I Got an Omnipotent Brain

Incheon International Airport Arrivals Hall,

”Please look toward the right camera!”

”Professor, what is the purpose of your visit to Korea?”

”Did you really come because of the Four Color Theorem verification?”

Flashes went off without pause.

Elijah Cronen stood out instantly, even from afar.

His tall height, silver hair, upright posture, and cold, icy gray eyes made it hard to guess his age.

A figure who had already reached the pinnacle of the mathematical world in his mid-40s,

His career, solving dozens of difficult problems as if collecting trophies, was more than enough to draw praise from the world as the greatest mind of humanity.

He passed by the reporters with an indifferent gaze.

Following behind him came a young female mathematician.

Chloe Moreau, a topologist from France’s ENS, briefly responded to reporters’ questions despite showing signs of fatigue from jet lag.

”Oui. Something important has happened in Korea’s mathematics community. I also want to see it in person as soon as possible.”

From another exit, Shimura Kenji, a complexity theorist from the University of Tokyo, appeared. Japanese media swarmed around him.

”Professor Shimura! We hear world-class mathematicians are gathering in Korea. Are you joining them? Is it fair to say you’re close with Elijah Cronen from Princeton?”

”Professor! There’s a rumor that a thirteen-year-old boy in Korea solved the Four Color Theorem. Are you here to verify that? What are your thoughts on promising gifted children in Japan?”

Shimura paused for a moment, sighed, then looked at the reporters.

”Does mathematics have a nationality? I’m simply here to cooperate with the verification as a fellow researcher.”

Although the interview was completely lacking in substance, the Japanese media still managed to extract the headlines they wanted.

[World-renowned scholars gather in Korea, Professor Shimura Kenji greets Elijah Cronen warmly]

[Shimura Kenji, Professor at the University of Tokyo, heads to Korea - Will a Japanese mathematician shine in the Four Color Theorem verification?]

[In the end, the core verification is left to Japan]

[Korean boy? We’ll know after the verification]

Following that, Walter Scott from MIT and Georg Stein from the University of Bonn also arrived in Korea one after another. Other researchers who had been watching the matter with interest voluntarily boarded flights to Korea as well.

Young combinatorics scholars from across Europe, doctoral students from the United States, and even some independent researchers without official positions were among them.

The news that Elijah Cronen himself was taking part in the verification served as solid proof that this incident was not just a rumor.

Many believed that simply witnessing the scene where a difficult problem was being tackled firsthand would become a lifelong asset in their research careers.

And this atmosphere was soon picked up by the media.

[Why are mathematicians gathering in Korea?]

– A student at a Korean Gifted High School is drawing global attention from the mathematics community.

A photo that recently became a hot topic online under the title ‘Summoning Circle’ has been claimed to be a new proof of the Four Color Theorem.

While initially dismissed as a mere incident, the situation has rapidly changed.

With world-renowned scholars like Elijah Cronen of Princeton arriving in Korea one after another, both academia and the public are abuzz.

The common sentiment among scholars is, “If it were just a rumor, those kinds of people wouldn’t come in person.”

Experts have stated, “We still don’t know whether the proof is correct or not,” but the fact that such high-profile mathematicians are moving directly is, in itself, proof that this is more than just a minor commotion.

If the proof of the Four Color Theorem turns out to be valid, Yu Seo-ha (13 years old, 1st year at a Korean Gifted High School) is expected to be recorded as the first person to solve a problem once believed to be unsolvable without the aid of computers.

└Sum...moned?

└He really did summon people.

└Who are those people?

└Just think of it like a Nobel Prize winners’ gathering.

└└Korea really has no interest in mathematics. Foreign media is going crazier. They say the boy who ranked 1st at the IMO has turned the mathematics world upside down. (link)

└I’m a master’s student in topology... if this is real, my entire textbook might have to be rewritten. We’re seriously freaking out right now.

└The fact that a 13-year-old might be the one to change all that is legendary ㄷㄷ

└I’m a grad student too, and the atmosphere is no joke. Everyone in our lab has set aside their papers and is just watching the news. Ever since Cronen came in person, most of us believe it’s about 70% likely to be real.

└What, what? What are you guys talking about without me?

└About math.

└Oh, that’s all? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

***

A luxury hotel near the government complex in Sejong City,

Starting two days ago, people of a completely different nature began staying in the hotel lobby, which had always been frequented by buyers and government officials dressed in business suits.

Instead of suits, these individuals wore casual jackets and shirts. Instead of premium briefcases, they carried thick leather bags or backpacks.

A middle-aged scholar was sitting on a sofa, letting his coffee cool while reading a paper, and at a table in the corner, young researchers were staring into their laptop screens, quietly engaged in discussion.

The front desk staff clicked their tongue inwardly.

”Hard to believe all these people are mathematicians...”

The Korean Mathematical Society provided the verification team with a large conference room at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS).

It was a spacious room with large windows.

At the front, a massive whiteboard and an electronic board had been installed. Along the walls, cameras and scanners were lined up.

“All materials will be digitized here.”

A member of the Mathematical Society guided the verification team.

“The original materials from the Gifted High School seminar room will be preserved, and the verification will be conducted here. We plan to keep the space open 24 hours so that scholars from various countries can freely engage in discussion.”

Cronen nodded. Then, as if casually, he spoke.

“I want to see the proof site first.”

He recalled the classroom he had seen in the attached file.

Even among the decades of his scholarly career, it was one of the most striking scenes.

“Excuse me?”

The staff member from the Mathematical Society, who had spent the entire week organizing data, looked dazed.

“Professor, all the data has already been compiled. Verification can be carried out more efficiently here.”

The staff member cautiously argued back.

But when Cronen opened his gray eyes and quietly stared at him, he had no choice but to lower his head.

“Understood.”

***

In front of the main building of the Gifted High School,

The principal felt his palms growing sweaty. He adjusted his tie once more and pushed the access control barrier posts with his hand for no reason, checking if they were shaking.

‘What on earth is going on here?’

He had wanted the school to gain recognition, but not to this extent.

A black sedan glided in and came to a stop in front of him. The door opened, and a middle-aged man in a dark suit stepped out. On his chest was the insignia of a government department.

“I’m Jung Min-su, dispatched in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.”

He handed over his business card and spoke in a low voice.

“Starting today, we’ll handle all media responses, access control, and route management. If you need to communicate with the government, please go through me. Principal, we ask that you just manage the students well.”

The principal took the business card with a dazed expression, then let out a relieved sigh.

“Thank you.”

The new suit he had bought felt awkward.

But now that responsibility had been handed over, he felt a weight lifted. The situation had already long since gone beyond what he could control.

Chhhh-

The security guard’s walkie-talkie flickered.

The front gate opened, and a black van, a silver sedan, and a passenger van entered the campus one after another. As the vehicles came to a stop in a line, the aides stepped out first. Soon after, the rear door opened, and a man with silver hair stepped down.

‘Elijah Cronen.’

The principal, the faculty members who had come out, and the academic figures all held their breath at once.

He had an impression even calmer and sharper than in photographs.

Someone tried to pull out their phone, but when the security guard glared at them, they hurriedly shoved it back into their pocket.

Next, Japan’s Shimura Kenji, France’s Chloe Moreau, America’s Walter Scott, and Germany’s Georg Stein stepped out of the van in order.

The principal, sensing the mood, stepped forward to greet them.

“Thank you for making the long journey. Welcome!”

When Cronen gave a brief nod, Jung Min-su stepped forward.

“We’ve already secured the route. Please follow me this way.”

At his gesture, the verification team began to walk. They passed through the hallway and arrived at the seminar room in question. The door was covered in seal stickers and multiple ‘Access Restricted’ notices.

Skkk-

After checking the release documents, the facility staff carefully peeled off the tape.

Click-

When the card key was scanned, the door opened.

Cronen was the first to step inside.

The scent of chalk dust and paper, and the metallic air peculiar to a long-sealed room, flowed outward.

Click.

When the principal turned on the lights, the full view of the seminar room was revealed.

A3 sheets of paper covered all the walls, complexly entangled graphs and symbols, and a massive automaton diagram occupying the center of the chalkboard.

The verification team was speechless for a while.

“信じられない (Unbelievable).”

Shimura murmured in Japanese.

“This is truly amazing. I’ve never seen a lecture room this magnificent.”

“Jesus Christ.”

Exclamations in various languages burst out.

“Hahaha! Incredible. Seeing this in person after only reading papers reminds me of my younger days.”

Georg let out a cheerful laugh.

“It really is. So romantic, isn’t it?”

Chloe slowly walked along the wall with an expression like she had fallen in love. Her fingertips hovered over the edge of the papers before stopping.

“The numbers recognize each other. One rule embraces another.”

They were all top-class mathematicians.

Verifying papers was a routine part of their lives. But the fact that they were standing at the site of a living, breathing proof, not just piles of paper, had them excited.

They imagined the young mathematician who must have fought a lonely battle in this room for days on end.

Stein closely examined the paper attached to the wall.

The symbols weren’t consistent. Some lines were slanted, as if hastily written.

“These notations aren’t found in any standard textbooks.”

Chloe nodded.

“He probably wrote them only for himself to understand. It’s clear he had no intention of showing this room to anyone.”

“And now we have to interpret it.”

Chloe’s hand stopped at a particular point on the wall.

“He changed methods here. That transition, by its original definition, should cause a contradiction. So he created a new rule. I wouldn’t have done it that way. The risk is too high.”

“It’s a risky attempt. In the end, though, it seems he succeeded in avoiding contradiction and closing the system.”

Click.

Click.

The researchers moved around the classroom, collecting data.

Cronen stood silently in the room for a long time.

He was tracing the flow of logic the boy had left behind. Coming to the site made it clearer. What kind of resolve led the boy to choose this place? What kind of thinking had he started the proof with?

As Cronen began to move, it was as if the traces came back to life like a film unfolding before his eyes.

The young boy stood at the chalkboard, writing out equations in a single breath. It was evident that before coming here, he had already constructed the overall framework of logic.

Strange symbols on the walls caught his eye. Unable to express his proof with existing language, the boy had created a new one himself.

‘He clearly hadn’t just started this recently.’

He skillfully avoided landmines.

The rules he created were likely all born from the history of his failures. He had gathered them and transformed them into rules.

Faint chalk marks at the edge of the blackboard caught his gaze. One side had only the traces of something erased, and new arrows were drawn over it.

‘So it wasn’t all planned from the beginning.’

He had crashed, crumbled, and rebuilt as he went, erecting the system step by step. Yet the structure was astonishingly solid.

A stack of notebooks was visible in the corner.

They were darkened with the marks of hands and frayed at the edges. Cronen picked up the notebook on the top.

The handwriting was childlike, the solutions still confined within textbook frameworks. But inside was the trace of serious inquiry.

‘It’s like a mathematician’s research journal.’

He sat in a chair and picked up a few more notebooks.

The notebooks were kindly dated.

As time passed, the letters gradually became clearer, and the once-unstable development of formulas took on a well-organized structure.

The boy’s failures accumulated.

But atop those, new attempts continued without end.

He tried to trace the coloring cycle using modular arithmetic, and attempted to reduce the number of cases by grouping them into isomorphic graphs. Cronen paused his fingers while flipping through the pages.

He recognized a familiar pattern in the attempt to find hints by moving between planar and spherical surfaces.

’This is my method?’

There was no doubt the boy had read his paper. And he had immediately tried to apply it to his own research.

By the latest notebooks, clear signs of evolution were evident.

Symbols of his own, signs and conventions never before seen in any existing papers, filled the pages.

Cronen closed the notebook and let out a deep breath.

Now it was certain after reading the notebooks.

This room had been the boy’s final battlefield.

What he had read was the grand narrative of a boy’s journey spanning seven years, his record of war.

*****

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