New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 66

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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 66. Sincere Lies (1)

 

After finishing the Card Integration Work with Rollbook, I headed Home.

 

I still wasn’t familiar with the Hannam-dong road leading Home, and pressing the Door Lock to open the door felt awkward too.

 

“I’m back.”

 

“Older Brother, you’re here? You came home a bit early today.”

 

“Where are Parents? Haven’t they come back yet?”

 

“Older Brother, pay some attention to Home. They come back late every day because they’re running the Coffee shop. I stopped by briefly before, and the line was dozens of meters long.”

 

“Business is going that well?”

 

I had been too neglectful.

 

I was so preoccupied with the Hanseo Card acquisition that I had no time to pay attention to the Coffee shop Parents had opened.

 

But I never expected business to be so good that people would line up until closing time.

 

“They come home carrying a Money Bag every day after work. They look tired, but they’re incredibly happy.”

 

“What time do they close?”

 

“Around 11 o’clock? They’ll be here in a little while.”

 

After taking a quick shower, Parents came Home.

 

Just as Younger Brother said, Parents came in carrying a thick Bag and looked tired but very happy.

 

“Did business go well today too?”

 

“Do you know how many cups we sold today? A whopping 600 cups. We’re selling all the Coffee in Yeouido.”

 

“600 cups? Why is it going so well?”

 

“Why? Thanks to the opening event. We lowered the Coffee price to 1,000 won.”

 

Father opened the Money Bag to show me,

 

and it was packed full of 1000 Won Bills.

 

“How long are you planning to sell at 1,000 won? Honestly, even 1,500 won is a very cheap price.”

 

“People’s hearts are like that. It feels a bit awkward to raise the price again.”

 

“But you need to raise it now. If time passes, you won’t be able to raise it even more.”

 

“Let’s maintain it a little longer for now, and if it really becomes too hard to bear, I’ll raise it then. More importantly, can you get one more Espresso Machine?”

 

The Machine we use in our Store couldn’t be found anywhere on the market.

 

It was a Machine I had personally modified, the world’s only Machine that could extract perfect espresso with the press of a button.

 

“Would it be okay to operate two machines? One Machine costs over ten million won. It would be more efficient to raise prices rather than increase turnover.”

 

“Stop talking about prices, can you get the Machine or not?”

 

“I can get them. But do you really need two machines?”

 

“If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just sell them to another store. There are quite a few people who’ve come asking about opening Store #2 anyway.”

 

Father shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.

 

It had only been a few days since opening, and already there were inquiries about Store #2.

 

“Looking at the margins, you must be tempted to consider Store #2, right?”

 

“Hey! You keep saying things that hurt my feelings. Someone from a Large F&B Company even came by. They wanted to buy not just Store #2, but the entire brand.”

 

“The entire Max Coffee brand?”

 

“They said they’d give me 100 million won to hand it over.”

 

How many people had worked so hard to create just one Max Coffee.

 

Me, the Private Equity Staff, and the Rollbook Team had all worked through the night to create this brand.

 

From the machines to the interior and system, everything was the product of careful consideration, and they offered only 100 million won.

 

Even 1 billion wouldn’t have been enough.

 

“You rejected them, of course?”

 

“Of course. Do I look like someone who’d be swayed by such a cheap offer? But… I should think about Store #2 once.”

 

“Are you considering Store #2?”

 

“A friend who was my assistant when I worked at The Company just retired. He used up his severance pay during the IMF crisis, so he doesn’t have much money left. He said he wants to run a small store like ours.”

 

I remembered Father’s assistant.

 

He was the uncle who used to visit often when I was young and give me pocket money.

 

“Uncle Chang-seop?”

 

“That’s right. You remember him too. He came to ask for a favor when he retired. It was hard to refuse.”

 

“If Store #2 opens, Max Coffee will become a Chain Store. We’ll have to collect franchise fees, and we’ll need to provide some level of support. There’s no guarantee it’ll do as well as Store #1.”

 

Actually, there was a high chance it would succeed.

 

We had Rollbook’s full support, cheap Coffee Beans, and differentiated machines.

 

Still, I had to bring up the negative aspects.

 

I was worried about things getting too big. It was enough to have a store where my Parents could work as a pastime.

 

“Chang-seop is so diligent. And his kid hasn’t even graduated from School yet. He can’t just sit at Home twiddling his thumbs.”

 

“Father gets various services for free because I’m here, but Store #2 would have to pay fees. Would that still be okay?”

 

“From what I’ve experienced, even after paying fees, it would be better than most office workers’ Annual Salary.”

 

Was there really that much profit left over?

 

Well, since the rent ratio, which took up the largest portion, had dropped significantly, there had to be profit left.

 

“How much are you making?”

 

“Ahem, I don’t want to brag, but this month’s sales exceeded 12 million won. Even if Store #2 pays more rent and fees, they’d still have 8 million won left.”

 

Father’s words were accurate.

 

Anyone could do it as long as they secured a good location.

 

Not only would it reduce costs, but the turnover rate was excellent thanks to the system.

 

“Do as you please, Father. But the training must be thorough. And if Store #2 fails, Store #1 will also take a hit.”

 

“Of course I’ll stop by every day to check on it.”

 

“Will you have time for that? That’s why I’m saying we need to raise the prices.”

 

“Hey, I’ll handle the pricing myself. You just get me the machines.”

 

No one could break Father’s stubbornness.

 

Only Mother could put the brakes on him, but seeing her stay quiet, it seemed they had already discussed it.

 

“I’ll discuss the machine and Store #2 issues with the company. We can’t just open anywhere. I’ll look into good locations.”

 

“That’s our son! I’m counting on you.”

 

How could I oppose him when he was this happy?

 

But I couldn’t just sit back and watch either.

 

We needed a system that could reduce the workload.

 

***

 

Rollbook had various functions.

 

Among them were technologies applicable to coffee shops, and when combined with prototypes made by Nexpin, it would be enough to create something new.

 

“Could we convert the Point Shop function to a touch pad system?”

 

“Of course it’s possible. But why?”

 

“My father runs a coffee shop, and I was thinking of making him an unmanned checkout counter.”

 

“An unmanned checkout counter?”

 

The Rollbook employees were puzzled by the term ‘unmanned checkout counter.’

 

To help them understand, I pulled out the guide booklet I had brought from COMDEX.

 

“Unmanned checkout counters were exhibited at COMDEX. They’re for public institutions, but with a little modification, they could easily be used in regular stores.”

 

“Ah! I’ve heard about this at school too. Is this called… a kiosk?”

 

“That’s right. Existing unmanned checkout counters had many inconveniences. If we incorporate Rollbook’s Point Shop function to select menus by touch and diversify payment methods, it would be much more convenient.”

 

Though it was an idea I brought up during break time, since everyone was from engineering school, they quickly became interested.

 

And one by one, they added their own ideas.

 

“We’d need to take high-resolution photos of the coffee. The prices should be displayed under the images too.”

 

“A shopping cart function is essential too. There are many customers who order multiple drinks.”

 

“Option selection is also essential. Things like adding shots, changing milk types, adjusting sweetness levels.”

 

“We need to print order numbers too. We could attach a small printer. Customers need number tickets to know when their orders will be ready.”

 

Ideas poured out.

 

I had already conceived various features in advance as well.

 

When our ideas merged together, a decent draft was already taking shape.

 

“I’m thinking of adding algorithms too. Popular menu statistics, sales aggregation by period, easy price changes.”

 

“That would be better than most part-timers, wouldn’t it?”

 

“It’ll be difficult to implement everything at once, but I want to try making it. I’ll handle this project myself since it’s family business.”

 

I couldn’t ask employees who were already busy with work.

 

But everyone voluntarily stepped forward to help.

 

“I can help with simple tasks. Converting the Point Shop to a touch UI won’t take long.”

 

“Since we already have features for inventory management and sales analysis, I should be able to modify and implement them right away.”

 

“I’ll handle the images. It would be a disaster to leave design work to Engineering Students.”

 

No matter how much I declined, the employees insisted on helping first.

 

Even Yu Min-jung stepped forward to help with image work.

 

“I can’t ask you to help with family matters.”

 

“Are we strangers? Besides, this isn’t even difficult work. If you do it alone, it’ll take weeks, won’t it?”

 

“If you really feel bad about it, just give us generous bonuses.”

 

“I’ll prepare a hefty summer bonus.”

 

In the end, we decided to work together.

 

As the employees said, if I had made it alone, it would have taken weeks.

 

Thinking about how my parents would struggle during that time, it was right to complete it as quickly as possible.

 

“Oh! By the way, how’s the response to the Internet Radio Download Service?”

 

“It’s hotter than expected. Even clubs like the Band Club are contacting us.”

 

“It’s about time to expand. But we still shouldn’t let just anyone use it. There might be people who upload strange broadcasts.”

 

To secure loyal customers, maintaining quality was most important.

 

If the entry barrier is too low, troublemakers are bound to appear.

 

But if the entry barrier is too high, that’s also problematic.

 

“Right now the Broadcasting Club is handling self-censorship, but we might need a dedicated department later.”

 

“Before that, let’s create a filtering algorithm first. Something that detects profanity and sensitive words. I’ll try making one.”

 

“I’ll trust only you, CEO. And since the Broadcasting Club mostly releases free downloads, the influx has really increased.”

 

University broadcasting clubs were generally releasing their recordings for free.

 

While they did receive donations, they seemed to feel burdened about charging money for their amateur broadcasts.

 

It was good for attracting listeners, but from a purely revenue perspective, it was far from an ideal situation.

 

“If everything is released for free, who’s going to make money?”

 

“Exactly. We need paid content to collect fees and generate revenue… Right now, only server costs are increasing.”

 

“We need to create a revenue model for free downloads too.”

 

The employees tilted their heads in confusion.

 

The words ‘free’ and ‘revenue model’ were a completely mismatched combination.

 

“How exactly do you plan to generate revenue?”

 

“There’s nothing but advertising. Traditional radio stations make money this way too.”

 

“You mean inserting mid-roll ads and such?”

 

“That’s right. Rollbook will recruit advertisers and insert ads into the download files. We’ll split the revenue 70:30.”

 

“We get 30%?”

 

I nodded.

 

Naturally, the content creators should receive the larger share of the revenue.

 

“If we can secure advertisers well, it should become a pretty decent revenue model.”

 

“But won’t there be listeners who hate ads?”

 

“That’s why we’ll create one more option. A paid subscription service without ads.”

 

“So if they pay, they can listen without ads? That’s completely brilliant!”

 

It was a way of broadening the choices.

 

Since mid-roll advertising was already an accepted culture in traditional radio, users wouldn’t feel much resistance to it.

 

However, since user reactions could be more sensitive in digital environments, I prepared paid subscriptions as an alternative.

 

“Suddenly we have a lot of work to do. Let’s just tough it out a little.”

 

“I have nothing to do at home anyway. You said you’d give us generous bonuses, so we should work hard.”

 

And so we threw ourselves into our work.

 

We accelerated our efforts to monetize internet radio and expand the coffee shop system.

 

Annual Salary 1 Trillion New Employee Chapter 66

 

E-book Publication Date | 2025.11.27

 

Author | Seo Oh

 

Publishers | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won

 

Published by | Poten

 

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

 

Phone | 02-6320-8500

 

Fax | 02-6320-8585

 

ISBN | 9791175305892

 

List Price | 100 won

 

ⓒ Seo Oh 2025

 

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

 

This e-book is published under contract with the author, 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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