My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

The man froze. He stared intently at Chu Bamboo and subconsciously rubbed his eyes. After confirming he wasn’t seeing things, his breath caught for a moment, and a look of pleasant surprise appeared in his eyes. He set down his wine glass, suddenly at a loss for what to do.

“…” His lips moved a few times before he finally managed to force out, “Secretary Chu, long time no see!”

‘?’

Seeing Chu Bamboo’s silence, the blond man, though a little puzzled, didn’t dwell on it. He rushed forward, his face a mixture of excitement, apprehension, and fanaticism.

“Has it finally happened?! Have we reached this point in time…? Damn it! How could I have overlooked it…? I’ve been waiting for so, so long…” The blond man was rambling incoherently.

“…” Chu Bamboo’s brow furrowed deeper. He sized up the man for a good while. When the man tried to rush forward for an embrace, Chu Bamboo even took a subconscious step back. At that, the expression on the blond man’s face froze.

Chu Bamboo asked cautiously, “Could you first tell me… who are you?”

“? How could you… I’m Kevin!” The blond man was stunned. Pointing to his own face, his voice trembled. “A member of the Time Club! You personally recruited me… I was originally from the Golden Dawn. That, you… You, you’ve forgotten me?!”

“…So it’s you!” Chu Bamboo’s mouth twitched. ‘The name did ring a bell. My good buddy’s diary did mention him before…’

‘But the crucial problem now is that this is genuinely the first time I’ve ever met this person…’

For a moment, Chu Bamboo didn’t know what kind of expression to wear.

“It’s perfectly normal. As expected, he… probably doesn’t remember you right now, does he?” a voice tinged with a hint of helplessness said.

Chu Bamboo’s eyebrow twitched. His mind was in turmoil.

He forced himself to calm down, turned his head to look, and saw a familiar face. An acquaintance who, theoretically, should absolutely not be here—

“It really is you!” Chu Bamboo’s voice was calm, yet it seemed to hold a thousand different emotions.

“Lin Xia!”

After a brief silence, Chu Bamboo suddenly turned his head, only to find the Big Orange Cat was now gone. He glanced around, and his eye twitched when he saw… the Big Orange Cat, sprawled on a distant sofa, skillfully grabbing a bag of chips from the table and munching away.

Taking a deep breath, Chu Bamboo suppressed the urge to rush over, grab the Big Orange Cat, and demand to know what was going on with Lin Xia. He looked back at Lin Xia, his brow furrowed. “Aren’t you… supposed to be with Nuwa right now?”

“? Nuwa? What happened to my darling granddaughter?” Lin Xia was taken aback.

‘???’ Chu Bamboo was completely bewildered.

“That’s normal!” another voice chimed in. Chu Bamboo silently turned to look and saw another familiar face… ‘or perhaps, a semi-stranger?’

It was none other than Hodges’s daughter, Miss Huo Yuan!

However, the Huo Yuan of today was completely different from the somewhat rebellious girl he knew. She wore gold-rimmed glasses and exuded the air of a scholarly young woman. Her eyes were gentle and filled with wisdom.

She pushed open a previously closed door and strode into the bar. After nodding at Chu Bamboo, she glanced at Lin Xia and sighed, “It’s really hard to imagine that a guy like you would actually become… the twenty-seventh Secretary-General of the United Government!”

Chu Bamboo: “…”

Chu Bamboo felt his thoughts… becoming more and more chaotic!

‘Wait, Lin Xia… was the twenty-seventh Secretary-General of the United Government?’

For a moment, Chu Bamboo didn’t know what to think. ‘My good buddy really made something of himself!’

“No, no, no…” Lin Xia quickly waved his hands. He looked at Chu Bamboo with a wry smile. “Strictly speaking, it was actually a clone with my memories who became the twenty-seventh Secretary-General… Uh, I also carried out Sister-in-law’s… I mean, Ms. Guan’s cloning project! So there’s a clone of me in every time period… Of course, that only applied while my original body was frozen! The project stopped once my real body was active again… So, yeah!”

“…I see.” Chu Bamboo nodded thoughtfully. Then his mouth twitched. “But that’s not the part that’s confusing me right now!”

“? Then what is?” Lin Xia paused for a second and started to recall their previous conversation.

‘?’ Chu Bamboo felt so exasperated he wanted to laugh.

“Here, let me explain.” Huo Yuan paused for a moment, gazing at Chu Bamboo’s face. A nostalgic and gentle look appeared in her eyes.

She pursed her lips. “Chu… ahem, Secretary-General! Strictly speaking! Those who are here… are not living people.”

Chu Bamboo frowned slightly. A guess formed in his mind. “An AI… a simulated personality?”

‘I’ve heard of this technology in the real world… Something about digitizing a personality and uploading it to the network?’

‘It doesn’t seem entirely incomprehensible that the future would develop a more advanced technology that could almost perfectly simulate a personality!’

“Pfft!” Huo Yuan laughed. “Oh my god… I have to say, seeing such a clueless Secretary-General is really…”

Chu Bamboo stared at Huo Yuan, his face devoid of expression.

“Um, I was just joking. You’re not angry, are you… Ahem, alright! Let’s not waste any more time.” Huo Yuan coughed, her expression turning serious. “Strictly speaking, we are… Memories!”

“…Memory?” When Chu Bamboo heard that word, a guess suddenly formed in his mind.

“That’s right!” Huo Yuan said with emotion. “Just as you’ve guessed… This is your Sixth Realm Divine Power!”

“A Fourth Realm Memory Keeper can transform themselves into a part of a memory, becoming immune to all physical attacks.”

“The Fifth Realm… I’m not clear on that! After all, Divine Powers are confidential.”

“The Sixth Realm Divine Power, Remembering the Past!”

“It summons… people from within memories!”

“So, strictly speaking,” Kevin coughed and took over the explanation, “we are actually the people from within your memories… not the real individuals!”

“…That’s not entirely true.” Lin Xia looked at the thoughtful Chu Bamboo, shot a fierce glare at Kevin, and quickly added, “If they’re just summoned by Divine Power, then they’re only the ‘us’ from your memory!”

“But if we establish a memory connection with our original bodies—a memory sync—then there’s basically no difference from the original… You could call it a Clone? Or an avatar?”

Lin Xia sounded uncertain. He rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. “But then again… aside from me, who synced my memory once in the post-civilization era, none of these other people have synced in a long time… Yes! Especially Kevin. His original body should have died in the 22nd century… so now! Er…”

“…I see!” After a brief silence, Chu Bamboo quietly scanned his surroundings. “So this base is…!”

“It’s the Memory Domain you constructed!” Lin Xia raised an eyebrow. He suddenly remembered something, came forward, and grabbed Chu Bamboo’s hand. “Let me show you around…”

“Wait! I should be the one to do it.” Huo Yuan’s expression changed slightly.

“…You and your wild ambitions! Go back to studying your books,” Lin Xia sneered, then took a step forward.

In the next instant, Chu Bamboo found that the scene around him had changed drastically.

He found himself high up in the sky.

The blue sky, the white clouds, the gentle breeze on his cheeks… Everything was so real!

Chu Bamboo quietly looked down below. It was a city both familiar and strange! People came and went, traffic flowed endlessly… And there was that massive university—

“Jinling University?!” Chu Bamboo murmured.