Genius Playground

Chapter 1 Opening

Bang bang bang!
Gunshots.

"Still haven't found it!?"

Jiang Ran frantically searched the bookshelf, her face deathly pale:
"Not yet! This library is huge!"

In the distance, the sounds of bookshelves collapsing filled the air, and gunshots grew ever closer.

"found it!"

Jiang Ran shouted and pulled out a diary from the pile of old books. The cover was mottled and the pages were yellowed.

He was just about to open it—

Pfft!
His companion leaned back and fell to the ground, a flower of blood quickly blooming on his chest.

"Qin Feng!"

Jiang Ran suddenly stepped forward, but was forced back by a hail of bullets.

"Come on..."

Qin Feng's face was contorted with rage as he clutched at the blood gushing from his chest.

"If we can go back in time and change everything... everything can start over... Let's go!"

Jiang Ran gritted her teeth.

Without thinking twice, he turned and ran towards the back stairs, heading straight to the rooftop.

He ran to the edge of the rooftop, panting heavily.

He placed the diary on the eaves and quickly flipped through it.

"Not this one... not this one... it's this one!"

Jiang Ran's eyes were sharp as he quickly read the handwritten words:
"March 27, 2009, sunny. I thought the experiment wouldn't succeed again today, but in the late afternoon, a strange young man arrived—"

Click.

Foreign object contact.

A scorching hot gun barrel pressed against the back of the head:
"do not move."

Jiang Ran's heart skipped a beat.

What frightened him was not the gun, but the incredibly familiar sound.

His eyes were filled with shock and incomprehension:

"Qin...Feng?"

Qin Feng snorted softly behind him and took out a prop blood pack from his shirt:
"fake."

He squeezed hard, and blood splattered, staining both of them.

Jiang Ran did not turn around, but slowly stood up.

He then realized that the chaotic gunfire had ceased sometime earlier, and the distant chirping of cicadas was deafening. The setting sun stretched their shadows parallel and elongated, never to intersect again.

"So, this is a trap you set."

"Yes."

"We've known each other since high school..."

"Yes."

Qin Feng's voice was calm:

"But you've never considered me a friend either, otherwise I wouldn't have only caught your secret today."

He looked down at the open diary:
"I've considered many possibilities, but I never imagined that you could travel through time through your diary."

"Judging from how anxious you were just now... what would happen if I let you finish reading this diary?"

"Will you disappear in a flash and travel back to 2009? Or... will only your consciousness travel back, while your body remains here?"

"You can give it a try," Jiang Ran said calmly.

"It's not necessary."

Keeping the gun barrel still, Qin Feng took out his phone with his left hand and held it to his ear:

“【Lilith.】”

After a pause:
"I caught him. I won this game."

After saying that, he hung up the phone.

"Is Lilith your boss?" Jiang Ran asked, looking at the setting sun.

“Lilith is the goddess of this world,” Qin Feng replied.

Jiang Ran smiled:

"A top-scoring student in the college entrance exam saying something like that, didn't your physics teacher die of anger?"

"Lilith is omnipotent."

"Almighty, yet not a god."

……

After a brief silence, the sparrow leaped from the power line.

"That's fine."

Qin Feng picked up his phone again:

"Consider it a fireworks display to celebrate the end of the game, just to show you what it's like."

"Lilith."

He said softly:
"Let the sky darken."

In an instant, the sun disappeared, and dark clouds surged.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the whole world darkened, as if a camera lens had been veiled in black.

From being bathed in the sunset to the falling rain, only a few seconds have passed.

Qin Feng put down his phone:

"how?"

"Absolutely amazing."

Jiang Ran looked up, facing the raindrops: "So... this is your secret. But I still want to say, you set off your fireworks too early."

Qin Feng thrust his gun forward, forcing Jiang Ran to step onto the edge of the building.

If you take just half a step forward, you will fall to your death.

"You've already revealed your hand, so stop bluffing. Would you rather you maintain your dignity, or should I send you on your way?"

Hehehe.

Jiang Ran smiled and opened her arms:

"You're wrong. The one who revealed your hand... is you."

"Oh?"

Qin Feng disagreed:

"Show me how you turn things around."

"As I just said, even if someone is omnipotent, they are not a god; only those who control and manipulate history can be considered gods."

Jiang Ran shifted his feet and turned around, his forehead facing the muzzle of the gun:

"Writing a diary is such a good habit, Qin Feng. Nowadays, very few people can keep writing a diary every day like you do."

Qin Feng's pupils contracted:

"What do you mean?"

Jiang Ran looked into the other person's eyes with great interest:

"Is it possible... that we're currently inside your diary?"

boom! ! ! ! ! !

The lightning struck, the light flashing in an instant, leaving Qin Feng's face pale.

"No matter how I die, I will emerge from the diary. Then, guess who this gun will be pointed at?"

Qin Feng's knuckles gripped the trigger tightly, his veins throbbing!

Jiang Ran closed her eyes, her arms still outstretched, and leaned back.

"You can never defeat me in history. Because in this game of time..."

He leaped, and the earth and sky were turned upside down:
"【I am history!】"

……

……

……

……

……

……

puff.

The sound of an air cushion impacting.

“KA!!!!!!!!!”

The director excitedly jumped up from behind the camera, ripped off the black veil in front of the lens, and the world was as bright as ever:
"That was amazing! Absolutely perfect! Such a difficult long take, and you managed to film it in one take! You two are simply born Oscar winners!"

Thunderous applause erupted from all around.

The boy who was making it rain with a showerhead, the junior who was flashing a camera to create lightning, and the junior who was covering the camera with a black veil all dropped their props and clapped until their hands were red:

"The scenes between the two senior students were absolutely fantastic!"

"We're definitely going to win an award at this year's College Student Film Festival!"

"To be able to control the flow so well under the pressure of a single, continuous take..."

"Senior Qin Feng is the top scorer in the college entrance examination, it's practically a natural performance! Indeed, a genius is a genius wherever he is!"

Amid cheers and celebrations, Qin Feng grabbed the edge of the building and jumped down.

There was another floor on the roof below, and the air cushion that had been placed in advance caught Jiang Ran safely.

Qin Feng reached out and pulled Jiang Ran up, then punched him lightly.
"Your acting is pretty good."

Jiang Ran smiled and punched back:
"You're not bad either."

The younger students gathered around, chattering excitedly, their eyes filled with admiration for the two.

"Jiang Ran, there's one more thing I need to trouble you with."

The director, who is also the president of the film club, walked over.

She handed the script booklet to Jiang Ran:

"This short film doesn't have a name yet. Since you wrote the script, you can come up with a name for it."

Jiang Ran took the script:

"To be honest, I'm a little embarrassed to say that this story was just something I wrote randomly when I was bored in class in junior high school."

"A cell phone that can grant any wish, a diary that can travel through time... those are all childish fantasies from my youth. I blushed when I was reciting my lines just now."

"I think you had a lot of fun acting," Qin Feng retorted.

The director handed Jiang Ran a pen:

"In any case, this is your work, so you should name it."

"alright."

Jiang Ran did not refuse. He took the pen, thought for a moment, and began to write:
"The premise I wrote back then was a story about 11 geniuses participating in a game and influencing the fate of the world."

"It's been so long that I can't remember many of the details, but I do remember the title of the story."

"If you don't mind the overly dramatic and chuunibyou vibe... how about sticking with the original names?"

He smiled slightly, flipped the script over, and showed everyone the name that had just been written on the cover—

"Genius Playground!"

【Genius Playground】

(End of this chapter)