My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 416

If you allocate 10 billion won for construction, but less than 5 billion won is actually spent, how can you expect a decent house to be built?

“That’s how most of our country’s policies work,” Park Do-joon muttered.

“And they don’t fix it?”

“Nope.”

Park Do-joon clicked his tongue, a gesture of disapproval.

‘They don’t even try to fix it.’

Even before his regression [time travel/reincarnation], Park Do-joon wasn’t alone in voicing this opinion. But most who did were cursed at and dismissed.

When Park Do-joon shared his views, the advisory committee members labeled it populism and hurled insults at him.

‘Later, I found out those bastards had taken billions in bribes from construction companies.’

Park Do-joon, merely an advisor, couldn’t fight against those so deeply entrenched in politics. Instead, they ousted him.

“Wow, you know a lot, sunbae [senior colleague/mentor].”

“It’s not like I wanted to know,” Park Do-joon said wryly.

He smiled bitterly and turned off the television.

“Okay, let’s get to work. I wonder what kind of case awaits me today.”

“That sounds like something out of a shoujo manga [manga aimed at a young female audience],” Lee Ji-soo commented.

“Yeah, that’s right. Like Magical Angel Creamy Mami [a classic magical girl anime].”

“Your image… I don’t think you were like this before…”

Park Do-joon chuckled. He certainly hadn’t had the余裕 [yoyu -余裕 means composure,余裕in this context means having the mental space/capacity to deal with people] to deal with people before. He hadn’t even felt the need.

‘But I decided not to live like that this time.’

Having decided to live a little more freely, Park Do-joon was trying to let go of things.

“Yeah, you’re right. Work.”

“Even when I try to let go, work won’t let me go,” Park Do-joon said, a hint of resignation in his voice.

He turned around with a wry smile at the chief’s words from behind.

“Is it a case assignment?”

“Not exactly a case assignment, it’s… unofficial.”

“Unofficial?”

“Yeah, don’t tell anyone about this.”

Park Do-joon frowned. Unofficial involvement. These cases weren’t unheard of. And they were usually connected to high-ranking officials.

“How high-ranking are we talking about?”

“Don’t ask. You wouldn’t even get to meet them if you tried.”

“So, you’re saying I shouldn’t solve it?”

“No, that’s not it either. They want you to solve it, no matter what.”

“Huh, do they think we’re some kind of genie that pops out solutions on demand?”

“In the eyes of high-ranking officials, everyone is a genie. They expect you to produce whatever they want.”

Park Do-joon couldn’t help but curse under his breath. High-ranking officials often acted like this for personal vendettas.

“If that’s the case, I won’t do it.”

He was a police officer, not a revenge agent for high-ranking officials. Moreover, he had endured all sorts of dirty tricks until recently because they couldn’t get rid of him, and now they were trying to use him for revenge.

“I wish I could, but the case is serious, separate from the high-ranking official.”

“What is it?”

“Fraud.”

“Why fraud? Tell them to handle it themselves. The scammer must be crazy too. How high-ranking did they target?”

The chief gestured for Park Do-joon to follow him. Sensing something was off, Park Do-joon followed him into the conference room. As soon as they entered, the chief lowered his voice and said,

“It wouldn’t be a problem if it was just money. In fact, if it was just money, they wouldn’t have come to us. They would have taken care of it themselves. It’s because something more important than money is about to disappear.”

“Something important?”

“Their life.”

“What? You’re saying it’s fraud, right? Are they going to commit suicide because they were scammed?”

Moreover, if they were high-ranking enough to warrant caution, there was no reason to make a fuss about committing suicide over losing a few bucks. Of course, the money they lost would be regrettable, but still.

But Park Do-joon’s face hardened at the next words.

“What they lost wasn’t just money, it was an opportunity.”

“Opportunity?”

“Yeah, they were trying to get a kidney transplant, but it turned out to be a scam.”

Park Do-joon’s face hardened at those words. The fact that a kidney transplant was a scam had many implications.

“Is it China?”

“Yeah.”

“That guy must be crazy?”

“Um… Sunbaenim, Chief, I don’t understand any of this,” Lee Ji-soo said, clearly lost.

Lee Ji-soo, who had followed them, didn’t understand the conversation at all. Why did the opportunity and China suddenly come up?

“Someone was trying to get an illegal organ transplant. And it turned out to be a scam.”

“Illegal organ transplant?”

“Yeah, the illegal organ transplant market is bigger than you think.”

It couldn’t be helped. Korea was quite taboo about organ transplants. Especially since organ transplants were often only possible when someone died. Organ transplants were only possible if organs were donated from brain-dead people, but in Korea, few people chose that option due to Confucian culture [emphasizes respect for ancestors and the deceased], and there were many people on the waiting list, making it difficult to receive an organ transplant easily.

“So, many people secretly go to China to get organ transplants.”

“But that’s illegal, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s illegal. But if your life is at stake, does that matter?”

In reality, it was prohibited by law, but there weren’t many people who could choose death at the crossroads of dying or going to jail for a while.

“But from the looks of it, they just took the money and ran.”

“That’s right. I heard their kidney was failing. In the terminal stage.”

“Hmm…”

The fact that they couldn’t meet probably meant that they weren’t meeting not because their status didn’t match or because they wanted to hide their identity, but because they didn’t have much time left to live.

“So, they went to China to get a kidney transplant?”

“Yeah, they did. But it seems they couldn’t even see a doctor, let alone get a kidney transplant.”

In a situation where they were already struggling with a failing kidney, the hardships they endured in China rapidly depleted their energy, and it seemed they had to prepare for the worst.

“I heard they told us to talk to them.”

“Is conversation possible?”

The chief shook his head. That meant they were in a coma. If their kidney had failed to the point of being in a coma, it was safe to say that there was no chance of survival. One of the parts of the human body that could never be cured was the kidney.

“Why did they tell us to talk to them? Are they telling us to clean up the mess? Or is it revenge?”

“There’s revenge involved, but it’s also because this scam could happen to ordinary people.”

“Ordinary people?”

“There are plenty of people who want to live. But there are no donors. How many people would want to go to China for surgery?”

In fact, China was the country with the most active organ transplants in the world. Of course, most of them were not formal donations but transactions with money.

The Chinese government was taking organs from executed prisoners and selling them, and the current situation in China was that they were cutting open the bellies of healthy people in Xinjiang Uyghur [an autonomous territory of the People’s Republic of China] and taking out their organs to sell. If the state was systematically doing that, how much worse would ordinary people be?

“Ah…”

“Haven’t you seen that news before? The case of exchanging a kidney for a cell phone?”

“Ah, I think I saw that too.”

Someone wanted to buy the latest cell phone so badly but didn’t have the money, so they foolishly tried to sell one of their kidneys to buy a cell phone. They thought they only needed one kidney since they had two.

“But when they woke up, they had no money and no kidneys.”

In the end, they died like that. Organ trafficking was so common in China that it happened that someone went to the hospital for a health checkup and woke up to find their kidneys stolen.

“So, not only Koreans but people from all over the world go to China to get organ transplants.”

“That’s right.”

The chief nodded, knowing the reality.

“Moreover, they intentionally lower their immunity to get an organ transplant.”

If they didn’t, the body would attack and damage the transplanted organ.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Yeah, if you get scammed out of an organ transplant, you die. 100%.”

If they realized it was a scam before suppressing their immunity, they would have a chance to be treated, but if they found out it was a scam after taking immunosuppressants, they would have no choice but to die.

“Then this is practically murder, isn’t it?”

“It’s murder. The problem is that they can’t even report it.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s illegal.”

The patient themselves chose an illegal organ transplant. And if they reported it in that situation, they would also be subject to punishment.

“As you know, not all organ transactions are done fairly.”

There were some who actually took money and sold their organs, but the cases of killing people and procuring organs could not be ignored.

In other words, the person receiving the organ knew that the original owner of the organ might have been killed.

“So, they can’t report it. Even if they try to report it, if they judge that they can’t live, they usually prepare for the end.”

Death is said to proceed in five stages. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance… Of course, this isn’t 100% correct. Sometimes, some people deny it until the moment they die, some get angry, and some accept it from the beginning.

“But usually, these stages are considered universal.”

Everyone responds differently, but you can’t pay attention to that.

“But people who secretly get organ transplants go from bargaining to depression to acceptance.”

At the point where the choice to transplant someone else’s organ to live fails, it’s only natural for them to enter the acceptance stage. However, this high-ranking official was a unique case who maintained the anger stage until the very end.

“How would they act when they reach the acceptance stage?”

“They would organize their last moments.”

“Yeah, so they don’t report it.”

They wouldn’t want to report to the police and go back and forth to the police station while preparing for their end. And if that happened, there was a high possibility that this fact would be known to their family. They wouldn’t be able to move alone.

“Then the bereaved family’s last memory will be very bad.”

They would likely be remembered not as a good family member or a good friend, but as a human who wanted to live at the expense of another person’s life, so most of them would just quietly cover it up with their death.

“That’s right. And the other party is aiming for that.”

“Why?”

“If they hadn’t taken immunosuppressants, they would have come here and reported it directly. Isn’t that right, Chief?”

The chief nodded at Park Do-joon’s words.

“Yeah, they would. If it’s that person I know, they would have done that.”

However, the immune system collapses rapidly the moment immunosuppressants are administered. Naturally, in such cases, the patient’s survival rate drops rapidly. Realistically, if immunosuppressants were injected into an already unhealthy body, it was no exaggeration to say that the survival rate was virtually 0%.

“And from the criminals’ point of view, it also has the effect of killing the witness.”

Lee Ji-soo’s face hardened as she listened to those words.

“I didn’t think of that.”

“As a profiler, you have to think from the criminal’s point of view, not mine. And this kind of case is a very easy way for criminals to steal other people’s money.”

The price of organ trafficking is never cheap. It’s at least tens of millions of won [Korean currency; 10 million won is approximately $7,500 USD], and special parts like the liver can cost hundreds of millions of won.

And if they take that money and disappear, the related parties either die or shut their mouths while preparing for death.