The Evolution of Genius: Every Night, I Get Smarter!-Chapter 35: A Game

I woke up at 7 AM on Sunday, getting ready for our Boston Beach road trip scheduled for 10 AM.

I planned to rent a car and drive us there, but for now, I still had some time to kill.

So, before hitting the road, I fired up my PC to dig into the previous Riemann Hypothesis research by fellow mathematicians.

While at it, I checked my blog and was pleasantly surprised to find a new comment. I’ve had a couple of thank yous on my Memory Palace post, but this one was different.

Under my Riemann Hypothesis info post, the comment went like this:

’In 1974, Frohlich and Ivic undertook an attempt to establish the veracity of the Goldbach Conjecture.’

Then under this comment, the same guy answered himself for some reason.

’Subsequent evaluations of their methodology revealed flaws, principally attributed to the reliance on an unproven lemma. The insufficiency of this lemma led to the invalidation of their overall reasoning, but if proven, maybe this could go somewhere.’

Wait, hold up. This threw me for a loop. How did we end up in Goldbach territory when we were talking about the Riemann Hypothesis?

The Goldbach Conjecture is about expressing even numbers as the sum of two prime numbers.

Any even number greater than 2, that is.

I gotta give it to him. Both the Goldbach Conjecture and the Riemann Hypothesis do take a stroll down Number Theory Avenue.

But connecting them directly might be a bit of a stretch...

I ended up checking the invalid proof from the 70’s and it was exactly as he said; they built the proof based on The Goldbachian Kernel Lemma that they came up with.

’Consider a set Gk​ - The Goldbachian Kernel, defined as the unique combination of two prime numbers, pa​ , and pb​, such that pa​+pb​=2k.’

’The Goldbachian Kernel Lemma states that within the range of even numbers, there exists a specific kernel Gk​ for every even integer 2k greater than a certain threshold.’

’Furthermore, the density of such Goldbachian Kernels increases as 2k grows larger.’

Frohlich and Ivic extend their findings to propose that the Goldbach Conjecture holds true for an infinite set of even numbers.

The increasing density of Goldbachian Kernels, as k approaches infinity, indicates a pattern.

Using mathematical induction, they argue that if the Goldbach Conjecture is confirmed for a certain threshold, it naturally extends to all even integers beyond that point.

If I lock in this Lemma, I would be unlocking the Goldbach Conjecture – this is a big deal in itself. It has stood for almost 300 years after all.

Shit, maybe cracking this could give me some inspiration for the Riemann Conjecture...

...

I wanted to keep grinding, but the clock was ticking past 10 AM. Got a message from Oliv saying she’s ready to roll.

It was time to bounce.

I met up with her outside of the female dormitory.

I greeted Olivia with a warm kiss on the lips. She looked effortlessly cool in her summer outfit – a vibrant blue t-shirt paired with jeans shorts. Despite it being October, the day was unusually hot.

"Hey, Oliv. So, what about Casandra?" I asked.

Olivia shrugged, "She mentioned she’d be out in a sec. Probably fixing her makeup or something."

She raised an eyebrow and with a playful smile, she added. "So you wanna rent a car, huh? I’ve never seen you behind the wheel. You sure it will be okay?"

I chuckled confidently, "Liv, I’m also a genius behind the wheel. No worries."

Casandra finally came out of the building, but she wore a slightly different style today.

She still rocked an oversized white t-shirt, but she paired it with very short shorts, hidden under the generous length of the tee.

She also had white Levi’s sneakers on. Now that’s a cute sight! She came up to us with a sly grin.

I didn’t realize it before, but she was almost a head shorter than Oliv!

Casandra gave a little nod, "Alright, guys, I’m ready. Let’s go."

As we strolled along, our conversation flowed, and Casandra couldn’t resist asking how we managed to afford to rent a yacht.

Olivia spilled the beans about her wealthy family and especially about her grandparents.

When we got to the car rental spot, the girls initially eyed a Kia, but I decided to go big and chose a top-of-the-line BMW Series 8 Gran Coupé M.

As we settled into the car, Olivia taking the front passenger seat and Casandra in the back, I started up the engine.

I couldn’t resist a cheeky grin. "Strap in, ladies! And hold on," I revving up the BMW.

Casandra and Olivia seemed to be having a blast. Casandra opened the window and with the wind tousling through her wavy hair shouted over the hum of the car,

"You’re killing it, Max! I think I’m falling in love with this car"

Olivia, with a laugh, added, "Yeah, I’ve never been on a ride like this before. I prefer the driver over the car, though.", she said as she put her hand on my thigh.

I got excited for a second, but I kept it under control.

Cruising down the road, the vibe was on point as we hit the Boston Beach area. I found a sweet parking spot with ease.

We gathered our stuff and headed for the docks where our yacht was supposed to be waiting for us.

As we strolled along, Olivia hooked her arm through mine, but there was this one thing that felt off.

Call it intuition or just a gut feeling, but something about this one dude didn’t sit right. Decked out in your typical beach attire, he nonchalantly mimicked our every step.

Oddly enough, he strolled right alongside us, matching our pace until we reached the exact dock where our yacht awaited.

Maybe it was all just a coincidence. Perhaps he too had a yacht awaiting him at that particular dock?

As the girls stepped onto the yacht, a momentary curiosity compelled me to glance back and check on the guy who had seemingly followed us.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished, leaving no trace behind...

The space he occupied a mere breath ago was now empty.

The last three months have been filled with constant weird occurrences, but all of these happened to be inside of a dream...

I didn’t put that much importance on them...

"Hey! Max, you coming on, or what?", Casandra shot me a look from the Yacht.

I shook my head, clearing away the strange thoughts, and joined the girls on the yacht. "Yeah, coming!"

We made ourselves at home and Oliv hopped into the captain’s seat, flashing a confident grin. "Everyone ready?" With a collective cheer, we slowly set sail from the dock.

Olivia had some experience with it already, as she has been out on the sea a couple of times before.

As we sailed away from the dock, Casandra and I settled at the front of the yacht, where a soft sofa stood, enjoying the gentle breeze and the rhythmic sounds of the waves.

Olivia kept an eye on us from the back. It took about ten minutes to find a secluded spot where we could relax without any prying eyes.

I asked, "So... Any ideas as to what to do?"

Oliva looked at me, "Yes! I did plan something...", she took out a box out of her bag. freewebnσvel.cѳm

She sat down next to Cassandra and placed the game box in the space between them.

It was a bright red box with bold black letters: "Truth or Dare: The Adult version"

Casandra looked at the box, "I’m not sure I know this game."

"You told me you wanted to step out of your comfort zone. This will do just that.", Olivia said.

"So how do we play?" Casandra finally asked.

"We each take a turn. When it’s your go, you decide if you’re up for truth or dare. Draw a card accordingly – there are ones for the guys and ones for the ladies, plus some that work for everyone. Then spill the truth or take on the dare. Simple as that," Olivia explained, a mischievous glint in her eye.

Casandra picked up one of the lady’s truth cards and started reading from it softly. ’Who or what do you think about when you masturbate?’ She looked up at Oliv. "I don’t masturbate."

A smile spread over Oliv’s face. "Hmm... that would be for me and Max to decide."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"When someone answers a Truth card, the others get to play detective and decide if that person is being honest. So, if you tell us you’ve never masturbated, we might believe you or we might not."

"But I’m telling the truth.", she looked at Olivia with a sheepish expression.

"We can decide that you’re lying," I said firmly.

Casandra turned to me. "What happens then?"

I couldn’t tell if she was playing innocent or genuinely didn’t know the game. Either way, I decided to roll with it.

"You take off a piece of your clothing.", I said with a smirk.