WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈
Chapter 64: I’ll Take Responsibility
──────
I successfully reported for my first day at Sarang Trading Company.
“Employee Lee, if there’s anything you’re curious about, be sure to ask me, all right? I’ll tell you everything.”
“Thank you.”
Manager Kim explained the company facilities all the way to the office. The way Manager Kim treated me was kind and gentle, the very model of a superior.
“By the way, what’s that around your neck?”
“It’s a Polaroid camera. Photography is my hobby, so I always carry it with me.”
“Hoho, what an elegant hobby!”
Thanks to my enhanced eyesight, I could tell that Manager Kim’s gaze often lingered on the luxury goods I was wearing.
“For now, wait in the office. Our company does morning exercises before work starts, you see? But you can’t exercise in a suit. You’re exempt until we get you a set of gym clothes.”
“If you get hungry, help yourself to something in the break room.”
Manager Kim left me with those words.
“The new employee is insane!”
I could hear Manager Kim shouting from the hallway.
“A Bugatti! And he’s wearing luxury goods from head to toe. I think he’s a chaebol heir!”
“Really?”
“Wow, that Bugatti in the parking lot belonged to the new employee? I thought the chairman of some huge corporation had come to visit!”
It was more attention than an ordinary employee could receive, but it wasn’t bad for someone who needed to build some rapport with everyone.
“The new employee is really handsome. Do you think he has a girlfriend?”
“Why? Are you going to make a move on him? You want to become the wife of a chaebol heir?”
“I’m not looking at his money. I’m looking at him. Handsome guys are usually nice and capable too.”
“Oh, Miss Kim! You can’t flirt with a kid more than twelve years younger than you!”
There were plenty of favorable remarks, but many others expressed hostility.
“A Bugatti, my ass! It’s all fake! He’s twenty-five, right? Can a twenty-five-year-old afford a Bugatti?”
“Exactly! And if it were real, why would someone that rich come to our company? As a new employee, too!”
“Everything he’s wearing must be counterfeit. They say fakes are made just as well as the real thing these days.”
“And even if it’s all real, does it make sense for a new employee to come to work covered in expensive luxury goods?”
Some had even started speculating about my identity.
“Could he be a chaebol heir? He can’t be an ordinary twenty-five-year-old.”
“Right. He must’ve been unemployed at home, so his chaebol parents got angry and kicked him out. They probably told him they’d cut him out of the family register if he didn’t get a job somewhere!”
“I think his parents sent him to our company on purpose so he could get a taste of how harsh society is.”
“Could he be Lee Seung-hoon the Fixer? They have the same name.”
“Why would the Fixer come to our company? Say something that makes sense.”
Someone called me a chaebol heir.
Someone called me a vain MZ kid covered in counterfeits.
Someone called me a guy who had hit it big with crypto and joined a company for fun because he was bored. Someone else called me an ultra-premium new employee they absolutely had to befriend.
“I haven’t even shown them anything yet.”
Based on appearances alone, I had already become many different things in their imaginations.
“Both favorability and hostility are determined by the value of the things I’m wearing.”
I took a selfie with the empty office behind me and wrote a title on the back of the developed photograph.
[The Loneliness of Pariah Capitalism]
Then I entered the break room.
‘So this is the break room.’
Contrary to what I had imagined, there were only bulk bags of cheese balls, instant coffee, and an electric kettle.
‘No black tea.’
I took a black tea bag from the inside pocket of my suit, placed it in a paper cup, and brewed some tea.
“It’s a shame there’s no milk, but this will have to do.”
A short while later, the exercises ended, and Manager Kim entered with the other employees.
“All right! This is Lee Seung-hoon, who’ll be working in our General Affairs Department starting today! Everyone, give him a hand!”
“Woo!”
After receiving applause from the office staff, I gave a brief introduction, chatted with them, and was finally assigned a seat.
“New employee, I’m your mentor.”
“It’s good to see you again, Assistant Manager Lee.”
My mentor was Assistant Manager Lee Seok-du, who had interviewed me alongside Manager Kim.
“All right, I’ll start by teaching you how to fill out documents.”
Assistant Manager Lee kindly taught me how to prepare various documents, use the internal computer system, and access the KakaoTalk group chats used by the employees.
“Next, I’ll tell you what you have to do outside the office.”
There was really a lot to do here.
“This is Doldoli, the chairman’s pet. Feeding Doldoli every day is the new employee’s responsibility.”
“You see this machine? Checking that it’s running properly is also the new employee’s job.”
“Signing the final safety officer field over here every day is your job too.”
“You know cleaning the break room is naturally the new employee’s job, right?”
“Reviewing typos and formatting in reports written by the team members is your responsibility too.”
There really was a lot.
“This is Factory One, and most of the workers are migrant laborers. During night shifts, your job is to supervise things so no problems arise. Hm? Of course, you have to work overtime every day when you’re the youngest. Don’t tell me you planned to leave work on time?”
“If another team asks for help because they have too much work, the new employee has to go help them.”
“Even if nobody asks for help, once you’ve finished your own work, it’s basic courtesy for a new employee to go around to other teams and ask whether they have anything you can do.”
“Sometimes the ladies in the cafeteria get busy and ask for help too. You have to help them then as well. And it’s polite to help wash the dishes afterward even if they don’t ask.”
There was so much to do that a future too busy to catch my breath awaited me.
“There’s more, but let’s start with the most basic tasks: checking typos and formatting. You remember the formats I taught you earlier, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then the team members will send reports to your computer, so give it a try. Call me when you’re done.”
After Assistant Manager Lee left, I activated my smartphone.
『Did you call for me?』
“Yeah. I think the company wastes time through an inefficient system. I want to make a program. Can you make one for me?”
『What kind of program is it?』
“A program that automatically corrects predetermined formats and typos.”
『Understood.』
Sarang-i’s current battery was at 62%.
Two percent of its battery was consumed, and an Automatic Typo-Checking and Format Correction Program was created on my computer.
‘Perfect.’
When I ran the program, the moment reports arrived, it automatically checked them for typos and formatting errors, corrected what needed to be fixed, and completed the final version.
“Huh? New employee? It hasn’t even been a minute since I sent the report, and you already sent it back?”
“Yes, I sent it after correcting it.”
“No way.”
“You’re welcome to check.”
“Then let’s see...”
The employees who received the reports didn’t believe it at first, but after seeing their quality, they soon exclaimed in admiration.
“Wow, it’s real.”
“You did this that quickly?”
“Did you perhaps work at our company before?”
As people gathered around my desk, I showed them the program.
“An Automatic Typo-Checking and Format Correction Program?”
“When did you make this?”
“I made it as soon as Assistant Manager Lee taught me how to do the work.”
I had prepared an excuse for what program I used and how I had made it so quickly, but the employees didn’t dig that deeply.
“Hoho, that’s impressive! As expected of Employee Lee! The next ace of our department! I knew it!”
“Wow, Employee Lee! You can make programs too? That’s amazing!”
“I knew from his face that he had the look of an ace.”
That was how the day’s work ended. Thanks to the program Sarang-i had made, there was almost nothing for me to do.
“New employee, let’s go have a cigarette.”
“Yes.”
I headed to the smoking room with Assistant Manager Lee.
“You knew how to work with programs? You should’ve put that on your résumé.”
“I’m not particularly good with them.”
“Yeah, I could tell. The interface is pretty bad. What’s the point of good functions if the interface isn’t user-friendly? People need an interface that’s easy to use, but you focused too much on functionality.”
After criticizing the program, Assistant Manager Lee gave me some advice.
“And don’t trust programs and things like that too much. They’re machines in the end, right? If you rely on them too much, you won’t improve your own skills. You have to look with your own eyes, double-check things, and do mental calculations to improve. If a machine does all the work for you, do you think your skills will grow? Never. You’ll become lazy and complacent, fall behind, and lose. Then you can forget about promotions or moving to a better company. You understand?”
“Yes.”
When we returned to the office, Manager Kim cheerfully showed off the program I had made.
“Employee Lee! I shared this with the other departments, and everyone loved it! Hoho! They all said they’re grateful to Employee Lee! Wow! On his first day reporting to work, Employee Lee changed part of the company culture!”
“Haha, thank you.”
As I listened to Manager Kim’s praise, I checked Assistant Manager Lee’s expression.
“...”
His face was as red as a ripe jujube.
＊＊＊
On my fourth day of employment, my daily routine had not changed much.
“Yo! Employee Lee, you’re here?”
“Good morning, Manager.”
I arrived at work early in the morning and greeted Manager Kim. After finishing the new employee’s morning duties, I changed into the gym clothes I had finally received and joined the morning exercises.
“All right! Let’s have another energetic day! Fighting!”
“Fighting!”
I had no point of contact with the chairman, who had no interest in new employees and had a private parking space.
According to Sarang-i’s investigation, the current chairman was a chaebol heir who had inherited the company from his parents. Except for morning exercises, company dinners, and hiking trips, the chairman had no interest in the company at all.
『According to search results and call records, the chairman’s recent goal has been to sell the company and travel around the world.』
In any case, my days consisted entirely of doing the work Assistant Manager Lee had taught me.
There was one problem, though.
“Assistant Manager Lee, why do you look so unwell these days?”
“Haah, that new employee is driving me crazy.”
It was Assistant Manager Lee’s attitude toward me.
“Honestly, if I teach him one thing, he forgets two. He only knows how to make programs. Outside of that, he has no flexibility and a terrible memory. I teach him something, he forgets it. I teach him again, he forgets it again. I’m going insane.”
“Really? I thought he was a smart new employee.”
“You know how smart kids often have intelligence concentrated in only one area? He’s kind of like that. He’s only smart when it comes to programs.”
“Hmm. They said he was a chaebol heir. Maybe he only got tutoring in that area?”
Aside from the final moment of my first day, when Assistant Manager Lee seemed angry at me, he had never expressed hostility toward me. In front of me, he remained a good senior employee and a mentor who taught me many things. Behind my back, though, he was actively spreading rumors about me.
“No, he’s not a chaebol heir. Everything he owns is fake.”
“Really?”
“Yes, he told me himself. He said he bought the clothes, shoes, and watch while visiting China because they were identical to the real things. As for the car, he said a friend who dropped out of high school with him sells used cars and put it together from bits and pieces of wrecked vehicles to make it look similar.”
“Ah, I knew it! It was too ridiculous! Why would a chaebol heir work at our company?”
“Deputy General Manager, people would curse you if you wrote a novel like that.”
“Right? Hahaha!”
I secretly took his picture through the break room window.
[King Saul of the Twenty-First Century]
After carefully putting my artwork away, I worked with Assistant Manager Lee as usual when a new task came up.
“New employee, do you know English?”
“Yes, I do.”
“We need to send this section, from here to here, to an overseas buyer. Translate the Korean I wrote and send it by email.”
“Understood.”
I handled the task I was given and left work as usual.
“What is this!”
The next day, Manager Kim exploded in anger for the first time.
“Why hasn’t something that needed approval by yesterday been processed yet! The deadline passed, and the overseas deal fell through! Who was responsible for this!”
“Ah, that...”
Assistant Manager Lee raised a hand.
“I was going to handle it, but the new employee said he knew some English and asked to take it.”
“What!? Why would you leave that to a new employee!”
“I told him several times that it was fine, but he insisted, so I had no choice...”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward me.
“It seems the new employee entered the email address incorrectly.”
I had entered it correctly.
“It’s a common mistake for a new employee, but it was my fault for failing to check it afterward.”
Assistant Manager Lee had simply given me the wrong email address.
“He’s such an ace that I trusted him with it, but I had no idea this would happen. I’m sorry!”
“Is saying sorry enough!? How are you going to take responsibility for this!”
Assistant Manager Lee was the one being reprimanded, but people’s disapproving looks repeatedly turned toward me.
‘Human jealousy is impressive.’
He was even willing to damage his own reputation to destroy mine.
“Does this look like something that can end with suspension or a pay cut!? Huh!? I’m asking how you’ll take responsibility!”
All of it was very interesting: Assistant Manager Lee’s baseless jealousy toward me, the current situation, Manager Kim’s attitude as he shouted for someone to take responsibility, and the employees who were merely reading the room.
“I’ll take responsibility.”
That was why I shouted it without thinking.
“What?”
“I said I’ll take responsibility because I made the mistake.”
It would be difficult to expose Assistant Manager Lee’s scheme. There were no CCTV cameras in the office, and the work instruction had been given verbally while nobody else could hear, rather than through a messenger app. There was no way to clear my name.
“Then I’ll leave for a moment to resolve this. Please understand that I may not return today.”
“No, wait, hey! Where are you going!”
I loosened my tie and crossed the hallway.
‘Perhaps the disaster that will occur here is caused by stress.’
It was a common cliché for excessive stress and difficult circumstances to lead to an Anomaly’s intervention, resulting in humanity’s destruction.
‘The most efficient method that lets me take responsibility and solve a future problem.’
I knocked on the chairman’s office door. Fortunately, the chairman was still inside.
“Who is it?”
“Hello. My name is Lee Seung-hoon.”
From now on, I would catch two birds with one stone.
“I’d like to buy the company.”
“Pardon? What did you say?”
“I said I’d like to buy the company.”
Perhaps because the chairman couldn’t believe that someone had suddenly entered and announced they wanted to buy the company, the chairman froze in an awkward posture.
“I originally joined as an employee, but I like the company very much, and there’s something I need to take responsibility for.”
“What? An employee? Hey! Are you messing...”
I held out my smartphone to the chairman, who was about to lose his temper.
[Balance 19,482,315,206,233￦]
Naturally, Sarang-i was an expert at financial management. It could multiply my assets by more than ten times in a short period while taking care of not only taxes but also tracking and investigations by various institutions.
“Does this still look like a joke to you?”
Since successfully pulling off 125x crypto leverage twenty times in a row, I had been able to live a life no longer bound by money.
“...”
In the meantime, the balance increased.
[Balance 20,232,385,246,200￦]
The chairman slightly lowered his head toward me.
“Let’s sit down and discuss this.”
＊＊＊
“Has the new employee still not come to work?”
“Yes, he’s absent again today.”
Five days had passed since Lee Seung-hoon disappeared. His vehicle was still in the parking lot, but since only he had vanished, people thought he had caused trouble and run away.
“See? I told you it was fake. If it were real, would he have left it behind?”
“Ha, another new employee ran off before even lasting a week. When are we ever going to get a full-time new employee instead of contract workers?”
“He looked decent, so I thought he might be normal, but he had no sense of responsibility.”
“They said there were signs from the first day. Apparently, he spoke casually to his senior employees.”
“I heard he had absolutely no knack for work.”
“From what I heard, he was a complete glutton too.”
Most of those rumors had been spread by Assistant Manager Lee.
“That’s not true... Everything Employee Lee had was genuine... He didn’t seem to lack a knack for work either... Other than his final mistake, he was fine...”
Only a very small number of people, including Manager Kim, were less swayed by the rumors. Still, they did not step forward, and there were too few of them to change public opinion.
“All right, today I would like to announce something instead of doing exercises.”
The next day, the chairman made an announcement.
“I am no longer the chairman. Hoho! I’ve wanted to retire and travel around the world for a long time! Then a good person appeared, so I decided to sell the company!”
Because the rumor had been circulating for a long time, nobody was surprised.
After hiking or at every company dinner, the chairman always said, “I want to sell the company and travel!” There was no one who didn’t know how the chairman felt.
“Let me introduce the new chairman!”
The moment they saw the new chairman, though, only one thought came to everyone’s mind.
“Hello. My name is Lee Seung-hoon.”
What?
“Starting today, I’ll be working as both a new employee and the chairman of Sarang Trading Company.”
Is this some outdated hidden-camera prank?
“I look forward to working with you.”
Footnotes:
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