Genius Club

“Is this… a trash can robot?” Lin Xian asked himself as he stood up, brushing the dust off his pants. He realized he was still wearing his bulky spacesuit, which explained the heat he felt; the temperature in Sky City was around 20 degrees Celsius, typical of a midsummer day. He began to peel off the cumbersome suit piece by piece until he was finally free from it.

As he undressed, Lin Xian’s attention was drawn to a small, round robot he had stumbled upon. It was clumsily trying to right itself, using its mechanical arms to push against the ground. Once upright, it rolled toward a crumpled piece of paper, its treads whirring softly.

“Trash! Trash! Detected trash!” the robot chirped, sounding almost enthusiastic.

Lin Xian watched silently, his curiosity piqued. Despite its somewhat battered appearance, with chipped paint and worn edges, the robot displayed a surprising level of sophistication. It could self-correct its position and accurately identify litter—a testament to its advanced programming. Lin Xian wondered if these robots were common in Rhine Sky City, given the city’s access to abundant energy from controlled nuclear fusion.

As he observed, the robot extended its mechanical arm, deftly picked up the paper ball with a click, and dropped it into its compartment with a satisfying pop. The scene was strangely endearing. Lin Xian chuckled to himself; such technology was unheard of back in 2023.

The robot, small enough to be mistaken for a large water cooler, wasn’t built to handle large trash. Lin Xian considered tossing his spacesuit into it but dismissed the idea, knowing it wouldn’t fit.

His attention soon shifted toward a nearby statue of Zhao Ying Jun, but before he could take a closer look, the robot’s eyes flashed green, and it darted toward him, declaring, “Trash! Trash! Detected trash!”

“Huh?” Lin Xian looked around, confused. The plaza around the statue was immaculate—there was no trash in sight.

“These aren’t trash; they’re my pants,” Lin Xian retorted, a mix of amusement and annoyance in his voice.

The robot persisted, lacking a communication feature. Not wanting to cause a scene, Lin Xian reluctantly cut the lower part of his pants with a knife from his pack and let the robot take it.

The robot quickly processed the fabric and then unexpectedly grabbed Lin Xian’s ankle. “Trash! Trash! Detected trash!”

“Are you kidding me?” Lin Xian exclaimed, lightly smacking the robot’s head.

He speculated that the robot might be malfunctioning, possibly due to a fall it had taken earlier. The plaza was relatively quiet, but Lin Xian noticed a few onlookers nearby. Wanting to avoid drawing more attention, he tried to free himself from the persistent machine.

“Let go,” he commanded, prying the claw from his ankle and pushing the robot away. “Go sweep over there.”

But the robot was relentless. It whirred back toward him and grabbed his ankle again, repeating its earlier proclamation.

“This dumb robot is really starting to annoy me,” Lin Xian muttered under his breath. With a sigh, he lifted the surprisingly heavy robot—comparable in weight to Chu An Qing—and carried it to the edge of the platform. With a frustrated grunt, he tossed it down. The robot hit the ground with a heavy thud, its structure visibly damaged, yet it continued to flail its mechanical arms and declare, “Trash! Trash! Detected trash!”

“Go play by yourself,” Lin Xian said dismissively, turning his attention back to the statue of Zhao Ying Jun. He stepped back to get a better view. The statue, positioned on a raised platform, depicted a woman around forty, her features mature yet strikingly beautiful.

It was unmistakably Zhao Ying Jun, though she appeared older than the version Lin Xian knew from 2023. He had once entertained the idea that Yellow Finch, another figure from his past, might have been a time-traveling Zhao Ying Jun, but the differences in their appearances had dissuaded him from this theory.

Standing there, Lin Xian felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him. “What an amazing woman,” he murmured, recalling their past conversations. Although he had just seen her earlier that morning, the centuries seemed to stretch between them here in Sky City.

“What did you leave for me in this Sky City?” Lin Xian wondered aloud, his voice tinged with both curiosity and a hint of loneliness.

His reverie was abruptly interrupted by the familiar clamping noise of the robot, which had managed to follow him back to the statue. “Trash! Trash! Detected trash!”

Lin Xian’s brow furrowed, frustration mounting.

This dumb robot was unbelievably annoying, clinging to him like a stubborn child. How had it climbed back up so quickly after being thrown off the platform?

“Trash! Trash! Detected trash!” The robot’s eyes glowed a bright green as it clamped down on Lin Xian’s ankle again.

Frustrated, Lin Xian snapped, “Damn it, what’s wrong with you?” He pried the robot’s claw off his leg, picked it up, and noted that it felt slightly lighter after having disposed of its trash.

Determined to get rid of the nuisance, Lin Xian carried the robot to a nearby cluster of trees. He hung it upside down on a tree branch, hoping it would stay put this time.

“Stay there and think about what you’ve done,” Lin Xian said with a hint of satisfaction.

However, no sooner had he turned his back than the robot began emitting a shrill alarm and its eyes flashed a dangerous red. “Detecting malicious attack! Sending alert!” it cried out.

Suddenly, thin red laser beams shot towards him from multiple directions. Lin Xian looked up, his eyes widening at the sight of small drones moving silently across the sky.

“Drones without propellers? How are they flying?” Lin Xian recalled similar red-glowing drones from his past encounters in New Donghai City, and a shiver ran down his spine.

Without wasting a moment, he took the robot down from the tree and hastily set it upright on the ground, snapping its lid back into place.

The robot’s alarm slowly weakened, and its eyes shifted back to a peaceful green. “Alert deactivated. Resuming cleaning,” it announced before clamping onto Lin Xian’s ankle once more. “Trash! Trash! Detected trash!”

Lin Xian sighed deeply, exasperated. This old, stubborn robot was truly testing his patience. Neither ignoring it nor confronting it seemed to work. What was he supposed to do?

“Alright, buddy,” Lin Xian crouched down, facing the robot, “What do you want from me?”

Upon closer inspection, Lin Xian noticed the robot was quite old, its exterior covered in rust spots. It seemed oddly out of place in the advanced, futuristic setting of Sky City.

Earlier, after throwing it off a platform, Lin Xian had spotted a metal nameplate inside the robot. It read “Micro Trash Processing Robot VV.”

VV? The name rang a bell. Lin Xian remembered that VV was a nickname used by CC for a long-haired, bearded man who had fallen from grace—possibly a future version of himself. Why would this trash robot share that name?

Examining the nameplate more closely, Lin Xian realized VV was the model number of the robot. But was this merely a coincidence?

His gaze drifted to a nearby statue of Zhao Ying Jun and then back to the VV robot. It didn’t feel like a coincidence. Zhao Ying Jun had designed this city with meticulous attention to detail, and everything had a purpose.

The area around the statue was eerily empty. Despite seeing people and flying vehicles earlier, now there was no one, no sound—it was silent.

This robot was the only other presence near Zhao Ying Jun’s statue. It couldn’t just be a coincidence. Perhaps the robot was a clue left by Zhao Ying Jun?

“What could be hidden inside this robot?” Lin Xian pondered. He recalled that the robot hadn’t triggered an alarm when thrown off the platform but had when hung on a tree. Its alarm system seemed tied to its physical orientation.

“Let’s give it a try,” Lin Xian decided, lifting the robot and smashing it to the ground. The robot’s eyes remained green. “Trash! Trash! Detected trash!” Fortunately, no alarm was triggered.

Lin Xian continued to dismantle the robot, eventually breaking it into pieces. He sifted through the debris but found nothing of significance.

“Maybe I was wrong,” Lin Xian muttered, a hint of guilt coloring his tone. He had hoped to uncover something important, a clue left by Zhao Ying Jun, but found nothing.

Apologizing to the remains of the robot, he resolved to not break it the next day. Perhaps the robot’s malfunction was simply due to the fall. If Zhao Ying Jun had indeed left a message, it wouldn’t be so easily discovered.

As he looked up at the moon, Lin Xian pondered the potential enemies. Who could oppose Zhao Ying Jun, the mastermind capable of building a world-dominating Sky City?

Gazing at the starry sky, Lin Xian thought about the Genius Club, suspecting it had a hand in the alterations of this world. The battle against the Genius Club appeared to be a hidden war, with Zhao Ying Jun leaving him clues to alter the course of history.

“I won’t lose this time,” Lin Xian vowed, standing before Zhao Ying Jun’s statue with renewed determination. He was ready to uncover the secrets of Sky City and face the challenges ahead, determined to change the future.