New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 50

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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 50. Giant Killing (5)

Spending over 12 hours on an airplane wasn’t all that bad.

I could focus entirely on patent development without anyone’s interference.

After creating one patent draft like that, I flipped through the baseball equipment list that Younger Brother had organized.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

“It’s the baseball equipment list that Younger Brother said he needed. Oh, and thank you so much. I had no idea you were providing so much support to the baseball club.”

“Employee Lee’s younger brother needs continuous interest and support to compete fairly, doesn’t he? Besides, it’s not like we spent that much.”

The Branch Manager spoke as if it was completely natural.

“Thanks to your support, Branch Manager, Younger Brother’s school has rapidly emerged as a dark horse.”

“Originally, sports require money to produce output. Team sports especially so. No matter how much you arm yourself with a hungry spirit, baseball is a sport where it’s difficult to demonstrate your skills in front of overwhelming financial power.”

Was it because he was familiar with American baseball culture?

It seemed quite different from the Korean high school baseball atmosphere I knew.

But listening to it, it didn’t seem wrong.

“Having money would certainly produce better results than not having it.”

“It’s hard to compare with high school baseball, but if you look at Major League, you get the answer. Teams that spend a lot of money generally produce good results. Of course, there are cases where lower-tier teams miraculously perform well, but most of the time it’s just a flash in the pan for a year and then it’s over.”

Well, it wasn’t just baseball.

Most ball sports like soccer and basketball also showed a correlation between money and performance.

“Now that I think about it, that’s true. In high school baseball too, the teams with strong support committees performed better.”

“Of course, high school baseball is just the starting point. Team performance is important, but individual performance needs to be good to get into a good baseball team. So I’ll get whatever items your younger brother wants.”

“No, you must be busy, so I’ll try to get them myself.”

“You don’t think I’d go around getting them myself, do you? There are people who specialize in this kind of work.”

The Branch Manager almost snatched the paper with the list from my hands.

A brief silence followed, and I brought up a question I had buried in my heart.

“But I don’t really understand why you want to go to headquarters with me. Is there something I can do there?”

“I just wanted to show you. How a place called one of America’s Top 3 Funds operates.”

“Are you telling me to see the world outside the well?”

“You’ll know when you go and see for yourself.”

The Branch Manager was sparing with his words.

Still, knowing there was an intention behind it, I headed to the United States with a somewhat more comfortable mind.

***

It took 17 hours to arrive at Tiger Fund Headquarters.

We threw our luggage in the car and simply adjusted our attire before entering the headquarters building.

The executive team had already secured a conference room and was waiting for the Branch Manager.

“Branch Manager Mike is here? I personally arranged this meeting since you said you were coming.”

“It’s been a while, Chairman.”

The Branch Manager greeted briefly and took his seat.

I quietly sat on the folding chair placed behind him.

I wondered if I should even be here, but no one seemed to pay attention to me.

“Let me hear it directly. The Korea Branch achieved record-breaking results?”

“We earned 2.3 billion dollars in profit from this short selling investment. The Korea Branch’s operating funds were 600 million dollars, and the investment period was 11 days.”

The Branch Manager reported the results with a confident posture.

It could have seemed like boasting, but in this setting, it appeared perfectly natural.

“The highest return rate in the shortest period since Tiger Fund’s founding. In business days, that’s about a week, isn’t it?”

“Due to insufficient funds, we had to borrow from various sources, which somewhat lowered our return rate. However, now the Korea Branch has secured sufficient operating funds independently, so such problems won’t occur anymore.”

It sounded like a subtle criticism of headquarters.

The implication being that they earned less because they were given less support.

“But I’m not sure whether to celebrate this or not. Headquarters lost more money than the Korea Branch earned.”

“I heard that headquarters suffered significant losses.”

“We lost over 5 billion dollars in a month. These people here did.”

Chairman Robertson pointed at the executives one by one as he spoke.

Some hung their heads, while others raised their voices in rebuttal.

“The game isn’t over yet! Stock prices may have plummeted in the short term, but they’ll eventually rise again.”

“Technology stocks aren’t an illusion! Internet penetration is rapidly increasing not just in the United States but worldwide. The current decline is just temporary bad news.”

Quite a few executives were still pinning their hopes on technology stocks.

But the opposing opinions were just as strong.

“What future could technology stocks without a single profit model have? That’s why we built massive short selling positions.”

“I secured some of the volume that Branch Manager Mike dumped out of fear!”

Comments aimed at undermining the Branch Manager’s achievements poured out.

Particularly, there were many dissenting opinions regarding the rapid liquidation of positions.

Bang! As the atmosphere in the meeting hall turned into a marketplace, Chairman Robertson slammed his desk hard.

“Everyone quiet. This time our Tiger Fund has made quite a historic record. We’ve become the first fund to simultaneously achieve both the maximum performance in the shortest period and the maximum loss in the shortest period.”

“….”

“That’s right. What are you raising your voices for when you haven’t done anything well? If you want to raise your voice, produce results like Branch Manager Mike and then shout. You could even sing for all I care. Just produce results!”

A world where money is everything.

Process didn’t matter at all, and Wall Street was a place that only valued results.

“Did you say the game isn’t over yet? Good. When this round ends, I’ll decide everything anew based on the results. Anyone have complaints?”

“No sir!”

It seemed like he was speaking with the Branch Manager in mind.

Since the Branch Manager had recorded the highest performance so far, it sounded like he meant to call him back to headquarters depending on the results.

“The meeting is over, so everyone leave. I’ll hold another meeting in a week, so Branch Manager Mike, please attend that day as well.”

“I will definitely attend!”

Chairman Robertson spoke to the Branch Manager in quite a polite tone.

Is this the power of performance? He gives proper treatment to those who have results.

Chairman Robertson showed a warm smile to the Branch Manager until the end as he left.

The Executive Team sent unfavorable looks toward the Branch Manager before following suit.

“Shall we leave now too?”

“Where are we going now?”

“We need to go to our accommodation.”

We took the waiting car and headed to the hotel.

A suite room at the most luxurious hotel in downtown New York was our accommodation.

Without even time to look around the accommodation, the Branch Manager asked for my thoughts.

“How was attending a meeting of one of America’s Top 3 Funds?”

“Honestly, it was unexpected. I thought it would be extremely serious and aristocratic in atmosphere, but it was quite the opposite.”

“It’s not always like today, but it is quite different from the conference room atmosphere of typical corporations. And did you notice anything from listening to the Executive Team?”

Actually, I didn’t notice much during the meeting.

Due to my poor English skills, I understood the conversations a few beats late.

But thinking about it now, there was something strange about it.

“I got the strong feeling that they were being dragged along.”

“Exactly! They’re people who get dragged along by the market rather than leading it. That’s also why I left headquarters and came to Korea.”

“Did you come out from headquarters on your own?”

“I could have held out if I wanted to. But I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be trapped in a well.”

The fund headquarters was a well?

I recalled the conversation we had on the airplane.

“Do you think the fund is the well, not Korea?”

“I didn’t bring Employee Lee to headquarters to show him the world outside the well. It’s actually the opposite. I brought him to show how trapped Wall Street is inside its own well.”

It was a statement that completely shattered my common sense.

The center of global finance, with an enormous scale incomparable to Korea.

The Branch Manager was calling Wall Street, which had all of that, a well.

“Isn’t it too massive to call a well? Can you call a well that could contain an ocean a well?”

“It’s just a well that’s deluded into thinking it contains an ocean. Didn’t you get your answer today listening to the Executive Team in the conference room? They’re people who refuse to acknowledge pioneers and only move according to the flow.”

He must have been through a lot.

The Branch Manager spoke through gritted teeth.

“I definitely felt that all the executives in the meeting hall were riding the current trends.”

“That’s how Wall Street’s atmosphere originally is. But do you happen to know what the original running start position was like?”

“Don’t you start lying down?”

“That’s right. But in the past, standing preparation was the basic posture. Then a pioneer first took the crouched position. What do you think the reaction was?”

I was confused by the sudden talk about running,

but comparing it to the current situation, the answer came quickly.

“Were they rejected?”

“That’s right. Just for deviating from the existing method, they were ridiculed and mocked. But once they proved it with records, eventually everyone started preparing in a crouched position.”

“Do you think we are such pioneers?”

“Being a pioneer isn’t anything special. A pioneer is someone who has their own reliable weapon.”

I did have a reliable weapon.

Where could there be a weapon as reliable as the gears that appeared in my mind?

Then what reliable weapon did the Branch Manager have?

“Do you also have a weapon?”

“I have a very good weapon. Employee Lee is my powerful weapon.”

“You mean me? What am I?”

“Humility is a virtue in Korea, but in the United States or on the world stage, humility can appear as incompetence.”

I had been taught to be humble since I was young.

My adherence to my own routine might have appeared arrogant in the eyes of others.

I had heard many times that protruding stones get hammered by chisels, and nails that stick out get struck by hammers.

But the Branch Manager’s perspective was different.

“If I’m not humble, wouldn’t I appear arrogant? Especially since I’m quite young.”

“It’s fine to appear arrogant, even if you seem rude. You must maintain a confident attitude to avoid being devoured. And Employee Lee is the most powerful weapon I’ve chosen, so you should be even more confident.”

“I’ll strive to become an even sharper weapon.”

“That’s the right attitude! When Employee Lee’s Intuition combines with my Insight, we can easily trample the zombie hordes of Wall Street.”

As the Branch Manager continued speaking, I felt like the battlefield was expanding.

At first it was Tiger Fund Headquarters, and now the stage had broadened to all of Wall Street.

“I’ve heard Wall Street called hyenas before, but zombies is a first.”

“They don’t even deserve to be called hyenas. It’s more accurate to see them as zombies that just follow the scent of money.”

“Can the Korea Branch alone handle such a zombie horde?”

“We just need to reduce them one by one. In that sense… shall we start preparing for the hunt?”

The Branch Manager threw open the door to the innermost room of the Suite Room.

In the space where a bed should have been, instead of a bed, there were multiple Monitors and Computers.

And Stock Trading Terminals were densely installed throughout.

“When did you prepare all this?”

“In the United States, there’s almost nothing money can’t do. And this level of preparation doesn’t cost that much. Now, shall we loosen up a bit?”

The Branch Manager had already assumed hunting position.

How was he planning to hunt the massive zombie horde that was Wall Street?

Without hesitation, I also sat beside the Branch Manager and prepared for the hunt.

New Employee with 1 Trillion Annual Salary Chapter 50

E-book Publication Date | 2025.11.27

Author | Seo Oh

Publishers | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won

Publishing House | 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, and 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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