Chapter 70 – The Retired Hunter (2)
It’s a bit of a sudden question… What is the percentage of criminals in Korea’s population?
The percentage of the population with a criminal record registered in government databases is about 1.7 million.
Of course, there was no way that all of these people had been to prison, and it would have counted all minor crimes and confinement.
However, the number of 1.7 million is certainly large.
1.7 million people.
That’s just over 3% of the country’s population.
The real problem is that more than 75% of criminals are male.
In particular, when it is limited to violent crimes, the proportion of men increases even more.
I’m not trying to suddenly bring up the issue of gender.
The really important thing is that these men are in the middle of economic activity.
As explained earlier, it costs a lot of money to keep criminals locked up.
Even ordinary prisoners break more than 150 per month.
Those who should pay taxes because of their hard economic activities are rather forgetting their taxes.
This is a very undesirable situation for the country.
However, if the circumstances are a bit different for misdemeanors… That’s not the case either.
Even minor crimes are costly.
Originally, public servants such as the police are not selected exactly as needed, and it is standard practice to select a little less than that.
What if you hire a lot of public servants who can’t be easily fired, and later become obsolete?
Thanks to this, public officials in Korea are always short of manpower.
But if you punish even the smallest things severely, will people behave a little more rightly?
Well…
That strict punishment is not omnipotent has already been verified in ancient China.
We won’t have to try it one more time.
Therefore, the country made the best choice to survive.
In order to prevent an excessive increase in the number of people classified as criminals, it was decided not to punish minor crimes at all.
Just look at school violence and restaurant terrorism, which have become issues this time around.
In fact, they can be caught as many times as the state institutions set their minds to.
Korea is a very easy and comfortable environment to arrest and punish criminals.
But it doesn’t.
First of all, the lack of police personnel is second to none…
Usually, the perpetrators of such incidents are in the middle of economic activity, or those who are about to start.
If such people are punished hastily, they may fall into the path of crime out of desperation.
“If a crime becomes common enough, it will in fact cease to be a crime. The same goes for things like prostitution and gambling. It’s obviously illegal, but it’s hard to see it being properly punished.”
“…”
Jeong Tae-han, who was called as a witness, showed an angry face at my one-day speech.
It would be unbelievable whether this could be said by an incumbent investigator.
But he still seemed unconvinced.
“But taking the perpetrators’ side is…”
“It’s not just about siding with the perpetrators.”
“Yes?”
“The law doesn’t care about the position of the victim or the position of the perpetrator. The law only cares about the position of the state.”
It was only then that Jeong Tae-han’s expression became slightly colder.
I swallowed my words with a small relief.
‘This time seems to be an exception, but…’
In fact, it is true that the fact that Jeong Tae-han has been called to the special unit like this is an unfair and absurd situation.
Seeing that the police handed over the case just because there was suspicion…
It seems that the parents of the victims are using some force with the police.
I decided to stick to my role no matter what.
“In fact, from that point of view, our special forces are also quite a hit. The harder we work to catch hunter criminals, the more national damage we do.”
“Ah, no such…”
In fact, our S-rank hunter, Yoo Si-hyun, is forgetting about 25 million won in taxes every month.
The higher the grade, the more money is broken.
Tia, who had been quietly standing behind me, raised her voice.
“No. Master recovered the stolen 16 billion last time.”
“Oh, there was that.”
In addition, if you look at it coldly, it is beneficial in the long run to catch and throw those who commit such violent crimes unconditionally.
After hearing the half-joking, half-complaining story, Jeong Tae-han nodded slightly.
“Well. I’ll get it right now. If you’re curious about anything else…”
“Do you have any data to prove your route on the day of the incident? It makes it much easier to prove your innocence.”
“Alibi… You mean? I remember that day very clearly.”
That’s the day when I heard the exciting news, so if it was natural, it would be natural.
Jeong Tae-han held out the vehicle black box data to me.
“I went on a business trip out of town that day. I had to sign a new contract to supply materials to the store.”
“Okay.”
I nodded my head while looking at the materials myself.
It was clear that Jeong Tae-han was approaching from the front of the vehicle, and he was not in Seoul at the time of the crime, so it was a clear alibi.
“Taehan, your last grade measurement was C rank, right?”
“Yes, to my shame…”
“It’s physically impossible for a C-rank flame-type hunter to cause terrorism from 100 km away. All right. You can just go and see. Oh, is this document original?”
“That’s right.”
“Then, we will keep it. Taehan-ssi, in case you don’t know…”
“I also have a copy. Thank you for trusting me, Detective.”
“I really appreciate your valuable time.”
I didn’t really believe it, but…
Good is good, he just nodded roughly.
I shook hands lightly and let him go.
When Jeong Tae-han left, Alice jumped up from behind.
From the moment the word school violence came out, her eyes became a little scared, and she perfectly sympathized with Jeong Tae-han.
“Isn’t this a case that deserves to come this far in the first place?”
“Oh, that’s not it.”
She shook her head slightly and showed me the rest of the case, and Alice opened her ax eye.
“Why?”
“It is certain that the smartphone exploded due to the hunter’s ability. It is absurd that different models of smartphones malfunctioned simultaneously when they were not stored in the same place.”
“That, that’s true… But isn’t that person a flame-type person?
“That’s right. Mr. Jeong Tae-han is not an executioner. That’s an undeniable truth.”
With Jeong Tae-han’s ability, he could never do something like this.
Hunter is already out in terms of criminal ability, which is the basis of criminal investigation.
But Alice noticed my subtle choice of words.
“If he’s not an executive criminal, he might be a teacher criminal?”
“That’s right. The criminal ability is not enough, but the criminal motive is overflowing.”
For a moment, I explained, swallowing my exclamation.
Alice also followed me around, so she became smart like this.
The proverb, Seodanggae 3 years… Was not a complete lie.
However, in this case, there were many exceptions in many ways, as the motive was not lordship or drugs.
Alice now began reciting Poongwol in earnest.
She knew very well that there was no point in asking her not to investigate.
Rather, conducting an investigation properly is the way to reveal Jeong Tae-han’s innocence.
“Then, are you going to use an oracle to trace your account? If you had hired another hunter, it would have cost you a lot of money… “
“Oracle is suspended for the time being. Because of my business trip to the UK, the quota is very tight.”
In the first place, this is an incident where there is no need to use an oracle.
As I flicked my finger, Seo Ji-yu from afar pulled out Jung Tae-han’s bank account details and brought them to me.
She still couldn’t look me in the eye.
“Here, chief.”
“Thank you. And another cup of coffee.”
“Yeah? Team leader, you said you drink one cup of coffee a day, right? You’re good at getting caffeine…”
“Oh, do you remember correctly? I took a look to see if you’re awake. Then ask for a green tea latte.”
After being teased by me, Seo Ji-yu runs away with her face down.
Tia chases after her and casts her additional spell.
In any case, an opportunity to win something is never missed.
“Wait a minute, I’d like peach iced tea, please! What about Alice?”
“I’m a cafe latte.”
Alice, who had simply completed the order, looked at the tracking results.
“What, there’s almost no history of pulling out big money. You’ll need quite a lot of cash to incite the hunter crime, right?”
“Isn’t it that you paid for it? Well, the Hunter crime brokers have already been caught… “
“Wait. Are you still suspicious of Jeong Tae-han?”
“For now, there’s only one place to doubt.”
This case is an obvious hunter crime.
And around the victims, there was only one hunter who was still.
It’s a situation where you can’t help but doubt him who has such a strong criminal motive.
Alice understood that, but she seemed to feel a bit savage.
“The alibi is so neat. It was like going out of town on the same day, and the composition that was taken directly in the black box of my car was a little strange.”
“Th-isn’t there no end to doubts like that?”
“Yes. It’s your role to argue like that. It’s my role to be suspicious. Let’s keep playing each other’s roles.”
Alice gave up halfway at my reaction.
But there is a point in what she said.
I calmly summarized the facts confirmed so far.
‘Jung Tae-han himself can never become an executioner. It’s not like he paid money to a black market or something. Let’s think. What would I have done if I was still?’
In fact, the case where the motive for the crime is satisfied is much more suspicious than the case where the criminal capacity is satisfied.
Hunters have various abilities that ordinary people cannot even imagine, so if they decide to commit a crime, they can do it anyway.
Following the old teachings, I eliminated one possibility after another.
‘Second awakening of Jeong Tae-han? It’s nonsense. It’s next to impossible for someone who has already awakened to acquire new abilities. How could a retired hunter with little spare money commit such a crime…’
“!”
While putting everything down and going through the case again from beginning to end.
I finally found an area that seemed promising.
Just in time, Seo Ji-yu, who had gone downstairs to the cafe, brought a drink, and I took it and stood up.
“I’ll be out in a minute. It won’t be long.”
“Uh, where are you going, boss?”
“A few floors down. Hunter Association Trauma Treatment Center.”
“Yes…Yes?”
Seo Ji-yu followed Alice and Tia while slightly embarrassed.
I boarded the elevator with three women and pressed the button without hesitation.
