Genius Club

“Where’s your dad?” Lin Xian asked, his eyes sweeping the crowd but failing to find Li Cheng.

“My dad died when I was little,” Li Ning Ning replied, her gaze drifting upward to where thousands of artificial blue moons adorned the sky. “He was the pioneer of skydiving into Sky City. Sadly, he was also the first to attempt it. No one knew about the laser anti-aircraft zone back then. He jumped from too low an altitude and was instantly vaporized by the lasers.”

Lin Xian fell silent, his eyes wandering as he searched for the beautiful woman he remembered—Li Ning Ning’s mother and Li Cheng’s lover from his first dream. “What about your mom?”

“My mom followed soon after him,” Li Ning Ning said softly, her eyes fierce and unyielding like a butterfly battling the wind.

Lin Xian felt a surge of sympathy. He had met Li Ning Ning in this second world, where she had transformed from a pampered princess into an orphan with no parents left.

“Why do you all insist on reaching Rhine Sky City?” Lin Xian probed further, puzzled by the desperation he sensed. “Why are so many risking their lives? What’s your ultimate goal? Is it for books, history, knowledge?”

Li Ning Ning shook her head. “It’s not just about those things… though they’re important. But when your life and your future are on the line, those pursuits fade into the background.”

“You must be a friend of Big Cat Face, right? If you were from here, you’d know why,” she said, pulling a handkerchief from her pocket. She picked up a little girl clinging to her clothes and gently wiped the festering sores on her neck. Pus oozed continuously, and the wounds showed no signs of healing.

Lin Xian frowned, disturbed. What kind of illness causes this? He noticed many in the crowd bore similar black sores, oozing pus.

“It’s radiation sickness,” Li Ning Ning explained as she put the girl down and tucked away her handkerchief. “We don’t know exactly when it started, but more and more people are getting it. It’s all because of Rhine Sky City.”

Her expression darkened as she glared at the colossal floating structure in the sky. “The radiation might be from the nuclear fusion engines beneath Sky City or from the waste they dump, but either way, its existence has led to an increasing number of people getting sick and dying.”

“This disease isn’t contagious, but it’s incurable. The sores never heal, leading to constant infections and eventually, a painful death.”

“Some babies are stillborn because of it, and those who do survive birth are often deformed. It’s terrifying. The scariest part is… we can’t escape it.”

Li Ning Ning looked over to the helium balloons slowly ascending behind Lin Xian. “At first, everyone tried to flee, but it was futile. The radioactive material spreads with the wind, carried by birds, animals, and insects. It reaches everywhere. There’s no escaping it.”

“That’s why we’re desperate to get into Sky City. My dad believed there must be some medicine there that could make us immune to the radiation sickness. If we can just get a sample, even a single pill or box, we could analyze it and possibly create a cure.”

“Only then can we have a chance to survive and maybe even have a future.”

As Lin Xian absorbed this information, the grim reality of this world—this third dream where Li Cheng and Big Cat Face’s group existed—became clear. The living conditions here were far worse than in the previous dream. Not just for them, but for everyone affected.

The controlled nuclear fusion technology, rather than offering free electricity and an inexhaustible energy supply to all, had exacerbated the divide between the wealthy and the poor… more accurately, between life and death.

Lin Xian suspected the source of the radiation sickness was tied to those countless blue engines running continuously day and night. The residents of Sky City likely had ways to protect themselves from the disease, living carefree lives while those on the surface suffered endlessly without access to special medicine.

According to Li Ning Ning, the disease, though not widespread, had a 100% fatality rate, causing excruciating pain with its never-healing sores.

It was even more dreadful than cancer in this era.

Driven by desperation, heroes like Li Cheng and Big Cat Face risked everything to infiltrate Sky City in hopes of finding a cure.

They had no other choice.

Without the medicine, everyone would eventually succumb to the disease.

Sooner or later, radiation sickness would claim their loved ones, their friends, their families.

This was a crisis where the fate of the entire world hung in the balance.

Yet, getting into Sky City was fraught with peril.

The anti-aircraft defenses extended up to ten kilometers high.

To penetrate the sole gap in the city’s defenses, one had to ascend twenty kilometers using helium balloons, then glide through that narrow opening to evade the anti-aircraft lasers.

The exact location of this gap wasn’t openly known—it was a secret bought with the lives of countless individuals.

This explained the absence of strong men in the local villages…

They had all perished in the skies above Rhine Sky City, reduced to smoke by the ruthless lasers.

“So cruel,” Lin Xian sighed deeply.

He found himself questioning why, as the dreams evolved and technology advanced, life seemed only to worsen, become more segregated, more distant.

Once, it was just a wall that divided New Donghai City from Old Donghai.

Now, it was the vast expanse between the ground and Sky City.

And if technology continued to progress… would these two groups of people eventually gaze at each other across galaxies?

“This is abnormal,” Lin Xian asserted with conviction.

He couldn’t accept that a normal world would evolve in such a distorted manner. It was evident to him…

The future world in the third dream, including the looming presence of Rhine Sky City, was likely another manipulation by the Genius Club—a group intent on twisting human history and distorting the flow of time.

They seemed to relish in humanity’s struggles.

It was baffling…

Were they aliens? Traitors to Earth? What drove them to disrupt human prosperity so vehemently?

What troubled Lin Xian the most was the involvement of Rhine.

Rhine, a company he had founded and named, had somehow become entangled in these malevolent schemes.

Where did things go wrong?

Had his future self aligned with the Genius Club, or had he fought against them and ultimately failed? If it were up to him, Lin Xian was certain it was the latter. Align with those villains? He’d rather meet his end first.

From the day he vowed to avenge Tang Xin and Xu Yun, and to confront adversaries like Ji Xin Shui, Ji Lin, and Zhou Duan Yun, he had stood firmly against these malefactors.

Though Lin Xian never considered himself a paragon of virtue, he certainly didn’t support a world so cruelly manipulated and devoid of hope.

“So… did I fail?” Lin Xian pondered, his gaze lifting to the faint blue glow of Sky City, reminiscent of Yellow Finch’s blue eyes.

Had he failed, allowing Rhine Company to fall into the wrong hands? Was that the reason for the calamity above?

“Hmph, that’s truly infuriating.”

But it didn’t matter.

Even if his future self had failed, that wasn’t the Lin Xian of 2023. For him, Rhine Company was newly established, its ribbon-cutting ceremony still on the horizon.

The future remained unwritten.

The 600 years of history before him were nothing but a piece of scrap paper, ripe for tearing apart.

I am history!

Whatever my defeat, that’s how I’ll reclaim victory!

Lin Xian lowered his gaze to Li Ning Ning. “I’m sorry for not fulfilling my promise to you before, but it’s not too late to make amends now.”

Li Ning Ning blinked, her head tilting in confusion. “Before? We haven’t met before, have we?”

Lin Xian nodded. To her, they hadn’t met yet. But in the previous second dream, he had vowed to help her obliterate New Donghai City.

That plan had never materialized; they hadn’t even breached the city walls before being thrust into this third dream.

No matter.

Lin Xian gazed up at the colossal structure of Sky City, its countless blue nuclear fusion engines a stark reminder of the power it held. “Blowing up this Sky City… would be even more spectacular, wouldn’t it?”

He offered Li Ning Ning a reassuring smile. “I’ll show you fireworks!”

“What are you talking about?” Li Ning Ning chuckled, puzzled yet intrigued. “We just want the special medicine from Sky City. Why blow it up? But…”

She gazed up at Lin Xian with a mixture of awe and anticipation. “If you could actually blow it up, that’d be great. I’ve dreamed of destroying it since I was a child.”

“Don’t worry,” Lin Xian reassured her, turning to stride towards the helium balloon, already inflated and ready for ascent. “This time, I’ll keep my word.”

Li Ning Ning watched him depart, a mix of bewilderment and admiration in her eyes. “What a strange person.”

Lin Xian approached Ah Zhuang, who was already suited up in an astronaut outfit, preparing to don his helmet. Lin Xian clapped him on the shoulder.

“Ah Zhuang.”

“Huh?” Ah Zhuang turned, surprised.

“Get me a spacesuit and parachute, too,” Lin Xian requested, pointing to himself. “I’m going with you!”