Genius Club

Chapter 93: Chapter 91: The Boss (Vote for Monthly Pass)

On the way here, Lin Xian had been pondering who the boss mentioned by Big Face Cat could possibly be?

He had thought of countless possibilities.

But without exception, they were all positive characters with respectable jobs.

After all…

In this dream, Big Face Cat had become a warm-hearted, kind-hearted, good villager.

Though his idiosyncrasies remained, his conduct wasn’t bad, and he was respected and loved in the village, as could be seen from the villagers’ attitude toward Big Face Cat.

Without a doubt, Big Face Cat had become a partner of justice.

Therefore, as one might imagine,

The boss that Lian Gang served should also be a righteous person.

Big Face Cat was simple and naive; the characteristics of a double agent, both righteous and wicked, wouldn’t appear in him—his brain capacity was somewhat limited.

But…

The middle-aged man in front of him, with a beaming smile, was Lee Cheng—known in The First Dreamland for his unscrupulous deeds, immense wealth, and being a human scourge!

Although the current Lee Cheng radiated the aura of a cultivated Taoist, a stark contrast to the vulgar nouveau riche temperament of the past. In The First Dreamland, Lee Cheng was Lin Xian’s old friend, an old ATM… Lin Xian would absolutely never mistake his face; this man was 100% Lee Cheng!

In The First Dreamland, whenever Lin Xian needed money, he would always steal from Lee Cheng’s villa where he was having an affair.

And when he needed a fast car, he would also take a sports car from the villa’s underground garage, with all sorts of luxury beasts available.

In any case, Lee Cheng was always quite cooperative.

Because the guy was greedily clinging to life and easy to negotiate with. On the other hand, his mistress was fiercely loyal and many times would step in to save her husband, ending up being killed by Lin Xian.

Just a few days ago…

The last time Lin Xian explored The First Dreamland, he had just robbed Lee Cheng’s villa together with Big Face Cat.

The two not only killed the mistress but also, in an attempt to test and extract information about the Genius Club, forced the information out of Lee Cheng, and Big Face Cat ended up killing him as well.

Now these two were chummy with each other, and Lin Xian was genuinely having some trouble adjusting.

However…

Considering that after the Temporal Flux, everyone’s fate could change accordingly, it wasn’t out of the question that Lee Cheng could have had a change of heart and, like Big Face Cat, repented and joined the side of justice.

Even looking through five thousand years of history,

There were many such “heroes in troubled times, tycoons in prosperous times.”

It proved that Lee Cheng was quite capable. No matter the times, he could mix in and be a boss, a tycoon.

“Hahaha! Bet you didn’t see that coming!”

Big Face Cat laughed heartily:

“Hehe, my boss is the widely renowned Boss Lee! This is actually my real job. Ah Zhuang, Er Zhuzi, and I have been following Boss Lee since we were kids, working for him.”

Big Face Cat was quite proud as he spoke, and when he mentioned Lee Cheng’s name, his eyes were filled with respect and admiration.

So it seemed his guess was right…

In this Second Dreamland, Lee Cheng had indeed become a good person, a respected individual.

“Boss Lee! This is the little brother I’ve recently taken under my wing. He’s extremely skilled! His name is Lin Xian!”

Big Face Cat pulled Lin Xian forward to Lee Cheng, slapping him on the back:

“Lin Xian, this is Boss Lee.”

“Hello, Boss Lee,” Lin Xian said with a smile.

This contrast…was truly comical.

Back in The First Dreamland, he had always been pressing a gun to Lee Cheng’s head, watching him panic-stricken, begging for mercy as he fell to his knees.

Now it truly seemed as if the tables had turned, urging one not to belittle one’s midlife crisis. Lee Cheng had transformed and now had become Lin Xian’s big brother.

“Lin Xian…”

Lee Cheng smiled and nodded, giving him a once-over:

“Indeed a distinguished young man! You look like someone who must have read a lot of books. Big Face Cat, since you’ve taken him as your little brother, there must be other things about him that stand out, right?”

“Of course, there is! I, Big Face Cat, have a sharp eye for talent!”

He quickly pulled Lin Xian to the side of the courtyard wall, gesturing up and down:

“Quick, quick, quick Lin Xian… Show Boss Lee a flip! A difficult one!”

“…”

Lin Xian was speechless.

Here he was, with miraculous parkour abilities, and they were being used to perform like a dancing monkey, just flipping around.

However…

To infiltrate gang activities and to clarify the origins of the “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant,” a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.

Lin Xian repeated his usual feat, fingernails gripping into the cracks between bricks, muscles working in conjunction, as he flipped onto the courtyard wall. Then he turned and performed a pillar-rebounding backflip, leaping high to the adjacent second-floor balcony. Immediately following was a pull-up plus flip; within seconds, he was standing leisurely on the three-story rooftop!

“Excellent!”

Big Face Cat clapped vigorously, very encouragingly, and looked at Lee Cheng with a smile:

“How about that, Boss Lee? Isn’t my little brother’s agility impressive? What we need the most right now is this kind of talent that can scale walls!”

Lee Cheng too smiled and nodded in admiration:

“Truly good skills… With his addition to our operation, it’s like adding wings to a tiger!”

Thud!

While they spoke, Lin Xian had already jumped down floor by floor from the rooftop, landing steadily.

He could hear their conversation clearly. The sudden change from a culturally bereft upstart to “Donghai’s Du Yuesheng”…he was still a bit unaccustomed to it.

“So Boss Lee, does that mean you approve of Lin Xian joining our operation?”

Seeing his little brother so quickly receive the boss’s recognition, Big Face Cat was quite pleased.

Lee Cheng patted Lin Xian on the shoulder, smiling:

“Lin Xian, you need to think it over carefully. Joining our operation… won’t really improve your life much, nor will you gain any glorious wealth.”

“What we do is not much different from petty theft. But… for the people of old Donghai, for the world beyond the high walls, someone has to do these things.”

“Each of us here is ready to die, prepared to sacrifice ourselves at any moment for these desperate acts. And the impact we can make is minimal… Perhaps only managing to glimpse a sliver of ‘history,’ only lucky enough to grasp a strand of ‘knowledge,’ and even then, possibly coming away empty-handed.”

“`

“The only thing that can support us to keep on doing this is belief, is hope. If… you have really thought it through and have such awareness, then…”

Lee Cheng extended his right hand, looking at Lin Xian:

“Lin Xian, welcome to our big family!”

…

Lin Xian did not hesitate for a moment and directly shook Lee Cheng’s hand.

It wasn’t hard to infer from Lee Cheng’s words that what they were doing was related to “history” and “knowledge”.

And thinking back to what Big Face Cat said during the last dream entry—

“People like us, we don’t even have the qualifications to know history…”

“History and knowledge are in their hands. If you want to see the real history books, you have to enter New Donghai City, where there are plenty of bookstores and various high-tech gadgets.”

Now.

It wasn’t difficult to guess what Big Face Cat and Lee Cheng were up to.

Actually, no matter what they were really doing, Lin Xian didn’t care.

After all, everything could start over again, so what danger could there be in a dream to oneself?

The pressing matter was to quickly understand the origin of the book “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant” and find out who the original author was.

Then he could leave the dreamland and directly go find him in the world of 2023 to discuss the cosmological constant 42.

Lin Xian looked at Big Face Cat:

“Brother Lian, can you tell me now where your father got the ‘Introduction to the Cosmological Constant’ from?”

Big Face Cat nodded and pulled Lin Xian up the stairs on the outside of the building to the rooftop of the third floor, then handed him a telescope.

He then pointed to the distant, dragon-like colossal steel city, New Donghai City:

“You know, here, in the outside world, there is no advanced technology, no useful knowledge, no real history. Everything is held in new cities like New Donghai City.”

“Are there other similar cities around the world?” Lin Xian asked,

“Are they all surrounded by steel walls, isolated from the outside world, with absolutely no communication?”

“That’s for sure.”

Big Face Cat looked at Lin Xian with disdain:

“You’re like a zombie that’s crawled out of a grave, how come you don’t know anything?”

“New Hangzhou City, New Imperial Capital City, New Shenzhen City… These gigantic sci-fi cities started to be built hundreds of years ago, slowly dividing the world into two parts. Inside the steel walls, and outside the steel walls…”

“I’m not sure exactly how the world evolved to this state because we here have no real history; we don’t know what has happened. Education, knowledge, science, technology… many things are gradually breaking off, becoming lost.”

“But fortunately, there are many great people like Boss Lee in this world, who are determined to change the world outside the wall—”

Big Face Cat stretched out his hand, pointing in a direction.

That was a corner beneath the colossal steel high walls of New Donghai City… Big Face Cat gestured for Lin Xian to observe with the telescope.

Lin Xian picked up the telescope and looked in that direction—

With Big Face Cat’s guidance, he successfully found the target.

It was a waste treatment plant established at the foot of the steel high walls… Compared to the high steel wall that was over 200 meters tall and stretched for tens of kilometers, that waste treatment plant looked as insignificant as a sesame seed, hard to spot.

But upon close inspection, it was not hard to see… In fact, there were many similar waste treatment plants situated at the base of the steel high walls.

They were all similar in scale and structure, with a large area for accumulating waste, also surrounded by high walls. But the walls were only a few meters high and seemed to be made of material other than steel.

On the other side of the waste treatment plant, there were several huge incinerators puffing out black smoke, countless pieces of garbage falling into the blue flames and being burned to ashes on conveyor belts…

“That looks like, a waste treatment plant? New Donghai City burns all their residential garbage?”

Big Face Cat nodded:

“Yes, they won’t even let us pick up their trash.”

He took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, lit it, and exhaled a thick puff of smoke while looking at Lin Xian:

“And our mission…”

“Is to sneak into that ‘Waste Treatment Plant No. 221’ at night and steal whatever useful things we can find.”

“Any book, newspaper, or even some small parts and toys… are treasures that can be learned from and used in our backward and poor place.”

…

“I understand.”

By now, Lin Xian had a general understanding of Big Face Cat, Lee Cheng, the world outside the wall, the backward old Donghai City, and so on.

“So… Brother Lian.”

Lin Xian turned his head, looking at Big Face Cat:

“The ‘Introduction to the Cosmological Constant’ that your father had, it was actually a book stolen from New Donghai City, right?”

“Correct.” Big Face Cat said with a smile while holding the cigarette between his lips:

“But that book should have been stolen by Boss Lee when he was young from the waste treatment plant. I was too young at that time to know the specifics.”

“Are there any more copies left, or was it just that one you stole?”

“Hard to say, you might want to check in Boss Lee’s warehouse.” Big Face Cat pointed to several attached warehouses nearby:

“Brother, that’s the real benefit of joining the Lian Gang! We work for Boss Lee, so we can also freely use the stuff stolen and stored in the warehouses!”

“Over there, that warehouse is where Boss Lee keeps the books. All these years… with the efforts of several generations… we’ve also stolen quite a few books from the waste treatment plants, you can go there and have a look if you’d like to find one!”

“Maybe… you might really find an old copy of ‘Introduction to the Cosmological Constant’.”

Lin Xian nodded.

Ready to go downstairs to search the warehouse for the book.

“Wait a minute.”

Big Face Cat stopped him, pointing to another warehouse opposite:

“We need to stop by that warehouse first.”

“Why?” Lin Xian was puzzled.

Big Face Cat chuckled:

“Aren’t you planning to join us in action tonight? Then as the first step of the operation…”

“You need to pick out a ‘mask’ for yourself!”

“`