My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

’Right, how do I change its form?’

The instant the thought flashed through Chu Bamboo’s mind, the shadow followed his will as instinctively as eating or drinking, transforming into a black crow.

"...Huh?"

Chu Bamboo stared at the crow, which stood over a meter tall, and fell into deep thought. ’Wait, so you actually have to follow the law of conservation of mass?’

Chu Bamboo felt there was so much to roast here. With a thought, he changed the shadow into a giant black cockroach, his expression turning peculiar. "...I get the feeling that if it scurries inside like this, it’ll be the start of a horror story!"

Chu Bamboo chuckled, ready to add a few more horror stories to the Museum of Eastern Art and Antiques’s reputation. But then, he was struck by a sudden idea...

’What if...’ He eyed the giant shadow cockroach strangely. After a moment of thought, he gave a soft snap of his fingers. ’Let’s give it a shot...’

And then...

The cockroach actually followed Chu Bamboo’s will and began to split, transforming into hundreds of finger-sized shadow cockroaches!

"...It actually worked?" Chu Bamboo sucked in a sharp breath. Then, he realized the problem. ’No wonder Shadow Killers don’t use this trick for assassinations!’

After splitting them, Chu Bamboo could feel hundreds of different streams of sensory and visual information flooding his brain. The sheer volume of data was overwhelming, a jumbled mess that was almost too much to bear. He couldn’t even control the shadow cockroaches anymore.

In the end, with a single thought, Chu Bamboo re-merged the shadows, condensing them into three crows.

While the crows were quite large, their size was still within the realm of believability. Most importantly, this was the maximum number Chu Bamboo could control... and that was only because his Spiritual Power was so strong.

In a way, it was like splitting his focus three ways.

"...Go," Chu Bamboo murmured. The three crows took flight, quickly finding a skylight above the exhibition hall.

The skylight was open just a crack, clearly for ventilation.

Under Chu Bamboo’s control, the Shadow Crows’ bodies suddenly flattened and slipped through the opening.

’...It’s very powerful.’ Chu Bamboo’s eyes were closed tight as he processed the information feeding back from the shadows.

Inside the pitch-black exhibition hall, the three Shadow Crows blended perfectly into the darkness. They beat their wings without making a sound, their stealth capabilities reaching a level unimaginable to ordinary people.

It was as if... they were a part of the darkness itself.

’That’s right, I almost forgot. Shadow Assassins... they all operate at night! The night itself provides a buff to this Divine Technique...’

For a moment, Chu Bamboo even considered using the crows to tail Howard and pry into the secrets of the Golden Dawn... but he quickly shot that idea down.

After all, the ten-minute time limit was a critical weakness.

He directed the three crows in three different directions. Soon... they had locked onto their targets!

One was the Jade Bracelet on the wrist of the Han Dynasty Princess Ceramic Statue.

One was the Bronze Wine Pot.

The last one was an unremarkable Turtle Shell.

’Go!’

Almost instantly, the crows’ wings pressed against the display case locks. The shadows deformed, seeping into the keyholes until they matched the tumblers. With a soft CLICK, the locks sprang open!

A piercing alarm suddenly blared.

The three crows paid it no mind, however. None of the three artifacts were very large. They snatched up the items and swiftly took flight.

It had to be said, the security at this Museum of Eastern Art and Antiques was extremely formidable.

In less than five minutes, the sound of frantic footsteps echoed through the three breached exhibition halls.

All exits of the Eastern Museum were completely sealed. Countless people rushed about inside!

Exclamations and curses like "Fuck," "What the fuck," and "Oh my God" could be heard from time to time...

However... even before the security guards reached the three breached halls... Chu Bamboo had already secured the three artifacts.

Less than a minute later, Chu Bamboo’s body swayed, and the three crows abruptly vanished.

"What a shame!" A look of regret crossed Chu Bamboo’s face. He originally thought Thousand Shadows and Transformations was leagues below Crimson Sky Fire...

But now he felt that, while Thousand Shadows and Transformations was indeed far inferior to Crimson Sky Fire in terms of flexibility and destructive power...

...its general applicability was just too good!

As an offensive tool, it was trash. As an assassination tool, it was barely passable. But for theft or gathering intelligence... it was incredibly powerful! Downright broken, even.

’Is this the part where I’m supposed to say, "There are no useless Divine Techniques, only useless people"?’ Chu Bamboo snarked to himself as he raced back toward the hotel. Of course, he was just being glib; he didn’t actually believe that for a second.

’Thousand Shadows and Transformations is certainly strong, but compared to Divine Techniques like Memory or Destiny... yeah...’

Finally, Chu Bamboo parkoured his way back to his hotel room.

Upon detecting his surroundings, Z spoke up. "One minute ago, Howard called your phone. I simulated your voice and spoke with him. I also detected that a certain AI—suspected to be Celestial Net One—is heavily accessing all of the hotel’s internal cameras."

"Oh." Chu Bamboo gave a noncommittal nod. ’Fast reaction time. It’s only natural for Howard to suspect me, since I visited yesterday and the theft happened today... Still, they should only be temporarily suspicious of me...’

"According to my big data analysis," Z’s voice was calm and steady, "Mr. Howard doesn’t actually suspect you... He was merely making a routine inquiry. Otherwise, he would have had bodyguards knocking on your door within thirty minutes. However, based on analysis of similar cases, he is likely to conduct some routine checks on you tomorrow..."

"...If that’s the case!" Chu Bamboo pulled out the Turtle Shell, Bracelet, and Bronze Wine Pot one by one, lost in thought.

’If Howard finds these things on me tomorrow... that would be a beautiful disaster!’

’Let’s see if the plan I came up with... can actually work!’

Chu Bamboo first picked up the Bracelet, his expression focused, and continuously poured the Blessing Power from his body into it.

Blessing Power was, in essence, radiation power. Chu Bamboo usually just called it "radiation power," but he couldn’t help it. Perhaps the people in the dream world had been influenced by that so-called "God," and then, over time, a misunderstanding arose, leading them all to call it Blessing Power... and Chu Bamboo had been influenced by them as well.

Chu Bamboo silently calculated. Though he was pouring out Blessing Power at a high rate, his recovery speed was equally fast.

It took a full two minutes, then suddenly, the Bracelet emitted a faint white light.

"...Hah!" After a quick calculation, Chu Bamboo was taken aback. ’The amount of Energy I just put in... is roughly equivalent to a quarter of a First Realm expert’s entire reserves!’

’If not for my high stamina,’ Chu Bamboo thought, ’my current self wouldn’t have been able to activate this thing at all.’

Afterward, Chu Bamboo activated the remaining two items one by one.

The reason they only needed First Realm energy to activate was naturally because their quality was far inferior to the Chixiao Sword...

Then...

Name: Drunken Moon Bottle

Divine Technique: Wine Transformation

Description: Can ferment any liquid into alcohol. Allows for the manipulation of said alcohol!

Chu Bamboo swirled the Bronze Wine Pot. ’Hmm, sounds pretty unremarkable, maybe even useless. But the method my good buddy figured out was to brew pure alcohol. In fact, this Bronze Wine Pot can brew any known alcoholic beverage! From the Divine Continent’s Maotai to an ’82 Lafite, as long as you add a single drop of the original to be recorded, it can produce it...’

’For an alcoholic, it’s a true Divine Artifact! For a non-drinker like me... hmm.’

’And my good buddy used this ability to control alcohol to indirectly control fire!’

As Chu Bamboo sprayed some alcohol into the pot to complete the recording, he recalled the diary... ’My good buddy once used this pot to turn an entire pond of water into alcohol, then manipulated it into the shape of a dragon and set it ablaze... The sight of it back then...’

’It’s a form of pyrokinesis, I guess?’

Chu Bamboo looked at the next item.

Name: Void Bracelet

Divine Technique: Expand the Void

’Sounds badass, but... in reality, it’s just a small space inside for storing things...’

’The exact capacity... is unknown! My good buddy never found the upper limit, anyway... The only catch is that storing or retrieving items consumes Spiritual Power! The larger the item, the more Spiritual Power it costs.’

’And even when my good buddy duplicated this power, all he got was another pocket dimension that he himself couldn’t enter...’

’Strong in some ways, useless in others.’

Chu Bamboo sighed. ’My good buddy initially thought... this thing could be a budget version of a personal pocket dimension... a place to hide in when things got dangerous... Turns out, it can only store inanimate objects!’

Shaking his head, Chu Bamboo looked at the last item.

Name: Arrow-avoiding Armor

Divine Technique: Avoid Arrows

’As the name implies, in ancient times, it would make the wearer automatically avoid all arrows. Sounds pretty useless in the modern world...’

’However, according to my good buddy’s experiments, if you wear this thing and supply it with enough energy, bullets can’t hit you... Even if a missile is locked onto you, it will mysteriously crash nearby! Even shrapnel from an exploding grenade will deliberately swerve around you...’

’All in all... a pretty ridiculous piece of equipment.’

Chu Bamboo fiddled with the Turtle Shell, subconsciously recalling his good buddy’s diary entry: ’Almost got blindsided by a missile! Good thing I was one step ahead... Also a good thing it wasn’t a nuke! Otherwise... I would’ve had to make a run for it! Hehehe, surprise! As long as I don’t take a direct hit, I’m fast as hell! Actually, if it had been a nuke, I might have even been able to absorb some of the radiation!’

"In any case, these are three excellent items," Chu Bamboo said with a sigh. He channeled some energy, then tossed the Turtle Shell and the Bronze Wine Pot into the Space Bracelet.

"And now!" After studying the bracelet for a moment, Chu Bamboo took out a handful of... Gold Beans he bought in the Divine Continent!

Chu Bamboo calmly took out a blowtorch and other tools he had bought in the Divine Continent, melted the gold, and then coated the bracelet with it—

It wasn’t like he needed the bracelet’s antique appearance. He cared about its function; changing the style was no big deal.

「A moment later.」

The result was a Golden Bracelet.

After examining it for a moment, Chu Bamboo slipped it onto his wrist, a hint of pleasure on his face. "Excellent. Absolutely perfect."

After a moment’s thought, Chu Bamboo pulled a sand gold bracelet from his backpack. He’d bought this as well, and it looked very similar to the newly plated bracelet. Sand gold wasn’t real gold; it was ridiculously cheap... but when going through customs, Chu Bamboo had declared it as gold.

Chu Bamboo casually broke it, crushed it into a fine powder, and flushed it down the toilet.

’And just like that... all the loose ends are tied up.’