Coder Lee Yongho

*Bang*
“What do you mean the transaction doesn’t work?”
Heo JiHoon who was reading the report, abruptly stood up. The ice cold expression had already collapsed.
“It’s that… Transaction error occurred in a few POS’s after we added the mobile gift card transaction module this time.”
“What’s the problem!?”
“We are currently looking into it.”
Heo JiHoon who was listening to the report looked at Son SeokHo as he was about to chew him to death.
“Head researcher, didn’t you say there was nothing wrong with the program?”
“Yes. There is nothing wrong with the program I made.”
“Then what is the current situation about?”
“How would I know?”
His calm reaction instead made Heo JiHoon more angry. And the rationality-breaking line digged into Heo JiHoon’s brain.
“Like I said before, the strategy itself was bad.”
The word was gift card but it was in fact, no different from an exchange ticket.
And the core of the strategy this time was to make it work on mobile.
It had no originality or creativity.
The developing schedule was shortened too much to match it with the department store’s sales period.
And a problem erupted.
“What!?”
Heo JiHoon was angry like a fire but Son SeokHo didn’t even flinch. He didn’t even glance at Heo JiHoon’s way. Seemingly having experience these types of situations lots of times, he just kept looking at the monitor like it was nothing.
“And you kept singing ‘outsourcing’ too……”
Son SeokHo didn’t seem to like Heo JiHoon at all. He was too focused on the results so he made a few outsourcing companies compete with each other to decrease the development price.
He didn’t have any interest in improving internal capability.
He only tapped on the calculator to work out how to decrease the development period and decrease the price at the same time.
He treated humans as numbers.
Of course, it wouldn’t be possible without Jeong DanBi’s approval.
Jeong DanBi approved of Heo JiHoon’s schedule since she also wanted results fast after she was put in charge of a new team.
It was just that it boomeranged back at them.

The smart shopping strategy team members were gathered in the conference room.
“And? The solution?”
“For now, we set the extra CAT terminals instead of the POS terminals to be able to do the transaction.”
“What does the outsourcing company say?”
“This… They are saying there’s nothing wrong with their side……”
“*Sigh*……”
It was Jeong DanBi asking and Heo JiHoon answering most of the time. The rest kept their silence.
However there was an eye-catching man.
*chew* *chew*
“Head researcher Son.”
“Oh, yes.”
Son SeokHo put down the sweet bean bread which he was eating.
“What’s your opinion on this?”
“My opinion? My opinion is that we shouldn’t have done this in the first place.”
“No, not that. This bug, can we solve it?”
The program simply died without leaving behind any error. Frustration could be seen on Jeong DanBi’s face.
The work that started ambitiously went wrong with the first b.u.t.ton.

Eum, Oh, Ah ,Yeah, I’m falling for you. I keep reacting!

Son SeokHo didn’t even put his phone on vibrate mode as if he didn’t even care for Jeong DanBi.
“Excuse me.”
And he answered the call just like that. Such figure made Heo JiHoon more angry.

“The transaction doesn’t work?”
“Oh. I’m very sorry, sir. If you wait a moment, then I will get a new terminal to do the transaction right away.”
The staff didn’t know what to do in panic. The other stores had the same problem. The stores with POS terminals all had errors occurring.
It wasn’t only the POS terminals which could do the transaction. The terminal the staff talked about was exactly that.
“Hmm……”
YongHo was thinking something else. He wasn’t even put to work yet but if he solved this problem, wouldn’t he be able to receive extra marks?
He had the feeling that he would be acknowledged as a core talent and would rise in the company smoothly.
Even if it didn’t go well, they would acknowledge him for his enthusiasm and pa.s.sion and he would be able to make a good image for himself.
After sorting his thought out, he stepped up.
“Excuse me… I’m from Shinseki data processing team, can I have a look at the computer?
He didn’t have an employee card but it was confirmed that he was an employee from Shinseki due to his credit card.
The 010 on his credit card proved that it was a card that was issued to only the permanent employees. Moreover, it wasn’t that YongHo was requesting anything difficult.
“You can just try to do the transaction one more time in front of me.”
That was enough.
The bug was confirmed after just one try.

The one who called Son SeokHo was yongHo.
“Team leader, it’s YongHo.”
“Oh, yes. Mr. YongHo, what is it?”
“I came to the department store but the transaction doesn’t work. It isn’t only here, the whole department store is in a mess… So I called you to ask if anything big was up.”
Son SeokHo made a small smile after he received YongHo’s call.
He didn’t even start commuting to the company but he had great pa.s.sion.
“Where is that?”
“Near Hanti station.”
The department store near Hanti station was indeed the place they picked as the test bed.
“You’re correct. A problem has indeed popped up.”
“Oh, so I did see correctly. So I looked into it a bit……”
YongHo had the intentions to sort out his stance through this.
To get marked by stepping up unnecessarily like it was with Kim WonHo. Or to get acknowledged. He was calculating all that.
If he heard something like ‘he’s a showoff’ then he didn’t have any intentions to stay for a long time.
Son SeokHo asked YongHo as if he didn’t understand.
“Oh did you? Do you mean that you looked at the source?”
Son SeokHo’s voice intentionally got louder.
He currently didn’t even have a company computer.
“Oh, not that. I just looked at what kind of symptoms it had.”
“And the result?”
Everyone in the conference room looked at Son SeokHo.
Everyone had ears to listen with so they knew that what Son SeokHo was talking about had a relation to the problem they were discussing.

After everyone left, only Son SeokHo and Jeong DanBi were left in the room. Jeong DanBi asked in a surprised voice.
“It really works?”
“Yes. I called the developers to downgrade the firmware version and it works normally.”
“Whoa… I think I caught a bigger fish than I thought.”
“I am surprised at your judgement, team leader.”
They didn’t need to edit the source.
The problem was with the version of the advertising monitor’s firmware (a microprogram to control the hardware) on the POS terminal.
The company which provided the monitor offered the latest version of the firmware which was different to the one they had for development and it clashed with the program and a problem occurred.
“Even I didn’t know he was at this level… Even if this is a coincidence… He’s at an unbelievable level.”
YongHo talked about the firmware problem when he was calling Son SeokHo.
He said that they should downgrade the firmware, as mentioned by the bug window.
Actually, Son SeokHo didn’t believe YongHo’s words. However, it was a new recruit being enthusiastic.
He knew better than anyone else what kind of courage YongHo had to have to make a call.
Thinking that there was nothing to lose, he did as YongHo said.
And the result, it was a big success.
However, there was a big homework that wasn’t solved.
YongHo’s ability.
He recognized the origin of the error after just looking at what symptoms the program had and came up with a solution.
And that was in the middle of making Son SeokHo and Jeong DanBi shocked.
“Well. In any case, his skills aren’t bad so isn’t it all good?”
“Yeah. That’s true, but I wonder if I will be able to manage someone like him.”
“Then all the better. Anyway, please stick him next to me.”
“Yes. No problem.”
Son SeokHo cheered like a little kid thinking that a big talent came into his hands.

Director Kim ManHo’s face turned ugly when he was listening to the report. A name he didn’t want to hear was mentioned.
“A condition?”
“Yes. The KO Telecom’s side wants Lee YongHo to be included in this project.”
“He got fired right?”
“Yes.”
Kim ManHo who was thinking over things while facepalming, eventually resumed speaking.
“There’s no choice. Tell them that we fired him.”
“But it was a word from vice president Go JinSung so it may affect the contract……”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“I looked into it, and it seems like he contacted An ByungHoon since he had a hard time getting employed. How about re-admitting him into the company……”
When doing projects, some people become ‘liked’ by the client(gab) company. And they put conditions to include some people.
KO Telecom’s vice president Go JinSung had made that condition as he had a deep impression of YongHo.
“*Sigh*… Do we really need to go that far?”
“The scale project alone is over 5 billion (≈4.2 million USD) and, we need to get this considering our company’s utility in the portfolio. Moreover, the chairman had interest in this. Don’t we have to do this in our best condition?”
Mirae IT was already in charge of maintaining the ‘personal system’, a content recommendation system, which was owned by KO Telecom.
They were doing a project with the t.i.tle ‘K-recommendation’ to enhance the personal system.
The scale alone was over 5 billion, moreover the recommendation system would become a system they would get their main income from in the future.
Especially, the important information to implement this system was the existing data.
They had to have the existing data to use it to mine data in various ways and test if the recommended data came out correctly to apply the service commercially.
As the biggest telecommunication company, KO Telecom was the finest test bed in that field.
If they could apply it to other fields with that technology as the base, then it may become a golden egg laying goose.
Mirae IT had enough reason to make this system succeed.
“Ok, tell ByungHoon to contact him.”
Kim ManHo couldn’t keep on being stubborn after he heard that the chairman was watching this.
This success of this project to enhance the K-recommendation system could also work as a leverage on his path to become a president from a director.

SungGyu, who was working couldn’t hide his surprise when he heard the sudden sentence.
“What? You want me to contact YongHo?”
“Yes, the higher-ups want to re-admit Mr.YongHo to the company.”
“But why me?”
“An ByungHoon, who was his direct superior got the cold shoulder. But you went to the same university so you are friendly with each other.”
At the PM’s words, SungGyu couldn’t hide his hesitation.
It was true that they were on good terms.
However, he didn’t build the relation to use it at times like these. SungGyu was very well aware of this fact.
“He’s not someone to listen just because I tell him……”
SungGyu politely expressed his refusal.
However SungGyu’s opinion didn’t matter in company’s system of command.
“Hey, you didn’t even try, why are you like that?”
“……”
“If it goes well, then you will receive extra marks from the higher-ups and there’s no demerit for you even if you fail so just have a talk with him.”
SungGyu’s head was in chaos as he kept listening to the PM’s persistent urging.
However, SungGyu knew.
What he had to do to keep commuting to Mirae IT.
YongHo politely expressed his refusal at An ByungHoon, saying he already got employed.
The company already threw him away once.
He had no reason to go back.
After An ByungHoon’s call ended, SungGyu contacted him this time. He also had the intention to meet him to celebrate his employment so he gladly accepted.
“Oh, Hyung, it’s been a while.”
“Oh…. yeah.”
“I will treat you this time.”
YongHo owed him a lot. Not only that, SungGyu was his savior when it came to improving his programming skills.
“Hyung, the meat is burning. Eat it quickly.”
YongHo placed a piece of grilled meat on SungGyu’s side plate. Looking at the meat in his side plate, SungGyu emptied the soju cup in one shot and spoke.
“You got a call from manager An right?”
“Yes. I refused since I got a job.”
“Hmm… I heard you got a job with much difficulty……”
“Hyung, do you, by chance, know what blacklist is? Wow, I contributed so much to the company and they put me in there, you know? I’m speechless.”
“……”
“You get outta there soon too, ok?”
SungGyu’s face kept turning darker as YongHo continued speaking. He could only continue to drink soju.
“YongHo, I have a request, can you do it for me?”
“Of course. I owe so much to you. What is it? Just speak about it.”
Seemingly having gotten confidence from YongHo’s positive att.i.tude, he spoke with difficulty.
“I will get you out of the blacklist so… Can you come back to Mirae?”
“Hyung, th, that……”
YongHo licked his lips and made a difficult expression. Considering his future or welfare, Shinseki was better than Mirae.
However, it was SungGyu who spoke about it so he couldn’t refuse right away.
“… Yeah, it must be difficult.”
“I’m sorry……”
“……”
Looking at the silent SungGyu, this time, YongHo emptied his soju cup.
And he thought that he need to tell them of his decision firmly. The tiny bit of affection for Mirae IT disappeared after seeing them using An ByungHoon and even SungGyu.
“Tell Mirae IT. That there absolutely won’t be a time I will go back… I am very sorry to you. I will surely repay the debt I owe you from university.”
YongHo quietly stood up and went to the counter and payed.
Until he went out of the room, SungGyu didn’t stand up and kept tilting the soju cup.

Translator’s note

Regular Chapter 1/3

Poor SungGyu… The author doesn’t ‘trash’ him. He comes back many, MANY chapters later… (One of the things I like about this author; he never ‘trashes’ a character)

Oh… People are getting confused over names, aren’t they? Lemme spoil things a little bit. Son SeokHo = good guy, Heo JiHoon = bad guy. Don’t mix them up like I did.

And seems like Subak is doing another novel….. I… won’t lose behind! I already have an EXTREMELY good novel in mind. This novel has so many serious stuff that it’s funny.

Thx for reading!

Translator : Chamber