, it’s a gamble to bet their fate on.

“Criminal organizations are the same. Of course, the problem for them is profit rather than survival, though.”

They are never a community of fate. Their individual interests are prioritized.

“And that goes for other colleagues as well. Hehehe.”

If they were altruistic people who knew how to care for others, they wouldn’t have done this in the first place.

“And every crime has a principal offender, an accomplice, and an accessory.”

Park Do-joon smiled.

So Sin-oh and Lee Hang-bal turned pale. They didn’t know that their fingerprints would be found at the scene. To be exact, they thought no one would know about that place.

But Park Do-joon found the place and even found fingerprints there.

“This shit.”

So Sin-oh’s lips were parched in the situation where he was being called in every day after being urgently arrested. Of course, he knew that he had committed a crime, but he never thought he would be punished for it.

It’s not that he didn’t think it was a crime. He knew it was a crime, but he never thought he would get caught. But to think he would be caught there.

‘This can’t be happening.’

He racked his brain to get out of the situation somehow, but he couldn’t think of a solution. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t avoid the combination of DNA and fingerprints found at the scene.

“Let’s go.”

Today, the police took So Sin-oh to the police station again. Just because he was arrested doesn’t mean he could be investigated in the detention center. Because of that, it was routine to come from the detention center to the police station every day to be investigated. Of course, he was keeping his mouth shut with the help of a lawyer, but even the lawyer had no way out this time.

“Huh?”

But So Sin-oh saw two people as he passed by: Kang In-sal and Lee Ja-won. Of course, if they were caught together, they could be investigated. But it was clear that the situation was a bit different.

천직이 프로파일러 [Cheonjigi Profiler – Born to be a Profiler]