Genius Playground

Chapter 314: Chapter 5: Meeting an Old Acquaintance

“Wait!”

Jiang Ran took a step back, looking left and right…

Pedestrians ambled down the street, children ran by with lollipops, flying cars zipped through the sky like schools of fish, and robots worked diligently.

Everything was stable. Everything was proceeding as normal.

“Phew…”

Jiang Ran finally let out a sigh of relief and looked across the street.

In front of a cake shop, a young woman in a pretty dress was promoting freshly baked cakes:

“Today’s special! Freshly baked cakes! Free samples! Free samples!”

Jiang Ran pressed a hand to his forehead, rubbing his temples as he started to analyze the situation.

He didn’t understand why such a terrifying scene had appeared just now… It was as if the entire world had gone haywire. Objects overlapped like paper cutouts, pedestrians and trees flickered and shifted, and people’s faces even turned into flat textures, their pixels stretched when viewed from the side.

Terrifying.

Bizarre.

Horrifying.

‘It was like… when your internet lags while watching a movie, or your graphics card artifacts while playing a game.’

Recalling the old woman who kept flickering, repeating the motion of getting on the bus, made Jiang Ran’s scalp tingle even now.

If he’d encountered this in a game, he would have instantly understood that the network had failed or he’d been disconnected.

But…

This was the Future World of 2045!

‘Could it be? Is this world fake, just like a video game? Is it virtual?’

“No.”

Jiang Ran shook his head.

If the 2045 that the Positron Cannon sent him to was fake, then how could he explain the prison from before?

In that prison holding Sang Biao, the stupid young man, the Assassin, and Lu Yu, this kind of thing had never happened. Every time, he was reliably kicked back to 2025 at exactly 12:00 PM.

That time window was absolute: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM on September 17, 2045. Those two hours were his limit for existing in the Future World.

But just now, he had only been bumming some free food and drinks on the street and then taken a flying bus. It hadn’t been anywhere near two hours; thirty or forty minutes at most.

‘If I’d been kicked back to 2025 early, I could understand that. But why, after that bizarre phenomenon, am I still in 2045, with time rewound to 10:00 AM?’

To be safe, he walked over to the girl promoting orange juice again.

“Hello, excuse me, what time is it?”

The girl still didn’t glance at a watch or phone. She just blinked and answered without hesitation:

“10:02 AM, sir.”

Hmm.

Jiang Ran nodded.

Factoring in the time he had just spent dazing out and thinking, he could basically confirm that after the “black screen”—a period where there was nothing, where he couldn’t even think—he had returned to 10:00 AM.

Everything was as it was before.

It was as if he had just been daydreaming, passed out from heatstroke, or fallen into a delusion.

‘Is this my own problem? Or is there something wrong with this Future World itself?’

‘Thinking in a vacuum is useless. I need to test it again myself.’

“Sir?”

The server in the maid outfit saw Jiang Ran spacing out and blinked.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind. Would you like a cup of orange juice to help you relax?”

Jiang Ran looked up at the tray in the server’s hands.

“Yes, please,” he said softly.

‘Right now, I could really use some juice to calm my nerves.’

The server smiled faintly, took out a large paper cup, and poured him a full glass of juice.

‘Whoa!’

‘This generous?!’

The friendly service, combined with the thrill of getting something for free, instantly soothed 13.29% of Jiang Ran’s frayed nerves, allowing him to feel the warmth of the sun again.

Putting all else aside, this almost utopian-style of getting free food and drink was genuinely pleasant.

“Thank you.”

Jiang Ran took the large paper cup with both hands and bowed his thanks.

The maid server giggled at him.

“If you like it, come back for a refill anytime!”

“Oh, no need, no need… thank you very much.”

Such a large sample cup, on top of such great service, made even a thick-skinned person like Jiang Ran feel a little embarrassed.

If he weren’t broke, he absolutely would have bought something from the shop.

Walking to the edge of the road, Jiang Ran raised the paper cup and GULP, GULP, downed a few mouthfuls of orange juice.

Delicious!

The same clear, fragrant, and exquisitely delicious taste!

He had never tasted such perfect juice. He could find almost no fault with it; it was even a little addictive.

More importantly…

…the sensation of the juice going down his throat was incredibly real.

It wasn’t just the sweet and sour taste stimulating his palate; he could also feel the fine pulp slipping past his tongue, a testament to the juice’s authenticity and quality.

This cup of juice alone made it hard for Jiang Ran to believe this world was fake.

Besides, taking a huge step back, 2045 was only twenty years from 2025. He truly couldn’t believe that technology could have advanced so explosively in just two decades.

‘I have to find a way to verify this.’

This time, he didn’t walk in the same direction as before. Instead, he turned and headed the opposite way.

Unlike the dense row of snack stalls across the street, this side of the road was mostly lined with shops selling various goods.

Coincidentally… most of the shops had signs advertising “partially free” items. This, however, put Jiang Ran on guard. ‘Could they be tourist traps?’

Soon, he saw a watch shop and walked right in.

“Hello, do you have any free watches?”

“We do, sir! Take a look at this display case. Everything in here is provided for free!”

“Uh… just give me any one. That one’s fine.”

Jiang Ran pointed to a silver watch in the case.

After confirming multiple times that he really didn’t have to pay, Jiang Ran quickly walked out of the watch shop and fastened the strap around his wrist.