The Evolution of Genius: Every Night, I Get Smarter!

I continued, "Casi... I really don’t know what to say. Technically, I should report this to the police. And I have to call to let them know we found you. That’s the perfect occasion."

"No! Please, Max. You don’t understand my situation."

"Oh. I think I understand your situation quite well. Did you already want to steal my stuff back at the Yacht?"

"No, no, no, Max," Casi looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Ugh... okay, Casi. Tell me why you argued with your father. Who would leave their child in another country suddenly, without a word?"

"My father... when I talked to him, it seemed like he changed a lot... I mean his personality. It felt very strange talking to him, so I asked if something was wrong. And he took it badly."

"And that’s it? You must be kidding."

"No. That’s not it. For the next few days, I called him, but he said such things that I suggested he go to the hospital. I thought he might have some health issues, but he insisted everything was fine... and then he said to stop calling him."

Now I was truly shocked. What was all this about? It didn’t seem strange to her why she didn’t go back to Canada?

"Casi. Quick decision. We’re flying to Canada. To see what’s happening with your father."

"No! My father hates me. Then I tried messaging him, but he barely responded. Last time, he replied two months ago, to my question if I could come, and he just said ’no.’"

I could see that Casi was really struggling with this. Her family disowned her, without any apparent reason. But something here smelled fishy.

Casi was emotionally vulnerable, and I knew that if we didn’t help her, she would never find out what really happened. I had a hunch that her father might indeed be seriously ill.

I turned to Oliv and Rick, "Oliv, Rick, who’s flying with me to Canada? We’ll visit Casi’s father; sitting here won’t help. I don’t know where Casi works, but it can’t be anything good."

Oliv said, "I can fly with you. I’ve already completed all my exams before going to Norway," giving a thumbs up.

Then I turned back to Casi, "Are you coming or not? We’re flying to Canada. There’s no other way we can help you. You should be grateful that we’re helping you in any way after what you’ve done."

Casi remained silent for a moment. I took out my phone to book tickets to Canada.

Finally, Casi looked at me, wiped away tears, "Okay, I’ll fly with you, but I don’t even have money for a ticket."

"Don’t worry, I’ll buy you a ticket," I looked at Rick, "Rick, what about you? Are you coming?"

"No, no. I can’t. I have a job," Rick replied.

I could only find somewhat expensive flights departing at 1 in the morning, but I just wanted to get it over with and get back to normal functioning and studying, so I didn’t have a choice.

A few hours later, Oliv, Casi, and I were packed and ready to go. Casi barely spoke. I could see that her guilt was weighing heavily on her.

We packed into the BMW and headed straight to the airport.

Two hours later, we landed in Canada at Edmonton Airport. We rented a car and drove to a smaller town to the south.

The town from which Cassandra came was very charming; each house had a very large estate.

After driving around the area, we found the house where Casi’s father lived, or at least should be living. I looked at Casi, "Is this the place?"

Cassandra looked at her home, seemingly nostalgic but also concerned. I could see that she didn’t want to get out of the car.

"Don’t worry, I’ll call, and we’ll see if someone answers. Hopefully, they won’t come out at me with a firearm?"

"My father never kept any weapons at home. He was against guns."

"Hmm... that’s unusual. I rarely meet someone like that."

I got out of the car and approached the door. A few meters behind me stood Casi, and Oliv stayed in the car.

Without hesitation, I rang the doorbell.

At first, I didn’t hear anyone inside; no one approached for the next, maybe thirty seconds. But then, on the other side, through the frosted glass of the door, I saw the silhouette of a man.

The man approached the door and opened it as if nothing had happened. First, he looked directly at me, "Yes? Who are you?" then turned his attention to Casi.

"Dad? How have you been?" Casi asked.

Her father looked back at me and asked again, "Who are you?"

"Maximillian Sullivan. I’m a friend of your daughter," I replied.

The man, as if grinding his teeth in anger, his face reddened, and then he closed his eyes for longer than a normal blink, which seemed a bit strange to me. When he opened them again, he stopped baring his teeth, and his face suddenly returned to normal.

"Okay. Come in. And..." he looked at Casi, "I think we need to talk, Casi. I’ve probably caused you a lot of trouble."

"Could I bring one more person? My girlfriend is sitting in the car," I asked.

"Sure. No problem," Casi’s father replied.

Thirty minutes later, we were sitting in the guest room at Casi’s house, together with her father, Tom, who was trying to explain the situation.

He talked about how he is sorry to Casi for talking to her like that and responding with such harsh words.

What seemed very strange to me was that this man, the man who had ruined almost a year of his daughter’s life, didn’t seem to be too concerned, as if not a year had passed but just a month or a few days.

At some point, while talking over coffee, as Casi seemed unwilling to ask important questions, I turned to Tom, "Sir, do you know what your daughter was doing to earn money for her studies? I don’t understand why your daughter caring about you upset you so much. I don’t want to alarm you, but it doesn’t seem to me that you’re in good health.", I said firmly.

Casi’s father seemed surprised, even outraged. "Why would my daughter have to work?! I send her money every month!" he exclaimed. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

My eyes froze in place; I stared at him, not understanding what he had just said. Various possibilities ran through my mind. Dissociation? Was there a disconnection between different aspects of his memory or perception?

The prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia? Or maybe consciousness? Prefrontal cortex.

I looked at Casi, who was staring at her father in shock, on the verge of tears. On the other hand, Oliv was just puzzled, as if unsure how to process all of this.

However, there was this one thing in my mind.

Earlier, when we stood at the door, Casi’s father closed his eyes for a moment, and then he seemed to become a completely different person. Of course, it could have been just a dissociative disorder that persisted for a longer time, and after seeing his daughter, he returned to his previous personality.

But what if someone took over his consciousness? Someone who knew about the Separation.

For the next few hours, we talked with Tom and slowly tried to explain the situation to him. At one point, even Casi’s father seemed close to tears.

In the evening, we took him to the hospital, but I had a feeling that they wouldn’t be able to detect any illness.

If it really was a case of a Jump, it would mean that someone found a way to return to their own body in another cluster.

This didn’t sound good; if it’s true, all the risks vanish, and everyone could jump between bodies without consequences.

Casi stayed in Canada, and me and Oliv came back the following day.

In my plan, I aimed to visit the laboratory as soon as possible and ask Therion if it was possible to return to one’s body in another cluster or jump between different people in the same cluster.

First, I dropped Oliv off at her apartment.

"Max, my parents invite you to join us on Friday. We’ll go, okay?" Oliv asked.

Friday... that was in two days. I didn’t know how long I would spend in the laboratory, so I had to postpone my questions to Therion for later.

"Yes, Oliv. Just text me, and I’ll pick you up," I smiled and drove home.

A few minutes later, I pulled up to my house, and as soon as I entered, I sprawled on the couch, exhausted. Three flights in two days!

But it didn’t take long, and I was fully rejuvenated.

Now it was time to finish studying the second layer of quantum physics.

I opened my laptop, and to shake up my routine a bit, instead of the USB, I opened a forum.

User123: "Hey! I was wondering if it would be possible to craft a lattice for sound control using auxetic materials?"

I decided to answer, "You should use hyperbolic tessellation. The lattice will be deformable, so then you can follow the Poissonian deformation dynamics to make it auxetic.

sin(π)+∑(ϕn​/n!)⋅cos(2πnf0​t)

f0​ is the frequency of the lattice. As the lattice undergoes compression and extension you should make sure that the auxeticity of the lattice follows this equation."