Season 4: Chapter 33. Math Demon vs. Almondoyle (3)
The midday sun shone down on the schoolyard. A middle-aged man in a white hat gathered the kids and clapped.
"Alright, everyone."
The Korean flag could be seen on the man’s white jacket. He was Coach Yang, a former national archery representative.
"Today, we have a special guest. One of my students."
At those words, the kids’ eyes lit up.
"Whoa!"
"No way, is it Almond?!"
"It has to be Almond!"
They had all seen the videos of Coach Yang during the international Civil Empire competition, so they immediately thought of Almond.
"Sorry, but it’s not Sang-Hyeon today~"
Ta-da.
Instead of Almond, the person who stepped up was Hyeon-Ju, an Olympic gold medalist.
"Wow!"
"Wait, seriously?"
"She was your student?!"
Coach Yang was so humble about his achievements that most of the kids didn’t even know he had trained a gold medalist.
"Huh? Coach, you never told them you trained me?"
"I just did. Right now."
Coach Yang’s blunt answer left Hyeon-Ju with a blank stare.
"Ah... ahaha. Same as ever. Anyway, hello everyone! I’m Cha Hyeon-Ju, Olympic gold medalist and proud member of this school’s archery club."
"Wow~!"
The kids applauded and cheered.
"Today, I’m going to share with you what it’s like to compete in the Olympics as an athlete..."
She talked about her experiences, which were especially valuable for the kids with the same dream. After the lecture, she planned on helping them with their form.
"Before we shoot, any other questions? Even personal ones are fine!"
One of the girls, her face beet red, shot her hand into the air.
"Um... were you in the same class as Almond, by any chance?"
She looked like she’d die of embarrassment, but still asked. The other kids burst out laughing. Clearly, she was a huge fan of Almond.
"Ah, no. He was actually a year below me. Sang-Hyeon is a year younger."
"Whoa... amazing."
Admiration filled the kids’ eyes.
‘Wow. Sang-Hyeon has really made it.’
For Hyeon-Ju, it was a new kind of experience being known as the friend of someone that famous.
Once they cracked the topic of Almond, a mischievous-looking boy raised his hand and shouted, "Is it true that Almond was terrible at studying?!"
“Pfft!”
Laughter spread like wildfire.
"Ahaha... well, he was on the archery team, so... he didn’t exactly focus on studying."
She scratched her head, wondering if she should really be saying that. Something told her that the question was less about Almond and more about whether they needed to be good at studying if they wanted to pursue sports. She wasn’t sure how to answer.
"Sang-Hyeon wasn’t great at school, but... you know how every class has that one kid? The one who doesn’t study at all, but they’re really good at math for some reason."
***
"Draw one line to make this equation true, but you cannot change the equals sign!"
[19 – 18 = 18]
Almond frowned and thought for a moment. It didn’t take long—just a few seconds. Even in that short time, donations and teasing flooded the chat.
— Pretending to think hard, LOL
— What good is frowning going to do?
— There it is, the real counter
— ??? Should’ve saved my glitch for this!
— Show us, Almondoyle!
Ding.
[EggPlant has donated 3,000 won.]
[Math is for Almondoyle.]
— He’s squeezing every last won out of his little brother
— Not even a thousand won anymore LOL
— He got banned for donating last time and now he’s back at it haha
Ding.
[Tank has donated 5,000 won.]
[You can draw a line on the Math Demon’s neck like this, massive props!]
— Solid
— Hahaha
— He’d probably do better just cutting the ghost down LOL
Even more donations poured in, each one goofier than the last.
"Ah."
Almond quietly sighed and drew a line.
[19 – 18 = 18]
Ding-dong-dang~
A clear chime rang out, and the problem was solved.
"Oh-ho? Impressive!"
The Math Demon expressed his admiration while the chat froze in confusion.
— ?
— ???
— Huh?
— What was that just now?
— What the hell?
— Huh?
— Who even are you?
— Holy shit?????
Then, as if in celebration, donations started popping off like fireworks.
Ding.
[ShyNapoleon has donated 5,000 won.]
[Solve this and I’ll give you 100,000 won~ LOL]
The donation had been sent just before Almond solved it and arrived after he had finished.
— LOL
— Poor math guy, haha
— Gimme that 100k!
— Oh my god LOL
— The timing is killing me haha
— Insane!
They had all expected Almond to completely fail at the math problem.
Ding.
[ShyNapoleon has donated 5,000 won.]
[Ah...]
— Hahahaha oh no... haha
— You can just feel the emotion in that...
— Oh man LOL
— It’s like you can see the look on his face
— Math guy, rest in peace
— ??? I’ll be back with that donation before it even cools down
ShyNapoleon had already sent donations before Almond solved the first math problem, so he had no choice but to keep his promise and send the full 100,000 won.
Bababa-bam!
[ShyNapoleon has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]
[Con... Congrats...]
"Thank you, Mr. Math Guy~"
Almond thanked ShyNapoleon and opened the door that the Math Demon had been guarding. He simply moved on like nothing had happened while the viewers still felt baffled.
— Why’s he acting so casual?
— He didn’t even brag about solving a problem with his actual brain for once, haha
— Poor math guy LOL
— Truly a different class, holy shit
— So weird
— The fact that he’s just standing there is making me even more mad somehow
Almond always yelled, “Strategy? I’m Almondoyle!” even when he solved things with sheer luck or brute force. Now that he had actually used his brain to solve something, he said nothing. Of course, someone had to call it out.
Ding.
[Suspicion has donated 5,000 won.]
[Are you sure that wasn’t just a fluke? Maybe you already knew the answer, haha.]
— Hahahahaha for real
— Honestly, it’s weird to think he’d know a problem like this
— Could be...
— Yikes...
The Math Demon hadn’t left and coughed, "Ahem. Don’t celebrate just yet. There’s one more question!"
Almond looked at him in astonishment.
"In 1×2=2, there are no zeros at the end. In 1×2×3×4×5×6×7=5040, there is one trailing zero. Zeros in the middle like the one between 5 and 4 don’t count. So, in 1×2×3×...×1990×1991, how many trailing zeros are there?"
— Wait, what?! LOL
— Is he just trying to make Almond give up
— The difficulty spike is real LOL
— What even is this question?
— Ugh...
The math problem suddenly became way more complicated. Actually, this bonus question was just meant to trip up whoever solved the first one too quickly. Viewers would surely enjoy watching this little trick.
"Hmmm... the number is too big."
Almond began sketching something in the air and working it out.
"But once a zero shows up, it never goes away..."
He was laser-focused on clearing it as fast as possible and intensely calculated.
— ??
— Is he... actually doing this?
— Wait.
— Oh.
— What...
— He looks different... oh my god
"Four hundred ninety-five," Almond calmly said.
A heavy silence fell.
The Math Demon slowly grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
"Well done! Outstanding!"
Poof!
This time, the Math Demon vanished completely.
***
The clip of Almond demolishing those math problems spread like wildfire through online communities.
[Almondoyle’s Lightning-Fast Brainpower—Live Clip]
— ??
— Was that edited down by an hour or something?
— Did he already know the answer? LOL
└ Have you ever seen Almond solve a problem like that? LOL no way.
└ True, hahaha
└ That’s the least likely explanation, honestly.
└ Seeing the second problem, definitely not.
At first, people were convinced he had cheated somehow. Soon, the tone of the comments shifted.
[Almondoyle’s "Math Demon" Persona Cracks—Genius Confirmed]
The post included the second problem he had solved too.
— What is this...
— It’s scary.
— Wait... so he’s been pretending this whole time? No way.
— Now that I think about it, he always knows how many enemies he’s already killed for kill missions, haha.
— Holy shit, for real?
— What is going on...?
— He really does solve this stuff so fast.
└ And remember the bell mechanic gimmick in that one mission? That was Almond too LOL.
— You can actually see the process on the second one. He definitely did it himself.
Some people even posted praise.
[Honestly, isn’t Almond a total genius?]
==== ====
He nailed the Angler in one shot, figured out the bell mechanic against the previous enemies, and just solved the Math Demon’s questions—A triple "brainy" play. What’s even left to say?
==== ====
— Holy shit.
— Honestly, yeah.
— Triple brainy play confirmed haha.
— Haha.
— FYI: Almond once called himself a "strategy player" in the international tournament.
— If you only looked at this, you’d totally believe it.
— Haha, this is insane.
— Two math questions rewriting history...
└ No kidding LOL
└ History is written by the victors.
Ju-Hyeok, watching all this, scratched his head.
"What the hell?"
He’d seen that problem himself and hadn’t even been able to take a guess, but Sang-Hyeon had breezed right through it.
"Wait a minute."
He recalled something from when they were at Ah-Sung together. They had gone on a trip one time, and he had been killing time with Sudoku puzzles. Sang-Hyeon had joined in and strangely did amazing at them.
“What, do you like Sudoku or something?”
“Huh? Ah... um, kind of?”
Sang-Hyeon probably didn’t actually like it, but there were other hints like how he always mentally kept track of daily donations perfectly.
‘I just thought he was obsessed with money...’
For the first time, Ju-Hyeok saw a new side of Sang-Hyeon that he had never seen. Then again, who really needed math skills as an adult in day-to-day life?
"Wait."
As he kept thinking, a chill ran down his spine.
"Was he pretending to be dumb around me this whole time?"
He even toyed with that conspiracy theory, but countless memories of Sang-Hyeon’s goofy, clueless behavior flooded back.
Ju-Hyeok shook his head.
"C-Cough... nah. That’s definitely not it."
Too many undeniable stories from their time in Ah-Sung still existed. Ju-Hyeok figured that the Math Demon incident was just an exception.
"Geniuses are just... always unpredictable."
***
No one felt more rattled by this unpredictable genius than the Kim duo.
"Wh... what just happened?"
Assistant Manager Kim looked completely spaced out like a ghost himself. Meanwhile, Manager Kim’s face turned as red as a demon’s mask.
"Was that another glitch or something? Huh?!"
"N-No! He just... solved it! Just like that!"
"What? And how is that the answer?!"
Manager Kim couldn’t make sense of it even after seeing it himself.
"I... I mean, it turned into one, like ten over ten, so... it’s just one..."
It wasn’t until Assistant Manager Kim explained it that Manager Kim finally groaned.
"H-He actually solved it? Then, what about the second one?! What was that?!"
"To be honest... that one didn’t even matter. No one is expected to solve it... I have no idea myself."
"!?"
It was worse than Manager Kim had imagined. He’d been counting on stalling for at least a few hours. Neither of those two players usually used their brains. And yet, the one thing he never expected really happened. Almond was actually good at math.
"How the hell... was there a real math demon here?!"
It felt like some cosmic joke. Manager Kim was so overwhelmed with stress that he couldn’t take it anymore.
He grabbed his head and screamed, "Waaaaugh!"
He didn’t even realize that he was about to become a viral clip himself.