Chapter 4

4. Test

Whether she noticed the atmosphere among the judges or not, Jiseul calmly continued.

In a composed tone and a gentle voice, she carefully pointed out the flaws one by one.

“…Overall, the structure is good, but state management is duplicated within this module, so I expect maintenance will become very difficult in the future.”

That was the conclusion she reached.

Woohyun had to suppress the laughter threatening to escape.

A freelancer with only one year of experience was talking about long-term maintainability.

That was the kind of thing only experts who had spent at least five years carefully reviewing code would say.

A few of the previously silent judges nodded.

They agreed with her.

But Woohyun folded his arms and spoke sharply.

“Refactoring that would take a considerable amount of time. You’d have to rebuild the entire structure from the ground up. And there’s no guarantee the results would be worth it.”

“Why do you think that? I think something on that scale could be handled in a short time without any major issues. It would be much more efficient too.”

Jiseul answered seriously and calmly.

She didn’t sound like she was bluffing or simply making a random claim.

Her expression was completely serious.

“Then why don’t you prove it? If it were you, Ms. Han Jiseul, how long do you think it would take to rewrite the code?”

“I think three or four hours would be enough.”

At those words, every judge looked at her with interest.

Some even shook their heads.

It was the sort of job that would normally take experienced developers at least three full days.

“Then how about replacing the fourth evaluation with a coding task instead of an interview?”

“Sure. Let’s do that.”

“You’ll be held responsible for what you’ve said.”

Woohyun spoke coldly.

But Jiseul’s eyes never wavered.

Instead, she answered with complete confidence.

“Of course. They’re my own words, so naturally I should take responsibility for them.”

“Then come with me. I’ll prepare another computer for you.”

Woohyun led her into the office next door.

It was an empty room lined with spare computers.

He turned one of them on, downloaded the project from the network, and displayed it on the screen.

“All right. You can start now. I’ll give you four hours.”

With that, Woohyun quietly left the room.

His thoughts were conflicted.

Part of him was curious whether she could actually finish in time.

The other part wanted to crush that reckless confidence of hers.

While Jiseul immersed herself in the coding task, the other applicants continued giving their review presentations.

After the fifty-fourth and final applicant had finished, a lengthy interview session followed.

Exactly four hours later, Woohyun returned to the office with the entire panel of judges.

Jiseul was still coding.

“You’re not finished yet?”

At his question, Jiseul smiled faintly.

“I’m done. I was just adding comments.”

She was adding comments when four hours barely seemed enough to finish the actual work.

He wasn’t sure whether to call it composure or arrogance.

“Let’s have a look.”

Feeling somewhat uneasy, Woohyun led the judges over to the computer.

He slowly scrolled through the code Jiseul had rewritten.

“I optimized the function call order and consolidated the state management, which had previously been scattered across separate modules, into a single global store. I also improved the test cases, increasing the test coverage from sixty percent to ninety-five percent.”

Jiseul briefly explained what she had done.

The explanation was simple.

The work itself was anything but.

The judges silently examined the code.

When they finally finished reviewing it, the first person to speak was Jo Namgil, the CTO.

“The overall structure is excellent. The separation of logic is good, and the naming conventions are impressive.”

His voice even carried a hint of excitement.

He clearly liked her work.

“The core logic remains the same, but it definitely deserves high marks for maintainability and scalability.”

That was also the assessment of Jung Yuna, the leader of the New Technology Team.

Everyone looked astonished.

Not only had she immediately identified the problem areas, but she had completed all of that work within such a short amount of time.

Jiseul’s abilities were far beyond ordinary.

“Ha… This is quite something. What an outstanding talent.”

The backend team leader let out a sigh of admiration that was almost disbelief.

The other judges nodded in agreement.

“Ms. Han Jiseul, you may leave now. Please wait in the hallway.”

When Woohyun said that, Jiseul gave a polite bow, picked up her bag, and quietly left.

The discussion about whether to hire her began immediately.

“I vote to accept her.”

Yuna was the first to make her position clear.

Namgil nodded in agreement.

The judges unanimously decided to hire Jiseul.

Not a single person objected.

After deciding on the remaining successful applicants, Woohyun officially ended the evaluation.

When he stepped outside, Jiseul was calmly waiting in the hallway, gazing out the window.

“Ms. Han Jiseul.”

At his call, she looked toward him.

He had thought the same thing the first time they’d met.

Her eyes were unbelievably clear and pure.

And for some reason, Woohyun found those eyes deeply unsettling.

“When can you start work?”

He walked straight up to her and asked.

Jiseul answered calmly.

“I can start as early as tomorrow.”

“Then let’s have you start tomorrow. You’ll be able to get your employee ID card right away. The Human Resources Team will contact you with the details.”

“Does that mean I passed?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.”

Jiseul simply lowered her head politely.

She wasn’t surprised.

She wasn’t overjoyed.

It was almost as though she’d expected to pass all along.

At least, that was the impression Woohyun got.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

Jiseul answered promptly and gave another polite bow.

Then she immediately turned around and slowly walked away.

Woohyun headed toward the CEO’s office with an uneasy feeling.

He couldn’t decide whether hiring her had been the right decision.

She was certainly far more talented than he’d expected.

But there was something about her that continued to bother him.

“Uh… Wait. Han Jiseul?”

Just then, a man’s surprised voice called out from behind.

It belonged to Ryu Kyunghoon, the head of the Security Team.

Woohyun stopped walking.

Then he slowly turned around.

“Yes, I’m Han Jiseul. Have we met before?”

Jiseul looked at Kyunghoon with a puzzled, cautious expression.

Did they know each other?

Kyunghoon’s face was full of delight.

Jiseul, on the other hand, looked completely confused.

“Ah, sorry. I got a little too excited. I’m Ryu Kyunghoon, the head of the Security Team at WS Soft. You participated in DEF CON eight years ago, right? You were the leader of the winning team.”

“Yes, that’s right. But…”

Jiseul trailed off as though she didn’t really want to talk about it.

In fact, she seemed more flustered that someone recognized her.

The unexpected revelation surprised Woohyun, but Jiseul’s reaction bothered him even more.

DEF CON was the world’s largest hacking competition.

It was often called the Olympics for hackers and security experts.

Winning there meant being among the very best in the world.

It was no different from winning an Olympic gold medal.

Naturally, top companies would’ve competed to recruit someone like that.

Yet Jiseul’s résumé contained no record of her ever working for any company.

Even stranger, she hadn’t mentioned her DEF CON victory at all.

Come to think of it, there was nothing remarkable listed on her résumé.

Her only career experience was one year of freelance work.

“I was at that competition too. I barely managed to come in second.”

Kyunghoon continued speaking.

His voice was far more excited than usual.

“Ah…”

Only then did Jiseul seem to understand.

She gave a small nod.

She clearly wanted to end the conversation, but Kyunghoon was so happy to see her that he didn’t seem to notice.

“But what brings you to our company? Did we have some kind of security issue? I can’t think of any security problems I don’t know about.”

“No. I came because you were recruiting full-stack developers. I just finished taking the test.”

“Right, today’s New Technology Team recruitment test. But a full-stack developer? Does that mean you’ve completely left information security behind? Weren’t you originally a security specialist?”

Kyunghoon looked at her in confusion.

Jiseul quietly met his gaze before slowly nodding.

“Yes. I’ve lost a lot of interest in security now. I don’t like having to stay on edge all the time like I’m fighting a war.”

“I guess that’s true. This field can be like that. But isn’t it a waste to let that kind of talent go?”

Kyunghoon looked genuinely disappointed.

“No. I don’t think it’s a waste. I’ve always wanted to do something more productive. If you don’t have anything else to say, I’d like to leave now.”

Jiseul spoke politely but firmly.

“Ah, yes. Of course. I kept you too long. I hope your test results turn out well. I heard the competition was intense.”

At his awkward words, Jiseul smiled faintly.

“Thank you for the encouragement. Then I’ll be on my way.”

With a neat farewell, she immediately turned around.

Her calm, orderly footsteps gradually carried her farther away.

“Team Leader Ryu, do you know Ms. Han Jiseul well?”

Only after she was gone did Woohyun speak.

He had a feeling there was still much more he needed to know about that woman.

Kyunghoon chuckled and shrugged.

“Not really. We weren’t personally close. But I can guarantee one thing. Her skills are incredible. She was already famous as an outstanding hacker when she was in high school. She hacked the servers of an international criminal organization and even broke into the National Intelligence Service servers.”

“She hacked the National Intelligence Service without a second thought?”

Woohyun looked at him in disbelief.

Kyunghoon simply laughed.

“Well, she was a high school student. Kids that age don’t know fear. And that wasn’t all. I heard she also hacked the Ministry of National Defense, the National Police Agency, and even the Blue House servers. They couldn’t properly trace the intrusion, so the investigations just faded away. The National Intelligence Service was the only one that managed to follow the trail all the way and arrest her.”

“If she was arrested, then she must’ve been punished too.”

“I’m not sure. I never heard anything about her being sent to juvenile detention. Since she went on to attend university normally, I don’t think she received any major punishment.”

“I see.”

“Yeah. Still, it’s a real shame. If we could bring her onto our team, the synergy would be unbelievable. But she says she doesn’t want to work in security anymore.”

Kyunghoon turned away with a deeply regretful expression.

Then, as though he’d suddenly remembered something, he looked back at Woohyun.

“If you’re curious, you could always look her up. The nickname she used until college was Black Wing. If you find the old articles about her, you’ll probably be pretty shocked. Ah! Why not just use your authority as CEO and make sure she gets hired? Put her in the New Technology Team for now, and if any security issues come up, assign her there too.”

The ridiculous suggestion made Woohyun let out a quiet laugh.

“Didn’t you hear what she said? She’s not interested in security anymore. Besides, security is a field where up-to-date knowledge is everything. Judging by the way she talked, it seems she hasn’t worked in security for at least several years.”

“That’s true. Still, it’s a huge loss. She’s the kind of talent you rarely ever see.”

With those words, Kyunghoon walked away, still looking full of regret.

It was almost as if disappointment itself were dripping from his back.