The scene before his eyes gradually stabilized, and the magnificent palace and steeple of the City of Dreams once again appeared before Gwen.
Looking at the "avatars" of the Eternal Sleepers coming and going in front of him and the quiet city, Gwen could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
It seemed that the disguise he set up in the network was working well, and the backdoors he planted to sneak into the network were not discovered by the Eternal Sleepers.
But come to think of it, before the emergence of computer viruses, who knew what antivirus software was?
This was not the first time he sneaked into this world — this was the third time. His direction of action in this mental network was very clear.
Steal technology, plant backdoors, monitor the actions of the Eternal Sleepers, and if there was a chance, exert some influence on the Eternal Sleepers through this mental network, so that this special cult could continue to develop in the direction he wanted.
Gwen bypassed the crowd and arrived at the area where the node crystal was located. After connecting to the main channel, he first confirmed that the "experimental field" he left behind was as usual, then quietly exited the hidden connection and began to search for possible technical information with the help of the node crystal.
Although he failed to find any useful information in the previous few attempts, Gwen did not come up empty-handed in this connection. By analyzing and learning the knowledge of the Eternal Sleepers that he devoured, as well as the experience of stealing resources in the mental network, he had vaguely figured out the principle and structure of this network. He found that he could use the loopholes in this network to do more than he thought at first.
This network was directly connected to the mental world of every Eternal Sleeper. In other words, it could be directly connected to the mind and memory space of every Eternal Sleeper. Of course, the Eternal Sleepers themselves were aware of the risks, so when they connected to the network, they would protect and isolate their conscious world to prevent someone from reverse-invading their mind through the connection. But in Gwen's view, their protection was obviously not enough.
Perhaps it was because the Eternal Sleepers did not expect that someone in their "own" network would harm their church compatriots, or perhaps it was because Gwen's own soul mutation was so severe that he had such strong control of his own subconscious world that in his view, all the deceptive and hidden shielding measures in this mental network did not seem to exist …
The shimmering node crystal floated quietly in front of Gawain. He stared at the surface of the crystal, and his spiritual power gradually spread out. He could feel the truth hidden under the deceptive appearance of the crystal — a huge amount of data was being exchanged, distributed, and reconstructed here. The thoughts of countless Eternal Sleepers were fluctuating at the bottom of the sea of data. Some of them were powerful, some were weak. Those powerful thoughts were closely connected to the structure of the entire network, and the slightest touch would trigger the risk of triggering the entire network's alarm. However, those weak thoughts …
They were like seaweed and zooplankton floating between the waves, lacking both protection and vigilance.
That was the lower level of the Eternal Sleepers, the most basic group of cultists. Their greatest value in this network was their contribution of computing power, and as a "buffer" to bear the data pressure when the network fluctuated violently. For this immature network, fluctuations were common, and the Eternal Sleepers chose the simplest and most brutal way to ensure the overall stability of the network.
Gwen carefully let his spirit continue to spread out. Through the node crystal, he slowly figured out the context of those thoughts and roughly judged the strength of the master behind them. He also began to try to read the shallow memory of those thoughts. This was one of the most basic abilities of the Eternal Sleepers. Although Gwen had obtained this knowledge through devouring, it was the first time he actually used it.
He had to be very careful. Once his infiltration into the network was exposed, God knew how the cultists, who had long been nervous about the "extraterrestrial wanderers", would react. They might even pull out all the cables of the server …
A vague illusion appeared in Gwen's mind. He saw countless light spots flashing and flowing in the hazy outline of the city of dreams. Most of the light spots were in the outer layer of the city, and a few were in the inner layer. There were also a few particularly bright light spots gathered in the large palace area in the center of the city.
He carefully avoided the light spots that were too powerful or too close to the central area and began to approach the targets that looked suitable.
He saw some shallow memories that flashed by. Some were strange people holding a gathering, some were the daily life in a dark and desolate castle. And in these shallow memories that flashed by quickly, he suddenly saw a particularly special scene.
An old sorcerer who lived alone, a paranoid madman who went astray, a person who was lured by the Eternal Sleepers and was willing to become a slave of dreams …
He slowly approached …
In the mountains of the Empire of Typhon in the southwest border, an ancient sorcerer tower stood quietly on the top of a rugged mountain. The dim light of dusk shrouded the black roof of the ancient steeple and spread along the mottled outer wall of the steeple, outlining a hazy golden rim on the tower. However, the light could not dispel the lingering gloominess of the sorcerer tower. Instead, it only made the tower look strange and inexplicable as if it was torn from the sky.
The villagers who lived at the foot of the mountain were always afraid of the sorcerer tower at the top of the mountain. They knew that a terrifying sorcerer lived in the black tower. Every night, the sorcerer's figure would be reflected from the highest window at the top of the black tower. The ignorant villagers always saw the strange wind, lightning, and clouds in the mountains as signs of the sorcerer's anger. They warned the children in the village to stay away from the top of the mountain, lest they be bewitched by the sorcerer and turned into a stone statue in the sorcerer's tower or a talking owl reared by the sorcerer. That was how the villagers imagined magic.
In fact, their fear was not completely unfounded. There was indeed a terrifying and mentally unstable old sorcerer living in the black tower. It was said that the old sorcerer came from Oldenheim, the capital of the Empire. He was exiled by the Emperor for researching forbidden knowledge. He lived alone and had a strange temper. He never interacted with the villagers. He had a few apprentices who were just as gloomy. He would only send his apprentices down the mountain to buy food or do other transactions. The villagers could often smell the scent of blood on the apprentices who wore black robes. Thus, the terrifying and disturbing rumors about the black tower spread.
The black-haired and skinny Mary carried the food she bought and left the village under the fearful gazes of the villagers. Those uneasy and absurd speculations still seemed to be hovering around her ears. She wrapped the black sorcerer's robe tightly around her and used the hood to block the cold night wind in the mountains. She walked alone on the mountain path.
There was only one path from the village to the Sorcerer's Tower, but there were countless ways to escape. Mary raised her head and looked at the gate of the Sorcerer's Tower that had appeared in her sight. She could not help but look back at the path she came from.
She touched the metal bracelet on her neck and looked away with difficulty. She slowly walked towards the Sorcerer's Tower, step by step.
The gate of the Sorcerer's Tower opened automatically. The dark doorway made her subconsciously take a step back. However, in the next second, a skinny arm reached out from the darkness and pulled her in.
A hoarse and old voice came from the side. "Don't dawdle. Master will not be happy."
Mary nodded and quickly handed the basket in her hand to the servant who was as gloomy and old as the entire Sorcerer's Tower. She then walked up to the second floor of the Sorcerer's Tower with heavy steps.
The old sorcerer, wrapped in a black robe, sat in the magic lab. Strange blood-red runes were drawn on the walls and floor beside him. Flickering lights flashed between the runes. The old sorcerer slowly raised his head when Mary entered the lab.
His head with sparse white hair was shriveled as if it had been dried by the wind. His wrinkled skin was full of traces left behind by the passage of time. He was so old that he looked like he would die at any moment. But Mary knew that this old mage was still far from death. She even suspected that this old and terrifying man would live on forever, even longer than she did.
"You're back. Go to work." The old sorcerer glanced at Mary with his cloudy eyes. His voice was low and slow, as if he was sleep-talking. There was a strange sense of delay. Mary knew that this was because her teacher was in a special state of "connection." She did not know what this "connection" meant, because her teacher had never let her know about it. She only knew that this was a "spell" that was completely different from traditional magic. When her teacher, Daniel, was in the craziest phase of his life, he suddenly obtained this "spell." After that, he began to study it crazily and became addicted to it. He even angered the sorcerers in the Imperial Capital and had no choice but to come to this desolate and backward place by the border.
Every time he was in the state of "connection", the old sorcerer's reaction would be this slow. However, the slowness was just an illusion. His mind was still very agile, and his reaction was still very fast. If she did not want to be punished, the smartest choice was to immediately obey his orders.
Mary expressed her obedience and quickly walked to the corner of the laboratory. A dissected sample was already placed on the experiment table, and magic was used to maintain the best research state. Mary recognized that it was a monkey, a very common monkey in the mountains.
She began to process the sample according to her teacher's instructions. Although the sample was still twitching slightly, she still began to do it mechanically. She peeled off the flesh, connected the nerves, soaked in magic oil …
Halfway through these mechanical movements, she suddenly heard a strange noise coming from her mentor's direction.
She looked up in shock and saw that her teacher's eyes were wide open. Great fear was quickly creeping up his old and wrinkled face. This old man, who had always brought fear to others, seemed to have seen something that could scare him to death. He opened his mouth wide and let out a strange gasp. After two seconds of being stiff, the old sorcerer suddenly straightened his arm as if he was trying to block something in front of him. However, he said something strange.
"Stand there and don't move. I've got you."
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