Recaps

Professor Alexei recognized that a paper from Huaguo built on overlooked Soviet research in game-tree pruning and found its central argument sound. He recommended minor revision to address a missing estimate, leaving the paper’s fate to the other reviewer and editor.

• Alexei found Soviet papers by Brudno and Adelson’s colleagues in the references and recalled how their work had been overlooked in the West.
• Alexei read the paper closely and saw that its author extended earlier pruning results with a new state space compression operator.
• Alexei identified a missing estimate between Proposition 4.3 and Theorem 4.5, though he judged the gap repairable.
• Alexei submitted a review praising the paper’s contribution and recommending minor revision.

Qi Hao received a minor-revision decision on his paper, with Reviewer 1 demanding extensive proofs and Reviewer 2 requesting only one technical addition. After he revised the paper to address Reviewer 2’s comment, it was accepted, completing his Academic Legacy task.

• Qi Hao read the reviewers’ reports and realized Reviewer 1’s demands would require him to reprove numerous lemmas drawn from Soviet literature.
• Qi Hao found that Reviewer 2 praised his work and requested only a rigorous estimate of the compression operator’s Lipschitz constant.
• Qi Hao added the missing proof, explained his revisions, and submitted the revised manuscript.
• Three days later, Qi Hao checked the submission system and saw that his paper had been accepted.
• Qi Hao celebrated the acceptance of his first SCI paper, and the system congratulated him on completing the Academic Legacy task.

Kevin and Professor Lauren dismissed the acceptance of Qi Hao’s paper as a mistake, while Qi Hao received an A+ mission rating and opened two treasure chests. The first yielded three pills that could sustain a Soviet academic ace’s study state, though the system warned of abnormal side effects.

• Kevin told Professor Lauren that Discrete Mathematics had accepted Qi Hao’s paper after another reviewer verified its Russian citations.
• Lauren criticized the journal’s decision and predicted that peers would eventually uncover problems with the paper.
• Qi Hao received an A+ mission rating, 2,000 mathematics experience, 300 points, and two random treasure chests.
• Qi Hao checked his personal panel and noted that his mathematics had reached LV2 while most other subjects remained at LV1.
• Qi Hao opened the first chest and received three Mind-Clearing and Brain-Strengthening Pills, then demanded that the system explain its warning about side effects.

Qi Hao used a ritual before opening a treasure chest and received a complete proof of the Jacobian Conjecture. After learning how the conjecture had damaged Yitang Zhang’s career, Qi Hao was left with the proof in his system inventory.

• Qi Hao bowed three times before opening a chest and obtained a purple treasure chest.
• Qi Hao opened it and received a complete proof of the Jacobian Conjecture.
• Qi Hao searched online and learned that the conjecture had remained unsolved for decades.
• Qi Hao read how Yitang Zhang’s doctoral work relied on a flawed lemma by his advisor, Tzuong-Tsieng Moh.
• Qi Hao learned that Tzuong-Tsieng Moh refused to recommend Yitang Zhang, leaving him struggling to find work before he later secured a temporary lecturer position.
• Qi Hao realized the proof that had once brought disaster to Yitang Zhang was now in his inventory.

Qi Hao began studying the prerequisites for understanding the Jacobian Conjecture and found that Kostrikin’s Soviet algebra textbook suited his learning style. After borrowing several books, he heard that an undergraduate from his university was suspected of citing nonexistent references in a mathematics paper, and feared the accusation was about him.

• Qi Hao tried to view the proof of the Jacobian Conjecture, but the system blocked it and recommended six prerequisite textbooks.
• Qi Hao struggled with a Western abstract algebra textbook, then read Kostrikin’s Introduction to Algebra at the provincial library and found its concrete, guided approach easier to understand.
• Qi Hao borrowed three books and returned to campus with plans to study them.
• Liang Tianhao told Qi Hao that a Tieba post accused an undergraduate mathematics major at their university of academic misconduct for citing references that could not be found.
• Qi Hao realized the accusation might concern his own paper.

Qi Hao read a Tieba post accusing a freshman at D University of fabricating five Soviet-era references in an SCI paper, while commenters condemned the unnamed author. As Liang Wenhao angrily denounced the alleged fraud, Qi Hao began to suggest that he knew who the accused person was.

• Qi Hao asked Liang Wenhao about the post, and Liang showed him a Tieba thread alleging that a freshman had published a paper with five nonexistent references.
• Qi Hao read the post and its replies, where commenters treated the missing references as evidence of deliberate academic fraud and called for an investigation.
• Qi Hao noticed that nearly every commenter condemned the author, while one sympathetic reply had been harshly rebutted.
• Liang Wenhao fumed that the scandal was damaging serious researchers at their university and vowed to confront whoever was responsible.
• Qi Hao asked Liang whether he knew that person.

University leaders met to investigate allegations that first-year student Qi Hao had cited five nonexistent Soviet-era sources in a paper accepted by Discrete Mathematics. The president ordered a thorough inquiry and sent Old Wang to bring Qi Hao in, while Old Wang worried the accusations could damage his student's research future.

• The president told the academic affairs director, the mathematics dean, and Old Wang that online allegations against Qi Hao had gone viral and a formal complaint accused him of fabricating five references.
• Old Wang defended Qi Hao as an honest student, but the dean argued that the missing references demanded an investigation.
• When Old Wang learned Qi Hao had independently published a sole-authored paper in Discrete Mathematics, he celebrated his student's achievement despite the allegations.
• The president ordered the university to investigate promptly and forbade anyone from publicly judging Qi Hao before the facts were established.
• The president warned that confirmed misconduct could lead to the paper's retraction, university discipline, and a journal blacklist, then told Old Wang to bring Qi Hao to the office.

Qi Hao defended his use of five Soviet-era sources in his mathematics paper, explaining that they supported a deterministic combinatorial approach and were difficult to find or read. The university leaders remained unconvinced without seeing the sources themselves, while guests in the president’s reception room learned that a freshman was under investigation for paper fraud.

• Old Wang questioned Qi Hao about citing five Soviet-era papers in his submission to Discrete Mathematics, and Qi Hao explained why English research did not support his paper’s approach.
• Qi Hao argued that many Soviet mathematical papers were missing from online databases because they had circulated narrowly and were never digitized or translated.
• Qi Hao said he had taught himself Russian to read original Soviet research, prompting Old Wang to joke that he wanted Russian girls before Qi Hao explained his academic interest.
• The president told Qi Hao to bring in the five sources, and Qi Hao realized he might not have located one of them.
• Guests waiting in the president’s reception room discussed the trending fraud allegation against a freshman, and Engineer Tian decided to look into it.

Engineer Tian recognized the paper’s proof as credible and useful for Institute 611’s search-space problem, then arranged for Huaji engineers to verify it. He left before meeting the president, calling the paper an unexpected windfall and leaving the president and vice president puzzled.

• Engineer Tian studied the paper and told Xiao Zhao that its combinatorial approach could help bound the search problem and might save three to six months.
• Engineer Tian argued that the paper’s Soviet references were genuine, citing the connected lemmas, researchers’ academic lineage, and Landis’s work.
• Engineer Tian assigned Huaji engineers to verify the paper because Xiao Zhao’s team could not spare anyone.
• Engineer Tian and his colleagues left after learning the president would be delayed, and Engineer Tian told the vice president the visit had brought him an unexpected windfall.
• The president arrived afterward, learned what Engineer Tian had said, and wondered whether it had been sarcasm.

Dean Hu defended Qi Hao at a provincial mathematics conference while Qi Hao searched for five Soviet papers to clear his name. Lin Lan contacted Dr. Xu, who had sorted through Soviet papers, and Qi Hao’s roommates learned he had found most of the citations but was still missing one.

• The university president told the vice president that Qi Hao needed to find the five Soviet papers and their originals to resolve the scandal.
• Dean Hu attended the provincial mathematics conference, rejected other deans’ accusations, and defended Qi Hao’s academic work.
• Lin Lan recognized Qi Hao in a Weibo post and called Dr. Xu, who invited her to search through his collection of Soviet papers.
• Li Hui, Wang Jun, and Chen Yuan tried to comfort Qi Hao, and Qi Hao told them he had the papers except for one.
• Wang Jun called Qi Hao’s attention to Weibo as Qi Hao prepared to keep searching through Russian forums.

Lin Lan defended the authenticity of the Soviet sources cited in Qi Hao's paper, but skeptics continued to accuse them of fraud. The university then published Professor Alexei's confirmation that the citations were genuine, leaving netizens wondering why an American professor had intervened.

• Lin Lan posted images of Soviet journals and other sources, but commenters questioned whether the Russian-language evidence was genuine.
• Wang Jun and Qi Hao grew angry at the accusations, and Qi Hao urged Wang Jun to help defend Lin Lan online.
• Lin Lan said Qi Hao had identified a serious error in a Soviet mathematics book within ten minutes, but skeptics still accused her of making excuses for him.
• Lin Lan rebuked a commenter who suggested she had a personal arrangement with Qi Hao, while Li Hui and Wang Jun prepared to join the online argument.
• Wang Jun noticed that the university's official Weibo account had posted a statement confirming that Professor Alexei Kozlov verified all five sources and their citation details.
• Netizens wondered why Professor Alexei had intervened, unaware that he had been the second reviewer of Qi Hao's paper.

Professor Alexei Kozlov defended Qi Hao’s paper, authenticated its Soviet references, and praised its mathematical originality in an email posted by Rongcheng Radio and Television University. His support shifted public opinion, but the controversy continued as a verified corporate account appeared in the university’s comments.

• Alexei Kozlov emailed Rongcheng Radio and Television University, supplying scans of the five Soviet-era works cited by Qi Hao and defending the paper’s methods and significance.
• Rongcheng Radio and Television University posted Alexei’s full email in English and Chinese on its official Weibo account.
• Netizens reconsidered their criticism, while some deleted earlier accusations and others explained the importance of Qi Hao’s result.
• The hashtag supporting Qi Hao’s paper rose to fifth place on Weibo’s trending list.
• At 8:42 that evening, a blue-V verified corporate account appeared in the comments on the university’s statement.

Huaji’s CEO publicly praised Qi Hao’s mathematical paper and asked to meet him, while Huaji’s research team confirmed its practical value. Qi Hao accepted Yang Guang’s apology, but online users exposed Yang Guang’s own academic record, and Engineer Tian revealed that he had already made arrangements concerning Qi Hao.

• Huaji announced that its tests found Qi Hao’s theorem useful for improving game-search efficiency, and Huaji’s CEO asked Rongcheng Radio and Television University to arrange a meeting with him.
• Yang Guang, the doctoral student who had accused Qi Hao of fabricating research, apologized after his accusation was locked and featured on Tieba.
• Qi Hao accepted Yang Guang’s apology but asked him to consider the harm a false accusation could cause its target.
• Online users publicized Yang Guang’s rejected papers and threatened to contact his university and supervisor, prompting him to call the police.
• CEO Lan told Engineer Tian that Huaji had handled the matter as requested, and Engineer Tian said he had already made arrangements for Qi Hao.

Qi Hao met with the principal and university officials, who praised his Q2 SCI paper and promised to protect and reward him. The principal rejected Professor Zhou’s attempt to recruit Qi Hao for a modeling competition, hinting that the university had a more ambitious plan for him.

• Professor Zhou asked Old Wang to send Qi Hao to join the mathematical modeling team, but Old Wang said Qi Hao’s participation was no longer up to them alone.
• The principal praised Qi Hao’s paper and explained that the university had prepared to defend him against academic misconduct accusations before outside supporters silenced the criticism.
• Old Hu advised Qi Hao to consult Old Wang on future papers and said his current work might have been polished enough to target Q1.
• The principal told Qi Hao that the university and math school would award him six thousand yuan for his Q2 paper, delighting Qi Hao.
• Professor Zhou promoted the national modeling competition, but the principal said it would waste Qi Hao’s abilities and hinted that a more extraordinary path awaited him.

Qi Hao agreed to enter the Microsoft Imagine Cup after learning about its prize money, and the university promised to support his preparation. His system then assigned him a mission to win an international competition and defeat every American team, while the principal told him Huaji’s CEO wanted to discuss his paper with him.

• The principal told Professor Zhou and the others that the university’s academic committee had recommended Qi Hao enter the Microsoft Imagine Cup instead of the national modeling contest.
• Old Wang explained the Imagine Cup’s international scope and challenges, and Qi Hao initially hesitated because of his studies and upcoming final exams.
• After Old Wang revealed the competition’s prize money, Qi Hao agreed to participate, and the principal offered university resources and Old Wang as his faculty adviser.
• Qi Hao received a system mission requiring him to take first place in an international competition by defeating every American team, and he accepted it.
• The principal told Qi Hao that Huaji’s CEO would visit the university in a couple of days and wanted to discuss Qi Hao’s paper with him.

Qi Hao received a six-thousand-yuan university reward for his research paper and sent it to his mother, who worried that he was overworking himself. After reading Mathematics Tieba users ask how he published in an SCI journal, he shared his advice: study mathematics diligently and spend more time in the library.

• The university president discussed Huaji's planned cooperation with Qi Hao, while Old Wang lamented that the School of Mathematics struggled to attract industry funding.
• Qi Hao received a six-thousand-yuan bank reward, confirmed he owed no tax, and transferred the full amount to his mother.
• Qi Hao reassured his worried mother that the paper reward and his tutoring income gave him enough money for school, and persuaded her to keep the transfer for the family.
• Qi Hao found Mathematics Tieba users discussing his sole-author Q2 paper and asking how to publish in an SCI journal.
• Qi Hao replied that publishing required building mathematical intuition and spending more time studying in the library, prompting a flurry of humorous responses.

After receiving a university reward for his SCI paper, Qi Hao celebrated with his roommates, who urged him to join a mathematical modeling contest. He declined because he was preparing for the Microsoft Imagine Cup, leaving his roommates stunned and drunk as he asked the system how to sober them up.

• Qi Hao told Wang Jun, Li Hui, and Chen Yuan that the university had rewarded his paper with six thousand yuan, and he treated them to skewers and beer.
• Li Hui proposed that Qi Hao join him and Chen Yuan in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling, arguing that Qi Hao could polish their paper and help them win an award.
• Qi Hao refused because he had to prepare for another competition whose schedule conflicted with the modeling contest.
• Qi Hao revealed that the university had arranged for him to compete in the Microsoft Imagine Cup, shocking Li Hui, Wang Jun, and Chen Yuan with the contest's prestige.
• Li Hui and the others drank heavily, so Qi Hao asked the system for a way to sober them up, and it replied with a joke praising alcohol and Soviet fighting spirit.

Qi Hao tested the system’s physique panel and discovered that push-ups increased his physique, then drew attention at school after his paper was published. After sleeping through English class, he was summoned to Dean Hu’s office because Huaji’s CEO had arrived.

• Qi Hao did fifteen push-ups and saw his physique value rise from 5.1 to 5.11.
• Qi Hao attracted admiring attention from students on his way to class because of his SCI paper.
• A girl saved Qi Hao a seat, prompting Wang Jun and Li Hui to tease him about secretly hooking up with her.
• Teacher Qi praised Qi Hao’s English ability, but Qi Hao fell asleep during the lesson.
• Old Wang summoned Qi Hao to Dean Hu’s office to meet Huaji’s CEO, and Qi Hao left class after his teacher said he would handle the leave request.

Qi Hao met executives from Huaji Technology and Dafei Drone Company, and his mathematical insight into neural networks impressed them. The companies offered twelve million yuan to establish a joint laboratory at his school, on the condition that Qi Hao lead their project.

• Dean Hu introduced Qi Hao to CEO Lan of Huaji Technology and CEO Wang of Dafei Drone Company.
• Qi Hao discussed his game-search paper with Huaji’s Engineer Chen, who asked how to optimize base-station placement without a known evaluation function.
• Qi Hao proposed learning the unknown mapping from historical data, and CEO Wang described Dafei’s neural-network approach to drone flight control.
• After Engineer Chen described vanishing gradients in a deep network, Qi Hao linked the problem to exponential gradient decay and suggested changing the activation function.
• CEO Lan offered twelve million yuan from Huaji and Dafei to establish a joint laboratory at the school, provided Qi Hao led the project.

Dean Hu and Old Wang finalized a major university partnership with Huaji and Dafei, then met three students chosen to join Qi Hao for the Microsoft Imagine Cup. Zheng Qiang questioned whether Qi Hao would slow the team down, and Old Wang began to respond.

• Dean Hu and Old Wang agreed with CEO Lan and CEO Wang on funding, publication rights, and commercialization terms for the laboratory project.
• Professor Zhou brought Zhao Ping, Wu Xue, and Zheng Qiang to Dean Hu’s office to meet Qi Hao.
• Professor Zhou explained that the university hoped the students would compete together in the Microsoft Imagine Cup.
• Zheng Qiang argued that a team made up entirely of students from his college would work more efficiently than one including Qi Hao.
• Professor Zhou defended Qi Hao’s writing skills, but Zheng Qiang said Qi Hao must not hold the team back.
• Old Wang spoke up before Qi Hao could answer Zheng Qiang.

Qi Hao agreed to join Professor Zhou and Old Wang's Imagine Cup team, while planning to strengthen his fundamentals before the competition began. On his way back to an empty dorm, he decided to test the system's Mind-Clearing and Brain-Strengthening Pill.

• Professor Zhou learned that a company had requested Qi Hao for a project and offered to accommodate his schedule so he would join the Imagine Cup team.
• Qi Hao agreed to help with modeling, algorithms, and the paper, and Professor Zhou set an initial meeting for nine the next morning in Liren Building classroom 303.
• After leaving Dean Hu's office, Zhao Ping reassured Qi Hao about Zheng Qiang and advised him to study past competition entries and basic programming languages.
• Qi Hao decided to use his free time to catch up on reading and learn computer languages instead of returning to class.
• Qi Hao remembered the system's Mind-Clearing and Brain-Strengthening Pill and hurried to the empty dorm to test its effects.

After taking the Mind-Clearing and Brain-Strengthening Pill, Qi Hao activated the Soviet Union Academic Ace Absolute Domain and became calmly absorbed in studying. Wang Jun and Chen Yuan found him acting strangely in the dorm, while Qi Hao continued reading after eating.

• Qi Hao took the Mind-Clearing and Brain-Strengthening Pill, activating the Soviet Union Academic Ace Absolute Domain.
• Qi Hao focused entirely on Introduction to Algebra, working through difficult proofs and ignoring his hunger.
• Qi Hao finished the book in about two hours and began reading Gelfand's Lectures on Linear Algebra and Multilinear Algebra.
• Wang Jun and Chen Yuan returned to the dorm and found Qi Hao unresponsive to their attempts to speak with him.
• Wang Jun opened a meal, prompting Qi Hao to eat politely before returning his attention to studying.

Qi Hao studied C# and Python in the library while the pill was still active, then joined his team to discuss their Imagine Cup project. When Zheng Qiang argued against building a drone, Qi Hao challenged him to be brave.

• Wang Jun woke up and messaged Qi Hao after finding his bed empty.
• Qi Hao read books on C# and Python in the twenty-four-hour library, then suffered a painful bout of numbness in his leg.
• Professor Wang proposed focusing the Imagine Cup project on drones after discussing the idea with CEO Wang from Dafei.
• Zheng Qiang argued that drones were too risky and suggested a Windows Mobile office suite instead.
• Qi Hao told Zheng Qiang that he who feared wolves should not enter the forest, then asked whether Zheng was afraid.

Qi Hao rebutted Zheng Qiang’s objections to the drone project and explained how Lie algebra informed a drone’s attitude updates. Professor Zhou split the students into two teams, and Zheng Qiang realized Qi Hao had already brought the math department a project while Zhao Ping decided to attach himself to Qi Hao.

• Qi Hao answered Zheng Qiang’s criticism by explaining how the exponential map updated a drone’s rotation matrix while preserving its structure.
• Professor Wang challenged Zheng Qiang to explain the mathematics behind drone rotation, and Qi Hao supplied the answer.
• Professor Zhou explained the purpose of the drone project and assigned Zheng Qiang to lead a Windows Mobile office-suite team while Qi Hao led a drone team.
• Zheng Qiang tried to negotiate after learning Professor Zhou had also chosen the drone project, but Professor Zhou declared the decision final.
• Professor Wang revealed that Qi Hao’s paper had helped bring the math department a project, leaving Zheng Qiang embarrassed and Zhao Ping convinced Qi Hao was an academic god worth following.

Qi Hao formed a two-person Imagine Cup team with Zhao Ping and won the support of Professors Zhou and Wang. After revealing his interest in the Jacobian Conjecture, he received advanced algebraic geometry books and immediately began studying them.

• Professor Zhou split the group, and Qi Hao chose Zhao Ping as his teammate while Wu Xue joined Zheng Qiang's team.
• Qi Hao decided to compete with Zhao Ping as a two-person team, dividing the modeling, paper, coding, UI, and presentation work between them.
• Professor Zhou and Professor Wang approved Qi Hao's plan and offered to advise him on the project.
• Qi Hao told Professor Wang he was studying the Jacobian Conjecture, and Professor Wang lent him five advanced books and recommended another English text.
• Qi Hao opened one of the books in Professor Wang's office and became absorbed in studying it.