Ch.223218 – Swiss Luxury

It was already the third week since NoName had visited Korea University for Q&A sessions about her proofs.

They decided to take a break considering the child’s stamina.

Some sat quietly in chairs with closed eyes meditating, while others busily copied formulas onto electronic paper.

Two professors who happened to meet in front of the bathroom greeted each other with a friendly handshake.

“Hello professor, fancy meeting you here.”

“Oh? Ah, that resort? What was it again… Professor Seo, right?”

“Yes, that’s me. Have you been well?”

The two had been confined to a resort in Gyeonggi Province for a month last year as KGSAT math exam committee members, where they became ping-pong partners.

The younger professor immediately got them both instant coffee to break the ice.

“Isn’t it amazing?”

There was no direct object, but it was easy to understand who he was referring to.

“It’s incredible. When the child was explaining elliptic curves and mentioned Mordell-Weil groups, I nearly shouted. This theory is also related to the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, and Goldbach’s conjecture also connects in a way that—”

“Oh professor, I specialize in geometry, so I’m not familiar with that area.”

“Haha, I’ve only taught twenty-year-olds before. Never imagined I’d be learning from an eight-year-old.”

“The complete proof will take some time, right?”

“Goldbach’s conjecture will take at least two years. Just the preliminary proofs alone are quite substantial…”

“The sofa moving problem is being processed on quantum computers at Colorado University. They’re looking at about six months for that one.”

He takes a sip of coffee.

It tastes like sweet canned coffee with all the bitterness removed.

After tasting derivatives of the same proofs or follow-up research on existing proofs day after day, their brains were melting in sweetness from the fresh insights NoName had shown.

“Professor, actually I met Manager Park yesterday at the restaurant in front.”

“Manager Park? Who was that again…?”

“The sunglasses guy.”

“You mean from the National Intelligence Service? He’s here?”

He was the NIS officer who had been in charge of security for the math professors during the exam creation.

“He asked me not to talk too much about the child named NoName when we return to the university. It wasn’t a serious official request, just a personal favor.”

The document called “The Great Generation List” was being treated half-jokingly in the news.

But apparently, it was a serious issue for the National Intelligence Service.

“Right now, the US is actively supporting us and criticizing Switzerland, but who knows when they might flip their position.”

“Flip their position…?”

“Wouldn’t we want to prevent a child born in Korea from receiving the Fields Medal under American citizenship?”

“…!”

It might still be premature, but if just one of NoName’s seven proofs was verified, a Fields Medal would be practically guaranteed.

But no one knows when that will happen.

What if she emigrates in the meantime?

Even now, the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan steadily increase their Nobel Prize and Fields Medal counts every year.

How much longer must we face the embarrassing reality of Korean education with headlines like “Korean-American Winner Emerges”?

“Among today’s attendees were professors from the Department of Theoretical Magic. We can’t stop the child from moving into magic studies, but shouldn’t we at least prevent her from going abroad?”

The professor nodded.

“In this day and age, they surely wouldn’t resort to paid commenters, but this time I’d like to support the NIS’s efforts.”

Quiet groundwork was being laid somewhere to ensure NoName would remain in Korea.

* * *

[The Great Generation]

…

[5. Ahmed Mustafa (15) – Egypt]

[4. Ashvin Ramakrishnan (16) – India]

[3. Katsuhata Emika (14) – Japan]

[2. NoName (8) – South Korea]

[1. Cecilia Nieto de Sampaio (12) – France, Brazil]

In an era overrun with spies, the leak of a nation’s classified documents barely made the news.

But the Swiss document caused a huge stir among netizens specifically because of its rankings.

It seemed to encourage competition by lining up promising children from around the world in order.

People enjoyed learning about geniuses from other countries, and VTube videos about them flooded the internet.

[Why isn’t NoName #1? Are they joking? Are they racist?]

└ That doesn’t make sense when 3 of the top 5 are Asian?

└ Who’s this nobody at #1?

└ Person with the highest IQ in the world.

└ 12 years old, already graduated university and working at NASA.

└ Damn, that’s an OP character lol.

[My honest opinion: NoName should obviously be #1]

└ She hasn’t shown anything special.

└ What do you mean? There’s speculation her magic in World of Arsheria was Innate Magic.

└ If it was her Innate Magic, she would have announced it already lol.

└ Why are there so many Korea-haters here? Are you a commie? Or a paid commenter?

└ The moment that math proof is verified, it’s game over. NoName is smarter than the other 99 combined.

└ Only 3 Koreans out of 100 people on the list… sad.

└ With 40 million out of 8 billion global population, that’s 1/200, so 3 is actually good.

└ You should exclude all those who can’t even cast magic lol. What kind of miracle calculation is that?

└ Being the youngest and still ranking #2 out of 100 is already insanely good.

└ No, nothing less than #1 feels right.

[ENVY, Bong Chansik, Lee Sangyoon, NoName Let’s Go!]

└ This lineup makes my heart swell lol.

└ Do you know NoName?

└ I can’t take it anymore.

└ What?

└ Starting today, I’m launching a campaign to promote NoName.

Unlike the government’s desire to keep NoName hidden, the general public was outraged that her abilities were underestimated.

While other children were merely exceptional compared to their peers, NoName was on par with adults.

In online communities, there was a movement to learn more about NoName’s recent activities in response to attempts to downplay her abilities.

Little did they know this would make things more awkward for South Korea.

It was around this time that news spread about NoName frequently appearing at Korea University.

[I’m spilling the tea about NoName coming to our class.]

[Author: Anonymous (147.47)]

* * *

“NoName, do you have a boyfriend?”

“What…?”

“A loved one, a partner. Today’s unit happens to be about ‘romantic relationships.'”

“No, I don’t.”

“Come on, I bet there are plenty of admirers. Too bad for them.”

The liberal arts professor wouldn’t leave me alone, as if he’d found something interesting.

“What do you think love is, NoName?”

The college students in front of me turned their heads toward me like whack-a-moles every five seconds.

Are they that curious about what I’ll say?

Love is simple.

“I think it’s a psychological phenomenon stemming from genetically encoded species preservation functions that drive reproduction and protection of mates and offspring.”

The essence of love lies in survival and species preservation.

The reason siblings don’t fall in love is because they’re competitors rather than objects of protection.

From an evolutionary psychology perspective, humans don’t feel sexual attraction to those they’ve grown up with, preventing inbreeding.

Therefore, it would be more accurate to say that love is controlled by hormones rather than felt by the subject.

Woo Da-yeon whispers protests beside me, saying “That’s not love!” but I stand my ground.

See? The professor ends up introducing scholars Wilson and Buss who make the same arguments as mine while showing PowerPoint slides.

The psychology of human relationships turned out to be more interesting than I expected.

Sternberg’s triangular theory of love was particularly impressive.

‘Intimacy,’ ‘Passion,’ and ‘Commitment.’

According to Sternberg’s theory, love is incomplete if even one of these is missing.

“…?”

I counted on my fingers, thinking.

Intimacy that builds when you spend enough time together to share secrets.

Passion that follows you like a leech no matter where in the world you try to escape.

And that commitment to kill me so I can be at peace.

‘This sounds exactly like Hiasen?’

I think I just found an exception to the theory.

That’s not how family is supposed to be.

I shook my head, put down my three fingers, and woke up Daniel who was snoozing beside me.

“Eek!”

“Sis, you were just snoring.”

“Mmm… thanks… Huh? Class is over already? Ughhhh!”

While Daniel stretched and captured the attention of the male students, I checked a new message that had just arrived.

The sender was Korea University’s PR team.

* * *

Was NoName’s wilderness exploration vlog just a flash in the pan? That was the common thought among subscribers.

It had been over a month since only occasional World of Arsheria ranked game highlights were uploaded to VTube.

Even these stopped when World of Arsheria received a one-month suspension.

-NoName open up! *bang bang bang*

-Our Korean girl did nothing wrong! Please come back NoName!

-Lee Jo-won is trash!

-Elementary students should be playing games all day during vacation, not wandering around!

-Day 26 of praying for NoName’s return

-Day 26 of praying for Sebastian’s return

-The LoL server is open now, would you at least play Asteria?

└ I personally hate LoL but right now I’d devour even that like a starving dog.

-Just show up. We’ll cover all expenses.

└ Suddenly 500,000 fiancés lol

-Did she get addicted to rhythm games or something?

-NoName is live!!!

└ Really?

└ That’s a lie lol

-NoName started streaming, not lying

└ Not a lie

└ For real?

└ Wait, why is it actually true? lol

As always, NoName’s return came suddenly without any announcement.

[NoName]

[Just Chatting – Korea University Challenge]

And there was NoName, appearing before her eagerly waiting fans.

She was waving around what looked like a luxury portable magic writing device.

IWC Schaffhausen’s ‘Reminiscence’ series.

-Whoa, isn’t that worth 30 million won?

-What brand is it?

-IWC Schaffhausen

-Her adoptive parents must be loaded

-But would they buy that for an 8-year-old?

Coincidentally, as the name IWC suggests, the company headquarters is located in Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland.

-Maybe it was bought in Switzerland…?

The fans’ misunderstandings snowballed uncontrollably until they eventually made it into news articles.