Was He a Non-Chief?

United States, MIT mathematics department doctoral student office area.

Kevin was hunched over his desk, eating a sandwich while absentmindedly refreshing his inbox.

With the end of the semester approaching, he still had two course papers to write, and Professor Lauren's research project had entered a critical stage. He was rushed off his feet and had long since forgotten all about the submission from Huaguo.

Just then, an email popped up.

Kevin quickly scanned it, then got up and went to Professor Lauren's office.

"Professor, that paper from Huaguo..."

"What about it?" Lauren was writing an email at his computer and didn't look up.

"It was accepted."

Lauren finally raised his head.

"What?"

Kevin handed him the laptop, turning the screen toward Lauren. "The editor said another reviewer independently verified the accuracy of all the Russian citations and gave it a strong recommendation. The editor decided to accept it on that basis."

Lauren took the laptop and read the email carefully.

Finally, Lauren pushed the laptop back to Kevin.

"Hmph. The editors at this journal are getting worse and worse."

Kevin quickly agreed. "I think so too."

"Kevin, listen to me. The reason the academic peer-review system has worked for more than two hundred years comes down to one word: verifiability. The proof in a paper has to be independently checkable by peers. That's the most basic principle."

"The core argument in this paper rests on a collection of obscure Russian-language literature from the Soviet Union era. The vast majority of its peers can't read it, find it, or verify it."

"Even if a paper like this gets published, it won't have any impact," Lauren continued. "No one will cite it, and no one will build on it. It'll be swallowed up, without a sound, in the torrent of tens of thousands of papers published every year."

"Should we write a letter to the editor, then?" Kevin asked.

"There's no need. We've already fulfilled our responsibility as reviewers, and our comments were perfectly clear. If the editor chooses to ignore them, that's their problem."

"And I can tell you, in my experience, a proof in this paper built on unverifiable citations is far more likely to run into problems than one in a normal paper. Its problems will be discovered by peers sooner or later."

"When that happens, they'll retract what needs retracting and issue corrections where corrections are needed."

"Once Discrete Mathematics accepts a paper, it doesn't take long to appear in print. I believe we'll know the answer before long."

"The editor will regret accepting this paper."

Huaguo, Rongcheng.

[Congratulations, tovarishch, on completing the Academic Legacy mission!]

[Mission evaluation complete!]

[Overall rating: A+]

[Comments: The paper's proof is rigorous, and its citations of Soviet Union literature are accurate and possess immense value for academic archaeology. The seeds of red science have taken root and sprouted anew under the pen of a new generation of scholars. Tovarishch, well done.]

[Distributing mission rewards...]

[1. Mathematics experience +2000]

[2. Random treasure chest ×1]

[3. Points +300]

[The A+ rating for this mission has triggered an additional reward mechanism...]

[Additional reward: random treasure chest ×1]

[Keep up the good work, tovarishch. The people need you.]

Two treasure chests!

Qi Hao's eyes lit up.

He had only received one chest for his last mission. This time, he had gotten twice as many.

An A+ rating really was different. This was the advantage of being a good student!

Qi Hao took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He shouldn't rush to open the chests yet. First, he needed to get a sense of his overall situation.

He silently said to himself, Open personal panel.

A larger translucent panel unfolded before his eyes.

[Name: Qi Hao]

[Academic level: LV1 (ordinary person)]

[Subject proficiency:

Mathematics: LV2 (2400/10000)

Physics: LV1 (110/500)

Informatics/computer science: LV1 (90/500)

Biochemistry: LV1 (80/500)

Engineering: LV1 (80/500)

Materials science: LV1 (70/500)

Energy science: LV1 (60/500)

Linguistics: Chinese LV1 (120/500), Russian LV2 (510/10000), English LV1 (300/500)]

[Current points: 400]

[Inventory: random treasure chest ×2]

His mathematics had finally made it past the LV1 beginner stage.

A month ago, his mathematics panel had been a pitiful sight. Never mind tackling combinatorics and game tree algorithms-even a more complicated mathematical analysis problem would have left him scratching his head raw.

Now, after grinding through a paper, his mathematics experience had seen an unprecedented surge.

But when his gaze moved down from mathematics and swept over those neat rows of LV1s, half the little spark of pride that had just risen in his heart was instantly doused.

Physics, computer science, biochemistry... they were all still sprawled near the starting line.

Physics and computer science in particular, foundations of the sciences, were struggling desperately even to reach a little over a hundred experience points.

"I'm seriously lopsided..."

In the modern scientific system, all top disciplines ultimately reached the same destination by different paths and intersected with one another. If he wanted to truly become an all-around academic ace standing at the pinnacle of human intellect, he obviously wouldn't get far hopping along on one leg.

Take the paper he had just finished: although it was mathematics at its core, it had already relied heavily on data structures and algorithm theory from informatics.

"Bringing all these weak areas up to par is a huge undertaking. The burden is heavy, and the road is long."

But Qi Hao soon came to terms with it.

How long had it been since he got the system? Barely more than two months, all told.

He was already climbing as fast as if he were riding a rocket. He had to eat one bite at a time and walk the road one step at a time.

Qi Hao fixed his gaze on the two glittering [Random Treasure Chest] icons in the inventory at the bottom of the panel.

"System, open all random treasure chests!"

[Command received, tovarishch.]

[Opening treasure chests...]

The treasure chest icons enlarged and spun in the center of the panel, the light on their surfaces flashing and changing, hopping between different colors like a spinning wheel!

At last, the image froze.

White.

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained a white treasure chest!]

Qi Hao's face fell instantly.

White.

White was the lowest tier, wasn't it?

The mission had gotten an A+ rating, at least, and all it gave him was a white treasure chest?

Was he a non-chief?

If this were a game, he'd already be sending his regards to the game designer in world chat.

Forget it. White it was. Maybe whatever was inside would still be useful.

In life, he had to have a little of Ah Q's spirit.

[Opening white treasure chest...]

He prayed silently, Give me something useful. Don't let it be a pair of socks.

[Opened successfully!]

[Item obtained: Mind-Clearing and Brain-Strengthening Pill ×3]

[Effect: After taking one, the user can maintain the study state of a Soviet Union academic ace for 24 hours. Limited to one pill per day; taking more has no effect.]

[Friendly reminder: Taking one may cause abnormal status effects. Please exercise caution, tovarishch :)]

Qi Hao: "..."

This thing could cause abnormal status effects too?

"Wait, system, explain yourself. What do you mean, abnormal status effects?!"

"And you're a Soviet System. What are you doing using emoticons and acting cute?!"

The system gave no response and ignored Qi Hao completely.

Forget it. There was still one last chest. Success or failure would be decided in this one shot!