Genius Playground

Chapter 8 Numbers

Chapter 8 Numbers
"How about it?"

Jiang Ran toned down her flamboyance and displayed remarkable control over her acting.

Snap, snap, snap.

Scattered applause broke out:

"So cool!" "A bit pretentious, but much better than the student council president."

"Alright, let's get down to business. Don't open the champagne halfway through; the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment."

Jiang Ran waved his hand, walked to the small blackboard, and pointed to the pictures and text on it:

"The conditions for creating a spacetime black hole are extremely complicated and demanding, and the timing must be perfectly controlled."

"So, before we begin the experiment, let's go over the procedure again."

"First, the tasks were divided. Qin Feng was in charge of operating the positron cannon, I was in charge of sending text messages next to the power distribution box, and Xiao Xue was in charge of coordinating the countdown by the window."

He explained each step carefully.

In the past few days, Qin Feng has mastered how to use the positron cannon.

However, due to design flaws or some legacy issues with core components, the positron cannon can only run for 0.7 seconds after activation.

After 0.7 seconds, the capacitor will burst, and the entire positron beam will enter an overload state; it needs to be powered off and left for 20 hours before a new capacitor can be installed and it can be used again.

Qin Feng bluntly stated that this problem could not be solved unless the core component of the positron cannon—the CRT picture tube modified by his senior—was disassembled.

However, it's best not to disassemble or tamper with this piece of stuff whose principles are unclear and which is pieced together from various sources.

Nobody knows how this thing works. If you take it apart, you definitely can't fix it. Even the manufacturer himself couldn't do it.

Since capacitors aren't expensive anyway, let's just use them as disposable consumables.

In addition, Qin Feng specially installed a fuse socket to ensure that even if the circuit board short-circuits, it will not damage the building's electrical wiring, thus preventing the student union from confiscating any illegal electrical appliances.

"The positron cannon can only be activated for 0.7 seconds, which means that the positron beam can only be fired for 0.7 seconds. At the same time... the duration of the [spacetime black hole] is only 0.7 seconds."

Jiang Ran continued:
"All I had to do was get as close to the transformer distribution box as possible and send the text message within those 0.7 seconds."

This is not difficult.

The text message can be edited in advance, and 0.7 seconds is enough time to press the send button.

Since this experiment is just a simple test and verification, the text message content doesn't need to have any practical meaning; it only contains the four words "Test, test."

If all goes well.

This text message, like the previous one that traveled through time, was sent three days in advance.

History will be changed because of them.

……

The final deployment is complete.

The experiment officially begins.

Qin Feng aimed the positron cannon at the electrical distribution box outside the window, plugged it in, and gave an OK sign.

Jiang Ran ran out of the activity room, out of the building, circled around, and went to the transformer distribution box. He then gave the OK sign to the club's window.

"Roger that!"

Cheng Mengxue sat perched on the windowsill, looking at Jiang Ran from outside and Qin Feng from inside.

"Then I'll start the countdown! When I reach 0, Qin Feng will activate the positron cannon first, and then Jiang Ran will immediately send a text message!"

She took a deep breath:

"5!"

A gentle breeze blows, cicadas chirp, and the world becomes quiet.

"4!"

Time seemed to slow down, and the crackling sound of the transformer's current was deafening.

"3!"

Jiang Ran's mind flashed images of a clock running backwards and a sunset moving in reverse.

"2!"

Fish crawled out of the water, and monkeys stood up from the ground!

"1!"

Earth has opened its eyes.

"0!"

The positron cannon is activated! A deafening roar erupts!
Jiang Ran gritted her teeth and pressed the send button.

Ong!
Ong!
Ong!
The world spun around me, my vision blurred, and I felt dizzy and lightheaded.

coming!

The familiar dizziness is here!

A spatial-temporal shift has occurred!

Tinnitus and headache, my body is tilting uncontrollably, and the sky is turning upside down.

"what!"

Jiang Ran pressed his right hand on the ground to support his body.

Two seconds later, all discomfort disappeared, and the world in front of me stopped shaking.

He stood up and looked towards the clubhouse window:
"Time and spacetime changes occur—"

The words stuck in my throat.

no one.

He had intended to share the good news with Cheng Mengxue, who was perched on the windowsill, but the clubhouse window was closed.

It seems that the course of history has changed.

In this new timeline and new history, they are not conducting time-space text messaging experiments today.

"So, was the time-space text message successfully sent?"

We need to check this right away!
The club's windows had no curtains drawn, and Jiang Ran tiptoed to peek inside... Qin Feng was fiddling with a positron cannon on the table, while Cheng Mengxue sat on the sofa playing on her phone.

"It's so inconvenient that our memories aren't synchronized."

As expected, after this time-space shift, I still retained my original memories in a very special way, and I was still completely unaware of the altered history.

I don't know what the situation is between Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue.

He jogged into the club activity building and flung open the door to the film club room:
"Have you received the time-space text message?!"

The two looked up at him blankly.

"What are you talking about? Didn't I receive it three days ago?"

three days ago.

Jiang Ran breathed a sigh of relief. Very good.

The text message was still sent three days ago, and I received it as promised.

Perfect replica!

Perfect success!

"Great!"

A smile appeared on his lips:

"Our theory is correct, sending a time-space message to the past... we've finally succeeded!"

……

The room was silent.

Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue were completely unable to keep up with Jiang Ran's pace and were unable to cooperate with his performance.

"Um...didn't we succeed three days ago? We already had a celebration banquet, are you still dreaming?"

Cheng Mengxue tilted her head:

“Three days ago, I received a test text message on my phone, and you denied sending it, which clearly means that... this text message, like the previous one, comes from some future day.”

"Yes."

Qin Feng raised his head:
"This means that our guesses about time-space text messages are correct. As long as I fix the positron cannon, we will be able to send text messages to the past."

well.

Jiang Ran was secretly delighted.

It seems that everything is normal and developing as expected.

However, Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue still do not have memories of the time-space shift; only he is different.

"Qin Feng, is our victory celebration banquet going to delay your repair of the positron cannon?"

"What do you mean."

“In the original history, the repair progress was not this slow.”

Jiang Ran smiled slightly:
“In the original history, you would have repaired the positron cannon this morning, otherwise… how could we have conducted the experiment?”

Qin Feng opened his eyes wide and suddenly realized:
"I see! Jiang Ran, did you just send the text message, then experience a time warp, and still retain the memories of the original history?"

Cheng Mengxue also quickly stood up:
"In other words, in the original timeline, we just conducted a time-space text message experiment! The text message was successfully sent to three days ago, and the original course of history has changed again!"

Jiang Ran nodded.

As expected of a top student from Tunghai University, he grasped the concepts immediately.

He just figured out the logic of spacetime.

In the original historical account, on the morning of March 25th, Qin Feng repaired the positron cannon. In the afternoon, they conducted an experiment and successfully sent the test text message to three days earlier, on March 22nd.

After receiving the test text message on March 22, the three immediately realized that the message came from the future and that the experiment had been successful, so they held a celebration banquet on the spot.

The celebration banquet, a consequence of altered history, delayed Qin Feng's time to repair the positron cannon.

As a result, on the afternoon of March 25th in the altered history, which is the current world line, the positron cannon had not yet been repaired.

However, this is not important anymore.

The important thing is——

They've successfully mastered the ability to send text messages to the past! Their extraordinary lives are about to take off!

"Your celebration party started way too early, didn't you even wait for me?" Jiang Ran complained.

"You really ate a lot," Cheng Mengxue complained.

"But I have no memory of the victory celebration."

Jiang Ran shrugged:

"Ugh, not having the memories of these three days after the time-space shift is such a hassle. I have to ask you guys for information every time, it's like opening a blind box."

He sat on the sofa:

"Alright, alright, let's not talk about anything else for now. You two, tell me quickly, what has happened since you received the text message three days ago until today?"

Qin Feng sat opposite him:

“We received two test text messages from you at 4:06 PM on March 22.”

"Ah."

"Ok?"

Jiang Ran suddenly looked up, a chill running down her spine:
"What did you say?"

"Is there a problem?" Qin Feng asked, puzzled.

Jiang Ran stared at him:
"How many text messages did you receive?"

Two!

Qin Feng was somewhat bewildered:
"Weren't they all posted by you?"

"How could there be two!"

Jiang Ran could no longer sit still and immediately stood up:
"I only sent one test text message! How come you received two!"

"There are, there are just two..."