'No matter how strong my connections were, I wouldn't be able to suppress this. It would inevitably bring a heavy-handed response from the Officials. After that, I could only become a fugitive...'
'And then, it would all be over!'
"I need someone to take me to see the bodies," Chu Bamboo said, gathering his thoughts.
"...I will." A somewhat hoarse voice sounded. A man with a youthful face stepped out from the crowd... It was Cai San.
"Mr. Zhu, it's me! I was the one who found the Director dead," Cai San said, his voice strained. "Yesterday, you told me to come... but the Director was too swamped and couldn't spare the time, so I scheduled an appointment with his secretary for six o'clock this morning!"
"And then, when I went in at 6:32, I found..." Cai San couldn't continue.
Guan Fei wiped the cold sweat from his brow, stepped forward with a sycophantic smile for Chu Bamboo, and began to lead the way. "Please, follow me!"
Upon entering the room, Chu Bamboo's eye twitched.
Ning Linglong was squatting on the floor, gesturing and muttering to herself. To the side, Wall Announcements was diligently taking notes.
On the other side of the room, Zhou Ze's body was slumped in a wooden chair. His severed head was hanging from the chandelier above!
"Well, isn't this..." Chu Bamboo stepped forward. It only took him a glance or two to be almost certain that the killer was the same person who had attacked him before the reset—the wound, the method of decapitation, was identical to how he himself had died.
"Has anyone found any trace of the killer?" Chu Bamboo asked quietly.
Guan Fei blinked, looking once more at Cai San.
"I... I don't know," Cai San stammered, his words a mess. "But I was the first to discover it when I came in..."
"So, the time of discovery for Zhou Ze's death was 6:32 in the morning," Chu Bamboo mused.
"Uncle Zhu!" Ning Linglong stood up, took the notebook from Wall Announcements, and handed it to Chu Bamboo. "Here's the intelligence I've gathered!"
Chu Bamboo took it with a frown, flipping through the pages. "Is it possible... that Zhou Ze died around six o'clock?"
"...Uncle Zhu, based on the current intelligence, the killer did indeed sneak in and kill Director Zhou after killing the other five officials," Ning Linglong said, pursing her lips. "But it couldn't have been six o'clock! The timeline is too tight. It was most likely between four and five!"
"Only 'most likely,' not 'definitely'?" Chu Bamboo's eyes fell. Then, he reached out, pulled the gun from Ning Linglong's hip, and aimed it at his own forehead.
"!!!" Ning Linglong's eyes flew wide, her voice trembling. "Un... Uncle Zhu, you... you..."
"Calm down!!!" Guan Fei's face went sheet-white. The moment he heard the gunshot, his expression became something beyond despair.
'The deaths of the six officials had already blown things way out of proportion... What if Mr. Zhu dies, too? At the very scene where Director Zhou was murdered, no less. That would be just...'
The bullet pierced his skull! Blood spattered against the wall.
'So that's what it feels like to be shot.' Chu Bamboo nodded thoughtfully. 'Did it hurt? Of course, it did! But I didn't die instantly. The powerful physique from the First Realm of Body Refining is truly comprehensive in its effects!'
'But thinking about it this way...' Chu Bamboo mulled over the poison capsule in his molar. 'If I bit down on it to kill myself now, I might not even die quickly. Looks like it's time for an upgrade...'
"Stay calm, I'll take you..." Wall Announcements rushed over, face pale as a sheet, fumbling to pull out a handkerchief to press against the wound on Chu Bamboo's forehead, but not quite daring to touch it.
"It's too late," Chu Bamboo said noncommittally. While the powerful physique from Body Refining granted him unimaginable vitality, it didn't mean a bullet through the brain wasn't still fatal.
Chu Bamboo felt his consciousness fading. Finally, he closed his eyes.
「A moment later.」
Chu Bamboo's consciousness returned, his ears filled with a deafening roar.
Before him was the champion film of the Divine Continent's 2035 Spring Festival, a movie with a total global box office of 27.2 billion—*Three-Body 4: Sword Holder*.
The plot had just reached the moment where the Sword Holder—the one person who could decide the fate of two civilizations—pressed a gun to his own temple and issued an ultimatum of mutual assured destruction to the other civilization beyond the Solar System.
In terms of epic scale, this scene was a far cry from the earlier sci-fi spectacle in *Three-Body 4* where the Solar System's fleet was annihilated by the "droplet." But in terms of sheer emotional impact, it was in no way inferior.
"Nuwa No. 17!" Chu Bamboo said, his face impassive. "Tell me the current time. After you do, clear my access data from the backend. Shut down all entertainment programs. Open the exit."
"The time is now 6:00:12 AM, Imperial Capital Time."
The magnificent movie interface vanished, and the base returned to its silver-white state.
'Just as I thought... Even though death resets me to a random point within the last twenty-four hours, it's not truly random. Otherwise, if I killed myself and went back three hours, then killed myself again... wouldn't I be able to keep resetting all the way back to my own birth?'
'There's a checkpoint! And that checkpoint is usually six o'clock—the time I wake up in the Real World!'
By now, Chu Bamboo had reached the corridor. He left the Police Chief Bureau and sprinted with all his might toward the Union Headquarters. He didn't even consider that if someone saw him moving at full speed, Nuwa might detect it and trigger an alarm.
He was fast—impossibly fast! And he moved in a straight line.
It was only then that Chu Bamboo realized his body had improved again, likely reaching a level seven times that of an ordinary person. At this level, he could scale walls with ease, like Spider-Man, scrambling up a five- or six-story building in about ten seconds before leaping to the building across from it. 'This must be the "adaptation period" Nuwa No. 17 was talking about,' he thought.
Finally, he reached the Union Headquarters.
"...I need to see Zhou Ze!" Without bothering to verify his identity with the guards, Chu Bamboo uttered a single sentence and stormed right past them.
"Huh? Sir... But, the protocol!" The guard was dumbfounded. He recognized Chu Bamboo, and logically, he should let him pass. The problem was that Chu Bamboo himself had established the incredibly strict rule that everyone, no matter who, had to be authenticated—no exceptions, not even for himself. After Chu Bamboo stepped down, Zhou Ze had meticulously upheld all of his predecessor's orders.
But even if he had tried to stop him, Chu Bamboo was already inside. The guard ran a hand through his hair in frustration, torn between his respect for Chu Bamboo and his duty to enforce the rules. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and follow.
As he barged his way through, Chu Bamboo picked up a tail of five people. All five wanted to stop him, but didn't dare try, and knew they couldn't succeed anyway.
His face a mask, Chu Bamboo kicked the door to the Director's Office. With a loud BANG, the door flew off its hinges.
The five followers: "!!!"
'They nearly pissed themselves in fear! It may have been a wooden door, but it was incredibly thick. Was a kick like that even humanly possible?'
And then...
Their expressions froze.
Zhou Ze's head, hanging from the chandelier, seemed to gaze down quietly at the group that had just barged in.
Chu Bamboo looked up, his gaze meeting Zhou Ze's vacant, lifeless eyes.