I Got an Omnipotent Brain Chapter 68

Translator: Dreamscribe

Seo-ha tucked the pamphlet into his back pocket and ran straight toward Building 4.

‘Huh?’

As he walked down the corridor, Seo-ha slowed his pace.

Long chalkboards were lined up along the walls.

‘Did soone leave this unfinished?’

There were traces that soone had just erased sothing,

And next to them was a solution using Maxwell's equations.

[Do not erase.]

Each chalkboard was filled with traces of problems being solved.

Hastily scribbled post-its, signs that soone had completed an unfinished problem in a different handwriting. If soone stayed up all night to write a proof, soone else would leave a counterexample in the morning.

Here, the boundary between the classroom and the corridor wasn’t clearly defined.

Seo-ha’s steps gradually slowed down until he ca to a stop in front of an incomplete problem soone had left behind.

[Is this the right direction? If you see it, anyone try solving it.]

‘Design of a restoration algorithm for noise and phase uncertainty.’

The problem caught his eye, and he couldn’t move on.

Seo-ha picked up a piece of chalk.

There were traces where soone had tried to apply the Wirtinger derivative (a differentiation thod for handling complex variables) but got stuck.

Seo-ha scanned the ssy arrows and erased symbols on the board. Then he placed the chalk on an empty space.

Scratch, scratch.

This person's approach wasn't wrong. They had only lacked a bit of experience.

If you separate the complex number into real and imaginary components and trace the variation, you can capture not only the signal strength but also the fluctuation of the phase in an equation.

“Now it should work.”

After providing only the necessary help, Seo-ha began running again toward his destination.

[Room 312]

As he entered the classroom, the screen turned on.

The rope tying the beaver had lowered compared to earlier. Beside the pot, masked figures were slicing onions and potatoes.

The beaver was desperately wriggling, trying to untie the rope.

“Onions chopped!”

“Potatoes dropped!”

One of them stirred the soup with a ladle.

“When the vegetables are cooked, we’ll add the beaver! Mwahaha!”

The beaver was on the verge of tears, with a speech bubble saying ‘Help!’ popping out.

[59:52]

The tir ticked down, flashing in red.

A new problem appeared on the screen.

A question about matrix algorithms.

The hackers seed less interested in complex calculations and more in whether one understood the concept and could apply it.

Projection matrix.

“If the trace is 2, that ans the matrix projects a 3-dinsional space onto a 2-dinsional plane.”

The trace is the sum of the eigenvalues, and in this case, the eigenvalues can only be 0 or 1, so the rank must be 2.

Tap, tap.

As the answer was entered, the rope tying the beaver lifted upward.

Then, a number indicating the next destination appeared.

***

“The answer is 52.”

When the number was entered, the beaver ca back to life. The annoying assailants shouted that they’d get them next ti and stord off.

“Almost there.”

A bar showing the stage progress appeared below, like in a ga. Just two more to solve.

Eleanor felt a strange sense of discomfort. She thought she had arrived first, but whenever she reached the place, there was always a student who had gotten there before her.

The screen kindly displayed how many people had visited before her.

[No. 002]

Ellie liked math.

But rather than a love for math itself, it was the clarity that math possessed that she liked.

As Ellie stepped outside the building, nearby students whispered.

“Whose girlfriend is she? Lucky guy.”

“Probably a family mber. There was a freshman orientation today.”

‘I’m a student at the sa school as you losers, morons!’

“Hmph!”

Ellie didn’t bother explaining.

Everyone would know who the smartest freshman was after today anyway.

Ellie had been good at everything since she was young.

Writing, math, art, debate, even singing. Whatever competition she entered, she won a prize, and those around her took it for granted.

Ellie gradually ca to believe that she was soone chosen by God.

Until that day ca.

The national debate competition finals.

The topic was, "Should justice be judged by outcos or intentions?"

She confidently stepped up to the podium.

Wearing a white blouse and her golden hair neatly tied, Ellie began her speech with refined vocabulary.

“Justice always begins with good intentions.

Much of the outco is determined by luck and environnt, but only intention reveals the true nature of a human being.”

The audience erupted in enthusiastic cheers, and applause followed every word.

Like a seasoned orator, Ellie captivated the crowd and made the debate stage her own.

But the mont her opponent spoke, she had no choice but to break into a nervous sweat.

“Intent is always a tool of justification.

Therefore, only outcos can serve as definitive proof of human choices. If justice is judged by intent, then all violence in the world could be forgiven.”

A black boy who would be hard to call handso even as empty flattery,

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break through his logic.

During the debate, Ellie admitted her defeat. And she offered her genuine praise.

'You're incredibly smart. Let's do this again soti. I'll win next ti.'

The result ca quickly.

“The winner is Eleanor Windsor!”

Ellie thought she had heard wrong.

But everyone’s eyes were on her.

Waaaah!

Clap clap clap!

The audience roared with excitent, and the host approached with a satisfied smile, holding out the microphone.

However, Eleanor’s gaze was fixed below the stage.

That boy was calmly packing his things, quietly walking out without any protest.

‘Why? You have to object! We both know you won!’

But he already wore an expression of resignation.

Eleanor slowly looked around the audience. Everyone was satisfied with the result.

‘Are you all really okay with winning?’

Coming down from the stage, Ellie headed straight to the judges' panel.

“May I see the score sheets? I think my opponent won.”

The head judge looked troubled.

“Miss Eleanor, the decision is final. Your debate was excellent. You fully deserved to win.”

On the way ho, holding the trophy,

The cold tal in her hand felt unbearably unpleasant.

Clang!

Ellie threw it into a trash can.

When she got ho, her family was preparing a celebration party. Ellie made an excuse that she felt sick, went into her room, and locked the door.

Lying on her bed, she could see the wall covered with trophies and certificates. Ellie looked over them one by one.

Debate, writing, art, music...

An indescribable sadness and guilt took hold of her.

She wasn’t soone chosen by God, but rely a product of the world’s bias.

She hadn’t realized it until now, but surely she had walked more easily along a slope the world had tilted in her favor.

Rip-

Ellie began tearing the certificates rcilessly.

[Essay Grand Prize]

[Choir Competition Excellence Award]

[Youth Art Festival Poster Design Grand Prize]

With every tear of paper, she felt a surge of satisfaction.

‘They cheered for just because I’m a pretty white girl? Are they out of their minds?’

[International Youth Humanities Debate Grand Prix]

There had been many brilliant kids in that competition too. She had thought she won by luck, but had she just been too naive?

Ellie tossed her trophies into a box so they wouldn’t be visible.

‘Huh?’

Just as she was about to tear the last certificate, Ellie’s hand stopped.

[Youth Mathematics Competition Gold Prize]

Was this, too, influenced by others' favor?

Ellie shook her head.

No, this was the one result she had earned solely through her own achievent.

It was the mont Ellie opened her eyes to the allure of a world where black and white, correct and incorrect, were clearly defined.

Since that day, Eleanor never showed her face at debate contests or art festivals again.

Instead, she carried a math book and headed for the library.

Math doesn’t flatter anyone or give extra points for being pretty. So she could be confident in the results.

“You’re lucky, Ellie. Everyone likes you.”

A friend said that with envy, watching a teacher excessively celebrate Ellie’s math competition win.

That girl she thought was a friend, had she just wanted to insult her all along?

But now, Ellie could finally say it.

“If you’re jealous, you should’ve gotten a perfect score too.”

The girl bit her lip hard and returned to her seat.

Only then could Ellie fully free herself from the guilt of having stolen soone else's opportunity.

Having thrown away everything else and chosen math,

Ellie didn’t want to lose to anyone, at least not here.

***

“Entropy, wasn’t the problem maybe too difficult? Fewer students are getting through than we expected....”

They had assud at least half of the freshn would participate, but the students gave up on the ga too easily.

Only a few dozen were taking it seriously.

Even fewer were making it past the gates.

“We can’t help it. The math departnt isn’t interested in our project... so we have to pick from the freshn. If they’re not going to be imdiately useful, then there’s no point.”

“That’s true, Entropy.”

Cypher Fox nodded.

“But the one in front is pretty fast, isn’t he?”

The third gate had already been breached.

Root checked the clock.

“It’s only been 20 minutes and they’re already on the fourth?”

Though it was hacking, the orientation still had to fulfill its intended purpose. They had designed the path of the problems so that freshn would explore every building on campus.

‘We thought it’d take at least four hours to finish....’

They had adjusted the difficulty to match the orientation schedule.

“Huh? The fifth one’s already breached too?”

Entropy jumped to her feet as she stared at the screen.

“Huh? Then shouldn’t we start getting ready too?”

Too fast. Way too fast.

As if these kinds of problems were re child’s play, the gates were being breached without hesitation. At this rate, the final gate might be reached within 30 minutes.

Entropy felt excitent for the first ti in a while.

She had a feeling that sothing trendous was approaching.

“Let’s start prepping!”

The three of them hurriedly got up to set the final stage.

***

“Wow! This is amazing.”

The high-quality production, clearly the result of imnse effort, had completely drawn Seo-ha into the ga.

Every ti he found a solution, a carefully crafted animation would play and show him the next path.

Each problem had a different the, showing clear signs of thoughtful design.

[Would you like to proceed to the next stage?]

A play experience designed like a ga,

But its depth was anything but shallow.

[In any closed system, a complete solution does not exist.]

“This is a quote from Gödel’s incompleteness theorem.”

After a mont of thought, Seo-ha began solving the problem with intense focus.

It was quite a difficult one, but Seo-ha managed to solve it within 30 minutes.

[This is the final gate. Please proceed to Building 2, Room 203.]

As he was leaving the building, soone called out to him.

“Hey! You’re number 1, right?”

Nod.

“You better wait! I’ll catch up real soon.”

Ellie looked at Seo-ha with burning determination.

‘Does she like the beaver too?’

Seo-ha tilted his head in confusion and then continued walking toward the final stage.