Genius Playground

Officer Liu’s explanation was just as Jiang Ran had expected.

However, he had also said that he would have a special task force investigate the Regrets Mutual Aid Association from top to bottom.

”Anyway, Jiang Ran, let’s keep in touch. If anything new comes up on your end, we’ll communicate right away.”

Officer Liu was very grateful to Jiang Ran. After all, both Zhou Xiong’s case in Hang City and Old Tian’s case in East Sea City had stalled due to a complete lack of clues, and they had been a real headache for him.

But Jiang Ran, with his genius intellect (endorsed by Dean Gao Yan himself), had greatly helped to outline the shape of these baffling cases.

”You still need to find someone, right? Alright, come with me.”

Officer Liu led Jiang Ran directly into an information room filled with high-tech equipment.

”We don’t just have big data on household registrations, travel itineraries, hotel stays, flights, and high-speed rail. We’re also connected to the banking system and the Skynet surveillance network. As long as this person has ever set foot in Dragon Country, we can definitely find them!”

Officer Liu was brimming with confidence.

This was the age of big data and information technology. Combined with AI, it had truly made the saying ”Heaven’s net is cast wide, but nothing escapes” a reality.

Jiang Ran provided all the information he had on Qin Feng, including his ID number, which he remembered perfectly.

A staff member keyed in the information and hit the search button.

The result...

...was a complete blank.

”What!?”

Officer Liu was stunned.

”Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”

he declared emphatically.

”We can pull up plenty of data from this system even on a dead person... What the hell is this blank screen? Run the search again!”

But no matter how many times they searched or what methods they used, the result was the same: a complete blank.

”W-what in the world is going on?”

Officer Liu was completely baffled. He turned to Jiang Ran.

”Are you sure this person, Qin Feng, has been active in Dragon Country in recent years?”

”Positive.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

”He was in East Sea City just a while ago, and also two years ago... It’s not like he can fly or teleport here. He must have left some trace in all this big data, right?”

”Yeah, that makes sense...”

Officer Liu scratched his head. He’d truly never encountered a situation like this before.

Digging further back, the last piece of information they could find on Qin Feng was from ten years ago, in 2015.

After that, the system showed that Qin Feng’s father had died and his records were closed. Then, all information on Qin Feng and his mother could no longer be found, as if they had simply vanished into thin air.

”It must have been deleted, or hidden,”

Officer Liu analyzed.

”It’s true that the information of certain important individuals is classified, but obviously, this boy named Qin Feng is nowhere near important enough to have that kind of clearance.”

”Then... who exactly is protecting him? Or, how does he have the incredible ability to live in Dragon Country... without leaving a single trace behind?”

...

...

「The next day, somewhere in East Sea, in a luxurious conference room.」

A middle-aged man pushed the door open and entered.

”More bad news.”

He snorted.

”Somehow, the East Sea City Public Security Bureau has started investigating us. They haven’t conducted any overt searches, but it’s very clear they’re looking into the affairs of the Regrets Mutual Aid Association.”

The old man in the Tang suit sighed as well.

”Things are getting more and more troublesome. This whirlpool is just getting stirred bigger and bigger... I feel that even without that shit-stirrer, the Witch, the situation would still be growing more and more chaotic.”

The middle-aged man pulled up a chair, sat down, and gave a dry laugh.

”Old Wu, don’t tell me we’ve miscalculated this time. Have we become the ones trapped in the jar instead?”

The old man in the Tang suit, addressed as Old Wu, remained unfazed, sitting calmly in his executive chair.

”There’s nothing to discuss. This venture has always involved both risk and reward. Is there anything in this world that’s a sure bet? Taking risks is necessary for greater returns.”

”Speaking of which, what’s the situation with the ’key’? I haven’t heard you mention the girl in a few days. Is progress not going smoothly?”

The middle-aged man shook his head.

”It’s not going smoothly at all. Our young friend Jiang Ran has clearly realized something. He’s become extremely cautious lately, giving the girl no opening to exploit.”

”I even suspect that the tables have been turned on us, that we’re slowly falling into a trap, and it’s all the work of Jiang Ran and the mastermind behind him... Perhaps their goal from the start was to lure us in.”

”Didn’t you speculate before that the player backing Jiang Ran is No. 5, the Magician? He could barely protect himself, and now he’s suddenly popped up to oppose us. It seems he must have discovered the matter of the ’key.’ He must be furious, right?”

The old man in the Tang suit nodded and looked out the floor-to-ceiling window.

”That can be the only reason...”

He closed his eyes.

”The Magician is a very clever man, but two years ago, he did something foolish. It was precisely that foolish act that landed him in an extremely passive, dangerous, and difficult predicament... and at the same time, it’s what allowed us to begin preparing the ’key’.”

”All this time, we never knew what this ’key’ was being prepared for. But since it’s something the Magician values so much, it must have a great use in the future. That’s why we went through so much trouble to create it.”

”Actually, if you look at it another way, the fact that this matter made the Magician so furious—forcing him to take action even with the Clown on the verge of discovering his identity—proves that we were right... It proves that this time, the key and the lock have truly matched up!”

The middle-aged man turned, his curiosity piqued.

”That foolish thing the Magician did two years ago... You only mentioned it vaguely before, and I didn’t pay it much mind. What exactly happened during that Forced Summoning?”

The old man in the Tang suit swiveled his executive chair to face him, looking at the middle-aged man with a hint of reproach.

”How could you forget something so important? I’m sure I’ve told you about it before.”

”I haven’t forgotten,” the middle-aged man argued defensively. ”I just don’t remember it clearly.”

”Sigh.”

The old man in the Tang suit sighed.

”Fine. I’ll tell you again.”

He looked up at the luxurious crystal chandelier on the ceiling.

”I still remember it clearly. It was June 8, 2023. The Magician used nearly all of his ’points’—an outrageous sum—to request that Lilith initiate a Forced Summoning.”

”As you know, the Genius Playground only meets on the 16th of each month. For someone like the Magician to recklessly spend a huge amount of hard-earned points to call a Forced Summoning... it was unprecedented. In all these years, that was the one and only time. It was an extremely costly and irrational move.”

”And it was this incredibly irrational act, for which he paid a heavy price, that left the Magician bogged down in a mire for the following two years, unable to move and beset by enemies.”

”You’ve already told me this part.”

The middle-aged man waved his hand impatiently.

”You can just skip this part.”

”...”

The old man in the Tang suit was speechless, looking at the middle-aged man with an expression of pure exasperation.

”You... When will you ever grow out of this bad habit and learn some patience and composure?”

Picking up the teacup from the table and taking a sip, the old man continued.

”Because it was the first-ever Forced Summoning, every member was curious. As a result, on that day, June 8th, every single member of the Genius Playground entered the venue through their phones. Not one person was absent.”

”At the time, the Magician was in a state of unprecedented panic. He begged everyone to help him find a solution, willing to pay any price.”

”The Magician’s request to all the Playground members was for their help in saving a girl who had been critically injured in a car accident.”

”It’s just... the Playground is a place of constant deception. No one knew if this was an act, a trap, or a sob story with some ulterior motive, so not many people extended a helping hand.”

”Of course, there was someone willing to help. Only Puppet, alone, helped the Magician. But the result was a pity... In the end, they were unable to save the girl’s life. She still died.”

After a pause, the old man continued.

”The name of the girl who died was... Cheng... Meng... Xue.”