Chapter 34
The number of people watching Yu Ar-yeon's lecture live kept steadily climbing, and by the time Yu Ar-yeon finished her presentation, the viewer count had reached 120,000.
And most of their reactions were as follows.
It split cleanly into 50% suspecting it was staged, 30% saying she was cute, 10% believing it was real, and 10% who just wanted to stir things up.
That was because 99% of the people watching the broadcast couldn't understand what Yu Ar-yeon was saying.
But.
— Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!!!
As the broadcast showed Yu Ar-yeon finishing her presentation and the people in the lecture hall standing up to applaud, the situation in the chat began to change.
- Gasp
- What's with the standing ovation
- Whoa
- This can't be real, right?
- OMG EVERYONE stood up???
- Is this staged? I still can't believe it
- Everyone getting up is creepy;;
- Do whatever you want, our baby ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
- I couldn't understand a single thing that kid was saying, so can someone explain?
- Didn't they just clap because she was cute and wanted to go 'aww, good job' at her? lol
- But what's so good about solving the Riemann Hypothesis?
- there’s no way… right?
- Look at that bright smile
- I want to squish Yu Ar-yeon's cheeks
- No, but looking at the mood, this doesn't seem like a joke... didn't that kid really solve the Riemann Hypothesis?
- Huh? No way
- Seriously, what is this
- So who exactly is Yu Ar-yeon, then, for this to happen?
The reaction ratio in the chat changed to cute 30%, maybe it's really true 20%, it will probably be real 20%, suspicion of staging 20%, and wanting to stir things up 10%.
Soon, it was time for questions and answers.
Yu Ar-yeon herself logged into the archive and proved that she was Yu Ar-yeon.
The viewers, one beat behind the mathematicians on site, had no choice but to believe that this child really was Yu Ar-yeon.
- What's this? That's proof?
- No way, it was really true?????
- Wow, wait a second;;
- holy shit
- Is that little kid smarter than the professor?
- Is that even possible?
- Huh, that's kind of scary
- Isn't that staged too?
- Wow, it's really real...
- Come to think of it, for a kid she was way too fluent in both Korean and English
- No, the kid is better at English and math than me lol
- But what's so good about solving the Riemann Hypothesis?
- Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god
- 💀💀💀
[Gallery]
[Title : Holy shit, it was real]
I kept thinking there was no way, but it really was... lol
She's better at math than me, who's been grinding through grad school for four years...
I'm hitting an existential crisis all of a sudden.
Just yesterday I got told off by my professor and sent back for asking why I'd written the paper like that...
- (frog shedding tears emoji)
- Seriously, the moment I saw it I couldn't even call it staged, I just felt completely drained
- (frog hanging itself emoji)
- What the hell are you supposed to teach to make someone like that?
- Well, that kid is just special
[Title : It's obviously fake, you idiots]
That brat really got Yu Ar-yeon's ID and password and is pretending to be Yu Ar-yeon.
They're putting on this insane spectacle right now just so they can list it as a credential on their early-admissions application.
Don't you remember the admissions paper scandal that blew up just a few years ago?
- Sure, whatever you believe is the truth
- If you'd understood even a little of what that kid was saying, you wouldn't be saying nonsense like that lol
- So this is the kind of guy who believes the Earth is flat
[Tweet]
Was that really the actual person!?
→ It really was her!?
I was saying she was cute, and now I'm scared
→ I was calling her cute, and now I'm scared
What kind of child is smarter than a professor...
→ What kind of child is smarter than a professor...
[English-speaking community]
she’s smarter than 99.999% of humanity 💀💀💀
→ She is smarter than 99.999% of humanity 💀💀💀
she went from “cute kid” to “literal math monster”
→ She went from “cute kid” to “literal math monster.”
bro I can barely do calculus 😭😭😭
→ Bro, I can barely do calculus 😭😭😭
And then.
Once Yu Ar-yeon's actual age was revealed,
the viewers were shocked once more.
— May I ask how old you are?
— I’m currently 5 years old!
- 5 years old? Damn
- Stop lying
- She really was a kid???
- The baby is so cute ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
- No way, she wasn't even a grade-schooler?
- Nooooooo lol (This message has been deleted)
- WTF five ????
- Wahkya-pyah-heok-nong-jjuk lol (This message has been deleted)
- But what's so good about solving the Riemann Hypothesis?
- Gasp... gasp... huff...
- If you want to bury your face in her belly and sniff-sniff, upvote lol (This message has been deleted)
- Damn, the chat is disgusting as hell
- All the Han men can go die; (This message has been deleted)
- The baby. Has inherited. the tiger genes. of the Korean people. Well done.
- When I was 5, I was just eating dirt and playing around
- Scary
- A kindergarten kid who proved the Riemann Hypothesis, damn
- It's all thanks to the superiority of Korean genes
[Gallery]
[Title : Five? Hm, just barely passes as my bride]
(A super-cute pic of Yu Ar-yeon throwing her arms up in victory. A little belly peeks out from under her sailor uniform.jpg)
That squishy belly, hahaha
- (frog smoking a cigarette and looking pissed meme)
- Mod, kill this bastard fast
[User has been blocked]
[Block reason : You son of a bitch, want to die? Don't cross the line]
[Tweet]
She's really a child......
→ She's really just a kid......
When I was 5, I was watching Taiyaki Man
→ When I was 5, I was watching Taiyaki Man
How is her brain structured
→ What the hell is her brain structure like?
Monster
→ Monster
I found myself thinking my bias's age was a little dangerous. Still, I love her.
→ I found myself thinking my bias's age was a little dangerous. Still, I love her.
[English-speaking community]
yeah this is literally proof we’re living in a simulation
→ Yes, this is literally proof that we’re living in a simulation
bro I ate crayons at that age
→ Bro, I ate crayons at that age
she really showed all of us how stupid we are in less than an hour 😭😭😭
→ She really showed all of us how stupid we are in less than an hour 😭😭😭
✒️✒️✒️
After Shin Ijun's name had lingered in the air.
A brief moment of mourning came to an end.
The mathematicians came back.
Pop-pop-.
Hands went up again.
And from that point on, the questions began to take on a different tone.
Not interrogations or doubts about Yu Ar-yeon.
Purely academic questions.
“In the part where operator H's spectrum is arranged to correspond to the zeros of the zeta function.”
A young professor stood up holding a notebook.
“In the part where that correspondence isn't merely a formal similarity, but actually shows that the spectrum lies on the line where the real part is 1/2—ah, page 58 of the paper. Could you explain the logic there a little more?”
I broke into a bright smile at that question.
‘Right! I finally get to do Q&A, so of course these are the kinds of questions I should be getting!’
I took my mom's hand, climbed back onto the platform, and picked up the chalk.
“Yep! That's also the part I worried about the most!”
Clack-clack-.
I explained while writing formulas on the blackboard.
How to construct the operator on a Hilbert space.
Boundary conditions that secure self-adjointness.
How those conditions tie into the structure of the Riemann Hypothesis.
The professor who asked nodded while jotting down my explanation in his notebook.
Next question.
A professor from Japan raised a hand to ask a question.
“Uh—trace formula and self-adjoint—”
“Ah, are you from Japan? Japanese is fine too!”
“… Thank you very much.”
The Japanese professor asked about the part proving the trace formula and self-adjointness.
“Ah, that part?”
Clack-clack-.
I developed a new formula on the other side of the blackboard.
“If you use this method, it naturally connects to the analytic continuation of the zeta function, you know. I tried other methods too, but they clashed at the boundary conditions.”
The Japanese professor who had asked looked astonished.
He clearly hadn't expected such a fluent mathematical explanation in Japanese.
I was even more puzzled by that reaction.
‘Isn't it only natural to study technical terms before everyday conversation when you learn a foreign language?’
Hmm... maybe I'm only thinking that way because I've only ever been to overseas conferences?
Even when my past self went to conferences in Europe, I think I studied terms like ‘compact’ or ‘homology’ before I learned ‘Where is the bathroom?’...
The questions kept coming.
Questions digging into the fine details.
Questions searching for gaps in the logic.
And questions that, after already being convinced, sought a deeper understanding.
I handled them all effortlessly, in the language of the professor who asked.
‘I've got years of defense experience... if you think this will get through, that's just laughable. Hmph.’
Having delivered a perfect defense, I smiled with satisfaction.
The Q&A went on long past the scheduled time.
“Huff... huff...”
Had I gotten too absorbed? My stamina had reached its limit.
Dizzy~
My eyes were spinning.
I was on the verge of getting the dizzy-dizzy mark stamped into my cute little eyes. (@﹏@)
Wipe wipe-.
My mom noticed my condition and wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead with a handkerchief.
Then she took the microphone from me.
“Since A-yeon's stamina has reached its limit, we'll end the lecture here. Thank you.”
Mom gave a slight bow. I followed her and bowed lightly too.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap-!
The applause burst out again.
It was shorter than before, but this time it was applause filled with respect.
“Hee-heh.”
I polished off every last drop of the final applause.