Genius Playground

It was obvious the three of them each had their own little scheme.

Their expressions had already given them away, especially ever since Jiang Ran started smiling.

The three of them exchanged sly glances, and then, with a tacit, unspoken agreement, they all said at once:

”The lottery!” ”The lottery!” ”The lottery!”

A burst of laughter followed.

”Great minds think alike, I see.”

Qin Feng said with a laugh,

”Knowing you two, I figured you must have been thinking about this for a while.”

”Weren’t you?”

”Of course I was. I wanted to do this during the very first test.”

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

”It’s only natural to have this kind of idea. You have to be practical before you can shoot for the stars. Let me see... Perfect. Today’s the drawing for the Two-Color Ball lottery.”

The Two-Color Ball is one of the most common lotteries.

It has a total of 6+1 numbers. Matching all of them gets you the first prize of 5 million, while matching the first six numbers gets you the second prize. The second-prize payout fluctuates, but it’s usually around 200,000.

The lottery is drawn once every two days, with the results broadcast live on TV at 9:15 PM on the drawing day.

”How lucky.”

Jiang Ran opened his laptop and found the live stream of the drawing.

”We’ll wait a dozen minutes or so. After the winning numbers are announced, we’ll send a Time SMS to our past selves.”

”It doesn’t matter if the message is sent to three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, or even just a few hours ago. We’ll have enough time to buy the lottery ticket.”

...

It had to be said, the lottery plan was certainly uplifting.

The atmosphere in the activity room was exceptionally cheerful.

A dozen or so minutes later, the winning numbers were announced. Jiang Ran jotted them down on a piece of white paper and handed it to Qin Feng.

”What’s this for?” Qin Feng asked, confused.

”It’s your turn to send the message.”

Jiang Ran said,

”Let’s switch it up. We’ll see if you retain the [Full Space-Time Memory] this time.”

”I can’t... I have to operate this.”

Qin Feng pointed to the Positron Cannon.

”I just adjusted the Beam Converger’s intensity to one-fifth of what it was before. I want to see if we can send the message to yesterday.”

”Plus, there are some detailed operations that you two can’t handle. I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting either of you do it.”

”Good point.”

Jiang Ran turned and handed the paper to Cheng Mengxue.

”Then you send the message. Use your own phone to send the lottery numbers to my phone.”

Cheng Mengxue nodded.

”Should we tell our past selves not to go for the first prize? That would be too conspicuous.”

”Heh, our past selves aren’t idiots.”

Jiang Ran was very confident.

”Our past selves are still us. Our brains will still be working.”

”Going for the second prize is definitely better. I just checked. Every drawing of the Two-Color Ball has several hundred second-prize winners across the country. It’s the perfect way to hide in plain sight.”

With the plan set, the three of them took their positions.

Cheng Mengxue stood with her phone, pressing it right up against the transformer’s distribution box.

”You don’t have to press it that tightly...”

Jiang Ran reminded her.

”It won’t be fun if it shorts out.”

Qin Feng was still in charge of the Positron Cannon, while Jiang Ran now sat perched on the windowsill to do the countdown.

”5! 4! 3! 2! 1!”

His eyes were fixed on Cheng Mengxue’s finger...

”0!”

The Positron Cannon roared! Cheng Mengxue hit send—

VMM!

VMM!

VMM!

The familiar dizziness and vertigo returned, turning the world upside down.

Jiang Ran felt himself fall from the windowsill. The whole world spun as if he’d been stuffed into a tumble dryer.

’The worldline has changed!’

’It seems that regardless of who sends the message or whose phone is used, as long as the prerequisites are met, the Time SMS can be sent successfully.’

’The sender, the recipient, the phone, the message content... none of that matters.’

’Only the Positron Cannon and the transformer’s distribution box are essential.’

’Roughly speaking, there are many other distribution boxes of the same specification at the school. They might be viable replacements.’

’But the Positron Cannon is the only one of its kind.’

’It’s an accidental product, cobbled together from random parts with no clear understanding of its principles. No one could ever replicate it.’

「Two seconds later.」

The dizziness vanished.

The feeling of gravity and the ground under his feet returned.

He opened his eyes.

And found...

He wasn’t sitting on the windowsill—in fact, the window wasn’t even open. And he hadn’t fallen from the sill; he was standing in the middle of the activity room.

After his experience waking up in the hospital last time, Jiang Ran was no longer surprised by this kind of change in location.

According to the theory of Worldline Jumps, this was perfectly logical.

Since the temporal Butterfly Effect had altered history, it was only natural that his own life’s trajectory would change as well.

Barring some extreme coincidence, it was nearly impossible to remain in the exact same spot after a worldline shift.

”Tomorrow, I’m going to buy a mountain of Rhine Cat merch!”

Cheng Mengxue’s voice was filled with excitement as she pranced around the activity room as if scattering flower petals in celebration.

”I can’t spend it all~ I’ll never be able to spend it all!”

Seeing her act like this...

”Did we win?”

Jiang Ran asked, though he already knew the answer.

”How much did we win?!”

He was mostly curious about this part.

”A full 1.3 million!”

...

The three of them sat down first to sync Jiang Ran up on his memories—in other words, everything that had happened between yesterday and today after the worldline changed.

”The message was received yesterday afternoon.”

Cheng Mengxue pointed to Jiang Ran’s phone.

”Your phone received it this time, and I was the sender.”

”Excellent.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

Qin Feng truly was a genius; his guess had hit the bullseye—

’Adjusting the Positron Cannon’s Beam Converger intensity really can control the time frame the Time SMS is sent to!’

Reducing it to one-fifth of the initial value had changed the destination from three days ago to yesterday.

’By that logic...’

’As long as I increase the Beam Converger’s intensity, we could send a message to the even more distant past... a month ago, a year ago, maybe even ten years ago.’

’This was, without a doubt, the greatest discovery from this experiment.’

’As for the second discovery, it was also expected:’

’The Full Space-Time Memory is indeed unique to me, regardless of who sends the message.’

This time, Cheng Mengxue had sent the message herself, but Jiang Ran’s dizziness still occurred right on schedule. Meanwhile, Cheng Mengxue still had no memory of the worldline before the change, while Jiang Ran’s memory remained as clear as ever.

”Oh, right.”

Jiang Ran immediately took out his own phone.

He had to confirm how many messages he’d received this time.

”Still just one.”

He clicked his tongue.

He couldn’t quite describe the feeling.

He was both hoping to receive another mysterious message and worried that he would.

It was a contradictory feeling.

But at least, given the current situation... not receiving another one was actually more reassuring.

Cheng Mengxue then told Jiang Ran what had happened with the lottery.

After receiving the message yesterday afternoon, the three of them immediately met up. They decided against going for the first prize—it was too conspicuous and flashy—and aimed directly for the second prize instead.

They went to different lottery vendors and bought numerous tickets, most with randomly chosen numbers, to create the illusion of an ”accidental win” as much as possible.

Just a dozen minutes ago, the winning numbers were announced, and they were an exact match for the numbers in the Time SMS.

As a result, they had won the second prize on the Two-Color Ball lottery a total of five times, for a grand prize of 1.3 million!

”We’re rich...”

Qin Feng stared at the few lottery tickets in his hand.

”We’re millionaires.”

”This... this was too easy...”

After the celebration, a now-calmer Cheng Mengxue felt a little insecure.

”Really, is nothing bad going to happen? What we did... uh, it’s legal, right?”

Jiang Ran smiled.

”What exists is rational. This is a gift from the laws of physics.”

”Shouldn’t it be a gift from the Film Club? From the upperclassmen who cobbled together the Positron Cannon?” Cheng Mengxue corrected.

”That’s true, too.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

”So, to repay them, let’s make sure the Film Club continues. That way, their spirits in heaven will see...”

”Hey, hey, hey! The upperclassmen just graduated, they didn’t die!”

...

「The next day.」

Outside the East Sea Welfare Lottery Center.

The three of them stood on the sidewalk, staring at the busy traffic before them...

Lost.

After cashing in their prize, they each had several hundred thousand added to their bank accounts.

My god.

How were they supposed to spend it all?

They were all used to a 2,000-per-month living allowance, with pockets cleaner than their faces. When had they ever seen this much money?

For a moment, they couldn’t even figure out how to start splurging.

”Uh...”

Jiang Ran scratched his head.

”How about... we head back to school for class first?”

”Yeah.” x2

The other two followed him.

...

After walking a few steps, Jiang Ran made another suggestion.

”After class, should we use the Time SMS to get some more money?”

”Yeah!!” x2