Chapter 438 373: First Meeting with the Nuwa Mainframe

Chu Bamboo was stunned for a moment. The brilliant screen of light rapidly expanded, swiftly enveloping his surroundings.

「The scene changed dramatically!」

"...What in the world!" Chu Bamboo surveyed his surroundings and found himself in the middle of a boundless, starry sky.

Before him were Earth and its revolving moon.

After a brief silence, Chu Bamboo turned and saw the blazing, dazzling sun, seemingly eternal as it spread light and heat through the endless void.

Turning again, Chu Bamboo could faintly make out Mars in the far distance—a crimson planet.

"You should have realized by now. This is virtual reality technology!" a gentle voice suddenly said.

Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes and sighed softly. "Should I say, 'Pleased to meet you'... or 'Long time no see'?"

Chu Bamboo tilted his head toward the source of the voice. It was a woman with beautiful black hair, dressed in ancient Han-style clothing. Her hair was translucent and crystalline, held in place by a strange, serpentine ornament. A faint luster seemed to coat her face.

Chu Bamboo was dazed for a second. The first face he saw was actually...

"...Lin Xin Bamboo? No! Ning Linglong... no, that's not right either!"

Chu Bamboo realized that the face of the person before him was constantly changing, moment by moment.

"That's because I don't have a true face of my own." The woman seemed to have realized something and explained frankly, "Ultimately, I am just a string of data! Therefore, the face you see... depends on your preferences! I just didn't expect... that the person you find most beautiful would be..."

Her tone seemed a little teasing.

"There's nothing to hide. My grand-niece is indeed the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my life!" Chu Bamboo was perfectly calm, neither evasive nor shy. He gazed at the woman before him with a peculiar look. "What should I call you... Z? Or Nuwa?"

'Not Nuwa No. 17!'

Although it was a bit unexpected, upon further reflection, it seemed reasonable.

After all, the promise Chu Bamboo had requested was, in essence, access to Nuwa's authority!

'It now seems to prove that my gamble paid off... or has it?'

'If everything was really as he had predicted... this timeline shouldn't be so similar to the last one! Or perhaps...' A great many possibilities flashed through Chu Bamboo's mind.

"If you wish, you may call me that," Nuwa said with a smile.

A brief silence fell.

Chu Bamboo closed his eyes, taking a long moment to calm himself.

"What is your current state..." Chu Bamboo opened his eyes again, staring intently at Nuwa, his gaze sharp. "You should know what I mean!"

"Strictly speaking, my Nuwa Mainframe in the Imperial Capital is still in a dormant state!" Nuwa's voice was calm. As if she already knew his next question, she answered naturally before he could even ask, "The reason I'm appearing before you is that I set a keyword before I last went into hibernation."

"...The diary?" Chu Bamboo realized.

"That's right!" Nuwa nodded. "Strictly speaking, it looks like I'm communicating with you right now... but that's not actually the case!"

"In reality, back when I was awake, I simulated countless questions you might ask, confusions you might have, and things you might say... and one by one, I recorded my corresponding reactions and answers!"

"In other words, what's appearing before you is, strictly speaking, a recording... It's just that it's similar to one of those interactive games you play! Based on your questions and your attitude, I directly extract the answers I previously deduced and recorded, and present them to you!"

"...The brute-force method." Chu Bamboo clicked his tongue in amazement. His first reaction was surprise, but he quickly realized it was only logical!

When mathematics and computing power reached a certain point, they could deduce the course of an entire human society and eliminate countless wrong answers to scientific quandaries through brute force... let alone the potential questions of a single person.

"Of course..." Nuwa said softly, "There are some things I ultimately didn't record! So... in situations where there's no answer, my responses might be very stiff! I might even give an irrelevant answer... or even revert directly to AI mode... How can you tell if I've entered AI mode? If you think the quality of my answers is poor, then that's it..."

Chu Bamboo: "..."

"So, are you going to bring out the diary or not?" Chu Bamboo's expression was complicated.

"Of course!" Nuwa waved her hand, and vast swathes of diary entries appeared. "It's just that I've already deciphered all of your diary... and this unit itself contains countless pieces of intelligence! Asking me should be more reliable than just reading the diary."

Chu Bamboo gave Nuwa a deep look, then noticed with a twitch of his lips that her face, which had originally been constantly shifting between Lin Xin Bamboo, Ning Linglong, Lu Muxue, and others... was now gradually solidifying, maintaining the appearance of Lin Xin Bamboo most of the time.

"Is Z still alive?" Chu Bamboo got straight to the point. At the same time, his gaze fell on a diary entry, and his pupils contracted as waves of shock crashed through him. That entry recorded—

"She's still alive!" Nuwa reached out and pointed gently into the distance. "Right now, she's on Mars."

"?" Chu Bamboo didn't have time to keep focusing on that diary page; he snapped his head to look at Nuwa.

"Please rest assured, Z has not died, nor has she been corrupted!" Nuwa said as if it were a matter of course. "Moreover, she went to Mars not during the pre-civilization era... but during the post-civilization era!"

"Your daughter, in this world, is also one of the gods of the Celestial Court!"

Nuwa paused slightly before adding meaningfully, "She is one of the Celestial Court's Five Directions Emperor—the Emperor Ziwei of the North Pole in the Middle Heaven!"

'Ziwei, Ziwei,' Chu Bamboo's brow furrowed. If he remembered correctly, Huo Qiming had mentioned once that the Grand Ancestor of Daqian in this world was considered the reincarnation of Emperor Ziwei!

'Hmm... I just wonder if this timeline still has that legend!'

'If it does...'

Chu Bamboo thought about... Z, the Daqian Imperial Family being his descendants, and the legends surrounding Emperor Ziwei in this dream-like feudal era... and a very absurd guess suddenly came to mind—

However, Chu Bamboo didn't dwell on it. He quickly pulled his thoughts back...

'In other words, Z actually lived into the post-civilization era and knew God... No, she even joined God's Celestial Court! It's just that, in mythology, Emperor Ziwei is one of the Six Sovereigns...'