My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

The Big Orange Cat froze mid-motion. She fell into deep thought. Finally, she turned her head, looking Chu Bamboo up and down, and asked tentatively, “Me, the first Secretary-General of the United Government… send money?”

“…I’m not trying to pull some stupid meme.” The corner of Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched.

“Oh, I see! So that’s the one!” The Big Orange Cat tapped the keyboard lightly with her paw and instantly pulled up a photo of the first Secretary-General of the United Government. “This is you… Huh? You actually look almost identical!”

The Big Orange Cat rubbed her eyes, utterly shocked. Chu Bamboo stared at the other version of himself on the screen. He was still young, a gentle smile on his face. Compared to the current him, the other self on the screen had no hint of aggression, giving off an approachable vibe from the very first glance.

Even though their faces were identical, their auras… were worlds apart.

Chu Bamboo’s brow gradually furrowed. ‘What on earth did my other self go through,’ he now wondered, ‘to change his aura so drastically?’

After a moment of thought, the Big Orange Cat asked cautiously, “Did you… deliberately get plastic surgery to look like Secretary Chu?”

After a brief silence, Chu Bamboo smiled, but there was no warmth in it. He walked right up, grabbed the Big Orange Cat’s large, round face, and began to squish it vigorously.

Although his actions were far from polite, Chu Bamboo inwardly sighed in relief. He appeared to be angry, but he was actually testing her.

‘Since the Big Orange Cat is letting me do this, it means she believes me… or at least, she’s half-convinced right now!’

PURRRRR! The Big Orange Cat went from initially being awkward to eventually lying back comfortably in the chair under Chu Bamboo’s ministrations, exposing her round belly.

“Can you contact God right now?” Chu Bamboo asked softly.

“God? Oh, God?” the Big Orange Cat repeated, before realization dawned on her. She gave Chu Bamboo a strange look. “Which God are you talking about?”

“? Your master, of course,” Chu Bamboo said, momentarily stunned. ‘What, don’t tell me you also know that old God from the Ancient Era?’

“Yes, I know you mean my master!” The Big Orange Cat nodded frankly. “My question is, which master?”

Chu Bamboo gradually put the pieces together, and his expression turned grim. “God… split into multiple beings?”

“Mhm.” The Big Orange Cat nodded, her tone flat—neither downcast nor joyful, just numb. “There’s the All-Powerful and All-Knowing God worshipped by the All-Powerful Lineage. He bears all of God’s contamination and is now on Mars.”

“And my other master… she’s already gone to the Outer Cosmos. As for whether she’s dead or alive right now… who knows?”

The Big Orange Cat’s voice inexplicably took on a mocking tone. “She said something about how being trapped in this fishbowl was useless, that the only way to find a sliver of hope for humanity was to truly venture out! And then the messages that trickled back… so ridiculous. ‘Don’t come here, this isn’t home!’ Making some kind of Three-Body reference.”

“Another time, it was: ‘A cesspool! This place is a cesspool!’ If you didn’t know any better, you’d think she’d actually fallen into one… She couldn’t even make her messages clear!”

“Or just two concise words: ‘Run quick!’—Run my ass! Earth is right here, where the hell am I supposed to run? It’s just toxic.”

“Hmph! And those messages were from a long time ago… For the past two hundred years, it’s been complete silence! That damn bastard can just die in the Outer Cosmos for all I care.” By the end, the Big Orange Cat was practically speaking through gritted teeth.

Chu Bamboo’s breath hitched. Countless thoughts flashed and collided in his mind.

For some reason, his mind jumped to… that grand ritual held by the All-Powerful Lineage!

‘Don’t tell me, the entity they summoned was actually…’ Chu Bamboo felt a headache brewing. ‘So, the All-Powerful Lineage actually succeeded? They really did resurrect… or rather, summon their Master of Omniscience, but… it was the part that symbolized God’s dark side?’

‘Does Its descent, then, symbolize the world’s destruction? So… even in the Daqian World Line, a dark side of God like that exists on Mars?’

“Wait, how did God send those messages back?” Chu Bamboo keenly grasped the key point. ‘Though, based on the current situation, the Outer Cosmos might be a little different from what I imagined. To think it would make God use a word like “cesspool”!’

Chu Bamboo, after all, possessed different information than the Big Orange Cat and was now able to faintly piece some things together. ‘My good brother’s story was about a fishbowl floating in the Sea… but he’d never actually been to the Outer Cosmos when he told it. So clearly, God’s evaluation of the Outer Cosmos is the more truthful one!’

‘In other words, the conditions in the Outer Cosmos are far more terrible than I ever imagined!’

“…” Then, Chu Bamboo noticed the Big Orange Cat’s expression had turned strange—part mockery, part disappointment. “So you really aren’t him, after all?”

In the next instant, the Big Orange Cat raised her paw, but ultimately, she didn’t strike.

Chu Bamboo: “…”

‘Good heavens, I almost thought I was about to reset again. After all, for a moment there, the Big Orange Cat’s aura… was a little too similar to that damn cat from before!’

“Fine. I don’t care if you’re playing some kind of make-believe game, or if you’ve hit a rebellious phase and want to run away from your father to go on an adventure… Just go do it! Stop wasting my time here.” The Big Orange Cat waved her paw listlessly.

Chu Bamboo’s brow furrowed slightly in a moment of sudden realization. ‘That’s right. My current identity is the Crown Prince of the Empire. Although the Emperor wants to kill me, the Big Orange Cat doesn’t know that. In that case, of course she wouldn’t kill me!’

‘After all, there’s no point for her in mortally offending the Emperor of the Empire! Her current goal seems to be nothing more than… living a quiet life. The only reason she helped me escape before was because of God!’

“…You’re saying you think I should know what that ‘thing’ is!” Chu Bamboo began to mull over the Big Orange Cat’s strange attitude. ‘No, more accurately, my good brother should know… damn it, how am I supposed to know what he knows… Hmm?’

Chu Bamboo’s expression turned serious. He recalled his past experiences and felt like he had zeroed in on the answer. “The ‘thing’ from the Golden Dawn!”

‘The Golden Dawn can make contact with the Outer Cosmos. What’s more, they have more than one contact… but if it’s really that thing…’ Chu Bamboo was hit by a stunning realization. ‘The level of that artifact… it might be far higher than I ever imagined!’

‘Even someone as powerful as God, who had already achieved Becoming a God and could dominate an entire era, was somehow unable to just whip up a second communicator from scratch… and had to rely on the one the Golden Dawn has?!’

“Oh?” The Big Orange Cat’s body stiffened. She finally turned her head again, her face a mixture of shock and doubt.