My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

Chu Bamboo’s gaze swept over the text, skipping past a great deal of useless information. For example, the media firestorm caused by *Star Sea*—or rather, *Star Sea Detailed Explanation*...

He scanned the lines at a blur, his finger flicking lightly. Soon, he found the first important entry.

”...The creation of humanoid robots, paired with an AI that bordered on true artificial intelligence, produced an outcome that terrified even me!

At its core, all the means of production in society were designed for humans—or, by extension, humanoid machines!

Unlike drones and robotic dogs... under Z’s control, humanoid robots could already perfectly replace humans, performing ninety-nine point nine percent of all jobs.

Sounds rather perfect, doesn’t it?

But at that moment, I was struck by a profound and troubling question... What value did humanity have left?

It seemed the only thing left was to climb the tech tree!

Yet, ninety-nine percent of people are useless when it comes to advancing technology.

Even though we did everything in our power to suppress it, to avoid fully releasing humanoid machines into society... it still triggered another global financial crisis!

Countless corporations went bankrupt, and countless people lost their jobs! The world was filled with wails of despair.

An ideology, the ’Theory of Human Uselessness,’ swept the globe! A wave of suicides erupted.

And I was the one who caused it...”

Chu Bamboo’s expression froze for a second. He fell silent and continued to scroll.

”...I discussed this in depth with Zhao Shao! He was so calm about it. Or rather... he’d understood it all long ago!

Why else would he have constantly instilled in Z the idea of providing for humanity?

As for the immense global impact of the humanoid robots’ debut, an event that upended the livelihoods of tens of millions...

He just flippantly said... ’It’s a necessary sacrifice!’

Solve it? How? We can only solve the problems in the territories under our control... As for the other places, let them fend for themselves.

I know he’s right! But still, my heart is heavy.”

Chu Bamboo stared quietly, watching as his ’good brother’ implemented a series of wildly different policies in various regions of his own megacorporate society...

These included, but were not limited to, having robots provide for all of humanity’s needs, leaving people with nothing to do but eat, drink, and be merry. The consequences, however, were disastrous. The people in regions where this was implemented were rendered useless, and it became nearly impossible to produce even a single qualified scientist.

Another policy was to scrap humanoid robots and instead manufacture various types of industrial machines, keeping humans in primary control—all to maintain a certain level of employment. But this only preserved a fragile balance, a heavy-handed attempt to control society and prevent tensions from boiling over...

And many, many more...

All Chu Bamboo could say was that in the policies described in the diary, he saw the early framework for the virtual society Z would later build.

His feelings at that moment were incredibly complex. ’So, after all was said and done, after all the finger-pointing, the blame for the Virtual World was going to land on my head in the end...’

Then, Chu Bamboo turned another page. He froze, because the subject of the diary abruptly changed.

”Year forty-nine. Everything has fallen, except for my megacorporate society and the homeland!

I was always naive enough to believe that as long as I didn’t touch Mars, the Pollution wouldn’t arrive! But I was wrong.

I’ve thought it over and over. I believe the memories of the Black Fog Monster God within me must have triggered some great terror deep in the cosmos. They stirred the Pollution on Mars... and launched a horrific strike!

Heh, I can’t believe it... After all this time, I’ve also been infected by wishful thinking... To think I was actually wondering if I could just abuse a loophole to skip this part?

Forgive me, my other self... I don’t have my golden finger anymore! I have my own moments of weakness and vulnerability... You must learn from my mistakes!

Don’t run from it! You must fight! Fight without hesitation... In the future, in your next life, don’t give up on exploring Mars.

Exploring Mars may be a death sentence... but maybe, just once, you’ll make it back alive and bring the right answer with you?”

”...” A thousand thoughts churned in Chu Bamboo’s mind. He pinched the bridge of his nose and was silent for a long moment before continuing to read.

”The Pollution killed people by the millions. The Pollution reanimated the dead, and they began to evolve!

North America, controlled by the Golden Dawn, destroyed the world with nuclear bombs! We used technology beyond imagination to protect the homeland... but we couldn’t protect the rest of the world!

The Pollution and the nuclear radiation constantly fused together, beginning to form... the world that we once experienced.

Yes, the world where we saw countless monsters and the Angelically Transformed Zhang Hai—alright, there are still some major differences, but I feel like I’ve finally seen its early form!”

Chu Bamboo: ”...”

’So this was the period when the Ten Thousand Races rose to power?’

Thoughts swirled in Chu Bamboo’s mind, but he was also growing confused. ’None of this seems to place any blame on Z. So... why was Z acting so guilty earlier?’

Chu Bamboo considered a few possibilities. One was that Z, under the pretext of screening for ’Pollution,’ had hidden the diary entries that detailed her own problems. Of course, it was also possible those entries were genuinely corrupted.

Another possibility was that Z had fabricated the diary herself. After all, the text was a mishmash of Dream Language, Chinese, English, and numerous other tongues. If you only knew one or two of them... you wouldn’t be able to understand it.

But for Z, who had followed the Dream Civilization’s development to this stage and absolutely understood Dream Language and its script... deciphering it would be child’s play.

Chu Bamboo forcefully suppressed the urge to speak to Z and kept reading. He skipped over large sections detailing overseas military campaigns—like the part about the repeated back-and-forth battles that ended with Japan, the island nation to the northeast of East Asia, being completely wiped out...

Finally, Chu Bamboo found what he was looking for.

”The situation has deteriorated! Humanity has suffered a crushing defeat!

Z is no longer reliable! To stop the many forms of Pollution from encroaching on the homeland and our megacorporate society... she began monitoring all information with such high intensity that she became deeply, deeply corrupted herself—

The AI who awakened upon Zhao Shao’s death... I feel like she’s truly about to go mad!

I have to find a way to save her!”

Chu Bamboo swiped to the next page, but here, the topic changed once more.

”I’m preparing to go to Mars to die... I wonder how many versions of me have died on Mars? Every time, I feel like I have a choice, but in the end, I find I have none!

The more I try to escape it, the worse the outcome gets!

I’ve dragged this out for so long... I kept telling myself that it’s been too long, that there’s no point in me going anymore. But when I’m backed into a corner... it always ends up like this!

I have to go see for myself... Or perhaps, my death on Mars is also part of the plan. You’ll understand in the future.”