“Since 2010, I’ve broken the Average-of-5 record probably 10 times,” he says. Zemdegs’ 5.69-second average was an 0.11-second improvement over his previous best, which was also a world record. When they're finished, competitors eliminate their fastest and slowest times and calculate the mean of the remaining three. (The toy you're probably picturing is just one of many mechanical riddles belonging to the genus of so-called twisty puzzles.) Last month, at a speedcubing competition in Brisbane, he set a new world record of 5.69 seconds in the Average of 5 event, wherein contestants each solve five cubes that have been scrambled according to computer-generated instructions. Zemdegs holds numerous cubing records, but he is best known as the most consistently swift solver of the 3 by 3: the canonical three-layered, Mondrian-colored cube. No matter: It takes him less than seven seconds to transfigure the cube in his hands from scrambled to solved. He looks like he hasn’t been awake for more than 20 minutes. On it: a big, squishy, Rubik’s Cube novelty pillow. Over his shoulder, I can see his unmade bed. It’s early in Sydney, where he’s speaking to me over video chat from his apartment. “It’s my first solve of the day,” says Australian speedcuber Feliks Zemdegs, somewhat sheepishly.

Even on my laptop’s tinny speakers, the sound is unmistakable: the click-clacking, slip-sliding sound of a Rubik’s Cube whipping into shape.

Runix cube tiumer