Chapter 349 - 291: The Dead Man and the Truth of the Scheme

The foundation of the Big Orange Cat’s Destiny leaps is... someone must be thinking of her. Then, there also needs to be some kind of connection. For example, Chu Bamboo was on the phone with the Pope at that time, so the Big Orange Cat could leap over!

’In other words, does this prove that if no one was thinking of her name, she couldn’t actually lock onto a specific location to leap to?’

’After all, when Fifth made his leap... he seemed to say something about how if Zhang Hai hadn’t thought of him...’ Chu Bamboo frowned. ’But Fifth is her incarnation... Shouldn’t that connection be enough for her to jump over?’

’Or is that cat just naturally that cold-hearted...?’

Shaking his head, Chu Bamboo cleared his mind of the clutter. After all, there was no point in thinking about it now. In any case, it was ultimately a good thing the cat hadn’t come. ’Who knows, maybe in her eyes, Fifth’s death was no different from a character dying in a video game... Something she could care about, or be completely indifferent to!’

’Hmm, considering how special and rare the Destiny Divine Techniques are... maybe he was a limited-edition character? Hiss... She doesn’t even care about that?’

Chu Bamboo clicked his tongue; the more he thought about it, the less he understood. He then rose and looked quietly into the distance, toward the place where "Chu Bamboo" and Fifth had perished together, and slowly closed his eyes.

The "Chu Bamboo" who died...

Was Guan Fei.

Chu Bamboo had used Rewrite to give Guan Fei his own appearance. Then, just a few minutes before Fifth and his group were about to leave the nuclear facility, he activated his Destiny Divine Techniques, forcibly swapping his own Destiny with Guan Fei’s.

Fifth’s perception of Chu Bamboo was seemingly based on a distortion of Destiny... moreover, this distortion could even stack with the Destiny distortion of the Antimatter Bomb.

Therefore, once Guan Fei possessed Chu Bamboo’s distorted Destiny, Fifth walked right into the trap, just as he had in the previous timeline. He didn’t harbor the slightest suspicion... He even held on tightly to ’Chu Bamboo’ while trying to escape.

And just like that, he died, clean and simple...

He had been utterly out-schemed.

His death was so anticlimactic, so utterly insignificant.

The affair was over, but Chu Bamboo felt no joy.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and it was as if he was back in the Special Operations Brigade Office...

...

"I’ll do it..." The first person to volunteer for the sacrifice had been... Li Kang.

Chu Bamboo wasn’t surprised. In fact, when he first proposed the idea, he had already guessed who would be the first to volunteer. It was because Li Kang had always said his "contamination" was already too severe, that he was going to die soon anyway, and he hoped to die on the battlefield.

However...

"Let it be me." Guan Fei stood up, perfectly composed. Li Kang was clearly surprised and argued with him vehemently, but Guan Fei silenced him with a single, quiet sentence: "Captain, you still have a wife and a daughter, don’t you..."

Li Kang was left speechless.

"But I have nothing left!" Guan Fei said with such frankness and relief. "If I die, no one will be sad for me... No, Mr. Zhu... no... I should be able to call you Ah Zhu now, right?"

Chu Bamboo remembered his own reply: "Haven’t you always been able to call me Ah Zhu? Besides, I seem to remember you saying... that you actually have family..."

"I was lying. I was just trying to lie to myself, to believe there was still someone waiting for me at home. After all, I’m the only orphan on the team... I actually used to believe it myself, because I really did have all that once... But in the end, now... what’s gone is gone. Hahaha, it’s a little pathetic, isn’t it? As for calling you Ah Zhu before, that was different," Guan Fei said, shaking his head with a calm resignation. "Back then, I was mostly just going along with the crowd. One-on-one... I wouldn’t have dared call you that! Even though I know you don’t actually care..."

"Ah Zhu, I’m touched that you’re sad for me! But it’s nothing... It’s just like that slogan you gave at the shantytown union: ’Everything for the good of the people!’ I may not have said it much... but I truly, firmly believe in it!" Guan Fei paused for a moment before turning to say his goodbyes to the others.

"Alright, that’s enough. Bi Xuan, don’t give me that look! Parting and death are normal parts of life... Just look at my size! My contamination is just as bad as the Captain’s... Let’s just leave it at that... You could tell just from how I used to binge-eat and drink!"

"And... Deputy Ning, the captain’s position... I won’t fight you for it! Hope you enjoy the job. Oh, and Captain, I don’t mean to curse you or wish for your early demise... but it looks like I’m about to perform a great service under your command... so you should get a promotion out of this afterward, no problem, right?"

Huo Qiming made a direct promise on the spot: "Rest assured!"

He didn’t specify what kind of promotion... but for someone with Huo Qiming’s personality, for him to go that far was a clear sign that he’d made up his mind.

At the very end, Guan Fei turned to Chu Bamboo one last time. "Ah Zhu, the moment I joined the Special Operations Brigade, I accepted the possibility of death! My only request is... make my death... as valuable as possible."

"...Rest assured. You will save the entire shantytown." It was only then, seeing the light in Guan Fei’s eyes and the irrepressible smile forming on his lips, that Chu Bamboo realized... Guan Fei had a deep-seated self-destructive streak, as well as an inferiority complex in his presence. ’Perhaps Guan Fei has some mental issues, too. A normal person wouldn’t fantasize that their dead family is still at home waiting for them, to the point they actually believe it...’

In that situation... he had no other choice but to agree and give the man a deep hug—

’Any attempt to talk him out of it would have been hypocrisy, pure and simple. As the one who had asked for a volunteer to make the ultimate sacrifice, Chu Bamboo had no right to tell someone who freely stepped forward not to die. That would only make Chu Bamboo feel utterly ridiculous!’

’In that situation, all he could do was respect the man’s decision, commit him to memory... and ask if he had any last wishes.’

And yet...

"Last wishes? I don’t think I have any... I spent all my salary on food anyway! I even took out a bunch of loans and maxed them out... Once I’m dead, I won’t have to pay them back, right?"

"So that’s that! I feel like I’ve come out ahead... Oh, right! You all better not pay off my debts for me... If you do that, I won’t be able to rest in peace!"

...

Chu Bamboo took a deep breath, scattering the clutter in his mind as he gazed at the sky.

The Sun hung high in the sky, radiating light and heat, as if it would always be there, no matter how the world below changed.

"The Captain’s Office... the Daqian Dynasty... aigh!"

Chu Bamboo’s expression was conflicted.

Including Guan Fei, Chu Bamboo suddenly realized... the vast majority of all the Transcendents he knew who had joined the Official ranks and came from the shantytowns were orphans without any family or friends.

’Or rather, did the Officials tend to select such people during recruitment?’

’It seemed designed to sever all their worldly ties, leaving them to serve the Officials with single-minded devotion...’

Chu Bamboo sank into thought. ’Of course, I can’t rule out the possibility that the death rate in the Captain’s Office is just so high that the Daqian Officials specifically recruit people without friends or family. That way, even if they die, the government doesn’t have to pay out large death benefits or deal with the subsequent chain of welfare for their loved ones...’

’That’s why they do it so deliberately...’

’Thinking about it this way, it really does seem like they were deliberately selected as ’low-cost’ consumables from the Empire’s perspective... Guan Fei probably realized this from the very beginning... which is why...’

Patting his cheeks, Chu Bamboo suddenly felt his enthusiasm wane.

He slowly turned, got into a nearby maglev car, and slammed his foot on the accelerator. It soared into the air...

Initially, Chu Bamboo had considered going back into the nuclear facility to check on the Two-headed Scale People, to see what state they were in now that Fifth was dead...

But now, for some reason, he didn’t feel like going anymore.

’So be it.’

’Everything else... can wait until tomorrow.’

’Of course, if Eleven had some other trick up their sleeve and detonated the nuclear facility... it didn’t matter. Worst case, I’ll just reset everything again.’

Chu Bamboo drove calmly toward the city. ’I’ve already beaten this level once,’ he thought. ’Playing through it again will only make me better at it...’

’In fact, that way, I could even see Guan Fei one more time.’

Though deep down, Chu Bamboo knew... that it wouldn’t really mean anything at all.