Genius Club

This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation

“So… that’s how it is…”

Lin Xian gazed at the pristine Genius Club Invitation inside the vacuum safe. Although he did not move, countless clues connected in his mind, unraveling many truths.

“Lin Xian, be careful when you take it out.”

Beside him, the Aluminum Alloy Trashcan Robot, VV, warned:

“Even though this is a vacuum safe, it’s not a time machine. Paper, such a fragile material, becomes naturally brittle and dry after centuries of storage, even if it’s not oxidized.”

“Don’t worry, I understand,” Lin Xian replied, momentarily setting aside his thoughts.

He carefully reached into the safe and cradled the invitation with both hands.

The texture felt just as it should. As someone who had personally handled both genuine and counterfeit invitations, Lin Xian could immediately tell this was authentic.

He gently bent the card after retrieving it, noticing its resilience—it hadn’t turned into something as fragile as dried seaweed:

“It seems fine. Vacuum storage really is effective.”

VV nudged Lin Xian’s knee with a mechanical claw, signaling for him to crouch down so it could see better with its glowing green eyes:

“So… this invitation, it really is the last authentic Genius Club Invitation, isn’t it?”

Its green light flickered as it stared intently at Lin Xian.

“Just as you hypothesized earlier—your invitation, the one obtained from the mirror, was indeed acquired through illegitimate means, essentially an extra one conjured out of thin air! It doesn’t belong to the original eight invitations issued by Einstein!”

“No, no, no,” Lin Xian corrected, shaking his head.

“You’re thinking about it the wrong way, VV. Consider this carefully: Einstein could see every corner of the world, every second of everything that happens.”

“Do you think he wouldn’t know that my invitation came from the mirror via a cheat? Of course, he knew. Not only did Einstein know I acquired my invitation this way, but he was also aware that Newton hid one invitation…”

“Yet, despite all of this, Einstein still acknowledged my identity as No. 9. There’s even a specific detail to note—after I used the so-called cheated invitation to join the Genius Club, he had Turing shut down the club’s newcomer guidance system.”

“This implies that my invitation is both authentic and valid—it truly counts as one of the eight invitations he issued. Do you follow?”

“My so-called cheated invitation is actually this very invitation here in Newton’s safe.”

“These two invitations… are actually one and the same!”

?

The Aluminum Alloy Trashcan Robot, VV, tilted its head.

“You keep insisting it’s one invitation when there are clearly two… Wait, could it be!”

VV’s green eyes flashed rapidly in realization.

“Are you saying that the invitation you have was actually obtained from the future—or rather, sent back from the future? But how would that work with spacetime logic? From the perspective of worldlines, it seems paradoxical.”

Lin Xian nodded.

“It’s complicated, and yes, there are some aspects that don’t make sense. But just because it doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean the hypothesis is wrong. It could simply mean that our understanding of the Temporal Laws is incomplete.”

“On the other hand, if we think about it simply, having two invitations appear simultaneously isn’t unreasonable. Their relationship is akin to that between Ying Jun and Yellow Finch. Future objects can coexist with their original counterparts in the same timeline.”

“However… conjecture alone isn’t enough. To confirm whether this invitation is identical to mine, we need to verify it.”

Saying this, Lin Xian lowered his gaze to the red wax seal attached to the invitation.

Through the light, he could see a distinct black opaque object sealed inside. No doubt, it was the Genius Club’s Golden Badge.

To attend the club’s meetings, one must use this NFC device to connect to the network, which would then allow entry to the virtual meeting room via VR glasses.

Pinching the red wax seal between his fingers, Lin Xian gently twisted it. With almost no resistance, the wax came off—age had eroded its adhesive quality.

He then unfolded the invitation.

As expected, the interior was blank, identical to the one he had previously acquired from the mirror.

“In other words, to verify whether these two invitations are the same, we must analyze the Golden Badge. But… there’s no NFC equipment here. I’ll need to dismantle and study it back home.”

“There is! There is! How can you say there isn’t?”

VV swiveled around, attempting to tilt its body, pointing to an area just above its tracks—roughly equivalent to the “waistline” of a trashcan.

“I have an NFC scanner right here! Just take the Golden Badge out of the wax and scan it on my… uh, back end. I’ll read the encryption key inside and compare it with the one from your previous badge!”

“…”

Lin Xian was speechless, staring at VV’s awkwardly positioned NFC scanner.

“Why would anyone install an NFC scanner in such a strange location? What was the original design intention?”

“Because NFC has been obsolete for ages!” VV retorted, still trying to nudge its “back end” into position.

“When Zhao Ying Jun oversaw my design project, she specifically instructed the engineers to include an NFC scanner. She was as meticulous as ever, foreseeing that after your hibernation, you might still need to use the Genius Club’s Golden Badge. Although NFC had been phased out by the 23rd century, she decided to leave one in my system for you.”

“As for why it’s in this obscure spot… well, you’d have to ask the engineers. Maybe, to them, such outdated and useless tech was only fit for such a corner.”

“Now hurry up! Stop hesitating. Place the Golden Badge here. When Zhao Ying Jun tested me before, she already scanned your previous badge. I still have its encryption key stored. A quick comparison, and I’ll know if they’re identical.”

“Alright.”

Despite the many complaints he could make, Lin Xian was grateful for Ying Jun’s foresight.

Effortlessly, he extracted the Golden Badge from the wax seal and placed it against VV’s NFC scanner…

Beep, beep.

Two soft tones rang out.

VV nodded.

“You’re right. These two Golden Badges are completely identical, as if they were copy-pasted. Not a single difference.”

“I suppose this explains why, in the Fourth Dreamscape, Newton knew precisely that you could traverse the future—and was waiting to capture you.”

“Yes.”

This was the revelation Lin Xian had just pieced together.

He had always believed that his acquisition of the invitation through cheating—from the mirror—was something only Einstein would know. The other members of the Genius Club couldn’t possibly discern the truth.

After all, everyone had solved the puzzles from the painting “Sorrowful Einstein” and followed the trail to find an invitation, ultimately joining the Genius Club.

No one knew how others had deciphered the puzzle or where they had obtained their invitation. Thus, nobody doubted themselves.

But who could have expected such a twist?

The cunning Newton had secretly kept an additional invitation!

This meant that Newton and Copernicus were fully aware that, including Einstein, the Genius Club could have no more than eight members—making it absolutely impossible for a ninth member to appear.

“I suspect that when I first entered the Genius Club’s meeting hall, Newton and Copernicus were extremely surprised,” Lin Xian analyzed. “Although they appeared calm on the surface, they must have been inwardly puzzled, wondering where I got my invitation.”

“At the same time, my ability to traverse time and retrieve objects from the future must have been exposed at that moment,” he concluded.

With that realization, Lin Xian’s eyes lit up. “VV, I remember now,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“It was after I joined the Genius Club that Copernicus began asking Einstein about time travel and time travel machines.”

“So that’s how it is! This ties many clues together. Let’s sort things out,” Lin Xian said as he grabbed a pen from his desk, spun it twice between his fingers, and began organizing his thoughts on paper:

“First, shortly after Einstein founded the Genius Club, Copernicus and Newton were the first to decipher the hidden code in the Sorrowful Einstein painting and received their invitations. They joined the Genius Club one after the other.”

“The timeline, I estimate, must have been before 1980 because by that year, Galileo and Da Vinci had already joined the club. By then, Copernicus and Newton were already putting on a coordinated act.”

“Next, Copernicus and Newton monopolized access to Einstein. By working together, they learned many secrets and truths, including aspects of the Universal Constant 42. Then, they decided to collaborate further within the Genius Club, playing good cop and bad cop—one as the nice guy, the other as the tough one—to subtly and overtly advance their plans.”

“But that wasn’t enough. Later, they discovered another painting. Clever as they were, the two of them decoded its hidden message together and obtained a brand-new invitation.”

“They could have given that invitation to someone else, like… Ji Xin Shui, or perhaps another loyal ally willing to serve their agenda.”

Lin Xian’s thoughts grew increasingly clear. He realized that this extra invitation could even connect to the storyline of the Seven Deadly Sins.

“No, that’s not correct,” VV interrupted.

“Lin Xian, you’re overlooking something. The Genius Club didn’t begin using the online VR meeting mode until after 2004. This means that Einstein must have replaced the still-undiscovered invitations sometime after 2004.”

“Based on our earlier speculation, the original invitations definitely didn’t include a Golden Emblem. Limited by technological constraints, there was no internet or VR tech back then, so the original invitations would have been simple paper documents, with all meeting information handwritten inside.”

“After 2004, when the club decided to adopt the online meeting mode, the updated invitations sealed an NFC Golden Emblem within their wax stamps as an identity key for attending meetings.”

“Therefore, since the invitation Newton hid contained a Golden Emblem, it’s clear that Newton only found that painting—and the invitation—sometime after 2004. By then, Copernicus had been in contact with Ji Xin Shui for quite some time. Ji Xin Shui had already risen to fame, becoming a leading academic figure and serving as the director of the research institute at Donghai University.”

“However, we still don’t know when Copernicus promised Ji Xin Shui an invitation to the Genius Club. If it was only after 2004, then your guess might be valid,” VV concluded.

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“But…” VV extended the Aluminum Alloy Clip and made a neck-slashing gesture.

“From Copernicus’s attitude toward Ji Xin Shui and his complete disregard for Ji’s life, it’s clear that Ji was nothing more than a puppet—a clown—a dispensable pawn.”

“At least in my opinion, Copernicus never intended to give this precious invitation to Ji Xin Shui. Among the countless successors from the future, Ji Xin Shui wasn’t Copernicus’s first lackey, nor would he be the last.”

Lin Xian waved dismissively.

“That’s not the point. What I mean is, Copernicus and Newton could have added another ally to the Genius Club. But in the end, they likely chose caution and decided to seal the invitation instead.”

“In doing so, the Genius Club, including Einstein, could only ever have eight members. A ninth genius would be entirely unreasonable—unless someone managed to steal the invitation from Newton.”

“But the odds of that are incredibly low. There are three test questions on the back of the invitation that need to be answered. It’s not something that can be done quickly or by just anyone.”

“So… from the moment I joined the Genius Club, Copernicus and Newton must have known that among the members who joined after they obtained that invitation… there was undoubtedly someone who had acquired their invitation through time travel or temporal transmission.”

VV mimicked Lin Xian’s gesture, spreading their hands wide.

“If we consider the worst-case scenario, where Copernicus and Newton only found the invitation and hid it after Kevin Walker joined the Genius Club, then there’s no need to guess who can communicate with the future. Your sudden appearance essentially gave you away.”

“However, looking at the situation back then, your sudden emergence in the Genius Club indeed threw them off balance. That also explains why Copernicus fell for your fake ‘spacetime particle intelligence.’ Your words and identity were too convincing, leaving Copernicus unwilling to risk assuming you were lying.”

“In fact, if they didn’t have much knowledge about time travelers, they might even have suspected you of being one.”

“But I still have a question. Copernicus, with his obsessive reverence for 42 and his so-called respect for scientists, always adhered to a principle of never killing the innocent.”

“Newton, on the other hand, is completely different. He clearly has far fewer scruples than Copernicus. He disregards principles, rituals, and obsession… So why has he never caused trouble for you?”

Hearing VV’s analysis, Lin Xian shook his head.

“The answer is simple, and Newton himself just gave it—”

“‘Everything is to maintain the stability of the worldline.’”

Leaning back in his chair, Lin Xian exhaled through his nose and spoke slowly:

“Although Copernicus and Newton worked together, there were still disagreements between them on the finer details.”

“Copernicus valued respect and rituals, while Newton prioritized ensuring the stability of the perfect worldline at all costs. Their focus was different.”

“The fact that I killed Copernicus? Newton must have known. That’s also why Copernicus smiled before he died.”

“Because with the last of his life, he ensured that Newton could definitively identify the person disrupting history and communicating with the future—me.”

“Afterward, when Einstein declared the perfect worldline achieved, Newton had already accepted that my existence was a part of maintaining that stability. Naturally, he wouldn’t trouble me.”

“For Newton, his only concern was the worldline and the most beautiful future for humanity as described by Einstein. Even Einstein’s death—and Newton’s choice to take his own life today without revealing any information to me—was, in his eyes, part of maintaining the stability of the worldline.”

…

For a long time, Lin Xian and VV remained silent.

VV’s green glow flickered softly before dimming entirely.

“Lin Xian,” VV finally said, its voice low and melancholic, “I suddenly feel an overwhelming sadness.”

It lowered its gaze.

“I’m not grieving Newton’s death, not exactly. It’s just… have you noticed? Whether it’s Einstein, Copernicus, even Gauss, who caused your separation from Zhao Yingjun and Yu Xi, or Kevin Walker, who tried to kill you…”

“Every single member of the Genius Club—none of them were born villains or killers who found joy in evil. They all had a heart to save the world. And yet… they were deceived by a fabricated future orchestrated by some unseen hand, driving them down a path of error and extremism.”

“I think they must have tried, at some point, to save the future through gentler, more acceptable methods. Like Da Vinci and Elon Musk did. But every time, Einstein’s feedback told them they had failed. Left with no alternative, they turned to these twisted paths and came to believe in a false future.”

Lin Xian said nothing.

Of course, he understood what VV meant.

The members of the Genius Club—though most were now dead—were undeniably world-class in intelligence and talent.

If they had been given proper guidance, truthful feedback…

Perhaps, even in the face of the mysterious World-Ending White Light, this group of geniuses, standing at the pinnacle of human intellect, could have united and triumphed.

Suddenly, a spark of inspiration flashed through Lin Xian’s mind.

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That’s it.

The Genius Club itself wasn’t flawed.

Einstein himself wasn’t flawed.

The intentions of these geniuses were good.

It was only the deceptive future created by a mysterious force that misled everyone, causing these geniuses to steer the world astray.

But what if…

A true gathering of geniuses could be forged?

What if true unity could be achieved?

What if a truthful future could be fed back?

What if genuine responsibility was embraced?

Could everything be saved then? Could Einstein’s regrets be resolved, the geniuses’ mistakes corrected, and humanity’s impending doom averted?

Lin Xian took a deep breath and stood up.

He rubbed the Genius Club Golden Emblem in his hand, gazing out at the moon rising slowly in the night sky.

“The Genius Club was never at fault. It’s an organization that inscribed ‘great power entails great responsibility’ into its principles, that pursued ‘a brighter future for humanity,’ and firmly believed that ‘genius comes with both rights and obligations.’”

“I’ve never regretted joining this club. And I know Einstein’s decision to create this club and design its emblem in this way was, in large part, because of Douglas… because of me.”

“So, by that logic, I could be considered half a founder of the Genius Club, couldn’t I? Which means, in this moment, with great power comes great responsibility. I must step up to this duty.”

“VV,” Lin Xian said with unwavering resolve, lowering his gaze to the Aluminum Alloy Trashcan.

“Let’s create… a new Genius Club!”

This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation