Genius Club-Chapter 587 - 18: The Real Invitation (Two-in-One Large Chapter)_4

He really couldn’t be considered a genius at all.

Nor had he ever done anything earth-shattering.

For him, now 25, he didn’t have the leadership aura of Huang Que, the wealth and intelligence of Jask, the foresight of Kevin Walker, and he was far from the mysterious Copernicus, who played with the Seven Sins and the world’s top scientists as if they were toys in the palm of his hand.

Compared with these real geniuses,

Lin Xian admitted he was still too inexperienced.

"Could it really be possible that this invitation was obtained for me by Huang Que using backdoor tactics... so that’s why it’s been so sneaky and clandestine?"

This question could only be asked of Huang Que when the opportunity arose.

For now,

he needed to figure out if he could find the message hidden on the invitation.

After all, without knowing the time and place of the gathering, this invitation was almost no different from a blank piece of paper.

He folded the invitation back up.

Only then did he notice something off about the wax seal...

[There’s something hidden inside!]

When flipping the pages earlier, the wax seal on the fold stood upright, and at that angle, it caught the overhead incandescent light, allowing Lin Xian to notice through the warm red light that there was a dark, unidentified object sealed within the wax block.

No wonder the wax block was surprisingly thick and slightly larger than usual.

Lin Xian twisted off the wax block in its entirety.

He held it in his hand,

and looked up at it against the light from the White Weave Lamp overhead.

"Just as I thought."

He narrowed his eyes.

Enveloped within the red wax block, there indeed lay a vague black object. It was approximately flat and round, not very thick, but he couldn’t see exactly what it was; the lack of transparency was due to the wax seal being made of a mixture of rosin, paraffin, and tar.

"Let’s break it open and have a look."

Now in Lin Xian’s possession were three wax blocks stamped with the Genius Club seal—hardly valuable items. He even made copies of the seals himself, so there was no harm in breaking this one."

He took a small screwdriver and began to poke at the wax block,

very carefully and slowly, for fear of damaging whatever was inside.

After a few minutes,

Lin Xian had managed to remove all the outer wax without harming the enclosed item—

It was a shiny golden badge, a standard circle slightly larger than a one-yuan coin, no different from the kind people typically wear on the left side of a business suit, with a small pin on the back. It was indeed a badge.

"So this is the real invitation, a token, a symbol of identity?"

He examined the golden badge.

It was much heavier than he had anticipated, most likely made of gold, but probably not pure gold.

Because pure gold is too soft and easily deforms, it’s rarely used to craft intricate decorations like badges.

So... it must be some kind of alloy, predominantly gold, which was why it felt so heavy in his hand.

The badge was a uniform, bright gold on both sides.

On the front of the badge, as expected, the Genius Club emblem was embossed,

a hand with the index finger extended straight towards the sky.

Beneath the wrist, the words "Genius Club" were also embossed in English script.

"I see..."

Lin Xian held the golden badge, emblematic of membership in the Genius Club, guessing that he was right; this was the real invitation.

Jask had given him a fake wax block at the beginning.

If he had handed over the badge to him... perhaps Jask wouldn’t have been able to attend the Genius Club gathering, right?

But now, a new problem had surfaced.

What could a simple golden badge prove? The badge’s refined craftsmanship wasn’t difficult to replicate, and then there was the issue troubling Lin Xian, sapping his strength and causing him anxiety—

Where was the time of the gathering? And the location, big brother?

What method do you all use to meet and hold your meetings?

Lin Xian clenched the golden badge in his palm, righted the chair he had knocked over earlier, sat down, and began to ponder the details he might have overlooked...

First of all, as he had just thought, the golden badge probably wasn’t a mere ornament.

It was too easy to fake.

Using this object as a symbol of Genius Club membership was too crude and, frankly, not very genius at all.

Secondly, Lin Xian had also considered whether the interior of the badge contained electronic components,

but the thickness of the badge was certainly too little to accommodate a button battery, not even the thinnest and smallest ones.

Last, he had thoroughly checked many times; there were no secret buttons, no hidden spaces, no concealed information on the badge.

So then...

Was there another way?

A way that didn’t require a power supply, didn’t alter the original construction, yet could still store sufficient information inside the badge for the invitee to retrieve?

Suddenly!

Lin Xian’s eyes opened:

"[NFC]!"

He thought of the access card used in residential complexes, his second-generation ID card, his university cafeteria meal card, East Sea City’s transport card for the subway and bus system!

None of these cards had their own power supply,

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but they all operated on NFC technology, which allows them to generate their own voltage when close to a specialized reader, leading to a current that enables data transfer.

This is the principle of inductive coupling used widely in daily life.

Access cards, IDs, meal cards, bank cards, transport cards, membership cards, and even Nintendo’s Amiibo toys—all utilize NFC technology to store and transmit data without the need for an active power supply.