259: Chapter 259 Doctoral Dissertation Defense

“Dr. Zhao, your arrival almost crashed our platform’s servers. This level of popularity is unprecedented.”

President Wang said enthusiastically.

“And then?” Zhao Yang asked calmly.

“It’s like this. To thank you for choosing our platform to make your voice heard, the company’s finance department has just transferred a goodwill payment of 500,000 yuan to your account. It’s a small token of our appreciation.”

President Wang said with a smile to Zhao Yang.

“At the same time, we would like to sign an exclusive platform cooperation agreement with you. As long as you promise that all your personal statements, academic updates, and corporate announcements on social networks will be exclusively released first on Weibo, our company is willing to pay you a signing fee of 100,000 yuan every month. What do you think?”

Zhao Yang quickly analyzed the situation in his mind.

He himself didn’t like registering for all sorts of social accounts. Having Weibo as a megaphone for information output was already enough. This exclusive agreement wouldn’t restrict his real-life freedom; instead, he could get a sum of money for free and also receive the highest level of traffic tilt and content control protection from the platform.

Zhao Yang thought for a moment and then agreed directly. There was no downside for him.

“Okay. Send the electronic version of the contract to my email. I’ll sign it after I review it and find no issues.”

“Great, great! Thank you so much, Dr. Zhao!”

After dealing with President Wang.

Zhao Yang put away his phone and decisively used the gold-level reward mission card in his mind.

The card shattered, and three lines of text appeared on a light screen.

[Optional Task One: Win a world championship gold medal in a modern Olympic sport. Task Reward: physique +2, free experience +30000.]

[Optional Task Two: Become a formal full professor at a university ranked among the top 100 globally. Task Reward: free subject experience +50000, random lottery draws +3.]

[Optional Task Three: Publish a Physics-related paper in a top-tier Physics journal with an impact factor in the first quartile. Task Reward: Obtain a massive amount of Physics subject experience and random lottery draws +3, based on the journal’s prestige and academic reception.]

After glancing at the situation on the light screen, Zhao Yang pondered for a moment and then directly chose Optional Task Three.

The reason was simple. Task Three could precisely compensate for his current academic shortcomings. His Physics was currently only LV4. If he found a good entry point for this paper and published it in a high enough-level journal, he might be able to directly advance his Physics to LV5 with the huge amount of experience determined by the system.

As for Optional Task One.

Honestly, the reward of 2 points in physique and 30,000 experience also seemed good. However, a world championship was not that easy to obtain.

The last time he ran a marathon, although his results crushed the domestic competitors, that was at most a national championship.

To become a world champion in an Olympic-level competition required more than just physical demands. Many events required specific technical movements to be perfected under extremely stringent rules.

Moreover, it also depended on many variables in on-the-spot performance. It wasn't to say that because Zhao Yang's physique was stronger than those Black athletes, he would definitely be able to defeat them in fields they had trained in since childhood and had countless tactical teams supporting them. This would also require adapting to the rules, participating in lengthy selection trials, which would be extremely time-consuming. It even required a bit of luck. It didn't align with his principle of efficiency.

As for Task Two?

Zhao Yang just glanced at it and immediately passed.

Was becoming a professor difficult? For him, it wasn't difficult at all. In fact, with his current prestige from completely solving Goldbachs Conjecture, as long as he mentioned it to Professor Wang Wenyuan, or greeted Principal Zhou of Yanlin University, the school would definitely break all conventions and deliver the appointment letter for a full professor to him on the same day.

Goldbachs Conjecture had already received full recognition from the international mathematical community, which was precisely the doctoral dissertation topic he had set for himself earlier.

In other words, he was, in fact, about to graduate with his doctorate.

Staying at the university after graduation as a specially appointed full professor was also a matter of course in the eyes of Peking University's senior management.

But the problem was, the reward for this task held very limited appeal for Zhao Yang.

Fifty thousand free subject experience. If it were before, he would have thought it was a lot. But now, his core subjects had reached LV5 or even LV6, requiring hundreds of thousands or even millions of experience to upgrade. These 50,000 points of experience were simply not enough to upgrade any subject.

Too little! Extremely low cost-effectiveness.

Therefore, Zhao Yang unhesitatingly chose Task Three.

After making his selection, Zhao Yang opened the computer in front of him.

“Shin-chan, help me crawl and filter the most cutting-edge Physics research directions from the arXiv preprint website and top Physics journals such as ‘PRL’ (Physical Review Letters) and ‘Nature Physics’ within the past three years.”

Zhao Yang issued the command.

He planned to find the best entry point for this Physics paper. He couldn't choose high-energy particle Physics that would require decades to build accelerators for verification; that wasn't realistic.

Nor could he choose string theory, which relied purely on hypotheses. He needed an interdisciplinary field that could combine his current LV5 Chemistry and LV6 Mathematics knowledge, and yield results through rigorous theoretical deduction or computer simulation. For example, condensed matter Physics or cutting-edge topological materials.

Meanwhile, outside, the rumors about his Shin-chan medicine and various other stories continued to cause an uproar. But these could no longer disturb any of Zhao Yang’s thoughts.

Early the next morning.

Zhao Yang arrived at Peking University's faculty and staff cafeteria on time for breakfast.

As soon as he had gotten his food and sat down, Professor Wang Wenyuan rushed over with his tray and sat directly opposite Zhao Yang.

After finishing breakfast together in the Peking University cafeteria, without much small talk, they directly went to Professor Wang Wenyuan's School of Mathematics Dean's office.

After sitting down in the office.

Professor Wang Wenyuan looked at Zhao Yang, his eyes filled with unconcealed smiles and satisfaction.

“Zhao Yang, there’s something we need to get done quickly.” Professor Wang Wenyuan said straightforwardly.

“Because you have completely solved Goldbachs Conjecture, and this paper was not only first published at the International Congress of Mathematicians but also passed the most rigorous defense inquiry in front of all the world’s top mathematicians.”

“Now the entire international mathematical community has recognized this result. Princeton and Cambridge have even started incorporating your derivation process into their next edition of graduate textbooks.”

Wang Wenyuan paused, his tone becoming extremely formal.

“This means that the unprecedented doctoral dissertation topic you set at the time has been successfully, one might even say exceptionally, completed. Therefore, from an academic perspective, you can graduate directly.”

As he spoke, Wang Wenyuan's face was full of emotion. Wang Wenyuan didn't doubt that Zhao Yang could solve Goldbachs Conjecture, but he truly didn't expect Zhao Yang to solve this problem so quickly!

Too fast! In just half a year!

Is he even human? Wang Wenyuan looked at Zhao Yang with full of admiration.

“But the subsequent graduation defense should still go through the motions, and then the archives will be entered into the system. I’ve already spoken to several old professors in the department. Do you have time this afternoon? We’ll do the defense directly at 2 PM this afternoon.”

Zhao Yang nodded after listening.

“Okay. I’ll be there this afternoon.”