2
# Chapter 2
"All right, eyes on the screen."
An Excel calculation sheet appeared on the large screen covering the front wall of the conference room.
Around a dozen employees had gathered inside, including members of the review team, representatives from the issuing department, and Division Head Noh Jaehun, who sat at the head of the table. The atmosphere was heavy, and a tense silence hung in the room, without even the sound of typing.
Kim Mingwan sat in his seat, staring at the screen with an impassive gaze.
The document displayed on the screen was not the legitimate appraisal report he had uploaded the previous day. It was a revised version that had been elaborately transformed overnight by someone's hands, tailored perfectly to the preferences of the major development company.
Mingwan's eyes quickly scanned through the various items.
The serious access road restrictions he had confirmed at the site had been reduced to a few words: "Minor traffic inconvenience caused by temporarily stored materials." The fact that the land was practically inaccessible, with a road so narrow that even vehicle entry was difficult, had completely disappeared.
The most important list of comparable properties had also been entirely replaced. The three actual transaction cases involving land with narrow farm roads and similar access conditions had been cleanly deleted. In their place, two properties directly adjacent to main roads, with completely different accessibility, were prominently listed as the key comparable properties.
On top of that, development permits that had not even had a single document submitted to the district office had been treated as an established fact, and the highest possible development premium had been generously added.
As a result, the final appraisal amount calculated matched the loan amount the development company had requested from the bank, down to the very last digit.
And at the very bottom of the screen, in the final reviewer section:
"Responsible Appraiser: Kim Mingwan."
The space where the electronic signature should have been next to his name remained empty, blinking.
Division Head Noh tapped his fingers against the table and spoke.
"Appraiser Kim Mingwan. I clearly told you before leaving yesterday. Why are you still being stubborn and refusing to sign?"
"Because the contents of the draft I uploaded yesterday differ from the figures on the screen."
At Mingwan's response, Division Head Noh's brow furrowed sharply.
"What do you mean, they differ? The development company has already negotiated the loan amount with the bank. If we've agreed to proceed with the project in principle, isn't it only natural that we calculate the figures accordingly? The access road issue? The development company even sent a written commitment saying they would call in equipment and clear it out in a few days."
"A written commitment is not proof of legally effective rights acquisition. The issue of the road encroaching on someone else's private property has not been resolved either."
"Hey! How do you expect to work in this industry without even that much flexibility? We've agreed to send the documents to the bank by eleven, so stop talking nonsense and press approve on your tablet right now. Process it immediately, before this meeting ends."
It was blatant coercion.
The other employees gathered in the conference room couldn't even make a sound, merely watching the expressions of Division Head Noh and Mingwan. They all understood the absurdity of the situation, yet they had chosen to remain silent and comply with the organization's logic.
Mingwan turned on his tablet, which was resting on the desk.
As soon as he unlocked the screen, the corners of Division Head Noh's mouth lifted slightly. He seemed to think that putting pressure on Mingwan in front of the entire staff had finally made him back down.
But Mingwan's finger did not move toward the approval button.
Instead of continuing the argument, he opened the report management page on the company's internal network.
When he connected his tablet screen to the conference room display through mirroring, the system log window he was viewing appeared in large format on the screen.
"Division Head."
"What? I told you to sign. What are you doing?"
"Looking at the calculation basis for the revised version, it appears that someone created a new document using the review team's shared account while leaving the original data I uploaded yesterday intact. It's clearly recorded in the change history."
The log displayed on the screen showed unmistakable traces of someone accessing the system in the early hours of the morning and recklessly altering the figures under instructions from Noh Jaehun.
Several review team employees flinched.
"So what? You wouldn't listen, so we made the staff work overtime to get it done. You should be grateful."
"This is a report that carries my responsibility. If my electronic signature is required, it must be a result calculated according to my standards."
Mingwan calmly finished speaking and pressed the "Electronic Signature Request" pop-up that had appeared in the center of his tablet screen.
[Approve] and [Reject].
Among the two buttons, Mingwan's finger touched [Reject] without the slightest hesitation.
"What the hell are you doing right now!"
Division Head Noh shot up from his chair.
But Mingwan's hands did not stop. He opened the window for entering the reason for rejection and then brought up the company's official dissent report form.
The only sound echoing through the quiet conference room was Mingwan's typing.
[Adjusting the appraisal purpose to match the development company's desired loan amount cannot constitute a lawful basis for determining market value.]
After entering the short, clear sentence in the reason field, Mingwan clicked the attachment button.
He retrieved files from the folder he had uploaded to the system the previous day and locked the version.
The original photographs of the narrow farm road completely blocked by illegally stored materials, the cadastral map comparison clearly documenting the encroachment on private property, and the list of three actual transaction cases with similar conditions that the review team had deliberately omitted.
All the evidence was attached one after another to the official dissent report.
"Stop your hands right now! Cancel it! You son of a bitch, have you lost your mind?"
Division Head Noh pointed at him and screamed. His face had turned bright red, looking as though it might burst.
But Mingwan remained unmoved. Without even turning his gaze toward Division Head Noh, he pressed the final registration button.
Ding.
A cheerful system notification sound rang through the conference room speakers. At the same time, a red pop-up window appeared on the screen.
[Official dissent registration completed.]
[The status of this report has been changed from "Pending Issuance" to "Subject to Reexamination."]
[The registered document has been transferred to the quality control server, which does not grant deletion privileges. Final issuance is impossible without review and approval by another responsible appraiser.]
It was the system's verdict, announcing that the situation had completely changed.
The atmosphere in the conference room froze.
Documents transferred to the quality control server could not be arbitrarily deleted, even with administrator privileges. Once the dissent had been officially registered, the case required a new responsible appraiser to be assigned, review the documents from the beginning, and grant approval before issuance could proceed.
The representative from the issuing department, who knew this better than anyone, raised his hand with a pale face.
"Di-Division Head. The system has been locked. The scheduled file transmission process has been completely suspended. It's impossible to send the documents to the development company today."
"What? Unlock it manually! Call the IT department right now and tell them to remove the lock!"
"That's impossible! According to regulations, cases under reexamination with an attached dissent report cannot be arbitrarily unlocked by the IT department either."
Division Head Noh's breathing grew harsh. He slammed his hand against the table and glared at Mingwan.
"You bastard! If the contract gets lost because the bank deadline is missed, are you going to take responsibility for everything? Who the hell do you think you are, ruining the company's business!"
Mingwan slowly rose from his seat. Then, as he picked up his tablet, he met Division Head Noh's eyes for the first time.
"I refused to sign and followed the proper procedures because the figures were false and carried responsibilities I couldn't accept. Deliberately omitting risk factors confirmed by an appraiser at the site and inflating the loan amount by adding a premium that doesn't exist is clearly illegal."
"You arrogant bastard!"
"If, as you said, this is a project that will proceed anyway and the land is safe without any problems, then there is no reason to force my signature. Instead of manipulating the document through the review team's account, you could simply sign it yourself under your own authority and send it out."
Mingwan's words struck directly at the heart of the matter, leaving Division Head Noh momentarily speechless.
Direct approval.
It meant that if the loan later became delinquent, Division Head Noh himself would bear all the legal responsibility and disciplinary consequences. Someone who knew better than anyone that the documents had been manipulated would never put his own neck on the line.
In the end, what Noh Jaehun wanted was nothing more than a shallow scheme: he would take the performance credit and money for himself, while dumping the responsibility onto Kim Mingwan, an ordinary staff member, as someone to cut loose if things went wrong.
By refusing to sign and locking the system, Mingwan had caused Division Head Noh to lose both the schedule promised to the development company and the performance credit for securing the contract quickly.
Now, Noh had been reduced to a position where he would have to endure the development company's angry phone calls, search for excuses, or crawl around looking for a third appraiser who could somehow clean up his mess.
"I have completed the submission of the dissent report according to the procedures guaranteed by company regulations. My role is finished, so I'll be leaving first."
Mingwan gave a slight bow, opened the conference room door, and walked out without looking back.
Something was thrown behind him, followed by animalistic curses, but Mingwan's steps were not heavy.
1 p.m.
The headquarters office was still busy, filled with the sounds of employees' footsteps and ringing phones.
Mingwan, seated at his desk, refreshed the personnel records system displayed on one side of his monitor.
The aftermath of the morning meeting had been reflected in the system quickly. The appraisal case for the metropolitan outskirts development site had been completely removed from Mingwan's recent work history.
Instead, a clear entry remained:
"Exclusion from Participation and Reexamination Request Number Issued."
It was a perfect protective barrier ensuring that no matter what happened, Mingwan could not be held even one percent responsible for that defective piece of land.
"Clean."
Mingwan took a sip of the lukewarm coffee in his mug.
He scrolled the mouse wheel and switched to the weekly schedule tab.
The field inspection schedule, which had been packed until just moments ago, was now sparsely populated. Three major site inspection appointments scheduled for tomorrow and the day after had been collectively canceled through someone's authority.
Looking at the blank spaces where only the cursor blinked on the screen, Mingwan let out a dry laugh.
"So you're going to play dirty."
Being unable to go out for site inspections meant that his work as an appraiser had been taken away. It was a typical form of workplace harassment within organizations: deliberately cutting off his opportunities to build performance records and letting him wither away on his own.
Mingwan reopened the personnel system window on the company portal.
A proposal at the very top of the pending approval document list caught his eye, written in bold letters.
[Review Proposal for Transfer to a Regional Waiting Assignment – Subject: Kim Mingwan, Appraisal Team 2]
An obvious act of retaliation, intended to send him to an undesirable regional post and force him to do nothing but sit at a desk.
The move hadn't deviated even slightly from the course he had expected, so Mingwan calmly closed the window.
Ding.
At that moment, an internal messenger notification appeared in the bottom-right corner of his monitor.
[Human Resources Department] Appraiser Kim Mingwan. A final interview will be held tomorrow at 10 a.m. in the small conference room on the third floor of the main building, with Division Head Noh Jaehun and the review staff in attendance. Please keep your schedule clear.
Although it had been dressed up with the word "interview," the reality was different.
It would be a public shaming session, with Noh Jaehun placing several staff members around him as a backdrop and personally framing Mingwan as someone who was unable to adapt to the organization and failed to follow instructions, before announcing his transfer to a regional post.
Every circumstance was clearly pushing him into the role of a traitor to the company, but Mingwan's expression showed neither anxiety nor a sense of injustice.
He placed his hands on the keyboard and typed a brief reply.
[Confirmed. See you tomorrow.]
After pressing Enter to send the message, Mingwan leaned back against his chair.
His gaze shifted toward his colleagues, who were busy moving around on the other side of the partition.
Nine years.
Nine years spent running around construction sites and pouring his youth into Taesung Appraisal Corporation.
He had matched comparable properties, verified sites, examined ownership and legal rights, and left his name and stamp on countless documents.
He didn't regret that time itself.
But he had never once intended to participate in manipulating figures, assigning fraudulent values, and helping someone siphon off other people's blind money.
"I wasn't planning to stay here much longer anyway."
Mingwan muttered quietly and bent down.
He pulled out an empty cardboard box that had been shoved into a corner beneath his desk.
He began carefully placing his measuring tape, laser distance meter, dust-covered safety boots, and the thick law books he had handled so often that they had developed the marks of his touch into the box.
There was no unnecessary hesitation or movement in his actions.