Genius Club
Chapter 1156 - 33 Beneath the Masks, Above History_3

In 1945, the atomic bomb was successfully developed and two were dropped on Japan, causing millions of deaths and bringing World War II to an end.

From that moment on, Einstein faced the reality of world-ending, human-destroying superweapons and fell into a deep depression and regret. He profoundly regretted the letter he wrote to Roosevelt, which had opened Pandora’s box for humanity and granted them the terrifying power to destroy themselves.

In 1952, humanity developed its first hydrogen bomb, a weapon hundreds of times more powerful than the terrifying atomic bomb. The Little Boy atomic bomb, with only a 20 kiloton yield, had destroyed an entire city. What, then, could a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 10 megatons destroy if used in war? Einstein realized Pandora’s box, once opened, could not be closed, and he became increasingly melancholic.

In 1952, realist painter Henry Dawson painted an oil portrait of Einstein in Brooklyn, New York, entitled "The Sorrowful Einstein," and posed the despairing question: "Does humanity have a future?"

In 1955, Einstein succumbed to depression and passed away in remorse and despair for humanity’s future, dying in Princeton, America. His brain was stolen by the doctor at the time and preserved in formalin; his body was cremated according to his will, and the ashes scattered in an unknown location.

The above.

All is historically documented truth.

And now.

This is [Lin Xian’s speculation]—

Sometime after 1952, someone, in an effort to forge a better future for humanity, founded the Genius Club.

This founder possessed a peculiar ability to see the future and shared Einstein’s pessimism about humanity’s fate...

In fact, he seemed even more pessimistic than Einstein.

Because Einstein himself merely worried that humanity would have no future due to their possession of superweapons—he had no definitive proof.

But this Genius Club founder could genuinely see the future… And what he saw was darkness. Humanity truly had no future.

However, this founder refused to give up on saving the world, and thus began recruiting the greatest geniuses worldwide, hoping to alter destiny and offer humanity a brighter future.

He appeared to hold great respect for Einstein, or perhaps believed that his own ideas aligned with Einstein’s. As a result, he hid the clues to the invitations within the artwork "The Sorrowful Einstein." He also commissioned Henry Dawson to paint seven additional originals, hiding eight Genius Club invitations in secret corners of the world.

Afterward, time flowed on.

Copernicus, Newton, Galileo… One by one, geniuses at the pinnacle of human intellect cracked the Einstein password, found the invitations, and joined the Genius Club.

To conceal their identities, they adhered to the rules outlined by the club, donning masks of renowned scientists, artists, and mathematicians, using them as their code names.

And as the founder and president of the Genius Club, the mysterious old man wore the mask of the melancholic departed figure... Albert Einstein.

At this point.

The story of Einstein’s life and the history of the Genius Club seem to have been untangled.

It appears that Einstein himself and the Genius Club president have no connection besides the mask and may not have even lived in the same era or ever met.

But...

Is that really the case?

Behind every mask worn by the Genius Club members hides a real, living human being.

Just as Kevin Walker is behind the Turing mask.

Jask is behind the Tesla mask.

Lin Xian is behind the Rhein Cat Mask.

And behind the Copernicus mask is that dying old man.

Then.

Who is the human being behind the Einstein mask?

This is exactly the absurd, chilling, most inconceivable yet most reasonable notion Lin Xian just thought of—

He swallowed hard.

Looking at the densely packed notes on the draft paper, he murmured:

"Could it be possible that the president of the Genius Club, the old man wearing the Einstein mask..."

"[is none other than Einstein himself?]"

The idea is certainly absurd.

Because the entire world knows Einstein died in 1955. There was no memorial service, no funeral, no grave, and his ashes were scattered in a location unknown to everyone.

But his brain was stolen by a doctor.

His intact brain was dissected into numerous pieces, sent to various laboratories and universities for research, and remains preserved in formalin to this day.

Thus, Einstein should be completely, utterly dead.

He couldn’t possibly have lived to this day.

Unless...

Suddenly.

Lin Xian recalled the words he’d once used to deceive Ji Xinshui:

"A dead person wouldn’t attract attention, nor leave behind traces in this world. This way, they can hide themselves within the river of history, quietly pluck the future’s guitar strings, and manipulate humanity’s fate."

Could it be...

Einstein didn’t actually die?

Could it have been a feigned death?

"A death... that truly fooled the world and deceived history?"