Upper Limit

(Thanks, brother, for the 10,000 Qidian Coins reward / grin. It finally changed to signed status. Readers, please drop some bookmarks and recommendations. There'll be another update tonight.)

Xiao He's crazed state lasted for over an hour before he finally collapsed limply into his chair, utterly exhausted. He was drenched in sweat, his eyelids twitching slightly as though he might pass out at any moment.

Cui Man hurriedly raised her hand and called out, "Doctor! Get a medic over here, quickly!"

But all Xiao He could hear was a buzzing in his ears. His vision was completely blurred, and his mind felt like a puddle of mush. Even thinking was exhausting; if someone had asked him what one plus one equaled, he would have needed a moment before answering. He could feel someone laying him down, with his head resting on something soft.

About two minutes later, everything finally returned to normal. His vision gradually cleared, and the sounds around him grew louder and louder.

When he raised his head, Xiao He saw Cui Man's anxious face. His head was resting on her beautiful thighs.

He asked weakly, "What happened? Did I pass out?"

"No. The doctor said you were a little fatigued and had overworked your brain." As she spoke, Cui Man handed him a bottle of cola. "We don't have coffee here, but cola works too. They both contain caffeine anyway."

Xiao He took a sip, then sat up and looked around. Ye Wanqing was sitting beside him, keeping him company, while everyone else was gathered around the table in heated debate, like a group of old ladies haggling with a vendor at a market.

"What are those people doing?" Xiao He asked with a frown.

Cui Man immediately laughed. She helped Xiao He to his feet and explained, "They're looking at the fruits of your labor. Do you know what problem you just solved?"

"To be honest, I don't even know what problem that was..." Xiao He said with an awkward laugh. "What does NP = P even mean?"

"That problem is called the Millennium Problem, the foremost of the world's seven hardest mathematical problems—the famous NP = P? problem. For over a century, countless geniuses have tried to conquer it, but not one has succeeded." Cui Man smiled. "Earlier, we had Ye Wanqing modify the problem into the Lin Tiannan problem."

"Did I solve it?" Xiao He asked curiously as he drank his cola. "Honestly, my mind was completely blank just now. I don't even know what I wrote."

"Well..." Cui Man turned toward the group of arguing middle-aged men. "You probably solved it."

"Probably?" Xiao He raised an eyebrow.

Cui Man nodded. "Your solution did reach a conclusion, but from the latter half onward, no one could understand what was written. To verify and fully comprehend the theory on those pages may take decades with humanity's current level of knowledge, so there's no way to determine whether it's true right now."

"Uh..." Xiao He scratched his cheek, not knowing what to say. He had never even heard of these problems. His math grades had only been average, and he had barely passed freshman calculus. Forget solving a Millennium Problem—he didn't even know what one was.

At that moment, the group of researchers came noisily over to Cui Man.

"Well? Is this thing real?" Cui Man turned and asked them.

One young researcher, whose glasses were absurdly thick, replied, "This manuscript is an invaluable treasure for humanity! I can't understand the latter part, but just this beginning section alone is enough to vastly improve our current algorithms!"

"Oh? Is it that useful?" Cui Man asked with interest.

The researcher said excitedly, "What!? Useful? It's a treasure trove!"

"What exactly is this NP = P? thing?" Ye Wanqing asked curiously.

"The world's hardest problem." The young man's expression turned solemn. "It is the model for the ultimate algorithm. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it the operating principle of the universe. In theory, humanity might never be able to solve this problem."

"So what does it actually mean?" Even Xiao He could not help asking.

"Put simply..." The young man adjusted his glasses and pondered for a moment. "If someone told you that 689 multiplied by 753 equals 518817, it would be easy to verify, right? But if I gave you the number 518817 and asked you to tell me which two numbers, aside from 1 multiplied by 518817, could produce it when multiplied together, that would be difficult."

Xiao He nodded, but he still did not understand what that had to do with NP = P?.

"Of course, using our existing methods, we can eventually calculate which numbers multiply together to make 518817. It is only a matter of time. But NP = P? represents an algorithm—an algorithm that can directly determine that 518817 equals 689 multiplied by 753 without repeated calculations." The young man spoke excitedly. "Do you know what that means?"

Xiao He and Ye Wanqing shook their heads together.

The young man clenched his fists excitedly. "If we used this algorithm to build a supercomputer, every encryption program in the world today would be a joke before it! You could enter and leave any country's database at will and obtain any information you wanted. You could crack a bank's firewall and turn all the money in its vault into your own—more easily than paying with a fingerprint scan! Launching any nuclear missile would be no more than the flick of a finger to you!"

"It would be better if something that scary didn't exist..." Xiao He muttered softly.

"And this treasure is currently in my hands..." The young man looked excitedly at the draft papers in his hands. "We may not be able to understand this knowledge right now, but if we keep researching it, we'll understand it someday. Besides, even the knowledge at the beginning is enough to put us far ahead of other countries in algorithms. Our computers' performance will vastly surpass theirs. Foreign hackers will never be able to break into our databases again, while we can invade theirs whenever we want..."

"Wouldn't that be pretty much the same as what you were talking about?" Ye Wanqing asked suspiciously. "Cracking bank firewalls, launching nuclear weapons, and so on?"

"In theory... yes." The young researcher nodded. "These things really depend on whose algorithms are superior. NP = P? is equivalent to an algorithm that gets results without calculation, but we don't need an algorithm on that level. We only need algorithms better than those of other countries."

"This thing..." Cui Man snatched the papers from the young researcher's hands. "I'll need to seek instructions from my superiors before deciding how to handle it. For now, let's talk about your situation."

As she spoke, Cui Man turned to Xiao He with a solemn expression. "Your ability really does have... an incredibly high upper limit. But judging from this test, it definitely isn't without limits. For example, you clearly struggled a great deal this time."

"Yeah..." Xiao He nodded.

Cui Man continued, "In short, we'll keep future tests more controlled and won't make you work this hard again. But this test has also yielded major results. It further confirms that your ability can be applied not only in combat, but can also show its strengths in other areas."

This is bad. Xiao He silently cried out in alarm. My dream of making money while lying down is about to end.