Chapter 332 - 274: Destiny Divine Techniques, Identity Swap

10:00 AM.

Chu Bamboo arrived outside the nuclear facility in a maglev car, bringing Huo Qiming, Captain Yang, and Wall Announcements with him.

"...The main gate is closed. How do you plan on getting in?" Huo Qiming’s voice was grave as he stared intently at the nuclear facility. "I should warn you, the forbidden ground is almost impossible to destroy from the outside."

"So you’re saying it can be destroyed from the inside?" Chu Bamboo was thoughtful. He paused to think, glanced at Huo Qiming, and asked again, "By the way, has this nuclear... forbidden ground been specially reinforced by some kind of high-level powerhouse?"

"...That’s right." Huo Qiming gave Chu Bamboo a deep look. Compared to the utterly clueless Captain Yang beside them, and Wall Announcements, who was shrinking back, not daring to get involved in such a high-level topic... even though Chu Bamboo had been very subtle, Huo Qiming still understood his underlying meaning.

A look of understanding appeared on Chu Bamboo’s face. ’That would explain it.’ If it were the original version of the nuclear facility, with the power Huo Qiming had displayed, there was no way he couldn’t tear through its metal walls. Moreover, this also provided a reasonable explanation for why the monster from inside had rapidly expanded after escaping.

No, it could even explain... why the Two-headed Scale People, who, by logical deduction, should have been extremely powerful, were still trapped inside.

"You still haven’t answered my question," Huo Qiming said, pulling the conversation back on topic.

"Don’t worry." Chu Bamboo smiled, his tone inscrutable. "Just have the people inside open the door themselves. Wouldn’t that solve it?"

"?" Huo Qiming froze for a moment. He was about to ask what Chu Bamboo meant when he suddenly realized something. His gaze fell upon the still-unconscious Number Three, and his heart stirred with turmoil.

"So!" Huo Qiming took a deep breath. "We wait for them to open the door... and we all charge in together?"

"No, no, no." Chu Bamboo held up a finger and wagged it gently. "I’m going in alone. You all will be on standby... outside."

"???" Huo Qiming was completely dumbfounded, but before he could even ask, the maglev car landed with a THUD.

Chu Bamboo grabbed Number Three and hoisted him up, then looked at Huo Qiming and the others. "You guys hide for now!"

"What are you..." Huo Qiming’s lips moved, but he trailed off when he saw Captain Yang unhesitatingly move to the side. His expression went slack for a second before realization dawned, and he gave Chu Bamboo a complicated look.

Clearly, it wasn’t that Captain Yang didn’t care about Chu Bamboo; rather, because of their past experiences, his trust in Chu Bamboo had now bordered on blind obedience.

"Sigh... I hope you know what you’re doing." With a sigh, Huo Qiming retrieved a suitcase from the trunk of the maglev car. He opened it and took out... a t-shirt?!

"This is a Fourth-level Spiritual Artifact!" A pained expression crossed Huo Qiming’s face, but he gritted his teeth and said, "It has two functions. One, it can mitigate the damage of a full-power strike from a Fourth Realm Powerhouse. Two, after being triggered by an attack, it will randomly teleport you over twenty meters away. The downside is that this teleportation might embed you directly into a wall! It’s definitely a bit dangerous to use inside the forbidden ground... but if you really have to use it, you can only bet on your luck!"

After a brief pause, Huo Qiming continued, "You don’t need to worry about accidentally triggering it. The activation threshold is an attack from the Second Realm at minimum."

Chu Bamboo gave Huo Qiming a deep look. He didn’t refuse. He took the shirt, removed his jacket, put the shirt on, and then put his jacket back on over it.

"There are a few other Artifacts left..."

Huo Qiming pointed to the remaining items in the case and described them one by one to Chu Bamboo. "...Pick one."

Chu Bamboo casually picked out the Sudden Death Needle... after all, it was an old acquaintance.

"Oh, right..." Huo Qiming took out a metal watch. "This thing and the one you’re wearing are a set. So if the Defensive Spiritual Artifact on you is activated... I’ll be notified immediately. At that point... if the gate isn’t closed yet, I’ll come support you! But if it is closed..."

Huo Qiming didn’t finish his sentence, but the meaning was obvious: he would be powerless to help.

"...That won’t be a problem." Chu Bamboo glanced with great interest at Wall Announcements, who was drenched in a cold sweat, and said meaningfully, "You’ll be able to get in when the time comes."

Of course, Chu Bamboo hadn’t brought Wall Announcements along in the first place so that Huo Qiming’s group could open the door and save him. Instead, it was related to a contingency plan... another plan for if he went in, executed his main plan, and didn’t die.

Still, it wasn’t bad to be able to use this piece now. To live a little longer, to get more information—for Chu Bamboo, that was a victory in itself.

Huo Qiming wasn’t an idiot, after all. He gave Wall Announcements a deep look, didn’t ask any questions, and just nodded.

Then, carrying Number Three, Chu Bamboo strode toward the facility. He stopped in front of it, glanced at the captive in his hand, and then looked into the distance where Huo Qiming and the others had driven the car away and were now completely hidden. He reviewed the plan in his mind one last time, and then, he officially began.

His gaze suddenly sharpened as he activated the Destiny Divine Techniques.

At that moment, Chu Bamboo felt a strange change.

The entire world looked completely different through his eyes.

But if you asked him what exactly was different, he couldn’t quite say.

’A strange and contradictory feeling,’ Chu Bamboo sighed softly. He placed a hand on Number Three’s body, his gaze hardening slightly. "First... give me all of your luck!"

Perhaps due to the difference in their power levels, absorbing Number Three’s luck was considerably difficult this time. However, since Number Three was unconscious and completely powerless to resist, the luck still flowed continuously into Chu Bamboo’s body.

"Increase! Increase! Increase!!!"

Chu Bamboo boosted his own luck to the absolute limit.

And then...

Chu Bamboo pressed his other free hand onto the body as well. He pushed his Divine Techniques to their absolute limit, cold sweat beading on his forehead. "Equivalent Exchange!"

What Chu Bamboo was exchanging, naturally, was Number Three’s identity.

Although Number Three was stronger than Chu Bamboo, the issue was that this was an exchange of identity... something unrelated to strength.

In the end, Number Three was just the third-ranked confidant under Eleven.

As the director of the shantytown redevelopment zone and the honorary commander of the Special Operations Brigade, Chu Bamboo’s status was definitely higher than this mere confidant’s...

In this situation, trading a high-status identity for a low-status one was, of course, possible.

The next instant, a shudder ran through Chu Bamboo’s body, and he was filled with a sense of contradiction. After a brief silence, he looked thoughtfully at the mask on Number Three’s face. He reached out, and this time, he easily removed the mask that had previously seemed welded to the man’s face.

"Just as I thought..." Chu Bamboo’s expression was inscrutable. The All-Powerful mask wasn’t bound to a person, but to a position.