Chapter 240

Translator: Dreamscribe

11 p.m., with closing time approaching.

Students who had finished their assignments began getting up one by one and packing their bags. Even though it meant taking the long way around, they deliberately walked past Seo-eun.

One of them murmured quietly.

“...No wonder she placed first at the IMO. She studies insanely hard.”

“Seriously. I heard she practically lives in the library these days.”

The students slowed their steps in front of Seo-eun.

Textbooks in their original language and research papers lay piled chaotically around her. Even at a glance, it was obvious she was not studying ordinary coursework.

‘Why does the probability flow jump irregularly here? It looks like the mitochondrial metabolic pathway was converted into a matrix....’

Her train of thought broke off yet again as she followed the equations. Seo-eun repeatedly drew question marks over the open paper.

‘What am I missing?’

Mathematics was something that had simply been given to her. It was a toy her older brother had gently placed in her hands when she was young, and a puzzle she could solve more easily than others.

But the Life Matrix was different.

It was an enormous language that expressed the metabolism of the human body through numbers and symbols. Every equation intertwined like a living organism. Numbers became cells, and functions became proteins. The mystery of it all, a strange matrix expressing the flow of life itself, inexplicably drew her in.

‘I need to study more.’

Her knowledge was far too limited to fully understand the Life Matrix.

Seo-eun abruptly sprang to her feet.

Step.

Step.

It was late, so the library was nearly empty.

As though she knew exactly where she was going, she walked between the stacks, running her fingers along the spines of the books.

‘First, I need biology.’

Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Immunology. Seo-eun pulled out the books she needed.

Then came the mathematics section.

“Hmm.... These too.”

Probability Theory, Dynamics, Network Theory, and even Godel's Incompleteness Theorem.

The stack of books grew higher and higher. When Seo-eun finally returned to her seat, struggling under their weight, the students who had remained late stared at her with exhausted expressions. They were gifted students fiercely competitive with Seo-eun.

Seo-eun did not even notice their gazes as she buried herself in her books once again.

“Hm?”

She had written the equation incorrectly.

‘Eraser.’

Slide.

As she reached for it, she accidentally knocked into the books. The stack came crashing down with a tremendous noise.

“Ah!”

Every student still in the library turned to look.

“....”

“....”

Seo-eun blankly stared down at the books scattered across the floor.

And then-

“Pfft!”

Her shoulders shook, and she let out a quiet laugh. She covered her mouth with one hand, but could not contain the laughter bubbling out.

“Hahaha.”

She felt unfamiliar even to herself.

To think she could want to understand something this desperately.

An unknown forest stretched out before her.

With every step she took, a different landscape appeared.

The substituted numbers and symbols, once broken apart, revealed the metabolism of cells and proteins. Breaking those down again revealed logical primes. And all of it came together to form one enormous system. Would this be what the puzzles she had played with as a child looked like if they were expanded to the scale of the entire planet? Seo-eun was having so much fun uncovering these secrets that she completely lost track of time.

“As expected....”

The principal, who had secretly peeked into the library, nodded in satisfaction. The vice principal beside him readily agreed.

“Like brother, like sister. I have very high hopes for her future.”

It was a ridiculous misunderstanding.

Seo-eun had no grand ambition to leave her name in history like her brother or overturn the paradigm of medicine. She simply wanted to solve this beautiful puzzle before her on her own.

Strip away the symbols and life emerged, which could then be converted back into numbers. And all of it moved according to a single mathematical law.

‘This is so cool!’

Without even realizing it, Seo-eun had become completely absorbed in this fascinating game.

“Student, it's time for us to close....”

The librarian, whose face had become familiar to Seo-eun by now, cautiously approached and whispered to her.

“Yes! I'll clean up right away.”

Seo-eun quickly shoved the scattered books into her bag.

When she stepped outside the library, a cold breeze brushed across her cheeks. Watching the moonlight spill over the grass, Seo-eun walked with a light step.

She took out her phone and found a message from her brother.

-Seo-eun, how's school? Are you managing okay? If things ever get difficult, tell me anytime.

Her kind, if slightly overprotective, older brother. She quickly typed out a reply.

-Oppa, the Life Matrix is so much fun!

Ding-

A reply came almost immediately.

-Nature? I thought you'd like it. I wrote that paper with you in mind.

‘I knew it!’

A brilliant smile spread across Seo-eun's face.

A tingling rush of emotion swelled in her chest. Humming to herself, Seo-eun began striding energetically toward the dormitory.

***

Seo-ha's Nature paper sent shockwaves through academia.

[Translating the Language of Life into Mathematics. Yu Seo-ha's Life Matrix]

[Nature Publishes Unprecedented Special Issue. Tributes Pour In from Scholars Around the World]

Even those who had remained skeptical after hearing news of the successful clinical trials at Johns Hopkins began pouring out praise once the paper was officially published. Medical researchers marveled at Seo-ha's genius in weaving biological mechanisms into a mathematical causal network, while mathematicians were thrilled by the possibility that a language capable of unraveling a Complex System might actually exist.

And across online communities, Seo-ha's 13-Stage Hypothesis began undergoing a reevaluation.

[What Yu Seo-ha's Life Matrix Paper Actually Means]

-Lots of people saw the Hopkins briefing and think only the medical world is losing its mind, but math and engineering are getting their minds blown right now too.

I'll give you the short version.

Conventional binary Turing machines can't calculate all the microscopic variables at work inside the human body. So what did Yu Seo-ha do? He bundled Complex System variables into entirely new mathematical symbols and built a causal network out of them. Why is that such a big deal? Because it provides powerful evidence supporting the 13-Stage Hypothesis Seo-ha published before.

└Too long. Can't you summarize it in one line?

└Humanity just learned how to code life with mathematics.

└Wait, but you're telling me they're treating cancer by mixing deworming medicine and antibiotics you can buy at a neighborhood pharmacy?

└They're even repurposing anticancer drugs that weren't normally used before. Now they can combine substances based on metabolic responses. Doctors must be freaking out right now.

└Can other hospitals use it already?

└Not yet. For one thing, understanding the Life Matrix itself is insanely difficult. And to prescribe treatments, you need to run ST Compression. Your average supercomputer probably couldn't even handle it.

└What? Then nothing's actually changed.

└No, that's not true. Don't underestimate doctors.

Johns Hopkins was struggling under the influx of doctors pouring in from all over the world.

Under the principle that ‘life is paramount’, doctors had always openly shared and scrutinized new knowledge and clinical data.

As soon as Johns Hopkins Hospital released the Phase 1 Life Matrix data, doctors from hospitals and universities around the world packed their bags and rushed there.

“So this is the cutting edge of human medicine.”

Professor Ishigaki of Tokyo University's Department of Medical Oncology murmured in awe as he entered the main Johns Hopkins building.

The lobby was already so packed with doctors from around the world that there was barely room to stand. Their nationalities and ethnicities differed, but every one of them held the same two things in their hands: Seo-ha's Nature paper and a patient's clinical chart.

After the first five patients, Johns Hopkins had continued conducting additional clinical trials and steadily accumulating data.

“Everyone, please pay attention! This time, we'll look at the changes in Patient 19's metabolic matrix over time from last month.”

Conference room.

As equations and the patient's chart appeared on the enormous screen, every doctor turned their full attention to it. A few shook their heads and whispered quietly.

“...I don't think I'll ever understand that.”

“How is that a failing? Even mathematicians say it's difficult. That says it all.”

“But we're still going to need to understand it.”

“Hmph! We doctors have our own way of doing things.”

They did not understand the principle behind it.

But what did that matter?

Doctors in the eighteenth century had treated patients with heart failure without understanding the principle behind it. They repeatedly administered herbs used in folk remedies and recorded the results. Medicine had a long history of overcoming ignorance through rigorous clinical feedback and statistics.

“According to the data shared by the French team, combining Yu Seo-ha's Prescriptions No. 3 and 5 proved effective for patients whose liver function markers had declined. However, the timing of administration is critical. Here are the vital signs recorded by hour....”

Professor Ishigaki hurriedly opened his notebook and wrote down the figures.

The presenter spoke with utmost gravity.

“We cannot afford to wait until the Life Matrix has been fully integrated into medicine. Patients are dying even at this very moment. So when you return to your hospitals, thoroughly compile the results of your own clinical trials into databases.”

The doctors nodded with solemn resolve.

Until medical researchers capable of fully understanding the Life Matrix emerged, and hospitals acquired the facilities needed to run ST Compression, they knew better than anyone that it was their mission to bridge that gap.

***

Before long, summer had arrived.

Two and a half years had passed since Seo-ha enlisted.

Since the Life Matrix was made public, the world had gradually begun to change. Universities raced to establish new research centers.

MIT and Johns Hopkins established Life Matrix Research Centers, Oxford founded the Institute for Complex System Medicine, and the University of Tokyo established the Center for Life Information Mathematics.

But there was a problem.

There were far too few people capable of teaching the Life Matrix.

Doctors knew little mathematics. Brilliant mathematicians lacked biological knowledge. Naturally, the researchers who had participated in the clinical trials at Johns Hopkins became increasingly sought after.

The same was true for Team Apex.

“Please, couldn't you at least hear our offer before deciding? We'll match whatever salary you want.”

The headhunter practically begged them.

Not only academia, but pharmaceutical companies and global Big Tech firms were also courting them with enormous offers.

Cecilia looked at Sri and asked.

“Did you get offers from India too?”

“Three times from ITT.”

“If the offer's good, why not go?”

Sri thought for a moment before answering.

“I can always find a university professorship. But Team Apex isn't something I can find again.”

Cecilia gave a small laugh. She had rejected an offer from Oxford for the same reason.

Perhaps someday they would each walk their own paths. But for now, they all felt the same way. None of them wanted to leave his side just yet.

Theo, who had been listening nearby, burst into loud laughter.

“Pretty calculating for someone with such an innocent face.”

“There you go making it weird again! It's not like I'm the only one thinking this way. Just having my name on the Life Matrix paper sent my market value through the roof.”

“That's true. Besides, Seo-ha doesn't have much time left in his service now.”

At Theo's words, the atmosphere subtly shifted.

If they were receiving this many offers, what about the person who had actually designed the theory? He would soon be a free man.

They still had no idea where Team Apex would end up or what they would do, but not one of them even considered the possibility that they might not be there with him.

*****

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