A gentle breeze blew across the vast, green land. Whispers that human ears could not recognize echoed in the wind. Even though the real world was already covered in snow and ice, in the neural network rooted in the spiritual world, the bright spring still lingered between the plains and the river valleys for a long time.
In the center of the boundless' spiritual plain ', next to several rolling hills, a huge city stood quietly. The sky above the city was covered in a pale golden ring of giant runes that refreshed rapidly. Between the city and the giant runes were several golden streams of light. Those streams of light represented several information hubs that connected to the real world. The end of each stream of light was connected to a large building in the city, and these buildings were transit stations for the' residents' of the City of Dreams to enter and exit the city.
In the center of the city, corresponding to the Royal District of Cecil City in the real world, the largest stream of light was connected to the pyramid facility on the surface. At this moment, the stream of light above the facility trembled slightly. Somewhere in the square next to the pyramid, a figure suddenly emerged out of the air.
It was a middle-aged man wearing a monocle with an elegant and refined temperament.
Yuri woke up from the moment of dizziness when he connected to the network. He moved his neck slightly. Of course, there was nothing behind his neck, but the residual 'nerve echo' when he was lying in the immersion pod and making contact with the cold metal contacts was still lingering in his senses. He looked around at the people coming and going in the square, and then walked toward a figure who was waiting for him not far away. As the 'nerve echo' in his mind gradually faded, he raised his hand and greeted the figure. "Magnum!"
"I've been waiting for you here for a century!" Magnum's loud voice exploded in Yuri's ears. The latter even suspected that half of the people in the square could hear him. "What's bothering you in the real world?"
Yuri rubbed his ears subconsciously and looked at his old partner who was standing in front of him with slight dissatisfaction. "You've been away from the real world for too long. Have you forgotten how many troublesome things in the real world can delay one's plans? The outside world is not a convenient neural network. Everything takes time — "
Magnum looked impatient. He waved his hand and interrupted Yuri. "Okay, I get it. I'll ask Pitman later. I know he has a special medicine for constipation."
Yuri was stunned at first, but in the next second, he almost completely lost the gentle and elegant demeanor that he usually tried to maintain. "Damn it! That's not what I'm talking about! "
Magnum waved his hand carelessly. "I know, I know. I was middle-aged like you when I was alive... Okay, okay, I won't talk about it."
The loud guy ended the topic before his old partner's anger reached the threshold. Yuri, who usually maintained a gentlemanly demeanor in front of all the students and researchers, blushed, but there was nothing he could do. The latter could only stare at Magnum for a long time before he looked away angrily. "Open the passage. I'm not here to bicker with you."
Magnum shrugged, waved his hand in the air, and said to the air. "Duwalter, we're here."
Invisible ripples suddenly fluctuated. In the seemingly calm and continuous mental space, a 'habitat' hidden at the bottom of the data silently opened. A brief and hidden passage appeared in the city of dreams. Layers of light appeared around Magnum and Yuri, and then the two disappeared as if something had 'deleted' them.
The next second, they had already appeared in another space: an equally vast grassland, but more spacious than the 'upper level' appeared in front of them. The grassland was shrouded in the night, but the starlight in the sky did not make the night look dark. A small hill stood quietly not far away. The hill was shrouded in a faint halo as if all the stars were focused on it. A huge white spider lay quietly at the foot of the hill, seemingly resting.
This was the deeper space of the neural network, the 'computation layer' below the 'representation layer' and the 'interaction layer'. All the network data was exchanged frequently and at high speed here in the most primitive state. Although the exchange and computation process was almost entirely carried out by the human brain, the human mind could not directly understand this place. So everything that appeared here, including the grassland under the night sky and the starlight in the sky, was just an interface created by the manager of this space to entertain the 'visitors'.
For Magnum and Yuri, the former priests of the Eternal Rest, this space had another meaning: it was the dwelling of the upper level narrators of the 'God of the Past', and the place where Naretil and Duwalter 'stored' their bodies.
Yuri and Magnum looked at each other and saw some emotion in each other's eyes. The latter looked up at the starry night sky and could not help but shake his head and mutter, "Now the position of these stars is the same as the real world."
"After the technological upgrade, the observatories across the country have specially reserved a line for Naretil. She can watch the starry sky through the equipment of the observatories at any time. This is something that His Majesty had promised." As soon as Magnum's voice trailed off, a voice came from the side. Duwalter, dressed in a black tuxedo and holding a lantern, appeared out of thin air. "The starry sky you see now is the projection of the stars that Naretil saw in the various observatories of the empire. Recently, she is trying to record the orbit of each star and calculate the position of our planet in the universe … at least the position between these stars. "
Magnum blinked and said, "… That sounds like an amazing thing."
"His Majesty said so too." Duwalter smiled and nodded. He then took a step forward with the two visitors and came to the side of the huge white spider in a flash. "Naretil was worried that she would be scolded for using up her spare computing power, but His Majesty was obviously very supportive of her. He even arranged for a group of astrologers to participate. Of course, we are not here to talk about this today. "
As he spoke, he raised his arm slightly and pointed to an open space not far away. Magnum and Yuri looked over there and saw a cocoon-like thing fixed to the ground by a large amount of spider silk. The 'cocoon' was as tall as a person and had a translucent shell. There seemed to be something inside. Naretil's' human form 'was circling around it as if she was communicating with the thing inside the cocoon.
Yuri looked a little surprised. "Naretil can communicate with the captured 'fragment'?"
Duwalter shook his head. "It's just a one-sided question. Naretil is trying to dig out more secrets from the mental fragment, but I don't think her method is working."
Yuri and Magnum looked at each other and walked toward the 'cocoon'. Halfway there, they heard Naretil's endless questions. The superior narrator walked around the 'cocoon' and stopped after a few steps. "Where are you from?
"How many legs does the God of War you believe in have?
"Does the God of War know that you have become like this? Did He change it for you? How did he do it?
"How do you communicate with the God of War? Do you still need to pray after becoming like this?
"Can you hear me?
"Oh, you don't want to talk about it. Then … where are you from?"
In the translucent cocoon, Malcolm Dunnett's spiritual body was firmly imprisoned by the power of the superior narrator. He had not dissipated, but he had obviously lost the ability to communicate. Only a stiff face and lifeless eyes were left. He looked dull and stupefied.
"… All the ancestors." Magnum looked at the scene and suddenly shrunk his neck. "If it were me, I would have confessed …"
"Ah, you're here!" Naretil heard the voice coming from the side and finally stopped circling. She looked at Yuri and Magnum happily and ran over with a smile. "Where are you from?"
"I just finished my work in the real world. Magnum should have been patrolling the various nodes," Yuri immediately said, and then his eyes fell on the 'cocoon' not far away. "Did you find anything?"
"If you mean a direct 'interrogation', then I didn't find anything." Naretil shook her head. "The internal logic of this mental fragment has been disintegrated. Although I have tried various ways to stimulate and reconstruct it, it still can't respond to external communication. As you can see, it can't be fixed."
Magnum quickly reacted. "That is to say, outside of the 'interrogation', you found something?"
"Sort of." Naretil thought for a moment. "I tried to disassemble this fragment by directly reading the memory. This method will miss a lot of information and may further 'damage' the sample, but at least I found something.
"According to the memories I extracted, this mortal pope named Malcolm Dunnett had used some kind of crazy sacrificial ritual to pull out his soul world from his body and offered it to his god. Then, that god did something and turned this soul into a state where it could split and reassemble at any time … That's why what we caught was only an 'avatar' …
"Malcolm Dunnett's body is probably no longer in this world. He is probably with the 'God of War', but the remnant memory in the fragment did not mention how to establish contact with the body, nor did it say how to establish contact with the God of War.
"Besides, I also found a very important piece of information. We are not the only ones who caught an 'avatar'. If I'm not mistaken, the human emperor named Rosetta Augustus should have caught one too."
Magnum's eyes widened. "Rosetta? You mean Emperor Typhon has also caught a Malcolm Dunnett?! "
"Yes." Naretil nodded. "While these avatars can move independently, they seem to be able to sense the state of other avatars. In a fragmented and blurry memory, I saw one of the avatars being defeated in the process of some supernatural battle and being devoured by a very powerful force. And the strongest message that the avatar sent out when it was defeated was a name: Rosetta Augustus. "
Magnum and Yuri looked at each other, and after a brief moment of shock, they both realized the importance of this information.
The Malcolm Dunnett in the "cocoon" was nothing more than a sluggish and weak "incarnation". He appeared to be miserably suppressed, but that was because he was facing the power of the Narrator of the Upper Realm — a former God who had left his Divine Seat. Even if he had become weak now, he was still far from being a match for a crazy mortal soul. And if Neratil hadn't intervened …
Malcolm Dunnett would have been a terrible threat! He had already sacrificed himself to God and obtained a strange and unpredictable power. In addition to the ability to appear and disappear unpredictably, he also carried the spiritual corruption from the God of War. This corruption was particularly deadly and special. Even if ordinary mortals could resist it, they would have to take a huge risk and pay a huge price!
However, such an avatar had been defeated in the Transcendent duel with Rosetta Augustus, and had even been "devoured" …
'Devoured' was not a word to be used carelessly. This meant that Rosetta Augustus had a hidden card, and this card was at least equivalent to a Narrator from above!
Did he keep this card just to deal with the God of War? Or was he going to use it to deal with Cecil after this divine calamity?
"We must inform His Majesty about this!" Yuri immediately said. "Rosetta Augustus can 'devour' Malcolm Dunnett who has been tainted by God. This is beyond the scope of a normal human. He is either not a normal human, or … he has borrowed some very dangerous power!"
"That's why I called you here." Naretil nodded seriously. "I know that both of you are from Typhon, and you happen to have a special background. Yuri, you used to be a noble in Oldenheim, and your family has dealt with the Augustus Family for a long time. You should know about the 'curse' of the Augustus Family. And Magnum, I know you are from the Church of the God of War. You should know about the God of War, right?"
As a 'god' personally created by the Eternal Sleeper, Naretil obviously knew a lot of things. Yuri was not surprised by this. He fell into a short moment of thought. Magnum next to him muttered awkwardly, "This … I have been away from the Church of the God of War for too many years …"
Yuri could not help but glance at him. "Your memory should not have deteriorated to the point where you can't remember the rules and regulations when you were a priest, right?"
"This … Back then, my development in the Church of the God of War wasn't very smooth. Even after I became an official cleric, I mainly did odd jobs … Although I would occasionally do other things," Magnum scratched his face even more awkwardly, "Of course, of course, I still came into contact with those doctrines … Alright, I need to recall properly, this matter seems to be really important …"
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