Genius Club

This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation

“So that’s how it is.”

At Rhine University, in a small conference room, Liu Feng rubbed his chin thoughtfully and nodded.

The room had only three occupants: Lin Xian, Gao Wen, and Liu Feng.

Not long ago, Lin Xian had rushed to the United States and hurried back to Donghai City, immediately convening Liu Feng and Gao Wen. He shared the astonishing events of 1952, details about the Genius Club, and the mysterious dissipation of Albert Einstein, seeking their analytical assistance.

As the saying goes, three ordinary folks can outsmart a genius.

And with a talent like Emperor Gao Wen participating, they might uncover overlooked blind spots.

…

After listening intently, Liu Feng stood up and looked at Gao Wen, who was also immersed in thought.

“Professor Gao, this is quite a lot to unpack. I suggest we organize it chronologically. What do you think?”

Gao Wen, somewhat flattered, responded, “Professor Liu, please proceed. I’ll follow your lead!”

Seizing the momentum of his brainstorming, Liu Feng walked to the electronic blackboard, picked up an electronic chalk, and wrote down a key year:

1952.

“According to Lin Xian’s account of his temporal journey, 1952 was the origin of all these bizarre events.”

“This year, which should have been ordinary in human history, was transformed when Einstein calculated the universal constant and found the answer, 42. Two spacetime particles spontaneously tore through the fabric of time and entered our world, altering the course of centuries.”

“These two particles brought about two major events: one created the Millennial Stake, and the other granted Einstein immortality, eventually leading to the formation of the Genius Club.”

“Interestingly, the Genius Club was originally meant for good—Einstein founded it to save humanity’s future. But this noble intent was exploited by a ‘mysterious force,’ turning salvation into destruction, pushing human civilization toward an irreversible abyss.”

Gao Wen nodded, adding, “We can analyze the Millennial Stake later. For now, let’s focus on what happened to Einstein.”

“Why would calculating the universal constant, 42, attract the attention of this ‘mysterious force’ and provoke immediate intervention?”

“This suggests that, much like nuclear deterrence or retaliation, the mysterious force seems equally apprehensive about the constant 42. It likely established a countermeasure: the moment someone calculates this constant, two spacetime particles are dispatched—one to anchor the timeline through the Millennial Stake and the other to manipulate the individual who discovered 42, showing them an illusion of the future to mislead further discoveries.”

However, Lin Xian shook his head.

“Gao Wen, your reasoning has three critical flaws—”

“1. If this mysterious force truly fears 42, wouldn’t it be simpler and more efficient to directly kill Einstein or even destroy Earth? Given its ability to manipulate spacetime particles, annihilation would be an easy task.”

“2. Here’s something you don’t know: Einstein wasn’t the only one to calculate 42, but only he and the first Millennial Stake Keeper, CC, were affected by spacetime particles. Afterward, no one else achieved immortality or witnessed an illusory future.”

“3. According to your explanation, the mechanisms of the Millennial Stake and Einstein’s manipulation seem unrelated. But that’s illogical—these two spacetime particles appeared simultaneously, each serving a distinct purpose. They must be interconnected, working in tandem toward a shared goal.”

Tap, tap, tap.

Liu Feng knocked on the blackboard, revealing lines of text he had just written:

“My thoughts align with Lin Xian’s. There must be a critical logical link we’re overlooking. I’ve listed the key facts and mysteries from 1952. Let’s connect them and think it through.”

Lin Xian and Gao Wen turned to look at the board, which displayed the following points:

The second spacetime particle was originally meant for Lin Xian but accidentally hit the first Stake Keeper, CC.

Yellow Finch stated that the Millennial Stake’s purpose is to lock history. The dissipation of the Stake coincides with history becoming locked.

Locking history and showing Einstein an illusory future are part of a coordinated strategy by the mysterious force, likely deeply interconnected.

Newton and Copernicus have been hunting scientists and mathematicians researching the universal constant 42. They must know more about it, but their knowledge still stems from Einstein’s illusory visions.

For the mysterious force, is locking history a higher priority, or is preventing humanity from understanding 42 more critical?

Before Lin Xian revealed his identity as Douglas, Einstein could share much information. Afterward, he abruptly invoked forced evasion, as though deliberately programmed. What triggered this reaction?

Despite possessing the power to annihilate humanity or Earth outright, why does the mysterious force resort to convoluted schemes? What is its true goal? What does it hope to gain?

…

The seven questions indeed cut to the heart of the matter.

It feels like an invisible thread is hidden within the tangled clues, tying all these mysteries together… but what could it be?

Gao Wen stared at the first question and raised his hand:

“As for the first question, I do have some insights. That the spacetime particle was targeting Lin Xian seems to be the most logical explanation.”

“Back in 1952, the first Stake Keeper, CC, was just like everyone else—nothing about her stood out. There was no reason for the spacetime particle to target her specifically.”

“But Lin Xian was different. In 1952, Lin Xian was the only time traveler in the world. I believe—”

“That spacetime particle was intended to erase Lin Xian, turning him into the Millennial Stake!”

“This would not only stabilize spacetime by eliminating the time traveler, who posed the greatest threat to its integrity, but also allow the ‘mysterious force’ to establish the Stake without interference—a win-win scenario.”

“It was CC’s intervention that saved Lin Xian, causing the spacetime particle to miss its mark and mistakenly turn CC into the Stake. While the choice of Stake Keeper didn’t matter much to the mysterious force, failing to eliminate the time traveler must have been a regret for them.”

Liu Feng nodded in agreement with Gao Wen’s conclusion:

“I think so too. Although we don’t fully understand the mechanisms yet, spacetime-related phenomena seem to be inherently drawn to one another.”

Lin Xian, resting his chin on his hand, shifted his focus to the fifth question:

“The fifth question is intriguing. We haven’t considered the prioritization of these two objectives before, and this ties directly to the purpose of the two spacetime particles.”

“Based on my speculation… locking history and the universal constant 42 are weighted differently in the mysterious force’s concerns. They appear to fear 42 far more.”

“You could say that using the Millennial Stake to lock history is their primary objective. Even if this plan fails, they could still establish another Stake elsewhere.”

“But regarding the universal constant 42, the mysterious force’s approach is far more cautious. When you consider both issues together, it becomes clear… Copernicus and Newton seem to have been misled by Einstein to kill scientists researching 42. Moreover, when Einstein realized he had been deceived by an illusory future and tried to reveal some truths about 42 to me, he was silenced and forcibly dissipated.”

Lin Xian adjusted his posture and, after a pause, continued:

“Under normal circumstances, Einstein didn’t need to disappear so quickly. He understood the temporal laws better than anyone. Knowing he couldn’t speak freely, he wouldn’t have tried repeatedly after a couple of failed attempts.”

“And that’s exactly what happened. After being forcibly muted, Einstein tried to speak only once, then remained silent.”

“When Yellow Finch demonstrated the forced evasion mechanism to me, even while muted, it resulted only in transparency and physical weakness, not disappearance. Based on this, Einstein shouldn’t have dissipated after saying just a few words.”

“Yet, despite this… Einstein still disintegrated into blue stardust, which indicates—”

“Einstein was fully aware that his dissolution was inevitable. Even if he stayed silent, it wouldn’t have changed his fate… because the ‘mysterious force’ was determined to eliminate him, disregarding logic.”

The more Lin Xian thought, the clearer his reasoning became:

“I see now… no wonder… no wonder Einstein’s final expression as he lay there was one of sorrow and helplessness. I initially thought it was due to guilt and remorse, but now I understand it was complete resignation—he couldn’t resist.”

“He didn’t want to disappear, but there was nothing he could do to stop it.”

“In that moment, he realized he had been deceived, manipulated, and was about to be forcibly erased. He couldn’t change his fate, nor could he atone for his mistakes. That’s why his final words were filled with regret: ‘For everything, I am deeply sorry.’”

“But he didn’t leave without doing anything. In his last moments, Einstein led Newton to me. It seems he wanted to emphasize that the priority of 42 far outweighs everything else—far more important.”

…

Liu Feng paced in place as he listened to Lin Xian’s analysis. Then, he shook his head:

“Lin Xian, your analysis makes sense, but some of your judgments aren’t entirely accurate.”

“Don’t forget, Einstein told you something very specific—he said he couldn’t see the World-Ending White Light or the Millennial Stake Girl.”

“This implies that Einstein didn’t fully understand the Millennial Stake. It’s even possible that we know more about it than he ever did, so naturally, he could also make mistakes in his judgments.”

Gao Wen stood up, walked to the electronic blackboard, and pointed at the final question:

“I think the key lies here, in the seventh question. When we consider the intentions of the ‘mysterious force,’ we must deduce their purpose and the benefits they gain.”

“So far, murdering human mathematicians or stopping humanity from calculating the universal constant or understanding 42 doesn’t seem to bring them substantial benefits. As Lin Xian mentioned, if they truly feared it, they could simply destroy humanity outright.”

“However… locking history seems to be their real gain—their benefit.”

“But,” Liu Feng spread his hands, “did they actually lock anything?”

He looked back and forth between Lin Xian and Gao Wen:

“This has always puzzled me. They keep claiming that the Millennial Stake locks history, but what exactly does it lock? To use a phrase from two centuries ago… it locks nothing.”

“They keep setting Millennial Stakes, but hasn’t history continued to change? If anything, not setting stakes would stop us from traveling back in time; yet by setting these stakes, they’ve created spacetime rifts, effectively shooting themselves in the foot.”

Lin Xian stood up as well, wagging his finger:

“There are two possibilities.”

“The first is that the Millennial Stake locks a single worldline. While we may indeed have changed the future, in doing so, we’ve likely jumped to a new worldline. In essence, the original worldline remains unaltered.”

“The second possibility… could it be that the history being locked by the Millennial Stake isn’t our human history but rather their history?”

He proposed a groundbreaking idea:

“Remember our earlier discussions? Yellow Finch mentioned that, over the years, it’s interfered with history by killing ants, eating chickens, ducks, fish, and geese. These acts technically disturb history but don’t break spacetime elasticity.”

“Let’s make a hypothetical scenario: if I poured boiling water into every ant nest in Donghai City, killing thousands of ants, would that break spacetime elasticity?”

Liu Feng shook his head:

“Even if you wiped out all the ants in X Country, I doubt it would break spacetime elasticity.”

Suddenly, Liu Feng’s eyes widened as he came to a realization:

“You mean…”

“To the ‘mysterious force,’ humanity might be like ants! Our influence on spacetime curvature and worldlines might be so insignificant that it doesn’t matter to them!”

Lin Xian nodded:

“Look at the largest change we’ve ever made to worldlines—moving from 0.0000000 to 0.0001764. That number is minuscule. Even with all our efforts, we can’t influence the number to the left of the decimal point.”

“Could it be that our struggles, no matter how desperate, are as meaningless to the ‘mysterious force’ as ants’ struggles are to us? To them, only the World-Ending White Light and the universal constant 42 represent spacetime elasticity worth noticing.”

“From the natural development of human civilization to its complete extinction, it’s merely a shift from 0.0000000 to 0.0001764. Liu Feng, have you ever wondered what the numbers to the left of the decimal might represent?”

“What kind of worldlines might exist at 42.0000000 or 4200000.0000000?”

As Lin Xian and Liu Feng debated, Gao Wen closed his eyes.

In his mind, he pictured an ant colony annihilated by boiling water.

To ants, isn’t the boiling water their version of the World-Ending White Light?

And on the scale of the universe, humanity’s insignificance far surpasses that of ants. Compared to the countless stars in the cosmos, humanity is less than a speck of dust—Earth itself is but one of many planets orbiting an unremarkable star.

“History…” he murmured.

What is history?

Does an ant’s history count as history?

Then does humanity’s history count?

Is an ant’s history worth locking?

Then is humanity’s history worth locking?

Suddenly, Gao Wen’s eyes shot open. He scanned the seven questions Liu Feng had listed, from top to bottom, as if tracing a thread through a labyrinth of mysteries.

It was as though he’d found the proverbial needle in a haystack—one capable of threading all the questions together, revealing a singular answer.

“I… I’ve got it.”

His voice trembled.

Snatching the electronic chalk from Liu Feng’s hand, he scribbled a time on the board:

2624, August 29th, 00:42.

“This is the arrival time of the World-Ending White Light!”

His voice grew excited:

“And this is also the 20th birthday of the last Millennial Stake Keeper, the exact moment when they were supposed to dissipate!”

“The dissipation of the Stake and the arrival of the White Light—these are futures Einstein couldn’t see. Yet they happen at the same time. This isn’t a coincidence; they are undoubtedly connected!”

“It seems everything… everything revolves around the Millennial Stake! Even the arrival of the White Light might be tied to the Stake!”

He frantically tapped on the third question on the board with the electronic chalk:

“Now, let’s revisit the foundational question… Why did the two spacetime particles create both the Stake and Einstein? What’s the link between them—what secret do they share?”

Taking a deep breath, Gao Wen turned to face the others:

“I think I’ve figured out why the ‘mysterious force’ showed Einstein a false future. In simple terms, they are so powerful that they don’t see humanity’s actions as a threat.”

“To them, all our combined value is less than that of a single Millennial Stake; all our combined threats pale in comparison to the secret of the universal constant 42. The ‘mysterious force’ isn’t afraid of our technological advancement or rapid progress… They only fear 42—the one thing capable of threatening them!”

Swallowing hard, he spoke solemnly:

“My guess is this—”

“The Millennial Stake isn’t locking our history. It’s locking their history.”

“And the true purpose of deceiving and exploiting Einstein isn’t something as trivial as destroying humanity… It’s to obscure a deeper truth—to prevent humanity from uncovering the secret of the universal constant 42, ensuring that the Millennial Stake can anchor history and lock it in place!”

This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation