Chapter 149: Chapter 127: Hardcore Badass: Chu Bamboo Story 3
Chu Bamboo nodded, his face impassive. That much was true. If the officials truly despised him, judging by what happened last time, they probably would have revoked all his privileges outright!
"Besides that..." Big Rat continued to elaborate.
Time ticked by.
Chu Bamboo listened quietly, but his mind began to wander.
Finally, at the end of the video, Big Rat offered his conclusion. "What a shame! Such a terrible shame."
"To this day, I still can’t understand it. Even if he really did those things, with the White-headed Eagle’s infamous disregard for human rights, how could they bring themselves to kill him? It’s completely different from how the White-headed Eagle treated the Dezi scientists after World War II..."
"This was Chu Bamboo we’re talking about! In this era, his talent should have propelled humanity to its absolute Peak!"
Chu Bamboo’s expression turned strange. He was starting to get it... ’This guy... he can’t be a fan of mine, can he?’
Big Rat grew more and more agitated. "He was a renowned scientist, physicist, biochemist, novelist, musician, athlete... He was what society in Europe and America heralded as the theoretically perfect Golden Human!"
"A genius-level intellect, unparalleled practical skills, and a physique so powerful it was suspected of being superhuman—his remains are now stored by the White-headed Eagle! Rumor has it the White-headed Eagle has performed intensive research on every single one of his cells. His brain received the same treatment as Einstein’s—it was sliced into 172 pieces!"
"And there are also rumors that the White-headed Eagle cloned him... I don’t know the truth of it, but funnily enough, that rumor was met with a vehement denial from the White-headed Eagle!"
"According to that popular internet rule—if the White-headed Eagle vehemently denies it, they’re probably doing it! So it’s highly likely... well, I can’t say for sure, otherwise I might be accused of spreading rumors! But you all can read between the lines."
"However, I personally think that even if they did clone him... they definitely failed! For a genius like Chu Bamboo, if they had really made eight or ten copies of him, how could the White-headed Eagle possibly still be in the state it’s in now? They spend all day just coasting on C Machinery Co., Ltd.’s old innovations! Who’d believe that? Do you? I don’t!"
"To sum it all up... Chu Bamboo was the founder of the mechanical age, the pioneer of room-temperature superconductors, the inspiration behind nuclear fusion, and one half of the father of artificial intelligence!"
Finally, the familiar outro music began to play.
Watching the montage of clips and listening to the moving song at the end of the video, Chu Bamboo fell into a long silence...
’Damn it,’ he thought. ’That’s a song I sang, one I was planning to release in the real world! This pretty much confirms he’s a fan!’
After turning it over and over in his mind, Chu Bamboo finally stared up at the silvery-white ceiling and choked out a single word. "Fuck!"
After watching the video, a mix of admiration and regret, the part that stuck with Chu Bamboo the most was still that his enemies had gone directly after his family.
And kidnapping them was one thing, but holy shit, what happened in the end... ’Were they killed?’
’No, considering how difficult it is to kidnap people in the Divine Continent, they were probably killed right there inside the country...’
Chu Bamboo’s thoughts were cold and methodical. ’After all, disposing of bodies within the Divine Continent is far easier than smuggling people out...’
’As for how they managed to trick my other self later on, I guess they used AI deepfakes? Or something else? It’s even possible that the other me realized something was wrong before he left the country, but was just clinging to a sliver of hope. And maybe he used it as an excuse to go undercover, to get some intel on Golden Dawn for... well, for the future me?’
’No one would willingly send their best friend to their death. But when family is involved... using an undercover mission as a pretext to defect... a brother would accept that.’
Chu Bamboo sighed, filled with a sense of melancholy. He then looked up to the heavens and sighed again, muttering a string of curses.
’I can only say... are they really that unscrupulous?’
’Fine, maybe I just thought too highly of my enemies.’
Chu Bamboo took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. It took him a long moment to calm down.
He could completely understand why his other self went mad near the end. Why he might have even done some... unspeakable things.
Forget his other self; even now, knowing his parents were likely safe and sound—after all, his company hadn’t been formally established, so his enemies wouldn’t be able to find any information on him yet—
—he still felt the urge to kill anyone even remotely suspicious.
’A wrong can be avenged, even nine generations later!’
Chu Bamboo was, after all, a faithful adherent of the Gongyang Sect.
’Calm down, calm down. Right. A calm mind can spot the enemy’s weakness and deliver a fatal blow. I need to think this through... properly analyze the intel...’
’Hmph, I have to admit, this video certainly cleared up a lot of my confusion,’ Chu Bamboo murmured, as if talking to himself, yet also as if posing a question to some unseen listener.
’But the most crucial question remains: How did this life end up heading in the same direction? What did I do wrong?’
Chu Bamboo was completely baffled.
In his last life, he had developed his business safely and steadily within the Divine Continent... It was the same C Mechanical Company, he had started with the same Energy Battery and wireless charging technology, he had even sung the same songs...
’So where, exactly, did I slip up? What caught the attention of Golden Dawn, prompting them to mobilize unimaginable resources... and do something like that?!’