Coder Lee Yongho

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A halogen light emitting faint red light was lighting up the dark bar. The table was made from dark brown hardwood, and the chair was of the same color, but had no backrest.

The floor also consisted of a dark brown wooden color, and overall, the bar was emitting a slightly depressing aura.

Unlike the dark mood emitted by the bar, each of the tables were emitting light, like fireflies.

A single candle on the tables was driving away the dark mood. Perhaps due to that, the people there all paid attention to each other by gathering near the candle.

However, only one place was emitting a completely different feeling than the others.

On the long table, made by joining two tables together, there were two laptops side by side. From the LED lights emitted from the middle of the laptop, one could tell that they were made by the same company.

The two, who were from the same company, and used laptops of the same specs, looked completely different to each other.

A blond, white man, and a black-haired, East-Asian man.

They were Mark and YongHo.

As the bar was quiet, Dave’s words sounded even louder.

“YongHo! Put a little more effort in!”

Ding!

When the man, who looked like a staff member from the bar, rang the bell, YongHo and Mark drank a cup of straight whiskey to their side simultaneously.

Slurp.

Due to the heat they felt from their throats, as the alcohol went down, both of them let out a deep breath. The alcohol coming out with their breath seemed to have excited the people around them as they were cheering even more.

Tatatatap. Tatatatap.

After the two drank the straight whiskey, they started typing on the keyboard as if possessed.

Mark wasn’t inferior to YongHo when it came to typing. This was the moment when the fact that the skills he showed were not lies.

“Mark!”

Next to Mark stood Kenneth. Na DaeBang was the notary for YongHo, and Kenneth was the notary for Mark.

Other than that, Dave and others were audience members. Lucia, who triggered today’s mess, also took a spot and was watching.

Ding!

When the staff member rung the bell again, the two emptied a cup of whiskey again.

Aka drunk coding.

This was the method used by the biggest SNS company in the world, in their initial stages. Na DaeBang suggested it to YongHo, after he was deeply impressed by that scene in the movie, and YongHo suggested it to Mark again, and the coding battle was set.

They made a room in Topcode, and would solve the random questions generated from it.

However, there was one condition. Until they completely solved the problem, they needed to drink a cup of straight whiskey every three minutes.

‘This isn’t easy……’

YongHo took a glance at Mark. At that moment, Mark raised his right hand up high.

This signalled that he was done coding. After the coding was done, there would be a checking time to see whether there were any bugs in each other’s program

There was not a single error, it was perfect.

The bug window also had nothing.

It was YongHo’s complete defeat. Now, there was one match left.

Na DaeBang kept ma.s.saging YongHo’s shoulders.

“Hyung-nim. It’s alright. You just need to win this round.”

Best 2 of 3.

The situation now was that YongHo and Mark each had a victory. With this last question, the final victor would be decided.

What YongHo demanded of Mark was to apologize to Lucia officially. What Mark demanded of YongHo was also an official apology to Mark for calling him a shameless fellow.

Mark put another condition, and it was ‘while kneeling’.

Apologize to Kenneth and Mark while kneeling and don’t interfere with their actions from now on.

If he lost this round, this was the mission that YongHo had to do.

“Give me some water.”

They drank 10 cups of whiskey already during their two rounds. Fire was erupting in his stomach, and his throat was burning.

The problem was that he was dizzy. He thought that he was sufficiently trained with soju when it came to alcohol.

However, the alcohol content of whiskey was in a completely different dimension to soju. The situation was not as good as YongHo thought it would be.

‘I’m dizzier than I thought……’

He forcefully opened his eyes, which were trying to close themselves due to all the alcohol, and looked towards Mark. Although he looked better than YongHo, he also didn’t seem that much better off.

To his side, Kenneth kept giving him water and was encouraging him.

“Hey, ma.s.sage a little harder.”

As he felt that the pressure on his shoulders had lessened, YongHo spoke in Korean. However, there were no changes.

“I said a little harder.”

Perhaps due to becoming drunk, YongHo’s voice had gotten louder. Alcohol was submerging his body. YongHo shook the hand off on his shoulders and spoke.

“Enough.”

Lucia momentarily panicked when YongHo’s hand was placed on her own. Moreover, YongHo spoke in Korean until now. She couldn’t understand what he was saying.

Na DaeBang was in the toilet, and Jessie wasn’t that kind to translate.

“Thank you.”

Only after hearing Lucia’s words did YongHo realize who was standing behind him.

“……”

YongHo took away his hands in surprise. Due to the sudden situation, his heart started thumping harder, and his hazy mind seemed to be getting clearer.

“Well then, this is the last round. I repeat, but you will lose if you don’t drink the straight whiskey every three minutes, lose if you cannot write the code faster than your opponent, and also lose if any bugs are found in your code.”

Na DaeBang mentioned the rules again. Although the tense atmosphere kept increasing, perhaps due to the alcohol, YongHo instead became more comfortable.

Explaining the rules was Na DaeBang’s role, and the start signal was Kenneth’s role.

“Then start!”

With Kenneth’s signal, the two entered a room in Topcode simultaneously.

The problems generated in Topcode were random. And most of the random questions were to solve an algorithm.

They would be given a situation, and they would code to solve that situation.

For example, a question would be like this.

Question.

Find the number of possibilities that satisfy this equation.

AA+BC=100. Find the numbers to replace A, B, C to satisfy the equation. A, B, C are single digit numbers.

Conditions.

a.s.sume that there are no errors with the equation. For example, you do not need to consider an equation like AA+BC=1000, where the number is such that you cannot get with adding two two-digit numbers.

The 100 in the above question was just an example. If it’s a number that’s possible to get by adding two two-digit numbers, then any number can be used.

Input.

For the above example; 11+89, 22+78……

(T/N: Shouldn’t the input be 100? Or whatever that sum is?)

Output.

7.

(T/N: Really? 11+89, 22+78, 33+67, 44+56, 55+45, 66+34, 77+23, 88+12 – That’s 8 though? Unless A, B, C have to be different numbers… in which case, 55+45 would not count… Also, there’s 99+01… but I guess 0 doesn’t count)

…Such were the questions.

The simplest questions were like that, and the question YongHo was looking at had over 10 lines of just explanations in the question.

The point was simple.

There is a highway that one needs to go past in order to go to the destination. Also, the tolls vary according to each highway. Find the least amount of money required to go to the destination.

Although the explanations were long, the moment he saw the question, YongHo thought up of the minimum cost spanning algorithm,

‘That’s a relief……’

After heaving a sigh of relief, YongHo read down the question quickly.

However, this was not a question only YongHo knew about. Mark on his side also seemed to know the answer as his fingers were dancing on the keyboard.

‘Quickly.’

YongHo also started coding, albeit a step late. When YongHo started coding, Dave’s cheering sounds also became louder.

Mark also didn’t know that YongHo was so good. Rather than looking down on him, he was confident in his own abilities.

He also solved countless algorithm questions from his university days. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have lasted so long in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley was where not a single inch would be given to someone without the skills.

‘This might be dangerous……’

As he liked to drink normally, he could accept YongHo’s suggestion easily.

However, he had never drank so much in such a short period of time. Not even one hour had pa.s.sed, but he drank 10 cups of straight whiskey. He felt that his body might fall asleep due to the alcohol if his concentration flinched in any way.

However, he needed to endure. He could not lose like this. This was a matter concerning his reputation and pride within the company.

His pride of being born in the greatest country in the world, having gone to one of the greatest universities in the world, and going to one of the greatest companies in the world could not be collapsed due to an Asian man who popped out of nowhere.

‘I will win.’

Mark burned his fighting spirit and kept coding. Codes started to fill the white blanks of the page.

Ding!

When they heard the bell ring, YongHo and Mark emptied the cup of whiskey simultaneously.

Ten minutes had already pa.s.sed since the last round had started. The two had drank 3 cups of whiskey already.

Tap!

The two drank the whiskey almost at the same time and put down their cups onto the table. Perhaps due to being drunk, their speed in putting down the cups was lightning-fast.

It was strange that the cups weren’t shattering.

“Do it! Let’s win!”

“Hyung-nim, do your best!”

Fearing that perhaps YongHo might lose consciousness, Dave and Na DaeBang shouted. Kenneth also cheered for Mark, not losing out.

Perhaps due to it being the last round, a tight tense atmosphere was flowing.

*Shatter*

The cup next to YongHo fell down and shattered. He couldn’t win against the alcohol momentarily and lost consciousness for a brief moment, and pushed the cup while his head was dropping.

‘Whoa.’

His head was spinning. He had already drank 13 cups of whiskey, which had 40% alcohol content. He would get drunk even if he drank that amount over a long period of time, but this had happened all within one hour.

“f.u.c.k……”

Fortunately, as he didn’t bash his head on the keyboard, he didn’t affect the code. If he mistyped, then he would have given the victory to the other side.

His brain, which became dreamy due to all the alcohol, was ordering him to stop coding and sleep.

He was forcefully withstanding that command with his mentality. He felt like he could only endure if he swore.

“Hyung-nim!”

When YongHo barely raised his head, Na DaeBang cheered YongHo on with both of his hands gripped tight into a fist.

On his side, Lucia was also looking at YongHo with her mouth closed.

Pzzt.

YongHo’s blank eyes met with Lucia’s earnest eyes.

Do your best.

Although she didn’t say that, as if by telepathizing, YongHo could hear Lucia’s voice in his head. (T/N: What telepathizing, that’s just being drunk, YongHo, it’s not telepathy, it’s fantasy)

The earnest voice woke YongHo’s brain cells. His lowered head raised again. After sitting up, YongHo stroked his head and started concentrating with coding.

SUBMIT.

The two raised their right hands after they clicked the submit b.u.t.ton almost simultaneously. The difference was negligible to the point that they couldn’t discern with their eyes.

No one could say anything, including the staff who was tipped to play the temporary judge.

“Y, you’ve raised your hands at almost the same time, so… shall we check the results?”

Na DaeBang spoke, puzzled, as he couldn’t discern the winner. If the results were wrong, then one of the two would definitely lose. The two showed their laptops to each other and showed the results.

1130 dollars.

1130 dollars.

The results of the code that YongHo wrote and the results of what Mark wrote were the same. The couldn’t determine the winner with just the coding speed or the results.

“Th, there are no bugs either?”

Nod nod.

A positive reply. If there was a bug, then a result wouldn’t have come out in the first place.

Now, there was only the final method.