Genius Playground

Chapter 316: Chapter 6: 002

Jiang Ran looked left and right…

The scene was still the same, still familiar.

The maid waitress hawking orange juice, the children running by with lollipops, the streams of vehicles circling overhead like schools of fish, the fragrant aroma of freshly baked cake wafting from across the street.

He was back.

Back again!

He didn’t even have to ask. He knew the time was exactly 10:00 AM, September 17, 2045!

However…

“39 minutes and 11 seconds.”

He recited the numbers.

Just now, amidst the visual assault that resembled a lagging movie or a glitching game screen, he had strained to glimpse the time on his watch.

10:39:11 AM.

In other words, his time in this cyber-utopian Future World rewound at intervals of 39 minutes and 11 seconds.

‘Every 39 minutes and 11 seconds, I return here, to the entrance of this juice shop.’

‘And time itself also resets to 10:00 AM. My condition, everyone else’s condition, the state of the entire city, even the entire world… everything reverts to 10:00 AM on this day.’

Jiang Ran narrowed his eyes.

This was too bizarre.

He had no idea what was happening.

And he was certain this wasn’t a Worldline Jump.

He hadn’t felt the buzzing sensation of a temporal-spatial shift, nor the dizziness and vertigo… there was no discomfort whatsoever.

Even the black screen that followed the visual chaos felt more like a computer crashing and rebooting.

No dizziness, no spinning. Just a few seconds of zoning out before he was suddenly refreshed back here. Then, everything… everything would restart from 10:00 AM, September 17, 2045.

“Sir?”

The maid waitress holding a tray tilted her head, blinking her cute colored contacts.

“Are you all right? Would you like to try our shop’s new juice? It’s really delicious.”

“Oh.”

Jiang Ran hesitated.

“I’ll have one…”

The feeling was strange.

His brain told him he’d just downed a huge cup! He was already sick of it!

But his mouth and stomach told him he was thirsty and desperately needed some orange juice to soothe his throat!

In the end, he succumbed to his stomach and throat, accepting the large, full cup of orange juice.

The maid waitress giggled.

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

“Okay.”

At this point, Jiang Ran had nothing to be embarrassed about. After all, this was his second refill.

Standing by the roadside again, he chugged the orange juice. GULP, GULP, GULP.

Jiang Ran felt like he was turning into a glutton like Wang Hao…

In just over an hour, he had already strolled down an entire food street, eaten a huge piece of cake, and drunk two large cups of orange juice.

Normally, he wouldn’t eat this much in an entire day.

‘This inexplicable rewind is just terrifying.’

‘But… it seems there’s a pattern to it.’

Jiang Ran licked his lips, savoring the sweetness of the orange juice.

The moment he realized this bizarre phenomenon followed a strict pattern, Jiang Ran calmed down considerably.

If there was a pattern, it must be scientific. And if it was scientific, there must be a cause to be found.

‘If each rewind is precisely 39 minutes and 11 seconds, that means the first rewind happened at that same interval.’

‘Two loops of 39 minutes and 11 seconds would be just under 80 minutes. Three loops would be just shy of two hours.’

Jiang Ran calculated mentally.

According to the user manual he’d previously compiled for the Positron Cannon 2.0 (battle-damaged version), the maximum time he could stay in the 2045 Future World was exactly two hours.

Once the clock struck 12:00 PM, he would be kicked back to 2025 by the worldline, and this trip to the future would be over.

To make another trip to the future, he would have to wait 20 hours for the Positron Cannon to cool down before it could be activated again.

‘So, by that logic, I just have to experience one more rewind in this city, and then my two-hour limit will be up… and I’ll return to 2025.’

Taking another sip of the sweet and sour orange juice, Jiang Ran thought his logic was sound.

Although, based on past experience, he could also return to 2025 instantly by dying for any number of reasons.

But in prison, he’d had no choice. Facing the guards’ pistols and the police dogs’ fangs, he was dead either way. Now that he was free, why would he look for trouble?

The feeling of his skull shattering was awful.

Besides, in this peaceful futuristic city, the only way to commit suicide was to fall from a great height.

The feeling of weightlessness while falling… just thinking about it was terrifying.

Jiang Ran wouldn’t even go on the thrill rides at an amusement park, so how could he possibly try to kill himself by jumping off a building?

‘Forget it.’

He drained the last of his orange juice and tossed the large paper cup into a trash can.

‘It’d be one thing if I died instantly, but if I mess it up and only end up half-dead, that would be pure torture.’

Then, Jiang Ran hopped on a shared hoverbike and flew toward Sang Biao, following the route from memory.

He really did want to talk to Sang Biao.

After all, they had spent so long breaking out of that prison together. They’d developed something of a bond.

Unfortunately, thanks to the Butterfly Effect and temporal shifts, that bond was one-sided.

He genuinely had a good feeling about Sang Biao, but in Sang Biao’s eyes, he was just a total stranger looking for trouble and forcing a conversation.

Sigh, what was he supposed to do?

Back in prison, they’d had a common interest. Under the guise of a prison break, they could be united against a common enemy, set aside their differences, and work together.

Now that they were both free, how could he convince Sang Biao to accept him as a comrade?

‘Sang Biao is being so sneaky. He must be up to no good.’

Maneuvering the hoverbike into the fish-like streams of traffic, Jiang Ran mulled it over as the wind blew against him.

‘Sang Biao is so volatile. He’s probably up to some petty thievery… Don’t tell me he’s trying to sneak into that classical building?’

‘Seriously, why is this guy a criminal in every version of the future? Can’t he just be a decent person for once?’

Jiang Ran wracked his brain the whole way there but couldn’t think of a way to convince Sang Biao.

In reality, they didn’t know each other well. Their bond wasn’t deep enough, and they had no secret codes or secrets… There was simply no way to make the other man trust him instantly.

‘I’ll just have to force it.’

Soon, the hoverbike arrived above the classical building again. Jiang Ran immediately spotted the fat, sneaky figure outside the wall.

He braced himself, descended, parked the bike by the roadside, and walked over.

“Sang Biao,” he called out softly.

Sang Biao jumped as if he’d been caught red-handed, whipping his head around with a vicious glare.

“Who the fuck are you calling Sang Biao! Get lost!”

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

“Then what is your name?”

“Cao Nima! What the fuck does my name have to do with you!”

Ah…

It was exactly this kind of filth-spewing vibe.

He couldn’t explain it, but Jiang Ran actually felt a nostalgic sense of familiarity.

“Alright, whatever your name is, just listen to me first.”

Jiang Ran patiently tried to calm him down.

“My name is Jiang Ran. I don’t mean any harm, I—” CLICK.

Same old trick.

Sang Biao pressed a pistol against Jiang Ran’s stomach.

“Get the hell out of my sight! Or I’ll blow you away!”

Sigh.

Jiang Ran was truly speechless.

Communicating with this single-celled organism was just too difficult.

And he knew Sang Biao. The guy had a short fuse, was ruthless, and didn’t think about the consequences.

When he said he’d blow him away, he meant it.

He still had things to verify this time, so he shouldn’t take any unnecessary risks. Better to wait for the next loop to have a proper 300-round battle of wits with Sang Biao.

“Alright, alright, man, calm down.”

History repeated itself out of sheer helplessness.

Jiang Ran backed away step by step, then got on his hoverbike.

“Hurry up and get lost!” Sang Biao roared again.

“Stop rushing me!”

Jiang Ran scoffed and twisted the throttle all the way.

“Serves you right you’ll end up in prison.”

WHOOSH—

He shot straight up into the air.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Sang Biao was clearly pissed, firing three shots into the sky.

Luckily, the hoverbike was extremely fast, and not a single bullet hit him.

Jiang Ran gave Sang Biao the middle finger from the air and sped away…

This time, he wandered off in a different direction.

He made an unexpected discovery. A news broadcast was playing on a giant screen on the side of a comprehensive shopping complex. Many people were hovering in the air on their hoverbikes to watch. Jiang Ran flew over to join the crowd and looked at the big screen.

It was a 3D screen with incredibly high resolution, so realistic and clear that the newscaster looked as if she were standing right there.

“Today is the anniversary of the passing of Mr. Pompey, resident 002 of the Digital World and the creator of this beautiful world of ours.”

“Three years ago, Mr. Pompey regrettably left us, a loss that we grieve to this day.”

“Now, in remembrance and commemoration of Mr. Pompey, let us all pause what we are doing, stop everything… and observe a moment of collective silence.”

As the newscaster finished speaking, the people in the square and those hovering in the air all closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and began to observe the moment of silence.

Even the streams of vehicles in the sky began to honk their horns in unison, the sound echoing through the clouds.

It seemed the people of this city, and perhaps the whole world, deeply respected this Mr. Pompey.

But.

Jiang Ran caught a keyword that shocked him!

Wh-what?

Digital World?

Did that newscaster just say this is the Digital World?

This world is fake?

Virtual!?

Jiang Ran sucked in a cold breath. He raised his hand and looked at his incredibly realistic, detailed skin, and the faint throb of his pulse.

This…

This is all fake?

Could it be that this world was, just as he’d initially suspected, a Virtual Digital World, like a program or a video game?

Instantly.

The moment Jiang Ran gasped, the familiar anomaly occurred again!

The newscaster on the big screen suddenly flickered erratically, her stern face filling his entire field of vision, flashing directly in front of him!

The streams of vehicles in the sky plummeted, lagging like stuttering meteors—taking three steps forward and two steps back—as if yanked by invisible strings, never quite managing to fall.

The giant shopping mall before him vanished, reappeared, then vanished again. The sky turned black, then white, then black, then white… Everything was like a fast-forwarding movie or a malfunctioning disc. Everything devolved into multicolored blocks, textures, and overlapping models clipping through one another.

Jiang Ran’s arm once again became a paintbrush, smearing everything it passed over with skin-colored tones. Its afterimages threw thousands of overlapping punches, like every single frame captured by a high-speed camera.

Repeating his earlier trick, Jiang Ran flung his wrist into the air to check the time—

10:39:11 AM, September 17, 2045.

WHOOSH!

The entire world turned black, including Jiang Ran himself.

Nothing could be seen, nothing existed. All of creation had become a black screen, waiting for the next reboot.

A few seconds later, the sunlight, the fragrant aromas, the hawker’s cries, and the sound of running children all returned.

The waitress in her maid outfit approached with a smile.

“Sir, would you like to try our new orange juice? It’s free!”

Heh.

Jiang Ran gave a helpless little chuckle and shook his head.

“I could actually drink another, and I’d love to, but I’m afraid I’m out of time.”

The waitress tilted her head.

“How could that be? It won’t take long at all.”

“What time is it now?”

The waitress looked straight ahead and blinked.

“It’s… 10:02… and 27 seconds.”

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

The familiar dizziness and vertigo finally hit. Jiang Ran had never felt so comfortable, so relaxed in the midst of this falling sensation…

This meant one thing.

His two-hour time limit was up.

He could finally escape the rewind cycle that repeated every 39 minutes and 11 seconds, and return to the normal world of 2025!

Soon, all discomfort vanished.

East Sea University, outside the Film Club activity room, next to the transformer box…

Jiang Ran.

Opened his eyes.