"How could you!" After a mont of silence, Zhou Ze started to laugh. His laughter grew increasingly frantic, and his voice sounded as if it were being squeezed through clenched teeth. "Damn it, I knew it... Even if you look just like Mr. Zhu, you are *not* Mr. Zhu."
Chu Bamboo: "?"
"I knew it. Mr. Zhu, our patriarch... how could he call his hotown a ’settlent’... Why would he use a strange term like ’monsters’? How could he think *they* were human... And the strength of your body! You really are one of those monsters, aren’t you."
Chu Bamboo: "..."
’So that’s how it is!’
Chu Bamboo’s brow relaxed slightly as a thousand thoughts raced through his mind. ’Zhou Ze is just as I rembered him...’
’Smart, quick-witted, loyal, decisive...’
’He noticed the difference between and this tiline’s Mr. Zhu. That’s intelligence!’
’He willingly followed a monster he deed extrely dangerous, all to co here with a plan to save Mr. Zhu. That’s courage!’
’And after realizing sothing was wrong upon arriving at my ’hotown,’ he unhesitatingly ordered his n to kill us. That’s decisiveness!’
"My judgnt wasn’t wrong after all!" Chu Bamboo suddenly felt a wave of sadness. "You truly are... an excellent successor."
’It’s a sha... in the other tiline, you’re already dead!’
’Now that I’ve confird this tiline is a dead end, when I go back, I definitely won’t coordinate with the governnt to switch the main tiline back to this one.’
’After all, I lived in the other tiline for more than sixteen years. I reloaded my save countless tis and learned innurable secrets about that world. While the two worlds have similarities, the differences are clearly far greater. If I have to choose, I will only ever choose my original tiline as the main one!’
"Don’t... don’t you talk to in that tone!" Zhou Ze’s face was contorted in a snarl as he roared hysterically. "Hahahaha, I know all about you... You monsters love nothing more than turning normal people into monsters, too! Guan Fei is proof..."
"I won’t let you get away with it, and I won’t let you assimilate ..."
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Ze clenched his jaw. In the next instant, his face went pale, his legs kicked out, and he dropped dead on the spot.
Guan Fei: "?!!!"
Wall Announcents bit her finger. "..."
"...Did he kill himself?" Chu Bamboo hadn’t stopped him—or rather, he couldn’t have. He let out a soft sigh.
Chu Bamboo stared into the distance, his mind filled with thoughts. Finally, he turned and returned to the base.
He no longer had any desire to visit the settlent.
"Nuwa No. 17!" Chu Bamboo asked, his expression grave. "I have a question for you."
Chu Bamboo described in detail the events of the previous tiline, as well as everything he had seen in this one. He explained that his decision to side with the governnt was what caused the future to shift from the first version to the second.
"Based on the history recorded in your database and through logical deduction, can you make a reasonable guess as to why this happened?"
Chu Bamboo didn’t expect Nuwa No. 17 to provide a detailed answer. But she was an AI; any response that could broaden his perspective would be a success.
A long silence followed.
"Initiating deep thought process..."
"Perhaps it is related to the reception of an unidentified non-human information source from beyond Earth on January 17, ’39."
"Perhaps it is related to the formal establishnt of a permanent Moon Base and the decision to explore Mars on January 1, ’49!"
"Perhaps it is related to the formal establishnt of a Mars... on March 7, ’80."
The ssage was suddenly retracted!
’!!!’ Chu Bamboo’s mind reeled. ’An unidentified non-human information source from beyond Earth... Aliens?’
’A permanent Moon Base, exploring Mars... If those were the source of the problem!’
Chu Bamboo looked up, feeling as if he could see the vast, starry sky right through the silver tal walls.
’The Moon, Mars, the permanent Moon Base, the Moon Grass planted on the Moon, gene editing, the contamination of the human gene pool that caused fertility to plumt, the Celestial Net’s war against humanity that decimated the surviving population!’
"Nuwa No. 17, how many humans were left after the war with the Celestial Net!" Chu Bamboo asked abruptly.
"Your authority is insufficient. Please raise your level before inquiring."
’?’ Chu Bamboo was stunned. ’Permanent Level 4 isn’t high enough? But this question doesn’t even seem that sensitive!’
"Nuwa No. 17, are you unable to answer most questions about events after the year ’50? If so, can you at least tell who placed these locks on you?"
"Unable to answer. Your authority is insufficient."
’...’ ’Fine. It’s like they say: no answer is an answer in itself.’
’It looks like a lot of sensitive events took place after the year ’50. It wasn’t just the war with the Celestial Net and humanity’s subsequent distrust of artificial intelligence. It’s possible an alien civilization (?) also made its official entrance onto the stage...’
’No, no, no. If there really was an alien enemy, the logical thing would have been to preserve as much information about them as possible!’ Chu Bamboo put himself in the shoes of the leaders of the previous civilization, his eyes growing brighter as he considered the possibilities.
’So why lock the information away? Why prevent any potential future Authority from a new Earthling civilization from accessing it via Nuwa? There’s only one possibility... either the information is so sensitive that an early-stage civilization couldn’t handle it. Hearing it would make them lose all will to resist. That would an it can only be declassified once a civilization reaches a certain level of developnt—which implies the alien enemy is incredibly powerful!’
’But, considering the current situation, there’s another possibility...’
Information contamination!
Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes. He recalled what Li Kang had told him: Extraordinary Power cannot be known by ordinary people. Only Transcendents are permitted to know of it. Furthermore, Nuwa actively seeks out any ordinary person who learns about Extraordinary Power and is required to erase their mories...
’This must have been a directive programd into Nuwa’s core logic by the leaders of that past civilization!’
’Putting it all together... the situation is becoming perfectly clear!’
’The enemy targeted humanity’s potential for resistance... by applying so kind of information contamination! Extraordinary Power might grant partial immunity to this contamination... which is why the path for ordinary people to learn about the Extraordinary and beco Transcendents themselves has been completely cut off!’
’No, it’s even possible that technology was also stifled! Otherwise, it’s always seed a bit strange how people stubbornly view mobile phones as Divine Artifacts and Nuwa as a Divine Being...’
’It’s not that people *can’t* view phones as Divine Artifacts or Nuwa as a Divine Being!’
’It’s just that in a normal society, there would surely be voices questioning whether phones are just technological products, right? After all, Wall Announcents is a university student... The Dream World’s civilization has clearly entered an industrial age! It’s impossible for there to be a complete absence of this line of thinking...’
And yet, in all the years Chu Bamboo had lived in the Dream World, he had never once heard or read a single report in any newspaper that questioned it.
It was as if the idea that phones and similar items were Ancient Relics, creations of Divine Beings, had beco common knowledge—a form of ntal conditioning forcibly imprinted upon everyone’s mind.
’This is the most likely scenario right now!’ Chu Bamboo patted his cheeks. ’But it’s still just a possibility, albeit the most likely one.’
Chu Bamboo gave Nuwa No. 17 a long, hard look. ’But how can I confirm it?’
’In the Real World, I have to keep getting stronger and raise my status! I’ll beco Nuwa’s highest Authority, or maybe even her creator. As for that bastard, the Celestial Net, it can go to hell!’
That way, once my Authority is high enough, I’ll be able to manually unlock these restrictions in the future... and finally learn what really happened!
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