Coder Lee YongHo – Chapter 53: Start of the Change (2)

[How much does it take to go there by taxi?] <- (spoken in English)
Son SeokHo’s English was very fluent. It wasn’t at a native level, but he had no problems with speaking.
To YonHo, who used machine translations for even simple sentences, he could only be envious.
“When did you learn English?”
“If you want to be an open source committer, then you should at least do this much.”
“Oh……”
“You should study English regularly too, Mr.YongHo. Programming language is in English. If you understand English well, then you would be able to use programming languages more easily, and you will be able to understand the history behind each of them better.”
“…I don’t have anything to say since everything you just said is correct.”
“Of course.”
Thanks to Son SeokHo’s fluent English, They could go to the hotel from the airport without any problems.
And the morning of the NetFlax Prize award ceremony brightened.

Yellow.
Blue.
Black.
There were people with a variety of hair color and a variety of skin color.
Even amongst them, a man wearing a headband, and a man wearing a straw hat, stood out very much.
“Where are they? Where?”
“Just stay still. When they receive the award, they will have to go up to the stage.”
It was a winner-takes-all style competition so there was no reward for the second and third places. However, as a large-scale competition, there was the reputation of having proven oneself.
Sometimes, reputation had more value than money.
However, Dave’s reason for visiting was different.
“I won’t let go until they tell me all of their secrets.”
It may look funny to outsiders, but the intellectual curiosity hidden behind him was not inferior to anyone else in the venue.

YongHo, having arrived at the venue, widened his eyes.
The high class interior and the well laid out food was giving out an attractive aura. Also, the faces of the people who were conversing in English didn’t look ordinary either.
“Really… They look like talents at a glance.”
A few looked ordinary like a next door old man, but some of them had the air of an eccentric scientist.
Especially, what attracted his attention the most was the straw hat and the headband.
“There’s a person wearing a straw hat, too?”
“Even though they look like that, they are within the top 0.1% of the population. There is no harm for you to get to know each other. You can think that it’s a massive fortune to even just speak with them.”
Son SeokHo also couldn’t hide his excitement. The fact that they were receiving the Grand Prize was feeling more real to him now.
Moreover, the conversation between the people in the venue.
Algorithm
Performance.
Tuning.
Although YongHo heard some word he knew every now and then, Son SeokHo could hear them clearly.
It seemed like they were joking around, but the range of their conversation wasn’t something a normal person could understand,
The announcer’s came to the front after YongHo and Son SeokHo found and sat on their designated seats.

[This year’s winner is the Shinseki Maut!]
When the announcer’s announcement ended, the guide agents guided Son SeokHo and YongHo to the stage.
All the people who were talking and eating the buffet food, directed their gazes to the stage.
“It’s the Shinseki Maut team from Korea. They won with a marvelous record of 11%. The award ceremony will be done by our president himself.”
Unlike Korea, the president wasn’t in a suit. The president, wearing comfortable casual clothes, came onto the stage. He was in his 50’s but unlike his age, his outer appearance looked very young. He even looked around Son SeokHo’s age.
The president’s words were refreshing.
“Congratulations, and thank you. Our company is always open to talents such as you people so if you have any thoughts, then please contact us any time,”
It was the awarder who was expressing thanks. In the award ceremonies YongHo experienced until now, the receiver was always the one expressing thanks.
However, this place was a bit different.
The awarder appreciated from his heart. They were delighted that they participated and even set a record.
After a brief congratulatory message passed, the feasts began.
Of course, the main character of the feast was Son SeokHo and YongHo.
They were flooded with people, so they couldn’t even enjoy the food. While they were answering all the questions, the feast was already nearing its end.
Without any time for feeling proud, time flew like an arrow.

***

Wihin YongHo’s eyes, people in familiar sets of clothing appeared. It stood out from the rest of the people so his eyes looked there automatically.
The clothes were clothes, but their actions were even more spectacular.
“Head researcher, don’t they look a bit familiar?”
It was Dave wearing a straw hat, James with a headband, and Jessie with normal clothing.
When YongHo pointed toward them, Dave was hiding his face behind a pillar.
Perhaps due to acting hurriedly, the straw hat fell down.
“You’re right. I think we saw them from the award venue.”
“But… What are they doing there?”

Jessie was seemed amused and eventually pushed Dave, who was trying to pick up the straw hat on the floor.
*Bang*
Jessie looked at Dave in disdain, who was lying on the floor with a funny position.
“Hey, you lost the bet, right? So you go talk to them.”
“Jessie!”
“Be thankful that I even accompanied your nonsense until now.”
Towards Dave, who was on the floor, James made a satisfied smile.
“You lost the bet so you go talk to them.”
“……”
At James’s words, Dave made an expression as if he lost everything.
“Can’t Jessie go talk to them?”
Nope!
James and Dave were betting.
They bet that the person who came into YongHo’s eyes first would go talk to YongHo and Son SeokHo and talk to them. They were great at conversing with the computer, but they had extreme difficulties talking witha real person.
And by chance, Dave’s and YongHo’s eyes met while Dave was picking up the straw hat.

After putting the straw hat on his head, Dave awkwardly walked towards YongHo.
[H, hi.]
At such figure, YongHo could only be confused.
It was due to his fear of English, rather than being wary to strangers.
Looking at YongHo in a panic when he looked at Dave, Son SeokHo stepped up.
“First, calm down.”
To Dave, who looked as if he saw a famous celebrity, and was running around like a wild animal, Son SeokHo spoke multiple times, but it didn’t get through to him easily.
He ‘shot’ multiple questions he was thinking of regarding how they achieved 11% like a machine gun. To YongHo’s ears, it was the same as noise, no more and no less.

“What algorithm did you use?”
“You didn’t achieve it using a single algorithm, right?”
“Are the team members just the two of you?”
“How do you usually conduct your research?”

Son SeokHo was put in a difficult position due to the barrage of questions he received before he could even answer.
*Smash!*
A hand that put Dave into position appeared instantly.
“I’m very sorry.”
YongHo’s two eyes widened.
Son SeokHo also seemed dumbfounded at the situation, as he couldn’t continue speaking.
The one who smashed Dave’s head was Jessie.
Going by face, Jeong DanBi wasn’t inferior to Jessie.
However, she had the absolute advantage in body figure, if compared to an Asian person.
It was a figure that could ony be seen in Western movies.
Both Son SeokHo and YongHo gulped at that moment.

***

The recommendation for the NetFlax Prize was begun by Son SeokHo, but the one who bloomed it was YongHo.
The answers that Dave and James needed were also with YongHo.
They wanted to hear how he achieved a marvelous record of 11%.
In the first few minutes, they had trouble understanding Dave’s question. Son SeokHo translated between them, but both YongHo and Dave felt stifled.
However, they found the solution quickly.
The code was sufficient.
YongHo opened the laptop he brought from Korea and showed him the code which was saved inside it.
He didn’t show everything, but he showed the core parts.
He had to expose how the method he used to achieve that performance after the competition was over anyway.
And so, he could show them the code without hesitation.
Although they had weird appearances, with the straw hat and the headband and all, Their gazes while looking at the code, alone, was serious.

After the explanation about the core logic ended, did they let YongHo go.
They couldn’t converse with each other directly so Son SeokHo translated between them.
“A, amazing!”
“Really?”
“To think you achieved 11% using this method. Are you perhaps a genius?”
YongHo didn’t know what to do, with Dave speaking to him with shining eyes. They already exchanged some personal information during their talk.
MIT.
Dave had graduated from a college YongHo had only heard of.
To YongHo, who only graduated from a 3rd rate college in Korea, they were people who graduated from the college he could only dream of.
However, those kind of people were seeking knowledge from YongHo.
“N, No, I’m not.”
“Here, take it. If you take it, we’re friends from now on, ok?”
Dave offered YongHo the straw hat. Jessie, who was sitting next to him, seemed embarrassed at such actions as she ignored Dave.
Coincidentally, the four’s ages were the same. Dave, James, Jessie, YongHo – they were all the same age as each other. (T/N: That’s not called ‘coincidence’…. it’s called plot, lol)

***

Dawn.
YongHo wasn’t sleeping and was sitting in front of his laptop. Perhaps due to the tension in the award ceremony, Son SeokHo was already sleeping.
YongHo’s laptop was lighting the dark night.
‘He said to send a reply through e-mail.’
Receiver: [email protected].
He was replying to the offer made by president Jeong JinHoon,

Dear president.
Good day to you, sir.
It’s Lee YongHo from smart shopping strategy team.
I am very thankful for the matter the president has talked to me about before I came to America.
To get to the main point,
I thought that it wasn’t about whether I accept or reject the president’s offer.
It doesn’t change the fact that I’m in Shinseki.
As a member of an organization, it would be correct to go to where the organization needs me.
I will just add my opinion since I think that the organization known as Shinseki does not ignore the voice of the people.
There was a post like this in a certain internet noticeboard.

Because I believe that the only thing that can guarantee happiness in 10 year time
Is today’s happiness,
Because I believe that now is not important,
But is unique,
I am happy with the unique time that is now.

I am enjoying the moment with head researcher Son, and team leader Jeong DanBi, who gave me the opportunity to come to America.
And I think I will enjoy the future if I am with these people.
My opinion ends here.
I will be thankful if you can understand what i am saying.

After writing a long e-mail, YongHo pressed the send button.
With an expression of having flushed something that was in his heart, he closed the laptop and laid on his bed.
From the sleeping YongHo’s expression, comfort could be felt.

Translator’s notes

Regular chapter 2/3

Wow, look at that letter. YongHo should be a poet… Such an indirect way of refusing…

Btw, some people seemed to be confused about CEO, Chairman and President.

Basically (I’m not sure about what it’s like in RL), for Shinseki, A chairman (=CEO) owns multiple companies, and they each have their own ‘presidents’. So, Chairman (=CEO) is the big boss of all of them. And so, the president being called CEO is wrong here.

For MG Entertainment (God of Music), it’s different. The Chairman (=CEO) owns the company (only one). Under the chairman, there is a president and a board of directors who (should) have equal amount of authority. I will also write this in GoM Chapter tomorrow.

So confusing… I know… I too am confused…

Nice reading~

Translator : Chamber