Genius Club

Chapter 72: Chapter 72 Disturbance

August 28, 2624…

It’s the same day.

The time in the Dream World hasn’t changed.

But besides time… everything else in the dream has changed.

“Wait a second.”

Lin Xian propped himself against the mossy and muddy stone wall with one hand, while the other was pressed to his forehead in thought.

[Space-Time Butterfly Effect].

Obviously.

The Dream World had undergone another [Temporal Flux].@@novelbin@@

So what was the cause of the change?

What was the source?

What was the anchor?

When did the butterfly flap its wings?

Lin Xian opened his eyes…

He recalled the news he had seen before going to bed last night:

“East Sea University is currently receiving and organizing Xu Yun’s research materials, as well as his unfinished thesis, which will be published to the world posthumously, in accordance with Professor Xu Yun’s last wishes.”

“Perhaps that’s the reason.”

His heartbeat steadied, and the lost sense of security gradually returned.

This was indeed his Dream World, no mistake about it.

He hadn’t watched the news today, but judging by what he saw, East Sea University must have published Xu Yun’s research materials.

“Not quite right. Even if they hadn’t been published yet, as soon as the official organization intervened and took over Xu Yun’s research materials, that moment already became an [irreversible anchor point].”

“Because official organizations are large and reliable, publishing these materials as Xu Yun wished is just a matter of sooner or later. But if the officials hadn’t got involved and Xu Yun’s research materials were just sitting in the lab and his thesis unfinished, with everything being unique, unbacked copies, the potential for disruption… would still be quite variable.”

Anyway.

The space-time butterfly had still flapped its wings, and a Temporal Flux had still occurred.

It’s just that this time the butterfly’s wings must have smoked from the flapping… letting a hundred and eighty thousand twisters turn the future world 600 years later into a completely new look.

This is reasonable in terms of space-time logic.

But the question is—

“[Why has the technological level of the future world regressed?]”

Lin Xian looked around.

No matter how he saw it… the technological, economic, and living standards here were all too backward.

In the previous dreams, although also backward, they were not far from Lin Xian’s own year of 2023, and could still be considered a modern city.

But the scene before him… was more developed than his grandfather’s village that Lin Xian visited as a child!

At least his grandfather’s place had a road.

But here, the zigzagging stone paths, let alone being able to carry cars, even cycling on them would make one’s frame twist and turn.

Then, looking inside the small convenience store.

Almost everything was wrapped in worn, greasy paper.

Tungsten filament light bulbs, thermos liners, shoelaces, crude hardware pieces, colorful shampoos, and various snacks that one wouldn’t dare to eat…

What’s going on?

The good year of 2624…

Why does life resemble the 80s and 90s of the last century?

If Xu Yun’s paper had been published and the Dream World had undergone a great change, with things like starship cannons and space elevators… Lin Xian wouldn’t find it strange at all.

Because that would be logical.

Even Professor Xu Yun himself had said, once the Hibernation Pod was out, the world’s situation might be rewritten, and human technology would surely enter a rapidly advancing era; the future was immeasurable.

But rapid advancement…

How did it turn into rapid regression?

Lin Xian couldn’t convince himself, and he couldn’t accept the reality before his eyes.

To retreat a step back, even if Xu Yun’s thesis had been published and there was still no progress in the future world’s technology level, and he still “arrived” in that square, he could have accepted that.

But oddly enough, after the publication of that one paper, technology had regressed by decades!

“What exactly happened in these 600 years?”

…

Inside the small convenience store.

The vest-wearing old man stopped his fan and looked at the tall man at the doorway, whose expression was changing:

“What’s the matter, young man? Are you looking to buy something?”

“No, no…” Lin Xian waved his hand:

“Old man, I want to ask—”

Clang.

During their conversation, a man in black suddenly burst out from behind Lin Xian, wearing a black hat.

He was fast!

After knocking over the shelf outside, he quickly grabbed the cash box from on top of the glass counter and turned to run!

“Hey!”

The old man immediately jumped up! He grabbed the thief’s arm:

“Put it down! Put it down, you! Ah—”

A kick landed on the old man’s belly, and he fell next to the glass counter, grinding his teeth in pain.

Pointing at the fleeing thief, he looked at Lin Xian:

“Young… young man… help me… catch him…”

“Ah, okay.”

Lin Xian turned and, with his parkour skills fully engaged, chased after the dark figure into the night.

He had many questions for this old man, and retrieving the cash box for him would make for better communication.

The thief was clearly familiar with this area.

Turning left and right, he moved effortlessly on the rugged path, swiftly dodging and weaving, blurring Lin Xian’s vision.

But Lin Xian was no pushover.

Years of parkour skills had not been neglected for a single day, and with a series of leaps and bounds, he caught up to the thief in just a few turns!

“Take this!” “Ah—”

A flying kick sent the thief tumbling to the ground.

Lin Xian quickly stepped over him, pinning him down firmly, then snatched the cash box from his hands and set it aside. Just as he was about to tie up the thief—

Shick!

The sound of a sharp knife piercing flesh.

Lin Xian’s vision reddened as he looked down at his chest…

The thief had hidden a dagger at his waist!

And now it was deeply buried in his own heart!

Spurt!

As the thief pulled out the dagger, the immense blood pressure forced the blood from the wound, spraying it far away.

Lin Xian felt faint, just as he was about to stand up…

“Damn it, that’s what you get for meddling! That’s what you get for meddling!”

Shick! Shick! Shick! Shick! Shick!

The thief was ruthless and precise! Stabbing Lin Xian in vital spots! Another slice at the neck! Another at the head!

…

…

Whoosh—

Lin Xian abruptly sat up in bed!

He was breathing rapidly.

Clutching at his heart.

His heartbeat was fast and couldn’t slow down!

Clenching his teeth, Lin Xian reached for the lamp on the bedside table and pressed the switch—

Click.

…

In the suburbs of Donghai City, within a lakeside villa, the grand crystal chandelier in the living room lit up.

The entire room was as bright as daylight.

“Since I’m at home… might as well turn on the lights…”

A hand with dry, wrinkled skin moved away from the light switch.

The old man closed the door and walked in, looking at the pale youth squatting among the disordered books:

“How many times have I told you, this is bad for your eyes… your nearsightedness is already severe.”

“Or do you think reading under the moonlight is cool? I thought you’d outgrown that phase… Ji Lin.”

Ji Lin was engrossed and didn’t speak.

He was rolling a copy of “Mathematical Monthly” in one hand and holding a pencil in the other, writing swiftly on the magazine’s subset pages.

Whoosh—

He quickly finished writing and tossed the magazine aside.

Then he picked up the February issue of “Mathematical Monthly” lying nearby.

The old man stepped forward to pick up the magazine from the floor.

It was the January 2022 issue of “Mathematical Monthly.” Since the villa had been unoccupied for a long time, the subscribed magazines and newspapers were neatly piled up in the living room.

The old man flipped to the page where Ji Lin had just been writing…

It was a page of Sudoku, a highly complex mathematical puzzle.

The Sudoku grid is divided into nine squares, each also divided into nine smaller cells.

Given certain numbers and conditions in these eighty-one cells, the challenge is to use logic and deduction to fill in the remaining cells with numbers 1-9 in such a way that each of those numbers appears only once in each row, column, and square.

It is a game that tests both intelligence and mental arithmetic, and even world-class experts can take three to four minutes to solve such a difficult version of Sudoku.

Rustle—

Ji Lin tossed over the February issue as well.

The old man looked down…

This February issue also featured an irregular, highly challenging Sudoku puzzle. But in the time it took him to pick up and glance at the magazine… Ji Lin had already completed it.

Looking up again, Ji Lin under the moonlight was already working on the new Sudoku in the March issue of “Mathematical Monthly.”

“Actually, even if you hadn’t attended Xu Yun’s memorial service, I would have called you to Donghai.”

The old man seemed used to Ji Lin’s indifference, not taking it to heart, and muttered to himself:

“Xu Yun… he shouldn’t have died.”

“If he shouldn’t have died, how come he did?”

Ji Lin’s pencil moved back and forth on the magazine, not looking up—his quiet response was out of character.

“Because someone harmed him!”

The old man clenched his teeth, his voice a bit hoarse:

“I knew Xu Yun very well… he was a good person, but his talent was somewhat lacking. Not just one Xu Yun, but even ten Xu Yuns, a hundred thousand Xu Yuns! He could never have developed the Hibernation Pod Filling Liquid in his lifetime!”

“So what?”

Ji Lin blinked his half-open eyes and threw the March issue of “Mathematical Monthly” to the floor, having completed the Sudoku in one go with no erasures.

“So, someone is secretly causing trouble, changing everything!”

The old man pulled out a rolled-up list of names from his pocket and threw it to Ji Lin:

“I suspect someone is…”

“[Distorting history]!”