New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 41. Madness (1)

A scent that calms the mind and body.

When I arrived at the Rollbook Office, the smell that comes from Boys’ High Schools or Engineering Research Labs was flowing out.

To some it might feel like a foul odor, but to me it was no different from the smell of lubricant applied to gears.

“CEO, you’re here? Fortunately, there wasn’t a single error today.”

“The payment system is fine too, right?”

“Of course. The CEO managed the payment system directly. So naturally there’s no way problems would occur.”

While receiving the report, I organized the office first.

I adjusted the slightly tilted watch back to its proper angle, neatly organized the shared supplies by size and purpose, and only then sat down at my seat.

At that moment.

A sound that made everyone focus was heard.

“Huh~?”

“What! Why! What’s wrong? Did an error occur?”

“It’s not that, I ate but I’m strangely hungry.”

“You did this in the research lab too and now you’re doing it here. ‘Huh~?’ is forbidden! I thought my heart stopped!”

The anger of Kim Sang-sik and the other employees exploded.

Since the people who reacted sensitively to the carelessly uttered “Huh~?” were programmers.

To appease the very angry employees, I quickly opened my wallet first.

“If you’re hungry, should we go out and eat some late-night snacks?”

“Let’s just order delivery. Youngest Employee! What are you doing instead of ordering?”

“Aren’t I the youngest here?”

“Hey, the CEO should be excluded from the youngest line. Right, Su-beom?”

I flinched unconsciously at the word youngest employee.

But at least at Rollbook, Kang Su-beom took on the role of youngest employee.

He had just graduated from university and joined immediately, so he was about 6 years older than me, but by any company’s standards, he was youngest employee age.

“I’m ordering again? When I was in the research lab, the 2nd and 3rd year students took care of all this stuff.”

“Just wait one year, there are people lined up wanting to join our company.”

“I have to keep ordering until then? Ugh, what a hassle. What does everyone want to eat?”

Kang Su-beom walked around holding the delivery menu book.

Since everyone had different food preferences, we had to order several types, and he came to me with a fed-up expression.

“What would you like to eat, CEO?”

“You look really tired.”

“I told them to unify on one choice, but everyone’s opinions are too strong. So what are you going to eat, CEO?”

“I’ll just eat anything.”

“There’s no such thing as ‘anything’! Just have pizza with me. This brand here is delicious.”

Kang Su-beom opened the delivery menu book and showed me which pizzas were tasty.

At that moment, a gear came to mind.

“Should I create a program that handles orders for us? Then Su-beom wouldn’t have to go through this trouble.”

“That would be great for me! But how would you make it?”

“We could digitize the delivery menu book to create a page where everyone can choose their own menu, and have the selected items automatically organized.”

“I wouldn’t have to go around asking everyone individually. Though I’d still have to make the order call myself.”

What a waste of time this was.

This delivery ordering process that consumed over 10 minutes.

Every Rollbook employee was precious talent, and Kang Su-beom, despite being the youngest, was no exception.

The time he spent on delivery orders was far too valuable to waste.

Even though 10 minutes a day might seem small.

When that became a week, then a month, then a year, the accumulated time reached 61 hours.

“We could also create a system that handles everything from ordering to payment at once. If we just apply a simple payment function, wouldn’t internet ordering be possible too?”

“Ordering through the internet? It’s theoretically possible, but wouldn’t the stores need that kind of system too?”

“We’ll create the system first and add a site within Rollbook. When we have many users, the stores will naturally have to follow.”

“I suppose that would work?”

Before I knew it, all the employees had gathered around me.

And naturally, a heated discussion about internet delivery service began.

“Let’s add a star rating system like Michelin. We’ve all been burned by ordering from delivery menu books, right?”

“Star ratings are good, but reviews are more reliable. They’re essential for finding good restaurants quickly.”

“We should also include order volume rankings. Delicious places naturally get more orders.”

The employees were filling in the gears on their own.

These were people who had lived in research labs for at least 4 years, some up to 10 years, eating only delivery food.

It was natural that they overflowed with complaints and ideas about delivery systems.

“I’ll try making it cleanly.”

“If the CEO makes it, it’ll be done quickly. But Su-beom, why haven’t you ordered yet?”

“CEO! Please make it quickly!”

It would be a waste to use the Simple Payment System only within the Rollbook Office.

If we applied the Simple Payment System to delivery services, anyone could easily order food.

With that thought, a fairly large gear naturally formed in Rollbook.

“Just wait one day. I’ll try to make a beta version by tomorrow.”

“As expected of our CEO! We really make over five phone calls every time we order late-night snacks!”

“Stop the nonsense and hurry up and order delivery! I’m starving to death.”

“CEO! Please really make it for us.”

I started working while listening to the rumbling sounds from the employees’ stomachs.

Creating a delivery order service system was much more productive than searching for errors that were nowhere to be found.

***

Creating a delivery order website was no different from Assembly.

Rollbook already had various functions, and just by cutting out those functions and pasting them together, a rough framework was completed.

And I wasn’t doing all the work alone either.

All employees took charge of developing one function they wanted each, and especially Kang Su-beom, who was in charge of orders, helped enthusiastically with the work.

“It’s roughly finished now. Shall we all take a look together?”

“Oh! It’s clean, isn’t it? There’s even a location-based system included.”

“That function was quickly implemented by bringing over what we used for second-hand trading.”

“Most of them are existing functions though.”

“Yes, the rating, review, and ranking functions are all things we already made with just slight modifications.”

Fast production was possible because we had already developed many functions.

That didn’t mean it was a roughly made website at all.

An efficient website that was simple yet had everything it needed was completed.

But there seemed to be many disappointing aspects in Yu Min-jung’s eyes.

The website I made was still focused only on functionality.

“What’s the point of just good functionality? It’s a food ordering website, right? Don’t you know the saying ‘good-looking rice cake tastes good too’?”

“Honestly, I barely paid attention to the design.”

“I’ll take charge of the design. I’ll divide it by food categories and add representative images so you can tell what kind of food it is at a glance. Like black bean noodles for Chinese restaurants, pig’s feet for late-night snack places, hamburgers or pizza for fast food places.”

The emotional aspects that we engineers don’t understand well.

Yu Min-jung was the only one in our office with such sensibility, and naturally the design became her responsibility.

“There’s no need to rush. It’s a function we’ll open after Rollbook’s United States expansion.”

“I can’t stand putting things off. It’s more comfortable to do things in advance when there’s time rather than making them under time pressure.”

While she was drawing the image, we went back to the final inspection of Rollbook.

I also thoroughly examined everything from start to finish, but no errors were found at all.

Since there were no more parts to check, I immediately called the Branch Manager.

“The error checking work has been completely finished.”

[The OK sign has finally been given. Then let’s proceed with Rollbook’s US expansion as scheduled.]

Now Rollbook’s US expansion had entered an irreversible stage.

All that remained was waiting. How different could American users be from Korean users?

And the gear structure of Rollbook’s American version was very stable and ready to move at high speed.

***

The Rollbook Booth set up in the center of Harvard University.

With various snacks and souvenirs prepared, many students lined up and showed interest.

“It’s a platform for communicating within the school?”

“If you narrow the regional range to the school, you can only communicate within campus, but if you expand it, you can connect with users across the entire United States.”

“Students can also do secondhand trading with each other.”

“In Korea, people exchange, sell, or trade various items through this website. Specialized textbooks and engineering calculators were always competing for 1st and 2nd place in sales rankings.”

Interest in the communication and secondhand trading functions was intense.

Students who visited the booth introduced Rollbook to their friends, and word of mouth naturally began to spread.

“Have you tried the new website? They were promoting it at the booth set up over there, and it’s pretty good.”

“What kind of site is it?”

“How do you sign up?”

“You need to enter your email and student ID to register.”

“You have to enter your student ID too?”

“That way outsiders can’t enter the Harvard community.”

A closed online community that only Harvard students could access.

That aspect caught the students’ attention and fit well with Harvard’s unique culture of building networks centered around clubs.

Some began joining Rollbook for networking, others for information.

It wasn’t just Harvard.

The same phenomenon was happening simultaneously at the top 10 US universities.

Especially at Stanford University, PayPal employees were even personally participating in the promotion.

***

I spent the day with a trembling heart.

Rollbook’s first day of US expansion had finally passed, and the results were a great success as expected.

The Branch Manager even brought coffee and desserts from early morning himself.

“Everyone worked hard. The number of subscribers surpassed 100,000 in just one day.”

“I thought it would be a success if we exceeded 50,000, but 100,000 is much higher than expected.”

“Not only current students from 10 universities but also graduates showed great interest. Even universities without booths saw explosive growth in subscribers as it spread rapidly through communities.”

The Branch Manager showed me materials containing key indicators.

Harvard alone had over 5,000 sign-ups in one day, and users were increasing at an even faster pace.

The fact that actual usage rates were increasing, not just simple registrations, was even more encouraging.

“At this rate, we’ll soon catch up to the number of Korean users.”

“Not only university students but also high school and middle school students are showing interest, so it should be possible within next year.”

“Revenue is also beyond imagination.”

“PayPal has been calling since morning. They say Rollbook Point Shop payment users are increasing explosively.”

PayPal was handling the payment system for the US version of Rollbook.

Rollbook and PayPal were partners sharing equity shares.

So Rollbook’s success was also PayPal’s success.

“I also received contact at dawn. They said they even visited their alma mater to promote it directly.”

“If Rollbook succeeds, PayPal also benefits. When users naturally become familiar with PayPal, they’ll continue using PayPal elsewhere too.”

“And there’s one more matter to report. We want to add a website with new features.”

The Branch Manager approached with a bright smile.

He was smiling so brightly that I could count his teeth.

“What kind of feature?”

“It’s nothing too impressive. We created a website where you can order delivery food through the Internet.”

“University students do order delivery frequently. It’s a service that perfectly fits our target demographic.”

“We’ve also integrated the Simple Payment System. It’s expected to help with PG Company revenue too.”

When acquiring Enex, the PG Company, the Branch Manager had said he would create Korea’s number one Payment Service Provider.

But the current Rollbook system alone wasn’t enough, and various revenue sources were needed.

“Even if it’s not big profit now, commission business would be possible.”

“Existing Paper Delivery Catalogs service providers were taking about 5-10% commission. So we’re thinking of lowering the commission slightly to just 4%.”

“Since there are no printing costs, we’d still make profit even with lower commission. Above all, if we can dominate the Internet delivery market, it’s profitable business even without taking commission.”

If we could just dominate the market, we could lead the market.

Of course, phone orders were still mainstream, but with the Internet spreading rapidly, it was just a matter of time.

And the moment the delivery order market completely shifts online, we’ll be able to set commission rates however we want.

“And I’ve prepared several additional revenue structures.”

“There are other revenue sources besides commissions? I quite like that.”

“First is advertising. Service providers can pay advertising fees to be displayed at the top regardless of ranking. It’s difficult to implement right now, but we’ve also planned delivery fees as a long-term strategy.”

The Branch Manager briefly examined the delivery website, then showed his characteristic smile.

Just from that expression, I could tell this website would be profitable.

“Very good. Let’s introduce it in Korea first, then expand to the United States later.”

“I’ll prepare the US version in advance as well.”

“Everyone keep up the good work. CEO Lee, could you see me for a moment? I’ll be waiting in the Nexfin Office, so finish up and come out.”

The Branch Manager walked briskly outside the office.

I followed him outside the office while looking back at the employees and instructing them to go home.

“Everyone go home early today. You’ve all worked hard.”

“CEO, you should go home too. Even if youth is on your side, you’ll break down if you keep using it like that.”

“I should go home and rest today too. I’ll stop by Nexfin briefly then head home, so you all go home first.”

The employees got up from their seats, swaying like zombies.

But unlike regular zombies, the employees’ faces were full of smiles.

Since the US version of Rollbook they had worked so hard to create was a huge success from day one, they could smile despite being tired.

Annual Salary 1 Trillion New Employee Chapter 41

E-book Publication Date | 2025.11.27

Author | Seo Oh

Publishers | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won

Publisher | Poten

Address | [04783] 10th Floor, 8 Yeonmujang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul

Phone | 02-6320-8500

Fax | 02-6320-8585

ISBN | 9791175305892

Price | 100 won

ⓒ Seo Oh 2025

This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law.

This e-book is published under the author’s contract, so unauthorized reproduction, copying, distribution, and sharing are prohibited without written consent from both parties.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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