Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 858 - 857: ”Sample

Cecil Castle, Northern Banks Development Zone, Imperial Computing Center.

The majestic pyramid-shaped building quietly stands on the open riverbank highlands. The magical gleam flows silently in the magic guiding veins on the building’s surface. Newly transplanted green plants encircle the building, while separate Magic Web Obelisks and Signal Amplification Devices are distributed on both wings of the pyramid. This brand new facility shines brilliantly under the sun, ready for its official opening today.

The black Magic-guided Vehicle, bearing the emblem of the Empire’s royal family, steadily stopped in front of the pyramid. After the door opened, Gawain and Aunt Heidi stepped out of the car.

The personnel responsible for the computing center had been waiting at the entrance.

”It looks beautiful—much more beautiful than I imagined,” Aunt Heidi couldn’t help but look up at the top of the ”pyramid,” watching the arcane light continuously flow over the slanted surface. She didn’t hold back her admiration. ”Compared to traditional, serious research facilities, it indeed appeals more to the general public.”

”The ’distribution stations’ open to the public later will follow a similar design approach,” Gawain said with a smile. ”After all, they’re not just research facilities of the Empire; they’re also part of a subsequent series of public projects.”

In just a few words, Yuri led the technical team to Gawain—these former Eternal Sleepers Priests approached with a touch of reverence, greeting Gawain with more respect than the typical member of the Cecil Clan, Yuri kept his head down and said meticulously, ”Salute to you, Your Majesty—the task you entrusted to us is complete, and the Imperial Computing Center is ready.”

”Very good,” Gawain nodded with a smile, ”You performed well. All of you, lift your heads; the rules of the Cecil Clan aren’t that strict.”

Only then did the former Eternals lift their heads one by one. Gawain and Aunt Heidi glanced at these people who were trying to make amends for their past deeds, and just when they wanted to say something else, they were suddenly taken aback.

Gawain looked at Yuri with a peculiar expression—and at everyone else who had obvious dark circles on their faces, inevitably sounding a bit surprised, ”Are you guys... alright?”

Yuri didn’t immediately understand, standing there with huge dark circles and bloodshot eyes, but soon he grasped Gawain’s meaning. Surprised that a ”Wanderer from Outer Realm” would care about their well-being, he quickly shook his head, ”Please don’t worry, this is commonplace for researchers...”

A group of former bishops and archbishops nodded in agreement, creating an almost ethereal atmosphere on site—Gawain was nearly dumbfounded watching these people, then turned to whisper to Aunt Heidi, ”I think their level is a bit higher than yours—it seems like those aren’t painted on...”

Aunt Heidi: ”...”

The ancestor forbade her from learning Amber’s cheeky words, but what should she do when the ancestor himself kept spouting them?

However, before she could respond, Gawain had already started walking forward: ”Then let’s not waste any more time, let’s go inside now. Yuri, you lead the way.”

Gawain couldn’t help but urge a bit, not because he couldn’t wait to inspect the computing center, but mainly seeing the mental state of these Eternal Sleepers didn’t inspire confidence. He genuinely feared these guys might keel over on the spot—no wonder they are the only one of the Three Great Dark Sects involved in network engineering. How long have these people not slept? They’re living up to their ”Eternal Sleepers” name...

With a slightly drifting thought, Gawain followed Yuri and the others into the computing center building. The spacious and bright Hall of Thought and the Mind Nexus emitting a faint humming sound welcomed everyone. Walking next to Yuri, Wendy was filled with excitement and joy, saying as they moved forward, ”Your Majesty, we are all deeply attracted by this incredible technical approach. The deeper we delve into the research, the more we feel its almost unlimited potential—we once thought the mind network created by the Eternal Sleepers could solve all the ’computational’ problems in the world, but after seeing the information on the Origin Space, we realized that technological development is truly endless...”

”This thing keeps everyone awake at night,” Semyr said in a deep voice, ”We even want to spend the whole day in the Immersion Capsule. These days, our team has been building a new network ’substrate’ from scratch, creating a foundational Mindscape, sorting out the layers of consciousness, constructing the zero-layer network... No one wants to rest; everyone doesn’t want to miss this history-making event.”

Yuri nodded, picking up the topic: ”In fact, we’re already considering how to enable physically stronger Transcendents to connect to the network for longer periods. Archbishop Rutherford... Researcher Rutherford wants to improve the ’artificial umbilical cord’ with a life-sustaining energy supply previously used on Brain Servants—your idea for transforming the mind network inspired us, and Brain Servant-related technology could actually be harmless. Our preliminary thought is to find a direction to improve the Brain Servant technology from Researcher Magnan’s experiential memories, he is currently the only one who has undergone Brain Servant transformation and ’returned’ while conscious...”

A middle-aged man with thinning hair on his forehead—he was the ”Researcher Rutherford” mentioned by Yuri—smiled proudly and said, ”The key is to accurately extract and analyze that part of Researcher Magnan’s memory. We’ve resolved most of the preliminary issues, the only remaining challenge is how to get Researcher Magnan to cooperate...”

Wendy couldn’t help but sigh, ”Once he became a network mind, the usual fists and feet no longer worked... And the only two who could help, Selena and Bishop Megal, don’t seem interested in our new ideas.”

Gawain: ”...”

The former Eternal Sleepers donned researcher uniforms, fully devoted to pure technological endeavors after leaving those dark, heavy plans behind. The result being these people seemed to have gone a bit overboard, rushing headlong towards another extreme path where excitement could lead to their downfall, prompting Gawain to interrupt their heated discussions: ”Stop—everyone stop for a moment. Calm down.”

Only then did Yuri and the others suddenly realize that they might have gotten too excited talking about technology and almost forgotten the dignity of the ”Wanderers from Outer Realm,” so they stopped nervously. Gawain frowned as he looked at them: ”Don’t forget the previous lessons.”

Semyr took a deep breath and bowed deeply, ”Yes, we won’t forget.”

Gawain’s expression relaxed slightly, ”Cecil’s research work has a comprehensive process of project initiation, evaluation, review, and approval. I think you’ve also seen the relevant documents, remember them first, then you can talk about Cecil’s future.”

Actually, he also wanted to add his personal thought—while overly zealous research impulses are harmful, it seems like tormenting Magnan might still be somewhat amusing. Unfortunately, saying this would obviously harm the dignity of the Wanderers from Outer Realm, so he just kept it to himself...

...

The lift platform, driven by anti-gravity runes, silently docked in the middle of the crescent-shaped slot. Gawain and Aunt Heidi stepped off the platform. They, along with Yuri and the others, took the lift across the isolation gate of the uppermost layer of the Computing Center, and with a faint mechanical click, the lift platform returned to the floor below, revealing a bright white room to everyone.

This is the room located at the topmost layer of the entire Computing Center, and the main destination of Gawain’s ”inspection” today.

Aunt Heidi curiously surveyed the room, which clearly had a special security rating.

The layout here looked similar to other ”connection rooms,” with dozens of immersion pods neatly arranged on the floor, and a series of rune devices and auxiliary equipment distributed against the walls. The only difference from other rooms was that Aunt Heidi didn’t see the central ”pillar” used to connect the Mind Nexus, instead there was a particularly striking large seat.

That seat was installed on a silver-white metal platform, from the base extended numerous rune chains and artificial nerve cords, the glow of runes and arcane light flowed continuously between those chains, showing it was in an active state—this seat made Aunt Heidi involuntarily recall the first ”immersion” device in the laboratory, though it was clearly a more advanced piece of equipment.

After briefly recalling the layout of the Computing Center’s architecture, Aunt Heidi realized that this ”chair” was located at the center focal point of the entire ”pyramid,” directly above the Mind Nexus!

”You noticed?” Gawain observed Aunt Heidi’s gaze, smiled, and stepped forward as he said, ”This device is also used to connect the ’Narrator Neural Network,’ you can think of it as a special immersion pod, but it is directly connected to the Mind Nexus, essentially a part of the Mind Nexus. Kamel personally crafted it, to provide it with a stronger connectivity capability. Beneath the chair are seventeen artificial nerve cords and numerous Magic Web connectors—this is prepared for me.”

Aunt Heidi was already aware of one of Gawain’s plans, so she wasn’t too surprised; just showed pure curiosity upon seeing the specially designed ”connection device” for the first time. Yuri and others exchanged glances, but before they could ask anything, there was once again the slight friction sound of mechanical devices operating from the direction of the lift platform gate.

The lift platform returned to this room once more, and Kamel and Veronica Moen came off the platform.

Holding the platinum scepter, Veronica Moen gently nodded at Gawain: ”Sorry, we’re late.”

Kamel promptly explained: ”Coordinating the network technology group from the middle layer and lower layer, and debugging remote equipment took us a little time.”

”No, just right,” Gawain smiled, ”We are about to start.”

Then he turned to face Yuri and others.

”All necessary personnel are here,” he said in a deep voice, ”Now everyone enters the network—we are to proceed with the final step of initiating the ’Narrator Neural Network.’

The ”Archbishops” seemed a bit puzzled, but Aunt Heidi, Kamel, and Veronica Moen had already walked towards the immersion pods closest to the room’s center. Semyr and others quickly responded—no one doubted the command from the Wanderers from Outer Realm, and they quickly found their available immersion pods, lying down one by one.

Gawain came to the ”chair” at the center of the room, and after briefly calming his mood, sat down quietly.

Under normal circumstances, he doesn’t need any equipment to connect to the network, but that was during the ”Mind Network” era.

The current ”Narrator Neural Network” has a higher security rating, a higher connection requirement, and mere mental signals would be physically blocked by the terminal devices, so he must use a special set of connecting devices to enter this new network.

All for safety.

A slightly chilly tingling sensation from a series of contact points on the chair’s back reached through. A bit of magic power penetrated through the not-so-thick clothing, starting to interface with the nervous system. Gawain relaxed his mind, gradually entering into that just recently established, still somewhat immature network space.

A patch of sky-blue connecting interface swiftly flew across the field of vision, chaotic lights and shadows gathered from all directions, after a brief sense of spatial displacement and weightlessness, the scene before everyone’s eyes finally began to stabilize.

A vast, yet empty grassland endlessly stretched across their vision, bright and clean skies sheltering the earth, gentle breezes blew from unknown origins, stirring soft grass blades and flower stems.

In the distance, color blocks and lines were curling and moving, sketching new worldly things and new boundaries of the earth, with giant light curtains moving in the sky, adjusting the details and contours of the world.

Technicians located in other machine rooms of the Computing Center and the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute were still continuously perfecting this world. Those color blocks, lines, and light screens were sights of their bustling work, and in a deeper layer, within the network’s ”national application layer,” new Origin Space had already formed, new Origin Laboratory were being constructed.

Gawain gazed upon this beautiful yet slightly barren place, took a deep breath, revealing a slight smile on his face: ”Not bad.”

Then he slowly opened his hands, beginning to peel away a piece of ”data” recently stored in his ”memory archive.”

To defy God, one must first study God, and to study God, it’s best to have a sample.

A harmless treated sample is the best.