My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

‘What on earth happened?’ Chu Bamboo’s brow furrowed. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. ‘Why was human civilization so utterly defeated?’

After thinking it over, Chu Bamboo lightly tapped his foot on the ground, and his figure once again vanished without a trace.

Zhou Ze’s eyes went wide. He scanned his surroundings, letting out a sorrowful whimper. He wandered around in place for a while before finally, reluctantly, choosing to leave, looking back every few steps.

From the eaves of a roof, Chu Bamboo calmly watched the scene. ‘They have some intelligence… but not much!’

Chu Bamboo recalled everything he had seen along the way.

‘I saw young living corpses. The living corpses… probably didn’t just appear from recent infections! After all, Big Orange Cat said, “How are there still people in this era?”… which means Big Orange Cat felt there were no humans left in this era? Considering I haven’t seen any humans on my journey… can I assume that humanity is extinct? Even if not extinct, there must be very few humans left!’

‘Considering this, the living corpses… might be able to reproduce! Right, only if they can reproduce and sustain their population can they be considered another civilization…’

Chu Bamboo nodded slightly, the gloom in his eyes deepening.

A civilization born from the corpses of humanity.

After a moment of thought, Chu Bamboo looked in a certain direction and lightly tapped his foot on the ground.

…

“…This is beyond my expectations!” Chu Bamboo looked down at Li Kang, pinned under his foot. Li Kang’s twisted face was filled with confusion and incomprehension, and a heart-wrenching wail escaped his lips. “To think he only has the power of the First Realm!”

At this moment, Li Kang was completely bald. His muscles were grotesque, and his body was mostly black, even showing some cracks from which blood would seep whenever he struggled. These cracks weren’t caused by Chu Bamboo; they were there from the start!

Chu Bamboo had originally planned to kill Li Kang, but looking at the familiar face, he finally sighed. “Forget it. They’re just a bunch of imbeciles!”

The intelligence of the living corpses was terrifyingly low. Although they had developed a form of trade, they didn’t know how to build houses, and their production capabilities were extremely limited.

They lived in the skyscrapers left over from the Ancient Era…

Even though after three thousand years, these skyscrapers were now on the verge of collapsing at any moment.

Chu Bamboo’s figure dissipated once more.

Li Kang abruptly got up and looked around, his eyes filled with confusion. Then, as if remembering something, he suddenly leaped out the window and began scaling the walls, heading toward the Nuwa Base.

Compared to the stumbling Zhou Ze from before, his movements were fluid and agile.

…

“…This is getting ridiculous!” Chu Bamboo’s mouth twitched as he gripped Huo Qiming’s neck. His shadow stretched out, binding Huo Qiming’s hands and feet. No matter how hard Huo Qiming struggled, it was useless.

“His strength is at the Third Realm… but it looks like he has no Divine Techniques… Still, he’s incredibly strong!” Chu Bamboo clicked his tongue in amazement. A Third Realm Body Cultivator was about this powerful.

Thoughts churned in his mind as Chu Bamboo, his face expressionless, released a sliver of the Light of Annihilation. He silently erased Huo Qiming from existence.

He hadn’t killed Li Kang mainly because Li Kang’s strength in this world line was far too weak. Huo Qiming, on the other hand, could pose a threat to him to some extent. Naturally, he couldn’t afford to harbor any meaningless pity.

‘It seems,’ Chu Bamboo thought, ‘my strength is absurdly high in this world line?’

After all, in the original world line, Huo Qiming was definitely a top-tier expert. If his power were converted to the Third Realm…

‘But the most crucial thing right now is to gather information quickly.’ Chu Bamboo rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He subconsciously looked up at the sky, only to see the rising Sun. “…”

‘Alright, without Big Orange Cat’s help… getting to the Moon will be ridiculously difficult!’

‘Besides, in this world line, humanity was defeated so badly… the Memory Domain might not even exist anymore!’

‘So…’ Confusion appeared in Chu Bamboo’s eyes. ‘Should I go to Yanjing? Should I go check on the Grand Ancestral Temple and see if it was destroyed like the Seventeenth Base?’

‘In any case, I definitely can’t return to the Real World directly. After all, if I don’t dig up the root of the problem in this world line, who knows if the Real World will fall into the same trap?’

‘Or maybe I should go to the Huaren Building in the Celestial Capital! I built an underground biochemical base there, after all… Wait, don’t tell me the biochemical base is what caused this whole mess!’

Chu Bamboo’s expression suddenly turned odd. He subconsciously switched the term “living corpse” to “zombie” in his mind… Ugh! ‘That’s impossible. A zombie virus, even if it could infect people and spread… it could never defeat human civilization! Especially with its airborne transmission… against the Divine Continent, which is assisted by artificial intelligence? Could it win?’

Silently wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Chu Bamboo pushed the chaotic thoughts from his mind. ‘It’s a shame about Hive… Wait! Hive… it’s not responding to me now! But… was the Hive Base really destroyed?’

A flicker in Chu Bamboo’s eyes, and he tapped his foot on the ground.

…

Chu Bamboo stared at the flat ground before him, lost in deep thought. ‘The coordinates should be correct…’

‘Dig!’

「Half an hour later.」

Chu Bamboo appeared at the entrance to the base, but a system voice announced: “Fingerprint lock confirmed damaged… Human magnetic field device confirmed damaged… Unable to detect! Warning, unable to detect.”

Chu Bamboo: “…”

‘Don’t tell me! Because I couldn’t get in on this world line, Hive isn’t on my phone? I feel like I have a retort stuck in my throat with no way to spit it out! To think that the memory-anchoring technique I figured out in the past is sometimes unreliable… Wait!’

Chu Bamboo suddenly realized a very serious problem. He subconsciously took out his phone and swiped the screen, only to find it wasn’t on…

“…” Chu Bamboo calmly tried to turn it on, but it wouldn’t start. The battery was dead.

After staring at the phone for a good while, Chu Bamboo finally let out a relieved laugh.

‘Of course, how could I forget… This screwed-up living corpse civilization obviously doesn’t have the mechanical maintenance capabilities of the Daqian World Line… It makes sense! Everything makes perfect sense now.’

Rubbing his cheeks, Chu Bamboo’s gaze sharpened. He recalled a Divine Technique of the Moisture Teaching that he had recorded in the Daqian World Line and slapped the lock with the back of his hand.

Instantly, the Great Joy of the Machine Soul!

Identity verification, successful!

The great doors rumbled open.

“Hive! Are you there?” Chu Bamboo asked as he walked through the base.

A brief silence was followed by a cold voice that suddenly rang out.

“Initiating self-startup! Startup successful… Beginning program memory recall!”

Thirty seconds of silence passed.

“Father, welcome back.” Hive’s voice was completely different from before, now tinged with emotion.

“Can you explain to me what exactly is going on outside?” Chu Bamboo’s voice was strange. “I saw a bunch of living corpses out there!”

“…Living corpse, what is that?” Hive’s voice was filled with confusion.

“?!” Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched. He then realized that Hive had just rebooted, so of course it wouldn’t know what had happened outside… No, even if it had been on the whole time, it probably still wouldn’t know!

‘After all, they don’t even use cell phones outside anymore. The living corpses’ level of civilization is still at the primitive stage of bartering… No, it’s more likely at the slavery stage? It should be a bit more advanced than primitive humans…’

Chu Bamboo thought calmly for a moment, then stepped into an elevator and asked a new question. “Do you know… how humanity went extinct?”

Hive fell silent. Chu Bamboo’s brow gradually tightened. Then, he heard a sigh. “Father, there was a problem with the gene pool for the Universal Human Genetic Modification Project!”

Chu Bamboo’s pupils shrank abruptly as a storm raged in his heart.

‘Of course, how could I have overlooked that…’

‘The Universal Human Genetic Modification Project was certainly the first step for humanity to take flight… but what if the enemy attacked the very root!’

Chu Bamboo’s gaze gradually turned chillingly cold. At that moment, he even thought of something else.

Namely, that the Golden Dawn had once excavated the ruins of the Maya Civilization, thereby obtaining the Life Ladder. They used it to modify the avian flu… turning it into a genetic weapon and causing the zombie crisis.

And now…

“Heh, I was too careless!” Chu Bamboo stepped out of the stopped elevator and entered the fifth basement level. ‘Well, isn’t this great. The Life Ladder, the base under Huarun, the female version of the A.I. Z, zombies or living corpses… My dear brother really went all-in on a biological crisis!’

Chu Bamboo came to a profound realization: matters related to genetics were simply too sensitive. There was no room for carelessness!

With something that targeted the entire population, the slightest oversight… the stronger the organizational power and the more widespread its implementation, the more devastating the consequences would be when the enemy finally set it off!