I Got an Omnipotent Brain Chapter 87

Translator: Dreamscribe

"One BLT sandwich and a coffee, here you go."

gan handed over the bag with a bright smile.

The student took the food, left a quick thank you, and hurried off.

The cafeteria was busiest right before morning classes began. Math students lined up with books tucked under their arms, trying to shake off the sleep that still clung to them.

'Those guys must be from robotics.'

A group of students were carrying heavy tool bags.

By the window, Indian students were editing code while staring at their laptop screens, and in the corner seats, doctoral students who appeared to be Eastern European were engaged in a heated debate over so problem.

gan loved this scenery.

Unlike Harvard Square or the cafes downtown, this place was neither noisy nor artificially decorated, yet it was always filled with the energy these people radiated.

Beep-

When she pressed the button on the machine, the rich aroma of coffee ca pouring out.

Drip-

gan's type had always been nerds.

The ssy bird's-nest hair of math students, the computer science kids so absorbed in coding that they dropped their USB drives into their coffee cups, the dress code that looked unfashionable to outsiders but was actually quite strictly observed among them.

All of those things were irresistibly attractive to gan.

And MIT was truly worthy of being called a holy land for nerds. Being able to observe nerds from all over the world while getting paid on top of it was nothing short of a blessing for her.

"gan, two lattes!"

A coworker called out from behind the counter.

"Got it!"

She kept her hands moving busily without losing her smile.

She checked the order slips and wrote nas on cups.

And among the dozens of nas, there was one person she considered the most special.

[Yu Seo-ha]

He always ca at the sa ti and ordered the sa thing.

"One everything bagel and a chai latte, please."

gan snuck a glance at Seo-ha from the corner of her eye.

'When did he get so tall?'

When he first enrolled, he had just seed like a cute little brother, but before she knew it, he had shot up in height.

'Mmm, still the best!'

He always wore a neat shirt instead of a heavy jacket. His shoulder line still looked like it hadn't fully filled out yet, but he held his back perfectly straight.

When he stood there holding his books, it was as if an illustration from a novel had walked into reality.

"Sure thing! I'll make it extra delicious for you today too."

gan poured her heart and soul into making his bagel every day, for the boy who was the daily vitamin of her life.

'Looking good today too.'

When he occasionally swept his hair back, the forehead that was revealed, the glossy black hair that caught the sunlight just so, looked especially lush today.

He was tall for his age, with long, slender limbs. His skin was pale, almost white, and when he spoke, he always looked the other person straight in the eye.

That precarious charm of soone caught between boyhood and young adulthood, the particular freshness that ca from that air of immaturity, made gan's heart flutter.

When he looked at her and smiled shyly, gan felt like she could forgive her boss even if she didn't get paid for the day.

Of course, everyone who worked here knew that he was strictly for looking only.

"Hi, gan. I'll have a bagel and coffee too."

gan's mood plumted instantly.

Lately, an annoying pest had been stuck to Seo-ha's side. Stylish clothes unbefitting of a nerd, and a sly smile.

Theo waved at her.

gan forced a calm smile.

"Good morning."

He said to Seo-ha,

"I'll pay today. Thanks to you, I slept well. Saved on motel money too."

gan's hand flinched as she was pouring coffee.

'What's the deal between those two?'

"You really don't have to do that."

Seo-ha said, but Theo didn't even pretend to listen.

He looked at gan with a playful expression and tossed her a wink.

Soon after, the two of them settled at a table and began discussing.

The man she had pegged as a sly womanizer was now conversing with Seo-ha with a serious expression.

gan pretended to wipe a coffee cup while secretly watching the two of them.

Mathematicians had an aura that was uniquely theirs. An exclusive, intellectual atmosphere that didn't permit outsiders to approach.

"gan, two espressos!"

Her coworker's shout snapped her back to reality.

"Coming right up!"

She always gave her work everything she had. After all, it would break her heart to get fired from this perfect job.

* * *

Theodore's belongings had multiplied in the lab.

When he first ca here, he had brought nothing but a single laptop, but he had stopped by Walmart and swept up disposable daily necessities.

After buying a change of clothes on top of that, he was now at the point of needing a large suitcase.

When Seo-ha looked at the pile with weary eyes, Theo smirked.

"Don't worry. I'm planning to find a motel starting today."

"You don't plan on going back?"

Theo shook his head.

"I want to see the Smale conjecture get solved before I leave. I'm also not convinced you'll actually write the paper properly."

Seo-ha flinched at that and turned his head away.

Theo had printed photos he'd taken with his cara in A4 size. He stuck them on the wall in order.

"Don't mind and just do what you need to do."

"Yes, thank you."

Seo-ha bowed his head before he even realized what he was doing.

'Thank you? For what? Why does he care about so much?'

Question marks floated through his mind.

But they were soon erased from his thoughts. There was a problem to solve right in front of him.

Seo-ha continued the proof he hadn't finished yet on one side of the chalkboard.

Scratch, scratch.

The sound of chalk cutting across the board ca at regular intervals.

When the sound seed to pause for a mont, Theo turned around and saw Seo-ha drawing sothing in the air. Then he nodded to himself and began tracing a curve on the chalkboard. His hand moved smoothly, following an invisible trajectory.

'Is he seeing a space made of equations?'

Theo felt the urge, even if just for a mont, to see the world through his eyes.

"To make the curvature zero..."

He murmured.

"If I fold the domain one more ti at this part, I think the balance of density will be maintained."

Seo-ha talked to himself as if conversing with soone, moving the chalk as he spoke.

The equations on the board had already gone beyond the range of Theo's understanding. He now found it overwhelming just trying to follow Seo-ha's chalk.

'Incredible concentration.'

As if cut off from the world, Seo-ha was completely imrsed in his own realm.

Sweat trickled down his forehead. But he paid it no mind.

Every ti he finished an equation, he gave a brief nod and then imdiately poured out an entirely new developnt.

'Was this a planned progression?'

Theo shook his head.

It couldn't be. The human brain didn't function that way.

He was most likely flowing in whatever direction his intuition led him.

'No plan, yet it's flawless. How on earth is this even possible?'

His mind was in turmoil.

He decided to stop trying to understand Seo-ha.

A proof that had started on one side had now covered two entire walls.

Theo moved his photos to one side so as not to disturb him, then began writing a draft of the paper.

[On the Smale an Value Conjecture in Non-Uniform asure Spaces]

Writing soone else's paper for them was a first even for Theo.

But he felt that if Seo-ha were left alone, the artistic derivation process he had witnessed would be lost forever.

Theo opened a thick notebook beside the monitor.

So of the equations Seo-ha had left behind were unrelated to the Smale conjecture. They seed to be fragnts of thought jotted down in passing. But within them lay deep insight.

Theo carefully sorted those equations and transcribed them into the notebook.

"So this is how I end up getting help."

He murmured.

As he dug into the parts of Seo-ha's notes he couldn't understand, he began to discover things he had missed while writing his own master's thesis.

There was sothing about Seo-ha's way of thinking that deviated from the orbit of human logic.

"This is absolutely insane..."

In mathematics, definitions are devices ant to clearly establish limits.

But Seo-ha altered those limits freely to suit his own needs.

A thought that sent chills down his spine suddenly occurred to him.

'Could it be... he decides the result first and then creates definitions to match it?'

Theo's guess was half right.

Among mathematicians, only an extrely select few possessed this ability.

People who could see the shape and form of a function without going through calculations. And so Seo-ha's thinking flowed faster than logic.

'Seeing it in person, he really is an unbelievable monster. Does that kid even realize he possesses a privilege that only a handful of people in all of history have ever enjoyed?'

Seo-ha's work continued until evening.

He stopped writing equations and turned around.

"It's about ti for dinner at ho. Do you want to co along, Theo?"

The out-of-the-blue dinner invitation caught him off guard.

"I'm fine."

A warm dinner table, a family-like and jovial atmosphere, those were all things Theo couldn't stand.

Seo-ha nodded and gathered his bag before heading out.

Theo spent the entire night in the empty lab, organizing Seo-ha's notes.

Then he wrote the unfinished draft of the paper.

Tap, tap, tap.

When he finally lay down in the cheap motel room, crushing fatigue washed over him.

But his mind was clearer than it had ever been.

'I've found the lead for my master's thesis.'

For the next several days, similar days continued.

Seo-ha would return to the lab after classes and pour the thoughts in his head onto the chalkboard. Theo would review and organize each one.

It was around the one-week mark that he sensed sothing was different.

Seo-ha's state was unlike before.

A strangely excited air about him, flushed face, what appeared to be an elevated heart rate. An indescribable intensity emanated from him. It was like the eyes of a hunter heading out to take down a formidable beast.

Click.

Seo-ha pressed the button on the CD player sitting on the desk.

Gentle music filled the room.

A lody he had heard sowhere before. Seo-ha steadied his breathing to the sorrowful piano playing, then looked at Theo.

"I'm planning to finish the proof of the Smale conjecture today if I can. It might run late, so would you like to head back first?"

"All the more reason I can't miss this. Am I a distraction?"

Seo-ha thought for a mont, then shook his head.

"You're okay, Theo. You’re a fellow mathematician… and I can’t work alone forever. I’ve gotten a lot better lately too."

"Hm?"

Clatter.

He emptied the contents of his bag.

They were high-calorie snacks like energy bars.

"Your theorems were an enormous help to .

Reading them made the path I need to take so much clearer. So if there's ever anything you need from later, don't hesitate to call."

Before Theo could even respond, Seo-ha stood before the chalkboard.

And he began moving the chalk at a speed Theo had never seen before.

Swiiish-

Scratch, scratch.

First, he divided the space into local coordinate systems, then defined the density for each coordinate.

At the points where boundaries overlapped, he wrote continuity conditions and attached equilibrium equations so that they would cancel each other out.

‘Ah! He’s completed the flattening process.’

Theo could sense it instinctively.

As he wrote the equations, curves converged into lines. And then a corrected differential term erged.

He held his breath.

Theorem after theorem, unceasing. Over several hours, dozens of lemmas accumulated as if by so unspoken agreent. What was astonishing was that the flow was readable even without explanation.

"Looks like you need so hydration."

"Thanks."

Whenever the flow was interrupted, Theo handed Seo-ha water or snacks.

"Sit down and take so deep breaths. Your breathing is getting a little ragged."

"Is it?"

The boy's superhuman concentration clearly ca with poor fuel efficiency.

Seo-ha was tiring out faster than usual.

Theo observed him closely and managed his condition.

He got up again and finished the remaining lemmas.

By organizing Seo-ha's notes, Theo had unknowingly beco an expert in this field.

Among the countless theorems written on the chalkboard, not a single equation required additional explanation. Only the theorems that needed to be exactly where they were stacked up, one after another. And at so point, the equations on the board began intertwining with each other, tracing out a massive pattern.

He sensed that the mont had co.

'Here he goes. He's going to find the an value now.'

Theo clenched his fists.

Seo-ha picked up speed. The flow of equations was no longer linear. Every theorem was converging toward a single point.

And the place where all of it was heading was the center of the curve in the upper left corner of the chalkboard.

Tap.

Seo-ha brought the chalk to that spot.

"Found it."

A radiant smile that Theo had never seen before spread across his face.

"...It was perfect."

It was a piercingly beautiful proof.

Tears he couldn't explain stread down Theo's cheeks.

The point where curvature dropped to zero, the sole mont where density and domain achieved perfect equilibrium.

He had, at last, found the an value in a non-uniform asure space.