sjar Chapter 53 Memory Challenge
Chapter 53 Memory Challenge
"call……"
Marcelo irritably rolled up the sleeves of his expensive shirt to his elbows, wearily took off his gold-rimmed glasses, and pinched his brow hard.
On the large, solid wood table, sealed answer sheets, strictly categorized and filed according to their score ranges, had already piled up into small mountains.
The bottom of the mug beside me was covered with dried, dark brown stains from last night's black coffee.
"Alright, gentlemen, time is running out."
Regarding this highly controversial answer sheet, we must deliver a final verdict today, right here in this room!
Marcelo's hoarse, deep voice broke the oppressive silence.
The committee members, each with a different expression, shifted their aching bodies and turned to the photocopy placed on top of them.
On the paper, there are only a few lines of aloof formulas.
These are the answers to questions 4 and 5, written by Su Hao.
"I still stand by my original ruling standards."
I will award a maximum of 3 points per question; this is the absolute bottom line I can compromise on as a mathematician!
Professor Robert from Italy slammed his hand on the copy of the answer sheet, pointed to a formula with an absurdly large scope, and angrily accused it.
"See for yourselves! His deductive reasoning jumps directly to the final conclusion from this point without any transition!"
During this period, he omitted at least three absolutely necessary lemma derivations!
It has absolutely no rigor whatsoever!
This is the Olympics, not his doodle sketchbook!
Judging purely from the appearance of the paper, Robert's criticism is reasonable and well-founded.
But the deeper reason that truly plunged the entire grading team into two days of painful struggle was far more terrifying than that.
"Everyone, please calm down."
Do you really believe that this candidate left such a large section of logical blank space because he "omitted" steps?
Marcelo abruptly stood up from his chair and grabbed a marker.
He turned around and violently stretched out several lines on the whiteboard behind him, quickly constructing a topological mapping diagram.
"This candidate is not omitting anything at all!"
He stood at a height that is difficult for us to reach, directly eliminating all the cumbersome, mundane, and mechanical calculation steps that were tedious for him!
He presented us with the framework that supports the theorem by using only the most core logical nodes!
And this skeleton has no flaws in its internal logical loop!
Marcelo turned around, his gaze sharp as he stared at his colleagues.
"He just... has absolutely no interest in showing his cheap 'friendliness' to us examiners!"
The entire room fell silent.
A few seconds later, a Russian topology expert broke the silence and joined the debate:
"But... Marcelo, you have to admit that this kind of logical leap in thinking is extremely anti-human."
Which of us here hasn't been immersed in some field of mathematics for decades?
Even we spent more than a whole day working backwards to decipher the core framework hidden behind his answer sheet!
At that time, these exam papers and our judgment scores will inevitably be exposed to the world's spotlight.
If we give it a perfect score, how could the general public, who can't even understand calculus, possibly understand a thing?!
They'll just think we're pulling strings!
However, Marcelo placed his hands firmly on the table, showing no intention of backing down.
I don't need the public's approval.
I only need everyone to recognize one crucial fact:
This argument is correct and does not contain any errors!
"But the IMO is, after all, a basic science competition for secondary school students worldwide!" Another committee member clutched his head in anguish.
"If we approve and acknowledge this extremely erratic and charlatan-like answer sheet, where will the standard for future grading be? Where will public trust be?"
"Okay, since you're all concerned about this."
Marcelo slowly straightened his back, his bloodshot eyes sharply sweeping across the faces of every academic luminary present.
"Now I'll ask you all a very simple question:"
In this answer sheet, can any of you find a single logical paradox?
Or any mathematical error? Even a single punctuation mistake!
The meeting room fell into that suffocating silence once again.
Only a slight humming sound from the air conditioner vents echoed in the air.
The big shots' faces were filled with the extreme constipation of "I really want to refute it, but I really can't find any fault with it."
"...No. Every step was absolutely precise, and the final conclusion was undoubtedly correct."
After a long while, Robert, the Italian who had started the fight, seemed to have all his strength drained away and slumped back in his chair.
He stared intently at the photocopy, and finally, with a bitter expression, acknowledged the cruel truth:
"Perhaps, this... is just a higher-dimensional system of expression that is completely beyond our existing cognitive habits."
Seeing his old friend's dejected expression, a complex emotion flashed in Marcelo's eyes, but he ultimately made his final judgment:
"Since there are no mistakes, why should we deduct points?"
Just because we can't understand it?
Just because we can't keep up with his pace?
Just because it uses a higher-dimensional 'language' to write, we, these mortals who consider ourselves judges, have no right to deprive it of the points that rightfully belong to it!
Unfortunately, real life is often far more murky than mathematical theorems.
In the final judging vote, most judges, in order to maintain the "stability of the existing academic evaluation system,"...
Su Hao's answer, which should have shocked the world, ultimately failed to achieve a perfect score.
After all, no matter how solid its internal logic may be, overwhelming even the most shrewd experts, simply accepting it as the "standard solution" is not the right approach...
This is far too cruel to high school students around the world; it is nothing short of a brutal form of intellectual bullying!
......
Kingston University dormitory building.
If during the competition this place was a battlefield shrouded in the "Nine Heavens Profound Thunder Calamity," exuding a suffocating tension...
Now, the clouds of calamity have dissipated, and every corner of the entire building is filled with a celebratory atmosphere of "Haha, I, the Daoist, have finally survived!"
Loud, unrestrained laughter occasionally erupted in the corridor, and the doors that had been practically welded shut in the past few days were now wide open.
Su Hao had just finished washing up in the restroom when he came out and was taken aback by the scene in the corridor.
Normally, these high-achieving students would be engrossed in their books in their rooms or lying around recovering their energy.
But now, with their return date approaching, the vague sorrow of parting gives rise to a strange sense of social courage to "let loose" among the students who may never see each other again.
"Kid! Want to come over and take a look?"
Hans leaned against the door frame, waving frantically at Su Hao.
Su Hao raised an eyelid.
After they got to know each other, these clueless foreigners started calling him "kid" all the time.
Every time Su Hao heard this word, he felt the same kind of nausea as if someone had pointed a finger at him and called him a "little brat" in the street.
"What's wrong?"
Su Hao stepped forward and peeked inside. Good heavens, the small room was already packed with more than a dozen people.
"Let's play a memory challenge. Helen has already beaten us seven times in a row."
Hans shrugged, his tone tinged with frustration.
Just as Shen Yuxuan had complained before, it turned out to be true.
These top students from all over the world, whenever they have free time, always find all sorts of strange ways to subtly show off their proud intelligence.
In the center of the table, a deck of cards lay scattered.
In the very center, sitting amidst the golden horse and broadsword, is a blonde girl from Denmark named Helen.
Whether it was the confidence emboldened by the seven-game winning streak or not, Helen's eyes shone with an almost scorching self-assurance.
Upon seeing Su Hao, she suddenly grinned and replied in a familiar tone:
"Kid, our team leader said that you were the only one who solved that hellish sixth problem?"
"It's hard to say whether I was the only one who solved it, but I did manage to solve it," Su Hao said calmly. "That problem was quite difficult."
"Don't be modest, you're the only one."
Helen grinned, and with an extremely arrogant air, extended her index finger and tapped her temple.
"Why don't we take this opportunity to see what your brain, capable of solving the sixth question, actually looks like?"
Since things have come to this point, backing down would seem pretentious.
Dozens of eyes in the room immediately focused on Su Hao.