Chapter 205 - 164: Howard Raven in the Open, Chu Bamboo in the Shadows

8:59.

Chu Bamboo walked out of the police station and stretched lazily.

Z’s debut was nothing short of perfect. Acting as Z—a crime-solving software iterated from the Divine Continent’s future AI data programs—he had taken only ten minutes to completely reintegrate and verify all the intelligence on the police department’s intranet.

He even cracked three cold cases on the spot, locking onto the likely culprits in those three mysteries—

Furthermore, it tagged each suspect with the probability of them being the actual killer, and even speculated on their methods based on the available information...

In fact, given the crime-solving capabilities Z demonstrated, the top investigative expert at the station stated that if he dedicated enough effort, he could have possibly accomplished something similar—

But this expert wasn’t saying this to belittle Z; on the contrary, he was using the comparison to express his profound shock.

What kind of man was he, after all? He had reached a high-ranking position in the district police bureau purely through his case-breaking skills and was now known as a master detective.

For Z to be able to accomplish something similar—wasn’t that shocking enough? It could render an entire class of low-level investigators obsolete. Of course, this didn’t make the expert overly anxious. To be blunt, that kind of replacement was only theoretical. No one was willing to hand everything over to a machine.

He personally felt that Zhao Shao’s earlier presentation made a lot of sense: with Z, the workload for front-line investigators would indeed be reduced immeasurably, and the probability of error would also be much lower!

But compared to Chu Bamboo, who was getting ready to leave, Zhao Shao was currently in a state of loving agony, liaising, communicating, and negotiating with the police department...

Licensing Z to the police department wasn’t going to be free.

Or rather, even if the current license for this police department was free for promotional purposes, if they were to expand to other departments in the future, it couldn’t still be free, could it? All these details needed to be negotiated beforehand!

Of course, none of this was Chu Bamboo’s concern.

"General Manager Chu, General Manager Chu Bamboo!" Xing Long’s slightly rushed voice called out.

Chu Bamboo paused. He didn’t realize the man was calling him until he heard "General Manager Chu Bamboo." After all, though he had introduced himself that way to Xing Long, this was the first time anyone had actually called him that...

"Shouldn’t you be with your superiors?" Chu Bamboo asked, turning his head and raising an eyebrow.

"You must be joking!" Xing Long said with a wry smile. "I haven’t forgotten what I promised you... Don’t worry! If we don’t catch the culprit this time, we’ll continue to observe the area for the next few days."

Xing Long was obviously trying to curry favor. The moment he recalled the approving gaze of his direct superior, he could feel his blood boil with excitement...

He had never imagined that at his age, with no prospect of future promotion and just quietly waiting for retirement... But life was just that strange. A massive opportunity had just fallen into his lap out of nowhere!

He thought back on his interactions with Chu Bamboo and how things had developed to this point... He could only sigh with emotion. Destiny was truly a marvelous thing!

"Then let’s get going."

"No, no, no, I just came out to call for you! You looked like you were about to leave early." Xing Long shook his head quickly and glanced at the two police officers behind him. "We still need to change our clothes first! Otherwise, if a suspect really shows up, I’m afraid they’d..."

Xing Long shrugged. He didn’t finish his sentence, but his meaning was perfectly clear.

Chu Bamboo naturally nodded, watched them go inside, and waited quietly by the entrance.

A few minutes later, his eyelid twitched.

A blond foreigner riding a Xiaohuang bike parked it at the entrance. After locking it, he strode into the police station. He gave Chu Bamboo a very enthusiastic nod as he brushed past him.

Chu Bamboo returned the nod with a deadpan expression, which the foreigner didn’t seem to mind. Since coming to the Divine Continent, he had met all sorts of people—some enthusiastic, some cold, and some even wary that he might be a spy... Chu Bamboo’s attitude wasn’t particularly noteworthy.

Staring intently at the foreigner’s back, Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes, a name forming in his thoughts: ’Howard Raven?’

Suppressing the flicker of killing intent that rose within him, Chu Bamboo lowered his gaze and contemplated an extremely serious problem. ’I’ve already performed a memory Rewrite on myself.’

’Of course, my appearance hasn’t changed noticeably. The memory Rewrite concealed my aura—not that a Rewrite can’t change one’s appearance, but that would be meaningless for me right now...’

’It’s not like I’m trying to be a spy or hide my identity!’

’In my current state, that instrument shouldn’t be able to detect me! But... it must have still roughly pinpointed my location before...’

’Should I slip away to a nearby city later, undo the memory Rewrite, and draw Golden Dawn’s attention over there?’

Chu Bamboo wasn’t afraid of Golden Dawn, but he was currently in a crucial growth phase. He wasn’t about to waste his time playing cat and mouse with them right now.

’No rush, no rush.’ Chu Bamboo’s gaze turned distant as he suppressed the turbulent thoughts in his mind.

This was completely different from his last life. Last time, the enemy was in the shadows while he was in the light, but now, the tables had completely turned!

...

9:37.

On the street.

Chu Bamboo silently watched Lu Keke and her mother walking in the distance. His gaze swept impassively over the surroundings, where he could see several plainclothes police officers.