Genius Playground

He didn’t even have time to scream.

A prison guard brutally grabbed Jiang Ran’s hair, yanked his head up, and slammed his chin down hard against the table!

THUD!!

A hopeless crunch. Jiang Ran felt his chin disappear... All his teeth shattered. His skull cracked and warped, the bones of his nose and jaw smashing together.

”Ah, ah...”

It was a pain that choked back any sound, a fear worse than death.

However, it wasn’t over.

The guard did it again, yanking his head up and slamming it onto the table!

THUD!!

This time, his entire head was crushed. Jiang Ran couldn’t feel the lower half of his face.

The searing muzzle of a gun was pressed against the back of his head.

Through his hazy consciousness, he opened his eyes one last time. The fluorescent glow of a digital clock on the table entered his vision.

The time displayed:

September 17, 2045, 11:45 AM

Hmm?

Wait a minute.

He forced his eyelids open.

2045?

Not 2025?

This is...

Twenty years in the future!?

BANG——————

His skull burst open, brains and blood splattering across the table.

One last glance.

Jiang Ran’s fading gaze fixed on the face of the digital clock—

September 17, 2045, 11:46 AM

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

An unexpected wave of dizziness washed over him. The world spun.

Huh?

Strange.

In the dark vortex where his five senses had vanished, Jiang Ran realized his consciousness remained. Instead, all the pain was gone, his thoughts instantly clear.

’What’s happening?’

’I was shot in the back of the head. I should be dead.’

’But why...’

’Did a spacetime shift occur?’

’What’s the principle behind this?’

’And what caused this spacetime shift?’

Two seconds later, all the discomfort vanished.

His five senses returned.

Jiang Ran opened his eyes—

”Hello?”

”Hello!”

”Jiang Ran! Say something! Is the connection bad?”

Nan Xiuxiu’s voice kept coming through.

He looked down.

Jiang Ran found himself standing outside the Film Club window, next to a transformer box. He was holding his phone in his right hand, displaying the call screen with Nan Xiuxiu.

On the screen, the numbers for the call duration slowly ticked by:

00:06

”Can you hear me?”

00:07

”Hellooo?”

00:08

”Jiang Ran, what’s going on with you!”

00:09

Jiang Ran stared blankly at the ever-ticking call duration on his phone screen...

It was only then that he realized—

’I’m back!’

This was 2025.

This was the moment he and Chi Xiaoguo were activating the Positron Cannon to send a Time SMS.

And just as he was about to press the send button for the message, Nan Xiuxiu had suddenly called, causing him to accidentally press the answer key...

But.

Looking at the call time.

Only eleven seconds had passed.

’This... this isn’t scientific, is it?’

He raised his head, bewildered.

He recalled the prison break he’d just experienced with Sang Biao, the ”stupid young man,” the ”Bookworm,” and the ”Assassin.”

They had been together for at least an hour.

It was such a real experience that lasted an hour, so why, when he came to his senses, had only eleven seconds passed?

”No,”

he said softly.

”It wasn’t eleven seconds.”

The call duration showed eleven seconds because he had been spaced out for a while.

Strictly speaking, the first time he felt dizzy and sensed the worldline shift, he had just answered Nan Xiuxiu’s call, and the duration showed 00:00.

And when he felt dizzy the second time, sensed the worldline shift, and came to, Nan Xiuxiu’s call was also just connecting. Although he didn’t see the call duration, it should have also been 00:00, or maybe 00:01.

So.

’There was no time difference at all between those two dizzy spells.’

From his first-person perspective, an hour had passed.

But from a third-person perspective, it was all instantaneous.

”Whoa! It’s so hot, so hot!”

Chi Xiaoguo’s cry came from inside the Film Club window.

Looking inside, he saw the petite and cute little girl with Nezha-style hair buns hopping up and down, puffing her cheeks and blowing on her fingers, clearly having been burned by something.

He glanced again at the device on the table...

It was obvious: the Positron Cannon, having shut down from overheating, must have been what burned her.

”Hoo! Hoo!”

Chi Xiaoguo blew on her fingers a few times, shook them, and then looked at Jiang Ran outside the window with a sharp intake of breath.

”Senior! Was your experiment a success?”

”This... this Positron Cannon thing shut down instantly. It wasn’t... it wasn’t me who broke it, right?”

Jiang Ran’s thoughts hadn’t caught up yet, so he didn’t speak.

He was still thinking.

All the evidence proved that he was still on Worldline 1—a completely unchanged Worldline 1, with no time discontinuity.

From both Nan Xiuxiu’s and Chi Xiaoguo’s perspectives, he had just been staring blankly for a few seconds.

’So what was that whole bizarre experience just now?’

’The prison, Sang Biao, the Assassin, the Magician, Qin Feng, public enemy number one, the police dogs, 2045, the gunshot, the headshot...’

All of it.

’Was it a delusion?’

’A daydream?’

’A fever-induced trance?’

Or...

Jiang Ran reached out with his left hand to touch the spot on the back of his head where he’d been shot. The searing, explosive sensation still seemed to be tearing at the membranes of his brain.

”Or...”

he murmured to himself.

”Was this a *real, actual trip through spacetime... to the future, twenty years from now?*”