My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

They even ended up dying on the exact same day of the same month in the same year!

"...About AI?" Zhao Shao narrowed his eyes. He had learned from Professor Chen that the person before him had no experience studying AI.

’So this is... he just copied some AI knowledge from the internet to show off in front of me?’

’He... he can’t be that stupid, can he?!’

Zhao Shao was breaking out in a sweat. ’Did I overthink it... Is it possible the person in front of me isn’t as smart and unfathomable as I imagined? Is he actually just a typical jock?’

’Some ape-like creature in the vein of Sakuragi Hanamichi?!’

’No... It can’t be...’

"Read it, and come find me when you’re done!" Chu Bamboo waved his hand magnanimously. After taking two steps, he suddenly spoke again. "Oh, right, Senior Zhao... Your funding is about to dry up, isn’t it?"

"..."

The atmosphere in the room turned chilly for a moment.

"Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to cause you any trouble!" Chu Bamboo raised an eyebrow and said with a grin, "I just want to ask, if I were to invest... Senior Zhao, you wouldn’t have any objections, would you?"

"..." Zhao Shao was shaken to the core. His lips moved, but before he could gather his thoughts and figure out how to respond, Chu Bamboo had already turned and left the office.

A long silence followed.

"This guy, honestly." Zhao Shao rubbed his face, unsure what kind of expression to make. ’Why do I suddenly feel like I’ve just been used?’

"Sigh," Zhao Shao gave a bitter smile. ’And why was my performance so poor this time? Last time, when I met the district chief, I spoke with complete confidence... Why was I like this now? Still, if it’s about an investment...’

Zhao Shao was plagued by indecision.

After all, based on his private conversations with Professor Chen... this guy was the super-rich heir personally vouched for by Principal Li!

’Maybe, just maybe, he can really help me get through this crisis?’

His thoughts in a jumble, Zhao Shao subconsciously picked up the notebook and slowly opened it. Then, he froze for a second before laughing at himself. "Wait... am I actually going to read this? Forget it, I’ll just treat it as part of securing an investment!"

"Money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to eat... I hope what he copied isn’t too ridiculous, too shameless! Otherwise, I won’t even be able to bullshit my way through our next meeting..."

With a sense of resignation, Zhao Shao lowered his head with a look of grim determination—

「...」

"Boss? Boss! What’s wrong?"

"Hm... Ah! Oh."

Zhao Shao snapped back to his senses and saw his secretary. "Xu Fei! Your timing is really bad, I was right in the middle of... wait, what time is it?!"

Zhao Shao suddenly realized something was wrong. The sky was already getting dark. Moreover, he could feel his stomach was completely empty.

"It’s almost six o’clock!" Xu Fei pressed a hand to his forehead, speechless. If it hadn’t gotten so late, he wouldn’t have dared to disturb his boss!

After all, any fool could see that his boss had been completely engrossed...

He believed his boss was a genius. Although Xu Fei was a secretary now, his previous job had been as a programmer...

It was because he was something of an insider that he was so genuinely impressed by Zhao Shao.

He knew that while Zhao Shao might have looked like he was just spacing out, he was probably constructing some unimaginably brilliant program in his mind.

’But... brainstorming a program is one thing—you can’t just skip meals, skip sleep, and not approve any documents!’

Xu Fei had been left with no other choice. He was risking his neck to offer this counsel! 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"...Unbelievable!" Zhao Shao leaned back in his lounge chair, gradually realizing what had happened. He lowered his gaze. "Go get some dinner..."

Watching his secretary leave, Zhao Shao once again looked at the notebook in front of him, lost in thought for a long, long time. His gaze shifted to the side—on the table were other open notebooks...

Those notebooks were filled with messy handwriting—his handwriting! They were inspirations and revelations that had struck him while reading the first one.

"This stuff..."

Zhao Shao felt that this material was in sync with him on an unprecedented level. No, to be more precise, it was as if—

’All the chaotic, fragmented inspirations in my mind have been compiled into a complete masterpiece, and then just suddenly appeared right before my eyes?’

Zhao Shao’s thoughts were a tangled mess. After a brief silence, he even felt a sense of defeat.

’I remember my professor once said... human history is so very long. Whatever you think, whatever you ponder, whatever you grieve, whatever you suffer—someone has probably already thought it before!’

’Your problems... someone in history might have already provided the perfect answer!’

’Even with mathematics, many people have a flash of inspiration and come up with an algorithm or a makeshift tool... they think it’s brilliant, only to open a history book and discover that some mathematician had already proposed it hundreds of years ago!’

’But, AI has only been around for a few years... Have I already been crushed by a higher dimension?’

Zhao Shao rubbed his cheeks and sighed for a good while before picking up the other book. ’Well, at least I finished it... Why did he give me two? Is this the rest of it... Hmm, that’s right, the last one was clearly incomplete... The ending was very abrupt!’

’I just don’t know how much is still missing...’

And then...

"...?"

"???"

"What the hell?!"

Zhao Shao read on, becoming completely stunned.

If the first book... was the crystallization of his own unorganized thoughts, slammed down right in front of him! Then the second book... was a super-evolution of the first!

No, this thing was practically a work of art...

’Damn it, how can programming code be this perfect...’

It was completely different from the stereotype of programmer-written code being a messy "mountain of shit code."

The new program before him was simple, clear, pure, natural...

It was like a marvel forged through a thousand trials!

It had been refined to the point where it could not be refined any further!

For Zhao Shao, reading these lines of code was pure bliss...

And this time, Zhao Shao was completely obsessed. Even when Xu Fei brought him dinner, he was yelled at and shooed away!

An unknown amount of time passed.

He finally finished reading.

Completely burned out, Zhao Shao lay on his lounge chair, silent for a long, long time.

After recovering his senses, he subconsciously pulled out his phone and navigated to Chu Bamboo’s contact info. He wanted to call him, but one look at the time told him it was far too late. In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to press the button.

’I’ll deal with it tomorrow...’

"But!"

Picking up his now-cold dinner, Zhao Shao ate distractedly, still plagued by doubt and anxiety. ’Where did he get this stuff from...’

’He couldn’t have stolen it from some major tech company... no, no company in the country should have this kind of capability! Besides, if you were really going to steal code, wouldn’t you just download it onto a flash drive? Who writes it all out in a book...’

’So, it’s from overseas...’

’That doesn’t make sense either! Foreign AI has a head start on us, but the gap couldn’t possibly be this huge... Don’t tell me those foreigners are actually holding back? No, with the way things are now, could they really be hiding something this deep?’

’And why would they hide it? Let’s say they really did hide it so well that even with the situation deteriorating this badly, with the stock market crashing, they still weren’t willing to use it to give the market a shot in the arm! Then the security classification on this thing must be incredibly high—in that case, how on earth did Junior Chu get his hands on it?’

Zhao Shao lowered his gaze, his mind racing through one possibility after another...

For a fleeting moment, he even wondered if Aliens might actually exist. Maybe this stuff was copied from them...

Of course, he almost laughed at the thought a moment later.

Even if Aliens really did exist, and taking it a step further, even if Aliens really used computers...

’Don’t tell me they use the same kind of programming as humans?’

Wasn’t that just ridiculous?!

"...That junior of mine is hiding a huge secret!" Zhao Shao closed the notebook, sighing with heartfelt emotion.

Then, he pushed the question to the back of his mind.

’He has a secret... so what? What does that have to do with me?’

It didn’t matter where Chu Bamboo got this stuff. Even if he got it by burning an Alien’s ass with a cigarette... so what? As long as it helped him, that’s all that mattered!

Prying into the other party’s secrets would most likely lead to a falling out between them.

’I’m still counting on... Junior Chu to invest in me! But...’

Zhao Shao gave another bitter smile. In the current situation, if Chu Bamboo really did invest, and taking into account the contents of this notebook...

"How much equity would I have to give him?" Zhao Shao belatedly jolted in realization. He glanced at his own seat, and a tremor ran through him. ’Oh no...’

"Junior Chu... he’s not coming after my position as the majority shareholder, is he?!"

「...」

「Meanwhile.」

Having already washed up, Chu Bamboo got into bed and slowly closed his eyes.

’Dream World, activate!’