Genius Playground

「The next day. 10:30 p.m.」

The lights in the club activities building were gradually going out.

Most of the clubs had already finished their activities. After packing up and turning off the electronics and lights, they locked their doors and left.

Inside the Film Club, however, the lights were still blazing. They showed no signs of wrapping up.

They were waiting for midnight.

According to the *Time SMS User Manual (Version 4.0)*, sending a text message further back into the past required more power.

So, to be on the safe side, the most prudent time to do it was in the dead of night, after midnight, when no one else would be using electricity.

Jiang Ran stood before the small blackboard, looking at the string of mysterious numbers on it:

289269426494642.

And the five words that had been decoded from this string of numbers:

Don’t trust anyone at all.

...

No one knew what this sentence really meant.

They kept hoping to receive a second mysterious message that would complete the missing latter half of the sentence.

But things didn’t go as planned.

There was never any follow-up to that mysterious text which had appeared so suddenly.

This sense of uncertainty made Jiang Ran feel very uneasy.

He always had a feeling...

That, in the grand scheme of things, he had missed something, overlooked something.

’But what could I have overlooked?’

He couldn’t figure it out, couldn’t put his finger on it.

Right now, he was like a headless fly, unable to find a breakthrough. His thoughts just spun in circles, getting dizzier and more confused.

Sigh.

How to put it...

Anything related to the Time SMS always filled his heart with anxiety.

The past two days had been peaceful.

He even had a long-overdue drink with Wang Hao, and they just shot the breeze. He’d been in a good mood.

But today they had to send another Time SMS, and that sense of panic was washing over him again. He paced back and forth in the small clubroom, unable to calm his mind.

He looked up.

The room was filled with the Rhine Cat Legion, every pair of eyes reflecting the incandescent lights, shining brightly.

He looked down.

On the lab bench was the Positron Cannon, poised and ready.

Qin Feng meticulously maintained it every day. Its shell was polished to a mirror shine, creating an absurd contrast of new and old, as if time had never passed over it.

It was hard to imagine.

That the Positron Cannon’s predecessor was just a bulky CRT monitor manufactured over twenty years ago.

Who knows what kind of geniuses the Film Club alumni back then were to have cobbled it together by some bizarre twist of fate, modifying it into a ”Time Machine” that could work with the transformer distribution box... to send a mobile phone text message into the past.

It was all such a coincidence.

And yet, it was all so scientific.

So.

The end point of science plus coincidence...

What could it possibly be?

”Time’s about up.”

Qin Feng checked his watch.

”It’s past midnight. Let’s get ready to start.”

Qin Feng’s words pulled Jiang Ran back to reality.

He stood up and shook his head to clear away the messy thoughts, then began to get things organized.

In truth, there wasn’t much to organize.

After so many experiments, each of them knew the drill. Besides, the time destination for this message had already been determined during the day—

Qin Feng had gone to the used appliance market 7 days ago;

The circuit control board was bought 9 days ago;

To be absolutely certain, it was best to add another day;

So, this time, they were going to send the Time SMS...

Ten days into the past.

This was, to date, the furthest back they had ever sent a Time SMS. It was a historic breakthrough in its own right.

The setup was the same as always, but the three of them had swapped positions.

Cheng Mengxue was in charge of operating the Positron Cannon, Jiang Ran was perched on the windowsill to do the countdown, and Qin Feng stood by the transformer distribution box to send the text.

Operating the Positron Cannon used to be a technical job.

Thanks to recent improvements, it was now a foolproof operation using the knob control panel. There was no difficulty at all.

”The message is written!” Qin Feng shouted from outside the window.

Jiang Ran turned his head and looked at Cheng Mengxue.

Cheng Mengxue turned the knobs, setting the year, month, and hour dials all to 0. Then she turned the ”day” dial to 10.

This meant that in a moment, the Time SMS would be sent exactly 10 days into the past.

”Positron Cannon is set, too!”

Jiang Ran raised his hand.

”Okay, I’m starting the countdown! When I hit 0, Xiaoxue, you activate the Positron Cannon first, then Qin Feng sends the message. Everyone ready—”

”5!”

The moonlight was covered by dark clouds, and the whole world went dark.

He wasn’t sure how many times they’d done this. But every time he did the countdown, Jiang Ran always had the illusion that time was slowing down.

Not only did his senses sharpen, but his mind grew more agile. He felt like a vulture hunting in the night, able to discard all noise and distractions to focus solely on its prey.

”4!”

Even now, that string of mysterious numbers still made Jiang Ran uneasy.

Don’t trust anyone at all...

’What is it that we’re not supposed to trust?’

Jiang Ran didn’t know, nor could he guess.

But.

If he had to name his first instinct upon seeing those five words, it would be Qin Feng.

’Don’t trust... Qin Feng.’

”3!”

Shouting out the number, Jiang Ran looked toward his best friend standing by the distribution box.

This was a boy who had lost his father at a young age and had a miserable childhood.

But for the sake of friendship and trust, he had given up on his obsession with saving his father.

’He’s truly a great person.’

’Compared to him...’

’I seem so despicable.’

Even though Qin Feng was being so cooperative, he still harbored doubts about his best friend. As the countdown numbers decreased, his various anxieties transformed into a wild beast pounding in his chest.

”2!”

His gradually accelerating heartbeat made Jiang Ran feel a bit short of breath.

Watching Qin Feng outside the window, about to press the send button, he felt a wave of dizziness. It was as if the earth was trembling, the world was shaking, and countless terrifying and abstract images rushed toward him.

A fish leaped from the water’s surface,

its dead eyes reflecting a black sun,

The black light turned into viscous asphalt, the boiling mud of the earth, a mix of black and red. The world between heaven and earth was a vision of the apocalypse.

He blinked.

The Earth fell silent, ceasing its rotation.

An eye.

It was a giant eye, with the Earth as its pupil.

Its vast eye socket stared off into the unknown.

”1!”

He blinked again.

The giant eye appeared in the cosmos, immense beyond measure. Its pitch-black pupil was like a greedy black hole, madly devouring everything around it.

Pulled by gravity, the point of view shot away at the speed of light.

Finally... the eye was revealed in its entirety. It was horrifying and unexpected—there was another eye right next to it!

A double blink.

Those were... Qin Feng’s eyes, reflecting the moonlight—

”WAIT!!!” Jiang Ran yelled.

”Huh? Wha-wha-wha-what!”

Cheng Mengxue had already braced herself to activate the Positron Cannon. Jiang Ran’s shout interrupted her, making her lose her balance for a moment. She flailed her arms and legs, quickly grabbing the tabletop to steady herself.

”Jiang Ran! What are you doing?!”

She complained loudly:

”You scared me to death! Why aren’t you sticking to the plan?”

However, Jiang Ran paid her no mind.

His eyes were fixed on Qin Feng by the distribution box, on the phone at his fingertips.

Bracing himself on the windowsill, he jumped down.

The moonlight cast a dividing line between the two of them. Jiang Ran walked forward, stepping into the bright moonlight.

One step, then another.

With slow, heavy steps, he walked up to Qin Feng and slowly raised his right hand.

”What’s wrong?” Qin Feng asked.

”Qin Feng, can you give me the phone?”

Jiang Ran looked into his eyes.

”I want to confirm... the content of the text message.”