Daniel stopped at a square.
He sat on the bench with his eyes closed, his fingers gently tapping the armrest beside the bench.
Invisible data flowed in the network. A consciousness on standby in the distance responded to the bishop's summon. With a slight wave in the air, a female believer in a white dress appeared in front of Daniel. She bowed and said, "Bishop, you summoned me?"
"Yes." Daniel opened his eyes slightly and nodded. The female believer in front of him was his subordinate in the Eternal Sleep Congregation. She had been trained by him for many years, and her loyalty was unquestionable. He had promoted her to the cyber security department. But even so, she was not qualified to know the existence of her master. She was just a satisfactory assistant. "Dana, there seems to be some rumors on the network recently."
"Rumors?" The female believer frowned and was confused for a moment.
Daniel displayed the few pieces of information he had just seen, and the clear words floated in front of Dana.
To be honest, Daniel did not care much when he saw the information. There were many believers connected to the mental network, and many of them were bored or overly neurotic. Countless useless information flowed in this huge network every day, and the overly shocking and unbelievable ghost stories were often part of this kind of useless information.
But when he casually searched for the statistics of these few pieces of information, he could not help but be concerned.
These things that looked like rumors … had appeared more than once in the past half a month.
The female believer carefully read the information that Daniel showed her. After a brief recollection, she nodded. "Yes, Your Excellency, there have been such rumors on the network recently, but after investigation, they were all just nonsense."
Daniel raised his eyelids. "Investigate?"
"Yes." The female believer nodded. "The inspectors patrolled everywhere in the City of Dreams, but they did not find the so-called abnormal void. The priests in charge of the network checked all the connection records, and no one suddenly disappeared from the network or abnormal disconnection. The believers who claimed to have lost their memory were also found later. It was said that no brain problems were found after the examination. The so-called memory loss may be a phenomenon of mental imbalance and delusion caused by long-term connection to the network."
"Are they all just delusions and rumors?" Daniel mumbled softly. "But there is more than one piece of news …"
The female disciple opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but she stopped at the same time as Daniel.
An invisible wind blew through the City of Dreams, and an announcement was broadcasted across the entire network from the Great Shrine in the center of the city. All the Eternal Sleepers in the city raised their heads and looked in the direction of the Great Shrine, including Daniel.
In his field of vision, a notice from the pope appeared:
"The recent rumors about the abnormality of the mental network, the sudden disappearance of the connectors, and the memory loss after disconnection are all rumors. Our compatriots in the sect should not believe them …"
After the announcement, the female disciple Dana blinked and looked at Daniel. "Bishop, it seems that the Archbishops' investigation has come to a conclusion. These are indeed rumors."
"Rumors …" Daniel murmured softly and waved his hand. "Well, I have nothing else to do. Go do your own thing."
"Yes, Your Excellency." The female disciple bowed her head, took half a step back, and disappeared in a flash of light.
Daniel shook his head and glanced at the square in front of him.
A glowing vortex of light was cruising in the square, moving quickly and silently against the ground.
That was the so-called 'patrollers'. They were not controlled by humans but were rooted in the mental network and operated according to a specific logic. Similar to the self-disciplined illusions of magic puppets, they patrolled the entire network day and night, inspecting the City of Dreams. Their range of activity was even wider than the followers of the Eternal Rest in the City of Dreams.
The Inspector came to the bench where Daniel was sitting and gently bumped the latter's leg. When there was no response, the glowing vortex retreated a little and then bumped again.
It was not very smart, but it was loyal to its duty.
In theory, the Inspector would not let go of any abnormality in the mental network. Those news might be rumors made up by the bored, but … it was better to report it to the master.
Daniel stood up, took a step forward, and disappeared in a wave of phosphorescence.
…
Cecil City, in the high-end laboratory of the Institute of Magical Engineering Technology, a group of senior magicians, runemasters, and traditional mages and scholars from other places were gathered in front of an experiment table, staring at the thing placed in the middle of the experiment table.
It was a heavy book with a black cover, and its age could not be determined.
Gwen was also standing in the laboratory, looking at the big black book with experts and scholars from various fields. On his left stood Rebecca and Jenny, who were also staring with their eyes wide open. On his right stood Kamel and Veronica, who were always expressionless. At his feet was a sleeping Tyre who was dragged there to make up the numbers.
No one knew about the Book of Ultimate, and no one could explain its principle. Even the most knowledgeable scholar could only be at a loss when facing this thing.
So Gwen could only gather all kinds of experts and let these professionals, who had made achievements in their respective fields, judge and see how to solve the mystery of the book. He did not expect these people to know or analyze the book, but at least they should think of a way to solve the problem.
For this reason, he also dragged Tyre here, hoping to get help from the mysterious knowledge of the sirens. But this seemed to be a wrong idea.
This salted fish came in and looked at the Book of Ultimate, expressed that she did not know, and then began to sleep. Now, she had been sleeping for almost an hour. Not to mention cold water, even boiling water could not wake her up.
Gwen tried, but it really could not wake her up.
And she took up a lot of space on the ground.
Gwen shook his head and kicked Tyre's tail a little to the side. He stepped forward and said, "Everyone, do you have any ideas?"
Pitman, who was standing in front, heard the voice and turned his head, stroking his beard that he was rubbing almost every day but did not seem to be shaving. "Your Majesty, this … to be honest, I can't see the meaning at all."
Gawain sighed. "Even you can't see the train of thought with your experience …"
In other words, even the experience of a double traitor and double traitor was not enough?
Pitman was not ashamed at all. He was very calm. "That Bertilla and a lot of the higher-ups of Apocalypse have studied it for hundreds of years and still could not figure it out. What's the use of my experience?"
What he meant was that the job of a cult remnant was not dependent on the number of shifts, but the time of duty. Although he had jumped between two cults, his real work experience was not enough, and naturally could not come into contact with the Book of Ultimate, which was the pinnacle of the cult.
"Your Majesty, I'm sorry, we can't find the idea either." Jenny came up from the side and said with her head lowered. "Although there are runes engraved on some parts of the book, they are in a runic format that no one can recognize, and there are too few samples to analyze the pattern. Also, I suspect that those runes are not the real structure of the book, and its function should be through a more complex and advanced mechanism. "
Carmel nodded. His buzzing voice came from the shining arcane light. "The technology used to make this book has been lost. It's hard for us to understand how it works. It may have come from a more advanced civilization that is far more advanced than us, or it may have come from a civilization whose technological path is completely different from ours. If it's the latter, then it will be even more difficult for us to analyze it. We may not even be able to tell whether the patterns on the pages are decorations or functional structures. We may not even be able to tell whether the cover is to protect the book or if there's some other secret …"
Veronica gripped the Platinum Scepter and said regretfully, "Not to mention, it's broken now. The Society of All Things Will Die may have used it too crudely, resulting in the loss of such an invaluable ancient artifact. If it could still work, our analysis of it would be much easier. "
Gwen's expression was a little awkward.
But fortunately, most of the people's attention was on the book on the table.
"Kamel's guess is very reasonable, and maybe both of his guesses are right." Hao Ren coughed dryly to prevent everyone's attention from being focused on 'it's a pity that the sample is broken, and rough usage is not advisable'. "The Apocalypse found the Book of Finality in a very ancient underground ruin, and at that time, the book was protected by an ancient device that no one could understand, and its manufacturing technology had long been lost.
"There is a point of view that before the first Great Expansion, or even before our current generation of mortal civilization, there were many reincarnation civilizations in the world. Therefore, we can boldly guess that this book is an advanced product left behind by a previous generation of civilization."
The technicians in the laboratory couldn't help but discuss in hushed tones. This sort of hypothesis of a prehistoric civilization was somewhat unorthodox, but in Cecil's academic field, challenging the norm and deviating from the norm wasn't something new. Everyone might find it inconceivable, but if it was beneficial to their research, the researchers wouldn't mind discussing it under this premise.
"It's a pity that there's only one book, and it's gone if it's broken." Rebecca sighed. "Otherwise, we might be able to understand something by cutting it open …"
"Hey, hey, isn't the book already broken?" Amber immediately urged. "If it's already broken, maybe …"
Before the half-elf could finish, she was pulled aside by Gwen. "Don't mess around!"
"Now we can only use some indirect methods to study the structure and principle of the book," Kamel said. "First, use the crystal resonator to test if it contains crystallized runic structures, then use the arcane detection circle to test if it will react under certain arcane energy stimulation … This is a more conservative but relatively effective plan. If our current equipment is accurate enough, we may be able to delineate the hidden mageweath structure. Even if we can only delineate a part of it, it will still be a huge improvement. "
This seemed to be the only feasible plan for now. While the efficiency may be low, at least it was a start.
The temporary research plan was quickly finalized, and the technicians began to leave one after another. Soon, only Gwen was left in the lab.
And a salted fish who slept the whole time and did not wake up even after being accidentally stepped on a few times.
Gwen stared at the Book of Ultimate on the lab table. After the technicians left, a sturdy steel fence rose around the lab table, and a faintly glowing shield shrouded the interior of the fence. Coupled with the armed security forces outside the lab, the book should be quite safe here.
He withdrew his gaze and turned to leave. But just as he took a step, a slightly cold touch suddenly came from the edge of his palm.
Gwen looked down and saw a long snake tail swinging around him, and the cold tip of the tail poked his hand.
The owner of the tail was rubbing her eyes as she got up from the ground.
The salted fish had woken up.
"Actually, I have a suggestion." Tyre gave a long yawn. Just when Gwen thought she just got up to say goodbye and go back to sleep, she said seriously, "Why don't you ask the Mithril Vault?"
Gwen frowned. "The Mithril Vault?"
"We sirens don't know much about the succession of civilizations on the land. I'm really not good at ancient relics." Tyre retracted her tail and seriously coiled herself up as she said lazily, "But there is an equally ancient race that has been paying attention to the land. Behind the Mithril Vault is the Dragons. Nominally, they keep the client's entrusted items, but historically, they are actually collecting the relics of civilization. So … do you think there will be another 'Book of Ultimate' in their vault?"
Tyre paused for a moment and looked at Gwen. "Or, it could be something from the same era as the Book of Ultimate."
As Gwen had guessed, for an ancient and powerful civilization like the sirens, the Dragons behind the Mithril Vault were no secret.
He looked at the siren who was sleeping a moment ago and looked particularly lazy. "Looks like you didn't sleep just now."
"I was sleeping, but I'm born with a keen sense of perception. I can think when I hear things in my dreams."
"That's really impressive." Gwen smiled and then nodded gently. "Thank you for your suggestion. Maybe I should contact the agent."
"That's your business." Tyre shook her body and stretched her tail. She waved her hand and arched in the direction of the door. "Anyway, I wish you all the best."
Gwen watched the siren lady walk out of his sight. A moment later, he heard her voice coming from the corridor. "Hey, why are there footprints on my tail?"
… Who just said that her senses are sharp in her sleep?
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