In fact, Lu Zhou felt like he was too paranoid sometimes.
Not every problem had a correct answer.
Trying to find a correct answer might turn out to be counterproductive…
The evening banquet was held at the buffet at the Corinthia Hotel.
The hotel prepared delicious food for this banquet and changed the dining hall seating arrangement in order to accommodate the maximum number of participants, as well as leaving enough space for the mathematicians to socialize.
The protagonists of the banquet were obviously the Fields Medal winners.
They were the new celebrities of the mathematics world, and they were attracting attention like magnets. Basically, everyone in the banquet hall had their gaze on them.
However, one of the most important characters, Vera Pulyuy, didn’t show up, so a lot of people were disappointed.
Even though Lu Zhou was a little concerned about Vera, he wasn’t too worried.
After all, she had a report to do tomorrow morning. He could speak to her then.
Rather, Lu Zhou was more concerned about the purple object inside his system space inventory.
Void Memory?
What the hell is that?
Lu Zhou was a little zoned out during the banquet. He was getting another glass of wine when he nearly bumped into an old friend…
“Careful, my friend, I don’t want to ruin this shirt.”
“Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.” Professor Fefferman smiled and touched glasses with Lu Zhou as he said, “I think you look out of the zone.”
Lu Zhou took a sip of wine and stared at him.
“I am?”
“Yeah, when you’re looking at me, I can feel that your attention is elsewhere.” Professor Fefferman jokingly said, “Is it because your student didn’t come to the banquet?”
Lu Zhou: “… No.”
Lu Zhou admitted that he was a little zoned out, but it wasn’t because of Vera. That would get resolved tomorrow.
Okay, maybe Vera was 1% of the reason why he was zoned out.
But most of the reason was due to something else.
Lu Zhou thought that Fefferman would continue to ask and gossip, but it seemed like Fefferman dropped the topic and they began to talk about something else.
They talked about research on the Riemann zeta function for a while, as well as the conjecture that Lu Zhou was working on. When they were bidding farewell, Professor Fefferman suddenly said something to Lu Zhou.
“Wait a second.”
Lu Zhou stopped and looked back.
“What’s wrong?”
Professor Fefferman smiled and raised the glass in his hand.
“Congratulations for adding another medal to your collection.”
Lu Zhou: “Thank you.”
“Also, a piece of advice.” Professor Fefferman patted Lu Zhou’s shoulder and smiled as he said, “Remember, never have any regrets.
“You only get one chance at life, we all worry too much.
“The older you get, the more you realize that some things can’t be changed.”
The banquet came to an end.
Because there were so many friends at the banquet, despite Lu Zhou’s increased metabolic capacity, he still got a little tipsy.
However, he was doing a lot better than other people.
Nearby, Krugman and Albert were completely wasted. In the end, the waiter asked them to rest in the hotel lounge instead.
People gave those two strange looks as they wondered why an economist and physicist were getting along so well.
After Lu Zhou washed his face in the bathroom to freshen up, he took the elevator upstairs.
Lu Zhou stopped in front of his room and looked back at Wang Peng as he spoke in a serious manner.
“Unless there is something serious, don’t bother me.”
“Okay.”
Lu Zhou nodded and was about to close the door. However, he opened the door and spoke to Wang Peng.
“Scratch that, even if it’s important, call me first.”
Wang Peng: “… Okay.”
“Also, if you hear any noises, don’t worry about me, I’m fine.”
It seemed like Wang Peng had misinterpreted Lu Zhou’s words. He said, “Don’t worry, I won’t interrupt your personal life… It’s good to have some fun sometimes.”
Lu Zhou: “…?”
Lu Zhou closed his door and lay down on his bed. He told Xiao Ai to pay attention to the security cameras, then went inside the system space.
Lu Zhou stood inside the pure white system space as he walked toward the holographic screen. He reached out and opened his information screen.
The purple-cloud looking object was still sitting inside his inventory.
It was surrounded by strings of smoke, similar to octopus tentacles.
“If I’m correct… This shouldn’t be used in the real world, it should be used in the system space.”
Lu Zhou stared at the purple object.
Suddenly, he reached out and gently touched the surface of the sphere.
This time, it was different than when he was in the conference hall.
He didn’t feel his fingertips being shocked. Instead, it was like his finger was immersed in hot water; he felt uncontrollably warm.
Lu Zhou suddenly realized something, and he reached out and exited his inventory.
“It’s not just pain, but also temperature…
“It looks like this is something that exists in my consciousness.
“And for some reason, I feel different things based on the environment around me.
“Maybe it’s some kind of protection mechanism?”
Lu Zhou wanted to change his environment by putting on some music and testing his hypothesis.
However, he realized there was no need for that.
After all, the key to unlocking the truth was right in front of him. He just had to use the key to open the box.
“… Okay, let me see what kind of secrets are inside you.”
Lu Zhou reached out again and firmly grasped the purple sphere floating in the inventory.
He felt a wave of warmth spreading throughout his body.
Lu Zhou tried to take this thing out of the inventory but something unexpected happened.
The tentacles wrapped around the purple sphere suddenly exploded, wrapping around his fingers.
Lu Zhou wanted to let go but the tentacles wrapped around his arms soon covered his entire body in a thick gel-like substance…