Reward: Problem difficulty coefficient * 2. 50 points. Item - Deep Learning Time (Category: Special. Effect: Valid for 24 hours, during which reading books allows you to enter a deep reading state, permanently mastering the knowledge points learned.)

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Task 3: Academia begins with papers.

Explanation: Papers are the foundation of scholarship. A scholar who can only write papers may not necessarily achieve great academic success, but a scholar who cannot write papers will definitely not achieve great academic success. On this point, do not argue with the system—the system is the truth! Now, publish an SCI paper and start your academic career!

Requirement: Publish an SCI paper.

Reward: Subject experience (determined by academic value, minimum 100 experience). 200 points. One lottery chance (95% junk, 5% samples).

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Seeing the last task, William Carter's expression became a bit odd.

The experience reward is determined by the academic value of the paper?

If he were to submit the proof process of Zhou's Conjecture to an SCI journal, he wondered how much experience he could get.

Thinking about it this way, the idea was quite tempting...

Chapter 7: In the Face of a True Academic Genius, All Ordinary People Are Trash

In the end, reason triumphed over greed, and William Carter dismissed this unrealistic idea.

A freshman publishing in SCI isn't a big deal in itself. After all, the phenomenon of low-quality papers in domestic mathematics SCI journals is quite serious. As long as your English is decent and your paper looks the part, it might just get accepted.

This kind of padding-the-numbers phenomenon was so prevalent that some enthusiast even made a ranking list of the most notorious domestic journals for such papers. Topping the list was Applied Mathematics & Computation (AMC), which is famous in this field.

Just at universities in Shanghai, in only four years, hundreds of math papers were published in AMC. Some prolific authors could churn out more than twenty papers a year without breaking a sweat!

To ensure academic quality, reputable old journals usually strictly limit the number of papers published each year to under 100. But this "giant journal" is quite cheeky, publishing over a thousand papers a year. With cross-citations and other tricks, its impact factor skyrockets! There are even cases of fake peer reviews, with one editorial board member publishing over a hundred papers there!

As for other SCI journals, William Carter wasn't sure he could get accepted, but with AMC...

Call it confidence or arrogance.

In any case, William Carter felt it wouldn't be a problem.

However, publishing the proof of Zhou's Conjecture in an SCI journal would be a big problem. It's not a question of whether it would be accepted—it definitely would—but whether he could handle the consequences after it was published.

In the end, although William Carter still chose the third task, he decided not to use the proof of Zhou's Conjecture, but to just write a random low-quality paper to complete the task.

With his current understanding of Advanced Mathematics and Mathematical Analysis, he was already on par with graduate students. Plus, with English at the CET-4 level, the only thing standing between him and writing an English paper was some technical vocabulary, which could be solved by looking up a dictionary.

Looking at the other two tasks, he didn't have the connections for the first one, nor did he think he had the social skills.

As for the second, as a freshman, he hadn't even started General Physics yet. The system would probably only generate high school-level physics problems, and who knows how low the difficulty coefficient would be. Besides, the physics level didn't appeal to him much—it sounded like something only useful much later, so he could always work on it when needed.

After choosing the task, William Carter patted the grass off his pants, stood up, and hummed a tune as he walked toward the dorm.

He'd been out for so long that if he didn't go back soon, David Foster might have a mental breakdown.

This guy was really odd. Although he was generous in most things, when it came to studying, he was so petty it was speechless. Glance at his notes and he'd chase you for two blocks; ask him a question and he'd roll his eyes at you a dozen times. People like him seem to see the whole world as their competition, and what they pursue isn't really academic achievement, but being number one in the eyes of teachers or classmates—or, in other words, the title of "academic genius."

Is someone like that really an academic genius?

William Carter didn't think so.

In the eyes of a true academic genius, all ordinary people are trash. So what if I let you see my notes? Can you solve Zhou's Conjecture? Even if it's right in front of you, you still wouldn't get it!

In William Carter's mind, there seemed to be only one person who fit the definition of an academic genius.

Yep, that's right.

No need to doubt—he was talking about himself.

……

He pushed open the dorm room door. Not more, not less—exactly ten o'clock.

David Foster was working through problems in his exercise book. The other two weren't in the room, probably playing cards next door. Eric Grant was the type who listened in class and didn't really set aside special time to review for finals. As for Thomas Hill, he was probably the legendary "study god"—never listened in class, crammed before exams, but always got unbelievably high scores.

Throwing his backpack on the table, William Carter reached into the drawer to look for his shower card.

At this moment, David Foster put down his exercise book, glanced at William Carter, and asked,

"Zhouzi, working so hard?"