Chapter 27

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Translator: True Detective

Chapter: 26

Chapter Title: Payback and Perks

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- Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep.

- Swoosh.

Yi Hyunwoo woke up to the sound of his alarm and briskly drew back the curtains. A clear blue sky without a trace of hazy fine dust stretched out beyond the window.

"Ah, what a perfect day to head into the office."

Getting paid by someone else to work, and feeling this thrilled about it? No more monotonous hamster-wheel routine where yesterday blended into today and tomorrow looked just the same. Hyunwoo now looked forward to work like a kid waiting for a field trip.

"Hum hum hum~"

Thanks to waking up early, he had plenty of time to get ready and still arrived at the office twenty minutes before start time. He greeted the team members who came in after him.

"Good morning~"

"Morning."

"Deputy Manager Lee, you seem to be in a great mood lately. Your face is glowing."

"Morning, Section Chief Kim. Haha, what good things could I possibly have going on? Same as always."

The auntie who never did any real work but always whined about how tough it was was suddenly acting all chummy, which irritated Hyunwoo for no reason. Section Chief Kim Tae-yeon was the bottom of the barrel even among the hopeless cases—the team leader had long since given up on her. Because of that, a huge chunk of the work she refused to handle had piled up on him.

'Ugh, just thinking about those days...'

"Deputy Manager Lee, a word."

"Yes, Team Leader."

"Put together the weekly work plan and performance summary for a report, and compile the management committee agenda items by division for submission."

The team leader dumped a bunch of annoying tasks on Hyunwoo the moment he arrived. With Section Chief Kim who did nothing and a team leader who only showed up to assign work, Hyunwoo's refreshed mood from before work vanished in an instant.

'These bastards... Oh, right! Yeah! The work system!'

"Hahaha..."

Realizing he had the work system but had been putting up with this unfair treatment all this time, Hyunwoo let out a hollow laugh.

'With administrator authority, I'm free from work now. Time to dive into the honey pot like a busy bee.'

Hyunwoo pulled out his smartphone and launched the work system.

'That punk... but he had a sliver of conscience after all?'

Park Byung-chul, who usually dumped most of the team's work on Hyunwoo, apparently felt at least a little guilty about it. Thinking back, with no other normal team members besides Hyunwoo, it might have been an unavoidable choice for a team leader.

'Eh, still not good enough.'

Hyunwoo activated:

This would amplify the team leader's feelings of regret toward him. And then:

"Team Leader, can I have a word?"

"Uh, sure? What's up?"

"Let's step into the meeting room for a sec..."

He pulled the team leader aside for a private chat.

"Team Leader, this is really too much."

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden, Deputy Manager Lee?"

The team leader looked flustered at Hyunwoo's sudden outburst.

- Thud.

"Take a look at this. It's the current task assignment status for the team. As you know well, Deputy Leader Lee and Section Chief Kim barely have any responsibilities. I'm handling several times more than them."

"No... Deputy Manager Lee, Section Chief Kim has two kids. And the deputy leader..."

"Team Leader, what kind of company assigns work based on family situations? Don't they get paid too? They make more than me, right? And I've been shouldering everything alone for nearly a year now, not just a few days. Show some understanding."

"Why are you suddenly acting like this when you've been fine?"

"I've put up with it as long as I could, Team Leader. If you don't reassign the tasks, I'm done working."

"Hahaha... What the hell's gotten into you today?"

With Hyunwoo's firm stance, the team leader didn't know what to do. Normally, he would have blown up at someone pushing back like this, but thanks to the amplified [Regret], he just kept fumbling apologetically toward Hyunwoo.

"Anyway, I've said my piece."

- Bang.

"Whoa, that felt so damn good."

Something he'd always wanted to do: slamming the door after chewing someone out. And doing it to the team leader, no less. Having vented all the pent-up frustration deep inside, Hyunwoo felt refreshed. Unlike him, the team leader pondered in the meeting room for a while before calling everyone together.

"Alright, everyone, have a seat."

He then reassigned all the work that had been dumped on Hyunwoo to the other team members, one by one.

"No, no... Team Leader, what's this all of a sudden?"

"Yeah, this is confusing, Team Leader."

Deputy Leader Lee and Section Chief Kim, suddenly saddled with tasks, voiced their complaints to the team leader.

"No backtalk. Hand over all those tasks from Deputy Manager Lee as instructed. If you think about how much he's suffered because of you two, you should feel sorry. Tsk tsk tsk..."

"..."

"..."

At the team leader's sharp rebuke, the two just glared silently at the conference table.

- Thunk.

"Haha... This is sudden for me too. Anyway, since the team leader ordered it... Here are the task files."

With the orders given, the handover needed to happen fast. Hyunwoo immediately dumped stacks of work-related file binders on their desks. After passing over the documents to Deputy Leader Lee and Section Chief Kim's spots, one side of Hyunwoo's desk suddenly felt empty.

'They've been slacking off all this time, so they'll probably be pulling all-nighters starting today.'

He'd never even imagined those two working late. Was this the power of the work system?

'Anyway...'

Thinking about it, controlling male employees' psychological states via the work system was far easier than with female ones. For males, he could freely amplify or reduce emotions in the [Psychological Message] without restrictions.

However, to manipulate a female employee's state, he first had to add her to the [Female Employees] tab in the system. And to register someone there, he needed [Leadership].

The current [Female Employees] list included plain Jane Kim Ji-young from the first quest, bagel married woman Seo Jin-ah, and busty tsundere Eun Seol. Of course, adding remaining points to [Leadership] would let him add more, but it was definitely a big penalty compared to male employees.

'The [Task Directives] telling me to fuck female employees at work, and the Leadership needed to control them. Shouldn't this be called a sex system instead?'

Issue [Task Directives] like quests, fuck the female employees, and grow as an administrator. Was that what the system wanted?

'Fine, whatever. I'll be your sex machine.'

What man would refuse a system telling him to bed women? Hyunwoo resolved to make full use of the work system in his hands.

'Speaking of which, I've got quite a stack of [Employment Contracts]?'

[Employment Contracts] generated one by one each time a female employee's [Satisfaction] hit max.

He'd used the first one from Kim Ji-young to sign a [Private Meetings] contract with Seo Jin-ah, letting him take her to a motel twice a month for some nice action.

'But with the master-servant dynamic already in place, no need for more there.'

Actually, he'd planned to sign a [Work Cooperation] contract with the team leader to offload work, but the simple [Psychological Message] amplification handled it, saving a contract.

'Hmm... No immediate need for Seo Jin-ah or Eun Seol.'

While pondering uses for the [Employment Contracts], Hyunwoo tested one with his department's team leader.

'Huh? Just 5%?'

- Ding.

Surprisingly, the money transferred straight to Hyunwoo's bank account right away. About 250,000 won, so the team leader's monthly take-home was around 5 million won, apparently.

'Whoa... this won't cause issues later, right?'

It hit his account the instant he signed the contract, without giving him time to second-guess. Worried about ending up in handcuffs someday, Hyunwoo glanced at the team leader. He was deep in a phone call with someone.

'He's on the phone, so he didn't transfer it himself... Ah, screw it, money's already in.'

Stealing 5% of a salary—the one thing you never touch for a working man's pride—Hyunwoo fretted about future trouble but decided to trust the miracles the work system had provided so far.

'Anyway, the team leader's pay is lower than I thought?'

Annual salary of just 60 million?

"Ah!"

It's after taxes. Damn Hell Joseon. Sucks you dry on taxes without giving anything back. Workers are total suckers. Recalculating, 5 million take-home meant about 72 million annual.

"Phew."

His own future salary too. Not too bad, thankfully.

They say the first time is the hardest, second is easy. Starting with the team leader, Hyunwoo signed [Cash Provision] contracts with other higher-ups he didn't like, including the division head.

"Shit."

If he could rope in about 30 people, it'd be like winning the pension lottery with steady cash flow. But the system didn't tolerate such cheap tricks.

'Still, this is insane.'

Adding nine more high-ranking ones in order netted him about three million won transferred to his account.

"Oh baby, yeah!"

If the work system developer were here right now, Hyunwoo might lick their shoes. With administrator authority, he'd offloaded most of today's tormenting workload onto his two slacker bosses without lifting a finger, and gone from rat-tail salaryman to professional-level pay with two miracles in one day.

"Teaaaaam Leeeeader!"

"I'll take half a day off today!"

On such a joyful day, he couldn't just stay cooped up in the office. Hyunwoo boldly requested half-day leave from the team leader and sauntered out of the company.

"Sucker... I mean, customer, so you'll go with this vehicle?"

Taking half-day leave, Hyunwoo visited a nearby car dealership. To end his 29 years of pedestrian life today.

With his meager salary going straight to student loan repayments, housing deposit loans, and pocket money for his parents, he'd had no room to buy a car. But now, with three million extra each month...

'Finally saying goodbye to BMW (Bus, Metro, Walk).'

"Yes, I love that it can be delivered right away."

Luckily, the model he wanted was in stock as a discounted display vehicle. At the dealer's word that he could take it immediately, Hyunwoo signed the purchase contract on the spot.

White mid-size SUV. A top-selling popular model, so resale wouldn't be an issue.

"We'll ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠handle delivery within three days. Any special services requested?"

"No thanks on the cash discount. Throw in a decent black box. But tinting—make it top-grade. So it's clear inside but pitch black from outside. That's all I need, so focus on the tinting."

"Of course, customer. No worries."

'Now the real fun times are coming, heh heh heh.'

Grinning lewdly, Hyunwoo left the dealership.