Roaming through the world of Doraemon

"Did you two from the Ministry of Education come here just for this?"

Nobita listened carefully to the speech of the slightly younger civil servant opposite him, and was a little unsure how to respond. His own knowledge was more than 20 years ahead of the world, and with Doraemon as his cheat code, achieving proficiency in mathematics was not particularly difficult. The key was that the Earth was like a lamb in a wolf's den, which could be devoured however the wolf wanted. As for Nobita's personal future in mathematics versus the fate of the entire Earth, he would choose the latter even if he had to choose a thousand times, because it was a choice with no way out.

"Uh, no, Nobi, based on your excellent performance, Mr. Kumamoto Kumaichi recommended you to participate in the first Japan-US Youth Exchange Competition."

Seeing that the younger man's words almost displeased Nobita, the older Ministry of Education official immediately revealed the true purpose of their visit to Nobita's house, frankly stating the matter. After all, the boy in front of them gave them a very unusual feeling. They couldn't feel anything that a teenager should have in him. Instead, in front of him, it was like facing a huge ocean, and they couldn't help but obey his wishes.

"So you weren't here to be a lobbyist? What's this first Japan-US Youth Exchange Competition?" The Ministry of Education official got straight to the point, which pleased Nobita. But the Tokyo Metropolitan Mathematics Competition had just ended, so what was this Japan-US Youth Exchange Competition all about? Nobita was a little confused.

"That's right. With the development of our country over the years, we want to convey to the outside world that we are gradually moving to the forefront of the world. So we invited the United States to co-host this Japan-US Youth Exchange Competition to prove to the world that not only has our economy and culture improved, but our country's youth have also kept up with the economic development."

The older Ministry of Education official spoke in jargon and platitudes, turning a single sentence into several convoluted ones, but Da Xiong understood perfectly: it was obvious the government had invited him to step on someone!

Chapter Two: The Japan-US Youth Showdown (Please subscribe!)

After decades of economic development since the war, Japan has become one of the world's leading economies. At this time, Japanese people can be seen all over the world holding large sums of money and frantically buying all kinds of luxury goods and valuable items. Some even shouted slogans like "buy up the whole of America".

Looking at Japan's development over the years, Da Xiong understands that they've grown impatient with being America's little brother for so long, and their rebellious streak has finally emerged. Although they haven't said it directly, if Japan can host this competition at the national level, it's probably not Japan if they don't flex their muscles to show their boss.

Nobita felt indifferent to many of the country's citizens, including the government, and really couldn't understand what they were thinking. However, this didn't stop him from having the opportunity to boost his reputation in front of the public. He needed more support for his future path, so he needed to gain more people's trust and admiration. It was rare for the Japanese government to set up such a stage, so it would be too embarrassing if he didn't go up and show off his real skills.

"So you mean I should represent Japan 06 in this competition? I'd like to know which events I need to participate in?"

Having listened to everything the two civil servants had to say, Da Xiong directly asked his own question.

"Hmm, you actually agreed!" The older civil servant felt utterly powerless under Nobita's boldness. He hadn't held out much hope of returning to report, but to his surprise, Nobita had agreed to participate in the competition in the blink of an eye.

"Hmm, Kumamon told us that you have a special sense for numbers and symbols in math. I wonder if you've ever heard of brainpower competitions?"

Although Kumamoto Kumaichi said when recommending Nobita to the Ministry of Education that Nobita was the most sensitive to mathematical numbers and symbols, and also the most logical and talented student he had ever met, this kind of brainpower competition is different from ordinary math competitions, where you can solve problems by using the right methods. This kind of brainpower competition is more about the comprehensive development and application of one's brain.

"Oh, a brainpower competition? Never heard of it. Tell me about it." Nobita's interest was quickly piqued by the introduction of the competition by the Ministry of Education official. A brainpower competition, that's interesting. However, what they didn't know was that their mental power had been developed many times over. In terms of pure brainpower, the calculation and memory speed of their brains could surpass all the supercomputers in the world combined by a factor of eighteen.

"There aren't many events in this competition. They mainly focus on number memorization, number acceleration, and abstract graphic resetting. These are the events we hope you can attend." The older Ministry of Education official calmly took out some documents from his briefcase and respectfully placed them in front of Nobita.

"Number memory, number acceleration, and abstract graphic memory—these are all pretty simple. Are there any other projects besides these?" Nobita's mental energy enveloped the paper for a second, instantly understanding the projects described on the document. After figuring it out, he asked with a smirk.

"Hmm? Nobita is interested in other projects too?" The older Ministry of Education civil servant asked in surprise. Nobita won the nationally renowned mathematics competition. His achievements in mathematics are already remarkable. Could he have other talents that have not been noticed by others?

"The number memory task in this brainpower competition is already the most difficult one in the competition. I'm afraid Nobita can't handle the other tasks."

The young civil servant felt slightly dissatisfied when he heard that Nobita was not satisfied with the three extremely difficult projects and wanted to try other projects. He thought that this young genius was nothing special. He was so arrogant at such a young age. He didn't care if he lost the competition and lost face at the competition, but this was a competition for the country. The young civil servant couldn't help but say this to Nobita.

"Kuroki, shut up! Apologize to Nobita right now!"

Meanwhile, Mitsui, standing next to the young civil servant Kuroki, was already sweating profusely from hearing his speech. He was trying to appease this freak in front of him, but instead he had to provoke him. His usually sharp mind seemed to have lost its spark at this moment.

"Section Chief, but I'm telling the truth! This kid only got a good name in the math competition, yet he still wants to sign up for all the events. If things go wrong and we get blamed by the higher-ups, we can't afford to be held responsible!" Kuroki Chuuji thought about the strict instructions he received when he was given these two tasks and couldn't help but take it seriously.

"Alright, that's enough, Kuroki. I know about this." Mitsui patted Kuroki's shoulder lightly, then turned to Nobita, who was beaming, and apologized, "I'm sorry for causing you trouble."

"It's alright, I understand. After all, I haven't done any challenges with these projects before. But you can test me out. Just grab a community phone book from the door and use it."

Nobita pointed to the telephone door on the table next to the entrance and said with a smile, "You know, throughout the entire Japan region, every district and every 947 city distributes the telephone numbers and government contact information of every household in the region to every family in the region. Sometimes a booklet can have tens of thousands of pages, and the classified information such as names and telephone numbers is so numerous that it's blinding."

Upon hearing Nobita's words, Kuroki walked to the front door and placed the newest and thickest telephone directory in front of Nobita. He estimated that there must be tens of thousands of names and phone numbers on it, which made his eyes blurry just looking at them, let alone memorizing them all.

Looking at the phone book that Kuroki Chuni brought over, Nobita smiled. This young civil servant was quite shrewd; he had actually chosen the newest and thickest phone book, as if he was afraid that he would memorize the information in it during his daily life. He had actually put a lot of thought into choosing such a brand-new phone book to test himself.

"Oh, it's a phone book that was just printed this week. No problem, give me five minutes. You can ask me any questions after five minutes. If I can't answer them, I'll admit defeat."

P.S.: This is the third update! Three more to go! I'm about to give it my all! My subscription numbers dropped again today, so I'm begging you all for support! I want to write this book longer and more. Thank you all so much!

Chapter Three: I'll eat my hat if I don't torture you to death (Please subscribe!)

"Oh, it's a phone book that was just printed this week. No problem, give me five minutes. You can ask me any questions after five minutes. If I can't answer them, I'll admit defeat."

Nobita watched as Kuroki neatly placed the phone book on the table in front of him, squinting at the pages, and he roughly understood what was going on.

"Nobita, this book is so thick, probably over a thousand pages. You don't even have enough time to flip through it in five minutes. How can you possibly memorize it all?"

Nobita's daughter, Tamako, sat next to him, looking at him with disbelief. She had been raising him since he was a baby, and there was nothing she didn't know. No matter how smart Nobita was now, it was impossible for him to memorize a phone book as thick as a fist in five minutes.

"Mom, don't worry. Five minutes was still too long for me. Three minutes, I can memorize the whole phone book in three minutes." Da Xiong waved his hand with a faint smile on his face.

"Alright, three minutes. I'm looking forward to seeing Nobita's abilities." Mitsui, who had been watching Nobita closely for many years in the Ministry of Education, had seen countless geniuses, but he had never seen such a prodigy as Nobita, who exuded a natural aura and was so mature that he didn't seem like a primary school student. He wanted to see what kind of incredible feats Nobita could accomplish in these three minutes.

After glancing sideways at the Mitsui camp headquarters, Nobita sat steadily at the table, ready to begin his memory work. At the same time, the eyes of the three people at the table were all focused on Nobita, each holding their breath, anticipating the moment when a miracle would happen. These three minutes were so tense that breathing became difficult.

After Nobita sat down, he held the phone book in both hands, keeping one hand still while using the other to flip through the pages. When he needed to read the beginning, he would use his right hand to flip through the pages, and when he needed to read the end, he would switch hands and use his left hand to flip through the pages, continuing this process back and forth.

"This, is he reading a book or...?" Mitsui's crew was utterly shocked by Nobita's actions. Since ancient times, reading books has always been about carefully reading each page and memorizing the contents. How could Nobita read a book by flipping through pages like this? He probably didn't even see the page numbers before skipping over them. This is simply child's play.

Kuroki Chuuni watched Nobita reading like that and couldn't help but feel secretly pleased. He thought to himself, "I didn't expect you to memorize things like this. When I ask you questions later, I'll embarrass you and let you know that even if you are a child prodigy, you still have to humbly and diligently accept the teachings of your elders."

"Nobita, is it okay for you to read like this?" Nobita's mother couldn't help but feel nervous as she watched him read in such a peculiar way.

"Yeah, it's okay, Mom." After casually flipping through the phone book a couple of times, Nobita looked up at Tamako with a smile, hoping his mother wouldn't worry about him.

"Beep beep beep beep!"

As the black digital watch in Kuroki's hand beeped to signal the end of the test, Nobita's three minutes of reading time had rapidly passed. At this moment, Kuroki was eagerly anticipating the scene of him stumping this young genius.

"Nobita, your three minutes are up. Now it's your turn to be tested. We have ten questions in total. You need to answer with the names or corresponding phone numbers of all the answers." Mitsui took the lead and put Nobita through a three-minute memory test with the phone book.

As he casually flipped through Nobita's brand-new phone book, Mitsui didn't specifically look for any special names or extra-long numbers. He simply turned to a random page because, in his memory, this kind of unintentional randomness was the true test of a person's character.

"Tori Kotaro?" Mitsui's unit spotted a name and asked their first question.

"0081+**, page 206, that should be the newly developed Kurama area." Da Xiong answered without hesitation, and not only did he answer, he also remembered the page number and even the specific location of that area.

"Huh?" Mitsui was startled. How could this be? Could it be a coincidence? Seizing the opportunity, he immediately turned to the page with the second question.

"Hikaru Ihara?"

"0081+**, page 654, Odaiba area."

"Okuno Junichiro?"

"0081+**, page 926, region: Tokyo station."

"Asuka Ichishin?"

"0081+**, page 723, region: Spring Department".

"Higashi Kotaro?"

"0081+**, page 125, region Harajuku."

Mitsui asked five questions in a row, and Nobita answered them all in less than a second, as if the answers were already imprinted in his mind and just waiting for him to trigger them. After asking five questions in a row, Mitsui gradually broke out in a cold sweat. How did this kid remember all these numbers and regions in three minutes?

"How is that possible? He actually got them all right. Senior, let me test Nobita instead." Kuroki Chuuni hurriedly took the phone book from Mitsui's hands, pushed up his glasses, and thought of a way to make Nobita stop wringing his hands in a hurry.

“｀ ˇ0081+**, please state the name of this owner, Nobita Nobi.” Unlike Mitsui, Kuroki asked the question in reverse, catching Nobita off guard.

"Iwamoto Jun." Dai Xiong shook his head. Such tricks were as weak as chickens in front of him. Even if you asked me the most difficult questions, I could answer them all.

"0081+**?"

"Pingshan is leisurely."

"0081+**?"

"Hino Kiyoshi".

After asking three questions in a row, Kuroki Chuuni's forehead, like Mitsui's, was covered in cold sweat. This kid was simply too abnormal. He couldn't even get the questions right. He had to come up with an even more difficult idea to stump him for the last two questions.

"Akiba Yukihiro?"

"0081+**, page 23, region: Kamakura".

This time, Shinji Kuroki was a bit smarter and turned the question upside down again. However, to his astonishment, Nobita still answered instantly and even gave the region and page number. This was so insane that it was impossible to live with him.

"Hmm, Nobita, there's one last question." Kuroki coughed deeply twice, covering his mouth, to calm his agitated mind, and then asked Nobita the final, tenth question.

"Yoko Sato?"

"Sorry, this name isn't in the book. You're not kidding me with your mom's name, are you?"

Upon hearing the name, Nobita's brain immediately reacted. There was no name 'Sato Yoko' in this phone book. This old bastard had tricked him.

"Alright, that is indeed my mother's name. I admit defeat." Kuroki blushed immediately after hearing Nobita reveal the truth. He hadn't expected Nobita to see through his little trick in the last question. He also hadn't expected that this genius would guess that the number was his mother's name, which was far away on Kyushu Island. That was truly amazing.

"Isn't the phone book awesome? We also have Mom's cooking recipes at home, do you want to try them out?"

P.S.: Fourth update delivered!

Chapter Four: A Special Name (Please Subscribe!)

"Isn't the phone book awesome? We also have Mom's cooking recipes at home, do you want to try them out?"

Nobita's ten-question phone book quiz left the two Ministry of Education civil servants, who had been navigating various competitions and encountering all sorts of young geniuses, completely speechless. When this boy in front of them got going, he was practically a superhuman being.

However, they happened to guess correctly. If Nobita were to unleash his current strength, unless all the world's nuclear missiles were focused on Nobita alone, this humanoid walking monster would not be afraid of any threat from Earth. However, compared to other things, Nobita was more concerned about the feelings of Nobi Shinsuke and Nobi Tamako. After all, he was an orphan in his previous life and rarely had a complete family. He did not want to lose it.

"Forget it, we don't need the '947' test anymore. You won this competition, and we will apply for all the competition events for you as you requested. Just wait for our news and then you can easily win the competition."

Mitsui casually pulled a handkerchief from his suit collar and wiped the sweat from his forehead. The boy in front of him had reached a godlike state. If he were sent onto the field, he could probably crush those American players. He hoped that this wouldn't cause psychological trauma to those kids or even lead to international disputes.

"Since you've agreed, that's good. It saves me the trouble of getting the recipes. Is there anything else you need to tell me?" Da Xiong spread his hands and shook his head helplessly, then asked the two Ministry of Education officials again.

“We planned to hold this competition at the International Sports Center a week from now. We came to see you early today so that you could integrate into our team as soon as possible and receive intensive training for you geniuses. Now it seems that it’s not necessary at all. By the way, here is a roster. It lists all the American players who will be participating in this competition. Take a look.” With that, Mitsui took out a large roster from his bag and handed it to Nobita.

"Hmm. So many people, it seems the US is well-prepared this time. No wonder you're in such a hurry to search for well-known geniuses across the country."

Da Xiong casually flipped through a few pages and found that the roster handed to him by these Japanese civil servants, in addition to the photos and personal data of the competition team members, also included information on what competitions they had participated in, what their strengths were, and even their hobbies and favorite dishes.

Faced with this contest of soft power between the two countries, the Japanese were able to investigate such detailed personal information. Even Nobita had to admire the Japanese people's talent in this area. They really are a nation that knows how to steal, cheat, and take shortcuts.

"It's precisely because the US has mobilized almost all of its top talents that we're under so much pressure. We've been given orders: success is the only option, failure is not an option." Mitsui's battalion commander sighed helplessly. The responsibility for carrying out this kind of national-level competition rests on their shoulders, which is a heavy burden. It also shows that although Japan is currently the US's ally, it has the ambition to eventually challenge its boss.

"Alright, enough with the grand theories. I have friends here. If there's nothing else, I'll head upstairs." Da Xiong casually flipped through the list of contestants from the United States, having lost patience with these two Ministry of Education civil servants who had been rambling on all morning.

"That's settled then. I'll leave the rest of the matches to Nobita!" Mitsui Eibu opened the drawer, stood up, and solemnly bowed ninety degrees to Nobita. It should be noted that in Japan, this kind of courtesy is rarely performed except by elders, leaders, or people who are particularly respected. This shows that Mitsui Eibu truly placed great hopes and respect on Nobita.

After performing this grand ceremony, the two men, carrying briefcases, left Nobita's house one after the other. Some of the reporters at the door also left as the two Ministry of Education officials departed, but most remained outside Nobita's house, waiting for him to come out, hoping to catch him for an exclusive interview with their magazine. After all, Nobita's words at the Tokyo Metropolitan Mathematics Competition had shocked the entire Japanese world, especially his line "My journey is to the stars and the sea," which had been adopted as a motto by countless young people.