Translator: Dreamscribe
2 AM.
Theodore sat in front of his computer with an expressionless face.
On the desk lay an empty coffee mug and a half-used notebook.
"Next problem."
He muttered in a low voice, tapping the keyboard.
[LOGIA is checking your rating.]
Da-da-dum.
A gauge filled up on the screen, followed by a searching indicator.
[LOGIA is about to present you with a new trial.]
-Difficulty: S+
-Success rate: 0.3%
[Will you accept the challenge?]
(Y/N)
Theodore let out a deep breath.
If he got this problem right, he could maintain his rank of first place for the time being.
"Do these people not have any friends?"
He grumbled.
His competitors were climbing the rankings at a ferocious pace. Stanford, Princeton, Tokyo, Zurich, Cambridge... The brightest minds from the world's top universities were hot on Theo's heels.
But he felt no sense of crisis.
Click.
"Bring it on, losers!"
Theodore smirked and clicked the mouse.
The problem appeared on screen, and it was time to focus again.
[00 : 10 : 00]
It was a 10-minute problem.
Then it shouldn't be too difficult. The ultra-hard problems he'd faced before had a time limit of a full two hours, after all.
Scratch, scratch.
Before long, a message confirming the correct answer appeared along with a sound effect.
He had filled his quota for the day once again. But his target still hadn't logged on.
"Yu Seo-ha, aren't you coming already? I'm waiting for you."
Embarrassing as it was, he had even posted anonymously on Reddit to lure him out.
"This is so annoying."
Theodore was a universally acknowledged rising star of the mathematics world. During his sophomore year at Stanford, he had completed a lemma in differential geometry that his professor had been stuck on for months, finishing it in just a matter of days.
His theorem was an extension of Hamilton's Ricci Flow theory, long considered a classic of the mathematical world, simplifying the complex process of combining differentials and topological spaces into a single equation.
After that, Theodore published four papers in international journals in just two years, two of which were featured on the cover.
The academic world never stopped singing his praises.
Among young mathematicians, he was something of a "phenomenon". Everyone admired him and strived to follow in his footsteps.
Until Seo-ha made his dazzling entrance by proving the Four Color Theorem.
"Damn it."
He glanced at the journal tossed on one side of the desk.
The bold typeface on the cover caught his eye.
[Five Young Mathematicians Who Will Lead the Future]
Theodore couldn't turn the page for a long time.
"No. 1: Yu Seo-ha (MIT)"
-Who could dare assess the potential of this mathematician who is not just young, but a mere child? Even Elijah Cronen had not achieved as much at age thirteen.
(omitted)
Though still an undergraduate, multiple academic societies are already predicting him as the next Fields Medal recipient. Yu Seo-ha is, without question, the ace and cleanup hitter who will lead the future of mathematics.
"No. 2: Theodore Langford (Stanford)"
-His genius still shines as brightly as ever.
His early research combining Ricci Flow and topology was so dominant that Stanford's mathematics department was once referred to simply as "the department Theodore belongs to".
(omitted)
There can be no doubt that he is one of the names that will represent the next generation of mathematics.
Grit.
An evaluation where the ranking was obvious to anyone.
Theodore clenched his jaw.
"Even if I stumbled for a bit, it doesn’t make any sense to say I’m on the same level as you.
And what? Number one? Are those old geezers really that blind? Where the hell are their eyes?"
Just thinking about it made his blood boil, and Theo breathed heavily through his nose.
For the past two years, he had been preparing research that would stun the academic world.
He had planned to make a grand entrance by solving a major problem for his master's thesis, but Yu Seo-ha had stolen all the spotlight.
To make matters worse, the research that had been going so well was now at a dead end.
LOGIA, which he had started as a way to clear his head, filled the void in his shattered pride.
"What the? These amateurs."
Victory after victory. Not long after starting, he had reached LOGIA's only S+ Grade, ranked number one.
His deflated confidence swelled back up.
'I really am the best. There's no way anyone at the master's or doctoral level is better than me. Time to pull myself together and get back to my research.'
He tried to put LOGIA aside and focus on his research again, but his eyes kept drifting to one thing.
The radiant golden crown next to his name.
It felt as if he had reclaimed a throne that had been unjustly taken from him.
Smart as he was, he created a reason to keep playing LOGIA.
‘Do I really have to stop this? I just need to bring that guy here. Might as well establish the ranking order properly too.’
Clack, clack.
He deliberately provoked MIT on Reddit. When there was no real response, he gradually escalated. Eventually, he ended up writing posts that were outright inflammatory.
'Even if you don't want to, you'll come eventually.'
But what he actually attracted was not Seo-ha, but prodigies from other universities.
He had to fight daily defense battles just to hold on to first place.
* * *
"You're not going to do it?"
Root and Cypher Fox stared at Seo-ha with disbelieving expressions.
"No. I'm busy, you know? The Synapse engine we're building for our game is still incomplete, and I have personal research I'm working on. Plus I have assignments and exams to study for!"
Root grabbed Seo-ha's shoulders and shook him.
"Come on! You could still spare some time during breaks!"
"Yeah, just try it once to take your mind off things. Come on."
But no matter how much they tried to persuade him, Seo-ha wouldn't budge.
With a completely disinterested expression, he sat at his workstation and edited code.
Clack, clack.
The three of them were flustered by Seo-ha's stubborn attitude.
Entropy thought back to the past and considered.
'So he's secretly the stubborn type. There's no way he'll do it if we force him...'
The more time they spent together, the more they came to understand each other. When Seo-ha was like this, nothing in the world could make him listen.
"Hm? This post is aimed right at you, Seo-ha."
Root, who was on Reddit twenty-four hours a day, discovered an anonymous post.
[Is Yu Seo-ha from MIT chickening out?]
-Why hasn't he come to LOGIA yet? Don't tell me he's scared? Everyone's been hyping him up as the next Fields Medal candidate left and right, but when it comes to actually proving it here, he goes radio silent?
Admit it. MIT's media game is definitely a cut above Stanford's.
└This one crossed the line a bit.
└I've had my suspicions for a few days now, but did T really write this anonymous post?
└It's pretty blatant, but if Yu Seo-ha joins, that's great for us. It'd be a festival.
└Frogs in a well ㅋㅋ. Tsinghua University will turn your little festival into a funeral.
└KAIST is coming tooooo!
└We're a bit below the top tier, but the National University of Singapore is joining too. Sent a group message to the math department.
└University of Tokyo will be sending our B-team. That should be more than enough wwww
Over a thousand replies had piled up and the board was on fire.
Entropy clicked her tongue.
"That's brutal. Seo-ha, did you ever make an enemy at Stanford?"
"I've never even been there."
Clack, clack.
Even after hearing the post read aloud, Seo-ha's expression remained calm.
"Doesn't that make you angry?"
At Cypher Fox's words, Seo-ha shook his head.
"If anything, reacting to that would mean losing.
I don't think LOGIA would help me in any way. It's not like people acknowledging me would suddenly make me understand problems I don't know how to solve."
For Seo-ha, mathematics was not a competition but a pursuit of truth itself. Therefore, he was not swayed by others' opinions.
The mood turned solemn.
"That's so like you. I feel bad for pushing you like that."
"Yeah, what good is some pointless ranking anyway? No need to waste that precious brain of yours on something like that when it should be working on the Millennium Problems."
Entropy nodded at Cypher Fox and Root's words. Then, looking at Seo-ha, she added one more thing.
"But you know... isn’t it possible for an AI to create a problem that even you wouldn’t know how to solve? A completely new type you’ve never encountered before?"
Pause.
Seo-ha's fingers, which had been typing on the keyboard, stopped.
'Got him!'
Entropy smiled inwardly.
The workings of AI flashed through Seo-ha's mind.
After thinking for a long while, he nodded.
"The probability isn't zero, I suppose."
Seo-ha paused for a moment, then slowly scrolled the screen.
"An AI generating problems is ultimately an extension of statistical inference built up by humans. It collects and recombines the types of thinking that humans frequently engage in, based on existing data.
So strictly speaking, AI cannot create new concepts."
"But?"
Entropy, an AI expert herself, showed interest.
"In that recombination process, sometimes ideas emerge that humans haven't managed to discover yet. You know how there are possibilities we intuitively dismiss as unnecessary?"
"Ah! I know what you mean!"
"Me too."
Root and Cypher Fox both exclaimed as if they understood.
"So that's why you said it wasn't zero?"
Nod.
"I'm intrigued. I'll give it a try."
"Really?"
"For real?"
Seo-ha nodded and accessed the website.
Clack, clack.
[Test Your Intelligence - LOGIA]
When he registered a new account, a gauge filled up and the logo in the center of the screen flashed.
[Would you like to begin the challenge? Ten tutorial questions will be presented. Your initial rank will be determined based on your accuracy and response time.]
(Y/N)
Click.
When he pressed yes, a problem appeared on screen.
Question one, a calculus problem. Seo-ha clicked the answer the instant the problem appeared on screen.
Click.
Question two, a problem about linear algebraic independence.
He selected the answer without even five seconds of thought. Multiple choice was far too easy a format for Seo-ha to begin with.
He answered questions three, four, and five all instantly, and then there was a delay before the next problem appeared.
"What's happening? Is the AI lagging?"
"It needs to accurately measure his level to calculate a rank, but Seo-ha's too fast."
"No way! How does he not even need to calculate?"
Seo-ha had yet to touch the notebook and pen he had set aside.
Question six, a problem on the Bolzano property, appeared.
"Whoa! It's already getting hard. The difficulty is definitely higher than when I got my A."
Click.
But Seo-ha selected his answer without hesitation once again.
After he answered questions seven, eight, and nine correctly, the loading time grew longer, as if the AI itself were deliberating. Then, after a considerable pause, question ten was presented.
"Hm?"
Seo-ha looked at the screen with a puzzled expression.
"What is it?"
"Can't you solve it?"
Root and Entropy asked anxiously.
"No. The answer isn't among the choices."
Seo-ha simply pressed end test.
Click.
Da-da-dum-tss-da-dan.
A cheerful sound effect played, and a loading animation began.
[Scoring tutorial...]
[Accuracy: 100%]
[Average response time: 4.2 seconds]
[Unable to calculate initial rank ► Switching to manual upward matching]
"Unable to calculate?"
Cypher Fox's eyes went wide.
Whew!
Entropy crossed her arms and let out a whistle.
"Looks like he exceeded the evaluation sheet they set as the maximum score."
[Moving to the advanced session.]
[Warning: From this stage onward, incorrect answer penalties are significant and problems will be presented in free-response format tailored to the user's level. Additionally, solving problems may require a considerable amount of time, so please attempt them when you have sufficient time available.]
Entropy couldn't contain her excitement and shouted.
"He went straight to the upper bracket! He completely skipped the lower ranks!"
And so, the rank assigned to Seo-ha was the first-ever placement test S Grade in LOGIA's history.