The second the International Mathematical Union recognized the Grand Unified Theory, the news instantly spread across the planet.
The entire mathematics world was shocked at this sensational news.
Professor Tao Zhexuan’s flight had yet to depart. He was waiting inside the airport when he opened his WordPress blog and posted his thoughts on the brand new paper.
Even a master’s student could understand his post. This gave a chance for noob researchers to understand what exactly happened at this earth-shattering report.
Less than half an hour after the blog was published, the link spread throughout the mathematics circle like wildfire. People in the mathematics community went crazy!
On the other hand, discussions began flooding the MathOverflow forum.
Every post was about Lu Zhou and his Grand Unified Theory.
Lu Zhou had yet to give this theory an official name, so people had to borrow the name from the famous Grand Unified Theory from particle physics.
[Breaking news! The International Mathematical Union just announced in the Jin Ling University auditorium that they recognize the Grand Unified Theory!]
[Haha! That’s my alma mater!]
[I knew this was going to happen. Professor Lu would never announce something unless he is 100% correct. When he announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians he was going to unify algebra and geometry as his next research project, I knew he had something up his sleeve.]
[I heard Faltings and Schultz also participated in this project?]
[They did work together on the research on the fold method, but I heard from my classmates at the University of Bonn that they did not cooperate for the last two months of the research. They decided to compete with each other…]
[I’m curious who proposed that idea.]
[Apparently, Professor Faltings did…]
[That’s unlucky, Lu Zhou was able to solve the problem two months after parting ways with them… So they didn’t help at all?]
[Eh, judging from Lu Zhou’s report, they clearly contributed. But I agree, that’s… just unfortunate for them.]
Mathematicians gossiped about the mysterious stories surrounding the Grand Unified Theory.
In addition to the “competition”, there was also the story about Perelman, the recluse that came out of nowhere.
People were curious about what motivated him to participate in the Grand Unified Theory project; they were also curious if he would return to the mathematics community or would continue his life in the St. Petersburg suburbs.
So far, according to a PhD student at Jin Ling University, Perelman had yet to leave Jinling. It was almost like Perelman was under a magical spell; he would go to the office every single day.
Putting aside the gossip and stories…
The influence of the Grand Unified Theory had spread outside the mathematics circle.
Not only did the International Mathematical Union publish the paper on their website, but even CERN, a scientific research organization focused on high energy physics, mentioned this paper in their latest press conference in an optimistic way.
In fact, mathematics and physics were closely related.
Especially from a historical perspective, every mathematical breakthrough played a crucial role in the development of physics.
Also, it wasn’t just physics.
One week after the announcement by the International Mathematical Union, a portrait of Lu Zhou was posted on the cover of Times Magazine, and it was accompanied by an unusual title.
[“The man of the century”- 21st Century’s Most Influential Person]
In the past, honors like this were generally given to politicians, occasionally to businessmen or celebrities. It was extremely rare for a scholar to receive this title.
Not just that, but the article gave a highly positive evaluation of his work…
[… For most people, mathematics is an extremely complex discipline. Only a small number of people are able to grasp the essence of mathematics and develop it into an art.
[However, this is not the case for Lu Zhou. Mathematics is Lu Zhou’s second nature.
[It’s the way he is able to connect with the universe, the way to discover ground truth. Even though his work is distant from our daily lives, his research will change society and civilization forever.
[Thanks to his intellect and wisdom, the dream of the future has become a reality.
[Our civilization will fly higher than ever before.
[Mankind has crossed another mountain.
[This is the peak of the human mind.]
A broadcast began to show in North America.
Even CNN, which had a clear political bias against Lu Zhou’s virtual reality experiment two months ago, had a neutral opinion on him.
They didn’t praise him nor discredit him… After all, there was nothing to discredit him about.
It was rare for liars to tell the truth.
At Boston, inside a cryobiology laboratory.
Elon was sitting in a cafe. He was reading the Times Magazine in front of him when he suddenly spoke.
“If only he could stick with mathematics.”
Lawrence was sitting across from him and drinking a cup of coffee. Lawrence smiled and said, “There are not enough mathematics conjectures for him to solve.”
“Who cares? As long as he stays away from our business.”
Lawrence smiled and said, “Oh, really? I hope he can produce more interesting things. So far, there are no conflicts in our interests. The things he has invented are quite helpful for my plans.”
Elon frowned and said, “Really? I pray this guy can take a break for a while.”
Lawrence spoke nonchalantly.
“Maybe you should change your way of interacting with him.”
Elon shook his head and didn’t reply.
Change my way of interacting with him?
If only things were that simple.
Right now, the entire Silicon Valley was in disorder, and many technology companies had shut down because of Lu Zhou.
Right now, people were not talking about the future trends. Instead, they were talking about what Lu Zhou was going to research next and how to reduce the probability of competing with Star Sky Technology.
This sounded ridiculous, but this was the reality.
The Silicon Valley entrepreneurs had to account for Professor Lu in their project risk evaluation, and they even added their analyses on Professor Lu into their funding pitch PowerPoints.
The most annoying thing was that the investors seemed to fear him the most?!
This was ridiculous!
While the entire world was talking about Professor Lu, Lu Zhou himself was in the underground laboratory at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, oblivious to the Times Magazine article about him.
Lu Zhou was standing in front of a new virtual reality device. He took a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice.
“Xiao Ai, is it ready?”
A line of text appeared on his AR glasses.
[Ready, Master! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]
Lu Zhou nodded and didn’t say anything. He walked over to his virtual reality device and lay on the chair.
He took off his glasses and placed them on a table. He then reached out and put on his glasses.
The time in the system space was in sync with real time. He had verified this a long time ago.
And it would take a few seconds for the virtual reality machine to boot.
So if he was correct…
Lu Zhou closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He whispered to himself, and his consciousness appeared in the pure white system space.
Without hesitating, Lu Zhou walked in front of the holographic panel and clicked on his inventory.
A purple-black sphere, surrounded by strands of smoke, quietly floated inside his inventory.
There was no item description, almost like it didn’t belong there.
There was no information other than the name “Void Memory b”.
Lu Zhou quietly looked at the sphere. After counting to twenty seconds, he reached out and grabbed it.
The second his hand touched the purple-black sphere, the strands of smoke suddenly began to expand as it shot out a black mist.
“Let’s see what kind of secrets are behind this thing…”
This wasn’t Lu Zhou’s first time touching this sphere. He watched it wrap around his hand as he was slowly pulled into the darkness by the smoke…