My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 548

In that process, you shouldn’t worry about the victim’s psychological shock.

Of course, you shouldn’t tell the victim, ‘You’re just a product,’ but conversely, you shouldn’t psychologically sympathize with the victim and think, ‘What a pity.’

“If you know how much the victim is worth from the criminal’s perspective, the result will come out.”

“Is this case like that?”

“Yes, a slender build around 50 kilograms [110 pounds] in their early to mid-20s. And long hair, a pretty face. It’s a demanding condition, but at the same time, it’s not an impossible condition to pick out randomly.”

The standard of ‘pretty’ may vary from person to person, but it’s not like you can’t find such a woman in the inner city at all.

“But why would they put so much effort into kidnapping someone like this?”

“Isn’t it to avoid getting caught?”

“No, there’s actually another reason besides that. In fact, saying it’s to avoid getting caught doesn’t make sense either. The criminals revealed their faces so brazenly.”

“Another reason?”

“Yes, they value the other person’s worth more.”

Lee Ji-soo didn’t seem to understand Park Do-joon’s words at all. Well, the word ‘human worth’ is, in a way, a taboo word.

“Let me give you an easy analogy. You like eating raw fish, right?”

“I can’t get enough of it.”

“Is there a difference between the raw fish sold at the fish market and the raw fish sold at an *omakase* [chef’s choice] restaurant?”

“Well, I mean… there is a difference, right?”

“To what extent?”

“That’s… I don’t know.”

If the taste of raw fish sold at the fish market is 10, does the raw fish sold at the *omakase* restaurant suddenly become 100 to match the price?

If you can buy something for about 30,000 won [approximately $25 USD] at the fish market, do you have to pay 300,000 won [approximately $250 USD] per person at an *omakase* restaurant?

“Then what about a neighborhood raw fish restaurant? Or a more upscale raw fish restaurant? Or a traditional Japanese restaurant? Does the taste of the fish they sell all differ?”

“That’s… no.”

Of course, it would be a lie to say there’s no difference in taste at all. But the difference is subtle. Some insensitive people wouldn’t even know if you gave them a blind taste test. It’s different based on the side dishes, but in the case of raw fish, you can really say there’s almost no difference.

“That’s right. But the high value you give at *omakase* is ultimately the service fee.”

“That’s right.”

“That kind of thing also applies to crime.”

For example, let’s say you’re trying to contract someone to commit murder. Whether you give the contract to a professional killer who shoots from afar with a sniper rifle, or stabs them with a knife at close range, poisons them, or just give money to some gang and have them spray the person with a machine gun in the street, the result is the same: the other person dies.

“But the price is higher for a professional killer. Frankly, in places like Southeast Asia, you can kill anyone for about 5 million won [approximately $4,200 USD].”

“I guess so?”

Then why would you hire a professional killer who charges 100 million won [approximately $84,000 USD] per person to kill someone?

“Just to avoid getting caught? That can’t be it.”

If someone is murdered, it’s a natural process for the police in any country to investigate the people who had a conflict with the victim. In that situation, how could they not know?

“It’s the service process.”

If you pay, a professional killer can apply any method.

If necessary, they can kidnap the person and kill them in front of your eyes, slowly kill them with poison, or, if necessary, inflict a disability and make them suffer forever.

On the other hand, what about a gang? Since they have to survive, they ultimately prefer the simplest method: driving up in a car, shooting, and running away.

In countries with poor security, dozens of people are still murdered every day in that way.

“The fact that they attempted a systematic kidnapping means that a kind of substantial service is being provided.”

“You said it’s a matter of taste?”

“Yes, but the only taste we know about is appearance.”

They know about age, height, and average appearance, but they don’t know if there’s anything else.

“Honestly, if you’re trying to find a woman of that age, don’t you think you could find one in the nightlife industry? You don’t know how many women jump into the nightlife industry at that age.”

“…….”

“In other words, the fact that the other party is demanding such precise services to the point where we don’t know what else they want means that they can afford to pay for that much value.”

The cost of service is higher than you think. Some people don’t buy fruit from the supermarket but buy it from department stores, not because it tastes better, but because they think it’s embarrassing to use the same supply line as ordinary people.

Of course, strictly speaking, that person is foolish. There’s no such thing as a supply line just for the rich, just for that department store, in this world.

“The important thing is that very subtle and superior feeling that I’m getting more service.”

And people are willing to pay millions to tens of millions of won to satisfy that subtle and superior feeling.

“Is the guy who kidnaps people through such a complicated process to meet his conditions an ordinary guy?”

Of course not.

“I told you? The guy who’s doing this is smart.”

So, before the regression, he probably wasn’t caught even once. The fact that he was caught this time is just a coincidence on top of a coincidence.

“Would a guy who knows a lot about people’s psychology put so much effort into providing people just for money?”

“That’s…”

“To put it more cruelly, it’s not difficult to smuggle a woman who meets those conditions from China.”

It’s not difficult to bring such a woman from China. If you go to the factory zone in China, there are plenty of such women.

If you ask them if they want to go to Korea and earn money by prostituting themselves, some of them will definitely agree. The money they can earn even if they suffer for 10 years in China is obvious, but they can earn that much by suffering for only 1 year, no, 6 months in Korea, so how could they not be tempted?

“And most of the women will enter Korea secretly.”

Even if China is a poor country, there aren’t many people who want to marry women who have prostituted themselves, and in the first place, their parents wouldn’t agree to it.

“Frankly, the cost of kidnapping someone through such a complicated process is higher than the cost of bringing them from China.”

“I see. I didn’t think of that.”

“But the fact that they have to kidnap a Korean woman while meeting these complicated conditions is simple. They need a Korean woman.”

A service dimension for the criminal. In other words, they have to do whatever the criminal wants.

“And if the other party is just a rich, stupid guy, there’s no reason to do that.”

Unless they have connections and power and want to maintain a good relationship because they have future value, there’s no reason to go through such a complicated process to meet their ideal target.

“So that’s why the other profilers think they’re from the privileged class.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

No matter how blinded by power they are and engage in a kind of war of nerves, you can’t deny that they are skilled profilers.

“So you’re trying to find the victim first to find that unique characteristic.”

“Well, yes, but.”

Park Do-joon was honestly suspicious even as he said that. He wondered if they could really find it.

“Maybe it’s a simple problem.”

“A simple problem?”

“The screams in Chinese don’t feel right, or something.”

“Pardon?”

Lee Ji-soo’s eyes widened at those words. Jo Sang-gyu said to Lee Ji-soo with a look of pity.

“According to the investigation results, those guys are periodically creating victims. The fact that they’re kidnapping women so regularly means that those women are being consumed.”

“Consumed… you mean.”

“It’s cruel, but that’s the reality.”

The possibility of it leading to murder, not just rape. It’s not that everyone doesn’t think about it, it’s just that they can’t say it.

It’s just that the moment they say it, it feels like they’re crossing a line that they can’t really undo, so they just don’t say it. Instinctively, the profilers were developing the investigation in that direction.

“If they’re alive, they have to lock them up somewhere or send them overseas, but that’s a hassle.”

It’s not easy to manage, and if they escape alive, things get out of hand.

“On the other hand, it’s much easier to dispose of the body after killing someone than to manage them alive.”

“Does that mean they’re sadistic?”

“Yes, an extreme one.”

An extreme sadist who wants to increase their self-esteem and recognize their power by dominating the other person and taking their life.

“It’s fundamentally different from a sadist.”

Sadists and masochists are abnormal sexual preferences called SM [sadomasochism]. Sadists feel pleasure by inflicting sadistic acts on the other person, and masochists feel relieved and pleasure by being subjected to sadistic acts by the other person, in that they are subordinate.

“Those are relationships that are made under mutual agreement.”

A sadist tortures a masochist to feel their superiority by subordinating them based on agreement.

“On the other hand, a sadistic person is different.”

A sadistic person does not receive the other person’s consent. To be exact, they try to feel their presence even more strongly by suppressing the other person with force without receiving that consent.

“That type of sadistic person doesn’t care about the safety of the victim.”

Since there was no consent from the other party, they have no interest in the other party’s safety.

Their pleasure, their enjoyment, and their power are the priority.

“But in that case, they’re usually socially isolated and unacknowledged types, right?”

It doesn’t make sense to simply enjoy sexually harassing and killing people because they’re bad guys. Rather, such people are extremely rare.

“But you said profiling is socially leading, right?”

“Oppression and low self-esteem are not a problem of social position. The problem is the position they currently recognize.”

Even if they are in a high position, if they think that they are not being treated properly and are being hated by those around them, there are many who become twisted.

“However, the problem is that realistically, we can’t know who it is.”

Park Do-joon frowned at the sudden headache as he thought about that.

“Ugh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. My head hurts whenever I try to think about it.”

Park Do-joon sighed as he rummaged through the drawer, took out a headache pill, and swallowed it.

‘Is it a side effect of regression?’

Due to the side effects of regression, I forgot all the information related to the case. And my head hurts whenever I try to think about it.

‘One thing is certain. Whoever the culprit is, it’s someone I knew.’

If I didn’t know him, I wouldn’t have a headache.

The problem is that I don’t know if it’s someone I’ll know in the future or someone I already know.