After 30 minutes passed, the participants were granted access to the ssenger.
It was a ssenger commonly used in many startups. They probably got a corporate trial account just for the filming.
There was a simple ssenger user manual below. Of course, I didn’t need to look at it, so I quickly checked the profiles.
Fortunately, my ssenger account was still active. Naturally so. If even that had been deactivated, it would’ve imdiately revealed that I was the target, and the ga wouldn’t be able to proceed.
As a low-ranking employee, it was not wise to send ssages early in the morning in a chatroom where your boss was present. I held my breath and waited for the right mont.
Then soone sent the first ssage.
Ahn Joyong
[Good morning, everyone~]
He was using polite language, but in the organizational chart, Mr. Ahn Joyong was the team leader. It seed like a first attempt to see if people knew he was their superior.
Yoo Yeonseong
[The weather is so nice~~]
His soft response, befitting his na, was artistic.
(TL note: Yoo Yeonseong’s na ans flexibility, softness, adaptability.)
In situations like this, it was not ideal to be the last one to send a ssage either. I chid in appropriately in the middle, signaling my presence.
Jo Yonghan
[Yes, good morning, Team Leader!]
After reacting to Ahn Joyong’s ssage with a smile emoji, the others started sending their ssages belatedly.
Maybe they weren’t used to using ssenger, or maybe they hadn’t figured out their positions yet. Either way, the two who responded late would be my targets.
While the three of them fumbled with their ssages, I checked the calendar again.
‘There’s sothing suspicious about last month’s eting dates.’
Unlike other weeks, last month’s page had two etings marked, one on Wednesday and one on Friday.
Considering that resignation notices were usually given a month in advance, these etings were likely resignation interviews in disguise.
Once the target was identified as soone who resigned, Team Leader Ahn Joyong would likely suspect anyone who didn’t have an alibi on the interview date. So I had to establish an alibi by then.
What did the Data Team at Hanpyeong Industries usually do again? For junior employees, it was usually data labeling or, at best, verification tasks…
For now, I decided to just mark the dates in question.
anwhile, soone took the opportunity to test things using the eting date, the most obvious clue.
So Moonnan
[Team Leader! Are we proceeding with the eting date as scheduled?]
It was the easiest way to initially filter the target by dividing those who knew Wednesday was the regular eting day and those who didn’t.
Unfortunately, no one took the bait. Maybe the calendar was too easy an item to find.
So Moonnan continued to send ssages frequently after that. He seed to have decided that maintaining a character befitting his na would be helpful.
(TL note: So Moonnan’s na ans famous, notorious, or widely talked about.)
On the other hand, as Jo Yonghan, I only sent emojis occasionally or chanical replies like ‘Yes’. Poor So Moonnan. He was probably sweating bullets, trying to co up with sothing to say.
(TL note: Jo Yonghan’s na ans quiet.)
After the short 5-minute communication ti, we were given an additional 25 minutes to investigate.
‘First, I need to figure out what kind of work this team does.’
Since I was processed as resigned and couldn’t access the work site, I had to look for scrap paper or shredded docunts. Fortunately, the paper waste was well-sorted into one place.
As I flipped over the scratch paper and reorganized it by the print dates, a familiar word caught my eye.
It was Jo Yonghan’s resignation letter.
***
“Hey, what’s that kid doing?”
Director Ma, who had been listening to the audio, pointed at the screen and asked. On the monitor, Kim Iwol was comparing scratch paper with a calendar, muttering nonstop.
“I gave him easy hints because he’s a rookie, but he’s doing all sorts of strange things?”
Thinking back, Kim Iwol had been different from the start.
While others had frantically searched their character’s workspace as soon as they entered, Kim Iwol had calmly sat down at the desk, opened drawers, and started poking around the computer as if he were used to it.
When Kim Iwol accessed the company’s internal network, all the staff were shocked.
“Hey, is that actually working?!”
“It shouldn’t work based on the character settings, so it’s not technically a problem — but we only added that in as an Easter egg! We didn’t think anyone would actually manage to log in!”
Kim Iwol even checked the recently visited web pages from Jo Yonghan’s browsing history.
On the notepad on the split screen, he began listing the words that kept recurring in the articles and web pages:
AI Trend → For personal competency improvent? Or reference research?
Limitations of Deep Learning Technology → Likely trying to find ways to improve
Big Data Verification → Pre-work for deep learning / Possibility of being in the reporting stage
.
.
.
After checking the interview schedule on the calendar and the one restored from the recycle bin, Kim Iwol muttered to himself.
『I’m the one who resigned.』
It was the fastest keyword identification of a target in the show’s history.
It was his colleague who had introduced Kim Iwol. He said Kim Iwol had appeared on his program a few tis and that his quick thinking made him useful.
‘Your show’s all physical stuff, man.’
‘He’s good with both his body and his mind.’
‘He’s an idol, right?’
‘What does that matter? If you’re getting paid, you’re a pro. And he has that mindset, at least.’
He thought he’d gone weird from doing nothing but grueling shows like ‘Challenge! Life Experience’, but it seed that wasn’t the case.
Kim Iwol also successfully found the key clue, the resignation letter. It was the mont when it beca certain that Kim Iwol was the target.
But the smile was short-lived. Kim Iwol’s expression shifted subtly.
He took the resu and approached the desk calendar. Then, he flipped the calendar back and forth, comparing it with the resu.
Kim Iwol’s eyes darkened.
『Oh… This company seems to have so problems.』
At that mont, everyone wearing earphones held their breath.
***
The seal stamped on the first resignation letter I found was gray.
It was likely set up so that the original was submitted to the company, and a copy was kept but then discarded in the scrap paper bin as a hint for , the participant.
However, there was sothing peculiar. The submission date of the handwritten and copied resignation letter, and the printing ti written at the bottom of the paper.
‘He wrote the resignation letter in the afternoon and submitted it in the evening?’
The date the resignation letter was submitted and the resignation date were the sa. While I’d seen cases of people resigning on their first day at Hanpyeong Industry, apart from those instances, it was rare for soone to write and submit a resignation letter within a day.
Moreover, if the situation was so extre that soone resigned within a day, there’d be no reason for them to stick around past the end of the workday. Why would anyone hang around when they had already decided to leave?
At this point, I couldn’t help but be suspicious.
The ‘personal reasons’ stated as the reason for resignation on this letter were definitely not true.
If the resignation letter was fabricated, I would be a victim disguised as the target by soone. If it was real, sothing fishy had definitely gone on behind the scenes.
I dumped the entire contents of the scrap paper bin onto the floor. Small pieces of paper hidden among the stiff sheets erged.
‘How much ti do I have left?’
Less than 7 minutes remained on the tir. By the ti I picked up all the pieces of paper and spread them roughly on the floor, the remaining ti had dwindled to 3 minutes.
So Moonnan
[Mr. Yonghan, what are you doing? So quiet~]
Jo Yonghan
[Sorry. I was trying to find sothing, and my area got ssy. :sweating_face:]
Yoo Yeonseong
[Take your ti, take your ti~~ haha]
Jo Yonghan
[Yes, thank you, Manager!]
Yoo Yeonseong went quiet after my ssage.
The organizational chart ca out yesterday.
My resignation letter was also processed last night.
So there was practically no chance the org chart had changed in the anti.
I took advantage of that and referred to Ahn Joyong as the team leader and Yoo Yeonseong as the manager first, so they would be convinced that I was their team mber.
There was also soone who suddenly started actively participating in the conversation. It was my colleague, Yeong Yangga.
Yeong Yangga responded enthusiastically to everything So Moonnan said, agreeing with him. It seed they had ford so sort of faction.
One person was quitting, while others were smoothly navigating the company through connections? It left a bad taste.
So Moonnan
[But Mr. Seong Silhan hasn’t said a word since they greeted everyone earlier???]
For now, I avoided suspicion. The phrase ‘Seong Silhan is typing…’ appeared with three dots bouncing up and down, and soon a new ssage arrived.
Seong Silhan
[Sorry. My Korean isn’t very good.]
‘So it’s a foreigner or overseas-educated character?’
In that case, it made sense that his typing was slow or he wasn’t very visible in the chat. It was believable, since English was often used when handling or viewing big data.
However, Seong Silhan’s reply seed to be taken as easy prey by the others.
So Moonnan
[Abroad? Where are you from?]
Seong Silhan
[I’m Korean. I just studied abroad for a long ti.]
So Moonnan
[Oh, really??? Why am I hearing this for the first ti??]
[Mr. Yangga, is this the first ti you’re hearing this~?]
Yeong Yangga
[Oh, this is the first ti I’m hearing about it!]
Ahn Joyong
[Seong Silhan lived in Germany, right~?]
Here, the team leader stepped in to cover.
This ant that Ahn Joyong had so personal information about his team mbers.
‘He’s probably racking his brains right now, trying to find the resigned employee based on their information.’
It was incredibly tragic that even at Hanpyeong Industry, I couldn’t do a resignation interview, and here, they had conducted one without knowing. At least let experience it.
The subsequent conversation provided quite aningful information.
Only Ahn Joyong and I should know that the target was the resigned employee. I was the one who resigned, and Ahn Joyong was the one who conducted the resignation interview.
However, there was one more person who knew about the resigned employee.
So Moonnan
[Shall we steer the conversation more towards work? That way, the outsider won’t be able to actㅋㅋ]
Mr. So Moonnan, who had been sending ssages incessantly.
He hurriedly posted a new ssage, trying to push the previous one out of view, but I saw it. Everyone did.
Did he not watch ‘In My Office’, the show that didn’t quite beco a national sensation, but was relatively popular?
A team could theoretically include a psychic investor, a chaebol heir, or a lottery fanatic.
You couldn’t just assu soone was an outsider.
‘More importantly….’
As I typed, I was still piecing together the scraps on the floor, trying to reconstruct their original form.
The bright red seal proved that this docunt was the original.
‘The reason for resignation is workplace harassnt.’
In that case, who else but the harasser would think one of us had resigned?
Author's Thoughts
Hello, everyone, for this week, I'll release 6 chapters. it's just more imrsive that way. Starting next week, I'll release 5 chapters/week.
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