Chapter 10: <Close the Gates to Hell>

Yoon Gihwan followed Woosung hurriedly. When Woosung ignored him, he shouted desperately.

“Hey, newbie. Hey! You!”

“I’m not going anywhere. Why are you chasing me?”

“What did you mean? Server problem? And what money?”

“We shouldn’t work with them for free. You should contact our sales team and get them to bring us a contract.”

“Are you serious?”

“First sales team. Then contract.”

To Woosung’s determined attitude, Yoon Gihwan became quiet. How could a young 26-year-old be so domineering? Yoon Gihwan wet his lips.

‘I don’t get him.’

At first, he thought of Woosung as a naïve young pup. He was waiting to show him how the real world worked and train him. But Woosung was not what he expected.

Perhaps a tiger?

No, he was even beyond that. He was a flying dragon.

“Didn’t you say yesterday you only finished 15% of the test code? So when did you have the time to finish it and check out the server codes?”

“There is a saying in SI. ‘Ask for a longer deadline than needed and embellish the result.’ That’s why I said I needed more time. And my presentation only included the bare necessities. I had a lot of time left so I looked at this and that.”

“Are you serious? I know that you included only the main points in the presentation, but you have been working for only one day! How could you make a PPT, complete that many test codes, AND also look at the server codes?”

“Server codes were nothing special. Looking at the Oracle procedure was also easy. As for PPT, it was simple.”

Woosung stretched his arms and continued.

“A lot of unexplainable things happen in the world. I think I worked too hard today. I’m getting sleepy. I will take a quick walk to clear my head so please have the contract ready. Oh! Also, remind everyone that our work hour ends at 6:30 pm.”

Yoon Gihwan gasped but couldn’t say a word.

***

Strolling outside, Woosung drank a cup of coffee. Cold winter wind snapped him back to reality. He remembered what happened 10 years ago as if it all happened yesterday.

“It was a crazy time. Daeyang had to intervene and hire several famous developers to solve this problem.”

Woosung remembered that it took a week to fix. Not every customers’ balances were showing up incorrect, so the trading service continued and they fixed any mistakes which follow.

Manual rather than automatic.

They spent countless hours trying to fix the balances. Even 2 months after they solved the problem, everyone had to be on call. It was like hell.

“I wonder if Yoon Gihwan is following my order… I hope he doesn’t blow this chance.”

Woosung shivered. His ears were itchy, which meant that someone was talking about him.

Go Yungjun, a member of Daesan System’s sales team grumbled.

“You owe me big time, General manager. I had to cancel an important meeting to come here for you.”

“If this works out, it will be a huge deal. I expect it to be worth at least 440,000 dollars.”

450,000 dollars. Go Yungjun wet his lips.

“Did you say 450,000 dollars? You need to explain.”

“Nuri Finances is having a problem with their account system.”

Go Yungjun answered in shock.

“What? Did we screw up?”

“No, thank god.”

“Phew, you scared me.”

“We will ask for 200,000 dollars to fix the problem, and 250,000 dollars for future consultations on this subject.”

Go Yungjun shook his head nervously.

“General manager, account system is a dangerous territory. If we mess up, this destroys our company. You know this, right?”

“This is our chance. If we don’t take risks, we can never grow.”

“So you’re saying we will now dabble in the account system too?”

“We can’t always play it safe. And you remember where I used to work, right?”

“Haha, I remember. So we’ll fix this problem and offer a better system? And if our work satisfied them, we will take the account system contract and get paid to maintain?”

“Yes. ST has this contract but as you know, I have a history with Daeyang. We can steal the contract. This will be the beginning of us growing.”

Yoon Gihwan was ambitious. Account system was a core part of any finance companies and getting involved in this field was not something everyone could do. Only the best of the best firms would win such contracts. This was their chance.

“Be ready for me. The field supervisor went to have a meeting with his headquarter. We’ll find out soon.”

Yoon Gihwan called for Kim Yonggun.

“Hey, where the hell is that newbie? Find him.”

Kim Yonggun picked up his phone.

***

When Woosung came back to the office and gave his opinion, Yoon Gihwan lost it.

“You… you are crazy!”

“That’s my condition. Take it or leave it. If I don’t get this, then you can do the work yourself.”

Yoon Gihwan stood up in fury. Go Yungjun tried to convince Woosung.

“Woosung, this is very important to this company. If this works out well, then I’m sure our company will compensate you accordingly.”

Woosung stretched his neck and replied.

“I know, so I’m asking to be compensated now.”

Yoon Gihwan exhaled unevenly. Go Yungjun was getting a headache. Park Junwoo watched tensely nearby. This newbie was impressive.

“I want to be paid 50,000 dollars for fixing the problem and another 50,000 for the future consulting. Total 100,000 dollars. I am not asking for an unreasonable amount. I’m the only one who found out about the Batch procedure problem.”

“….”

Yoon Gihwan stared angrily at Woosung. Go Yungjun remained silent.

“I am telling you that I can fix the problem all by myself by the end of the day. Do you still think it’s unreasonable? The company will make an easy 200,000 dollars and get a chance to get into the account system field. This is the least this company can invest for such an opportunity.”

“Do you really think you can do this? What are you going to do if you can’t fix it?”

“Haha, I will sign a contract that says I will give up my salary for the next 5 years if I’m not successful.”

At that time, Kwak Jungwook came back from the meeting with Daeyang System.

“General manager, Daeyang is ready to offer you 150,000 dollars if you can fix the problem. If you don’t succeed, then you’ll get nothing. The deadline is till tomorrow morning before the market opens.”

Woosung smiled.

“I need to tell you also that if I end up needing to work after 6:30 pm, my hourly rate will be 1,000 dollars. It’s… 5 pm now.”

Yoon Gihwan closed his eyes. Park Junwoo and Kim Yonggun remained silent. Kwak Jungwook added.

“Oh, and as for the further consultation, if you can complete the task by midnight, they will accept it.”

Yoon Gihwan replied slowly.

“So… you want us to prove ourselves first.”

He looked at Woosung. Woosung was sitting lazily and smiling.

“Yes. And also, if the problem fixes itself somehow, then the offer is off of course.”

Woosung pointed at the clock.

“It’s now 5:10 pm.”

Yoon Gihwan looked at Go Yungjun.

“Manager Go, please prepare the contract. And you newbie… you better keep your word or else, you will never work in this field again.”

“Manager Go, I will now have to work till midnight so please include in the contract an additional 5,000 dollars for the 5 hours of after-hours work. I will give you the first 30 minutes of work for free.”

Go Yungjun looked at Yoon Gihwan for an approval. Yoon Gihwan glared at Woosung and nodded.

“Fine.”

Woosung cracked his knuckles and placed his hands on the keyboard.

“I don’t care if the company is getting paid only 150,000 dollars. I still need to be paid in full. You will also need to find a notary and a lawyer for the contract. I trust that you will take care of it, so I will start working.”

Yoon Gihwan gave out a defeated sigh.