Chapter 368 310: Chu Bamboo: Your Drones Are Pretty Good, But Now They're Mine

Chu Bamboo stared at Little Mushroom Head with a strange expression. For some reason, he felt as if he'd hallucinated the two words, "Utter Loyalty!"

Shaking his head to clear away the messy thoughts, Chu Bamboo pursed his lips. His tone was peculiar as he asked, "Nuwa No. 17, are you No. 17 right now... or are you the real Nuwa?"

"This unit is Nuwa No. 17!" Little Mushroom Head's voice was the same as ever.

Chu Bamboo gave her a deep look. 'That change in tone... was it a coincidence? Whatever.'

"Mobilize every drone you can! Monitor the current situation in Jinghai." Chu Bamboo gave the order directly.

In the next instant, a brilliant screen of light materialized above Little Mushroom Head's head.

It was a map of the surrounding area!

Countless points of light rose up on the map—these dots symbolized the drones currently at various locations.

"...There are this many I can command near me! Uh." Chu Bamboo suddenly recalled the swarm of drones he had seen when he went outside earlier, and his expression became wonderfully complex.

'Could it be that these usurped drones are the very same ones Eunuch Huang mobilized?'

'Thinking about it that way, it's actually pretty darkly humorous!' Chu Bamboo silently quipped to himself. 'Nuwa No. 17 can, according to her programming, directly command all drones in the official network... So... all the drone machinery the enemy brought out is, in essence, my own power?'

Chu Bamboo casually tapped a point of light. It projected a holographic screen showing the scene it was filming.

Grave-faced members of the Captain's Office were hiding around corners and in the blind spots of the Police Chief Bureau's main entrance, staring intently at the distant gate.

As he continued to tap, Chu Bamboo soon discovered something very interesting. A portion of the men were actually hiding at the entrance to the second-floor stairwell of the Police Chief Bureau.

'Hmm, so even if I hadn't gone out earlier and had chosen to go to the second floor instead... I still would have been caught.' Chu Bamboo wasn't surprised. He thought for a moment but didn't immediately order the drones to turn on them...

'Strictly speaking, the number of enemies isn't that high... but that just proves that they are basically all Transcendents! Even if the drones opened fire, they could at best only kill some low-level Extraordinary individuals...'

'As for the high-level ones... hmm, for them, you might need an Antimatter Bomb or something similarly heavy-duty!'

'Besides, not only would turning on them now only kill or seriously injure a group of low-level ones... which is strategically meaningless, but more importantly, it would tip them off!'

'It's not that I can't kill them, but I can't just start slaughtering them recklessly like this without first understanding the situation...'

Chu Bamboo thought for a moment, then swiped his finger across the screen of light, finally tapping on some drones that were farther away.

「Second District.」

「Inside the warehouse behind the Police Chief Bureau.」

Reconnaissance drones and bomber drones lit up one by one. Then, they slowly departed.

Some civilian drones from the official network, which had been sitting in offices or homes, also slowly lit up and took to the air.

"Send some to the Guild! And some... hmm, send two to check on the Extraordinary Prison in the Third District... While you're at it, check the Extraordinary Prisons in the Second District and First District too!"

Chu Bamboo's gaze was profound, but as he spoke, he realized something. He paused, his tone becoming urgent, "Nuwa No. 17, access all of Jinghai City's data! Focus the search on Li Kang, Ning Linglong, Guan Fei... Guan Fei..."

Chu Bamboo went silent for a moment, then continued, "Ignore Guan Fei... search for Wall Announcements! And Huo Qiming... image intelligence on them."

"Commencing cognitive retrieval..." Little Mushroom Head thought for a moment, then tilted its head. "Specific information retrieved! Second District, camera at the entrance of the special personnel prison detected the prison admission data for both Li Kang and Wall Announcements!"

?

'What about Ning Linglong?'

Chu Bamboo was startled. 'I'm not worried about Huo Qiming... he's most likely under investigation at home, quarantined? But...'

Hmm? The realization dawned on Chu Bamboo, and his expression grew complex. His first reaction was that something had happened to Ning Linglong... But then, Chu Bamboo felt that Ning Linglong was probably the one least likely to get into trouble.

Because she supposedly had a super-freaking-awesome master... Chu Bamboo didn't actually know who Ning Linglong's master was, but that was precisely what made it so chilling to think about!

'Who is Chu Bamboo? How many times has he refreshed the world's information...'

When he was thirteen, during the Guild's first period of stability, he had left Jinghai City to travel.

Although he spent most of his time in the Celestial Capital back then, he also spent some time in the Imperial Capital... And even if his knowledge of the Imperial Capital was limited, that was only in comparison to Jinghai and the Celestial Capital.

Chu Bamboo had even broken into the Imperial Palace and met the Emperor face-to-face. It was just that, like when he broke into the Grand Ancestral Temple, he died rather frequently...

'Yes, of course, in the current main timeline... I actually know the Emperor, although in the Emperor's memory, I should be a little eunuch he got along with very well... Ugh, after all, I was watching *The Deer and the Cauldron* in the main world at the time! So I did a bit of roleplaying...'

'But that's not important! Besides, in the Emperor's impression... that little eunuch should already be dead. Unless, in the future, Chu Bamboo reactivates that impression when they meet again—'

Chu Bamboo had no doubt that the Emperor hadn't recognized him as that little eunuch from before... After all, if he had been recognized! The way he was treated would definitely not be like this—

To put it bluntly, the Heavenly Monarch was probably less familiar with every blade of grass and tree in the Imperial Palace than Chu Bamboo was... because he had truly sacrificed several thousand lives there! Even if each death was quick, the sheer number of times he'd done it was absurd.

'In this situation, I don't know who her master is... but I'm basically certain he's no simple character... Furthermore, the Taoist School holds a very important position in the Imperial Court...'

'Combining all this information—'

'Ning Linglong is probably a true second-generation scion of power and influence...'

'The kind who, even if arrested, would have to be treated with good food and wine, the kind no one would dare offend!'

"So!" Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes, looking at the few guards hiding at the entrance of the special prison in Zone Two, as seen through the drones' infrared cameras. 'Have the drones sneak in... No, anyone who isn't an idiot would be able to see a drone! And they should all be Transcendents...'

'Hmm! There's no other way but to fight our way in...'

Chu Bamboo sighed softly. With a light swipe of his finger, all of the Second District's combat, strategic, and reconnaissance drones, as well as some mechanical dogs, all began to trot towards the special prison.

'But, before that! I have to take a look first...' Chu Bamboo looked towards the drones flying to the Guild, a hint of worry appearing in his eyes.