My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 697

“Indirect benefit?”

“Yes, for disposal.”

At that, the police officer, who had been pouting, spoke as if it were absurd.

“Why go so far as to kill someone to get them kicked out? If you just block the account, they can’t come back.”

“That’s true.”

Song Do-jong claims he was used to dispose of women who had become obsolete, but as the detective said, there’s no reason to do that. An account is an online form of self-identification, and Kim Song-rim, the administrator of the site, manages it, so if the account is blocked, the woman can’t do anything.

“Of course. Frankly speaking, I’m saying ‘disposal,’ but that disposal isn’t just for unpopular people.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s illegal, but in the end, it’s part of the market economy.”

When popularity drops, the price drops, and when popularity is high, the price goes up. It’s such an obvious fact that no one finds it strange.

“So?”

“Of course, there would be no problem if you seized an account within that market economy. But what if it’s not?”

“What if it’s not?”

“For example… um, what if the women are blackmailing the men?”

At that, silence fell among the police officers for a moment.

None of them seemed to have thought of it.

‘I guess not.’

They’re all focused on the huge crime of murder, so they wouldn’t have time to think about other incidents hidden behind it. Of course, Park Do-joon knows better than anyone that this is a lie.

‘It’s extremely rare for a woman receiving sponsorship to blackmail a man.’

Because they themselves know better than anyone the power that men have. What is sponsorship in the first place? To put it in accurate interpretive terms, the expression ‘sponsor’ is correct, but the reality is just a kind of prostitution where you have a relationship in exchange for money, and at best, it can be seen as a kind of contractual romance.

Of course, the women who receive that sponsorship are mostly ordinary people living their own lives, and even if they need money and like money, they don’t want their lives to collapse.

Therefore, unless it’s a really urgent case, they don’t do things like blackmailing men.

“Blackmail?”

But since the police don’t know that, it wasn’t difficult to cause a little misunderstanding.

“Yes, it’s not impossible.”

“No, that’s…”

Even the police officer, who had been saying it was absurd until the end, seemed to have a serious look on his face, perhaps because he hadn’t thought of blackmail.

“Do you think blackmail is possible?”

“Is it impossible? They’re spending at least 8 million to 10 million won every month on sponsorship. They must have that much money. So, if you blackmail them well, you might be able to get around 500 million won?”

“That’s…”

“And there are actual cases, aren’t there?”

“Actual cases?”

“How many times have celebrities been blackmailed in bars?”

“Ugh, that’s true.”

‘The hell it is…’

This is structurally different. They are both famous people and people with a lot of money, but celebrities are public figures, and the rich guys who sponsor them are not public figures.

In other words, even if you expose them, the people who sponsored them don’t suffer much damage, but in the case of celebrities, there is endless potential for life destruction, from a drop in popularity to expulsion. That’s why even if bar girls try to hit on celebrities, they can’t resist.

If they really did that, the gangsters would join hands with the bar girls and try to extort money from the celebrity at this opportunity, but they don’t touch the really rich people.

Because they are not exposed people, so it is not difficult to buy other gangsters to bury them or to retaliate through prosecutors or police.

“Um, that’s true, but…”

However, from the perspective of police officers who don’t know much about such psychological analysis, they can’t help but think that they can extort money from them because they have a lot of money, and in that case, they can naturally see that blackmail is not impossible.

“Blackmail… you can definitely extort money if you blackmail them.”

“That’s right. But Team Leader, don’t you know? Blackmail never ends in one go.”

“That’s right. It never ends in one go.”

At first, it’s 10 million won. Then 20 million won. Then 30 million won. That’s how blackmailers extort money from their targets by gradually increasing the amount.

“For ordinary people, it’s 10 million won or 20 million won, but for the rich, it could be hundreds of millions or billions of won.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, everyone started to worry with serious faces. It could be.

“Then you’re going to dispose of them?”

“It’s not impossible. Think about it. What would happen if word got out that there were guys doing that kind of thing on the site?”

“It’ll be ruined.”

“That’s right.”

It’s not just a matter of reporting it.

“Of course, if the person… no, if the man who sponsored them is unmarried, there’s no problem.”

Even if you report it, it’s just consensual prostitution, and it’s not a serious punishment.

“But what if they’re married? The more money they have, the more money they’ll lose in a divorce.”

If the assets are 100 billion won? Then, even if you take it small, you’ll lose more than 30 billion won. At least.

“But from the blackmailer’s point of view, they might ask for about 1 billion won in exchange for protecting 30 billion won.”

“Crazy.”

“Yes, then how should we stop that?”

“Is it murder?”

“I’m telling you about the possibilities.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, everyone nodded, saying that could be the case.

“Moreover, this might not just be a problem with the site.”

“It might not be a problem with the site?”

“Yes, it’s not just about protecting the site, but the site owner might be getting money.”

“Are you talking about Kim Song-rim, the site owner?”

Everyone’s faces looked like they were hooked on something at those words. Because it’s not impossible. How many guys are actually getting paid to kill people?

“Didn’t that detective say it too? Why would you burn 120 million won and bring four lawyers just to submit a letter of apology?”

“That’s true.”

Logically, it doesn’t make sense. Of course, they are under surveillance, but the police don’t know that.

“It costs 5 million won to join. And 3 million won for each additional person you introduce.”

“That’s right.”

“But sponsorship is not a one-time thing. If you meet, you meet for a few months at the shortest, and for years at the longest. So, in that situation, realistically, will there be that much profit? Enough to burn 120 million won on a letter of apology?”

“Certainly…”

Of course, no one knows how many people use the site and how many of them meet while changing women.

But what is certain is that it is impossible to make hundreds of millions of won in profit if they meet for that long.

‘At best, it’ll be 200 or 300 million won a year.’

In other words, I don’t know how much money they’ve saved up, but they don’t have so much money that they can spend 120 million won just to write a letter of apology.

“Then where did that money come from?”

Everyone’s faces grew darker and darker at those words.

‘They’re all completely fooled.’

It’s a plausible story. It’s not that there haven’t been blackmail cases, and it’s not that there haven’t been cases where murder has been committed in connection with blackmail.

“But Song Do-jong and Kim Song-rim have no contact with each other, and they’ve never met?”

“That’s the official position for now, isn’t it?”

“That’s…”

That’s definitely true. It’s the official position. And with the exception of a very small number of criminals, they don’t admit that they have committed a crime.

“Then to investigate this…”

“We need to get the list.”

Park Do-joon said as if he was very sorry.

“Because we need to check who died and who can’t be contacted.”

And at those words, everyone’s face hardened.

# Suspicion breeds suspicion

Park Do-joon’s judgment was plausible. In some ways, it’s nonsense, but in other ways, it’s entirely possible.

“It’s definitely not impossible.”

“That’s right. Blackmail cases aren’t just one or two.”

Even other profilers didn’t particularly refute that judgment. It was natural. Other profilers mainly judged based on violent crimes, and profiling of sex offenders, especially women who sell sex, was not complete.

In particular, in Korea, the perception that women who sell sex are victims is legally ingrained. In fact, the Special Law on Prostitution punishes the sex buyer but does not properly punish the sex seller.

In the first place, there is no reason to profile sex workers because they are not properly punished. There is no reason to invest profiling in sex trafficking, which is treated as a relatively minor crime, when there is already a shortage of personnel.

Furthermore, it is difficult to punish sex trafficking unless you raid the scene or confess yourself, so there is no reason to analyze it at all. As a result, they did not think deeply about the difference between general sex trafficking and sponsorship, and judged it as general sex trafficking.

And in general sex trafficking, there are surprisingly many blackmail cases.

“So, are they introducing them to murderers to dispose of them?”

“That’s what could be happening. Of course, not all ten of them are like that, but if you introduce three or four people and they all disappear, you can’t not know.”

“Well, that’s true.”

In general, they would report it in such cases, or at least block the Song Do-jong gang’s account out of anxiety. But Kim Song-rim didn’t do that and continued to introduce them.

To be exact, Kim Song-rim was too lazy to care.

‘What you see and what you don’t see are surprisingly different.’

In the case of pimps who engage in sex trafficking offline, it is easy to feel strange because each sex worker is money and they know them personally.

On the other hand, in the case of online intermediaries, they psychologically recognize the target not as a person or someone working under them, but simply as a number or an account.

Therefore, there are surprisingly few cases where they find it strange, as people think.

“But there’s only one way to confirm that.”

Kim Song-rim must provide the site list. But Kim Song-rim has made it clear that he has no intention of providing the list, even if it means taking the blame himself.

“So, we have to investigate that side.”

“That side?”

“Since they won’t voluntarily hand it over, we’ll have to get a warrant, right?”

Of course, a warrant is usually not issued once you admit your guilt. But there are plenty of cases where people try to avoid serious crimes by using minor crimes, and it’s not strange for a warrant to be issued in such cases.

“But it won’t be easy to pressure him. You know that too.”

Jo Sang-gyu said with a pitiful look. In fact, the story with Jo Sang-gyu was somewhat over. So he is slowly catching the wind and leading the story.

Profiler by trade