At the Institute for Advanced Study.
In Professor Fefferman's office.
Watching Professor Fefferman sit behind his desk, poring meticulously over the paper in his hands, Professor Sanak, who had dropped by for a visit, asked curiously.
"What are you reading?"
Professor Fefferman turned a page without looking up and answered casually.
"An interim result from L."
"An interim result from L?" Professor Sanak froze for a moment, then looked as though he had been struck by lightning, shock spreading across his face. "Already?! How far have they gotten?"
Completely engrossed in the breathtaking argument, Fefferman had no time to spare for him and offered an offhand reply.
"The printer's right over there. Print yourself a copy and see."
Without wasting a moment, Professor Sanak walked straight over to the printer and printed out a copy of the paper.
Holding the paper, still warm and smelling of fresh ink, Sanak fixed his eyes on it and spent about an hour giving it a quick read.
By the time he finally lowered the paper, his face was filled with astonishment.
"Unbelievable..."
"This is practically equivalent to-"
"A new mathematical language," Professor Fefferman interjected, having finished the paper himself. He took a sip of his now-cold tea. "It's a simplified version, but it's enough to describe the ABC Conjecture... Whoever came up with this idea is a genius, and whoever made it work is a demon. It's hard to imagine that such an astonishing result was produced in just two weeks."
"What's even harder to imagine is that they chose to upload such an important interim result," Professor Sanak said, unable to help himself as he looked at the paper.
The result of this paper was already extremely close to the final statement of the ABC Conjecture. By refining Baker's Theorem and using