Chapter 1 What Kind of Future... Is the Best Future?

What kind of future... is the best future?

Lin Xian looked at the final question that popped up, momentarily stunned. In the previous multiple-choice question asking whether humanity had a future, he had been resolute and clear-headed, convinced that humanity certainly did.

But.

Now, immediately following that question, Lin Xian felt as if his soul was being questioned, and he couldn't answer a single word.

Yes... what kind of future is the best future?

Lin Xian couldn't come up with an accurate answer. Up until today, he had experienced a total of six dreams, witnessing the future of six different timelines. In the first dream, technological development was severely limited, but at least urban life continued, and the people lived and worked in peace.

In the second dream, although the gap between rich and poor was enormous and New East Sea City was separated by high walls, everyone inside and outside the walls lived their own lives without disturbing each other, which was still peaceful. At the time, Lin Xian thought that the futures in the first and second dreams weren't good, as if controlled by an invisible hand of history... But compared to the later third, fifth, and sixth dreams, the difference was clear. There's no harm without comparison; only by comparing did he realize how fortunate humanity's future was in the first two dreams. So.

Returning to the last question from the Genius Club, what kind of future is the best future?

Lin Xian exhaled a long breath.

He slowly walked back to the sofa, sat down, and closed his eyes to imagine the future that Jask and Kevin Walker desired. He knew that Jask believed the best future was probably for humanity to immigrate to Mars and then use Mars as a springboard to continue developing interstellar travel technology, gradually leading humanity away from Earth and into the vast universe. Kevin Walker believed the best future was for all humans to become digital lives, stored in a server the size of a city, maintaining human civilization with the fewest resources, and living entirely in a virtual world. Lin Xian didn't know how other Genius Club members answered this question, but Jask's and Kevin Walker's answers were roughly like that.

But Lin Xian.

Until now.

Hadn't thought about it in detail.

His original plan was to wait until he joined the Genius Club, to find out what these people were doing and what their purpose was, before setting his own future direction for combat.

He really hadn't expected to have to answer this question before joining the Genius Club.

"It's a bit caught off guard," Lin Xian said softly. He knew that this third question was a subjective one, with no standard answer. As long as it was reasonable and expressed one's own thoughts, that was fine. It could even be said that the real test of the Genius Club was only the first two; the third was definitely a giveaway. But perhaps... the third question was the most important one for the Genius Club members because.

The first two questions were answered for the "examiners," to prove the examinee's strength and qualifications. And the third question was answered for "oneself," with the purpose of allowing each member who joined the Genius Club to face their inner self and strengthen their beliefs.

From this perspective.

Lin Xian had to admit that the three test questions set by the Genius Club each had their own reason and meaning.

Broadly speaking.

Lin Xian thought that the future world in the first dream was relatively the best, even though the level of technology hadn't developed in over 600 years.

But for daily life, it was actually enough. The people in the square and in the city had satisfied and happy expressions on their faces. They didn't care too much about whether technology was developing rapidly. For most people, their eyes were on everyday necessities. Things that were too distant and high-end were illusory to them. And ever since he copied the hibernation pod filling liquid into reality, the most basic fairness of birth, aging, illness, and death had been broken, and the future worlds became worse and worse. "So, in fact, everything originated because of the appearance of the hibernation pod," Lin Xian opened his eyes on the sofa.

Taking Jask and Kevin Walker as examples. Even though both were recognized geniuses and had grand goals and dreams.

However, the limitations of human lifespan were there, restricted by the speed of technological development.

Without the hibernation pod, Jask was destined not to be able to personally set foot on Mars; Kevin Walker would definitely not live to see the day the super server appeared.

Death is the fairest cruelty and the cruellest fairness for humanity. But is technological development wrong? Lin Xian asked himself. The appearance of the hibernation pod brought some unavoidable social problems, but it saved many lives, allowing Zheng Xiangyue, Wei Shengjin, and others who should have died from illness to recover and heal; at the same time, it also provided great scientists like Gao Wen with the possibility of crossing time to support future scientific research. The existence and appearance of anything is two-sided; there is no absolute right or wrong. This made it even more difficult for Lin Xian to choose. If.

He really had to set a "closed loop" for himself, set a "goal," set a "future he wanted to achieve," what should it be like? He yawned. He was indeed a bit tired after a busy day.

"Let's sleep first and explore the seventh dream." Lin Xian got up and went to the washroom. He wanted to see if he could find clues about July 7th in this dream, maybe the established history had already changed.

It would be best if he could find the root cause of Yan Qiaoqiao's memory loss, then he could solve the matter once and for all.

"He'd think about the answer to the third question tomorrow. Anyway, it's a subjective question, and there's no correct answer." Although he knew that even if he wrote nonsense, it shouldn't affect his joining the Genius Club, Lin Xian still planned to be cautious. What's more, the answer to this question was indeed very important to him. So far, the driving forces that pushed him to join the Genius Club were only three: 1. To find out the truth about the Thousand-Year Stake and bring Chu Anqing back.

2. To understand the answers to a series of mysteries, to find out what the Genius Club's purpose was, what his dreams were, and what the white light at 00:42 was.

3. To avenge grudges, to find Copernicus, and to fulfill his promise to Angelica, helping her find the murderer who killed Ji Lin's parents.

These were all recent goals, with no long-term plans.

Through his previous discussions with Liu Feng... Lin Xian also wanted to find the most perfect future timeline and guide the space-time curvature in that direction.

Before that.

It was indeed necessary to figure out what kind of future could be considered the best future. "I only hope... that the world of the seventh dream doesn't become worse than the sixth dream."

Brushing his teeth.

Looking at himself in the mirror with his mouth full of toothpaste foam, Lin Xian felt a bit helpless. Every time he wanted to make the future world better.

He almost always made things worse, making life in the future world even worse. This was fully reflected in Big Face Cat. Early on, Big Face Cat still had a home.

All the way to the seventh dream.

The home was gone, the sister-in-law was gone, the younger brother was gone, and even the clothes to cover his body were gone... Only a piece of tattered cloth was left on his body.

"It can't get any worse, right?" Lin Xian rinsed his mouth, spat out the toothpaste foam, and prayed for Big Face Cat: "Things will revert after reaching an extreme. Big Face Cat has already had the worst luck, this time he should bounce back from the bottom."

Wiping his face dry.

With expectations for the seventh dream and blessings for Big Face Cat, Lin Xian climbed into bed, closed his eyes, and entered a dream.

A long-lost summer breeze blew.

His nostrils were filled with the fragrance of soil and the pleasant scent of green leaves.

His ears were filled with the loud chirping of cicadas and the chirping of birds coming from all around. That was good.

Lin Xian hadn't even opened his eyes.

He could feel that this was at least a peaceful era. Taking a deep breath of the tranquil air.

Lin Xian opened his eyes. "Eh?"

"Huh?"

As far as he could see, Lin Xian himself was in the middle of a vast rice paddy.

The rice was growing very well, neat and dense, obviously planted on a large scale.

And the reason Lin Xian made a sound.

Was because the moment he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar old friend standing in front of him!

The other party was also surprised to see Lin Xian suddenly appear: "What are you looking at?"

That was a tall foreigner with a beard, but wearing a tank top and a straw hat, a mixed match. Lin Xian looked at his clear and simple eyes and immediately recognized who he was: "Smith the sucker!"

"Sh*t!" The foreigner spat. "You're the sucker! Your whole family are suckers!" He spoke fluent Dragon Country language, making Lin Xian feel especially out of place, like he was watching a Chinese-dubbed movie: "Then you're always Smith, right?"

"That's right, that's me." Smith picked his nose. "Who are you!" Lin Xian was speechless and didn't know how to communicate with Smith in the correct way. His accent and grammar were too chaotic.

One moment it was Northeast dialect, the next moment it was Henan dialect, and then he'd blurt out some face-style English. Who was the master who taught this student?

He couldn't possibly give himself a Taiwanese accent in a moment, could he?

"Speak!"

Smith became anxious, took a step back, and pointed at Lin Xian with the sickle in his hand: "Don't think I'm a nice guy, I'm Shudao Mountain!" (Meaning 'it's difficult to deal with me')

"Alright, alright."

Lin Xian reached out to stop him from speaking. "Enough, enough, Smith, your Dragon Country language is very good, even too good, but you should rest for a while." Stepping out of the rice paddy, Lin Xian stepped onto the dirt road next to it, stomped his feet, and looked around. Mm.

About two kilometers away, a village could be seen, which should be the residential area. Overall, although he didn't know what the worldview of the seventh dream was yet, since Smith the sucker could comfortably farm here, it meant that this world wasn't bad, if not peaceful and prosperous, at least everyone was self-sufficient and had food to eat, and it wasn't like the sixth dream's slave society.

It was just that the two-kilometer road was too far.

Rather than running over there to understand the world view, it would be better to communicate with Smith here.

Although his Dragon Country language was mixed, with dialects from various provinces and cities... Still, it was all Dragon Country language, and Lin Xian could understand it all.

What's more, even if he really ran to the village, there wouldn't necessarily be any acquaintances.

It was better to chat with Smith the sucker here.

At least the two of them had met in the sixth dream, in the underground hibernation base of the deep pit excavation site. Big Face Cat would always wake up Smith's hibernation pod first; then, when Smith woke up from the hibernation pod, looking dazed, he would be dragged to dig the soil... And about then, the blue-eyed girl would wake up. So.

Lin Xian walked back to the rice paddy, looking at Smith, who was standing straight like a fool, staring wide-eyed: "Smith, you should have awakened from a hibernation pod, right?"

Smith was stunned. "Yeah, how did you know?" "When did you wake up?" Lin Xian asked. "Can you tell me about what happened after you woke up? My situation is similar to yours back then, I'm also quite confused... If you're willing to tell me, I might be able to remember many things."

"I woke up from the hibernation pod more than ten years ago." Smith straightened his straw hat and told the story in detail: "After waking up, I was unfamiliar with the place, but a group of Dragon Country people were very enthusiastic to me, taking care of me and giving me food and drink. They also showed me the memory notebook left behind before the hibernation, letting me know some basic information about myself... Unfortunately, the notebook recorded too few things, and most of my previous memories were stored in a video storage hard drive, but that thing can't be played at all now, so I don't know too much about the specifics."

"Then I settled down in this part of East Sea. The villagers were very kind to me, found me a wife, built me a house, and had children. I've been living very happily these years... I don't really care about those old memories anymore. It's very nice to live a leisurely life like this."

Smith gestured with the sickle in his hand: "If it wasn't for seeing you suddenly appear in my field and wanting to see what was going on, it's almost sunset, and it's getting dark... I would have gone home for dinner long ago."

Lin Xian silently listened to Smith recount his life after waking up from hibernation, and gradually had a few pieces of the worldview puzzle in his mind. He continued to ask: "Then Smith, does the 2400 Earth super disaster still exist? Do you know anything about the super disaster?"

"Of course I know!" Smith nodded: "Super disaster, I've heard people talk about it... It is said that various natural disasters destroyed most of the cities in the world, almost wiping out humanity. Then there were wars and famines, and it wasn't until decades later that humans stabilized, gathered together to reproduce, and develop technology... And then it became like it is now."

"Do you have anything else to say? If not, I'm going home for dinner. My wife is still waiting for me." With that, he picked up his sickle and hoe and left. "Hey, don't panic."

Lin Xian grabbed the handle of his hoe and smiled slightly: "Why don't you take me home with you? Let me crash for dinner." Smith narrowed his eyes, looking at Lin Xian suspiciously: "Where did you come from?" "I don't know either," Lin Xian spread his hands. "I'm just like you when you first woke up from hibernation. Listening to your description, there aren't many people left in the whole world now. Everyone is a compatriot... cough cough, well, although you're a foreigner, you've completely assimilated. Your accent has almost collected the essence of half of Dragon Country, so you can be considered half a Dragon Country person."

"An old friend from the same village, just treat it as helping a favor and take me to your house for dinner, and by the way, see if the village can take me in." After ten years of assimilation, Smith was obviously infected by the warm, hospitable, kind, and simple traditional virtues of Dragon Country. Hearing the word "old friend."

He only took two seconds to complete his self-persuasion and nodded: "Alright, it's already dinnertime, you come home with me." And so.

Lin Xian helped Smith carry the hoe, stepped on the sunset-reddened earth, and walked on the road home. Along the way, Lin Xian learned a lot of history from Smith's mouth.

Everything.

Still had to start with the 2400 super disaster.

Turing was definitely not in this seventh dream.

Jask still followed the original history, laying out the Mars immigration plan early on, leading a group of people and hibernation pods to Mars before the 2400 super disaster. Subsequently, the 2400 super disaster occurred as scheduled, and the prosperous human civilization on Earth was almost wiped out, with more than 95% of the population dying. Following that were decades of war and famine, which were the same as the settings in the previous fifth and sixth dreams.

The difference was.

When the war and famine stopped, the surviving Earth humans began to reproduce and rebuild civilization. This reconstruction process was very smooth. The main benefit came from two products: the massive micro-nuclear batteries buried underground and the underground hibernation bases all over the world. In these hibernation bases, large numbers of old-era humans were sleeping. After they woke up, they restored their memories through the surviving notebooks and also had strong learning abilities. With them as the core and leaders, Earth humans quickly united and began to rebuild their homes and re-climb the technology tree under the leadership of these hibernating humans.

Hearing this, Lin Xian roughly understood why the civilization recovery of the seventh dream was so fast.

Although humans could no longer dig up Turing from the ground, they could dig up talents like Emperor Gao Wen!

Even if Gao Wen didn't remember anything after waking up, he had notebooks, he had a brain, and there was nothing he couldn't learn or research.

With such intellectuals leading the way, civilization recovery was indeed very fast.

Previously, in the sixth dream, the knowledge and technology that Turing understood were definitely much more than Gao Wen's, but Turing's energy was all focused on fighting and internal friction, only treating humans as tools and consumables... He wouldn't wholeheartedly lead humans to climb the technology tree. But intellectuals like Gao Wen were different. They themselves were humans and could of course closely unite with Earth humans to jointly plan for development.

Smith told Lin Xian that since humans began to develop and climb the technology tree, there had never been a war until today, and life had been peaceful and happy. In his words: In terms of energy, there are micro-nuclear batteries, which are inexhaustible; in terms of food, the land is vast and abundant, and as far as the eye can see, there is all farmland, and there is simply no end to the food; everyone is very satisfied, there is no pressure, and they live and work in peace." Lin Xian nodded as he listened. This era was unexpectedly good, and it could be said to be the best era in recent dreams. Listening to Smith's description of various technologies. Lin Xian roughly estimated that the technological level of human civilization now was much higher than that of the fifth and sixth dreams, roughly equivalent to the level of the Second Industrial Revolution.

In fact, the recovery of civilization should have been faster.

The reason was indeed due to the small population. Population is the foundation of industrialization, and without enough population labor, industrialization is difficult to achieve.

Fortunately, in this era, steam engines and internal combustion engines had already been invented, and many large-scale means of transportation had appeared. Ships and trains were already running between large cities; as for ordinary small-power household appliances, they all used micro-nuclear batteries, which were inexhaustible. In a little while, the two arrived at the entrance of the village. Smith told Lin Xian: "Let's make this clear first, it's okay for you to come to my house for dinner, but whether you can live in the village will depend on the village chief's opinion." "Understood," Lin Xian nodded.

He was too familiar with this plot, and it was basically played out in every dream, so he smiled and said: "Don't worry, I probably know your village chief. Let me guess... Your village chief... is Zheng Xiangyue?" "No," Smith shook his head. "Angelica?"

"No," Smith shook his head.

"Big Face Cat?"

"No."

"Li Cheng?"

"No."

"Um... It can't be Gao Wen, right?"

"No." Lin Xian scratched his head, feeling that he couldn't take back the words he had said. It could be said that the village chief was rotating, and it was someone else's turn.

Lin Xian racked his brains and couldn't think of any village chief candidates among the people he knew. Could it be that East Sea was a place with outstanding people, and another new character had appeared?

"Then who is your village chief?" "Hmph!"

Speaking of the village chief, Smith was very proud: "Our village chief is very powerful! When you see the village chief later, you must pay attention to your words and be polite, otherwise you definitely won't have a good time!"

"Oh," Lin Xian was amused.

"Does your village chief also hit people? Is she good at fighting?" "Of course!" Smith gave a thumbs up: "Our village chief is very powerful! The last time a grizzly bear broke into the village, our village chief punched the bear's head off!" "The last time a pack of wolves ran over in the middle of the night, and the people in the village were all scared... As a result, the village chief took a machete and chased after the wolf pack! Not a single wolf escaped, and they were all put in the pot!"

"When the village was building houses, the village chief also took the lead, and one person could do the work of ten people! She could chop such thick wood in half with one slap! She could tear such thick steel plates in half with her bare hands!"

Hearing this description, a figure appeared in Lin Xian's mind: "Could it be... your village chief is a girl?"

"That's right," Smith smiled: "But her age can't be considered a girl anymore, she should be called a woman. She's a few years older than you! When you see her later, you can call her sister or village chief."

"No."

Lin Xian was not calm. Why was his seniority always wrong? "Is she older than me? Are her eyes blue?"

Smith gasped: "You're amazing... Could it be that you really know our village chief?"

He swallowed and continued, "Our village chief's name..." is Yan Qiaoqiao!"