Genius Club-Chapter 277 - 4 Could the Great Powers Be Myself?
Rhein...City in the Sky?
After saying that, the child turned and sprinted towards where the crowd and lights were gathered.
Lin Xian, hearing this name so familiar that it couldn’t be more so, looked up at the City in the Sky being pushed through the heavens by thousands of engines emitting blue ion beams... and fell into deep thought.
This Rhein.
Was it really the Rhein Company that he had just established this afternoon?
Even he himself could hardly believe it.
The Rhein Company itself was established on a whim, not to grow big and strong or to become a world leader, but merely to provide funding for the cover of his next plan.
Even as the president, he had thought about being an absentee manager before it even opened...
Could such a laissez-faire company have constructed a City in the Sky that eclipsed the sun, 600 years later?
Even as the founder, he couldn’t believe it!
However...
facts were facts.
Since last night, when he entered the dream, he had been born in the old Donghai and was in the world of the Second Dreamland.
Therefore, it went without saying.
The anchor point that caused the dream to change again, with a significant Space-Time Butterfly Effect, must have happened today!
And his greatest "interference" with history today was naturally deciding to leave MX Company and, guided by Zhao Yingjun, taking the most memorable step in his life—
establishing Rhein Company.
So.
There was a high probability.
That this Rhine Sky City above his head was the result of his newly established Rhein Company gradually evolving over these 600 years or overseeing its construction.
Perhaps, in essence, this Rhine Sky City is no different from the New Donghai City once built by the MX Company.
The only thing that was puzzling was...
Why did the Rhein Company decide to build this City in the Sky?
Was it my own intention for the future?
Looking back suddenly, did I find myself the powerful one?
Or is it...
In the long span of these 600 years, had I long lost control over Rhein Company, and the company had changed hands several times, with barely any connection to my own from 600 years ago, apart from the name?
It was baffling...
After all, 600 years was simply too long and far-reaching.
Lin Xian continued to walk forward, increasing the distance from the City in the Sky, and looked up at the thousands of engines emitting blue ion beams, which he had just mistaken for the "moon."
This scene seemed all too familiar from the movie "Wandering Earth."
In the setup of the movie "Wandering Earth," humanity decided to build thousands of planetary engines on Earth to avoid the helium flash disaster caused by the aging sun. Then they simultaneously activated these engines to generate a powerful thrust to push Earth out of its original orbit... sailing into the deeper cosmos, wandering the universe in search of a new stable orbit for a new homeland.
Lin Xian still remembered.
At the moment when thousands of planetary engines were activated at the same time, the side of Earth facing the sun, just like the current Rhine Sky City hanging in the sky, emitted thousands of blue ion beams, slowly pushing Earth away...
The principles of the two must be roughly similar.
According to Lin Xian’s guess.
Those engines spewing blue beams were probably controlled nuclear fusion engines.
After all...
Only this purest and most extreme energy from within atomic nuclei could uphold such a massive city ceaselessly, year after year.
Otherwise, no other form of energy conversion could achieve such an exaggerated effect.
"That is to say, the level of scientific development in the Third Dreamland has, compared to the Second Dreamland, taken another leap forward."
Lin Xian remembered very clearly that in the New Donghai City of the Second Dreamland, there was only minimal use of nuclear batteries, but there was still a long way to go before the practical application of controlled nuclear fusion.
But now, in the Third Dreamland, technology was able to leap so dramatically...
Was it because the advent of the Rhein Company completely changed the history of these 600 years, indirectly promoting the breakthrough of controlled nuclear fusion technology?
Picking up the pace.
As Lin Xian moved further away from those thousands of blue controlled nuclear fusion engines, his perspective tilted even more, allowing him to see more of the City in the Sky above.
By his estimation.
The hovering height of Rhine Sky City should be between two and three kilometers in the sky.
However, this data was only an estimate and might not be accurate; it was deduced from his sense of perspective with regard to object sizes at different distances.
Through a visible corner of the Sky City, Lin Xian could intuitively sense that the level of technology there seemed to be more advanced and more cyberpunk than that of New Donghai City in the Second Dreamland.
Then thinking back to the stench of sewage, feces, and sludge that had rained down from the sky just earlier...
Needless to say, those disgusting things must have come from the wastewater discharged from Rhine Sky City above.
This... was completely lacking in decency, wasn’t it?
The residents of Sky City simply discharged their waste directly below, all the excrement and vomit being dumped onto the ground. How were people on the surface supposed to live?
You’re living high above, with fresh air and bright sunshine, while the world below has turned into a dung pit, hasn’t it?
"If it were up to me, I certainly wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen; it’s too heartless."
Lin Xian continued to walk outward.
He asked himself if he were the CEO of Rhein Company, would he allow these things to occur?
Clearly, he would not.
Whether it was the lofty City in the Sky or the reckless disposal of trash and excrement to the surface, he found both unacceptable.
If he had to choose.
He would rather build Rhein Company into an enterprise that made the future of humanity brighter, not one that was overbearing, unreasonable, and unscrupulous.
But then again...
It’s the same old saying.
600 years is simply too long, too far away.
Many things, who can guarantee them?
"If only I could be born directly in Rhine Sky City, then I could directly understand many things."
Cough, cough.
He was reminded of Hayao Miyazaki’s animation and the Columbia Sky City in video games... Surely there wouldn’t be a statue of himself in the middle of Rhine Sky City, right?
Being commemorated and celebrated as the founder?
That would be pretty strange.
"Oh right, is the Genius Club still around?"
Lin Xian just remembered that his original reason for looking up at the sky was to see if the Genius Club’s logo was still on the moon.
And now...
As he looked up into the sky, he couldn’t find the moon for a moment.
It must be behind that huge expanse of Sky City.
Lin Xian then adjusted his running direction, estimating the position of the moon based on directions, celestial bodies, and time, and gradually adjusted his viewpoint.
Finally.
Between the towering skyscrapers of Rhine Sky City, the shy moon, which had been hiding its face, finally revealed its true self.
It was still as round, as bright as ever.
600 years is a long time for humans.
But for the moon, which has been around for more than two billion years...
600 years is nothing more than the blink of an eye.
Even if the world on Earth has undergone earth-shattering changes, the moon has merely blinked, taken a nap.
It still rises in the east and sets in the west, still waxes and wanes, still forever gazes at Earth with its same old face—
It remains the same as always.
Lin Xian watched the black shadow of a hand stretching directly through the north and south poles on the moon...
It was still so familiar.
Exactly the same as the moon in the Second Dreamland.
On the Genius Club’s logo, that arrogant and eerie black index finger still straightly pointed skyward, arrogantly mocking all the powerless humans on Earth... mocking the unchangeable fate.
"Alright."
It would seem that in the future world of the Third Dreamland, the pesky Genius Club still exists.
This made the enigma of Rhine Sky City even more perplexing.
What exactly is its purpose?
If it’s only to segregate the people inside and outside of high walls, to monopolize technology, to fracture history... then places like New Donghai City would already be sufficient and functioning well. Why go through the trouble and expense to create a City in the Sky?
Or is it to say...
That the purpose of this City in the Sky is to "hide" something?
Hide it for whom?
For the Genius Club?
Or is it to say...
"Hide it for myself?"
For a moment.
Lin Xian stood still, gazing at the imposing City in the Sky.
Perhaps.
It really could be possible!
If he switched perspectives and assumed that Rhine Sky City was truly planned and constructed by himself.
Then the future self would surely know about his own ability to dream travel, to reach this day on August 28th, 2624!
So...
Could it be possible that his future self was up there in Rhine Sky City waiting for him?
Because he knew that he would definitely come, that he would definitely go to Rhine Sky City to find him!
And he.
All he needed to do was to figure out a way to survive until this day, 600 years later, through hibernation pods and other means.
Lin Xian from 600 years ago, meeting Lin Xian from 600 years later...
Could such an event.
Really happen?
Lin Xian felt goosebumps forming on his body.
He wasn’t sure what he was feeling at this moment, but it was somewhat thrilling, an indescribable sense of thrill.
"It could also be that I’m overthinking it. Perhaps my future self has already been dead for many years."
"But that does not prevent me from hiding some crucial information in Rhine Sky City for my past self if I really want to leave something behind."
Lin Xian attempted to simulate his own line of thought.
The person who knows himself best is himself...
Assuming that Rhine Sky City is related to himself, then the only reason he would painstakingly build it would be one—to "pass information to his past self, who comes in dreams, 600 years earlier!"
New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on ƒгeewebnovёl.com.
"So, that’s how it is..."
Lin Xian suddenly came to a realization.
Back in the Second Dreamland, while tinkering with the safe in Tem Bank with CC, he thought that once Tem Bank was established at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024, he could use that 600-year-spanning safe to send things from the past to the future.
That too constituted a kind of support from the past for the future.
Then, on the other hand.
Was there a way for his future self to support the past?
At that time, Lin Xian thought this idea was unrealistic because time is irreversible.
However...
Looking at it now.
The wisdom of humanity may indeed be infinite.
If it is as he suspected, and his future self has left some information, data, hints, even physical objects, or if he himself is sitting on the throne in the middle of the Sky City...
Wouldn’t that truly achieve the objective of the future supporting the past?
The more Lin Xian thought about it, the clearer his mind became.
He felt that if he had the power, he would surely do just that!
It made complete sense!
This way, both Rhein Company and Rhine Sky City would seem meaningful!
"It looks like... I must go up and have a look at Rhine Sky City," Lin Xian said, looking up.
He looked again at the City in the Sky, lifted by thousands of controlled nuclear fusion engines...
Despite.
All the speculation up to this point being merely wild fantasy and conjecture.
But he believed.
The name Rhein, as the beginning of everything for him, as the best legacy of these 600 years, wouldn’t be so simple in its existence; it must carry a special significance.
Whether his guess is right or wrong.
Whether his future self is waiting for him up there or not.
Whether the Sky City hides information left for him or not.
In any case.
These puzzles, he would have to personally venture up to Rhine Sky City to solve and find the answers!
"If this City in the Sky, truly exists for me to come..."
Lin Xian gazed at the vast colossus covering the sky, and he smiled subtly:
"There should definitely be some backdoors left for me, right?"
