Genius Playground

“What the heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—”

The bizarre transformation happened in that very instant.

Facing the bowing Rhine Cats, Sang Biao let out a frantic squawk. His clothes flickered between mosaics and solid blocks of color as his entire character model bobbed up and down, half his body sinking into the ground.

The row of bowing Rhine Cats suddenly began to copy and paste themselves, instantly filling the entire space. Even the elevator was crammed with furry cat heads, overlapping with Jiang Ran.

Jiang Ran tried to scream, but found he couldn’t make a sound.

He turned his head to look at the mirror on the elevator wall and saw that his upper body had vanished from the waist up. His legs, the lower half of his body, were flipping upside down and right-side up, over and over again.

In an instant, the Rhine Cats’ clothes and skin disappeared.

Their muscles, blood vessels, and bones were exposed before Jiang Ran’s eyes, just like an anatomical diagram.

Th-th-that… they weren’t dolls! They weren’t costumes! They were real Rhine Cats made of flesh, blood, and bone!

As shock and terror washed over him, his arm suddenly materialized out of thin air, right in front of his face.

The digital watch on his wrist clearly displayed—

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

SWOOSH.

The entire world went dark. Everything turned to nothingness.

A few seconds later.

“HOLY SHIT!!!”

Jiang Ran roared as his consciousness and vision returned.

He’d been holding that “holy shit” in for far too long:

“What the hell was that!”

He clutched his head, not daring to recall the details of what had just happened…

Skinned, blood-drenched Rhine Cats, singing and dancing… What the fuck was that?!

‘How could there be an outdoor amusement park on the 42nd sub-level?’

And… what those Rhine Cats said when they bowed was also completely unbelievable:

“Welcome toooooo~~ Hang City Paradise!”

‘Come on.’

‘That was East Sea City.’

‘In the Human Civilization Memorial Hall in East Sea City, on the 42nd sub-level underground.’

‘How could Hang City Paradise possibly be there!’

‘Hang City Paradise is called Hang City Paradise because it was built in Hang City, okay?’

“Besides…”

Jiang Ran’s heart skipped a beat, and he swallowed hard.

A while ago, on the second day of the National Day holiday, he had just gone to Hang City Paradise with Li Yini, who was playing the role of Cheng Mengxue.

So, he was certain:

‘Hang City Paradise doesn’t look like that at all… It’s completely different.’

It was an old, slightly worn-down, has-been amusement park. How could it have such a tall Ferris wheel and such an outrageous roller coaster?

The Ferris wheel he’d just seen outside the elevator on the 42nd sub-level was practically as high as the sun, not to mention the roller coaster that coiled like a giant dragon. You couldn’t find anything like it anywhere in the world.

If Hang City Paradise really had such extravagant attractions, how could it be on the verge of bankruptcy? Disney and Universal Studios combined probably couldn’t hold a candle to it.

So, this was very strange.

‘That place clearly isn’t Hang City Paradise, so why did those Rhine Cats say ‘Welcome to Hang City Paradise’?’

He sighed and rubbed his temples.

‘No, no, no, now’s not the time to get bogged down in these details…’

‘Since even the Rhine Cats had come to life as beings of flesh and blood, what was the point of obsessing over other superficial details compared to something so outrageous?’

“Sir?”

“Sir!”

“Sir!!”

Beside him, a delicate voice snapped Jiang Ran out of his daze. He turned to look behind him.

The familiar waitress in a maid outfit was looking at him, her eyes filled with concern:

“Are you all right, sir? Would you like a glass of juice to calm your nerves?”

Jiang Ran took a deep breath and looked around.

He was back again.

Another reset, another restart, another loop after 39 minutes and 11 seconds.

This was the third time tonight, and also the last.

“I’ll have a glass, thank you.”

The young woman smiled faintly, poured Jiang Ran a large, full glass of orange juice, and handed it to him—

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

Before his right hand could touch the paper cup, he suddenly felt dizzy. The world spun around him as the timeline punctually kicked him into a spacetime vortex, and he fell through the darkness…

Two seconds later.

All the discomfort vanished.

Jiang Ran slowly opened his eyes.

A gentle night breeze, swaying willow branches, a faint scent of flowers.

He was outside the Film Club window. His time in 2045 was up, and he had returned to 2025.

“I’ve had it.”

Jiang Ran covered his eyes and crouched down.

This night had been way too intense.

He felt like he’d been tossed into a washing machine, thrown around and around. In the span of just two hours, his location had changed a total of four times!

The frequent, bizarre shifts made Jiang Ran see stars, and for a moment, he couldn’t accept that he was back in reality.

“Senior!”

Chi Xiaoguo propped herself up on the windowsill with both arms, looking outside:

“Senior? Are you okay?”

She keenly sensed that something seemed to be wrong with Jiang Ran.

Because.

In all the previous Positron Cannon experiments, although they always ended in an instant, Senior Jiang Ran had never crouched down like this before.

In the past, even though every experiment had also ended in failure, her senior had always acted nonchalant and unconcerned.

But today…

‘Why did he crouch down and hold his head?’

‘Could it be that he’s heartbroken?’

‘Has his spirit finally broken after so many failed experiments?’

At that moment, Chi Xiaoguo wished her legs weren’t so short, so she could jump out of the window like her senior and run to his side to comfort him.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

Outside the window, Jiang Ran stood up, waved to Chi Xiaoguo, and let out a soft chuckle.

“I’m all right, don’t worry. Just a little tired.”

Chi Xiaoguo looked at Jiang Ran and tilted her head.

“Okay.”

Since her senior said he was fine, there wasn’t much more she could say.

All she could do was her best to cooperate with his experiments and satisfy his desire for a Time Machine.

“Well… Senior, tomorrow night, should I try being the one outside?”

Jiang Ran thought for a few seconds.

“We’ll see tomorrow. It’s getting late, let’s just head back to the dorms for today.”

“Okay!”

Chi Xiaoguo waved.

“Well, good night, Senior!”

She relaxed her arms and dropped back to the floor. Then she turned off the light, locked the door, and left through the main entrance of the club activities building.

Jiang Ran let out a long sigh through his nose.

He looked up at the full moon in the sky.

‘This trip to the Future World of 2045 was packed with information. I need to sort it all out properly.’

“I should head back to the dorm first.”

He scratched his back. He was still genuinely freaked out by the image of the flayed, dissected Rhine Cats, and he quickened his pace toward the graduate student dorm.

After returning to his dorm, Jiang Ran took a shower.

Then, dressed in his pajamas, he went to the window.

Opening the window and listening to the rustling leaves and sporadic croaking of frogs outside, he finally began to recover from his back-and-forth trips to the Future World and feel the reality of his present world.

“It’s too bizarre!”

When a person is rendered utterly speechless, they can’t help but laugh. That was Jiang Ran’s current state.

His reflection in the glass showed a helpless, resigned smile, but also a hint of desperation:

“I need to sort out my thoughts.”

He turned around and sat down in his chair.

Then he picked up the English version of *Narrow Gate* from the coffee table, fiddling with it in his hands as he began to recall his experiences in 2045 tonight.

It was the same as usual.

He had experienced three loops of 39 minutes and 11 seconds, spaced out in front of the juice shop for another 2 minutes and 27 seconds, and was finally kicked back to 2025 by the timeline.

The total time added up to exactly two hours, a perfect fit with no changes.

Before the first reset and restart, he had gone to the library to do research, managing to learn about the origin and rules of the Virtual World, as well as Pompey’s former grand ambition.

Before the second reset and restart, he had talked a lot with the juice girl about Pompey’s past. Afterward, he went to the memorial plaza and read Pompey’s suicide note under the bronze statue, concluding that Pompey’s late-life depression and suicide were most likely related to a malfunction in the Virtual World… namely, the illogical restarts that occurred every 39 minutes and 11 seconds.

Before the third reset and restart, that experience had been the most surreal. He had successfully gained Sang Biao’s trust, joined his little theft squad, and prepared to steal Pompey’s treasure from the lowest level of the Human Civilization Memorial Hall.

However, the heist was both a success and a failure.

The successful part was that they had indeed made it all the way to the 42nd sub-level, the deepest part of the underground, without any obstructions.

The unsuccessful part was that the moment the elevator doors on the 42nd sub-level opened, the theft squad instantly fell apart and was utterly routed.

To be honest, Jiang Ran had gone along with Sang Biao fully prepared to die. Even if the elevator doors had opened to countless machine guns pointed at him, he wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised and would have faced death without a sound.

But as it happened, fate played an incredibly absurd joke on him.

Outside the elevator on the 42nd sub-level…

…was a completely illogical outdoor amusement park, presented to him like some surreal dream.

And those living Rhine Cats… not giant dolls, not costumes worn by staff, but real, living cats with flesh, blood, bones, breath, and body heat.

Even if it was a Virtual Digital World, wasn’t it a bit too insane to hide such a horrifying scene beneath the Human Civilization Memorial Hall?

And.

What was the point?

“Not to mention, those Rhine Cats even said the place was Hang City Paradise.”

The very thought of such a complete contradiction made Jiang Ran find it laughable.

‘Building a Hang City Paradise within East Sea City’s borders… is that a slap in the face to Hang City or to East Sea City?’

‘In the battle between a provincial capital and a directly-administered municipality, who doesn’t care about saving face?’

“Anyway, next time I’ll be mentally prepared and go check out the 42nd sub-level of the memorial hall again. I already know how to win over Sang Biao… I just need to play the ‘mother’ card with him.”

Jiang Ran lowered his head.

He idly flipped through the English version of *Narrow Gate*.

The Rhine Cat.

A Rhine Cat appearing in Hang City Paradise… This bizarre combination instantly made him think of someone whose style matched perfectly—

Cheng Mengxue.

Right.

She was a girl connected to both of those elements.

When they were children, she had pestered Jiang Ran multiple times to go to Hang City Paradise with her, but they never made it;

Likewise, she was also a Rhine Cat fanatic. Ever since the Rhine Cat debuted at the end of 2022, Cheng Mengxue had been hopelessly obsessed with them.

“Hang City Paradise… Rhine Cat… Cheng Mengxue…”

Jiang Ran muttered to himself:

“Resident No. 001… the 42nd sub-level… 39 minutes and 11 seconds…”

He looked up at the incandescent light on the ceiling.

“What exactly is the connection between all these clues?”