Chapter 98: Chapter 91: 21st Century Sci-Fi Holy Bible: Star Sea (Part 2)
Chu Bamboo stared at Lin Xia’s date of death—March 17, ’75!
Honestly, that date—March 17th—made Chu Bamboo stop and stare. If he remembered correctly, wasn’t that... his own date of death in this timeline?
’We might not have died in the same year... but I guess you could say we died on the same day of the same month, huh?’
’Hajixia! And Hajishao! You two... I swear...’
Chu Bamboo shook his head. He sat down on the soft bed constructed by Nuwa No. 17. He sat there for a very long time, lost in thought, before finally flopping back onto it. He stared up at the bizarre, peculiar spheres on the ceiling, which seemed to be in constant motion.
「Half an hour later.」
Chu Bamboo finally came to terms with it. He forced himself to rally his spirits. ’Oh, well! Another lesson learned the hard way... My next life will be better.’
He slapped his cheeks, his gaze sharpening. "Nuwa No. 17, bring up the complete source code for Spirit Star and the source code for the initial version. Display all of it in front of me!"
"Searching database... You do not have the required permissions to view this content."
’Huh?’ It slowly dawned on Chu Bamboo. ’Right, it seems... my citizen permissions were revoked! What the hell kind of patents can I view now?’
"Then what *can* I see now?" Chu Bamboo asked, his voice heavy. ’When I get back this time, I have to get my permissions restored... Otherwise, I’m in big trouble.’
"You can currently access free novels, free music, and free movies... Additionally, if you wish, you may also play some free games. Of course, if you are willing to activate the data simulator, you can also play MOBA-type games, with me controlling the other heroes..."
"So, basically, all I can do now is play games?" Chu Bamboo shook his head, a wry smile on his face. "Fine. If that’s how it is, then let’s play."
"Nuwa No. 17, pull up everything! Show me all the novels I can read... No, wait..."
An idea suddenly struck Chu Bamboo, and his eyes lit up. "Nuwa No. 17, list all the novels in your database written between the year ’26 and the internet shutdown in ’45! Sort them from top to bottom by total earnings! And by earnings, I mean everything: online sales, physical book sales, copyright sales..."
Chu Bamboo suddenly realized something. ’It seems that singing and becoming a pop superstar aren’t the only ways to make money. Writing novels... that seems like a pretty good way to rake in some cash, too, right?’
’After all, I’ve heard of novels selling in the tens of millions. Maybe not a countless number, but still quite a few. And some books had copyrights worth nearly a hundred million... You could live off a single one of those for years!’
’If I just copy three or five of them... Okay, web novels are millions of words long! Trying to copy one of those would be a nightmare. But are there any books that are a little shorter and still made a ton of money?’
’I have a feeling books like that might be rare, but they must exist.’
And then, Chu Bamboo’s expression froze.
Of the top ten, five were web novels. Three were for the male demographic, and two were for the female demographic—and novels for the female demographic had one distinct feature: they were short!
’Don’t tell me I have to copy...’
Chu Bamboo’s mind reeled. In that instant, countless classic plots from female-demographic novels flooded his brain—including, but not limited to, the *Lang List*, where hundreds of thousands of border troops were betrayed to their deaths; a certain Empress who sent a prince to the steppes for a political marriage; and more...
’Sure, I could make money that way... but if I did, my integrity would be shot. I’d never live it down!’
With great reluctance, Chu Bamboo forced himself to look. His body froze, his gaze fixed thoughtfully on the other five books in the top ten—the ones that weren’t web novels.
One was a work of foreign classic literature.
Two others... ’Judging by the titles, they give off a Harry Potter or Twilight City kind of vibe?’
But the last two—
*Star Sea*... and *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*!
’What kind of damn name is that?’
"Nuwa No. 17, show me these two books!"
When the two books opened, Chu Bamboo was stunned. To his surprise... they weren’t novels. They were closer to popular science? A parable? Something else entirely?
Chu Bamboo began reading intently and found himself completely immersed... Before he knew it, he had somehow finished the entire thing.
’This *Star Sea*... it feels a bit like *A Brief History of Time* by that legendary scientist, Huo Mou, the one in the wheelchair?’
A storm brewed in Chu Bamboo’s heart. ’They both use simple language, the kind that even a layperson can understand, to explain one profound academic principle after another...’
Finally, Chu Bamboo opened *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*.
And he confirmed it... ’This is not for me.’
*Star Sea* was one hundred and ten thousand words long... but *Star Sea Detailed Explanation* was a whopping three hundred and seventy thousand.
*Star Sea Detailed Explanation* elaborated on the numerous theories proposed within *Star Sea*. While *Star Sea* used layperson’s terms to introduce many famous scientific theories, it obviously couldn’t go into great detail. *Star Sea Detailed Explanation* served as the perfect supplement.
It primarily covered mathematics and physics. Many parts even delved into conjectures about the cosmos, dark matter, and Antimatter. It even went so far as to solve some of these conjectures, providing incredibly detailed proofs.
In any case, Chu Bamboo realized after a while that he could understand *Star Sea* and was even reading it with relish. But as he went through *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*, he started to question his life choices:
’Where am I? What am I doing? Why am I reading this stuff?’
’Damn it, this detailed explanation... it’s even padded with huge chunks of various research papers...’
’But, these papers all have citations, so they probably weren’t all written by the author himself.’
In the end, after memorizing *Star Sea*, Chu Bamboo forced himself to grind through one hundred and fifty thousand words of *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*. Relying on his Extraordinary memory, he committed it all to heart before he finally couldn’t take anymore and exited the reading interface.
’Damn it, that *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*... It felt just like when I had to brute-force memorize the Spiritual Star Algorithm.’
’It’s insane!’
’All those letters, numbers, and special symbols... I have a feeling I’ll never be able to forget them for the rest of my life.’
’No wonder *Star Sea* is number two in sales! But for *Star Sea Detailed Explanation* to be number ten... selling that many copies is already insane! It must have been riding the coattails of *Star Sea*’s popularity. Plus, the book has a high prestige factor. People probably bought it just to look smart... that’s the only way it could have sold so many!’
’Emmm, whatever. *Star Sea* is only a bit over a hundred thousand words, and it’s been number two in sales for some twenty years... over two hundred million copies sold worldwide. That must be at least a few hundred million in profit, right? And the currency might even be dollars. Or higher? This is the one!’
’Plus, the book has so much prestige... The only problem is, the language is a bit strange, like it has foreign phrasing. Could it be a translation? Let me see...’
Chu Bamboo glanced at the author’s name, and his casual expression froze solid.
Because he had seen this author’s name before—
James Raven!
Or, to be more precise... the chief scientist of the Europe and America Celestial Net Group!
