The Night of the Price Tag on Life: The Black Market Landscape to 2023

The Night of the Price Tag on Life: The Black Market Landscape to 2023

Deep in the darkness, there is a door that must not be seen. There, human life is traded at a price, and anger and the desire for revenge are entrusted to others who wear masks. The nameless order their deaths through a single screen. It is a place called "Assassination Market.

This frightening idea was born in the 1990s. A thinker proposed "murder with a prize" as a means of overthrowing the government. Someone would hold up the name of a key figure, and if the public wanted that person dead, they would pay a reward. This later became a reality in the depths of the Internet.

In 2013, a person speaking the name "Sanjuro" implemented this mechanism. Its marketplace was lined with the names of politicians and high-ranking officials, and people anonymously stacked their winnings. It was a moment when lives were transformed into a numerical sequence, as a projection of desire.

Scams took advantage of this structure. A site called "QuickKill" scammed people out of their money by claiming to be an intermediary for hit men. Contact was cut off in the middle of the process, and the client was left angry. Then a legendary figure called "Cthulhu" appears. It was said that he appeared at the actual murder scene, and rumors that he had buried several people circulated among the public. However, his appearance was never confirmed. Only the ghostly name remained in the darkness.

Some incidents are closer to reality. In 2013, a man who ran a huge illegal website paid $80,000 to kill people. The other party was the police. It was all a trick. He was arrested and at his trial he was accused of trying to buy lives with money.

A similar bulletin board existed in another market called "Hansa. There, prices ranged from about $5,000 for an ordinary person to as much as $100,000 for an important person or a person with security. The horror of this market was not so much its anonymity, but the ease with which "anyone could participate.

One investigative article reported on this dark reality. The reporter walked the depths of the Internet and actually contacted people who claimed to be hit men. I want to kill my husband," or "Make my neighbor disappear. There was a bare line of anger and despair. But mostly it was a scam. No one was killed and no one was held accountable.

This is what "The Night the Price Tag on Life" is all about. There is more illusion than execution. Currency rather than blood. And distrust rather than hatred. People entrust their anger and throw money in anonymity. But this act only deepens their own loneliness.

Behind the screen, there is the sound of something disappearing. It is not another person's life. It may be the sound of a small light of hope sinking, one by one, into the darkness.