Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 330 - 329: Points of Suspicion

Of course, Gawain was just imagining such a good thing in his mind; he also knew that the dreamy situation of ”training a subordinate to infiltrate the enemy organization, and then the undercover agent suddenly discovers after three years that he has become a behind-the-scenes shareholder of the enemy organization” could not possibly happen to him — according to his estimation of Daniel, this old mage could at most infiltrate the bishop team of the Eternal Sleepers, which was already his limit.

And it could only be at the level of an ordinary nightmare bishop — expecting him to become a great nightmare bishop was out of the question.

Because according to the knowledge he possessed, the Eternal Sleepers could still be considered ”human” until the bishop level, but once they were promoted to the level of great nightmare bishop or even Pope, they already established a certain connection with some indescribable existence, which might be some remnant knowledge of the gods, or possibly remnants of the divine corpses like Amoen, the Giant Stag. In any case, these were things to avoid at all costs.

If his guess was correct, the situation was similar in the other two dark sects — their archbishops and popes (or equivalent high-level members) were probably also connected to certain remnants of divine power.

After all, it was evil cult followers who suddenly fell after learning the ”truth that the gods are dead,” so how could they claim to practice evil cults if they didn’t hold some divine relic?

Gawain thoroughly understood Daniel’s actions, and finally confirmed that everything was proceeding roughly according to his plan. If there was anything different, it was that the old mage’s actions were smoother than he had expected.

Apparently, an old follower who had been working quietly within the Eternal Sleepers for nearly ten years appeared very trustworthy to those Eternal Sleepers, and no one could have imagined that such a follower, who was far away in Typhon and had no connection to the ”Wanderers from Outer Realm,” and who had never had any bad records, would suddenly be indoctrinated in a dream and turn into a turncoat...

”The bishop team has established a new project team to specifically address the issues I reported. Currently, they are still in the stage of inspecting and deducing the breaches. Of course, the more they inspect, the more they will trust me,” Daniel reported respectfully, ”All the breaches truly exist; I haven’t concealed anything at all. Once these breaches are confirmed, I will take the lead in the reconstruction of the mind network.”

He paused for a moment, then continued, ”According to your instructions, I will gradually reveal the knowledge bestowed by you during this process, while making sure to disguise and conceal everything, making it all look like the result of my own research.”

Gawain nodded with satisfaction, ”Very well. But keep one thing in mind — caution, be careful, and never be overzealous. They do trust you now because the sudden discovery of countless vulnerabilities in the network has panicked those bishops. But if you stand out too much, their attention will shift from the breaches to you. You have been inconspicuous in the cult for ten years, even though you have recently demonstrated exceptional talent in the field of mind networks, avoid being too astonishing.”

Daniel bowed his head deeply, ”Rest assured, my lord, I will never let your great plan be affected in the slightest.”

Gawain slightly nodded, ”What about the other task I assigned you?”

”I have already constructed the first Magic Web Unit and the first composite rotating repulsion mechanism in the laboratory. I am working hard to master the great knowledge you bestowed,” Daniel’s face showed genuine reverence and a trace of excitement. Initially, this old mage was indeed coerced into loyalty by Gawain, but now his researcher’s passion was ablaze, and the new knowledge had invigorated him, ”I’ve also tested my apprentice — I have an apprentice named Mary, who has great aptitude in the field of mathematics and science. I think she could serve as my assistant.”

”Good, the tasks I require you to perform in the real world are not simple, it wouldn’t work without an assistant helping you,” Gawain nodded, ”Lead your apprentice in diligently delving into the knowledge I handed over to you, and prepare all the data from the development stage — but do not disclose anything for now. Only when I need it should the world know about your research. By the way, is your apprentice reliable?”

”Reliable, they would not dare betray me — and I will not let them know too many unnecessary secrets.”

”Not bad —” Gawain, as he spoke, casually waved his hand, whereupon a large chair instantly materialized in mid-air. He sat down casually, looking into Daniel’s eyes, ”The data I last asked you to collect, how is the progress?”

”Under the guise of constructing a test database, I’ve sorted a batch of data — without arousing suspicion,” Daniel said, and simultaneously manifested an ancient scroll in his hand, sealed with an intricate magic symbol. He respectfully handed the scroll to Gawain, ”I have done a preliminary sorting, you can read it directly.”

Gawain showed a hint of appreciation, took the scroll, and opened it in front of his eyes.

The scroll emitted only a hazy, misty white glow, yet vast amounts of data began flooding into Gawain’s mind.

This was one way of exchanging information between individuals in the mind network — in such a cerebral, direct-connected mind network, information can be exchanged in many different ways. It could be realized as a readable scroll, or data could be mimetically compressed into specific ”media.” Clearly, Daniel, as a traditional and elderly mage, had a special fondness for the scroll form.

The data Gawain had Daniel collect was the most foundational knowledge of the mind network: its physical architecture, the basic functions of brain neurons, and the corresponding effects of Dream Spells in this process.

He had acquired a lot of knowledge after devouring the unfortunate Eternal Sleeper, but some knowledge had turned to fragments during this process and vanished completely with the death of that Eternal Sleeper. This resulted in him knowing many ”skills” of the Eternal Sleepers, but without a cohesive and researchable knowledge system. What he needed to do now was to fill in these gaps in his understanding.

Start by sorting out the most basic knowledge to see what parts are missing.

This knowledge is not highly confidential within the Eternal Sleepers, but unless you catch the ”experts” responsible for constructing this network, it is difficult to gather it completely—for this era, the psychic network created by the Eternal Sleepers is a vast and systematic project, a project that completely surpasses the times in Gawain’s view. The knowledge required for it is extremely complex, and it requires a large amount of manpower to complete. Therefore, many Eternal Sleepers only know how to realize part of the structure of this psychic network, but few can know its whole picture.

But Daniel managed to get all the information—because he is now the person in charge of the Eternal Sleepers’ first experimental database, he can freely fabricate a name for an actual test to pull over things on the network with lower confidentiality and mess around with them...

Gawain and Daniel certainly know that there is no need to use real data for the test database, but the Eternal Sleepers don’t know...

In the state of a psychic network, Gawain’s speed of ”reading” materials is unusually fast, or rather, he is not reading in detail, but traversing all the information using a rapid search-like method to establish a general framework in his mind—this is one of the uses of the psychic network.

And it was during the process of establishing this framework that his eyebrows gradually furrowed.

Daniel’s heart immediately tightened: ”My lord, is there a problem?”

Gawain slowly absorbed the last part of the material into his mind, raised his head, and looked very seriously into Daniel’s eyes: ”Do you know ’brain servants’?”

”Yes, they are a permanently fixed computational node,” Daniel immediately nodded, he certainly knows this basic knowledge, ”Brain servants are living humans who are in a state of anesthesia, their bodily functions are almost stagnant, but their brains are connected to the network and continue to operate, thus they can process computational tasks of the psychic network with maximum efficiency. Even ordinary people without magic can qualify as brain servants.”

Yes, just like those living dead in the cellar of the Kant territory...

”If my understanding of these materials is correct, if I haven’t missed any key points,” Gawain shook the scroll in his hand, ”brain servants are not a necessary component of the psychic network!”

Daniel blinked in confusion, seemingly not quite understanding the deep meaning behind this sentence.

”The construction of the psychic network is based on the neurons of living brains, based on the computational capability of living brains, and the extraordinary effects of dream magic and psychic spells. As long as the functioning living brains can provide an adequate amount of computational power, even an excess supply—the lucid Eternal Sleepers can provide more than enough computational power during the process of connecting to the network to maintain its operation!”

”You mean, the psychic network can operate normally even without brain servants?” Daniel finally grasped Gawain’s point, ”The Eternal Sleepers themselves as nodes can guarantee the full functioning of the network?”

”Exactly, as long as there are enough active living nodes, which is already the case, now the Eternal Sleepers active in the dream city are enough to sustain two such psychic networks!” Gawain said solemnly, ”And this is under normal circumstances— the computational power provided by connected Eternal Sleepers must be greater than their consumption of network resources, otherwise the network is fundamentally contradictory: if the computational power consumed by Eternal Sleeper nodes exceeds what they provide, then why does the bishop team issue commands to recruit more Eternal Sleepers into the network? Since there is an ’recruit computational power’ command, it indicates that every Eternal Sleeper active on the network contributes computational power far greater than their consumption!”

Daniel was both surprised and confused: ”Then...what are those brain servants for?”

”I’ve said before, I’m not all-knowing, so I need servants,” Gawain looked into Daniel’s eyes, ”Investigate this matter—without exposing your identity. I suspect the function of those brain servants is not to maintain the psychic network; their substantial computational power is for other purposes... for a project more grandiose and mysterious than the psychic network!”

”Yes, my lord.”

After seeing Daniel nod and take the order, a sudden thought flashed in Gawain’s mind; he recalled a certain piece of information he had previously encountered unintentionally.

”Pay attention to something called ’Project Zero’, I suspect it is related to the calculation resources that have gone missing,” Gawain immediately suggested, ”But be cautious, the confidentiality level of this project seems very high, perhaps only those above the rank of Bishop have the qualifications to know—what to do specifically, you need to judge for yourself.”

”Your loyal servant will not disappoint you!”