"Master, should we leave for now?" This time, it was Zhang Xu's voice. "It makes sense. From what we've heard, that Mr. Zhu carries the entire Sifang Shantytown Renovation District on his shoulders, with its hundreds of thousands of people in his heart. It's normal for him to be busy! We just came at an inconvenient time."
"No, no, no. Faith in God allows no complacency! We will wait right here to demonstrate our sincerity."
Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes. He suspected Zhang Hai already knew he was home, but he still didn't make a sound.
The wait stretched on for three hours.
Chu Bamboo was in no hurry. He even hoped Zhang Hai would wait until the unknown assassin arrived at night so the two of them could have a nice little confrontation. He would watch from the sidelines and use the opportunity to uncover the assassin's true identity.
"It seems today was truly not a good day." Zhang Hai finally spoke, his voice tinged with a sigh. "Well then, we shall come again tomorrow! I believe that with Mr. Zhu's capabilities, he will surely know of our visit. We must move him with our sincerity."
Once he was sure Zhang Hai had truly left, Chu Bamboo rubbed his brow. 'Are they trying to pull the "three visits to the cottage" routine on me?'
'However, if this is how it's going to be...' Chu Bamboo shook his head. This meant he couldn't rule out Zhang Hai as a suspect in the assassination attempt.
After checking his gear again, Chu Bamboo got up, ate another meal, and then stared intently at the front door. He had locked all the windows in his house from the inside, and with his heightened hearing, it would be impossible for anyone to break in through a window without him knowing.
The time drew closer and closer.
Silence from the front door. The windows remained undisturbed.
And then...
A dark gleam streaked through the air.
Chu Bamboo immediately fired several shots. He still couldn't see his attacker or figure out how they had gotten into his house, but he had locked onto the general direction of the attack as he rapidly retreated. However, the streak of black light actually curved in mid-air.
Chu Bamboo: "???"
His neck was sliced open!
Chu Bamboo died with his eyes wide open. In his last moments, he forced his vision to focus and saw a writhing shadow in the corner...
...
「6:00 AM.」
Chu Bamboo's eyes snapped open in his dorm room. The familiar sound of snoring reached his ears, soothing his turbulent spirit. He didn't try to reset again, having noticed that his performance was starting to decline...
'At this point, it's clear I can't win. My performance will only continue to decline, so what's the point of banging my head against the wall? Besides, I'm getting close to my limit of four or five resets... I'm better off resting and recuperating in the Real World!'
He got up, washed his face, and went back to his desk. He flipped open his notebook and began to write.
First, he wrote down Li Kang's name and put a big X next to it. Then, he wrote Zhang Hai and drew a question mark. After a moment of hesitation, Chu Bamboo wrote down a completely new name.
B2.
Chu Bamboo had encountered B2 in a previously reset timeline in the Dream World. The man was a lunatic, completely mentally unstable!
Chu Bamboo didn't know much about him—a true madman, or at least a guy who acted like one. Even with his ability to reset, it was hard for Chu Bamboo to get inside the guy's head!
'But the problem is, I only ever met him in a reset timeline. In the actual Dream World, I've only heard about him indirectly... His suspicion level is low, but not zero. As for other possibilities...'
Chu Bamboo's head started to ache. 'There's also a slight chance it's one of the gangs I kicked out of the shantytown renovation district. Maybe they found a powerful backer outside of Jinghai and have come back for revenge. But the odds of that are even lower than Zhang Hai being behind this.'
However, after mulling it over for a while, Chu Bamboo's thoughts gradually began to clear.
'I could just crash at the Jinghai Third Base for a night...'
As the saying goes: set a hero to catch a hero!
Next up, it was time to see what the Captain's Office was made of. After all, he was just an innocent civilian. A vicious, unrestrained killer wielding Extraordinary Power was exactly the kind of person the Officials should bring down with full force!
"Perfect." Chu Bamboo snapped his notebook shut and tossed it into a drawer. 'Exposed? What's there to expose? It's just three names.'
Then he went out for his usual run. Chu Bamboo was already aware that since his body had been enhanced, simple exercise no longer strengthened his constitution. And even if he stopped, his physique likely wouldn't decline... Still, it was a good habit to maintain.
During the second period of his afternoon classes.
Chu Bamboo was in his elective politics class when a group of people in formal suits squeezed in through the door.
"Huh?" Chu Bamboo was taken aback for a moment. He saw his own class's guidance counselor standing behind the leader of the group, a broad smile plastered on his face as he offered an explanation.
"Principal Li, what's going on?" The politics teacher was baffled. 'Are they here to observe the class? But I wasn't notified!'
"We're looking for someone!" the guidance counselor quickly said. His eyes swept across the classroom and quickly locked onto Chu Bamboo. "Mr. Chu, please step out for a moment. We have something to discuss with you!"
The moment Chu Bamboo stood up, all eyes in the room were on him.
...
"Son, is this you?" Zhang Song pulled up a video.
Watching the man in the video who was running as if on air, Chu Bamboo's expression didn't change. "That's me!"
"Then this, is this also you?" Zhang Song's face twitched. He tapped and brought up a brand new video. It was of Chu Bamboo participating in the 100-meter dash at last year's school sports meet, which he had been tricked into signing up for by his class president...
He placed third!
"That's also me." A reminiscent look appeared in Chu Bamboo's eyes. "Back then, I was still pretty slow!"
Zhang Song: "..."
'This is just ridiculous! What do you mean, "still pretty slow"? Last year's sports meet was in the winter. How many months ago was that? And you've already improved by leaps and bounds...'
'You haven't been putting on an act for the school ever since you enrolled, have you?'
"...Chu Bamboo, do you, by any chance, have any brothers?" the guidance counselor asked tactfully.
"Enough," Zhang Song interrupted the guidance counselor, stepping forward to grip Chu Bamboo's hand tightly. His gaze was sincere, and his voice was earnest and excited. "Mr. Chu, if both of those videos are really you, then without a doubt, you are the athletic prodigy we've been searching for with all our might!"
"So please, I'm begging you, will you be my student for life? I will do everything in my power to cultivate your talent, to train you, to get you to Los Angeles, and to make you the pride of the yellow race at the next Olympics!"
"Oh," Chu Bamboo said, then countered, "So, may I ask, do you hold any special position with the national General Administration of Sport?"
Zhang Song: "...Huh?"
"So it seems you don't have a position with the national administration. What about the provincial or municipal sports bureaus?"
"...I, I held a position before!" Zhang Song subconsciously shrank back, inexplicably feeling like he was the one being interviewed.
"Which is to say, you've retired? And now you're just a gym teacher at our school?"
"Ye... yes, that's right..."
"How about this: becoming a champion isn't impossible." Chu Bamboo patted Zhang Song's shoulder, his voice taking on a thoughtful, serious tone. "But Teacher Zhang, you can't expect to get something for nothing. Why don't you go find someone from the national sports administration first? Then we can have a real talk... I trust that won't be too much trouble for you, right?"