My dream connects to three thousand years later.

Chapter 102 Fluctlight
"A third life!" Chu Zhu opened his eyes again, expressionless.

"Simply being pinned to the ground by a spear wouldn't kill me with my physique! So, did that spear come with some other problem? Was it contaminated with toxins? Or polluted? Most likely polluted! And at an absurdly high level... I must have ended up transforming into a monster?"

Chu Zhu was somewhat relieved at this moment. In the dream timeline, he was considered dead after being twisted into a monster, which would trigger a reset... Otherwise, it would have been quite troublesome.

"But this is outrageous! What's going on with this wasteland? Why are there so many monsters?"

Chu Zhu frantically pulled at her hair, expressing her disbelief and incomprehension.

After sorting out her thoughts for a while, Chu Zhu gritted her teeth and said, "Never mind! Let's keep experimenting. If we really use up all seven lives, then we'll go back. If all else fails, we'll try them one by one. We'll choose not to publish novels, not to release music, and not to start a company! We'll spend three days working backwards from each one! Let's see which method will make things normal! I refuse to believe it."

He stood up again, just about to walk in a certain direction, when Chu Zhu suddenly paused. He stroked his chin thoughtfully, "No animals!"

"So, wild animals can also be tortured and killed by monsters?"

"Well... in other words, places with animals are safe! But the biggest problem right now is that there don't seem to be any animals around..."

After thinking for a while, Chu Zhu squatted down thoughtfully, and a moment later, joy appeared on his face.

There were bugs! To be precise, ants—now Chu Zhu found these unappealing little creatures pleasing to the eye.

Then, they would determine which area was safe by observing where insects were found on the ground! If they couldn't find any, they would lower their heads and immediately retreat.

This strategy was remarkably effective.

……

"Oh my god! I've finally found it." Chu Zhu stood at the former site of the police superintendent's office, her eyes welling up with tears.

Since he first entered the base, he had encountered all sorts of situations and died many times, but he never imagined that one day, even coming to the Nuwa base would be so difficult!
"Let me see how to do it!"

Chu Zhu fumbled around for a while, her brows gradually furrowing. "Wait, where is it? There's no water tap here, the entrance should be here! Why is this just flat ground?"

"……what?!"

Chu Zhu was completely dumbfounded. Don't tell him that this butterfly effect has directly destroyed the Nuwa base.

"..."

Chu Zhu sat on the ground, stunned. This time, she was truly unable to calm herself down.

"No, what terrible crime have they committed this time?!"

"Calm down! You must calm down!"

Chu Zhu took several deep breaths to calm herself down. "There are ants on the ground, so this place is at least safe for now!"

"What's next? Should we end this life and return to reality, checking things one by one... or slowly find our way to the nuclear facilities and see if they've also been destroyed by the butterfly effect?"

Chu Zhu kept sorting out her thoughts, when suddenly, a look of realization appeared in her eyes, "No! If the dream world is where the entire civilization is gone, humanity is extinct? Or nearly extinct... then monsters are everywhere! There aren't many wild animals left."

"So, is it possible that the Nuwa base still exists, but the entrance has been buried by layers of debris over time? Because there is no human civilization, the base has never been excavated from beginning to end... Because Li Kang and the others on this line of events are all dead, or have completely lost their rationality and turned into monsters! So there is no possibility of them using the base as a habitat."

Chu Zhu thought about it again and again, and the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed to be true.

He looked at the land before him, calculating in his mind, and finally pointed to the sun, gesturing with coordinates...

There was really no other way; he was able to get here purely because he had reset countless times in Jinghai City, and he knew the city's layout too well. Using the church as the origin, he calculated the location of the base.

Honestly, this wretched place has been completely transformed into a plain. Looking at the trees and flowers alone, you simply cannot pinpoint your exact location in Jinghai City.

Finally, Chu Zhu roughly calculated the correct location and then rubbed his hands together.

Break off branches from the nearby trees, then pick out a few sharp, flat stones, polish them slightly, and tie them together with vines to make simple tools.

Then, start digging!
The mud surged and rushed away with a roar.

Although Chu Zhu's efficiency, which surpasses the limits of human capabilities, has not yet truly matched that of human machines, it is infinitely close to that of a small excavator.

……

Time passes bit by bit.

Soon, it was afternoon!
Chu Zhu didn't eat a single grain of rice or drink a single drop of water. All I can say is that extraordinary people can endure anything!
"If we can't finish digging in a whole day, let's reset." Chu Zhu's thoughts wandered. He had already begun to consider whether to wake up directly in reality or go to the nuclear ruins first to check the situation and use up all seven of his lives for the day before going back.

With a shovelful strike, Chu Zhu paused for a moment, a look of delight spreading across his face. He had struck something hard.

"That's right...this is it!" Chu Zhu dug forcefully, clearing away the rest of the area, and he saw it...

"Metal, metal walls! Although they're still covered in dirt, and it seems a bit oxidized and corroded? No, the base I saw last time, although the interior was metal, it wasn't corroded at all! Could it be that the outside and the inside are different?"

"Never mind, at least this time... we dug up the base... there really is a base! That's good... I knew it."

Chu Zhu was somewhat incoherent; he was genuinely excited.

Chu Zhu climbed back onto the tunnel he had dug, gestured again, and then began to dig out the entrance. "I remember the basic design of the Nuwa base looked like this!" Chu Zhu roughly drew a structural diagram on the ground. "This metal wall faces south, so it should be roughly this section... Based on this, and by proportional conversion, the entrance should end between this section and this section..."

Chu Zhu was silently calculating in his mind when suddenly he stopped.

For no apparent reason, he felt a pang of anxiety.

After a brief silence, Chu Zhu turned to look to her left. There, a familiar figure appeared! At that moment, Chu Zhu smiled with relief.

—It's a three-headed monster.

"Doesn't this thing have a fixed territory?"

Chu Zhu sighed, looking up at the sky. "Is it just wandering around here? Whether we bump into it or not depends entirely on luck? Or did the sound I made while digging happen to be picked up? So it's come to kill us now?"

“No,” Chu Zhu realized, “it didn’t come looking for me as soon as I started digging. It’s possible that it was in a certain edge of its territory, and it just happened to hear my voice! It just happened to walk over there, noticed the commotion, and then chased after me to kill me… Hmm, if that’s the case, then it can explain everything.”

Chu Zhu sighed a second time, and then, unsurprisingly, he felt a familiar stinging pain in his brain.

The next instant, his body was pierced through...

……

When Chu Zhu woke up again, she was expressionless.

Without even complaining, he followed the safe route he had explored last time and sped towards the location of Nuwa's base.

They cut down trees, made simple tools, and then frantically dug for the entrance location, based on the map they had previously determined.

Time is limited!

Judging from the sun's position, it should be around 3 or 4 PM when the monster will hear him and take him down! He must enter the underground base before that time.

He even considered that he didn't know the exact situation of the underground base... He had to consider that the base might not be able to protect him! Therefore, he not only needed to enter the base before 3 or 4 pm, but also needed to ask all the questions he wanted to ask before that time!

Finally... with the help of the previous experience of dying.

"Got you!"

Chu Zhu looked at the hard rock in front of her and was truly moved.

The Nuwa base is made entirely of metal, but its gate has an inner metal layer and an outer layer covered with rock... well, perhaps it's for camouflage?

"Let me think... I remember Li Kang mentioned something about... the Nuwa base having a forced... cough cough!" Chu Zhu coughed. Li Kang had said "forced remonstrance"! After all, Nuwa was a goddess in their eyes. This automatically translated into Chu Zhu's ears as "forced door opening"! Or perhaps a safety door opening device?
"Found it! This is the stone lock! We finally dug it out... It's really not easy, it's been there for so many years... Or maybe stones really do hold their value, and the chances of them being eroded by time are really small! Hmm... First, twist it, then, forcefully press it in, force it open!"

……

"Finally in!"

Chu Zhu watched the door slowly close and breathed a sigh of relief.

He had been worried that the gate would be damaged due to the long time it took—but then he realized that since the gate opening device worked on the other timeline, there was no problem here. After all, he couldn't expect Li Kang and his group, who regarded the base as a god, to maintain it.

Or perhaps, as the wall proclaims, if it really is broken, kowtow three times and pray that the machine's spirit will be pleased?

"Hopefully, this thing will hold up! It should be fine, right? I'm not even digging outside anymore. Whether that three-headed monster will even come looking for us is another matter..."

A jumble of thoughts flashed through Chu Zhu's mind. He suddenly frowned. "Speaking of which, why are there no lights? Oh right, it's not turned on yet!"

"However, something's not right about this base."

Chu Zhu ran his fingers over the floor and walls. Even in the darkness, he noticed signs of corrosion on the walls, just like when he had dug them up outside.

"That doesn't make sense! It's true, neither side is protecting her... Could it really be that the Mo Sect came to attack? But if they really did, would Li Kang still believe Nuwa is a goddess? But if we rule out that possibility..."

Chu Zhu pondered repeatedly, "Unless the materials used to build the base have changed! Last time, we actually used a special material that is corrosion-resistant and remains as clean as new even after thousands of years! But we didn't use it this time."

Why didn't it work? Was it because they didn't want to do it, or... was the material never actually produced in this timeline?
Chu Zhu thought for a moment and realized that the changes caused by the butterfly effect might not only be the disappearance of the dream civilization... In the end, he decided to ask Nuwa No. 17 about the situation first.

……

Another struggle.

It took a full hour.

It has finally started successfully!

however……

"Yaoguang, an AI designed to ensure the continuation of human civilization, is at your service!"

"?" Chu Zhu was dumbfounded. He even wondered if he was hallucinating.

Yao Guang? What Yao Guang?
Where is my Nuwa? Where did my Nuwa No. 17 go?
And... you didn't even say what your machine number is... you don't just have one, do you?!
In the end what happened?
Chu Zhu was truly on the verge of a breakdown. He could accept change, but this change was far too much, too outrageous!
(End of this chapter)