Chapter 88
Early 2027.
The event that drew the most attention from the people of South Korea.
A seven-year-old girl being appointed a professor.
Yoo A-yeon's answers at the press conference began spreading far and wide online, propelled by the public's interest.
[Mathematics Major Gallery]
[Title: Today's Gallery Queen Quotes.mp4]
— Universities are places where people conduct academic research and establish knowledge.
— If someone had produced research more valuable than my paper but couldn't be appointed because they lacked a degree, then it would be favoritism.
— If not, then my appointment as a professor is an appropriate result of my academic achievements.
Damn, she can really talk.
- Is she really seven?
- Wow.
- She really doesn't stumble over a single word.
- Why is A-yeon so damn good at talking? Was she not just good at math?
-ㄴ Did the Gallery Queen, who had already mastered seven languages at age five, look like a joke to you?
[Title: Watching that shitty reporter's face stiffen lololololol]
Reporter: Isn't becoming a professor without even having a degree favoritism?
Yoo A-yeon: If you're so salty, solve a Millennium Prize Problem.
Reporter: …
Serves you right, you bastard lolololol.
- How dare you attack our adorable A-yeon? Reporter, you are our enemy.
- Is that the experience of someone who defended a paper in front of 1,000 people?
- I need to save this clip and show it to those Daechi moms who'll go “Bwaaah!”
[Title: (Breaking News) Heard the Gallery Queen proved P-NP?]
(A photo of ridiculously cute Yoo A-yeon fidgeting her fingers bashfully.jpg)
S-sorry, actually, there's nothing like that here.
I just wanted to show A-yeon... Huh? You're not that angry, are you?
(A photo of ridiculously cute Yoo A-yeon smiling brightly.jpg)
As expected, everyone definitely loves A-yeon~!
- Hmm, I'll let it slide this time.
- A-yeon's certified, lol.
- (Congrats on proving P-NP emote)
- But if it's the Gallery Queen, she really might be able to do it…
[Title: I counted how many times Yoo A-yeon mentioned her IQ]
2025
Mentioned IQ 160 during her Seoul National University lecture
Mentioned IQ 160 in the special documentary
Mentioned IQ 160 on the MeTube channel “IQ King Genius Yoo A-yeon”
2026
Mentioned IQ 160 in English at the Millennium ceremony
Mentioned IQ 160 when she received the silver medal at the French chess tournament
Mentioned IQ 160 on EBC's “The Great Lecture—Yoo A-yeon”
Mentioned IQ 160 at the Solsol High School lecture
2027
Mentioned IQ 160 at the press conference after becoming a Seoul National University professor
Even her verified username is IQKingGenius.
At this point, did a ghost who died in her past life from resentment over having a low IQ possess her?
- No, when you put them all together, there sure are a fucking lot, lol.
- Why are you so obsessed? lol
- I hope A-yeon's IQ stays lower than mine her entire life.
-ㄴ Oh… Are you a genius?
- A comment along the lines of “Only people with an IQ of 130 or higher can't see this,” blah blah.
- This is a comment only dumbasses with an IQ under 100 can see.
✒️✒️✒️
Now that I've received my appointment certificate.
Soon, once the semester began, I would officially commute to work as a professor and teach the university unnis and oppas.
And since seven-year-old Yoo A-yeon was now a proper member of society rather than merely a child to be protected, I needed a way to keep in touch with people in various places.
So I decided to get a smartphone again, having given up the one I'd had two years ago without a second thought.
A kids' phone with everything blocked so I couldn't use MeTube or browse the galleries at all!
For the record, this was something I'd requested myself.
MeTube and the galleries were far too addictive when viewed on a phone.
I figured they would be bad for me, since my impulse control was still immature because of my hormones.
I decided I would only sneak a peek at them on my laptop from time to time.
Of course, I wasn't quitting them completely.
I had to troll the gallery every now and then, too.
The Mathematics Major Gallery was a place that praised me as its Gallery Queen, after all. Wouldn't they be sad if I disappeared entirely?
Tsk. How admirable of me to know how to exercise self-restraint. Praise me-!
I went to a phone store with Mom and filled out this form and that.
Since signatures from anyone under fourteen have no legal effect, I pulled my personal seal from my rabbit-shaped pouch and gave the signature box a firm thunk-.
At last, I received an iPhone in my own name and got it activated.
“Uheheh-.”
I clasped my very own iPhone in both hands.
Rub rub~
This smooth, silky texture…
Grin-.
The corners of my mouth slowly rose without me realizing it.
The iPhone I'd boldly given up two years ago so I could spend more time with Arin…
Had come back upgraded to the latest model!
I tightly held Mom's hand as we left the phone store.
I simply couldn't contain my happiness.
Tap-tap- Tap-tap-.
I swung my arms wildly back and forth and hurried toward home.
“Heheh, A-yeon, you look like you're in a really good mood.”
“Heheung! Of course! I'm an iPhone owner now!”
Not former iPhone owner Yoo A-yeon, but current iPhone owner Yoo A-yeon!
Of course, it was a phone that couldn't be used to browse the galleries or watch MeTube.
But I could make calls, search things, check the weather, look at maps, and even view PDFs of papers uploaded to arXiv.
What an endless array of functions!
✒️✒️✒️
When we got home.
Arin's eyes sparkled as she stared intently at the iPhone in my hand.
“Wow! Big Sis has a phone now too!”
“Heheh. Wanna play with Big Sis using this?”
“Yeah!”
I decided to play with Arin using it.
“Dad, can I borrow your phone?”
“Sure, sure.”
Arin took Dad's phone and slipped into her room.
I walked to the far end of the living room.
At least ten meters between us.
With walls and doors providing cover.
But.
Communication signals above 900 megahertz can't be blocked by cover this flimsy!
Truu-ring~.
The wall between Arin and me failed to block the communication frequency and was pierced uselessly with a “Grrr, how frustrating-!”
“Ahh- This is Yoo A-yeon, Agent Yoo A-yeon. Over-. Agent Yoo Arin, respond.”
I deliberately lowered my voice.
Then an excited voice came through the phone.
“Uheheh-. This is Yoo Arin! Agent Yoo Arin!”
“Agent Yoo Arin, report your current location. Over-.”
“This is our room! I'm with Popo and Topi! Over-!”
And so we played phone-call games, separated at opposite ends of the house.
✒️✒️✒️
That aside.
Separate from getting myself a phone, I also began to feel an urgent need for a digital device for Arin.
Naturally, it wasn't so she could watch MeTube or Stargram.
An online platform was absolutely essential if Arin was going to improve at the games she played.
Take chess, for example.
The talent to calculate variations was important, but there were too many possibilities in chess to win with that alone.
Experience was important for reducing mistakes and making good strategic decisions at critical moments.
To do that, she needed to increase the number of games she played.
But Arin couldn't dramatically increase her games by playing only offline matches at the chess club.
Studying alone from books also had obvious limits.
In the end, building up an overwhelming amount of experience through real-time online matchmaking…
That was the most efficient shortcut to improving one's skills in the modern era!
Besides, she didn't even have to be matched against another person.
Playing against software with built-in AI would make her skills shoot up-.
However.
She wasn't going to carry it around or use it to make calls.
So, to keep Arin's eyesight from deteriorating, I decided to buy her a large-screen tablet PC.
✒️✒️✒️
When this subject came up at the family meeting.
“Eek! Really?”
Arin's eyes went wide in surprise.
“Yep! You're good enough at chess to win a gold medal, aren't you, Arin? But if you want to enter more tournaments, you need to improve your skills. To do that, you absolutely need to compete against people online.”
I explained it to her step by step.
“Besides, even if you learn chess systematically at a club, there aren't any academies in Korea where you can properly learn Othello or Gomoku, which you just started playing, right? So I decided it would be better for you to teach yourself by playing. Just like Big Sis did!”
It wasn't just chess platforms.
Go, Othello, Gomoku—even the Pokémon card game!
She could instantly match online with people from all over the world whose faces she didn't even know.
Tremble-tremble-.
Arin trembled with a shiver as she felt the wonders of modern civilization with her entire body.
“Yaaay-!”
Arin sprang up from her chair, hopped up and down, and cheered.
“Of course, I'll block everything that's bad for children, okay?”
“Just because we're buying this doesn't mean you can slack off on studying and homework-.”
Mom and Dad each chimed in from the side, but.
Arin had already entered a state of total excitement, and apparently none of their words reached her.
✒️✒️✒️
And so.
Arin got a tablet PC of her own.
A device with no phone or internet access, with things like MeTube and Stargram completely blocked in the settings.
A wholesome tablet on which she could play only the games her parents approved.
But regardless.
Arin seemed incredibly excited at the thought of beating up people all over the world.
“Uheheh! I'm going to work hard every single day now! I'm gonna beat up and smash people from other countries!”
“Congratulations, Arin!”
…But as I watched her, I suddenly felt goosebumps rise all over me.
I was beginning to fear Arin's growth.
No matter how hard you played offline, it was difficult to reach even 100 games a week.
But with online matchmaking, which was so fast?
500 games a week would be easy.
Besides, do you know what kind of kid Arin is?
A genius who moved up to the intermediate class after just three weeks of learning chess, then advanced to the advanced class after three months.
Even Dad, a chess expert rated in the 1800s online, was no longer a match for her.
I played as hard as I could so I wouldn't lose to Arin, because I had my pride as her big sister…
But honestly, I no longer felt confident I could maintain a win rate of over 50 percent against Arin.
And considering what would happen from here on out.
I would be commuting to work as a professor while juggling research, lectures, and Mom's guidance. I would only have occasional time to play as intently as Arin did.
Meanwhile, Arin would master every game under the sun with all the time she had to spare.
…
I looked at Arin, who was hugging the tablet and grinning foolishly.
The Korean chess world, the Korean Go world, the Korean whatever-else world, the Korean everything-under-the-sun world.
Maybe they should all start getting nervous.
Because a tiny, adorable, but utterly terrifying genius was growing right here.