Chapter 412 351: Chu Bamboo: Z, Are Li Kang and the Others Truly 'Alive'?

The moment he stepped out.

The first person Chu Bamboo ran into in the hallway was an old acquaintance, Susan!

But...

"AHHHH!"

"?!" 'Girl, why is your first reaction to seeing me a battle cry?' Her shriek even startled Chu Bamboo...

「A moment later.」

After putting on a disguise, Chu Bamboo silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and slowly walked out of the Police Chief Bureau. He could still occasionally hear screams from behind him, along with panicked, angry, and anxious voices.

"Mr. Zhu? Where is Mr. Zhu!"

"I'm a fan of Mr. Zhu!"

"Hey, hey, hey, Susan... You said Mr. Zhu was here? How come I don't see him!"

"...I don't know! But I'm sure... I really did see him. It definitely wasn't a hallucination."

"Then search! We have to find Ah Zhu... When we do, I'm getting the first autograph! Don't you guys fight me for it..."

"Get lost! I'll be first."

"BOOHOO... I heard a long time ago that Ah Zhu comes to our Police Chief Bureau a lot, but I'd never seen him before, so I thought it was a rumor! I can't believe it's actually true..."

"..."

Chu Bamboo: "..."

He couldn't help but feel that this group of people was even crazier than his fans from the White-headed Eagle!

'So, I'm a national idol over here, too?' Chu Bamboo's expression was complicated. 'Could this also be the result of Z's fine-tuning?'

"Whatever!"

Shaking his head, Chu Bamboo continued walking away.

...

「Afterward...」

"Unbelievable!"

Even though Chu Bamboo had prepared himself, he was still shocked when he saw this world.

This was a complete near-future world!

Skyscrapers stood in dense clusters, and one after another, illusory screens of light floated in the sky.

One or two maglev cars zipped across the sky. Of course, there were also maglev cars driving close to the ground...

However, Chu Bamboo watched a driver who zipped past him—the person in the driver's seat was playing on their phone. Apparently, the maglev cars were self-driving.

On the stone bollards that could be seen everywhere along the road, someone was charging their phone. Someone else even tapped the screen on top of a bollard, and a drink and food were printed out of thin air.

From start to finish, there was no authentication process whatsoever! In other words...

'So, that food fabricator isn't unique to the underground base at all! It looks like...'

It's become widespread?

It belatedly dawned on Chu Bamboo. In other words, anyone who was hungry or thirsty could get any kind of food and drink they wanted for free?

'A future society with an overabundance of resources?' Chu Bamboo suddenly realized something. 'Wait, if that's the case...'

Chu Bamboo began to ponder. 'What is this so-called Lower City District?'

'Could it be something like Picheng and Zu'an? One is a heaven on earth, and the other is a living hell?' Chu Bamboo was filled with doubt.

'No!' Chu Bamboo suddenly realized something else. 'Human civilization... was it really destroyed once?'

But soon enough, Chu Bamboo confirmed that it must have been destroyed. The key reason he made this judgment was language! The Dream Language still wasn't Chinese...

'If Nuwa didn't get deeply involved, then... for what reason did Z not spread the Chinese language?'

Chu Bamboo understood his own nature too well; he was a staunch advocate of cultural victory. If he could, he would have had every country of the previous civilization on Earth—all of them—use the Chinese language!

So...

'There are so many suspicious things!' Chu Bamboo pursed his lips, wondering if he should go back and ask Z about it. And then...

"...Huh?!"

After walking for a little while, Chu Bamboo stared, dumbfounded, at the screen of light projected in the sky.

"Ladies and gentlemen, next up is the matter of the election for our Jinghai City's Governing Official..."

"Let's welcome the two candidates with the highest approval ratings to the stage for a debate!"

A host wearing a Zhongshan suit appeared on the light screen, his face flushed with excitement as he gestured with his hands.

"First up is the man with seventeen years of experience as Deputy Official, endorsed by the current, soon-to-be-retired Governing Official, Mr. Su Tianhai—Mr. Lu Jin!"

"And our next candidate is," the host paused for dramatic effect, then suddenly pointed, and the screen instantly changed to show a gentle, refined man: "from the Lower City District! The current Director-General of the Labor Union—"

"With three years of experience as Director-General, he reduced the idler population in the Lower City District from thirty percent down to fifteen! Following in the footsteps of Mr. Zhu, he led two of the three districts—out of seven in the Lower City District—that were still in poverty to successfully escape it... He is endorsed by the Lower City District's own Mr. Zhu and praised with the words, 'If you give him a job, there's nothing he can't accomplish'—the Star of Poverty Alleviation, the Star of the Union: Zhou Ze! Mr. Zhou!!"

Chu Bamboo stared in a daze at the two familiar people on the screen.

"...Ze!" A smile subconsciously touched the corners of Chu Bamboo's lips, and his mood seemed to brighten. "So that's how it is. It seems the Lower City District isn't as bad as I thought..."

Before, he thought it was like Picheng and Zu'an! But now it seemed the biggest problem was actually... spiritual poverty caused by an extreme abundance of resources! Meaning they just live off handouts? No... just 'lying flat' shouldn't be a huge problem. It must be that besides lying flat, they're also up to some unimaginably crazy stuff!

"After all... Guan Fei complained so much! Something about 'new energy for the countryside'..." Chu Bamboo shook his head. 'Simply lying flat wouldn't be enough to be called 'troublesome citizens'... But, no matter what, this is still better than the best-case scenario I had imagined.'

Moreover...

It seemed that everyone who had died in all the previous worldlines had come back to life! And they were living well... and very normally.