Sword of Dawn

Page 387

Cecil Palace, in the study room covered with blue velvet tapestry, Gawain told Hetty and others about his experience in the dream world in detail, including the end of No. [-] sandbox, the duel with the upper narrator, and eternal sleep The status quo after the end of this incident.

The weird and inexplicable "God's Crisis" made everyone in the study wide-eyed (except Kamel, who lit up for a moment), and the unpredictability of the gods and the danger of things deeply touched everyone. , and what made them even more emotional was that all this happened last night——

Last night was calm, Cecil was peaceful, but a certain world outside of reality was turned upside down, and a crisis of divine descent even broke out in the distant Typhon territory, which really gave Hetty and the others a serious sense of unreality.

After slightly digesting the huge amount of information brought by her ancestors, Hetty quickly entered the working state. While thinking, she said: "The transfer work on the side of the Eternal Sleeper should have started, and I will immediately start the work on the side of the Empire." Docking—before Aldernan reacts, we should have time to transfer those core personnel and technical materials..."

"Part of the technical information will be sent through the psychic network first," Gao Wen said, "Although the headquarters of the Eternal Sleepers is gone, their psychic network is still running, but it will enter the lowest-efficiency 'basic mode'. To support the city of dreams, the transmission of simple data is not a problem. Of course, for obvious reasons, the most core technical data will not be sent over, and the eternal sleepers will carry them until the train we send takes them to a safe place. place."

Hetty frowned subconsciously: "It's time like this..."

"Normal reaction - if they don't do this, I will worry about the intelligence of those core talents and the authenticity of those materials," Gao Wen said with a smile, "Don't worry, the Eternal Sleeper has the power of the mind and is lurking in the territory of Typhon For many years, they have been experts in life-saving and absconding, so there should be no need to worry about them being caught and killed by Augustus before they escape."

"Your Majesty," Kamel, who was floating aside, said, "Since the mind network of the Eternal Sleeper is going to switch to the basic mode, will our origin laboratory be affected?"

"In theory... it can continue to operate, because the origin space itself does not occupy the computing power of the city of dreams, and it is built on the 'basic layer' of the mind network, which is the layer that will maintain operation under any circumstances, "Gao Wen thought for a while, and said the speech of killing the wool until death, but then changed the topic, "But I am ready to transform and transfer the origin space, including a large-scale operation of the entire spiritual network of the eternal sleeper. Now is obviously the most suitable opportunity to make it more under our control and more harmless, so I plan to temporarily close the current origin space——Kamel, what is the progress of our own 'immersion cabin network' now? gone?"

"The network has been successfully realized in the laboratory environment, and the simulation operation has been carried out without the mind network of the eternal sleeper. Now the overall stability of the network is being adjusted, and its adaptability to the magic network communication system is increased. Modifications have been made to the cabin to make it less burdensome and more suitable for the untrained common man—the special machine sent to Glenring was a successful example, and we are working on a civilian version on the basis of it."

"Very good, this is a key part of transforming the Church of the Eternal Sleepers and building our own network," Gao Wen nodded with satisfaction, and gradually revealed a smile, "Since this aspect is going well... Kamel, I want to Give you a new project that can be synchronized with what you are currently doing."

Kamel made a buzzing voice: "New project?"

"'Narrative Neural Network'," Gao Wen said with a smile, "the future cutting-edge communication system will be built on its basis."

Three stages

Hetty, Kamel and the others got the recent work arrangement, and soon left the study. The huge room seemed quiet, and only Gawain sitting behind the desk and Vero standing in front of the desk were left. Nika/Ophelia.

Of course, Amber is also on the scene, but she has been dissolved in the air for a long time, so it can be ignored.

Gawain looked up at Veronica who was holding a platinum scepter, and nodded calmly: "We can discuss some issues about the 'Upper Narrator' this time. Sit down."

Veronica nodded, took a seat on a high-backed chair by the desk, and said softly, "Your action this time has provided us with a valuable reference example—this should be the first time we have been so intuitive, To be so close to a god, and a god in a sane state."

Gao Wen said in a deep voice: "Strictly speaking, it is still different from the gods in the real world. It is still uncertain whether the upper-level narrator brewed in the sandbox world is 'complete' enough, and he has experienced madness, death, and division. It’s a complicated process, it’s hard to say what changes happened to him during this process.”

"But it is enough as a reference," Veronica said, "We can at least analyze many 'characteristics' unique to gods from him."

"For example...the purity of divinity and the response to mortal thoughts," Gao Wen said slowly, "The upper-level narrator is composed of divinity and humanity. Humanity appears radical, chaotic, full of emotions, and irrational, but at the same time He is smarter and cunning, and his divinity is much purer. I can feel that he has unconditional protection and attention to his people, and will take actions to satisfy the common thoughts of believers—in addition, from a certain point of view, his The human part is actually acting to satisfy believers’ thoughts, but in a different way.”

While talking, Gao Wen slowly frowned: "This confirms my previous conjecture: All gods, no matter whether they are crazy or harmful in the end, they acted for the purpose of protecting mortals in the early stage..."

"The disobedient never denies this possibility, and we even think that until the last moment of madness, the gods will retain the instinct to protect mortals in some ways," Veronica said calmly, "there are too many evidences to prove that the gods are against mortals. The shelter of the world, in the primitive age of human beings, the existence of gods even saved the fragile mortals from countless disasters. The crazy degeneration of gods is a gradual process-the end of this action against the "upper narrator" Afterwards, I confirmed it even more.”

As Veronica said, she lowered her head slightly and put her fingers against her chin, as if she was thinking and organizing her words: "We can regard the 'Upper Narrator' as an earlier stage god—— In the early stage of birth, the purer trend of thought makes him have a more pure divinity, which is the stage closest to the "essence" of gods, while the gods in the real world are in the later stage. According to our observation records back then, all the gods in the real world God is already in a very chaotic and paranoid state, and this situation will obviously continue to worsen..."

"Based on this, we may be able to divide gods into several stages," Gao Wen said after thinking, "The gods first born in the mortal thoughts are pure individuals produced by relatively strong spiritual reflection. Born of a single emotion or desire, such as the fear of death and the awe of nature, this is the 'primitive god', and the upper-level narrator is at this stage;

"After the birth of the gods, they will continue to be affected by the thoughts of mortals, and as the influence lasts longer, they will be mixed with too many 'impurities', so they will become more and more chaotic and more inclined to madness. I am afraid that It is the longest stage in the entire 'life cycle' of a god, which is the 'god of the pollution period';

"In the final period, the pollution reached its peak, and the gods completely turned into a chaotic and crazy existence. When all rationality was annihilated by those chaotic thoughts, the gods will enter their final stage, which is also the stage that disobedients try their best to fight against— —'Mad God'."

After Gao Wen's voice fell, Veronica nodded slightly: "According to the characteristics of the upper-level narrators, your division method should be correct."

"...So, it's not just divinity that pollutes humanity, it's also humanity that pollutes divinity," Gao Wen sighed softly, "We always think that the spiritual pollution of gods is the first and most powerful pollution, but we ignore The huge number of mortals also has a huge influence on the gods...

"The complexity and differences of mortals have caused the gods to continuously fall in the direction of madness since their birth. The gods who protect all things are 'created' by mortals themselves, and the 'mad gods' who eventually destroy the world are also created by mortals themselves."

"The nature of this world is like this," Veronica said quietly. The disobedient who has lived for 1000 years has a calm tone, and there is only a machine-like calm in her beautiful crystal-carved eyes. Not biased, it just has a set of rules, and all of us—including God—have to operate within this set of rules. The only irony is probably the 'disobedient' like us, we are a group of people who refuse to obey the rules Ordinary people who are going to die, but not willing to die, is probably the biggest disobedience to this world."

Gawain was silent for a few seconds, shook his head and said with a sigh: "...survival is the instinct of all living beings, and morality is limited to groups. In a sense, both humans and gods are pitiful."

At this moment, Amber's voice came from the nearby air: "But why must human nature pollute divinity? If mortals are complicated and chaotic, wouldn't mortals be the same when gods were born?"

Gawain glanced to the side, grabbed the amber out of the air, and Veronica said, "Because we have been developing, and the ethnic groups are becoming larger and more complex, not just This is true materially, and the same is true ideologically.

"The ancients who conceived the 'gods' at the beginning, they may just be in awe of certain natural phenomena, and their greatest wish may be to have enough food and clothing, just to survive the next day, but what about us today? How many mortals are there? How many expectations and impulses do you have about the future? And these will all point to the god who originally only wanted to protect people from food and clothing..."

Listening to Veronica's words, Amber couldn't help frowning slowly.

"This sounds like a deadlock... Unless we never develop, even the population does not change, and the thinking must remain unchanged for a thousand years, in order to avoid the emergence of 'mad gods'... But how is this possible?"

"This is indeed an endless loop," Gao Wen said lightly, "that's why we have to find a way to break it. Whether it is the end of all things will try to create a god completely dominated by human nature, or the eternal sleeper will try to break through the soul seal. The methods to cut off the 'pollution link' between man and God are all trying to break this endless cycle, but...their paths have all failed."

Amber suddenly looked up at Gao Wen: "Is there another way?"

Gawain looked into those bright eyes, and slowly smiled: "It depends on human effort, there will always be a way."

"I hope this road will be found sooner," Amber pouted and muttered, "It's good for people, it's good for God..."

Veronica heard Amber's words, but as a disobedient, she didn't make any rebuttals or warnings, she just listened quietly, her eyes were calm, as if she was lost in thought.

Gao Wen narrowed his eyes slightly, his thoughts fluctuating.

The development of mortals... In a sense, a poison that pollutes the gods has been brewed, which has buried the hidden danger of human self-destruction. However, development itself is the only resistance that mortals can make when facing this cold and hard world .

This cold rule is really not very friendly, but neither man nor god has any choice.

……

Magic Technology Research Institute, Druid Research Center.

The gray-haired Byron stood in an unobstructed open space, nervously watching the technicians not far away busy around the platform, adjusting equipment. He tried his best to look calm, so he stood upright on the spot , but those who are familiar with him can see the tension deep in the imperial general's heart from this calm standing posture——

It is rare for a normal Byron to stand up like this.

Pea sat quietly on the chair next to Byron, looked up at her adoptive father with some helplessness, lowered her head and picked up the clipboard she never left, wrote a line of text on it, and then stamped it with a pen. Byron's elbow, handed over the writing board:

"Dad, relax, you will influence everyone."

Byron looked down at the content on the writing board, and pulled out a stiff smile: "I... I'm quite relaxed..."

Seeing this, Pea sighed helplessly, and turned her gaze to a large pile of machinery and equipment and technicians not far away.

Pittman stood among a group of assistants and researchers, with a seriousness rarely seen on his wrinkled face.

The crystal resonance device buried under the test bench emits a pleasant hum, and a complex and clear three-dimensional image appears above the projection crystal inlaid in front of the test bench. Details, pay attention to its every change.

"There should be no problem, the reaction is consistent with the last test, the artificial nerve cord is alive and well, and the signal transmission is very clear," an assistant said, "The next step is to see if the new skull base contacts can function as expected ..."

"It's finally time for acceptance..." Pittman sighed softly, and then carefully picked up the strangely shaped silver-white device placed in the center of the platform as if holding a treasure.

It was a "serpentine device" less than half a meter long and composed of pieces of silver-white metal segments. The whole looked like a flat spine, with a triangular structure that seemed to be able to fit the back of the neck at one end, and extended out from the other end. With a few "tentacles" like terminals, the whole device looks sophisticated and weird.

This is exactly the improved "nerve thorn".

Holding the triangular structure of the nerve thorn with one hand and holding its terminal nodule underneath with the other, Pittman came before Byron and Pea.

"Can it be used?" Byron asked immediately.

"It could have been used," Pittman rolled his eyes, "just to be on the safe side, we checked it again."

What he said didn't relax Byron much. The latter still couldn't help frowning, and confirmed again: "In case something happens..."

"First of all, this is a non-implantable nerve cord, which relies on the contact at the base of the skull to establish a connection with the brain, and the contact at the base of the skull itself has a fuse mechanism. As long as the user's brain wave disturbance exceeds a safe value, the contact will be disconnected by itself. Opened, secondly, so many experts here are watching, and the laboratory has prepared the most perfect emergency equipment, you can put your heart back, let it continue to dance in the place where it should stay for decades, don't be blind here nervous."

Byron opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but Pea had already stood up from the chair, and pushed Byron aside calmly.

Pittman glanced at Byron: "Pea is much braver than you."

Byron moved his lips twice, as if he still had a lot to say, but he finally closed his mouth.

In this case, don't continue to question the professionals, and don't add confusion to the experimental project—this is a simple truth, even a half-way knight who was born as a mercenary understands.

"Pea, sit on this chair," Pittman led the girl to a nearby chair, and the latter had her hair tied up when she went out today, revealing her smooth neck. Pittman held a This is the world's first set of "nerve thorns", put it a little bit close to the back of the pea's neck, "it will be a little cold, and then there will be some numbness, but it will pass soon. After that, the tray will stick to your skin, Ensure the effective connection of the contacts at the base of the skull - the effect of the 'adhesive technique' is very firm, so if you want to take it off later, remember to press the buttons on the back in order, otherwise it will hurt..."

Pittman explained the precautions very seriously, and then finally attached the silver-white device to the back of Pea's neck.

A very subtle "click" sound came from the silver-white metal joints. This device made of magic materials, light metals, and bionic substances sensed brain waves, and immediately seemed to gain life. The triangle The shaped tray was attached to the back of the pea's head, and a stream of dark red light quickly flowed between those neatly arranged metal "nodes", the internal runes were activated sequentially, the entire nerve thorn contracted, and then relaxed. Expand it.

Pea's neck trembled violently, but there was no expression of discomfort on her face.

Pittman stood up, glanced at Byron who was stepping forward because of nervousness, and looked back at Pea.

"We've installed a small talker in your nerve thorns - you can now try to 'talk'. Focus and bring out what you want to say, which may not be very easy at first. It's easy, but I'm sure you can master it quickly..."

Pea turned her head hesitantly, as if she was still getting used to the wonderful touch from the back of her neck, then she frowned, trying to focus in the way Pittman explained, and outlined the words she wanted to say in her mind.

An eerie, indistinct noise came from the nerve thorns in the back of her head.

Then there was a second burst of noise, which seemed to be mixed with some broken and messy syllables.

Pea tried a few more times, and finally, the syllables gradually began to continue, and the noise gradually subsided.

She took a deep breath, concentrated her attention again, and then fixed her eyes on Byron next to her.

An intermittent but clear voice came into the ears of the nearly fifty-year-old knight: "...Dad...thank you..."

Chapter 0823 The increasingly blurred boundaries

One minute later, Pittman, who felt that he couldn't stand it anymore, patted Byron's arm: "Just cry for a while, we still have to work."

"When did I cry?" Byron stared at the little old man in front of him, "I just got emotional and couldn't control my emotions!"

"Just pretend I didn't see it," Pittman muttered, and handed Byron a handkerchief, "Hurry up and wipe it off, don't go out and let your soldiers see it."

"You haven't raised a child, you don't understand..."

Pittman rolled his eyes: "Who hasn't raised it? Didn't I bring up Amber—she didn't learn to speak until she was nearly ten years old, and I didn't react as much as you did at the time."

On weekdays, Byron thinks that he can't lose to anyone when it comes to eloquence. Even if Pittman is famously tough-skinned, he is confident that he can talk about the little old man's autism, but at this moment, he is obviously not arguing with anyone. In this mood, the gray-haired knight just opened some red eyes, looked at Pea who was smiling at him, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were wrinkled one after another: "It's so good... so good... is there any Is it a comfortable place?"

"At first... a little... numb..." Wan Dou spoke with some difficulty, but soon her voice became smoother. The more vivid the feelings, "Now...it's much better..."

"That's good, that's good," Byron said again and again, and then turned Pea around, looking at the metal nerve cord that was quietly attached to the back of the adoptive daughter's neck at the moment, "Will this be heavy? It will last for a long time. Will it be uncomfortable?"

"Of course there is some weight," Pittman said, "after all, the weight reduction rune requires additional energy supply, and it is very difficult to integrate the nerve cord and brain wave interaction mechanism into such a small device, and there is no need More space can be allocated to weight-reducing runes—we will gradually improve this defect in subsequent models.”

"I think...it's okay," Peabi said gesticulating—even though she could already make a sound, the habit she had developed over the years made her gesticulate subconsciously when speaking, "It's not very heavy, Not tired."

"Of course, although there is no way to add weight reduction runes, we have used lighter materials as much as possible, and the overall weight is still acceptable," Pittman pinched the few strands of beard on his chin, with a proud face With a smile, "After all, this thing is to be promoted to ordinary people. Comfortable and easy to use is a very important criterion."

With a bright smile on his face, Byron couldn't help but rubbed his hands together and said, "Today is a memorable day... I'll go back and have a few drinks to celebrate..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Pea next to him couldn't help frowning, and a complaining voice came from the nerve thorny sounding device: "Dad, you usually drink too much! How many times have I told you that you want to drink?" Quit drinking, why don't you listen..."

Byron's face suddenly became a little embarrassed. He just wanted to speak, but Pea's follow-up words were obviously not finished:

"Besides, the first time you quit drinking was obviously the one you said, and you patted your chest and said that you would definitely quit within a month. It has been two years now, and you haven't quit at all...

"You are not young anymore, do you know that you have more white hair than black hair! The newspapers have talked about the disadvantages of drinking too much. Don't you always say that Mr. Godwin is a learned man, and what he says is very Does it make sense, why don't you listen to it..."

Byron looked embarrassed, and just said the word "I", when he heard another string of peas crackling:

"Besides, you always go to bed without taking a shower recently, and I have to urge you to go. You don't take care of your beard, and I have to help you tidy up the clothes when you go out every day. I don't know how you usually live when you go out. Yes, didn't you say that there is strict discipline in the army?

"Uncle Philip came back two days ago, and you took him to have a drink, and you said that you would introduce Uncle Philip to some young girls-I and several classmates were there at the time! Dad, you didn't pay attention to the influence at all, last time Ms. Kelly came to the house too, you came out in pajamas, and Ms. Kelly was shocked, she is my teacher...

"And last time, you finally took a vacation, but you want to..."

"Stop, stop... stop!" Byron finally looked at the opportunity and shouted to stop again and again. After finally interrupting Pea's thoughts, he looked at Pittman with a confused expression, "What's going on... ...Can this nerve thorn still affect Pea's character?!"

Pea stared at Byron and Pittman, her face full of expressions of "I still have something to say, and now I'm reluctant to listen to you." Pittman looked at Byron with a strange expression, and said hesitantly: " I think...it's not that it affects her character, but that she already has so many things she wants to say..."

"That's right," Pea said without waiting for Byron to speak. Obviously, she has adapted to the nerve thorns very quickly, and now she speaks very fluently with it, "I have a lot to say! It's just that I usually say no. Just come out, you write slowly, and you can’t speak clearly with gestures, and dad, you don’t pay attention at all..."

Then there was another series of crackling, and this time Byron simply didn't even have a chance to intervene.

Pittman looked at Byron with a sympathetic and helpless expression in astonishment, and the expressions of the assistants and researchers around him were also wonderful—almost all the people here knew Pea, this hard-working and sensible child from a miserable background, they The pea in my impression has always been quiet and well-behaved, and it never made any trouble when cooperating with the experiment in the research institute, but obviously, the nerve thorns succeeded in making everyone realize another side of pea——

She usually doesn't speak, but she has a lot of words in her stomach.

After being yelled at by the peas, Byron's face became extraordinarily exciting. He looked around dumbfounded, and found that it was basically just watching the excitement. Everyone had a harmless but embarrassing look on their faces. Smiling, Pittman also smiled and asked him: "Are you a bit regretful?"

Byron opened his mouth, and glanced at Pea who was standing beside him, who seemed very happy and happy because he said the backlog of words in his heart. The embarrassing expression on his face finally gradually turned into a smile.

"I regret XX," he said with a smile, "I think this is pretty good."

Pea immediately looked over with wide-eyed eyes: "Dad, you said dirty words just now! How many times has Uncle Philip told you to pay attention to your behavior, even if you don't consider your status, you should pay attention to the impact on me... Fortunately, I was not affected by you ,otherwise……"

Byron: "..."

After the new round of bombing finally ended, Byron looked at Pittman a little dizzily: "Then... can we leave now?"

"Okay, there are no more test items today," Pittman said with a smile, "The practicality of the nerve thorn will be confirmed in the follow-up use process, and the adaptability of the pea to the nerve thorn will be paid attention to in the next half month. , pay attention to his sleeping condition and whether the skin near the base of the skull has any allergic reactions, and take the nerve thorns to us for inspection every ten days to confirm the changes in the activity of the artificial nerve cord. Other than that, there is nothing to pay attention to Yes, Pea can wear it often, and feel whether it is inconvenient in daily life."

Byron and Pea listened carefully, and took Pittman's instructions down in their hearts. After a few seconds of silence, Byron suddenly said: "...I am about to set off for the north. The official order has been issued. Three days later We're about to go."

Winter is coming to an end, and the development of the northern coast and the task of building the Imperial Navy will start in the spring. Byron already knew about this before that, and recently, the order signed by the head of the empire has finally been delivered to him.

This is not a secret task. Even the news about the construction of the North Port and the development of the North Territory had appeared in newspapers and radio programs a few days ago. Pea also knew about it a long time ago. She pursed her lips and looked up at Byron. With a glance, there was only a low, unhappy tremor coming from the talker.

"The peas are big enough to take care of themselves," Pittman looked at this special pair of father and daughter, as if suddenly seeing a few years ago, when Cecil City was just a "Cecil pioneering camp" When he saw the middle-aged knight who suddenly had an adopted daughter and was in a hurry, when he saw the silent and submissive little girl who was nervous about the surrounding environment, several years passed before his eyes. Druid shook his head with a smile, "We will take care of her too."