Chapter 11
I turned five.
The paper work had been progressing slowly but steadily.
For the parts Mom could understand easily, she took down what I said and typed it up quickly.
For the complicated parts Mom couldn't understand, I decided to type them one by one, even if it was slow.
Recently, my muscles had grown enough that I was doing more of the typing myself, so it felt like the paper was speeding up.
Now the big picture was almost finished, and I was at the stage of slowly revising the smaller logical developments.
The proof of the Riemann Hypothesis had also almost reached the final stretch.
On the day I turned five.
“Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~”
“Sis! Happy birfday!”
“Hoo~”
Wearing a cone hat, I blew out all five candles on the birthday cake at once.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap—!
With the candles out, it was time to get my birthday present.
“What could the present be? Dugu-dugu-dugu~”
“Dugu-dugu-dugu...”
I tapped the desk along with Mom.
Dad and Arin joined in too.
With four palms drumming on it, the desk trembled drdrdrdr-.
‘What could the present be? I’m excited, hehe.’
Mom took out the gift she had prepared.
It was a pretty box wrapped in pink paper and ribbon.
It was a box 9 cm wide, 20 cm long, and 3 cm high.
It was a little bigger than the palm of my hand.
At that size, it was highly likely to be a handheld tool.
Could it be something like a hand mirror?
“Waaah— thank you so much!”
“A-yeon, go ahead and open it.”
“Yes~”
After all, the moment you open a gift box is always the most exciting.
I tore the wrapping off the gift box with expectant eyes.
Riiip-.
A black screen. A camera lens.
Could this be...
“Ta-da! It's a smartphone!”
“H, hwaeet!”
Clunk-.
So startled by the utterly unimaginable gift, I kicked my chair back and jumped to my feet.
Unbelievable...
My fifth birthday present was a smartphone...!
And it was even an Apple-brand one, with a bite mark like someone had taken a chomp out of it...!
“Originally, we were going to buy you one when you started elementary school, but our A-yeon is so smart that it seems like she wouldn't be able to attend a regular elementary school... Dad and I talked about it, and if we can keep her under control, it seemed like it would be okay to get her a smartphone now.”
“R-really...? Yaaay—!”
I was so happy that I hopped up and down right there and threw my hands in the air.
Having my own smartphone meant, in other words, that I could use the internet.
Except for the times I sneaked onto the laptop while Mom was asleep, it meant the internet, which had been banned for the past five years, was finally being unlocked.
“Heheh.”
“Our A-yeon likes it that much?”
“Mhm!”
“If my sister likes it, I like it too!”
As I grinned brightly, Arin spread her arms wide and hugged me.
✒️✒️✒️
The next day.
Carrying the smartphone I had received as a gift, I went with Dad to a telecom carrier store and activated it under my own name.
“Mister, mister.”
“What is it, little one?”
“This phone, I got it as a birthday present yesterday, hehe.”
“Oh, I see. That must’ve made you really happy. Here, the activation is complete.”
“Yay-! Thank you so much-!”
I was so excited about the gift that I even bragged about it to the store employees.
“Heehee.”
Who am I?
A genius with an IQ of 160, and an Apple phone owner.
I’m an Apple phone owner~ I’m an Apple phone owner~
I’ve decided! If someone asks me later, I’ll model for Apple phone ads!
Fiddle fiddle-.
I fiddled with the Apple phone, which I hadn't even turned on yet, using both hands.
‘This smooth texture... just touching it makes me happy...!’
By rights, one who bears the weight of an Apple phone must also change their conduct.
Before I knew it, I felt like I ought to clean up the trash strewn along the roadside.
Look around, look around-.
I held my hand flat against my forehead like a visor and scanned the roadside for trash.
“A-yeon, what are you doing?”
“Looking for trash.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the destiny of one who owns an Apple phone...”
“Haha. What is that all of a sudden?”
Back home, I flopped down on the sofa and finished the initial setup on my smartphone.
I immediately opened a web browser.
There was one thing I wanted to do right away.
I wanted to go into the gallery.
The math major gallery.
A community where math students gather to talk about math.
Of course, since it was such an anonymous gallery, there were plenty of trolls and fights broke out often.
Still, it was also the biggest community in Korea for talking about university-level mathematics.
Even in my previous life, when I studied abroad in the U.S. and got homesick for Korea, it helped me a lot.
‘My previous-life ID is probably gone by now, right?’
At present, 5 years and 10 months had passed since Shin I-jun's death.
Most websites would have already put my account into dormant status or deleted it.
In a way, it was a somewhat bitter reality: the traces of Shin I-jun as an individual were gradually disappearing from the internet.
Well, I didn't really feel disappointed or anything about that.
Shin I-jun was dead, and I was just Yu A-yeon, who had his memories from when he was alive.
Of course, the important research records from my previous life had already been backed up to Mom's cloud. Those couldn't disappear.
‘I should make a new ID!’
I brought up the sign-up screen.
“Hmm... what should I make my nickname...”
And I spent a long time thinking about what nickname to use.
Thinking up a nickname is harder than solving a math problem...
After deep thought, I entered a nickname.
[IQ160SuperGenius]
“Heh.”
Perfect.
A humble nickname grounded in fact.
Where could there possibly be a more perfect nickname than this?
Registration complete.
I entered the math major gallery.
[Need recommendations for math YouTubers]
[What's the standard textbook for topology?]
[Should I go on to a PhD or not]
[Isn't the Residue Theorem insanely hot?]
[What the hell is the answer to this problem?]
[Euler vs. Gauss]
[Why memorization is absolutely essential when studying math]
As expected of an academic gallery, there were quite a few problem-solving questions and career-choice posts.
Besides that, there were things like all-time mathematician bracket threads and study tips.
“Huh...?”
But one post caught my eye.
I clicked into it as if spellbound.
[Title: Isn't the Residue Theorem insanely hot?]
∫γ f(z) dz = 2πi (a∈S)∑ { (z=a)Res f(z) }
That arrogant complex-function bitch, acting like she was different from those slutty real functions and not even bothering to be visualized
Look at her secretly wanting to be included in the integration domain too, while seductively blowing up at singular points lol
In the end, she's just a female, after all.
Ah, I'm going to go rub one out again. Later.
- Bro...
- I'm cumming inside this feisty complex-function bitch's singularity, ugh-ugh
- Oppa, I diverged—solve the residue theorem for me
- What the hell is this guy, again?
- There are only lunatics here
“Oh my god...”
Rub-rub-.
I rubbed my eyes and looked again because I couldn't believe what I had just seen.
But rubbing my eyes didn't make the post disappear; if anything, it just stood there proudly in its place.
“...”
Right, well.
Since it was an anonymous community, posts like this existed too.
I quietly hit the back button.
“Hm, hm.”
It was about time to achieve my original purpose.
The reason I came into this gallery in the first place.
It was none other than to do an ego search.
‘Search... Shin I-jun...’
I clicked the magnifying glass and entered my previous self's name.
Shin I-jun was definitely the type who wouldn't pay much attention even if his name appeared in a magazine or internet article.
He'd probably never even tried something like ego search in his life.
But the present me was Yu A-yeon.
A girl who liked praise.
‘I’m so curious what kind of evaluation my previous self got...!’
Search results popped up one after another.
There were no recently written posts.
That was only natural.
He had died five years ago.
I used my thumb to push and scroll downward.
Posts from five years ago began to appear.
I opened them one by one.
[Title: Did you know Professor Shin I-jun's research notes got leaked?]
(Public link address)
The notes Professor Shin I-jun had worked on for three months before he died were leaked as open source.
- Is that handwriting for real lolㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is that even human handwriting?
- Did he write this while drunk?
- Hey, but has anyone actually deciphered this? I can sort of see the equations, but I have no idea what any of it means.
- The colleague who posted it said they couldn't decipher it either, so they just uploaded the whole thing as is lol. The order is a complete mess too.
‘So that's how it was. My research notes had been leaked as open source.’
I had no idea a fellow professor had made it public online.
Mom had never mentioned that fact either. She probably hadn't known.
‘Wait... then doesn't that mean someone could have deciphered it and stolen my research results?’
The thought sent goosebumps prickling all over me.
Back then I'd been relieved because the physical notes were in Mom's study, but in fact they could also be viewed online.
What if a master of deciphering handwriting came along and interpreted my research notes?
And then published a paper under their own name?
“Then I won't get any applause...!”
No applause? That absolutely could not happen!
I couldn't leisurely write this paper.
I had to get it published as fast as possible!
Fidgety~
In my impatience, I sprang to my feet and scampered around the living room.
“Hng...”
“Sis, why are you suddenly acting weird?”
Arin looked at me and said that.
‘Sigh... for now, I should finish the ego search...’
I was just about to get a little flustered, but I calmed down again and lay back on the sofa.
Yeah.
After all, it had already been five years since it was made public.
If no paper had come out by then claiming to have solved the Riemann Hypothesis, then the standard assumption was that no one had deciphered it.
I kept searching for posts mentioning Shin I-jun.
[Shin I-jun, you fucking bastard]
The title alone was ominous.
Gulp-.
I opened it with a slightly fearful heart.
[Title: Shin I-jun, you fucking bastard]
He hyped himself up about solving the Riemann Hypothesis and then vanished...
Looking at his doctoral dissertation, it seemed more than possible. Why did he die? What a waste, fucking bastard.
- Kinda disappointing
- At that age and with that career, if he'd lived ten more years, it feels like he might've produced something
- Looking at the research notes, it seemed like he had his direction
- Fucking bastard should've taken better care of his health
It was a textbook swear-laced tsundere post.
I read the post two more times.
It had swear words in it, but it didn't feel bad.
Rather, I was more grateful that they thought so highly of my abilities.
“Heh.”
Bounce-bounce-.
My feet kicked the air.
Next, I clicked another eye-catching post.
[Title: Isn't Shin I-jun a total fraud?]
Even the articles were hyping him up as a genius professor and making a big deal about him solving the Riemann Hypothesis, but in the end he didn't put out a thing and died lol
If that's not hype, then what is?
I frowned.
‘What did you say...?’
When I looked at the comments, the reactions were split.
- Hey, did you actually read his doctoral papers? If that was hype, then 90% of the pure math professors in this country are hype.
- The papers he published during his two years as a professor were pretty significant in the field too. Quit talking if you don't know.
- But he still never solved the Riemann Hypothesis, though, so he's just a mere mortal, right?
“Ugh... I solved it! I really did solve the Riemann Hypothesis!”
“Sis?”
I lay there huffing and flailing my arms and legs.
“Sniffle...”
I was so wronged and so furious that a tear or two welled up.
In the end, unable to hold back any longer, I clicked into the comments and started typing a long reply.
- (IQ160SuperGenius) : Let me lay out the facts. Two of Shin I-jun's three doctoral papers are in the top 10% of citation impact in their field. The papers he published during his two years as a professor were also well within the range of being meaningful publications in an international journal. The logic that he's a bubble because he couldn't solve the Riemann Hypothesis doesn't hold up.
Okay.
Reply entered.
Click.
Phew...
As befitted a cultured intellectual with an IQ of 160, I crushed him with logic instead of getting carried away by emotion.
Me, calmly responding without bringing emotions into it—go ahead and praise me!
That cocky brat would surely read the reply I had personally left and admit how flimsy his logic was.
Then suddenly, I realized something.
“Ah. Right.”
This post had been written five years ago using a dynamic IP address.
Which meant there was no way the guy would read my comment.
And then came the emptiness.
Deflated-.
All the energy went out of me.
I slumped over the sofa like a balloon doll with all the air let out.
‘Let's stop ego-searching Shin I-jun...’