Chapter 234

Translator: Dreamscribe

“Mom....”

Clara’s grief-stricken voice was choked with tears.

No one could bring themselves to speak.

Everyone knew who the chart belonged to, and why she had spent such a long time researching nothing but pancreatic cancer.

Seo-ha walked over to her, lowered himself onto one knee, and met her gaze. His eyes were filled with sympathy. He took out a handkerchief and offered it to Clara.

“We were only able to come this far because of you, Professor.”

At Seo-ha’s words, the tears Clara had been holding back finally burst forth.

Today’s results could not bring her mother back, but the number 92.4 displayed on the monitor said it all. The path she had walked her entire life had never been meaningless, and there was hope that it could save countless other ‘mothers’ in the years to come.

“Thank you. Thank you so much, Seo-ha.”

She accepted the handkerchief and barely managed to compose herself.

Stern let out a long sigh and patted Clara on the shoulder. But he still had no idea what exactly had happened.

He asked Seo-ha in a trembling voice.

“What on earth is the mechanism behind this? And what exactly was that simulation Rockfish calculated? The cancer cells disappeared, but I don’t understand a single thing about how....”

Seo-ha thought for a moment before answering.

“I don’t think it’ll be easy to explain here, so I’d appreciate it if you could gather the doctors.”

The researchers’ faces brightened. In contrast, the members of Team Apex looked aghast.

Sri quietly approached Theo and whispered.

“Will this be all right?”

“Who knows. But if they’re going to administer the treatment, the doctors will need to understand the principle behind it too. I just hope they don’t run away....”

Theo was just as curious.

What principle was causing the cancer cells to die? Something only Seo-ha could see. Theo had once vowed that someday he would see the same landscape Seo-ha did, but for some reason, that day felt as though it were drifting farther and farther away.

***

The next morning.

The main lecture hall of the Johns Hopkins Cancer Center was packed with people.

“What on earth is going on?”

Stern, the Center Director, asked as he looked around.

It was only natural that residents from fields directly related to cancer, including oncology, molecular biology, immunology, and bioinformatics, were all there. But there were also specialists from internal medicine, neurology, orthopedics, dermatology, and even radiology. The atmosphere was almost like a year-end grand rounds. And they were not even everyone who had come.

Step, step.

A white-haired gentleman who looked well over sixty approached him and spoke.

“I’m disappointed, Director.”

“About what?”

“You should have told me in advance if something like this was happening. I had to rush over here and even postpone a lecture.”

It was Ryan Evans, a Distinguished Professor of Medical Oncology at Stanford School of Medicine.

Stern gave him an incredulous look.

“Ryan, this was scheduled in a hurry yesterday. I don’t even know what we’re going to hear yet.”

Ryan stroked his chin and said.

“That’s strange. I was clearly told that a major revolution was about to happen in medicine, especially in cancer treatment.”

“Huh?”

Stern shot a sharp glare toward the seat beside him. Killian looked awkward.

“I think the rumor may have spread a little too dramatically.”

“Already? It only happened last night.”

“There were plenty of people in the server room. There was no way to stop it. Actually, a few people I know are here too.”

He took out his phone and showed it to the Center Director.

Sermo was open on the screen. It was a site frequented by doctors primarily from the United States and other English-speaking countries, a community where participation required rigorous verification of one’s medical license.

[Is it true Johns Hopkins succeeded in a pancreatic cancer treatment simulation?]

└I heard they ran retrospective data through Rockfish and got a 98.6 percent Necrosis Rate.

└Isn’t that basically conquering cancer?

└But simulations and actual clinical trials are different, aren’t they?

└Here comes another media stunt. Cancer cured for the 157th time this season? And pancreatic cancer, no less.... Why does everyone fall for this stuff so easily?

└No, this time it’s seriously different. Yu Seo-ha vouched for it. The guy solved the Riemann Hypothesis. You think medicine’s going to be any different?

└I’m a specialist who was actually there. We’ll have to hear tomorrow’s lecture to know for sure, but it appears to be a model with a mathematically rigorous foundation.

└Yu Seo-ha kicked cancer’s ass with math? God, I hope it’s true.

└What time and where tomorrow? Damn it, I’m presenting at a pancreatic cancer conference next week!

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ everyone’s gonna be talking about this, and if you don’t know about it, then what are you?

“This is insane.”

Stern pressed a hand to his forehead.

Because their profession dealt with human lives, doctors tended to be conservative and levelheaded. If even they were this worked up, what would happen when the rest of the world found out?

Since nothing had been verified yet, he wanted to proceed cautiously.

Murmur, murmur.

A commotion broke out near the entrance to the lecture hall.

“What’s going on?”

Stern frowned, rose from his seat, and headed toward the door.

Dozens of people were tangled together in a confrontation along the passage leading into the main lecture hall. They held notebooks and recorders in their hands, with broadcast cameras slung over their shoulders.

There were reporters not only from major East Coast publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, but also from science and medical journals.

“You can’t do this! This is a restricted area accessible only to medical personnel!”

Burly security guards formed a human barricade across the entrance, but the reporters refused to budge.

“Is it true that Johns Hopkins has produced research showing near-total eradication of pancreatic cancer?”

“Stop pushing! We have a right to know! Why is this briefing being held behind closed doors? Is it because of collusion with pharmaceutical companies?”

Throb!

A vein bulged at Stern’s temple.

He wanted nothing more than to throw every last one of them out, but....

‘If I do that, rumors will spread. That would be far too cruel to the patients.’

“Director, what should we do? Should we call the police?”

The head of security asked, sweating profusely.

Stern alternated his gaze between the doctors filling the lecture hall and the reporters rushing forward while glaring daggers at them.

“...Set up a separate press section in the back.”

“What? But we haven’t received approval from the board. The hospital president specifically ordered us to maintain strict confidentiality....”

“What confidentiality is left when the rumor has already spread to the other side of the planet?”

He shook his head and gestured, and the reporters surged inside in a wave.

The atmosphere resembled a press conference. The air in the main lecture hall grew even heavier.

***

“This has turned into quite the scene.”

In the waiting room beside the main lecture hall.

Ben clicked his tongue as he looked at the densely packed crowd.

The team members had been busy preparing for the presentation since the previous day. After listening to Seo-ha’s explanation and understanding the theory, they had created handout materials tailored for a medical audience.

“What did I tell you, Seo-ha?”

Cecilia grabbed Seo-ha and reminded him once again.

Seo-ha answered confidently.

“Not everyone loves mathematics.”

“And?”

“Explain it in language even Seo-eun can understand.”

“Good. And one more thing!”

“Hmm.... Even if a question is stupid, never sigh. Answer it kindly.”

Cecilia nodded in satisfaction.

“Excellent!”

Ben shook his head and chuckled.

“You sound like a kindergarten teacher.”

Glare-

“Would you shut that mouth of yours? This is absolutely necessary. The people out there are going to be the worst students imaginable.”

Su-jeong widened her eyes and asked.

“Why? They’re doctors, so I doubt they’re stupid.”

In terms of intelligence, they could confidently call themselves a world-class team, but at times like this, their lack of social experience showed.

Cecilia spoke calmly.

“For starters, half of them are going to be contrarians.

Elite doctors are a breed with huge egos. They’ve spent their entire lives being called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Professor’ and treated with respect, so imagine how proud they are. Do you really think they’ll just nod along if a mathematician who isn’t even a doctor stands in front of them and says, ‘Ta-da! I’ll tell you the answer to the problem you haven’t been able to solve for decades’?”

It was something none of them had considered.

“Ooh!”

“I see....”

The team members looked at her with admiration. Cecilia sighed and gave them one final reminder.

“Let’s be careful not to give the impression that we’re looking down on them. You’re at a point now where you need to manage your reputation too.”

“Yes!”

Seo-ha nodded.

“It’s time, Director.”

The waiting room door cracked open, and Orson spoke with a thoroughly nervous expression.

The murmur of voices filtering through the gap in the door and the heat generated by hundreds of people rushed into the waiting room.

Seo-ha set down his teacup and rose from his seat.

“I’ll be back.”

His eyes gleamed with a strange enthusiasm.

After leaving behind that calm remark, Seo-ha strode confidently toward the podium.

“....”

“....”

“Is no one going to say anything?”

At Sri’s words, everyone subtly averted their eyes.

The previous day, every member of the team had nearly torn their hair out while listening to Seo-ha’s explanation. The concepts and logical progression were so extraordinarily difficult that the doctors would never understand his theory even if they died and came back to life ten times over.

“Well.... Seo-ha gets weirdly confident about the strangest things. He thinks he’s incredibly good at explaining stuff.”

Su-jeong nodded vigorously in agreement with Theo.

“It’s because he’s been teaching his little sister since he was young. Seo-eun grew up really smart, so he thinks that means he’s good at explaining things.”

“His little sister? Seo-eun wasn’t exactly a normal kid either, was she?”

At the thought of Seo-eun’s adorable face, Cecilia’s expression softened.

“Then why didn’t any of you tell Seo-ha?”

Everyone fell silent at Ben’s question. A moment later, Theo looked up at the ceiling and spoke as though making an excuse.

“It’s not easy. When someone’s eyes are sparkling while they say they can do it, how are you supposed to rain on their parade?”

“Hell is about to break loose.”

Ben squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

“At least we made the visualizations perfect, so let’s trust those to carry the rest.”

Leaving their worries behind, Seo-ha’s lecture began in the main lecture hall.

***

Click!

Click!

As Seo-ha stepped onto the podium, the reporters repeatedly pressed their shutters.

Professor Ryan from Stanford, seated in the front row, stared sharply at Seo-ha. He was not alone. Looking around, Ryan saw many familiar faces.

There was Elizabeth, Director of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute at the Mayo Clinic, Bowen, a Distinguished Professor of Immunology at UPenn, as well as professors from Columbia University’s medical school and the University of Chicago.

‘They probably didn’t fly through the night like I did.’

Stanford was all the way on the West Coast.

It was a full six-hour flight. But Ryan had no choice but to come. It was because of what someone he trusted had told him.

‘You absolutely have to go. If Seo-ha said it’s possible, then it is.’

Yu Seo-ha.

Ryan had heard more than enough to know the weight carried by that name. The idea of solving medical problems through mathematics was novel as well.

Many people here had spent their entire lives fighting pancreatic cancer. How much frustration had they endured? The disease was unimaginably cunning and insidious.

Ryan did not know what that young mathematician had discovered. But whatever it was, conquering pancreatic cancer would not be easy.

And yet he had put aside his entire schedule to come here.

‘I have to see it with my own eyes.’

“We’ll hand out the materials first.”

Young people who appeared to be interns walked around the lecture hall distributing folders.

Curious, Ryan immediately opened his.

‘What is this?’

His pupils trembled.

For decades, he had studied every important paper he could get his hands on.

Nature, The Lancet, Life.... He had even personally translated and read papers written in Hebrew and Arabic with a dictionary at his side. But he could swear that he had never seen anything resembling the material now in his hands.

‘Symbols?’

It was not a language.

But if it was supposed to be a mathematical expression, the density of symbols was far too high.

As he struggled to make sense of it, the young man standing at the podium greeted them with an innocent smile.

“Hello, I’m Yu Seo-ha.”

Everyone was staring blankly at the folders in their hands.

But Seo-ha was confident.

Kurt Gödel.

To prove the Incompleteness Theorem, he had converted propositions into numbers. He assigned a unique number to every symbol in a particular proposition, then combined them into a single number.

It was a method devised to express an extraordinarily complex concept in the language of a different system.

This was called Gödel Numbering.

Seo-ha had drawn inspiration from it.

‘If I convert medical concepts into numbers and symbols, it’ll be much easier!’

It was an attempt to be considerate of his audience, but the standard he used was one tailored entirely to himself.

*****

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