The Genius Girl as a Tool

When they arrived at the dining room, Robert, his father in this life, was sitting on the couch watching TV, while Lisa, his mother, was busy bringing dishes to the table. Seeing the three of them come downstairs, she smiled. "Kids, come sit down. Robert, hurry over and eat."

Robert Bennett was the town sheriff, while Lisa was a housewife who kept the household in perfect order and enjoyed writing on the side. Unfortunately, she had never achieved much success with it. Of course, she was also a believer in God.

They barely qualified as a typical American middle-class family. For Link, while he had not been born into wealth, a family like this was still pretty good. At least he did not have to worry about having enough food like the children from poor families.

Of course, it would have been even better if they could get rid of what he considered the troublesome and boring prayer before meals.

"So, kids, how was your day?" After the prayer, the family began eating, and Robert used their nightly conversation to keep up with his children's lives.

"Elizabeth?"

Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of the family and Link's sister in this life. She was in eleventh grade and would graduate from high school in another year.

She was a typical good girl. Whatever her parents told her to do, she did. She studied diligently and got excellent grades. Guided by Lisa, she had developed a strong interest in medicine and planned to become a doctor in the future.

Hearing Robert's question, she answered obediently, "Just a normal day."

"Good." Robert nodded. He had always been quite at ease about his eldest daughter. Then he looked at Link. "What about you, Link?"

"Pretty good. Besides getting recommendation letters from several teachers, I just got one from the principal too. As long as my SSAT score is high enough, getting a full scholarship at Lola High School should be a sure thing."

"That's wonderful, sweetheart!" American parents were never stingy with their praise. Lisa immediately smiled. "I'm proud of you, sweetheart."

"Thanks." Link nodded.

After saying that, Lisa looked at Bianca. "I'm sure you'll get a good result too. Of course, if you have some free time, maybe you could spare a little to tutor Bianca."

"Of course. I'll give it a try." Link nodded.

At that moment, Link heard Bianca sigh beside him and could not help shaking his head inwardly. This little girl was a classic happy underachiever, and Lisa had worried over her plenty. Of the three children in the family, two were exceptionally easy to manage, so their parents naturally gave more attention to the more mischievous child.

"Bianca?" Robert looked at her. "How was your day?"

"Nothing much. It was boring," Bianca said.

Seeing that Bianca still seemed down, Lisa asked, "Honey, are you still upset?"

"I'm fine now." Bianca clearly did not want Robert to hear about certain things, so she quickly said, "Let me tell you something happy instead. Um... Peggy is going to middle school, so I won't have to see her at school anymore."

"Peggy? You mean that very smart little girl from next door who often comes here to study with Link? I remember she's only eight."

"Mom, saying that just makes me feel worse, because I still have to see her at home every day." Bianca's little face drooped again.

"That girl really is very smart. I heard she has already started teaching herself college courses!" As Lisa spoke, she looked at Link again.

"That's right. Her IQ is 187. Even though she's only eight and started learning all kinds of knowledge later than I did, her learning speed is truly astonishing. If not for her age, I think she could already go straight to college for further study."

Link spoke with some emotion. "A genius like her can't be judged simply by age or academic credentials. I estimate that in at most one or two years, her knowledge in certain fields could reach the level of some master's degree holders or even PhDs."

In his previous life, he had only heard about people like that. Only after truly coming into contact with one in this life did he understand how terrifying geniuses could be. It felt as though they did not even exist on the same plane of reality. Their memory, comprehension, and calculation abilities far surpassed ordinary people's.

After developing himself and raising his Intelligence to 12.5 points, Link could now be considered a minor genius. Even so, that only put his IQ at around 130, which could at most be called excellent.

Link had also discovered that while increasing Intelligence did raise IQ, the relationship was not directly proportional. Or rather, the higher it went, the smaller its effect on IQ became.

So although Link's current Intelligence of 12.5 gave him an IQ of 136, to reach an IQ above 140 and enter the commonly accepted range of genius, he would probably need to raise his Intelligence to 14 points.

Even so, he had already experienced the benefits brought by a high IQ.

Problems that had stumped him while studying in his previous life were now always easier for him to understand and solve. Around the students in his class, he could always feel a faint sense of intellectual superiority.

But compared to Peggy, whose IQ exceeded 180, even though she was only an eight-year-old girl, he was still the one being utterly crushed. This was not something simple things like test scores could fully show. The gap existed in every aspect.

Take mental arithmetic, for example. With the rapid-calculation methods he had learned and continuous practice, Link could instantly calculate two-digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division without even thinking.

But if the calculations became more complicated, involving fractions, calculus, and other complex operations, then even with a calculator to assist him, he could not beat Peggy. She felt like a human computer.

That reminded Link of a movie he had seen in his previous life called A Beautiful Mind. The protagonist had used his mental arithmetic ability to accomplish things that many software programs could not.

Of course, being crushed intellectually like this did not feel good at all. Even though Link had a rather easygoing nature, he could not help feeling irritated. Still, his frequent exchanges with Peggy over the past year had another purpose.

After hearing Link say this, everyone else was surprised, while Bianca said directly, "That's why I said she's a freak."

"Bianca!" Lisa said sharply.

"Fine, I didn't say anything!"

After Bianca fell silent, Robert nodded. "All right, she really is, um... a surprising girl."

Link explained, "Actually, it's nothing unusual. High IQs are very common among scientists. Without intelligence far beyond ordinary people, it would be impossible to understand such complicated theories."

"That's true." Robert nodded. "Even so, do you still plan to become a scientist? ...Well, you know, you might be excellent, but compared to geniuses like Peggy, you do have some talent, but..."

"Of course. It's my dream. I plan to become a mathematician," Link answered directly.

He knew Robert would rather see him become a baseball player, because in the eyes of ordinary people in Texas, scientists were clearly not as popular as celebrities or athletes.

Besides football, baseball was Texans' favorite sport. Robert had once wanted to become a baseball player when he was young, but later realized he lacked talent in that area. He joined the military instead, and after retiring, became a police officer in this small town.

Link was still a teenager, yet through his own training and the system's assistance, his physical abilities had completely surpassed those of his peers in every respect. His performance in baseball training and games was also outstanding.

Because of that, in the eyes of his baseball coach, Link had considerable talent for baseball. Some private high schools strong in baseball had even wanted to recruit him specially, but that clearly did not fit Link's plans.

Although outstanding baseball players could also make a lot of money in the United States, Link, whose values had already taken shape, was clearly more interested in using his intelligence to earn money.

Besides, with the system, the key issue preventing him from becoming a high-IQ talent—his IQ—would obviously no longer be a problem as long as he was willing to work hard.

The dinner conversation ended there. After eating, Link returned to his room and began studying.

He was also rather glad that Bianca was a girl. Otherwise, he would have had to share a room with her instead of having one of his own, since their home only had two bedrooms besides the master bedroom.

After a while, Link heard Lisa call from downstairs, "Link, Peggy is here to see you."

"Okay." Link answered, put down his pen, and went downstairs. He immediately saw the subject of that evening's dinner conversation—Peggy.

She was an eight-year-old girl with short blond hair, and when she smiled, she looked like a doll. But in Link's eyes, she was more like a tool to help him raise his Intelligence.