Chapter 182 - 146: Another Record-Breaking Time of Death
"November 11th. Through my deliberate machinations, I finally managed to get on good terms with Howard Raven...
A year! An entire year. That son of a bitch was truly a tough nut to crack!
Hehehe, but he fell for my trap in the end... Can’t laugh, gotta hold it in! But how can I possibly hold it in when something is this hilarious...
This time, I got the bastard completely drunk. Under my barrage of half-doubt and half-praise, he finally couldn’t resist the urge to show off and told me all about his past operations..."
"The third day. Future me, remember this! The important thing is the third day...
The third day after I lost my dream ’golden finger’!
Let me think back.
I vaguely recall that my record for that day said... it was calm and peaceful, but... it was anything but calm and peaceful!
On that very day, Howard Raven successfully convinced the police department!
I don’t know if he used money or some other reason... but anyway, he succeeded.
He had the Celestial Net, which had already been created by then... Yes, the Celestial Net appeared even earlier than I had previously estimated!
The Celestial Net program from that period was almost certainly weaker than Z, but it was still far beyond the AIs popular on the market at the time.
If I had to make a comparison, it was probably a bit stronger than Z when it was integrated with the most nascent form of Spirit Star?
The technology gap between them wasn’t huge, maybe just two or three generations..."
Chu Bamboo wasn’t sure what kind of expression to make. ’Two or three generations? Isn’t that a world of difference?’
’It makes sense, though. From the nascent form of Spirit Star to its complete form, at least twenty or thirty years had passed! And that’s twenty or thirty years in the Real World, where technology advances at lightning speed!’
’What does that mean? It only took twenty or thirty years for the Divine Continent to grow from a small fry into a great panda that makes the White-headed Eagle’s scalp tingle!’
"After connecting to the police department’s internal network, the Celestial Net program rapidly collected a massive amount of intelligence on the city we were in!
My unique nature was also exposed on this very day."
"If you want to change everything, you have two options! One, use the Memory Rewrite Technique to obscure your information, then kill Howard Raven. However, I personally don’t recommend this. It’s too easy to alert the enemy!
The second option is, after using the Memory Rewrite Technique, act first and let Z enter the internal network to erase all traces of our suspicious activity online!
Trust our daughter. She can definitely run circles around the current Celestial Net!"
"Also, don’t worry about starting a company and drawing their suspicion...
There are so many companies in the Divine Continent. Petal, Di—which one doesn’t have its own patents? Which one hasn’t posed a certain degree of threat to the West?
But has the Golden Dawn made a move against them?
Yes, our Alisu Battery and wireless charging technology are indeed incredible! But this incredibleness is still within the realm of human understanding.
The Golden Dawn is arrogant! They believe they are truly God’s chosen people... These guys, who are both united and disunited, may have formed a deep state that indirectly influences and controls the West, but they are indifferent to the Western people!
It’s just like how God would send a flood to His own people, without showing them any mercy."
"I’ll emphasize it one more time... Technology is not important! What’s important is the Extraordinary!"
"Don’t let them realize you are a Transcendent! If you have to expose yourself, expose your Body Cultivator side as much as possible, not the Cultivator side!"
"November 14th. I finally heard them mention their most secret place in front of me. It’s a secret room...
But I’m not qualified to access it yet... And I’m not sure when I’ll be qualified enough to touch that thing. I feel like when they say ’soon, soon,’ they’re just stringing me along.
Perhaps it’s because of my skin? I’ve long heard them muttering that the only regret is that my ’Golden Human’ skin is literally golden..."
Chu Bamboo: "..."
’This just fits his stereotype of the West’s ’God’s chosen people’ perfectly!’
"December 11th. Crap, now I’m not so sure anymore!
My clearance level was raised again, which led me to see that the Golden Dawn really does control a lot of strange things.
And they’re basically all ancient Divine Artifacts! Like the Holy Grail that’s said to have held the Blood of Jesus... or the Lance of Longinus that killed the Saint...
These Divine Artifacts actually possess some rather special powers...
I’m guessing the power of these things might be ancient technology? Or maybe creations of Aliens? It can’t possibly be Extraordinary power... emmm!
If it really is Extraordinary power, then my previous guess was basically true. In ancient times, a flourishing cultivation civilization really did exist. The myths might not be false... Naming the civilization-sustaining AI after the mythological Nuwa might also have some special meaning.
Taking it even further... the God of ancient times was also an extremely powerful Transcendent!
Of course, there’s another possibility. God is actually an Alien?
Did Aliens visit Earth long ago?
But that also leaves many unanswered questions! If they came long ago... then why did they leave, and why are they now plotting something against Earth?
Why could they come before, but now they only seem to be able to exert indirect influence?
It’s too strange...
No matter how I think about it, it just doesn’t feel right!"
"One more thing, James Raven considers me, a Cultivator who is also a Body Cultivator, to be a Golden Human!
The ’Golden’ is the ’Golden’ from Golden Dawn... To put it another way, it means God’s Saint!
It wasn’t until this day that I was truly certain. I don’t know much about ancient times... but right now, I am truly and definitively the only Transcendent of this era.
Even the Golden Dawn has no Transcendents right now!
However... even though they’ve put me on a pedestal, it doesn’t mean James Raven actually listens to my every command!
They just want to turn me into a lofty banner."
"I can’t just wait like this anymore!
I feel agitated and uneasy...
Yes, things are going very well for me right now! Just like in the last timeline, C Company is advancing by leaps and bounds.
If things continue to develop like this until ’32, the world, or at least the Black Continent, will probably still become a cyberpunk world, right?
And because I’ve been very obedient this time, plus my parents are safe, and there are no irreconcilable conflicts with the Golden Dawn! Without a rebellion, I probably won’t die in South America in ’33...
But... what’s the point of that...
I’ve struggled so hard, endured humiliation to infiltrate the Golden Dawn, and even had a public falling out with Zhao Shao and Lin Xia...
I’ve even been cursed out by my parents over the phone, calling me a traitor and a turncoat!
Heh! I’ve endured for so long... Was it all so I could sell my life and work like a dog for this moronic Golden Dawn Organization, the one that killed my parents in the previous timeline, the one whose members have fucking fried their brains with religion? Am I really that pathetic? Huh?!!
Future me, this might be the last diary entry I pass to Lin Xia. Sorry!"
Chu Bamboo: "?"
’Wait, bro, what’s wrong...? Why did you suddenly... Weren’t you doing just fine before?!’
Chu Bamboo’s eyes widened. He suddenly realized his good bro must have been triggered by something... As for what it was, Chu Bamboo couldn’t guess at the moment.
’It makes sense. My good bro has been under an unimaginable amount of pressure in this timeline—it’s even possible that the thing that finally made the pressure valve burst was just some ordinary, trivial matter...’
’Maybe he went online and saw a netizen from the Divine Continent call him a dog traitor, or maybe it was something else...’
’That one seemingly insignificant sentence could have been the final trigger that caused his already exhausted mind, stretched to its limit, to completely collapse.’
Chu Bamboo rubbed his face, taking a moment to calm himself and mentally prepare before he continued reading the final words his good bro had left for him.
"It’s time for a desperate, final struggle! Let me see... just what kind of sordid secrets are hidden inside that sealed secret room of the Golden Dawn.
If I die, please avenge me!"
"Everything... is for the glory of humanity to continue on."
"Hehehe, kill! KILL KILL KILL!! Heaven creates all things to nourish man, yet man has nothing to repay Heaven!!"
Chu Bamboo stared silently at the final page.
’It’s over?’
’That means...’
Chu Bamboo raised his head. After calming himself for a good while, he finally asked, "Nuwa No. 17, when did I die this time?"
"December 18th, ’26!"
Chu Bamboo opened and closed his mouth several times, but no words came out.
After a long silence, he finally smiled. It was a smile of release, which grew louder and louder until he was clutching his stomach, laughing.
’A new record...’
’From dying in ’27 before, to a year earlier now.’
A thousand words and a million thoughts ultimately condensed into a single sentence!
"Golden Dawn, I’ll fuck your mothers!"
NOVGO.NET