My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

"All done! Let the music play, let the dancing continue."

...

"Happy times always fly by so fast!"

Lying on the soft bed Nuwa had built, Chu Bamboo recalled the wonderful afternoon and evening, sighing with genuine emotion.

’Sigh, I just want to be a carefree freeloader! Damn this apocalypse... Why won’t it grant me even this one little thing?’

Muttering indignantly, Chu Bamboo closed his eyes.

"Good night, Nuwa No. 17!"

...

「The next day.」

Chu Bamboo got up, pulled open the curtains, and glanced casually at the crowds on the street below. Then, he took a blank notebook from a drawer.

"...And now!" Chu Bamboo closed his eyes, concentrating with all his might. A look of delight appeared on his face. ’It works! Good, very good.’

He quickly snapped a pen refill. With a light flick of his wrist, Chu Bamboo pressed his palm onto the notebook like a stamp... and dense lines of characters instantly appeared.

"This is great! Divine Techniques truly are the ultimate productive force."

Chu Bamboo felt tears welling up in his eyes. He immediately went into a frenzy of activity.

In less than three minutes, he had finished printing both the prototype and the complete versions of the Spirit Star program.

Rubbing his hands together, Chu Bamboo thought for a moment before pulling out a new notebook and starting to print again. This time, he was printing Star Sea.

As for the Star Sea Detailed Explanation, he didn’t plan on committing it to paper just yet.

When he was done, Chu Bamboo stretched lazily and took his phone out of his pocket. He looked at the device, his thoughts drifting to the transparent phone he used in the future.

’The feel of it... it’s not as good as the future phone!’

"It’s easy to get used to luxury, but hard to go back," Chu Bamboo mused. How long had he even used that transparent phone? He was already having trouble adjusting.

It was a shame he couldn’t bring the transparent phone to this era. With that thought, Chu Bamboo dialed Zhao Shao’s number.

Three minutes later, the call ended... No one picked up?

’?’ Chu Bamboo fell into thought. ’Didn’t Zhao Shao say he’d be waiting for my call?’

’Wait, he’s not in some kind of trouble, is he...’ He felt a little nervous, but that couldn’t be right. ’The time of death Nuwa No. 17 gave for Zhao Shao isn’t now, is it?’

His thoughts raced. Without hesitation, Chu Bamboo dialed Zhao Shao’s number again. He was already prepared: if the call didn’t go through this time, he would head to Z Intelligent Company immediately.

’I can’t believe I forgot to ask for Zhao Shao’s home address before. So careless...’ Chu Bamboo calmly considered his options. ’I wonder if Professor Chen knows it?’

The same familiar ringtone played on...

After a long while, the call finally connected...

"The hell? Who is it? What damn time is it?! Are you nuts... I... huh?" Zhao Shao’s voice trailed off, as if he was only just now waking up enough to glance at the caller ID.

Chu Bamboo could clearly hear a sharp intake of breath from the other end. When Zhao Shao spoke again, his voice was thick with embarrassment. "Junior Chu? Ah... sorry, so sorry! I, I-I was half asleep. Uh, um... hahahahaha!"

"..." Chu Bamboo, who had already walked to the door and turned the handle, ready to leave, paused in deep thought.

Then it dawned on him. ’Oh, it’s just after six... For a normal college student with no classes, this is prime time for sleeping in...’

In fact, someone like Chu Bamboo with such a regular sleep schedule was the rare one.

"What time did you go to sleep last night?" Chu Bamboo sat back down at his desk. "Also, I’ve finished the Spiritual Star Algorithm! Both parts. When can we meet? And while we’re at it, we can sign your company’s stock agreement contract!"

"...Five a.m., I think? Huh?! You’ve, you’ve, you’ve finished it already?!" Zhao Shao’s voice was now brimming with excitement and agitation, all traces of sleepiness gone. He was a bit incoherent. "Um, I really, I really don’t know how to thank you..."

"I swear, besides my parents, you’re the person I respect the most! From now on, if you tell me to steal a chicken, I won’t dare to chase a pig. If you tell me to climb a wall, I won’t dare to knock it down..."

’?’

’The hell?! So if I tell you to steal a chicken, you won’t steal a chicken, but you also won’t chase a pig? Is that it? What’s the point of all this politeness and respect if you’re not going to do any work?!’

Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched. He opened his mouth to speak several times but stopped. He’d never realized what a character Zhao Shao was.

"Time! Location," Chu Bamboo ground out through his teeth.

"Oh, oh, oh... Eight, eight o’clock! Eight in the morning, I’ll just wash up... Do you have a suggestion? Z Company? Or, you can pick any place and send me the map location?" Zhao Shao’s attitude was extremely deferential.

"Let’s just do Z Company," Chu Bamboo said, rubbing his face to calm himself down. He stated frankly, "And also, this is a transaction between equals... not a boss and a subordinate! Just focus on using your talents."

’Just get back to the grind with your artificial intelligence! Don’t waste your energy trying to cozy up to me! It’s not worth it.’

"Thank you!" Zhao Shao’s voice was filled with gratitude, completely oblivious to the exploitative will of a certain cold-blooded capitalist.

After a few more words, Chu Bamboo hung up. He leaned back in his chair and sat in silence for a moment. Then, out of sheer boredom, he opened his cabinet and took out another stack of notebooks.

’...I’m going through these really fast! I feel like I need to buy more already.’

He casually opened a price-slashing app and bought several hundred notebooks. Then, with a serious expression, Chu Bamboo snapped another pen refill and began printing like a madman.

’Wait... from this perspective, I probably need to buy pen refills too, huh? Should I get a bunch of those high-capacity pens? Hmmm, maybe buying ink bottles would be more cost-effective!’

In the past, several web novels from the Divine Continent had ranked among the top ten in global sales. Those few were indeed exceptionally well-written! Chu Bamboo... hadn’t finished reading them.

But that wasn’t a big deal. He’d just write as much as he’d read! It was effortless to print them with his Divine Technique anyway... If he read more in the future, he’d print more. If not... well, the readers would just have to suffer.

Chu Bamboo opened a writer’s assistant app, created two new novels, and then took photos of the pages, converting the images to text. He prepared ten Chapters for each novel and uploaded them to the online platforms. He’d once dreamed of being a writer himself, but that dream had died an early death... Still, he had his author account!

’Hopefully, this will earn me some pocket money! My standards aren’t high, just a few million or tens of millions will do! That shouldn’t be too much to ask. After all, these novels ranked at the top of the global sales charts. Even without the historical opportunities they had, their baseline should be extremely high... Son of a bitch.’ Chu Bamboo suddenly realized something was wrong.

He reflected on how he’d been dabbling in music, then sports, and now novels... He had worked so hard in these areas, even seeking out his counselor and planning to contact Principal Li to use his connections... running around in circles...

And yet, despite all that, he hadn’t earned a single penny from any of it!

The money he *had* made came from... a gift from the kind old man at the lottery center and the stock market’s ATM!

He hadn’t earned a cent from his hard work! But the money he’d just stumbled upon was multiplying like crazy... It gave him a strong sense of déjà vu, like someone who spends millions to open a restaurant, toils day and night for three to five years, and ends up losing hundreds of thousands.

"..." For a moment, Chu Bamboo couldn’t take it anymore. He grumbled, "Is this heaven’s way of telling me that trying to earn money through hard work is a dead end? That the only way to get truly rich is to get something for nothing?"