Chapter 100: Chapter 92: Celestial Net! James Raven
He slapped his cheeks, forcing himself to stay alert. Then, he pulled up the Star Sea Detailed Explanation and began memorizing the rest of it.
...
He stepped out of the Police Chief Bureau.
"It’s finally over." Chu Bamboo gazed at the hazy night sky, feeling as if a lifetime had passed. He rubbed his rumbling stomach and pondered a very serious question: ’What’s for dinner tonight?’
In the next instant, an incredibly cool-looking electric SUV pulled up smoothly in front of Chu Bamboo with a soft WHOOSH.
"Get in!" The window rolled down, revealing Wall Announcements’s profile, wearing sunglasses. He jerked a thumb toward the back of the car. Silently, the electric vehicle’s handle popped out, and the door slid open.
"?!" Chu Bamboo saw Ning Linglong, Li Kang, and the others smiling at him from inside the car. After a brief silence, he climbed in.
"Wait a minute! You guys... you got a new car?" Chu Bamboo was genuinely baffled now. If it were Lu Muxue driving a car like this up to him, he felt he could understand it, but this bunch of "poor bastards" from the Special Operations Brigade who lived on subsidies...
’Did you guys rob a bank?!’
"New car? What new car?" Li Kang was taken aback for a moment. "Isn’t this the one we always take? We were on our way back and saw you at the entrance. Figured you probably haven’t eaten yet, so we thought we’d ask you to join us for dinner."
Chu Bamboo froze. He whipped his head around and stared intently at Li Kang.
’What the hell? Are you saying... this is the car they’ve always used? They’ve never ridden in some steam car?!’
’This...’
The car fell silent for a moment.
"Is... is there something wrong with how I’m dressed today?" Li Kang instinctively looked down, completely baffled, then glanced at Guan Fei next to him.
"Nah! We didn’t even get into a fight, just caught a few petty thieves. It can’t be that serious, right?" Guan Fei was also confused.
All sorts of possibilities flashed through Chu Bamboo’s mind. He forced his expression to remain neutral and said casually, "It’s nothing. I pulled an all-nighter yesterday, so I’m a bit out of it."
"Still, this car is seriously cool. Have I ever asked you guys about the specifics of this car before? This has to be one of the Ancient Relics, right? What’s the price like? I remember you said before that I might be qualified to apply for one... Is the application process difficult?"
"Oh, that. I knew you’d be tempted..." Li Kang chuckled. He knew no one could resist an electric car. He patiently explained, "As for the price, that’s not something we need to worry about. At your rank, you can apply to have one officially issued. Of course, for an ordinary person to buy one, the price is absurdly high..."
As he listened, Chu Bamboo finally pinpointed the issue.
’It’s changed. Everything has changed.’
The dedicated vehicles issued by the Government Office departments, compared to the steam cars from the previous timeline, had now all been replaced with electric cars.
Moreover, electric cars were indeed Ancient Relics... and at the same time, their price, compared to his previous life, had been cut by at least half.
Most importantly, they were no longer just a price tag with no inventory—in his previous life, even if you had the money and the right connections, you’d still have to wait a very long time for an electric car. After all, Ancient Relics had to be excavated!
But now...
Chu Bamboo recalled his journey here and realized why everything had felt slightly off. The number of steam cars was a bit lower, while the number of electric cars had increased dramatically!
’Hmm, all of this can only mean one thing: the number of electric cars left behind in the various ruins by the preceding Divine Continent civilization is far greater than in the previous timeline.’
’So that’s it!’ Chu Bamboo quickly figured it out. In this timeline, Z Company had maintained a considerable level of technological prowess even after the war. ’Perhaps, even with the restrictions on artificial intelligence, they inherited some of its autonomous production capabilities?’
’In that case, the fact that Nuwa Base is more luxurious probably isn’t just because of Lin Xia’s proposal. Even with the heavy population losses, their productivity likely didn’t decline. It might have even increased?’
"Oh, right." A question suddenly occurred to Chu Bamboo, and he asked offhandedly, "By the way, these electric cars, they break down easily, right?"
"? Break down? I don’t think so. As long as you give it a little prayer after using it, there are basically no problems!" Li Kang replied, scratching his head. "You just have to maintain it well... but then again, aside from those truly wealthy families, who would dare not take good care of this car?"
"It’s fine!" Wall Announcements added. "Even if you run into a little trouble on the road... just get out, give it a kowtow, and nine times out of ten, it’ll start right up."
"???" Chu Bamboo stared blankly. ’What is this, the Great Joy of the Machine Soul?’
’Seriously, what kind of electric car is this?’
’And also, could the real reason so many Ancient Relics still work... be the addition of a little metaphysical element? Have they all become sentient after being buried for so many years?!’
"That’s normal, Uncle Zhu!" Ning Linglong chimed in. "After all, once the electric cars are excavated, they all have to be sent to the Moisture Teaching for repairs. The Ancient Relics are unusable right after being dug up... The Moisture Teaching must have done something to them."
On that topic, Ning Linglong really got going.
"Ugh, those damned profiteers! The price of newly unearthed Ancient Relics sold everywhere increases tenfold after passing through their hands. They’re so ruthless!"
Ning Linglong was quite indignant. "The price of electric cars is so high, it’s all Old Mo’s fault! Otherwise, maybe I could grit my teeth, save up for a few years, and afford one myself!"
As soon as she said this, the others all chimed in.
"Yeah, damn profiteers!"
"Sooner or later, we’ll take down those tyrants!"
"A bunch of Pixiu that only swallow and never spit out! Just you wait... If they keep this up, sooner or later the Imperial Court won’t stand for it! When that time comes, we at the Captain’s Office will personally raid their homes and bleed those rich dogs dry."
"I actually think it’s not that bad!" Wall Announcements, ever the honest one, spoke up for the Moisture Teaching while driving.
"Maybe their repair costs really are high! Besides, at least after you burn some incense and pray to it, it doesn’t break down. If they were really profiteers, they definitely wouldn’t include that feature. They’d just have people send the car in for repairs every time it breaks and charge an exorbitant repair fee!"
Everyone in the car: "..."
"Hey, whose side are you on?!" Ning Linglong’s gaze sharpened.
"!!!" A chill ran down Wall Announcements’s spine. Even though he was driving and didn’t turn to look at Ning Linglong, he felt a bone-deep cold. Sweating profusely, he quickly tried to laugh it off. "Hahaha, what I meant was... well, actually, uh..."
Finally, with a miserable look on his face, Wall Announcements said, "If I say now that I was just playing devil’s advocate... will you guys forgive me?"
"That’s normal," Guan Fei explained leisurely from the side, quietly twisting the knife in Wall Announcements’s back. "I remember Wall Announcements was a mechanical engineering major in college. His professor was probably a Mo Family follower, right? Maybe even a member of the Moisture Teaching? So it’s normal for him to have a good impression of them! After all, he’s the only one of us with a college degree."
Wall Announcements: "..."
’Why am I sweating even more? Open up, you useless mouth! Hurry up and think of a reasonable excuse to get their forgiveness!!’
Chu Bamboo, however, had an unreadable expression as he thoughtfully observed the bickering group.
Because he knew something very interesting—Wall Announcements was actually a believer of the Mo Family, too.
’But from the looks of it now, he hasn’t revealed this fact? Why keep it a secret?’
Chu Bamboo was tempted. ’Should I test Wall Announcements?’
’If I spend a life, I might be able to read the intel that... Wall Announcements is actually a Moisture Teaching spy? Or maybe I could pretend to be an inside man planted here by the Mo Ban and try to exchange code words with him?’
But in the next moment, Chu Bamboo yawned, thought about it, and dismissed the idea. He’d reset too many times today and was too lazy to go through the trouble.
Of course, there were other reasons. Partly, it was because of Wall Announcements’s sister—he still had a decent impression of the guy and didn’t want to make things too ugly right now.
On the other hand, Chu Bamboo was more inclined to believe it was all a coincidence... After all, Wall Announcements was really just a grunt in the Special Operations Brigade, overworked every day, with a long line of people ahead of him for promotion... What would the Moisture Teaching gain by planting him here?
Besides, Chu Bamboo actually knew the Moisture Teaching quite well. He was well aware that those Brother Tu Mu types from the Moisture Teaching were just a bunch of shut-in geeks. They knew how to make money but had no idea how to spend it... typical honest Joes.
’Could guys like that really be brazen enough to plant a spy in a Government Office? Although they have the ability, Chu Bamboo inwardly estimated... they probably don’t have the guts or the nerve...’
