New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 9

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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 9. Why Does It Work? (4)

 

 

 

Korea University, Korea’s top university.

I had fantasies about it being a place where only the top 1% geniuses came.

But places where people live aren’t that different, and thinking about it now, our department was also full of Korea University graduates.

 

“Jung-hoo, you’re here? How was class with the professor? That’s really amazing. Aren’t you scared having one-on-one lessons with the professor? Even being alone in the same space with him makes my hair stand on end.”

“It’s not that scary. He treats me well.”

“Professor Park does? Come on, you should lie in moderation. Who at Korea University doesn’t know Professor Park’s personality?”

“I still don’t know much about it.”

 

Could this place even be called a research lab?

Calling it a prison seemed closer to the correct answer.

Three graduate students who chose graduate school drawn by Professor Park’s reputation, and three undergraduate computer science students who knew nothing.

 

They were in a relationship of monitoring each other so no one could escape.

Last month, when one graduate student went AWOL, the undergraduates even climbed over walls to catch the graduate student and drag him back to the research lab.

 

It wasn’t a bad structure.

It was a very suitable structure for forcibly maintaining the current environment.

 

“I heard you’re learning HTML starting today? Unlike coding, document work can be boring, so it won’t be easy to learn. Are you okay with that?”

“I see you call HTML ‘Helmet.’ It’s more interesting than I thought.”

“After doing tag work for just a few days, you’ll get bored and your body will feel restless.”

“I’m still fine. The professor also gave me homework to try making a simple website within this week.”

“You’re already making a website? Well, if you know the basics, you can somehow make one. So what kind of website are you planning to make?”

 

I could think about the topic from now on.

I looked around for suitable material.

At that moment, the attendance book on the desk caught my eye.

More precisely, I could hear sounds coming from the attendance book.

 

Click, click, whirr, thunk.

The sound of enormous gears meshing filled my head completely.

Since this was the first time I’d heard such a magnificent harmony, all my nerves focused on the attendance book.

 

“I think I should make a website based on the attendance book.”

“Oh! That’s not bad. Should I help you a bit?”

“I’ll try doing it by myself as far as I can.”

“If you get stuck, just say so anytime. If it’s Jung-hoo’s work and not someone else’s, I should naturally help.”

 

The people in the research lab were kind to me.

More precisely, I made them that way.

I needed the research lab people to study C Language. And the method wasn’t difficult either.

 

“How about chicken for tonight’s late-night snack? I’ll order one chicken per person.”

“Oh my! A working person’s generosity is truly different. I’ll place the order right away.”

“Please call me when it’s time to pay.”

“Can we eat together too?”

“Of course you can. I’m borrowing the research lab, so naturally I should do at least this much.”

“A word of thanks to Lee Jung-hoo who blesses us with food again today!”

“Thank you!”

 

Whether human or animal, there was no case of disliking someone who gives food.

Especially for graduate students trapped in the research lab solving their meals and lodging, chicken was a blessing.

If I could create the environment I wanted with just late-night snacks, I could buy not just chicken but even more.

 

But graduate students really were similar to slaves.

Although they received salaries, it was only about 500,000 won, and when performing government or corporate projects, they received irregular labor costs of hundreds of thousands of won at most.

It also meant I could continue buying their kindness with late-night snacks.

 

“Feel free to speak up anytime. I’m buying with the corporate card, so you don’t need to feel burdened.”

“I think the corporate card is truly God’s grace. Jung-hoo, who holds God’s grace, is God’s messenger.”

“To keep using God’s grace, I need to produce results.”

“Did everyone hear that? No chatting until the chicken arrives! If anyone says even one word, you’re all dead!”

 

Silence fell in an instant.

From that moment, I focused on the attendance book.

First, I should make a registration page.

Enter name, student ID, and department, and it would be good to have contact information and email too.

 

I built the website in the direction I was thinking.

When coding, discord was bound to occur frequently, and as I stabilized each one into harmony, time had already passed by quickly.

 

“Jung-hoo, are you still at it?”

“Did the chicken already arrive?”

“The chicken came last night. The sun has risen now.”

“It’s morning?”

 

The research lab windows were covered with blackout curtains 24 hours a day.

When I slightly opened the curtains, blindingly bright sunlight pierced through the gap.

 

Looking at the clock, it was well past 8 AM.

But I didn’t make a fuss. Today was the weekend.

No matter how much I valued work-life routines, I didn’t do the crazy thing of visiting the company on weekends to maintain routines.

 

“I didn’t even notice time passing.”

“Doesn’t your back hurt from just sitting like that? More importantly, go to the bathroom frequently. A senior who was here before also just sat around like Jung-hoo and suffered from cystitis.”

 

The lab room people sprawled everywhere.

I could see from someone lying on a cot with chicken sauce all over their mouth to an undergraduate student burrowing into the sofa trying to sleep.

 

Seeing them stirred up various emotions.

I naturally nodded at their diligence in working all night following instructions.

But I felt slightly uncomfortable seeing them sprawled without any routine.

 

“Don’t you go home even on weekends?”

“Where would graduate students have weekends? Living here, you don’t even notice the seasons passing.”

“The company at least sends us home on weekends, but school seems harder than the company.”

“Why else would they say that undergraduates go to graduate school when they commit sins?”

“Let’s all go to the sauna together. I’ll pay for hangover soup after the sauna. Of course, we can use the corporate card for payment.”

 

I held up my personal card disguised as a corporate card.

I wanted to organize the research lab. To do that, I had to clear out that zombie horde first, which is why I brought up the sauna idea.

 

“Sauna? Ughhhh.”

“Hangover soup? I’m hungry. Ughhha.”

“Everyone go to the sauna first. I’ll just organize what I’m working on and wait at the hangover soup restaurant.”

“How is it going so far?”

“First, I divided the students by grade level, then grouped them again by department. I also created a notice tab so department representatives and teaching assistants can post announcements, and made a space where students of the same grade can chat with each other.”

 

Optimal flow and efficiency.

A website with perfectly synchronized gears was partially completed.

A graduate student working as a teaching assistant showed interest.

 

“If all students use this website, there would be no need to send separate notices.”

“I’m creating a system where they can apply for reserve training or sick leave. I also made it so you can search for names or student IDs, or click to go to their profile page.”

“Private conversations are also possible on the profile page?”

“To have comfortable conversations, private messaging would be necessary. However, I made all personal profile pages publicly visible.”

 

There were still a few systems I hadn’t implemented yet.

But even in its current state, it was a website producing decent harmony.

 

“Oh! Information sharing is possible, and it would be fun to interact too.”

“And there’s one most important function. I also added a location tracking function.”

“Is there a need to check locations?”

“If there are students running away like before, we need to catch them. So I displayed approximate locations based on IP addresses and added a system to manually input locations.”

 

The lab members were greatly satisfied with the location tracking function.

They had always struggled to catch runaway members.

 

It was a necessary function for me too.

If even one person from the research lab ran away, it would interfere with my environment.

I had already incorporated all the research lab members into my environment and didn’t want any defectors.

 

“It’s not the exact location, but it would still be helpful.”

“Now the organization is all finished.”

“But are you just going to leave the website like this?”

“I made it for homework, so I don’t particularly plan to make it public.”

 

It was still an unfinished work.

And it was a work made for my satisfaction, not for others.

 

“You worked hard to make it, so it should be used somehow.”

“If you want to use it, feel free to do so.”

“I’ll try using it starting from the next class. Come on! Let’s move quickly. At this rate, bugs will start crawling on our bodies.”

 

The zombie horde finally left the research lab.

I started by opening the curtains for sunlight disinfection and opened the windows for ventilation.

Then I took out the cleaning supplies I had purchased with my own money and began cleaning the research lab.

 

***

 

The research lab members who returned to the lab after finishing at the sauna.

They sat down praising Lee Jung-hoo, who had provided them with daily bread and sauna.

 

“Having one working adult around is definitely good in many ways.”

“Calling him an adult is a bit much, isn’t it? He’s only 20 now.”

“If you work, you’re all adults. Plus, he carries around that invincible corporate card. I could even call him big brother, not just mister.”

“What were you talking about without me?”

 

An undergraduate student arrived at the research lab late.

In his hands were business cards and several beverages.

 

“Did you buy beverages for us? Wow, where does an undergraduate get money to do that?”

“I didn’t buy them, I received them. And these days, entertainment agency managers even come to the front of school.”

“You got scouted again? You definitely look better after washing up.”

“I told you it was worth washing up.”

“That’s a luxury problem. When someone gives you beverages, just accept them gratefully.”

 

Kim Dong-won, an undergraduate student in the research lab.

He had been scouted hundreds of times since high school due to his looks.

However, he had no interest in the entertainment industry and was someone who enjoyed quietly spending time in the research lab.

 

“I can use the website Lee Jung-hoo made, right?”

“I was planning to use it too. It would be good for managing undergraduate attendance and notices. I’m going to force students taking the professor’s class to sign up.”

“I should sign up too. Oh! You can even upload photos.”

“Didn’t you know? You can even leave comments under photos. And you can send messages and have conversations. I don’t know how he made all this in just one day.”

 

They were satisfied with the various functions.

However, there were some lacking parts, and they wanted to solve those themselves.

 

“We can fill in the incomplete parts ourselves, right?”

“He said to use it as we please. If there are necessary parts, fill them in yourselves. But he named the website ‘Attendance Book’ – doesn’t that look too plain?”

“Attendance Book does look a bit plain. Since attendance book is ‘roll book’ in English, how about calling it Roll Book?”

“That’s better than Attendance Book.”

 

The research lab members added functions to Roll Book one by one.

While doing so, they semi-forcibly made undergraduate students sign up for the website, and they also joined Roll Book.

Up to this point, there were no major problems. However, Kim Dong-won’s actions had a tremendous impact on Roll Book’s future.

 

Although Kim Dong-won didn’t answer phone calls or texts.

Just the fact that he received Roll Book messages brought in an enormous number of users.

 

***

 

When the TV-equipped mobile phone prototype development was reaching its final stages.

Another piece of good news came to our department.

 

“The Bluetooth Patent bonus came down! This time everyone gets 40 million won each!”

“Wooooah!”

“Thank you, Jeong-hu!”

“Thanks to our youngest, I was able to change my car this time.”

 

It took about a month for the Bluetooth Patent to be registered.

This time too, the private equity fund decided to own rather than sell the patent, and we had to choose between equity or bonus.

 

I chose equity.

But all the other employees chose cash.

With money in hand, Manager Kim brought up investment talk again.

 

“Shouldn’t we really start investing now?”

“Do you have a good place in mind?”

“IT is hot these days, so shouldn’t we invest there?”

 

Department members showing interest in investment.

I too had studied IT-related companies while learning C Language.

But perhaps still lacking, I heard no harmony and no gears came to mind either.

 

“I’ve gathered all the data on hot companies these days. This is the list of products in development, and this is the stock price graph.”

“Wow. You really prepared thoroughly? But what would we know from looking at stuff like this?”

 

Manager Kim handed out the printed materials to me as well.

I reflexively stared intently at the materials, and at that moment.

Click, click, whirr, thud. Puhbubbubung!

 

A gear I’d never seen before in my life came to mind.

A transparent gear rotating at tremendous speed.

And the faster it spun, the more cracks appeared in the gear.

 

‘But why is this working? It’s even fast.’

 

The assembly structure and durability were both completely messed up.

It looked like a gear that shouldn’t be turning was being forcibly rolled by external force.

Seeing this made me break out in hives, and I could instinctively feel what this meant.

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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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