Page 62 of Claim Me
"Forty point four four seven three."
That’s it. No hesitation, just the answer.
I blink, then immediately grab my phone, unlocking it fast, pulling up Calculator. My thumb moves quickly as I punch it in.
e^3.7
Enter.
40.4473
I stare at the screen. Then slowly lift my head back up to him.
My jaw drops. "?????, ?? ????? ????! [5]You’ve got to be kidding me. That's superhuman!"
Blue doesn’t react. He just reaches for his green tea, like this was nothing worth commenting on.
To anyone who isn’t into math, it probably looks like just a number raised to a power, but it really isn’t. Multiplication is something you can break apart and rebuild, and square roots come down to bracketing between known squares and refining the estimate, so there’s always some structure, something you can hold onto in your head.
This isn’t like that.
With e^3.7, there’s nothing obvious to break down and no intuitive range to anchor yourself to. To get anywhere close, you need to know key values like e^2 or e^3 from memory, then split the exponent and recombine everything, or rely on methods people usually learn in higher-level math, not something you casually run through over lunch. It’s not quick calculation anymore, it’s more like handling an entire system at once.
I shake my head slowly, still looking at him, trying to figure out what the hell I’m dealing with now.
"Yeah," I mutter. "That’s… that’s not normal."
"Believe me, that’s not even the hardest part. In science, the problems get far more complex."
Blue takes another sip of his green tea, like we’re discussing the weather.
What’s strange about it is that he says it completely without arrogance, as if he were stating raw facts that don’t require approval or admiration.
I let out a quiet scoff. "Oh, I’m sure."
His gaze shifts back to me.
"In my work, I don’t deal with single values," he continues. "I track entire systems. Simultaneously."
I raise an eyebrow. "Meaning?"
Blue sets the cup down with a smooth motion.
"Imagine holding a molecular structure in your head. Not as a diagram, but as a dynamic object. Bonds under tension, electron density shifting, conformations changing with temperature and pH."
I don’t interrupt. I genuinely want to know.
"And then," he goes on, "introducing a compound. You don’t just consider whether it binds. You evaluate binding affinity across multiple sites, predict off-target interactions, estimate reaction rates under different conditions."
He pauses briefly, like he’s deciding how much to simplify.
"While accounting for how that compound is metabolized," he adds. "How it’s altered by enzymes, what intermediates form, whether those intermediates are stable, toxic, or reactive."
I stare at him. "You do all that in your head?"
"Yes."
Wow, it sounds so simple… when he says it, but I know it really isn’t. He’s called a genius for a reason.
