Translator: Dreamscribe
The first-floor lobby, where the press conference was being held, was already packed wall to wall with reporters.
Click!
Click!
As if to prove just how big the story was, dozens of cameras kept firing off flashes without pause.
Mayor John, standing at the podium, stepped up to the microphone with a flushed expression. Behind him, Seo-ha and the Apex team took their places.
"Esteemed citizens of New York, today we have opened a new chapter in human history."
His voice carried through the speakers and rang out across the hall. With his trademark theatrical flair and political rhetoric, he passionately recounted everything he had witnessed in the control room.
The congestion on 7th Avenue dissolving, the accident predicted three minutes in advance, and the near-miraculous clearing of the gridlocked interchange in the poorer districts.
"Wow!"
"Jesus Christ!"
Just like the officials in the control room, the reporters let out gasps of astonishment.
Pleased with their reaction, John clenched his fist and raised his voice.
"My friends! You have every right to feel proud.
New York now possesses the most advanced traffic system in the world. Oracle will treat every single minute, every single second of every citizen as precious, with no racial bias and no regard for wealth or influence.
Rejoice. At long last, we have been freed from the torment of chronic congestion!"
The reporters' hands moved in a frenzy.
Breaking news alerts began appearing on TV screens and across the internet. Social media was already plastered with the keyword "Oracle."
"This miracle began in the imagination of one mathematician.
Without the dedication of the young and brilliant geniuses standing behind me, Oracle would never have come into being. Allow me to introduce the leader of Team Apex, the one who designed the brain of this entire system: Mr. Yu Seo-ha."
Dozens of cameras swung toward Seo-ha in unison.
A boyish, sixteen-year-old face paired with eyes of unfathomable depth. Seo-ha stepped forward with a detached expression.
"A few words, if you would."
John gave Seo-ha a light pat on the back and handed over the microphone.
Seo-ha winced briefly at the storm of camera flashes, then opened his mouth in a calm voice.
"First, I'd like to introduce my teammates. Oracle isn't something I made on my own. Theo, Sri, Su-jeong! Please come forward."
The three of them stepped out stiffly and stood under the spotlight.
Seo-ha called each of their names in turn.
"Theodore Langford, who devised the core compression theory for information processing. Srinivasa Krishnan, who brilliantly bridged the gap between mathematics and engineering. And Su-jeong Lim, who designed Oracle's sophisticated causal analysis algorithm. Beyond them, countless other researchers gave their devoted efforts to this project."
Seo-ha met the eyes of each teammate, one by one, then turned to face the reporters.
"People say Oracle sees the future. But a machine is only a machine. It's an AI that connects the countless signals we've been missing all along and derives conclusions that are mathematically sound.
Mathematics and technology coming together to enrich human life, that is the hope we carried as we built Oracle.
If that hope is realized, then as its designer, I could ask for nothing more."
Clap, clap, clap!
A gentle wave of applause rippled through the press corps.
When the Q&A session began, dozens of reporters raised their hands all at once.
"New York Times. Seo-ha, is there any possibility that the system you've just described could be repurposed for crime prevention or surveillance? There is significant concern among citizens about invasions of privacy."
It was an issue that had already been addressed in the legislation, but people didn't trust those assurances.
They couldn't believe that agencies would refrain from exploiting such an efficient and powerful surveillance tool.
Ever since the CIA had been exposed for illegally spying on civilians, public trust in the government had sunk to rock bottom.
"Oracle de-identifies all the information it collects. That is an irreversible property of the system, something that cannot be changed even by the authority of the Mayor or the Council. Even if the President of the United States himself gave a direct order, it could not be undone.
A politician's promise can be broken, but mathematics doesn't change. You can put your faith in it. Not in me, but in the mathematics."
The murmuring in the hall quieted at Seo-ha's resolute answer.
The questions that followed focused mostly on the technical aspects of Oracle. Seo-ha handed the microphone off to his teammates at appropriate moments, letting them field the questions.
The following morning, the headlines of every daily newspaper were blanketed with a single story.
[No Big Brother Here. What Does Oracle Collect and Analyze?]
[Buses Arriving On Time, Citizens Say "It's Like Magic."]
[A 21st-Century Prophet, Just One Year of Operation Worth $12 Billion in Economic Value]
[Is John Carson's Next Stop the White House?]
[Yu Seo-ha, a Modern-Day Messiah]
["Trust Not in Me, but in Mathematics."]
The words the sixteen-year-old boy had spoken soon became the hottest catchphrase in all of New York.
Videos of the roads taken on the morning commute flooded social media one after another, and people shared their otherworldly experiences, swept up in a festival-like mood.
└I've lived a long life, but I never thought I'd make it down 7th Avenue without hitting the brakes once.
└I've driven a yellow cab for over twenty years and I've never seen a day like this. Made it through the Lincoln Tunnel in five minutes. If the Oracle developers ever catch a cab in New York, make sure to tell me! Ride's on me.
└So even the CIA can't crack the code? The "trust the math" line really hit home. My son just told me he wants to study math too, it honestly moved me.
└Congestion pricing is still in effect though... if traffic goes up again we'll lose this smoothness.
A few days later, when statistics were released showing that overall vehicle speeds in New York City had increased by 42 percent year over year, reactions began pouring in from overseas as well.
The response was especially intense in Korea, which had struggled to produce results in the basic sciences.
[The K-Geniuses Who Pulled Off a $10 Billion Project]
└That Okcheon elementary schooler has grown up so much already.
└Those two are the IMO gold medal duo, you know.
└They're alumni from my school ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ our principal keeps telling us we're about to become a world-renowned academy ㅋㅋㅋ
└What's the government even doing? Ministry of Land, hurry up and recruit Yu Seo-ha. Let's finally unclog Olympic Boulevard.
└Seoul's not gonna be easy though. Is there even a day it isn't backed up?
└If they could just clear up Olympic Boulevard and Gangbyeon Expressway, quality of life would shoot up.
└When those kids come home, give them each an apartment and lock them in. This is one case where I'd be fine with our taxes being spent. Bet they'd create lots of jobs too.
└Somehow those kids managed to not go to med school ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└An hour by car from Gangnam Station to Yangjae Station. Oracle needed, ASAP.
Reflecting the heightened public interest, the government's movements grew urgent too.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport convened emergency meetings, and the spokesperson for the Office of the President issued an official statement expressing the intent to formally invite Team Apex.
* * *
The past year had been, in many ways, a dreamlike time for Sri.
He had met Seo-ha, and been given a stage on which he could fully unleash his own talents. But a dream is a dream because one must eventually wake from it.
The entire campus was steeped in a festival atmosphere.
The face of Dean Thomas came to mind, beaming that this was the greatest achievement in the history of the mechanical engineering department. But Sri couldn't fully share in the celebration.
Sri stood at the window of the empty lab and looked up at the sky. On the screen of the phone in his hand, a message from his mother was displayed.
-Your dignified figure on television, the neighbors and I watched together. Don't worry, my proud son. Since I switched medications I've gotten much better. Just focus on your own work. Mom is fine.
"Lies."
There was no way multiple sclerosis improved that easily.
It was something anyone could confirm after reading just a few chapters of a medical textbook. He had reached out to a friend who lived next door, and sure enough, it wasn't true.
The events of the past week flashed through his mind.
The camera flashes that had gone off without pause,
He had offered sincere words of congratulations to Theo and Su-jeong, who had stood beside him. And to Seo-ha, the benefactor of his entire life.
He often caught envious glances at school. He had even overheard someone muttering that 'he got lucky with his teammates and turned his life around'.
And their words were, most likely, true.
"What do I do?"
According to his friend, his mother was currently having difficulty even moving around.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) was a disease that required regular infusions of treatments costing tens of thousands of dollars each, to be managed for a lifetime.
Ding-
Just as his worry was deepening, a message came in on his phone.
"Huh?"
Thinking he had misread, Sri rubbed his eyes and checked the text one more time.
-$2,000,000.00 USD deposited.
It was a message from the bank.
Sri stared blankly at the screen. He had to count the zeros twice before it sank in.
Two million dollars. Even in America, where medical costs were brutal, it was more than enough to pay for his mother's treatment. Sri quickly opened the banking app and checked the balance.
"It really did come in."
The sender was New York City Hall.
'Why from there?'
He had been told that Oracle's success fee wouldn't be paid out until a year later.
His only income was the monthly research stipend and a small scholarship that covered living expenses.
Was it a hack? Or a wire transfer error?
Please....
Sri's heart started pounding like mad.
"Sri, are you still here?"
He turned around.
It was Seo-ha, who had grown noticeably busier lately with so many people wanting to meet him.
Sri reflexively blurted out what was on his mind to Seo-ha.
"S..Seo-ha! L..look at this! A ridiculous amount of money just appeared in my account out of nowhere. I think the bank must have made a mistake, but what am I supposed to do? I can't use it and just pay it back later, right?"
Sri stammered in his panic.
"Ah! That."
Seo-ha nodded as if only just remembering.
"It's not a mistake. When we signed the contract with New York City Hall, I added a clause. That Sri's success fee should be paid out early. They agreed to send it as soon as the field test was a success. It's been a whole week, so it's actually a little late. And that's just the first installment. Sri is supposed to receive much more down the line."
Sri's eyes widened.
"Why...."
"Yes?"
"Why did you add a clause like that?"
Seo-ha made an awkward face.
"...I wanted to make Sri rich as quickly as possible."
"That's what I'm asking, what IS the reason?!"
Sri raised his voice, uncharacteristically loud.
Seo-ha kept his mouth firmly shut and looked at Sri. Then he sighed and pursed his lips.
"Because I didn't want Sri to leave."
"What?"
"I don't know the details, but Sri looked like he needed money. And urgently, at that."
At Seo-ha's matter-of-fact confession, Sri felt as though he had stopped breathing.
"Th..then."
"If Sri thought mathematics wouldn't pay, he might just up and go. I know Sri loves math, of course. But everyone has their own circumstances."
Sri's face turned red at Seo-ha's words.
His guess was correct. Sri had been planning to leave the team. But it wasn't only because of the money.
"Am I even necessary to the team?"
Sri's expression darkened. Seo-ha couldn't follow the thread of the conversation and tilted his head.
"What? Of course you are."
Sri shook his head.
"The Minimum Energy Theory, and now Oracle too. The team would have accomplished all of it exactly the same without me.
All I did was translate the formulas Seo-ha handed me into code, or combine existing theories. If I really had to put a number on my contribution.... hmm, maybe 3 percent?"
Seo-ha was a given, but Theo and Su-jeong were both brilliant mathematicians in their own right. He himself, though, felt like nothing more than a passenger who had gotten lucky and hopped onto the Team Apex bus.
"Ah...."
Seo-ha brought a hand to his chin and took on a serious expression. Sri guessed that he must be thinking the same thing.
"So I'll stop here. I will accept the money. As you said, Seo-ha, I truly do need it. But one day, without fail, I will pay it back."
Sri pressed his palms together as he had when they first met, and bowed his head.
"Sri!"
When he turned around, Seo-ha was staring at him intensely.
"Yes?"
Had he been too rude?
He should have at least said his farewells to his teammates beforehand, Sri reproached himself. But what came out of Seo-ha's mouth was different from what he had expected.
"Sri, don't tell me you actually think of yourself as an engineer?"
What could he mean by that?
He had received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, and his master's was almost complete. Unable to grasp the meaning, Sri just blinked. Seo-ha stepped closer and whispered.
"You're an incredible mathematician. And one of those rare ones I never have to explain anything to twice."
Seo-ha had already laid out a growth plan for Sri.
Seo-ha couldn't simply stand by and watch him leave like this.
*****
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