Sword of Dawn

Page 364

"I never completely immerse my mind in any level of consciousness. When I was doing this exploration, I also kept a part of my thinking thread in a shallower level of consciousness.

"When the town changed, the thinking I stayed outside noticed the abnormality, so I woke myself up."

Daniel was not just talking nonsense. What he said was an effective defense plan that he discussed with Gawain just now when he was exchanging the strange situation of this phantom town—the only part where he lied in front of the two archbishops. , that is, he actually does not have this unique habit, and he did not do any "allocation of thinking" operations in this exploration.

But after going back this time... Maybe I really should develop such a "habit".

After all, the psychic network is no longer safe. Before the threat of the upper-level narrator is completely resolved, he, the security director who often has to deal with network pollution, must protect himself.

The two archbishops, Yuri and Magnum, seemed to have no doubts about Daniel's words. They nodded, and Magnum asked with a loud voice, "How do you plan to check whether we have been polluted by the upper-level narrator?"

While talking, the Archbishop of the Eternal Sleeper, who is short in stature but has a big name and caliber, couldn't help but look down at himself, and his tone was rather dissatisfied: "This damn place, I still have to move around like this..."

"Our virtual disguise doesn't seem to work here," Archbishop Yuri glanced at Magnum, "You should accept your real appearance calmly—indulging in your own virtual disguise is not what an archbishop should behave .”

"I know I know...you talk too much nonsense!"

Daniel didn't pay attention to the conversation between the two colleagues in front of him. He just nodded and answered Magnum's question just now: "It's very simple to check whether you are polluted, but it requires your cooperation—let go of your mind and let me Check your superficial memory. Don’t worry, I only check the superficial layer, and I can confirm whether there is any belief about the upper-level narrator..."

He hopes to take this opportunity to reasonably check the superficial memory of the two archbishops in order to gather some information—if only the superficial memory is checked, it will not be too sensitive and offensive, but it still needs a reasonable enough reason. Seems like a great opportunity.

Presumably the two archbishops would not refuse to "exclude the pollution from the upper narrator".

Gawain on the side also showed a faint smile, obviously quite satisfied with Daniel's performance.

However, things did not develop as Gawain and Daniel expected——

Before Daniel finished speaking, and before the two archbishops Yuri and Magnum answered, a voice suddenly came from the nearby streets and alleys. It was the voice of Selina Gerfen:

"There is no need to confirm, Archbishop Daniel—if they are polluted by the upper-level narrators, they have already become residents of this town at this moment."

The expression on Daniel's face almost changed, but in the end he remained indifferent, and turned to the direction of the sound - Yuri and Magnum also turned their heads curiously, and saw a lantern appearing not far away. alley.

Selina Geerfen was not affected by the weird environment here? !

Accompanied by the question that suddenly emerged in his heart, Gao Wen also turned his eyes with a little surprise, and saw the figure walking out of the alley with a lantern in his hand.

He saw Patty.

The daughter of the Countess Glenn, the child who runs around in the dream city, Patty who calls Gawain "Uncle Selsey" in the dream world.

She was just as in Gawain's memory, wearing a pure white dress, with long light brown hair hanging behind her, big eyes, and healthy limbs in the dream world, but she carried a completely different color from Gawain's memory His expression: that expression is calm, tranquil, with a stability that doesn't match his age, and there is a hint of vicissitudes of maturity in the depths of his eyes.

She held Selina Gerfen's lantern in her hand, and behind her were four high-ranking priests wearing owl masks, who were walking towards this side unhurriedly.

Gawain blinked, calmed down in the shock of the explosion, and realized one thing:

What he saw was not Patty, but Selina Gerfen with Patty's face on her face.

In this "small town after the bell rings", everyone has lost the virtual disguise in the spiritual network, and instead presents the real appearance of the real world, so a person like Selina Geerfen has lost the reality. Why does the ancient soul living in the network with ideology appear as Patti Grant?

Patti Grant is Selena Geer in disguise?or...

In a short moment, Gao Wen thought of countless clues, and a large amount of fragmented information emerged like an explosion, and was finally connected into a whole by a thread. He thought of Patty Grant's tiara, and thought of Selina Geerfen took Patti Grant strolling and playing on the boulevards of Dreamland City, and even thought of the lantern that inexplicably appeared in the Kant area, and thought of the appearance around Cecil before the Southern Union War Traces of the past activities of the Eternal Sleepers...

In the end, what he thought of was the thing he was investigating recently, which was a passage he saw in Selina Geerfen's profile last time:

Selina Gelfen, archbishop (death), female, spirit body.

Current location: Ansu/Correction/Cecil Empire·Southern Territory.

It turned out to be the case.

Gao Wen breathed a sigh of relief, and many thoughts slowly settled in his heart. He was not in a hurry to make any conclusions about the state of Selena Geerfen or Patty, but he already had a few reliable guesses in his mind, and While his thoughts were racing, Selena... Selena who had the shape of Patty also came in front of Daniel and the others.

Gawain's concealment effect was still in effect, except for Daniel, none of the Eternal Sleepers at the scene knew that there was a bystander standing quietly beside them.

The three of Daniel saw Selena holding a lantern, and they didn't hide their surprise—obviously, not only Daniel saw it for the first time, but even the two archbishops Yuri and Magnum saw this "serena" for the first time. With such an appearance of the "Dream Saint", Magnum was the first to say: "Bishop Selina, you are..."

"Didn't you also restore your true posture?" Selina responded indifferently without waiting for the other party to finish speaking.

Her attitude is very calm and calm, and her voice is also the voice of an adult, but all of this is placed on a little girl who is only thirteen or fourteen years old, and it looks extraordinarily weird.

In fact, Patty in the real world should be almost 15 years old this year, but due to injuries, she has always been much thinner than her peers. It is reflected in Na Geer's "true posture".

"True posture..." Daniel muttered subconsciously, and it took a lot of effort to keep his expression from looking too strange.

"...My situation is very complicated, so don't get into it," Selina shook her head, then raised her head, her eyes fell on Yuri and Archbishop Magnum, "You are lucky, you only came into contact with the upper-level narrator eroded, but not polluted."

"You don't seem to be affected?" Yuri looked at Selena and the owl priests behind Selina in confusion, "How did you do it?"

Selena glanced at Yuri, looked down at her young body at the moment, and suddenly there was a trace of self-mockery in her eyes: "The pollution of the upper-level narrators will erode the deep-level consciousness... As a combined soul, a soul running in the network mind, I am not deeply conscious.

"It is precisely because of this particularity that I not only resisted the erosion of myself by this small town, but also had the opportunity to shelter other eroded compatriots."

While speaking, Selena glanced back at the four masked high-ranking priests following behind her, sighed and shook her head.

"Unfortunately, I was one step too late. The deep consciousness of two people has been polluted, and they have become believers of the upper-level narrator and a part of this town. With my ability, I can no longer find them."

The weirdness and danger of the phantom town made Daniel and the others tremble.

Gawain carefully observed Selena and the several "Owl Priests" behind her when she spoke, especially the latter. During his careful observation, he did not find any of these people were called by the "Upper Narrator". "The sense of disobedience caused by the replacement, while relaxing a little in my heart, I dare not relax completely.

This made him sigh—the "weirdness" brewed in the No. [-] sandbox is really weird and dangerous, especially when it directly threatens people's minds, it is even more difficult to guard against, and people will never dare to relax their vigilance, even if he seems to be It can be unaffected, and I dare not relax at all when facing the upper-level narrator and its related influences!

"Bishop Selena, we are now trapped in this 'town after the bell rings', and we can no longer contact the surveillance team behind," Yuri did not reveal it after confirming that Selina was indeed the person in front of him. The appearance of the slightest relaxation, but reporting the current bad situation, "And we still can't perceive the boundary of reality, and we can't directly leave the Internet. The situation is not optimistic."

"I don't need to perceive the boundary of reality, but I can feel that there is a twisted barrier between this town and the normal network, which should be preventing us from leaving," Selina said in a deep voice, although the steady voice Putting it on a little girl seems a little bit of a sense of being an adult, but no one at the scene cared about it, "I guess, the key to this twisted barrier is in the middle of the town, where the church stands..."

"It makes sense," Daniel said with a dazed look, "in the first exploration, the church appeared after the bell rang—and this is the town after the bell rang! We are 'outside' The church was not found, but it may be here!"

"Let's go," Selena exhaled softly, "The church is not far away, but we have already wasted a lot of time."

After the words fell, she had already turned around, holding a lantern in her hand, and walked in the direction of the town square.

The Eternal Sleepers, whose staff had been reduced by two, followed up, and Gawain also followed silently, and quietly glanced at Selina.

...The little short legs were moving quite fast, he couldn't help thinking.

Chapter 0784 Psychic Storm

Under the leadership of Selena, the exploration team of the Eternal Sleepers, with only eight people left, began to march towards the center of the town.

The dream lantern swayed slowly in the seemingly eternal darkness, and the dim light shone on the deserted streets. Daniel and the others were on full alert, always paying attention to whether there would be any strange changes in the surrounding streets, while Gawain followed silently. The team was on the sidelines, and their eyes fell on Selina Geer.

Patty who likes to run in the dream world, Patty who is weak but still trying to smile in the real world, and "Patty" with a solemn expression and a lantern in front of him, three shadows hovered in his mind, and Overlapping with the scene in front of me, a strange impression gradually formed——

He seemed to see Selina Gelfen holding Patty's hand and walking in front of the procession.

He shook his head, throwing this unreliable association out of his mind, then raised his head, his eyes reflected a ray of light rising from the end of the street in the distance.

It is morning glow.

Daniel and the others also stopped in their tracks, and watched in amazement as a brilliant light suddenly pierced through the darkness and appeared at the end of this town that seemed to be trapped in an eternal night. The light rapidly expanded in everyone's field of vision. Almost in the blink of an eye, it turned into endless golden-red morning glow, splashing wantonly on the scattered roofs of the town, and then the golden-red morning glow turned into pale golden sunlight, completely dispelling the dark shadows between the streets.

A giant sun slowly rises in the sky, the light is brilliant, and the darkness recedes.

"It's dawn..." Daniel stared blankly at the magnificent scene of the rising sun, as if he was overwhelmed by the magnificent scene, but he quickly realized that a long staff appeared in his hand, Various mind-protecting spells bless the entire team in just a few seconds.

Its daybreak!This is a scene that this phantom town has never seen before—it is its third state except midnight before the bell rings and midnight after the bell rings!

In this place, all phenomena that have never appeared before only mean danger!

Other Eternal Sleepers also responded one after another, preparing various offensive and defensive spells, or vigilantly observing the changes in the street, and soon, the changes happened in front of everyone's eyes——

Suddenly, figures appeared in the streets and alleys.

It was like a phantom suddenly waking up from a dream and entering reality. The streets of the small town that were empty one second, and countless shadowy phantoms emerged in the next second, and these phantoms quickly changed in the next few breaths. So solid and real, they turned into pedestrians coming and going, and turned into countless residents in the small town!

These people wore classical costumes that were different from the real world, with numb and empty faces. They swayed on the street like ghosts and corpses, but soon "woke up" and quickly became vivid in expression and flexible in action. Waiting for people to come and go, walking and talking, as if living in this small town normally from the beginning, as if this town has never had any weirdness, never any abnormality!

Layers of dizzying ripples of light rippling in the hands of Archbishop Magnum, a powerful spiritual storm almost came out of his hand, but at the moment when the spell was about to take shape, the fiery-looking archbishop abruptly cut it off. own spells, and blocked the actions of others: "Wait a minute! See the situation!"

Archbishop Yuri was surrounded by complex golden runes, and he almost used offensive spells. After Archbishop Magnum reminded him, he abruptly stopped casting spells and glanced around——

Those people who were coming and going on the streets of the small town didn't seem to notice Daniel and his party at all. They were still busy with their own lives, busy on their way, busy talking with their relatives and friends, the eternal sleepers standing in the middle of the road The team is so abrupt and eye-catching, but it seems to be invisible in the eyes of all residents.

A little cold sweat could not help but break out on Daniel's forehead.

This phantom town has become "lively", but this bustling, lively street is more eerie and terrifying than the uninhabited street shrouded in night before!

"This is also the projection of No. [-] sandbox," Selena's voice suddenly broke, breaking the silence in the team, "These residents should only be operating according to the information recorded in the projection, like a large illusion, and will not interact with us." generate interaction."

"...This greatly inspired me to weave nightmares," Archbishop Magnum muttered louder than ordinary people, "Why didn't I think of such a scene before?"

"Go ahead," Selina shook her head. "Also, pay attention to the content of these 'phantom residents' conversations. Their daily conversations may reveal part of the current situation of No. [-] sandbox."

A group of people continued to move towards the center of the town, walking cautiously on the streets of the town where pedestrians came and went.

Everyone is paying attention not to have contact with those "phantom residents" - although everyone is very curious about whether these shadows can be contacted, and what will happen after contact with them, but those who can participate in the exploration mission have at least basic Be cautious, under the premise that the situation is unknown, no one makes such a bold attempt that may cause some consequences.

Gawain devoted part of his attention to carefully listening to the conversations of the phantom residents: he was also curious about the "life" in the No. [-] sandbox.

Most of those conversations were of little value—just like any normal street chat, the "residents" were talking about the weather, the harvest, family problems, daily necessities, rice, oil and salt.

The people in No. [-] sandbox seem to be living an ordinary life. They live, grow old, sick and die in that virtual world, get married and die, have their own troubles, have their own wishes, run around for life, and worry about the future...

The only difference from the real world is that they will refer to the "Upper Narrator" from time to time in their conversations - they pray to him, swear by him, and even use him as part of their daily slang.

They will say "Even the upper-level narrator will be surprised" to describe the unbelievable degree of a thing, and they will say "The upper-level narrator must know", which actually means that they know nothing about something - Only God knows this.

Gao Wen frowned slightly, his mood fluctuated.

In a sense, the Eternal Sleepers really created a miracle, a miracle even bigger than the "false god's body" of the Death Society.

So many people have living real minds and "virtual personalities" created by the sandbox. They live in such a simulated world, living their colorful lives from generation to generation, with their own emotions. And the pursuit of yearning, it has been running for more than 1000 years before there is a flaw in this world.

Such superb technology...

But can't you just do some personnel work?

If these technical geeks spend half of their death-killing skills to practice artificial intelligence and other technologies, they may almost restore the iron man's mind of the Gondor Empire back then! !

Gao Wen had a strong urge to complain, and the whole team had already reached the end of the street, the edge of the square in the middle of the town.

The small church with a gray-white exterior wall and a tall spire is standing quietly on the square.

The spire of the church is bathed in brilliant sunlight, and the outer wall is shining brightly under the giant sun, symbolizing the wall painting of the upper-level narrator, and residents stop and stop to pay respect and worship.

An elderly priest wearing a simple gray robe stood in front of the open door of the church, watching the square with people coming and going with a smile on his face, and some residents stayed beside him, listening to the elderly priest telling about the story of the upper narrator The truth, everything looks so harmonious and beautiful.

It will almost make people forget that this is a weird projection located in the "imaginary number area", forget that this is a phantom town full of twisted and dangerous forces, and forget that they are in an exploration team with a mission...

Archbishop Yuri woke up from a trance in an instant. He saw a lantern swaying in front of him, and the voice of Selina Gerfen rang in his ears: "Don't relax, remember that this is just a projection, everything here all fake."

Gawain glanced at the Eternal Sleepers before him in confusion, and murmured in his heart—what happened just now?Another force is trying to corrode them?Why don't you feel it yourself?

The elderly priest not far away from the church door raised his head, smiled and glanced at the eternal sleepers who were on guard against the enemy, and said in a gentle tone: "Why resist? This is not a very beautiful world. Is it?"

As the priest's voice fell, in the nearby streets and alleys, on the square in front of the church, those town residents who were busy with their lives coming and going, and those projections who had turned a blind eye to Daniel and others, suddenly all stopped in their tracks, as if The momentary stillness of a puppet stopped.

In the next second, they turned their heads slowly at the same time, and their eyes fell on a few uninvited guests in the square.

Residents of the entire town quietly cast their gazes. At this moment, even Gao Wen felt horrified!

Of course, the Eternal Sleepers are facing a formidable enemy. Only Selina calmly met the gaze of the elderly priest, and after a few seconds slowly said: "Sure enough...you have a soul that is close to the real. You are the A projection formed by the town's master mind?"

The old priest had a calm expression and slowly shook his head: "I don't understand what you are talking about, I just think you should try to stay here for a few more days - the land that is sheltered by the upper-level narrators is lucky, why go back to that dangerous nothingness middle?"

Gao Wen frowned slightly——dangerous nothingness?What's the meaning?

Refers to the "imaginary area" outside this small town?Or... some current state in Sandbox One?

Yuri's eyes fell behind the elderly priest not far away, on the church with the open door, after carefully perceiving the information structure in this area, he said in a low voice: "That church is the exit—— It should be connected to the phantom town on the surface, and connected to the backbone layer of the spiritual network."

Magnum snorted: "I guess that guy definitely doesn't intend to let us swagger in."

Selena slowly raised the soul lantern in her hand, and stepped towards the church not far away: "I'm curious, can your upper-level narrator really protect your soul here?"

"The upper-level narrators are everywhere..." The old priest slowly opened his hands, "Where the Lord's people stand, the Lord is there..."

Layers of halos emerged behind the old man, and a huge oppressive force suddenly descended, and the ethereal, holy, and powerful sound of sacred music resounded over the entire church square——

Except for Gao Wen, who couldn't be observed, everyone at the scene more or less felt that their minds were being withdrawn, and the consciousness of resistance was disintegrating.

In this projected town, in the depths of the imaginary number area outside the No. [-] sandbox, an upper-level narrator priest who can only be called a phantom, only with the blessing of some kind of "faith", displays Introduced a truly powerful magic!

The faces of Selena and Gao Wen, who was in a state of psychological invisibility, changed slightly at the same time. The former took a step forward, and the lantern in his hand shone brighter than ever before, impacting the halo that emerged behind the old man, facing the square The power that pervades the world and keeps everyone's minds separated.

The golden runes floated around Yuri, expanding into layers of barriers that could protect everyone. At the same time, the archbishop shouted without looking back: "Magnum! You can do something you are good at now!" !"

Magnum, with bristling red hair and short stature, waved his hands: "Psychostorm!"

In an instant, layers upon layers of waters of light that seemed real or unreal floated on the entire square, and the tide suddenly turned into a brilliant storm. The powerful spiritual force washed away everything in Gawain's sight, and washed away those things that had already started Waves of "phantom residents" with fanatical expressions on their faces came.

In this projection town supported by spiritual power, the spiritual storm, which should belong to a relatively secret spell, set off a real "storm!"