Chapter 288 - 240: The World’s Top-Tier Boss

Closing his eyes, Chu Bamboo sorted through his thoughts for a while before abruptly asking, "Nuwa No. 17, I want to ask, is the commander of the Special Operations Brigade Huo Qiming..."

After receiving an affirmative answer, Chu Bamboo nodded. He had finally determined which of the two conflicting memories in his mind was real.

He slowly rose to his feet, a faint shadow in his eyes. "The Fifth is yours, the brigade is mine. That guy! Just what kind of Divine Technique is that?"

Chu Bamboo now realized what had happened. Clearly, the Fifth Apostle’s Divine Technique involved some form of identity swapping... and it was very likely Concept Level.

’Otherwise, it would be impossible for it to affect my memories...’

"But isn’t that a bit too broken!" Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched frantically. ’Directly usurping someone else’s identity? If you’re that incredible, why not just go to the Imperial Capital and usurp the Emperor’s identity?’

’Or you could just usurp Governor Su’s identity, that would work too.’

"...No, wait. Maybe he actually did usurp Governor Su’s identity in the previous timeline!" Chu Bamboo recalled the strange attitude of the officials in the past few world-lines and fell into deep thought.

This was simply terrifying... The Divine Technique had received an Epic Level buff!

"With a technique like that, couldn’t I... couldn’t my memory... In the future, couldn’t I just casually mess with people’s memories, extract them, modify them at will, and even take it a step further to change common sense! I could also extract the memories of other people’s Skills, and then just sell the memory Skills directly... Wait a minute!"

Chu Bamboo sank into contemplation. ’It’s not like anyone ever told me... I *can’t* do it that way, right?!’

After pacing a few circles on the spot, Chu Bamboo pulled his thoughts back to the present, his brow furrowed.

’Such a powerful Divine Technique... and he’s only the Fifth Apostle! Then what kind of terrifying Divine Techniques do the Apostles before him possess?’

’Also, if it’s a Divine Technique related to identity usurpation... is it possible that Hu Kaikang actually usurped the identity of the original Bishop of Jinghai? If that’s the case, it would explain why the person the Pope deemed trustworthy turned out to be a problem!’

’But if I analyze it from that angle, the original Bishop... huh?!’

Chu Bamboo froze. If the Bishop were already dead, that would be one thing. But if he was still alive... where would he most likely be imprisoned?

Chu Bamboo already had an answer, a complicated look appearing in his eyes. ’It can’t really be you, can it...’

Chu Bamboo thought of the Two-headed Scale People.

That being was clearly a high-ranking member of the God Worship Sect, even knowing that the Pope’s Divine Technique was Light. At the same time, despite being a high-ranking member, the God Worship Sect never sent aid to rescue him. Instead, he was left to be crushed in the nuclear facility.

Most importantly...

He was strong!

He had survived in that nuclear facility for so long, yet he had managed to maintain his sanity. His power was definitely not weak... he was certainly not in the Third Realm!

All things considered...

’That’s truly horrifying! His identity was stolen, his power was... who knows if it was crippled or something... and then he was thrown into a nuclear facility to serve as a battery.’

Chu Bamboo shook his head. If everything was as he speculated, he could understand why the Two-headed Scale People had been so agitated upon seeing him and the chance to escape.

Chu Bamboo took out his phone, fiddled with it for a moment, and then glanced at the time. ’A little longer... It should be about time for the Pope to have breakfast, right?’

After thinking for a moment, Chu Bamboo called for Little Mushroom Head and had it take him to an orchard. He ate some fruit to fill his stomach, calculated the time, and when he figured it was about right, he sent a text message to fish for a response as usual, and then...

"...I know the Pope is right next to you! Give him the phone." Chu Bamboo interrupted Qian Shi’s excited yet slightly confused words.

Qian Shi: "!!!"

"Little Bamboo, what are you up to now..."

Hearing the Pope’s familiar voice, Chu Bamboo cut in again. "Old man, do you know... what the All-Powerful Fifth Apostle’s Divine Technique is?"

"?" The Pope fell silent for a moment. "That kind of thing, a Divine Technique... I wouldn’t know!"

"If his Divine Technique is swapping identities, then... is it possible he swapped identities with your Bishop in Jinghai City!" Chu Bamboo pressed. "And this identity swap is on a conceptual level!"

"? Swapping identities?" The Pope was taken aback for a second, then let out a laugh. "There’s no such Divine Technique! At least, not one that I know of... none. Although people say anything is possible with Divine Techniques, this is just too bizarre..."

"...How could that be?" Chu Bamboo’s heart skipped a beat, but he quickly realized something. "Wait a moment, let me tell you a story..."

Then, Chu Bamboo described his experiences from the previous timeline in detail. Of course, he concealed and altered parts of it...

Chu Bamboo was now beginning to suspect that what he was up against wasn’t simply an identity-swapping Divine Technique. This form of tampering with and swapping identities was merely a derivative of its true power.

A brief silence.

The Pope sighed softly. "I think I understand... what you’ve run into!"

"?" Confusion appeared on Chu Bamboo’s face. "So? Aren’t you going to explain? Don’t tell me it’s classified..."

"Sigh, you shouldn’t have called me!" The Pope’s voice was weary. "It’s too late. It’s already too late."

"?"

"The moment I realized that Bishop Hu had encountered an external avatar created by *that person* for its own amusement... *that person* had already reverse-locked onto me."

"I’m not worried about it making a move on me... but! What about you?"

The Pope’s voice became tinged with gritted-teeth fury. "But still, how audacious... That one... *she* actually dared to do this..."

The next instant.

Chu Bamboo’s pupils contracted violently as he watched the empty space in front of him continuously distort.

And then.

A cat wearing a smiley face mask appeared out of thin air before Chu Bamboo.

Yes, it was a cat... and a big orange one at that!

’What the hell.’

The phone signal was instantly cut off.

"The Divine Domain of the Great Goddess Nuwa!" The Big Orange Cat glanced around, surprise and nostalgia appearing in its eyes as it remarked, "It’s been a while since I was last here."

"And then..." The Big Orange Cat sized up Chu Bamboo for a few breaths before murmuring, "The face recorded in the Holy Bible? Strange... how are you..."

Without hesitation, Chu Bamboo bit down on the poison hidden in his tooth.

Time began to reverse!

The last thing he saw was the Big Orange Cat tilting its head, sensing something was wrong. But it didn’t try to stop his death, instead watching the scene with a look of fascination.

As if it were simply watching a show for entertainment.

...

He woke up once again.

Chu Bamboo’s head throbbed with a sharp pain. He lay in bed for a good ten minutes before he could finally force himself to get up.

"What a goddamn horror story."

Chu Bamboo had always thought he was relatively safe in the Nuwa Base. But what had just happened was a huge slap in the face...

’What was that about "the moment I realized that person’s existence, that person reverse-locked onto the Pope"? And then, not daring to provoke the Pope, she just followed the phone signal and jumped right in my face?!’

’So damn scary!’

"...Alright! I guess I underestimated the flexibility of Divine Techniques." Chu Bamboo sighed, wondering if his own Memory Divine Techniques could one day develop to such a ridiculously powerful extent...

’It feels like... it’s not entirely hopeless...’

’For example, if my Memory Divine Techniques developed to a certain stage, I could set it up so that... whenever someone thinks of me in their memory, the technique automatically triggers... and then I could just pop out from that person’s memory... which would be basically like direct spacetime travel!’

After thinking like this for a while, Chu Bamboo finally managed to quell the trepidation he felt toward that monster... The best way to reduce the pressure was to tell himself that he too could one day grow to its level, or even higher...

But then again...

’Why a cat...’

Wait.

Chu Bamboo scanned his surroundings in a panic. ’If just being aware of her existence means...’ But thankfully, he didn’t find the Big Orange Cat dropping in on him!

"Scared me to death." Chu Bamboo silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He had almost thought this was a dead end! He was even considering whether he should go back and do something drastic, escaping across timelines...

However...

’Is it okay if I just know what the Big Orange Cat looks like? Right... there are countless big orange cats in this era!’

"...In that case, should I be glad the Pope didn’t tell me that being’s real name?" Chu Bamboo sucked in a cold breath. He finally understood what "information brings danger" meant! This was a classic case of knowing too much. People really could track you down through the internet cable in real life...

Shaking his head, Chu Bamboo sighed with a wry smile. He keenly realized that he might have just... stumbled upon the deepest secret of this world! He had met the ultimate final boss.

"What a hell of a world..."

So, what’s the plan now?!

Chu Bamboo was a little lost. The Fifth Apostle was suspected to be an external avatar created by that cat for its own amusement... If he killed the Apostle, wouldn’t he provoke the cat? How the hell was he supposed to play this game?

"But, if it’s just ’playing at life’!" Chu Bamboo mused. ’Then killing him shouldn’t be too big of a deal. Death is part of playing the game, after all. If you don’t like it, you can just not play!’

Besides, if that cat was really the mastermind behind this, given the immense terror it displayed... there’s no way the All-Powerful side would have had such a hard time pushing things forward.

Yes, although it looked like they were progressing very smoothly... in reality, they were also walking a tightrope!

’Let’s not worry about the cat for now! I’ll just proceed with the plan step by step... If that cat is shameless enough to personally intervene after watching its game-character alt, Lao Hu, get killed off, then in the next life, I’ll run straight to the Celestial Capital and drag the Pope over, no matter the cost... But doing that, it’s highly likely I won’t make it in time! If I miss it by even one day... then it’s all over!’

Chu Bamboo closed his eyes, sorting through his thoughts for a while. That path would ensure his own survival, but the destruction of Jinghai City, and even the guild, would become a high-probability event. Still, if it really came to that, there would be no other choice... For Chu Bamboo, this was his last-resort, table-flipping option.

"Setting the cat aside, and just facing the All-Powerful... how do I break this stalemate?" After much thought, Chu Bamboo finally identified the crucial point. He murmured, "...The Two-headed Scale People!"

Chu Bamboo made his decision. He scooped up Little Mushroom Head, not even bothering to grab the Chixiao Sword this time, and rushed directly into Li Kang’s office. Then, he dialed Li Kang’s phone number...