Genius Playground

”So, what do you think?”

Jiang Ran reeled in the drama, his performance effortless.

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

A smattering of applause broke out.

”So cool!” ”A little over the top, but way better than the student council president.”

”Alright, let’s get down to business. Don’t pop the champagne at halftime. The bigger the hope, the bigger the disappointment.”

Jiang Ran waved his hand dismissively and walked over to the small blackboard, pointing at the diagrams and text on it.

”The conditions for creating a spacetime black hole are extremely complex and demanding. The timing must be perfect.”

”So, before we begin the experiment, let’s go over the procedure one more time.”

”First, our roles. Qin Feng, you’re on the Positron Cannon. I’ll be by the distribution box to send the SMS. Xiaoxue, you’ll be at the window, coordinating the countdown.”

He carefully explained every step.

Over the past few days, Qin Feng had already mastered how to use the Positron Cannon.

However, due to a design flaw—or perhaps some lingering issue with a core component—the Positron Cannon could only run for 0.7 seconds after activation.

After 0.7 seconds, the capacitor would blow, and the entire Positron Cannon would overload. It would need to be powered down for 20 hours and fitted with a new capacitor before it could be used again.

Qin Feng stated bluntly that this problem was unsolvable unless he was allowed to dismantle the Positron Cannon’s core component—a CRT monitor tube modified by an upperclassman.

But it was best not to take apart and mess with this cobbled-together contraption whose principles were a mystery.

No one knew how the damn thing worked. If they took it apart, they’d never be able to fix it—not even the original creator could.

Besides, the capacitors weren’t expensive. They might as well just treat them as disposable.

Additionally, Qin Feng had installed a dedicated fuse socket to ensure that even if the circuit board shorted out, it wouldn’t damage the building’s wiring, thus preventing their non-compliant appliance from being confiscated by the student council again.

”The Positron Cannon can only fire for 0.7 seconds, which means the Electron Beam can only be emitted for 0.7 seconds, and... the spacetime black hole will only last for 0.7 seconds.”

Jiang Ran continued, ”What I need to do is get as close as possible to the transformer distribution box and send the SMS within that 0.7-second window.”

It wasn’t a difficult task.

The message could be written in advance. 0.7 seconds was more than enough time to hit ’send’.

Since this experiment was just a simple test and verification, the message content didn’t need any real meaning, just the words, ”Test, test.”

If everything went smoothly...

this message, just like the previous Time SMS, would be sent three days into the past.

History would be changed by them.

...

The final preparations were complete.

The experiment officially began.

Qin Feng aimed the Positron Cannon at the distribution box outside the window, plugged it in, and gave an ”OK” sign.

Jiang Ran ran out of the activities room, exited the building, and circled around to the transformer distribution box, giving an ”OK” sign back toward the clubroom window.

”Got it!”

Cheng Mengxue was perched on the windowsill, watching Jiang Ran outside and Qin Feng inside.

”Okay, I’m starting the countdown! When I hit zero, Qin Feng, you fire the Positron Cannon, and Jiang Ran, you send the SMS immediately!”

She took a deep breath.

”Five!”

A gentle breeze blew, cicadas chirped, and the world grew quiet.

”Four!”

Time itself seemed to slow, and the crackle of the transformer’s current was as loud as thunder.

”Three!”

An image of a clock spinning backward, of a sun setting in reverse, flashed through Jiang Ran’s mind.

”Two!”

Fish with fins crawled from the water, and apes stood up from the earth!

”One!”

The Earth opened its eyes.

”Zero!”

The Positron Cannon fired with a ROAR!

Jiang Ran gritted his teeth and hit the send button—

VMM!

VMM!

VMM!

The world spun, his vision blurred, and his head felt heavy while his feet felt light.

’It’s happening!’

’That familiar feeling of vertigo is here!’

A Temporal Shift had occurred!

His ears rang, his head throbbed, and his body tilted uncontrollably as the sky seemed to turn upside down.

”Ah!”

Jiang Ran pressed his right hand to the ground to steady himself.

Two seconds later, the discomfort vanished, and the world before him stopped shaking.

He stood up and looked toward the clubroom window.

”The Temporal Shift happ—”

The words caught in his throat.

No one was there.

He had been about to share the good news with Cheng Mengxue, who had been perched on the windowsill, but now... the clubroom window was closed.

’Looks like the course of history has changed.’

In the new worldline, the new history, they hadn’t conducted the Time SMS experiment today.

”So, was the Time SMS actually sent successfully?”

’I have to confirm it, quickly!’

The clubroom window’s curtains weren’t drawn. Jiang Ran stood on his tiptoes to peek inside... Qin Feng was tinkering with the Positron Cannon at a table, and Cheng Mengxue was sitting on the sofa playing with her phone.

’This memory desync is so damn inconvenient,’ he thought.

Just as he had anticipated, after this Temporal Shift, he was still the special one who retained his original memories, while remaining completely ignorant of the altered history.

He had no idea what the situation was with Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue.

He broke into a run, entered the club activities building, and threw open the door to the Film Club room.

”Did you guys get the Time SMS?!”

The two of them looked up, staring at him blankly.

”What are you talking about? Didn’t we get it three days ago?”

’Three days ago.’

Jiang Ran breathed a sigh of relief.

’Good.’

The message had still been sent to three days ago and was received as planned.

A perfect replication!

A perfect success!

”This is great!”

A smile spread across his face.

”Our theory was correct! The Time SMS to the past... We finally did it!”

...

The room was silent.

Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue couldn’t keep up with Jiang Ran’s pace at all, unable to play along with his performance.

”Um... didn’t we already succeed three days ago? We even had a celebration party. Are you still half-asleep?”

Cheng Mengxue tilted her head.

”Three days ago, I received the test message on my phone. Since you denied sending it, it was obvious... this message, like the one before, came from some day in the future.”

”That’s right.”

Qin Feng looked up.

”That means all our speculations about the Time SMS were correct. As soon as I fix the Positron Cannon, we’ll be able to send messages to the past, too.”

’Good.’

Jiang Ran was secretly pleased.

’It seems everything is normal, developing just as expected.’

It was just that Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue still didn’t have memories from before the Temporal Shift. He was the only special case.

”Qin Feng, did our celebration party delay your repairs on the Positron Cannon?”

”What do you mean?”

”In the original history, your repair progress wasn’t this slow.”

Jiang Ran smiled faintly.

”In the original history, you finished fixing the Positron Cannon this morning. Otherwise... how could we have run the experiment?”

?

!

Qin Feng’s eyes widened in sudden realization.

”I see! Jiang Ran, did you just send the message, experience a Temporal Shift, and retain your memories of the original history?”

Cheng Mengxue quickly stood up as well.

”In other words, in the original history, we just conducted the Time SMS experiment! The message was successfully sent three days into the past, and the original course of history changed again!”

Jiang Ran nodded.

’Top students from East Sea University, as expected. They get it in a flash.’

He had already figured out the temporal logic moments ago.

In the original history, on the morning of March 25th, Qin Feng fixed the Positron Cannon. That afternoon, they conducted the experiment and successfully sent the test message to three days prior, March 22nd.

After receiving the test message on March 22nd, the three of them immediately realized the message was from the future and that the experiment was a success, so they held a celebration party on the spot.

Holding the celebration party was part of the altered history, and it delayed the time Qin Feng had to repair the Positron Cannon.

This led to the afternoon of March 25th in the altered history—the current worldline—where the Positron Cannon was still not repaired.

But none of that mattered anymore.

What mattered was—

They had successfully mastered the ability to send messages to the past! Their cheat-code life was about to take off!

”You guys really held the celebration party too early. You could have at least waited for me,” Jiang Ran complained.

”You certainly ate your fair share,” Cheng Mengxue retorted.

”But I don’t have any memory of a celebration party.”

Jiang Ran shrugged.

”Sigh, not having memories of the last three days after a Temporal Shift is such a hassle. I have to ask you guys to sync me up every time. It’s like opening a blind box.”

He sat down on the sofa.

”Alright, alright, enough of that. You two, hurry up and tell me everything that’s happened from the moment you received the message three days ago until today.”

Qin Feng sat across from him.

”We received two test messages from you at 4:06 PM on March 22nd.”

”Mm-hmm.”

!

”Huh?”

Jiang Ran shot his head up, a chill running down his spine.

”What did you just say?”

”Is there a problem?” Qin Feng asked, confused.

Jiang Ran stared at him.

”How many messages did you say you received?”

”Two!”

Qin Feng was a bit baffled.

”Didn’t you send both of them?”

”How could there possibly be two?!”

Jiang Ran couldn’t sit still any longer and shot to his feet.

”I clearly only sent one test message! How could you have received two?!”

”B-But there were two...”

Cheng Mengxue blinked innocently and handed him her phone.

”See for yourself. They were both received at the same time.”

Jiang Ran slowly took the phone.

He felt that something was wrong, as if he had become detached from the world.

He opened the messaging app.

Three days ago, Cheng Mengxue’s phone had indeed received two messages.

The sender for both was him.

The first was the test message with the words ”Test, test.”

But when he opened the second one...

It was a completely unfamiliar,

and utterly bizarre string of numbers...