Royal Roader on My Own

Chapter 55: Mother like Daughter (I)

I had thought of the same method.

Even if there are 30,000 files, if you divide it among 10 people, it is only 3,000 each, and 300 each if you divide it among 100 people.

No matter how many files there are, as long as you are willing to pay, you can finish searching through them in an hour.

It is a simple method anybody can think of.

But the important factor is whether you have the abilities to utilize that method. Thinking about it and actually making it happen are completely different.

Kang Sung Ho is just a part-time worker. A young 20 year old who shouldn’t have much experience in the workforce.

And based on the contents of the e-mail, he is from a poor family.

So he had no other choice but to be passive and submissive. The type to just do the work assigned to them and take the money.

As long as it is within his abilities.

If it was something outside of his abilities, he would have just given up. It is hard for people like him to think about spending money to hire more people to supplement where they are lacking.

But Kang Sung Ho managed to do that. He managed to do it without a problem.

‘He’s a gem!’

Of course it might be too early to tell. The hardest thing in the world is to find out what is in people’s hearts and making a decision about their character.

But minimally, it doesn’t seem like I will get frustrated working with him. If I just hire Kang Sung Ho, I wouldn’t need to look for another part time worker either.

If you think about it, Kang Sung Ho has been promoted to supervisor from the moment he was hired.

Whether he can continue to get promoted in the future will depend on his own abilities.

“Alright. I will give you enough money. First, find information about ‘Paksen Park’ within five days.”

None of the others were really rushed right now. It wasn’t going to happen in the near future.

But Paksen Park was a battle against time.

I had already arrived at Paksen Park and started to level up at super speed. Once I raise my level to around 100, I will participate in the Chaos Battle.

Since the Chaos Battle is in about 2 months, it will be about 7 or 8 days later in the real world.

If I can find useful information before then, it will help, but if it comes afterwards, it would be useless.

“Paksen Park. 5 days.”

Kang Sung Ho took out a notebook and jotted it down.

Now the important thing is the money.

“For your first payment, I will give you 5,000,000 won (USD $4650).”

As soon as I said the amount, I thought Kang Sung Ho would go ‘Wow!’ 5,000,000 won is much higher than the salary at most companies.

But Kang Sung Ho was not surprised at all. He rubbed his chin with his pen and thought for a moment before having a complicated expression.

“Then, from the next time, please give me 200,000 won per keyword.”

That means that 5,000,000 won is low for the job.

He’s pretty fast at calculating.

In order to search through 30,000 files in 5 days while organizing it at the same time, how many part-time workers would you need? Probably at least 10. Even then, it would be hard to finish it within 5 days.

Even if it is a student, since there is a lot of work, each person will need about 70,000 won a day. If you want to put them to work, you’ll have to feed them as well.

Then even if you are frugal, it will cost at least 3,500,000 won. If things go wrong, he might not have enough people and it’ll cost over 5,000,000 won.

He could come out in the negative from this.

Kang Sung Ho managed to calculate this far. He also determined that he would be able to finish the job at 5,000,000 won.

It makes me more curious about Kang Sung Ho. Or should I say more greedy?

“Then we will set the contract that way. But anyways, what is your family relationship like?”

“I have my parents and an older brother. My dad is a bus driver and my mom works in a restaurant.”

“Then you shouldn’t have a terrible life. Why don’t you just focus on the government workforce exam instead of doing part-time jobs?”

“I enjoy computers, but not studying. The only reason I am preparing for it or well, pretending to prepare for it, is because my dad is telling me to do it. Plus, my brother is a money-eating hippopotamus.”

“What does your brother do?”

“He used to do boxing and moved on to be a mixed martial arts athlete, but he quit that because he sucked. Right now, he is looking for another job.”

His family didn’t seem to be that special.

But I can figure more of that out later.

“Tell me your account number. I will first give you 500,000 won to start.”

I deposited 500,000 won to the account Kang Sung Ho called out.

“Thank you.”

“But I will also need you to tell me which file the information is in, so that I can verify it on my computer as well.”

“I will do that, boss-nim.””

Once we finished our contract, I sent Kang Sung Ho back. Although I’ve only known him for about an hour, I oddly felt like I could trust him.

I went to the site that I posted the request and changed the status to filled.

Then shall I head over to Daejeon now?

Ding dong-

“Oppa, you’re here?”

As soon as I pressed the doorbell, my younger sister Minji darted out like a bullet.

Of course I have the passcode for the gate as well. But I really enjoy Minji welcoming me by saying ‘Oppa, you’re here.’ So I press the doorbell every time.

If you think about it that way, I’m a really mean brother.

“Did you forget the passcode again?”

“No, I am just holding a lot of stuff.”

“What did you buy this time? You really need a scolding, oppa.”

She’s getting on me for wasting money again. Although she’s the one who eats the most when I take it out.

“Mom likes the King Crab.”

“You bought King Crab again? She mentioned she was eating dinner with someone else tonight.”

Ah, right. She told me she was invited to dinner.

It is really interesting. If it is my mom’s birthday, it would be normal for us to invite other people to our house. Why would she be invited to someone else’s house and be treated to a birthday dinner?

The more interesting thing was how social my mom was.

She hasn’t even lived here that long. How could she make a really close friend already?

“Hurry up and come in. It’s cold. Omo! It’s heavy.”

Minji tried to carry some stuff for me but stumbled a bit from the weight.

I did go a little overboard. Minji and my mom are both so frugal that if I don’t buy it, there won’t be much at home.

“I’ll carry it. Just go in.”

“Son, you’re here?”

My mom’s voice always makes me feel warm inside whenever I hear it.

But the air in the house was the opposite. It was extremely cold.

“Yes, but why is the house so cold?”

“It is not that cold. This much can be considered warm. It is not good for your health to raise the temperature of the place too much.”

I feel like I heard such a thing before too.

But there is a limit. My mom is not doing this for her health, but to save money in the gas bill.

The funny thing was that both mother and daughter were the same way.

“If you’re that cold, wear this.”

Minji passed me a thick jacket and a sturdy tracksuit. If I wear this, I feel like I would say it is hot even if I was in Siberia.

But my mom and Minji were wearing light clothing. They seem to be used to this type of cold.

Sigh, these cheapskates. They really don’t need to live like this anymore.

“Just run the boiler on high. It’s not like this small house will cost over 100,000 won to heat up.”

I grumbled a bit as I changed clothes.

But I knew it would lead nowhere.

“A small house? It is over 30 pyeong. [1] (1,065 sq ft). If we run it however we want, it’ll cost over 200,000 won. My son worked hard to earn this money, how can I just spend it like that?”

I’ve been putting 1,000,000 won into my mom’s bank account. Not monthly, but weekly.

Why do you think I did that?

“I sent you all that money to spend. Don’t save it and just use it however you want.”

“Listen to you talk. What if something goes wrong?”

I said the wrong thing. She’s just going to bombard me with nagging.

Well, I guess it is hard to change in an instant for someone like her who has saved every penny her entire life. I’m sure she just let all the money I sent build up in her bank account.

Not that I didn’t expect this when I started sending her the money.

That was why I sent Minji 1,000,000 won as well. Weekly for her as well.

In addition, every time I sent the money, I encouraged her to use it.

[Don’t worry about saving it and spent it whenever you need it. Don’t listen to mom if she tells you not to use it.]

What if Minji ends up wasting it in something weird?

Who cares? I’m giving her the allowance for her to do that.

She has lived her entire life without it. Shouldn’t she try spending and wasting money at least once? It’s not like we don’t have the money.

I felt like Minji would spend the money.

But for her to betray my trust like this.

I feel like she’s actually worse than my mom. When a girl is twenty four years old, it is the time they like to look pretty and be fashionable, but her makeup, clothes, backpack, and shoes are all generic brand.

The only reason her fall coat and winter coat are decent brands is because I forcibly dragged her to the department store.

But I was not satisfied. If our Minji dressed up, she is pretty enough to rival a celebrity.

I might need to drag her to the department store again.

“Mom. I told you I’m making a lot of money now. You don’t need to save on the gas bill. It will be worse if you end up catching a cold.”

“Why would I catch a cold? This is actually healthier for you. And it is not like your luck will always be good. We need to save up a lot while you are earning a lot of money.”

Nagging again.

I understand. My mom believes that I won the lottery and invested that money in stocks to earn my money.

Stocks are a dangerous gamble that can crash at any moment. Of course she would be worried.

She’s holding back a lot to not nag at me to stop doing stocks.

But if she is like this, there is no point in my earning money.

No matter how much money you have, what good does it do if it just sits in your bank account? Money is nothing more than a piece of paper if you do not use it.

How can I make her spend refreshingly?

At one point in my life, my mind was filled with worries about ‘how can I save money,’ but for me to be worried about the opposite.

While I was worrying internally, a cell phone started to go off.

Riiiiiiing-

Is it my phone?

It’s Minji’s phone. She has the same ringtone as me.

“Omo, sunbae. It’s been a while.”

Oh, who is she on the phone with? As soon as she picked up the phone, she went into her room like she was running away.

I started to smile.

‘Good. She should date someone.’

But my sensitivity must have become better thanks to Royal Roader. I could faintly hear Minji’s voice coming from the room.

Honestly speaking, I was curious. I am an oppa after all. I wouldn’t be able to watch my younger sister hanging out with a weirdo.

But it’s one thing for Minji to tell me herself, I shouldn’t eavesdrop.

I was trying to turn my attention somewhere else……huh?

I was trying not to pay attention, but I could not do so. The small bit of conversation I overheard was kind of weird.

“Omo. Sorry. I completely forgot. I will transfer it right now.”

Transfer? Money problem? What is going on?

The conversation did not continue.

But she still did not come out of the room for a while. She must have ended the call and now transferring the money on her phone.

Minji came out of the room about 5 minute slater.

There must be something going on.

I feigned ignorance as I asked.

“Who called? Your boyfriend?”

“No. One of my sunbaes in the department.”

Minji is part of Chungnam University’s Math Education department. She enrolled with the determination to become a teacher as soon as she graduated to lift our family’s situation up.

She’s past the age to graduate but is still a student. She had to take a semester off during her sophomore year to take care of my mom and because of our family situation, and she’s taking another semester off right now.

“Then he should be a teacher now.”

“Yes. He’s a teacher at Daejeon High School.”

But then why was she talking about transferring money? I can’t put my finger on it. I’m also worried about the fact that she ran away to her room as soon as she picked up the phone.

It’s not my style to dig into my younger sister’s life like this, but I couldn’t just let this one go.

“Is something wrong?”

“Nothing much.”

She’s avoiding the question. It makes me even more curious.

I aimed for the moment my mom went to the sink.

“Come in here for a bit.”

“Omo, omo! What are you doing?”

I took the shocked Minji into the master bedroom and quietly asked.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t planning on eavesdropping, but I heard a bit. DId you perhaps borrow money from your sunbae?”

“……Ah!”

Minji seemed to finally understand why I was like this.

I was not expecting her response at all.

Light laughter. The way she was looking at me was telling me she was thankful for my worrying about her.

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[1] Korean unit of measurement. 1 pyeong = 3.31 m2 = 35 ft2

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Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Borderline Masochist

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