Chapter 111: Chapter 100: The Future Collapsed Again
Dean Sun pursed his lips, staring at his phone. This time, it was his turn to wonder if the person on the other end was in their right mind.
"I know!" Principal Li sighed. He completely understood the man on the other end. He just had to put himself in his shoes and recall how he felt when Dean Sun had first told him about Chu Bamboo’s incredible musical talent... Only then could he appreciate just how utterly shocked Dean Sun must be right now.
"But I am being serious," Li Quanyuan said, enunciating each word. "So you understand now, don’t you? This isn’t a matter of whether or not I’m willing to part with him!"
"But, this... this!" Dean Sun’s lips trembled. Finally, he gave a bitter smile. "Alright, my apologies for being presumptuous. Please, just pretend I never asked."
A musical genius was amazing, sure, but a track and field champion was in a league of his own!
It was a huge deal, even for Li Quanyuan. If Chu Bamboo really won a championship in the future and revealed that he was discovered and developed by the university during his studies, it would bring Li Quanyuan immense glory. It could even be considered a major achievement of his tenure!
After a brief pause, Dean Sun still couldn’t quite accept it. "You... you’re really not joking?"
"Perhaps such geniuses and prodigies really do exist!" Li Quanyuan shook his head, showing a great deal of patience. "Besides, didn’t the West have polymaths like Da Vinci in the past? So, you see, you should never underestimate human potential... although this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it in my life!"
"No, you just don’t understand his talent for music!" Dean Sun was especially reluctant to give up. He gritted his teeth, his eyes darted around, and he asked again, "Right, well, if he wins a championship for the university during your tenure, the glory will naturally belong to you!"
"But when that time comes, could you let this student, Chu Bamboo, come and study for his doctorate under me?"
Li Quanyuan was taken aback and fell into thought.
As long as the achievement was secured under his watch, transferring to another school afterward wasn’t completely out of the question.
"We’ll see what he thinks when the time comes..." Li Quanyuan’s expression twitched as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "This kid... he’s completely unpredictable! Don’t think that our discussion here will lead to any meaningful outcome!"
"Even if I agree, he might not want to do it... I don’t know if it’s a problem with him personally or a problem with kids his age in general!"
Li Quanyuan started airing his grievances. "He has the potential to become a world track and field champion, yet he couldn’t care less. That’s right, he genuinely doesn’t care! He’s given the cold shoulder to the coaches from the Sports Bureau on more than one occasion."
"...Huh?" Dean Sun’s mouth fell slightly agape. This was beyond anything he could have imagined. After a long silence, he could only stammer, "Alright! Understood... We’ll, uh, talk again when we have the chance."
...
Li Quanyuan hung up the phone, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk. ’This kid, he always has an unexpected surprise for me!’
’What a pity.’
Li Quanyuan let out a sudden sigh. Music and sports, while important, were only so-so.
’This kid... if he were really like Da Vinci, with his main talents lying in fields like mechanics and scientific research, now that would be perfect!’
The country he stood upon ultimately valued... science and research above all else! If he could produce results in those fields, that would truly be the pinnacle of the pecking order!
Patting his cheeks, Li Quanyuan adjusted his glasses and, under the glow of the lamp, returned to grading his documents.
...
「At the same time.」
Chu Bamboo closed his laptop, a look of exhaustion on his face. ’I’m already halfway through writing *Star Sea*!’
’Back to being a bricklayer! The pain, it’s too much!’
Especially when he thought about how after he finished moving this "text brick" called *Star Sea*, there was still the even heavier text brick of *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*... Chu Bamboo could already feel a headache coming on.
’I’ll deal with the rest tomorrow! Sleep, sleep.’ Chu Bamboo used his ultimate technique: That’s a problem for future me.
After washing up, Chu Bamboo flopped onto his bed and closed his eyes.
...
"Good morning, Zhang Zihai... Huh?!"
Chu Bamboo’s eyes fluttered open, his expression turning to one of confusion. He scanned his surroundings. ’Wait... where the hell did I get sent?’
’Is this even Jinghai City?!’
He was on a plain.
He could see sparse trees and weeds everywhere!
But the most crucial problem was... there wasn’t a single sign of civilization here.
Right, it was even different from the "ruin timeline." The ruin timeline had plenty of building wreckage, which could still be vaguely identified even after being eroded by time. Besides, that place still had some man-made structures, like the settlement where the guild was located, though they were few and far between.
But here, there was truly nothing.
’I died yesterday, so the reset point should be when Zhang Zihai was crouching by my bed, right? And I didn’t go looking for nuclear facilities in the wilderness yesterday, so even if the reset didn’t happen at six o’clock, there’s no way I’d be in the wild... Not to mention, judging by the predawn light, it really should be six in the morning, shouldn’t it?’
Chu Bamboo pieced together the situation, his eyelid twitching uncontrollably.
’Holy crap.’
What had he done now to cause the future to collapse?
After a moment of silence, Chu Bamboo made his decision. He rose with a grim expression and sprinted in the direction of the Nuwa Base.
His speed was incredible! Not to mention, this was a plain, and in the distance, he could occasionally see a babbling brook...
"Something’s not right!" Chu Bamboo’s steps came to a sudden halt. A chill inexplicably rose through his body as he scanned his surroundings. ’Why... are there no wild animals?’
Even in Jinghai City, despite the pressure from steampunk industrial civilization and humanity, you could still occasionally see a few birds. But here, there were only flowers, grass, and trees; the rustling of the wind and the sound of running water—not a single sound from any living creature!
It was like something out of a horror movie!
Suddenly, a figure appeared in the distance.
Joy flickered across Chu Bamboo’s face, but in the next breath, his expression froze...
It was a monster with three heads and eight arms.
One of its three heads resembled a human head that had been doused in sulfuric acid, with only a single scarlet eye remaining! The other two heads looked like those of insects, their huge mouthparts squirming.
The leftmost head, which resembled a mosquito’s, had countless compound eyes that gradually focused and, even from a great distance, locked onto Chu Bamboo.
"SCREEE!" A piercing sound rang out. Chu Bamboo instinctively clutched his forehead, feeling a sharp, stabbing pain. ’This is—!’
In the split second he was distracted, the monster’s thin wings vibrated, and it was already upon him!
A proboscis pierced his chest.
"...I...!" Chu Bamboo’s lips moved. He could vaguely see the crimson compound eyes practically pressed against his face, almost triggering his trypophobia!
Chu Bamboo’s vision went black. And then...
Time began to reverse!
Chu Bamboo pushed himself up, expressionless. Familiar time, familiar place. Thoughts churned in his mind.
’Interesting! Looks like the reason there’s no life here... is because there’s a predator at the top of the food chain?’
’No, no, no, it’s an Extraordinary Creature... and an out-of-control one at that!’
’That stabbing pain from before... Hmm, if I’m not mistaken, that must have been pollution!’
Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes. Due to a series of accidents, he had never actually joined the Captain’s Office, so he hadn’t had a chance to receive training. However, through trial and error from his repeated resets, combined with bits and pieces of conversation with Ning Linglong and Li Kang, Chu Bamboo had learned and deduced many useful things.
When pollution grows strong enough, one loses control and turns into a monster!
Ordinary monsters were one thing... but high-level monsters, especially those with distorted appearances, were another. A high level meant high-quality pollution, while a distorted appearance meant a high quantity of pollution!
For example, when Zhang Hai lost control and transformed into a humanoid Angel, even though he was powerful, his form wasn’t massively distorted. Therefore, the pollution radiated by looking at him wasn’t as high as one might imagine...
In summary, something this powerful and bizarre-looking was an absolute heavyweight!
Just seeing them could cause one’s own pollution level to rise! Chu Bamboo was still okay; on one hand, he had no pollution to begin with, and on the other, he was a Transcendent. A normal person would go insane on the spot.
But for both Transcendents and ordinary people... a stabbing pain in the brain was the clearest warning sign of rising pollution.
Of course, Li Kang had also mentioned a truly supreme tier of monster. Even he had only heard of them and never seen one. For this highest level of monster, merely comprehending their existence could cause immense disaster and a rapid spike in pollution.
So, you really couldn’t blame the Captain’s Office for being so draconian about controlling Extraordinary knowledge and information. Although their rampant memory-wiping was so mechanical as to be almost inhuman, it was truly for the continuation of human civilization!
’That three-headed freak, was it Level 3, or even higher?!’ Chu Bamboo thought calmly. ’I’ve seen a Level 2 before—Li Kang. I couldn’t beat him, sure, but there’s no way I’d be insta-killed!’
Facing that monster, he had the distinct feeling he was facing the Shadow Killer!
’Time to keep scouting. I hope my six remaining lives are enough.’ Chu Bamboo rubbed the bitter smile off his face. He had to at least get to the Nuwa Base and find out what the hell had happened.
Chu Bamboo felt like he hadn’t done anything... He couldn’t understand why the world had been turned upside down.
Was it because he recorded that music? Wasn’t that ridiculous?
Or was it because he wrote a novel?
Or because he decided to start a private company with Lin Xia?
No, even for the butterfly effect, this was way too much!
If he had cooperated with the government and screwed things up, he could at least understand why... After all, an entity the size of a country making even a small move could create monstrous waves in the timeline.
But now...
This time, Chu Bamboo took a different route, advancing stealthily.
However...
"...Crap!" Chu Bamboo watched as he was pinned to the ground by a spear, his face twisting. He was facing the earth, but he managed to twist his head with all his might—a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn was a piece of cake for a Body Cultivator like him.
He saw an Angel!
But it wasn’t Zhang Hai, and it wasn’t even humanoid.
It was a colossal eyeball with several pairs of gently flapping, pure white wings on its back. It was holy and cold, but the first feeling it inspired was fear—Chu Bamboo felt goosebumps erupt all over his skin.
’Oh, crap. It’s an Angel from the original version of the Holy Bible.’
Chu Bamboo couldn’t keep his composure. The earliest Angels in the Holy Bible naturally weren’t so anthropomorphic. The ones that were human-like, charismatic, and aesthetically pleasing to humans were actually the Demons, who needed to tempt mankind!
As for Angels, they just needed to terrify the world with their brutal, cold exteriors, then descend with Tribulation Fire to pass judgment on the Mortal World!
"..." Chu Bamboo let out a muffled groan. The last thing he perceived was his own body seeming to twist and contort—
And then, he lost consciousness.
