After a brief silence, Nuwa No. 17 said, "Initiating search. Initiating deep thought. Data successfully retrieved! Displaying now."
"Name: Chu Bamboo. Gender: Male. Time of death (ID cancellation time): June 17, 2053, 13:14:27. Cause of death: Fourth ●● War. Faced ●●●●. Post-war, organ failure and cancer due to high-level radiation exposure! Comprehensive Identity Rating: Holder of Level 0 Citizen Rights."
"Initiating verification!"
A white light once again shone on Chu Bamboo's face.
"Warning: Age mismatch! Age mismatch!"
"Pupil scan passed! Facial recognition passed! Please raise your hand and face it toward the light... Fingerprint scan passed! Preliminary judgment: Subject is Divine Continent citizen Chu Bamboo! Logical error detected! Correcting logical error! Deep thought speculation: ID stolen / ID mistakenly destroyed / Death misidentified by relatives / Other."
"Beginning new ID registration!"
After a brief silence, the white light shone again, but it was softer than before.
"Welcome, holder of Level 0 Citizen Rights: Mr. Chu Bamboo."
"It actually worked." Chu Bamboo's expression was wistful. 'So I only have twenty-something years left to live. And the Fourth... War? What war was that? A world war? Or were they fighting some other damn thing?'
'Death by high-level radiation exposure! Seriously, they actually used those things. I wonder if radiation exposure back then could trigger human evolution.'
'But human civilization wasn't destroyed until the 22nd century. There's still a gap of forty or fifty years between then and now, right? Were there other wars?'
However, when Chu Bamboo asked again, Nuwa No. 17 reverted to its usual state of artificial idiocy.
"Fine!" Chu Bamboo felt a headache coming on. He suddenly thought of a crucial question. "By the way, Li Kang—you know who Li Kang is, right? The guy from just now. What's his authority level?"
"Temporary Level 2 Authority (one year)."
"Wait... he's Level 2? But why is it temporary? Does he need to renew it? Hold on, even though I'm Level 0, is my authority permanent?" Chu Bamboo's mind raced. 'Does this mean only true citizens of the Divine Continent can have permanent authority?'
"Do you know of any Cultivation Techniques in the current world? The kind that uses nuclear radiation for Cultivation!" Chu Bamboo blinked.
"Initiating deep thought. Based on the meaning of the user's words and referencing previous queries, it can be deduced that the user actually wishes to obtain a current Cultivation Technique... Your identity authority is insufficient! Please increase it before asking again."
"Uh..." For a moment, Chu Bamboo lost his composure, forcibly suppressing the urge to curse at the AI. He comforted himself with the thought that this at least revealed such techniques did exist. He continued patiently, "So how can I increase my authority level?"
"After deliberation, providing two reasonable methods: First, make sufficient contributions to the nation, pass the review, and your authority will be increased."
"Second, successfully pass the Captain's Office assessment and go through formal information entry. You will become a temporary holder of Level 1 Authority and will be able to make inquiries!"
Chu Bamboo: "..."
'When you say "make contributions to the nation," you don't mean the one from the Ancient Era, do you... How am I supposed to contribute to that? Rebuild the Red County Divine Continent?'
"No, wait!" Chu Bamboo mused. 'If this place really is many years in the future, then if I return to the Real World and make changes there, would it create a butterfly effect here?'
Next, Chu Bamboo asked a few more questions here and there, but most were met with a refusal to answer. The few questions it could answer mostly concerned the current situation in Jinghai City, which... was useless. To put it bluntly, Nuwa No. 17 almost certainly knew less about Jinghai City than Chu Bamboo did.
'Still, I've reached a few conclusions. Even though Li Kang has temporary Level 2 Authority, he doesn't understand Chinese and even mistakes the wake-word "Nuwa No. 17" for some kind of prayer. That means he has no way of communicating with Nuwa at all! And he can't find out about Nuwa's true nature or that it's an artificial creation!'
'Also, Nuwa can understand the language of the Dream World, but it only ever replies in Chinese! What a mess... The real question is, why does Li Kang have this temporary authority? Hmm, could it be that some of the higher-ups in Daqian have a deep understanding of Nuwa?'
Chu Bamboo pondered. The Daqian Capital was the Imperial Capital in the north, which was simply too far from Jinghai City... Chu Bamboo had managed to learn a fair bit about the nearby Celestial Capital, one of Daqian's two capitals. But he really wasn't familiar with the Imperial Capital...
At most, he knew maybe one percent of what there was to know. That was far too little.
He mentally estimated that about two hours had passed. Not wanting to push his luck and wait until the last possible second before Li Kang's return, Chu Bamboo turned to leave. He couldn't get any more useful answers now, anyway. He would just have to decide whether to take the official exam or go back and change history, then return after increasing his authority level.
"Nuwa No. 17, open the gate!" As a thought struck him, Chu Bamboo asked casually, "Oh, right, I heard there's another civil service exam in a few days. If I were to take that exam, how could I pass?"
"Initiating deep thought. Initiating information retrieval... User is asking how to pass the exam. Default assumption: The user does not currently possess the requisite ability to pass. Under these circumstances, passing can be achieved through remedial study. However, according to retrieved information, the next civil service exam is in three days. This is not enough time for remedial study..."
"Conclusion: The next assessment will be held in three days! It is the Child Scholar assessment! After passing the exam and becoming a formal Child Scholar, you can join the official system as an Official or a clerk. To pass the assessment, the current method is as follows..."
Chu Bamboo: "..."
Chu Bamboo stared, dumbfounded, as densely packed text was projected onto the silver-white wall, showing the exam questions and their answers. It even included the specific assessment procedures, test items, and requirements!
'Wait, isn't this... just straight-up cheating?'
'Wait, so this is information it's allowed to share...'
The realization dawned on Chu Bamboo. It seemed the things Nuwa No. 17 couldn't talk about were all secrets from the Ancient Era, and as for current topics, most of the knowledge requiring a higher authority level involved the Extraordinary... The Child Scholar exam involved neither the Ancient Era nor the Extraordinary. So, it appeared he hadn't actually triggered any of Nuwa No. 17's prohibitions!
"...Awesome." Chu Bamboo silently gave it a thumbs-up, then carefully committed all of the content to memory. His recall ability was, naturally, exceptional.
Or rather, his memory had always been good, but after becoming a Transcendent, it was now practically photographic...
To be honest, Chu Bamboo had initially been thinking that if he really had to take the exam, he might need to "reset" a few times—memorizing all the questions, digging up all the answers, and then finally passing... Still, being able to avoid dying a few times was definitely a good thing!