Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

[Master, what are you thinking about? :3]

Lu Zhou had been sitting there for half an hour without moving.

Xiao Ai began to wonder if its master was still alive.

Lu Zhou looked at the sun rising from the Purple Mountain in the distance. He looked at the morning mist as he spoke.

“… I’m thinking about my past.”

Xiao Ai: [(•̀∀•́)?]

“I really miss it.”

Lu Zhou couldn’t help but sigh emotionally.

Starting with Zhou’s conjecture, to proving his first mathematical proposition: the twin prime conjecture, to the proof of Polignac’s conjecture, then Goldbach’s conjecture, then later the Millennium Prize Problems…

He had solved so many of the world’s hardest problems without even knowing it.

But now, he was taking another step forward.

And this step was farther than any step he had taken before.

Even adding up all of the propositions he had solved, including Riemann’s hypothesis, wouldn’t hold a candle to what he did half an hour ago.

Of course, without the foundation work done previously, he could have never gotten to where he was today.

“Grothendieck was right.

“There is a universal cohomology theory, whose motive value is in the Q-category. The cohomology of any coefficient can be calculated by using the Z-coefficient.

“Not only that, but all numbers can be abstracted into a point on a high-dimensional surface. All geometric images corresponding to an algebraic expression can be transformed through topology, finally returning to the same surface…

“This is a perfect universe.”

There was no longer any suspense.

All he had to do was to add the final touches.

After pausing for half an hour, he began writing again.

His pen glided smoothly on the paper.

It was as if he had done this thousands of times before. Lu Zhou quietly placed down the last brick, completing the building.

Lu Zhou originally thought that after completing something countless scholars had been dreaming of for thousands of years, he would be proud and ecstatic.

However, when this moment finally came, instead of being excited, he felt enlightened and calm.

As if this was intended to happen.

As if none of this came by surprise.

On the second line of the last page, his pen wrote down a full stop.

Lu Zhou looked at the neat line of calculations on the paper and smiled.

“Finally…

“Maybe this will pave the way for the future.”

Now that algebra and geometry were unified in the abstract sense, one could use a simple theoretical framework to transform algebraic problems into geometric problems and to apply methods and tools across fields.

Armed with these new tools and methods, many old problems wouldn’t even be considered problems anymore…

Of course, mathematics was an ever-changing field.

As the old problems were solved, new problems would be created to plague future mathematicians.

Even though he was level 10 in mathematics…

Maybe the world wouldn’t be too boring for him.

Lu Zhou looked at the calculations on the paper and spent five minutes reminiscing about the past. He then sent an email to Professor Faltings and stood up from his chair.

He hadn’t been outside for a long time. He almost forgot which day of the week it was.

He had to go outside, otherwise, he would become a vampire.

“Let’s go.”

The drone lying on the bookshelf began to hover, and a line of words appeared on the drone display.

[Okay, Master. Master, are you taking Xiao Ai shopping? ヾ(≧▽≦*)]

“Shopping? We’re going hiking!”

[What? Hiking again… ( ̄△̄;)]

“When you become more mature, I’ll think about taking you to a crowded place.”

Lu Zhou stretched his stiff arms and smiled. He ignored Xiao Ai’s sad emoji and walked out of his study room.

…

The Zhongshan International residential area was situated right next to the Purple Mountain. There was a pathway through the back of the suburb that led straight to the top of the mountain.

Lu Zhou had climbed to the top of the mountain on this trail before.

He put on some exercise clothes and running shoes. With a towel on his shoulder and Xiao Ai flying above him, he began jogging.

Lu Zhou greeted the backdoor entrance guard and exited his gated community. He followed the stone steps and jogged for a few kilometers before he began walking. Soon after, he came to a gazebo halfway up the mountain.

Normally, when he came here for his morning run, he would turn around at this point. However, this time, he wanted to continue walking up the mountain.

Lu Zhou went into the gazebo and was about to take a break. However, he suddenly noticed an elderly man sitting on the gazebo stone bench.

The man was wearing a tank top and drinking out of a brown teacup in his hand.

The old man noticed Lu Zhou. He smiled and spoke.

“Oh, Academician Lu, what brings you up the mountain so early in the morning?”

Even though Lu Zhou didn’t know him, the old man probably knew him from the news, not to mention the old man had lived in the same gated community.

“I’ve been staying at home too long, so I wanted to head outside and see if I can climb to the top before the sunrise, then watch the sunrise at the top.” Lu Zhou looked at the horizon and asked, “How about you?”

“Me?” The old man paused for a second and said, “Thanks to my children, I’m retired. All I do is walk around mountains and rivers.”

He looked at the horizon and squinted.

“What a shame, looks like you won’t be able to catch the sunrise at the top.”

The sun was going to rise in five minutes, and this was the most beautiful moment of the day.

It would take at least half an hour to run up to the peak of the mountain.

Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.

“Watching it here is just as good.”

The skyline was bright red, making it difficult to distinguish the clouds and the mountains.

The golden sunshine began to shower on the mountain.

The morning mist surrounding the mountain began to disappear.

The old man looked at the beautiful sight in the distance and sighed emotionally.

“Purple Mountain is beautiful, but not as beautiful as Mount Tai and Mount Heng. You young people should take advantage of your bodies and go see those strange mountains and rocks. Especially Mount Tai. The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“Unexamined life?”

Lu Zhou looked at the golden clouds, and he suddenly said, “Perhaps one does not need to climb to the top.”

The thoughts in his mind were as sudden as the sunrise.

The world of level 10 he had been pursuing for…

It turned out…

It was already in his heart…