Chapter 8
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Saving the First Life (2)
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Dad checked the book I was reading and instantly froze.
『Stochastic Differential Equation』
A book whose title was in English, not Korean.
And it was five times thicker than the math textbook for seventh graders that a first-year middle schooler would read.
College mathematics.
Specialized texts that went even further beyond.
It was an extremely advanced field of mathematics that applied probability theory to classical differential equations.
"I thought probability theory would be enough if I skimmed it, but it looks like a physics-based approach won't work after all."
I tapped the book with my index finger and muttered whatever came to mind.
"I figured it was just combining differential equations and probability theory, but it turns out you need real analysis and topology knowledge to truly understand it."
"Uh, uh... Why... no, how..."
"It's about money before studying. This is the entry point to financial engineering and quant trading."
Why study?
To make money, obviously.
I believe a true pro is someone who makes a living earning money in their field.
In fact, most people pulling in hundreds of billions at investment firms like Goldman Sachs are world-class mathematicians and physicists.
"I was thinking of digging deep into math and applying it to the stock market, but quant work is tough. I can't even fully grasp the Black-Scholes equation from way before twenty years ago. Well, I'm trying to get an intuitive feel from statistical physics, but rigorously mathematically... Hmm, what to do... Should I just ditch math quick and pivot directions...? Ah, right. You invested in stocks, didn't you, Dad? What do you think?"
"…………."
Dad just silently sweated bullets.
Meanwhile, I kept pondering with a serious expression, completely unfazed.
"...Ah!"
I suddenly shouted Eureka.
"Eek?!"
Ignoring Dad jumping in surprise right beside me.
"I can just approach this from a pure statistical physics base, can't I? There was definitely something like this in stat phys!"
The moment I said that, I immediately pulled out A4 paper from the printer.
And as if I were the printer itself.
Scribble! Scribble scribble!
I filled the paper at an insane speed.
The sheets piled up in an instant.
They were covered in endlessly written symbols and equations of such high difficulty that no first-year middle schooler could possibly produce them.
"As expected...! This can be explained as a more complex variant of the Langevin equation!"
"Uh, uh..."
"Stock market fluctuation rates can just be assumed as white noise, Gaussian random variables..."
"Mm, uh..."
"Yeah, yeah. This is it. I don't get why real mathematicians write this stuff so unnecessarily fancy. This makes it way more intuitive and simpler. Anyway, this turns it into a random walk, but not quite a plain random walk—it's a more generalized version, so modeling it with a Lévy flight should solve it, right?!"
I looked at Dad with eyes sparkling brightly.
Dad responded to me with an awkward chuckle.
"Y-Yeah... Give it your best..."
He quietly closed the door and left.
And right after that.
Thud, thud, thud!
Footsteps frantically running in the opposite direction.
-Honey, honey! Our son has changed way too much...!!
Followed by voices saying our son was a genius, a prodigy, studying college math all by himself even though he was still in middle school, and so on.
The noisy chatter mixed with Mom's voice reached all the way here through the closed door.
But even so, I didn't pay it any mind.
To be precise, I had no spare moment to care.
Scribble! Scribble scribble!
Immense concentration.
By then, over ten A4 sheets were already piling up around me.
"Argh... This won't do..."
The immense concentration ultimately halted at the eleventh sheet.
"This is still basically the same as skipping proper math and doing physics..."
The Intelligence stat in the status window showed no change.
Unlike the time right after regression when I raised stats through exercise without items.
"I thought studying like exercising would raise Intelligence, but it looks like no dice."
This was my hypothesis.
Exercise was a field I had never done either before or after regression.
So just running boosted my Stamina right up.
But Intelligence was different.
I had already studied my entire previous life.
And that was merely knowledge already inputted into my brain.
So Intelligence didn't rise.
I had simply pulled out what was already in my head and recombined it.
There was nothing entirely new or newly learned there.
"I realized it while studying math just now. Simply having knowledge twenty years ahead of others isn't enough. Studying twenty years earlier is just twenty years, at best."
Whether born a gold spoon or a dirt spoon who succeeds.
Something you can never change no matter the effort.
The frontal lobe.
In other words, the brain.
You can somewhat alter your face with plastic surgery and Stamina with exercise.
But studying follows your inherited genes exactly.
"...Neuroscience papers said studying relies most on talent too."
I only had about twenty years' worth of knowledge ahead.
Genius world-changers advance humanity a hundred, two hundred years with one idea.
Compared to that, twenty years' head start is peanuts.
"Even as I am now post-regression, I could definitely achieve something resembling success. But..."
That would be the end of it.
I'd hit a wall somewhere for sure.
Compromise, accept it.
And ultimately give up.
"I couldn't become the absolute best."
The head and intellect.
In other words, the Intelligence stat represented exactly that limit.
Therefore.
[Purchased 1 『Elixir of Intelligence Increase』.]
[Life Points: 1p → 0p]
I broke through that limit.
Gulp, gulp!
I immediately downed the elixir.
From 12 to 13. Barely a 10% change or so.
"……."
In truth, I didn't feel any massive difference right now.
Just one thing was different.
"...Hoo."
When I took a deep breath, my mind calmed.
The moment I closed my eyes and opened them again.
My goals came into crystal-clear focus.
"No base assumptions. Starting from complete first-year basics."
I closed the graduate-level textbook I'd been looking at until moments ago.
And pulled out a different book from beside it.
『Walter Rudin, Principles of Mathematical Analysis』
The very first subject math majors learn after enrolling.
A classic boasting nearly a century of history.
"Real analysis."
The most fundamental starting point of mathematics.
It deals with the very bedrock, starting from sets to define numbers, operations, everything at the bottom.
In other words, it's no exaggeration to say all mathematics truly begins with real analysis.
Even the differentiation and integration we learn in high school are first defined right here.
"Pre-regression, I gave up when I couldn't understand it."
Now it's different.
Page turn, page turn.
Unlike the frantic blackening of A4 sheets from earlier.
Step by step.
Savoring every single character as I read.
How much time passed like that?
Tweet, tweet, tweet.
The sound of birds chirping came through the window.
And before I knew it, morning light dawned.
I'd pulled an all-nighter.
Only then did I look away from the book for the first time, and already.
[You have opened new horizons of knowledge.]
[Intelligence stat rises.]
I had surpassed my limit.
It had been about a week since Kyung-jun raised his Intelligence with the Elixir of Intelligence Increase.
And started studying math.
This was the KMO (Korean Mathematical Olympiad) testing venue.
"Grading all done?"
It was after everything had wrapped up, including the grading.
Creak.
The door to the grading room opened, and a dignified elderly man with graying hair walked in.
"Ah, President."
President Hong.
He was the president of the Korean Mathematical Society and currently the most senior professor in Seoul National University's Mathematics Department.
In other words, he was the sharpest mathematician in Korea right now, with decades of experience to boot—a true master among masters.
"Here are the graded papers for 1st through 3rd place."
A grad student who had just finished grading.
He handed over the answer sheets from the three highest scorers in the KMO middle school division to the president.
"You made this exam brutally tough, right? Especially the last problem—wasn't it harder than the high school division ones?"
"High school division? Not even worth looking at. They're just kids solving with pre-studied knowledge anyway."
He was one of the Korean Mathematical Society members who set this KMO middle school exam.
In particular, he was the one who made that final problem— the one where everyone except the top 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places turned in blanks.
"I'm not looking to pick kids with the most knowledge. Knowledge in this field is just knowledge, nothing more. What's truly important is innate brainpower, pure intelligence. That has zero to do with age or how long you've studied."
"You might have to go overseas to find a kid who meets your standards, Professor."
President Hong, with retirement age fast approaching, was searching for an apprentice.
Someone to pass on his lifelong research in mathematics and carry it forward.
Something he'd been preparing for since ten years ago.
Yet even now, a decade later, he still hadn't found a child to his liking.
"Exactly. Honestly, you're out of the running too. I only took you because the department kept nagging me to get a grad student. Sure, you can understand nearly half my equations, but otherwise, you're no different from the middle schoolers who took this exam."
"Haha..."
President Hong freely hurled insults at his own grad student without batting an eye and quickly skimmed the 1st-place answer sheet.
"The 1st-place kid solved some of it. But the final answer's still wrong, as expected."
President Hong set down the 1st-place sheet without much regret.
Not bad, but not satisfactory.
"This kid will probably grow up to be the smartest in Korea. But that's the ceiling. Head to Japan or China next door, and kids like this are a dime a dozen."
Finishing his assessment, President Hong looked at the next exam paper.
And in no time at all, he furrowed his brow.
"Argh, this answer sheet is making even me feel stupid."
He tossed aside the 2nd-place paper in less than a tenth the time he'd spent on 1st.
"This one's just pre-studied rote. That's it. Same level as the dumb Seoul National University undergrads in my classes."
President Hong was infamous at Seoul National University as an extreme professor.
In fact, he cursed out undergrads in every class for not understanding, spewing all sorts of abuse.
He'd even been disciplined by the university multiple times over it.
"No point even looking at 3rd place then. Total waste of time. Write on their certificates that all three top scorers should never bother taking the exam again."
"Haha, that's a bit much..."
"Hmph."
President Hong turned to leave, his interest soured.
But right then.
"Ah, but 3rd place actually got the answer right."
"...What?"
"The solution was written so bizarrely that we thought it was just a lucky fluke..."
"Hand it over!"
President Hong suddenly rushed back over and roughly snatched the 3rd-place answer sheet.
He skimmed it much like before, but now with a somewhat excited expression.
"This kid, no way..."
His face had already turned to one of shock.