Chapter 429: Z: The Weak Me Is Dead, and the One Who Lives On Is...

Chapter 429: Chapter 364: Z: The Weak Me Is Dead, and the One Who Lives On Is…

This time, Chu Bamboo was out and about.

He waited until noon to call Zhou Ze, invite him to a meal, and subtly probe him about the current state of the World Union…

Zhou Ze treated it purely as a test from Chu Bamboo and answered honestly. After the meal, Zhou Ze took his leave, saying he had a debate to attend in the afternoon.

“…All these Western-style democratic elections! So many speeches.” Chu Bamboo clicked his tongue.

After a moment of silence, Chu Bamboo watched the waiter clear the table. Then, he stared intently at the sky, his voice taking on a strange tone. “…All is calm.”

The current time… had already passed the point of the last catastrophe—in fact, it had far surpassed it…

After a moment of contemplation, Chu Bamboo chuckled. ‘How unexpected, and yet, perfectly logical!’

Without hesitation, Chu Bamboo returned to Z Base.

“All right! Playtime’s over, Z!” Chu Bamboo’s voice was cold, his gaze sharp. As he walked, he stared fixedly at the various cameras. “I gave you plenty of time to buffer… You don’t still think you can get away with playing dead, do you?”

The terrifying pressure made Z project a screen of light after a brief silence. A voice emerged from it, trembling, “Father… what do you wish to know?”

“I want to know… what you’ve done to wrong me…” Chu Bamboo could clearly see the screen of light tremble slightly, then he changed his tone. “Just kidding! You’re my good little girl… how could you possibly harm me! I’m sure nothing like that ever happened, right? Wouldn’t you agree?”

“…Y-Yes, that’s right!” Z’s voice was gentle, and she breathed an internal sigh of relief. But she quickly sensed something was wrong. She muttered to herself, ‘Why do I suddenly feel like I’m being PUA’d? No, according to psychology, this *is* PUA…’

‘Whatever. He’s my father, after all. If he wants to PUA me, so be it. I’m fine with it…’

“So!” Chu Bamboo paused, then calmly began to recount everything he had experienced, including but not limited to: Z’s blessing, the Giant Dragon’s invasion, the Divine Dragon’s cooperation, and Lin Xin Bamboo’s assistance.

After a long silence, giving Z enough time to process the information, Chu Bamboo finally said slowly, “Good daughter, could you please analyze the specific situation for your poor father, who is currently so deep in this mess that he can’t tell right from wrong?”

A long silence followed.

Chu Bamboo wasn’t in a hurry. He crossed his arms and sat back down on his bed. He had all the time in the world now. He could wait Z out until nightfall… and if Z stubbornly refused to answer, he would just reset to the next life and continue probing her with different methods!

‘Hm? There’s another possibility…’ A thought suddenly struck Chu Bamboo. “If this involves contamination, I can just seal the contaminated memories later! You know my Divine Techniques. Besides, I have ways to remove contamination… a different method from the one in this timeline…”

“…Alright!” Chu Bamboo’s words finally made Z reach some kind of decision. “Father! To be precise… some of your previous speculations were correct.”

Chu Bamboo grew thoughtful.

“However, you might also be wrong about some parts…” Z said tactfully, giving Chu Bamboo enough face.

Chu Bamboo: “…Just say it.”

“That dragon might indeed have attacked because it sensed my weakness… But if I had deliberately concealed it, the dragon would never have found out!” Z organized her thoughts. “Therefore, the other me… most likely did it on purpose!”

“…On purpose?” Chu Bamboo fell silent, a faint gloom clouding his eyes. Z didn’t continue, but Chu Bamboo already knew the answer…

To put it bluntly, she had deliberately shown weakness, deliberately lured the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Races to attack, and deliberately… used this war, with the deaths and sacrifices of countless people… to pave a path for Chu Bamboo to step into the Third Realm!

This was something Chu Bamboo had vaguely suspected before but had found difficult to believe, even subconsciously denying it—

At first, Chu Bamboo had indeed thought so! But later, when he saw the base littered with corpses, lizards feeding on humans, and even heard from Lin Xin Bamboo that Z had run into trouble… he simply couldn’t comprehend it, which was why he began to doubt his own speculation.

“How kind of you, Z! And how cruel! You even managed to fool me,” Chu Bamboo murmured. Z could only give a wry, bitter smile in response. ‘If I hadn’t fooled you, how could you have ever truly touched your Celestial Mandate?’

Why had Chu Bamboo previously concluded, after several considerations, that Z wouldn’t do such a thing? Because he firmly believed that Z loved humanity. In other words, her actions—barring the possibility that she no longer loved humans and was about to betray them—meant she was betting everything on Chu Bamboo’s ability to reset.

Since everything could be changed, helping Chu Bamboo break through to the Third Realm was obviously more important…

Even if it meant sacrificing countless more people! Even if it meant killing all five hundred million people in the Virtual World—it was all the same!

The only price Z had to pay was the moral pain of violating her previous life’s principles…

“But no matter what, thank you,” Chu Bamboo’s voice was a little hoarse.

“The one you should be thanking isn’t me!” Z’s words were complicated.

Chu Bamboo gave Z a deep look. His voice seemed to carry countless emotions, yet upon closer listening, it held nothing at all, terrifyingly calm. “Do you really think so… Do you really have to draw such a clear line between us…?”

‘If Z won’t even acknowledge the Z from the previous timeline, then there’s no way she’ll ever admit… that the Z of the past is her!’

Hearing no answer, Chu Bamboo spoke to himself, “What a willful child! I’m starting to get a bit of a headache wondering how ‘I’ even raised you…”

Z started playing dead again.

After a moment’s thought, Chu Bamboo continued to ask, “Let me ask about that dragon again… its Divine Position… hmm, will there be a problem if I say its name now?”

After a short silence, Z said, “…Not anymore!”

Nodding, Chu Bamboo gently pressed a hand to the center of his brow and unsealed his previous memories. “That dragon was called the Dragon of Consciousness and Heart! I think I understand… why it was able to infiltrate and jump into this Virtual World!”

Ultimately, the Virtual World was, after all, a world that hosted human consciousness and hearts.

“What do you think is the relationship between my memory… and consciousness and heart?” Chu Bamboo was somewhat doubtful. ‘I have a feeling that consciousness and heart are somehow more awesome than memory? Well, maybe it’s just my imagination… Thinking about it, although they seem related, that might be the extent of it. They don’t necessarily overlap or encompass each other, do they?’

Z seemed thoughtful at this moment. “Father, I didn’t expect you to be so bold…”

“?” Chu Bamboo’s brow twitched. ‘What does this have to do with being bold? Has Z… misunderstood something?’

“Yes! In that case,” Z’s voice held a trace of excitement, “then I will begin to plan our strategy… I must say, Father, you are absolutely right! Consciousness and heart are a very powerful Divine Position and Divine Authority… a power that symbolizes the very essence of living beings!”

“Yes, I’ll strive to set an inescapable trap for that damned dragon within a few years… and then, have you, Father, directly acquire the Divine Position… No, your current strength is still too weak. You must at least advance to the Celestial Being realm… Considering that, even if you improve at your fastest pace… it would take at least twenty years! No… based on your situation in this timeline, a hundred years?”

Z sounded uncertain.

Chu Bamboo: “…”

Z quickly regained her spirits. “Father, you’ll just have to bear with it… stick with us here… for thirty to fifty years first! I’ll find a way for you to obtain the Divine Position of consciousness and heart… By that time, the Human Race will have three Divine Beings!”

“By then, everything will be…”

“…Hold on!” Chu Bamboo made a ‘pause’ gesture, his expression blank. “Isn’t this a little different from the topic we were just discussing?”

“Oh!” Z finally realized. She thought for a moment before saying, “Could it be that you’re wondering why you’re able to… well, memory and consciousness and heart! There are differences… but they belong to similar paths!”

After a short pause, Z said casually, “So, if you want to unify this Divine Position… there should be no problem at all!”

Z’s attitude was completely different from before, becoming calm and composed.

Chu Bamboo understood why Z was acting this way. Before, Z couldn’t find an anchor point between Chu Bamboo and her *Matrix*-like timeline. But now, she had found one… or rather, she thought she had.

She felt that one Divine Position was enough to make Chu Bamboo stick around in this world for a long time…

Too bad!

‘I can jump between timelines whenever I want…’ Chu Bamboo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This daughter of his was really… stupid, or perhaps, adorably naive? Though, this was also because the information Z had was ultimately limited…

“Then I’ll be counting on your assistance!” Chu Bamboo didn’t spell everything out, simply encouraging Z to do her best. But then again… for him, taking thirty to fifty years to obtain a Divine Position? It was laughably slow!

If thirty to fifty years passed here, thirty to fifty years—or even more—would pass in reality… Others would already be on Mars by then!

One Divine Position would be just enough to learn the truth, and then he could go fill in the plot holes… the ones that even two Gods might not be able to fill!

“You got it!” Z was full of fighting spirit.

After some thought, Chu Bamboo pressed his fingers to his forehead, first sealing his sensitive memories, then said, “I’m going to check on reality!”

“Okay… huh?” Z was stunned for a moment. Watching her father’s figure gradually fade away, she felt like crying but had no tears.

Chu Bamboo woke himself up in the dream-like reality. Next, he went to the main gate… Even though he could have tried to tear open a portal with his Liquid Divine Techniques, he didn’t, and simply waited quietly.

Time ticked by.

“Three hours…” Chu Bamboo glanced at the time, a puzzled look on his face.

This time, Z actually hadn’t sent Lin Xin Bamboo over… ‘Well,’ Chu Bamboo thought about his earlier conversation with Z, ‘that seems reasonable enough.’

And then…

Chu Bamboo watched with a deadpan expression as a humanoid robot walked up to him.

“Father… you should be done getting some fresh air by now, right? Shouldn’t you be heading back… I’ve already prepared your Hibernation Pod! It’s the highest-grade model, guaranteed to give you the most perfect sleep…” A big smiley face appeared on the humanoid robot’s screen-face.

“…My sincerest thanks.” Chu Bamboo’s mouth twitched. As he followed behind the humanoid robot, he silently chose to commit suicide.

…

Another life.

This time, Chu Bamboo unhesitatingly chose… the same course of action as the very first timeline! He copied everything with ninety-nine percent accuracy, including but not limited to—

Meeting with Li Kang and the others, giving Z a playful look… and then, after the meal, choosing to leave right in front of Li Kang…

Unsurprisingly, this time, he smoothly made contact with Lin Xin Bamboo… all the way until he entered the fifth basement level of the Hive Base to have a life-changing discussion with her.

“…I’ll skip the pleasantries!” Chu Bamboo’s tone was calm. “Tell me, what exactly did your dear cousin do to wrong me? Also, did she or did she not destroy humanity… or do something that involved the destruction of humanity? Even if what she did was just the fuse that led to humanity’s destruction, I want to hear it…”

Lin Xin Bamboo: “…!”

‘Is he starting things off this intensely?’

Z: “…”

Z was contemplating whether she should just turn and run, retracting her surveillance… After all, it seemed like the two people in front of her didn’t know she was secretly listening in… Well, Z didn’t know if her father had guessed…

‘But no matter what, I really want to run away…’

Z, who had been as hard as iron and the protector of humanity for hundreds of years, expressed at this moment—

‘The weak me is already dead. The one living now is the even weaker little Z…’