The campus didn't look like a place of learning; it looked like a festival grounds sponsored by a sovereign wealth fund.
Banners the size of sails draped the limestone buildings. [DAEGWANG FINTECH: THE FUTURE OF MONEY] [RECRUITING THE TOP 1%: SIGNING BONUS 50 MILLION KRW]
Food trucks were handing out free steak boxes to students. Models in futuristic silver suits were distributing pamphlets. It was a display of capital force so overwhelming that even the cynical engineering students were lining up.
Kang Min-jun stood at the back of the auditorium, watching the spectacle. Beside him stood Kim Si-woo, holding a free steak box.
"50 million won just for signing," Si-woo chewed enthusiastically. "That's more than my dad made in five years. Min-jun, are you sure you don't want to apply? You're a business major. This is your track."
"It's not a bonus, Si-woo," Min-jun said, his eyes fixed on the stage. "It's a purchase price. They're buying your silence and your patent rights before you even invent anything."
"You're too cynical. It's Daegwang. It's the iron rice bowl."
The lights dimmed. A laser show cut through the darkness, accompanied by bass-heavy EDM. A spotlight hit the center of the stage.
Jin Hyuk-jae walked out.
He wasn't wearing a suit today. He wore a black turtleneck and jeans, a deliberate cosplay of Steve Jobs, but with a Patek Philippe watch that cost more than a house. The students cheered. To them, he was the Prince. The Young Leader.
"Money," Hyuk-jae began, his voice amplified by a stadium-grade sound system. "Is it paper? Is it metal? No. Money is information."
He paced the stage.
"Korea is stuck in the past. Credit cards. Cash. ActiveX. Daegwang Group is going to change that. We are launching DG Pay. A payment system that integrates your life."
He clicked a clicker. A screen behind him showed a complex diagram of QR codes, bank accounts, and shopping malls—all owned by Daegwang.
"We don't need startups," Hyuk-jae declared, looking out at the sea of students. "We don't need garage tinkerers. We need you. The elite. Why risk your future on a venture that might fail? Come to Daegwang. Build the future with unlimited resources."
Min-jun narrowed his eyes. He doesn't get it, Min-jun thought. He thinks innovation is a resource allocation problem. He thinks if he piles enough money and IQ points in a room, magic happens.
Min-jun looked at the diagram on the screen. DG Pay. It was a "Walled Garden." It only worked if you bought at Daegwang Mart, banked at Daegwang Bank, and used Daegwang Telecom. It wasn't a tool for the user. It was a trap to keep customers inside the conglomerate's ecosystem.
"It's going to fail," a female voice whispered next to him.
Min-jun turned. Hong Ye-eun was standing there, arms crossed. She wore a trench coat and sunglasses, trying to look incognito.
"Why?" Min-jun asked.
"Because it's inconvenient," Ye-eun critiqued. "Look at the user flow. You have to open the Daegwang app, log in, generate a code, and scan it. It takes 15 seconds. A credit card takes 2 seconds. Hyuk-jae is building a solution for Daegwang, not for the customer."
"You're learning," Min-jun smiled.
"I have a good teacher," she smirked. "But Min-jun, look at the crowd. They're eating it up. He's going to hoard all the talent. If he hires all the good developers, who's going to build Toss? Who's going to build Hermes?"
Min-jun scanned the front rows. He saw the top students from the Computer Science department. He saw the leaders of the coding clubs. They were all mesmerized by the 50 million won figure.
This was the "Golden Handcuffs" strategy. Starve the startup ecosystem by overpaying for the talent supply.
"We have a problem," Min-jun admitted. "Toss needs backend engineers. Hermes needs data scientists. If Hyuk-jae sweeps them all up..."
"We lose the war before the battle starts."
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On stage, Hyuk-jae raised his hand. "And one more thing. We are launching the Daegwang Venture Challenge. Any student team with a FinTech idea can pitch to us. The winner gets 1 Billion Won in funding... and acquisition by Daegwang Group."
The crowd gasped. 1 Billion.
"He's trawling," Min-jun realized. "He's casting a net to catch any potential competitors early. He wants to buy the next Toss before it becomes a threat."
Hyuk-jae smiled, basking in the adoration. "Who has a question?"
A hand went up in the front row. A brave engineering student. "Sir! What about regulatory hurdles? The FSS requires ActiveX for transactions over 300,000 won."
Hyuk-jae laughed. "Regulations are for small companies. Daegwang is the standard. We will write the new regulations."
The arrogance was suffocating. But the students loved it.
"Let's go," Min-jun said to Ye-eun. "I've seen enough."
"Where are we going?"
"To the Computer Science lab. Before Hyuk-jae's recruiters get there."
2:00 PM. Engineering Building 301. The Server Room.
The vibe here was different. No free steaks. No models. Just the hum of servers and the smell of stale coffee.
This was the domain of the "Code Monkeys"—the students who actually built things. Min-jun and Ye-eun walked in. Sitting at a desk, surrounded by empty Red Bull cans, was a student with messy hair and thick glasses.
Park Dong-hoon (21). Junior. Rank 1 in the National Coding Olympiad. The target Hyuk-jae’s HR team had likely circled in red ink.
"Park Dong-hoon?" Min-jun asked.
The student looked up, annoyed. "If you're with Daegwang, the brochure is in the trash. I'm busy."
Ye-eun raised an eyebrow. "You threw away a 50 million won offer?"
"50 million is the price of my soul," Dong-hoon muttered, typing furiously. "They want me to maintain their legacy COBOL banking mainframe. It's a graveyard. I want to build neural networks."
Min-jun smiled. He pulled up a chair. "Neural networks for what?"
"For fraud detection. Pattern recognition in high-frequency data."
"Like identifying a stolen credit card in 0.05 seconds?" Min-jun asked.
Dong-hoon stopped typing. He spun his chair around. "Exactly. But no bank in Korea uses real-time ML (Machine Learning). They use static rule-based engines."
"Toss does," Min-jun said.
"Toss? The money transfer app?"
"We are building a Fraud Detection System (FDS) from scratch. No legacy code. No COBOL. Pure Python and C++."
Min-jun placed a business card on the desk. Mirue Partners.
"We invested in Toss. And we need a Lead Architect for the FDS engine. We can't pay you 50 million won signing bonus. We can pay you enough for ramen and rent."
Dong-hoon scoffed. "Why would I take that deal?"
"Because at Daegwang, you will be 'Assistant Manager Park' reporting to a boss who types with two fingers. At Toss, you will be 'The Guy Who Killed Phishing Scams'."
Min-jun leaned in.
"And I'll give you 0.5% equity."
Dong-hoon's eyes widened behind his glasses. Equity. The magic word. "In a startup that might fail next week?"
"In a startup that just processed 1 billion won in transactions in its first month. Without Daegwang's help."
Dong-hoon looked at the Daegwang brochure in the trash. Then at Min-jun. "0.5%... If you guys become a Unicorn, that's..."
"50 Billion Won," Min-jun finished the math. "Or zero. That's the gamble."
Dong-hoon grinned. It was the grin of a gambler, not a salaryman. "I hate COBOL," he said, extending a hand. "When do I start?"
"Tonight," Min-jun shook it. "We have a lot of code to write before Hyuk-jae realizes he missed you."
5:00 PM. Outside the Engineering Building.
Min-jun and Ye-eun walked out into the cooling spring air. They had secured Park Dong-hoon. One victory. But Hyuk-jae was recruiting hundreds.
"That was close," Ye-eun exhaled. "If Hyuk-jae knew how to talk to engineers, we'd be dead."
"He speaks the language of money. Engineers speak the language of problems. As long as he offers them boring problems, we have a chance."
Suddenly, a black sedan pulled up to the curb. The window rolled down. It wasn't Hyuk-jae. It was Director Choi, the head of Daegwang Retail (and the man responsible for DG Fast).
He looked tired. The war with Hermes and the adverse selection trap Min-jun had set were aging him.
"Mr. Kang Min-jun," Director Choi said, not stepping out of the car.
Min-jun stopped. Ye-eun tensed up beside him. "Director Choi. To what do I owe the pleasure? Are you here to offer me a steak box?"
"I'm here to offer a warning," Choi said, his voice low. "The Young Master... Hyuk-jae... he's asking questions. About who is funding Hermes. About who is behind Mirue Partners."
Min-jun’s expression didn't change. "Mirue is a government-registered fund. Public record."
"He knows that. But he's digging deeper. He hired a private investigator."
Choi looked at Min-jun with a strange mix of animosity and respect. "You humiliated his DG Fast division. You made me look incompetent. I should hate you."
"But?"
"But if Hyuk-jae finds out a student beat him... he won't just destroy your company. He will destroy you. He's not like the Chairman. He has no lines."
"Why are you telling me this?"
Choi looked straight ahead. "Because he fired me this morning. DG Fast is being shut down. You won."
Min-jun paused. The victory was confirmed. "I'm sorry about your job."
"Don't be. Just be ready. The Young Master is clearing the board. He's going to focus everything on FinTech now. And if he finds Toss... he will crush it."
The window rolled up. The car drove away.
Ye-eun looked at Min-jun. Her face was pale. "He hired a PI? Min-jun, if he finds out about the Duty-Free tip...."
"He won't find what isn't there," Min-jun said, though his heart was racing. "We need to accelerate."
"Accelerate what?"
"Toss needs to grow too big to crush. We need users. Millions of them. We can't rely on organic growth anymore."
Min-jun looked at the banners of Daegwang FinTech flapping in the wind. "We need a marketing stunt. Something that makes DG Pay look like a dinosaur."
"What kind of stunt?"
Min-jun smiled grimly. "We're going to give away money."
[TRANSACTION LOG]
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Date: March 12, 2014
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Action: Talent Acquisition (Park Dong-hoon).
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Cost: 0.5% Equity in Toss (Diluted from Mirue's share).
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Strategic Victory: DG Fast Shut Down confirmed.
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New Threat: Jin Hyuk-jae's PI investigation.