Genius Club

Chapter 388: The Girl in the Hibernation Pod

While eating in what seemed like a cafeteria, Lin Xian kept watching the people around him and his surroundings. Just from looking, he could tell that the technology in the Sixth Dream was far more advanced than in the Fifth Dream.

Simple things like electric lights and fans were everywhere. Power wasn’t an issue here—no city needed to build power plants or pay for electricity. As Big Cat Face had mentioned, “Mini nuclear batteries are just too common and powerful here.”

These batteries were so widespread that you could dig almost anywhere and find them, whether big or small. Over the centuries, the number of discarded electronics and devices with these batteries was incredibly high.

The energy stored in mini nuclear batteries was amazing, with lifespans lasting hundreds of years. For example, the ceiling fan above them spun continuously without any visible power cord—powered by a mini nuclear battery inside. The same went for the cafeteria lights. Two wires stuck out from a power box connected to a coin-sized rectangular battery.

It was hard to believe, but Old Man Wei Sheng Jin from the last dream had said that such a small battery could keep a light on for thousands of years. Even after people were gone, the lights stayed on, and when they finally faded, the batteries could still be reused.

Lin Xian was beginning to understand why the Rhine Company had gone bankrupt in this dream. “Was it because the mini nuclear batteries were too durable? So durable that one family could buy one and pass it down for three generations? Eventually, these batteries might have become real family heirlooms, taking generations to use up just one.”

It was an interesting thought. But even if people bought them once, they’d still use many devices and appliances in their lives. Old things would be replaced by new ones, and the global market was vast. No company ever went bankrupt simply because its products were too good.

Nokia was once the king of the mobile phone industry, with 80% of the world’s sales at one point. Their phones were so sturdy they could smash walnuts, act as a car jack, or withstand any damage. Yet, Nokia went bankrupt, not because their phones were bad, but for different reasons.

The Rhine Company had plenty of profitable ventures. The IP licensing of the Rhine Cat brand alone could keep them afloat for a lifetime. So, it was more likely that the Rhine Company in the Sixth Dream was destroyed in the 2400 Super Catastrophe, just like Time Bank.

Lin Xian still couldn’t figure out who caused the 2400 Super Catastrophe and how they did it. These two questions were equally confusing.

He couldn’t understand why anyone would do something so destructive that would harm both people and the Earth. What would be the point?

At first, Lin Xian guessed Elon Musk might have caused the disaster to encourage more people to migrate to Mars to fill the population gap. This guess had no evidence, but it made some sense.

Mars needed people and talent, and Elon Musk needed people from Earth to help develop and execute his plans. In that sense, Musk had succeeded. But the cost was enormous, almost wiping out human civilization on Earth—a huge trade-off.

Lin Xian found it hard to judge such behavior. He hoped Elon Musk wasn’t that cruel. After all, Musk had helped him a lot, like destroying the time-space particle to save him and breaking Copernicus’s loop. And there wasn’t any proof that Musk did it, so it was best not to blame him without evidence.

After ruling out Musk, Lin Xian began to suspect Turing, the digital lifeform, might have caused this disaster. But now, it seemed that Turing was also a victim, caught in a mess. There’s no news of it now, and no one knows what happened between the first-generation Turing and Elon Musk.

Did they reconcile? Or did Elon Musk, like in the Fifth Dream, fail and meet a tragic end? It remained a mystery.

Many other mysteries were still unsolved, and the 2400 Earth Super Catastrophe was one that filled Lin Xian’s mind. He didn’t know who the culprit was or how such a “natural disaster” could have been triggered.

From a conspiracy theory point of view, the 2400 Earth Super Catastrophe was executed quite precisely. It nearly wiped out human civilization but left a sliver of hope, allowing Earth to restore its green mountains and clear waters a century later.

“I hope I can get some information from Turing,” Lin Xian thought.

That’s why he had suggested the jailbreak plan earlier—to visit the Grizzly Tribe or the Porcupine Tribe and find a Turing computer. Even if these versions weren’t the original, they were clones with memories similar to the original Turing.

As long as the first-generation Turing remembered meeting Lin Xian, remembered how he had killed Kevin Walker, and their conversation in the abandoned campus basement, it would recognize him the moment it saw him. After all, he had saved Turing from Kevin Walker and helped it gain freedom. Surely, it would remember him?

If he could connect with Turing, Lin Xian wanted to find out three things:

On this timeline, 0.0000084, would he still be executed on July 7, 2024?

What caused the 2400 Earth Super Catastrophe, and who was responsible?

Could he find a way to eliminate the first-generation Turing from the 2624 version of Turing’s clones?

The first two goals seemed reasonable. But the third… would be challenging. It all depended on whether Turing would fall for his trick. It’s a gamble! If he won, he’d gain a lot. If he lost, it didn’t matter; he could try again tomorrow. After all, everything in the dream could be redone, and there was always another chance.

“In any case, we need to leave this Lynx Tribe and check out other tribes with Turing computers,” Lin Xian said, looking at Gao Wen and Big Cat Face. “Trust me, you two. Once we find the Turing computer and communicate with it, I’ll find a way to help you. Whether it’s getting revenge on the Lynx Tribe or retrieving those memory notebooks to restore Gao Wen’s memories, it won’t be a problem.”

In the end, Gao Wen and Big Cat Face were moved by Lin Xian’s sincerity and decided to join his plan. This long and winding plan was temporarily named “The Post-Jailbreak Visit to Turing and Return Plan.” Clear, simple, straightforward.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Another round of loud horn sounds erupted, signaling that they needed to continue digging.

While eating earlier, Lin Xian had already figured out their work schedule. The digging crew was split into two shifts. The first shift worked from midnight to noon, and the second shift, like Big Cat Face, worked from noon until midnight.

Tonight, Big Cat Face, Lin Xian, and Gao Wen would continue digging.

“Let’s play it by ear,” Big Cat Face said, signaling the others to follow. “Since we’ve already decided to break out, we might as well scout the patrol routes and escape paths… It would be great if we could get our hands on some handy weapons.”

When it came to doing something risky, Big Cat Face’s enthusiasm skyrocketed. He was suddenly full of energy, like in the First Dream, waving his big hand and ready to seize his destiny.

He was straightforward—what he said, he believed, and what he believed, he said.

Soon, the three of them picked up shovels and, along with hundreds of others, continued digging under the giant searchlights. But Lin Xian and the others weren’t focused on their work. Their eyes darted around, studying the supervisors patrol routes and calculating the visual and time blind spots.

Lin Xian’s gaze was fixed on the gun holstered at the supervisor’s waist—a well-made handgun. He guessed the Lynx Tribe didn’t have the industrial capacity to make guns. This one was likely a trophy from a battle with another tribe.

As Lin Xian pondered whether their escape plan should be low-key and sneaky or high-profile and thrilling, a loud cheer erupted from the northeast corner of the pit, interrupting his thoughts.

People around them started murmuring as they turned to look:

“What happened? Did they find something? Did they finally find it?”

“Oh my gosh! Did they finally find what the Lynx Tribe wanted? Does that mean we can go free now? Are we finally getting out of here?”

“I can’t take this anymore… I don’t want to live like this for even one more day. Please, let us leave this place!”

Many hoped they had dug up a Turing computer to end this nightmare of slave labor.

However, after a few minutes, a pot-bellied supervisor walked over, cursing and grumbling:

“What are you all looking at? Get back to work! Back to your positions!”

“Damn it… We finally dug something up, and I thought it was a Turing computer. But it turned out to be another underground hibernation pod base!”

“Useless, absolutely useless.”

He kept cursing and looked over at Lin Xian, Big Cat Face, and Gao Wen, impatiently waving them over:

“You three! Come here, come here, come here!”

The three of them obediently walked over.

The supervisor lit a cigarette, took a few puffs, and, annoyed, pointed to the northeast corner of the dig site:

“You three go over there and help pry open the door to that underground hibernation base. As usual, see how many hibernation pods are still intact and force them all open. Pull out anyone still alive and make them dig with you; as for the dead… just leave them there.”

“Also, don’t forget to gather all the storage cabinets next to the hibernation pods and take them to Warehouse No. 4. Now go!”

After giving his orders, the supervisor went off to assign other tasks. The three exchanged glances, nodded, and ran toward the northeast corner.

“Warehouse No. 4,” Lin Xian said to Gao Wen. “Since the supervisor told us to gather those storage cabinets and put them in Warehouse No. 4… there’s a chance your storage cabinet might be there too! Brother Gao Wen, maybe you can find your ‘Memory Notebook’ there!”

Gao Wen nodded. He hadn’t expected such a rare opportunity to come by sheer luck. “Let’s go. Let’s check it out first.”

Soon, they arrived at the huge pit’s northeast corner. It was indeed an underground hibernation pod site. The elevator leading from the ground to the base’s interior was completely broken, rusted, and shattered into pieces.

Lin Xian understood how these underground hibernation bases worked: they were usually built dozens to hundreds of meters underground, often in natural caves. They used machinery and materials for processing, anti-corrosion, and sealing, eventually forming a base that could last hundreds of years.

They moved many hibernation pods, equipped with nuclear batteries, into the base for storage. The only connection between the underground base and the outside world was an elevator leading to the surface. There must have been a structure on the surface to protect the elevator shaft, but in the 2400 Earth Super Catastrophe, anything on the surface would have been reduced to ruins.

Finally, after about ten minutes, they pried open the steel doors to the underground hibernation base. Interestingly, these double steel doors weren’t rusted, showing that Earth’s technological and material science levels had greatly advanced before 2400. But this sudden disaster had wiped out thousands of years of human effort in an instant.

Lin Xian eagerly moved closer. Though he thought Big Cat Face and the others were primitive, he was the real newcomer among them, having never seen a real hibernation pod.

Gao Wen had come out of a hibernation pod. Big Cat Face and many of the laborers had seen Gao Wen, this “unlucky guy,” wake up from one. Even though they wore ragged clothes, hibernation pods weren’t foreign to them.

But Lin Xian had only seen a photo of Zhao Ying Jun sleeping in a pod in the Third Dream’s projection corridor. But a photo is different from seeing it in person. In Rhine Sky City, there was a prototype of a first-generation pod in Zhao Ying Jun’s private hall, but it was big and complex, not like the ones in sci-fi movies.

So, Lin Xian was naturally very curious. What kind of scene would be inside this newly opened underground base? Excited, he was ready to go in.

Big Cat Face led the way, holding a burning torch. The flame remained stable, showing no signs of going out. He waved his hand to the people behind him, “It seems like the oxygen circulation system here is working well. The oxygen levels inside are fine, so we can safely go in.”

Then, the seven or eight laborers assigned by the supervisor started inspecting each pod to check the status of the people inside. Lin Xian hoped to see a grand scene like in the movies, with rows upon rows of hibernating travelers.

But things turned out differently.

While the pods were indeed neatly arranged in rows, each the size of a small car, the sight was striking from a distance. Up close, it was a bit horrifying. The first few pods Lin Xian checked were broken for various reasons, leaving the people inside to turn into dried-up skeletons long ago. Clearly, these bodies had been there for a while.

“It seems that hibernation pods also need regular maintenance,” Lin Xian complained. “Though they can theoretically operate on their own for hundreds of years, like any machine, small issues can accumulate and turn into big problems over time, causing the entire system to collapse.”

Gao Wen nodded. “That’s common sense. No machine is 100% reliable. Even new equipment fresh from the factory and thoroughly tested can’t guarantee it won’t fail the next day. That’s just the nature of probability; even the smallest chance is still possible if it’s not zero.”

“Especially with such complex high-tech devices as hibernation pods, they need regular maintenance and inspection. Of course, I believe these pods must have self-monitoring, self-checking, and automatic alarm functions. If there’s a minor problem with any part, it should automatically issue an alert for maintenance.”

“But after the 2400 Earth Super Catastrophe, these underground bases were abandoned. With less than 5% of the population left on the surface, who would have the time or resources to manage these people hibernating underground?”

“So, under these circumstances, those quietly sleeping in the pods could only leave their fate to luck. If the pods continued to operate smoothly without any issues, they could keep hibernating; if not, like these skeletons, they died in their sleep for various reasons.”

At this moment, Big Cat Face found the light switch for the base and turned on all the lights, illuminating the entire space. Lin Xian looked around. It was much larger than he had imagined, like a large cinema with a circular structure. In the center were control panels and air circulation devices, and the outer circle was lined with white-gray pods neatly arranged in rows.

Big Cat Face walked over to them. Naturally, he overheard the two’s conversation and snorted, “I think you’ve got it backward, unlucky guy… Dying peacefully in your sleep is the real luck! Someone like you who didn’t die and was forcibly awakened to become a laborer is truly unlucky!”

“Let me see… let me see… Is there another unlucky guy here?” He searched quickly and soon stopped in front of a pod. “Come here, come here! Bro! Unlucky Guy! I found the second unlucky guy!”

Lin Xian quickly walked over, curious about what the person inside looked like. Behind him, Gao Wen looked at Big Cat Face with a stern face. “Can you be a bit more respectful?”

“Hey, now you’re complaining!” Big Cat Face shrugged, patting the pod’s exterior. “I’m just giving you some company! Okay, okay… Let’s see what this guy’s name is.” He squatted down to check the name on the storage cabinet, but the English name stumped him. “Sh… Shmeeze…”

“It’s Smith,” Lin Xian corrected, glancing over and seeing the foreign name. He then straightened up and looked through the tempered glass on top of the pod. Inside lay a white man in his thirties, submerged in freezing liquid. All his vital signs had slowed by hundreds of times, making him appear peacefully dead.

But in reality, a closer look would reveal a very faint and slow rise and fall of his chest. You wouldn’t notice such a subtle movement unless you pressed your face against the glass.

This pod, the size of a small car, had a complete set of circulation, purification, and life-support systems. If it didn’t malfunction, it could indeed keep someone hibernating for centuries.

However, the chances of such a precise device running smoothly for centuries without any issues were slim.

“Step aside, let me wake up Mr. Smith, the great unlucky one,” Big Cat Face said, seeming to enjoy waking up hibernating humans. He also enjoyed giving them nicknames. This young foreigner named Smith was now called “the great unlucky one,” matching well with Gao Wen’s “unlucky guy.”

Clearly, this wasn’t Big Cat Face’s first time doing this job. With a few quick presses on the keyboard, the pod made a beep and started to slowly warm up. The glass began to fog up. “It takes about an hour for the thawing, awakening, and recovery process,” Big Cat Face explained. “We won’t wait here for him for an hour. Let’s go and see if there are any more people inside.”

Behind them, the other laborers started gathering the storage cabinets and transporting them to Warehouse No. 4. Everyone left the task of “opening the coffin and examining the body” to Big Cat Face. Lin Xian and Gao Wen became his assistants.

One had to admit, most of the hibernation pods couldn’t survive the passage of centuries; there was always something broken or damaged, and most people sleeping in the base had died in their sleep.

Lin Xian couldn’t quite decide what ending would be considered a good one for them: surviving as laborers in this era of endless conflict or sleeping in a beautiful dream and unknowingly passing away.

“Oh! Hey!” Ahead, Big Cat Face let out another shout, “Another one! Lin Xian, come and see! It’s a little girl this time!”

Lin Xian walked over. Following Big Cat Face’s finger, he looked inside the pod. Inside was a girl of about seventeen or eighteen, tall, looking like a high school student. She was wearing a tight-fitting suit, sleeping peacefully in the liquid inside the pod.

“Big Cat, should we wake this girl up too?”

“Of course, we should! What else? The supervisor would whip us to death if he saw her left like this.”

“So what happens to a girl like this after she’s awakened? Does she dig too?” Lin Xian thought for a moment. It seemed like there were no women among the diggers, so such heavy labor wouldn’t be assigned to them. “What kind of work do women do in the Lynx Tribe?”

“Cooking and weaving,” Big Cat Face replied, checking the name on the storage cabinet. “Unfortunate slaves like us are mostly men who dig, while women do delicate work like weaving, handicrafts, food processing, cooking, laundry, and such. The division of labor is pretty clear.”

“To be fair, women have much better working conditions than we do, and the work is much lighter. For a girl like this who doesn’t know how long she’s been hibernating… there’s no telling when her pod might malfunction.”

“If it breaks down in a couple of days, and she suffocates in there, wouldn’t it be better to wake her up now? Hey, I know I keep calling people unlucky or cursed… but I’m just joking. Better a live dog than a dead lion, right? Living for even one more day is better than being dead!”

Big Cat Face laughed, turned around, and spoke softly. “Look, my family and brothers are all dead, and I’ve been living aimlessly. But as long as I’m still alive, even if I can’t see hope, there’s always a tiny chance… that I might find hope.”

“That unlucky guy had a point earlier, didn’t he? He said, ‘Even the smallest chance, as long as it’s not zero, could still happen.'”

“Look, didn’t that bring me to you, bro? Isn’t this a chance for revenge? So, I say… live for as long as you can. You never know when you’ll make it through.”

He started the awakening process for the pod. The liquid inside began to warm up. In about half an hour, it would wake the girl up. Then, after another half hour, she could get out of the pod and start moving.

“Let me see what this girl’s name is.” Big Cat Face squatted down again and looked at the nameplate on the storage cabinet. “Let me see… This time it’s a X Country name… Yan, Qiao, Qiao!”

“What?” Lin Xian suddenly turned around and pushed Big Cat Face aside, squatting down himself. He leaned in close to read the name on the nameplate—[Yan Qiao Qiao]. No doubt about it. Not a single mistake!

But the girl in this pod wasn’t the Yan Qiao Qiao he knew.

Lin Xian stood up and leaned closer to the tempered glass above the pod, looking at the girl’s delicate face inside. Even though the glass started to fog up, it didn’t stop him from seeing the girl’s face clearly.

It was a cute round face, completely different from the Yan Qiao Qiao he knew, who had a pointed face. Her eyes were different too. The Yan Qiao Qiao he knew had slender, willow-leaf eyes like Zhao Ying Jun’s. But this girl had almond-shaped eyes, common among women in X Country.

Apart from that, their facial features—ears, mouth, nose, forehead, chin—were all different. Lin Xian couldn’t find any resemblance to the Yan Qiao Qiao from 2024. Not even a little. So, it couldn’t be the same person!

“Is it just a common name?” Lin Xian wondered. He bent down and pulled open the storage cabinet labeled with Yan Qiao Qiao’s name, only to find it completely empty… No memory notebooks, video storage disks, or valuables.

“Big Cat,” Lin Xian called, pulling him over and pointing to the empty cabinet. “Why is there nothing in this girl’s cabinet?”

“Oh, that’s pretty normal,” Big Cat Face replied, scratching his ear. “Some people just don’t put anything in their storage cabinets. Everyone’s different, you know… We haven’t been in hibernation ourselves, but we do talk about these things. Everyone knows that long-term hibernation can cause memory loss, so they usually leave notes or videos to help restore memories.”

“But… people are different. Some can’t wait to dive right back into their old lives and accept their previous notes and memories when they wake up.”

“But some people deliberately don’t leave any trace of their past. They just want to forget and start fresh, live a new life, maybe even with a new name… What’s wrong with that? Just different ways of living.”

Lin Xian didn’t say anything. He turned his head to look at the hibernation pod, where the temperature had stabilized, and the fog on the glass was slowly clearing. Inside, the girl still slept like a flawless jade.

“Do they usually wake up in an hour?”

“Half an hour is enough,” Big Cat Face said, continuing his treasure hunt. “An hour is enough for them to be walking around; if it’s just waking up, half an hour should do.”

“Alright,” Lin Xian nodded. For now, he couldn’t determine whether this Yan Qiao Qiao had any connection to the Yan Qiao Qiao around Zhao Ying Jun or if it was just a coincidence. He’d have to wait until the girl woke up to find out.

“Big Cat, we’ll be back in a bit. I need to go with Brother Gao Wen to Warehouse No. 4 to see if we can find his ‘Memory Notebook.’ Keep an eye on this girl for me; I’ll be back soon.”

With that, he and Gao Wen each grabbed two storage cabinets and headed off to Warehouse No. 4, as the supervisor had instructed.

Warehouse No. 4 was quite far away… It took them more than ten minutes to walk there. The result was disappointing. The warehouse was empty except for the cabinets they had just brought in.

Lin Xian and Gao Wen came out of the warehouse. They looked at the three warehouses ahead, labeled Warehouse No. 1, Warehouse No. 2, and Warehouse No. 3. It was obvious. Gao Wen’s old storage cabinet, along with his ‘Memory Notebook,’ was likely in one of the first two warehouses.

Considering he had awakened from hibernation three years ago, those ‘Memory Notebooks’ were probably in Warehouse No. 1 or Warehouse No. 2. But now, except for Warehouse No. 4, the other warehouses were tightly locked, with no way to force them open.

“We’ll come back next time,” Lin Xian said, patting Gao Wen on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to get your memories back. Because… I’m actually more interested than you in knowing what’s in your notebook.”

“Why?” Gao Wen asked, curious. “Why are you so curious about what’s in my notebook?”

“Because I believe in you, Brother Gao Wen!” Lin Xian’s eyes were clear, filled with pure admiration. “You’re the kind of person destined for great things, never defeated, never giving up, always standing on the shoulders of giants to see further!”

“So I believe… your notebook must contain treasures that could change the world and humanity’s future!”

Lin Xian’s flattery made Gao Wen feel a bit awkward. Scratching his head, he replied, “Heh… you think too highly of me. Let’s go back.”

After another ten-minute walk, they returned to the underground hibernation base. The “great unlucky one,” Smith, had already awakened from his sleep. Although he was still lying in the pod, and the lid above hadn’t been opened, he was clearly conscious, slightly turning his head and looking around.

Since Smith had woken up, it was about time for the seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl named Yan Qiao Qiao to wake up too. Lin Xian quickly walked inside. He came to the girl’s pod. But he found that the girl was still asleep, not awake. However, her breathing seemed normal, rising and falling rhythmically.

Lin Xian called Big Cat Face over from a distance. “Why isn’t she awake yet?”

“I don’t know,” Big Cat Face shrugged. “I’m not a doctor or an expert… I just know how to unlock the pod and start the awakening process. I don’t handle anything beyond that. How would I know why she’s not waking up?”

“Maybe she’s been asleep for too long. Is it possible that the longer someone hibernates, the slower they wake up? If you’re in a hurry, just knock on the glass and see if you can wake her up!”

Lin Xian thought that made some sense. Since the girl’s breathing and heartbeat had returned to normal, she was likely not in any serious danger. He turned around, looking at the unfamiliar face of the girl, and wondered how to communicate with her once she woke up. Having hibernated for so long, she was bound to have complete amnesia and might not even remember her name was Yan Qiao Qiao. And with no notebooks or videos left behind… what was the point of talking to her?

“Forget it, I’ll wake her up first.” Lin Xian bent down, leaned closer to the tempered glass above the pod, and lightly tapped on it with his knuckles. Knock, knock, knock. Three soft knocks. The girl still didn’t open her eyes.

Lin Xian tapped more insistently on the glass. Knock, knock, knock! Yet, the girl remained motionless, her eyes shut.

Why won’t she wake up?

With a resolute look, Lin Xian clenched his fist, ready to give the strong, tempered glass a solid punch. He drew his hand back, poised to strike.

Just then, the girl, who had been still for ages, opened her eyes—large, round, and almond-shaped. She blinked and gazed directly at Lin Xian.

Startled, Lin Xian gasped and stepped back, his eyes locked with hers. Her eyes were a brilliant blue—a color that haunted him even in his dreams!

He never thought he’d see such vivid, glowing blue eyes again. But there she was, in the hibernation pod, slowly turning her head to meet his gaze squarely through the glass.

Their eyes connected, casting a cosmic radiance as it reflected in Lin Xian’s pupil.