Genius Playground

”This... What is this...?”

A chill spread through Jiang Ran.

’What in the world is going on?’

He had no memory of this string of numbers and no idea what it meant. It looked like gibberish.

He definitely hadn’t sent this message.

But the sender was clearly his name, his phone number...

This was horrifying.

’Could there be two of me in this world?’

But even if there were two of him, there was no way there could be two identical phone numbers!

”I didn’t send this message.”

Jiang Ran’s brow furrowed as he looked at Qin Feng.

”I sent the first test message, yes, but this second one, the one with the gibberish numbers—that wasn’t from me.”

Their eyes met.

Qin Feng knew Jiang Ran well. He wouldn’t joke about something like this.

And so...

His expression grew grave.

”Are you serious?”

”I remember it perfectly.”

Jiang Ran said with certainty, ”I have no reason to mess with you guys right now. This is scary, okay? Besides, since it was a test message, one would have been enough. Why would I need to send two?”

”The spacetime black hole only lasts for 0.7 seconds, which means the window to send a Time SMS is also only 0.7 seconds. My fingers aren’t fast enough to send two messages in such a short time!”

The three of them fell silent.

A strange atmosphere gradually filled the room.

The message from an unknown source,

The numbers with no discernible meaning,

The spacetime fluctuations that were terrifying the more one thought about them—

All of it caused the joy and excitement from moments before to vanish in an instant, buried under a thick layer of worry.

”What do we do?”

Qin Feng was the first to speak, looking at Jiang Ran.

”Could it have been an error during the experiment? Or maybe there’s a problem with the Positron Cannon I repaired?”

”I think... we can wait until I’ve fixed the Positron Cannon, then immediately run another experiment to see if we get two messages again.”

Jiang Ran shook his head.

”I don’t think it’s that simple.”

Unlike the other two, Jiang Ran was the only one who could physically experience the shifts in spacetime.

It was this unique and special position that filled him with an indescribable sense of unease.

”Let’s pause the Time SMS experiments for now.”

He looked up.

”To be safe, until we understand why there was a second message and what that string of mysterious numbers really means... we shouldn’t conduct any more spacetime experiments.”

「The next day.」

Qin Feng finally finished repairing the Positron Cannon and set it quietly aside.

Jiang Ran paced restlessly around the room, staring at the numbers on the blackboard and thinking.

289269426494642...

This string of numbers from the mysterious message was now written in chalk on the small blackboard as the three of them tried to decipher its meaning.

By now, the creation of the spacetime black hole and the principles behind the Time SMS had all been figured out. They had completely mastered the ability to send messages to the past.

This series of breakthroughs should have been a smooth path to a brilliant future for the trio.

But now, this ”uninvited” message had become a roadblock, bringing their plans for a glorious life to a grinding halt.

”It’s not an English word.”

Cheng Mengxue put down her pen.

”If you translate it using the order of the alphabet, it doesn’t form any known words.”

Qin Feng shook his head.

”From a mathematical perspective, I can’t find any patterns either.”

”Do you think it’s possible,” he mused, ”that the string of numbers has no intrinsic meaning? That it’s just a simple string of digits—just a password?”

’A password.’

Jiang Ran stopped pacing.

’A password to a bank vault?’

’A safe combination?’

’The password to some online account?’

’It wasn’t impossible, but what good was a key if you couldn’t find the lock?’

Actually, if it really was some kind of password, Jiang Ran wouldn’t be so worried.

He was worried...

...that this string of numbers was a warning.

A warning against traveling through time, against meddling with the laws of spacetime, against altering history.

”I still think we should run another experiment.”

Qin Feng suggested again.

”Since the Positron Cannon is fixed, why not run another test to verify things? We can see if this mysterious message was a fluke or if it’s bound to happen.”

”If we want to understand the truth behind these numbers, we need to try more, gather more samples. Only then can we analyze it more comprehensively.”

”Maybe in the next experiment, we’ll get another clue. Then we can use those clues to crack this code.”

Qin Feng’s line of thinking was very scientific.

But...

”What if it has some irreversible consequences?” Jiang Ran asked, looking at him.

”What consequences are you worried about?”

Qin Feng asked.

”The uncontrollable spacetime Butterfly Effect?”

”No.”

Jiang Ran shook his head.

They already knew the Butterfly Effect was uncontrollable. As the most direct observer of the spacetime shifts, he especially understood the fear that came with memory loss, altered history, and the feeling of ”opening a blind box.”

However...

Just sending a message three days into the past to change the history of those three days... the scale of that Butterfly Effect wasn’t so terrifying. There wasn’t enough time for the flap of a butterfly’s wings to grow into a tornado.

Although this way of thinking was a bit arrogant and conceited, judging from the impact of the last two Time SMS messages, the resulting Butterfly Effect had indeed been negligible.

”I’m worried that this string of numbers is a warning to us,” Jiang Ran said bluntly.

Cheng Mengxue was confused.

”But who would be warning us?”

She looked back and forth between the two men.

”The secret of the Time SMS, the Positron Cannon, the worldline shifts—we’re the only ones in the entire world who know about it. It’s a secret between the three of us. No one else could possibly know.”

”Yes, and that’s exactly the problem.”

This was what had been bothering Jiang Ran all along.

”Right now, we’ve only just mastered the ability to send messages to the past. We’re not familiar with a lot of the mechanics and principles, so we can only send messages to a fixed point in time: three days ago.”

”But what if, given time, as Qin Feng continues his research and development on the Positron Cannon, we break that ’three days ago’ limit? What if we expand the time frame for sending messages... to three weeks ago, three months ago, or even three years ago?”

Qin Feng froze, but as usual, he caught on instantly.

”You mean...”

”Exactly.”

Jiang Ran turned to look at Cheng Mengxue.

”If that hypothesis is correct, then right now, we’re the ones receiving the message. And the person who sent us this mysterious message... is in the more distant future.”

”That would answer your question perfectly. The secret of the Time Machine is known only to the three of us, so who would send us a warning?”

”The answer is self-evident. It’s us—from three weeks, three months, or even three or thirty years from now.”

He lifted his head and looked at the full moon hanging high outside the window.

”It’s very likely that our future selves sent us a warning.”

”A warning to our present selves... to stop the spacetime experiments.”