As dusk shrouded the land, the magic crystal lamp in the study was lit. Gwen signed his name on a document and handed it to Heti, who was waiting on the other side of the table. "You have to keep an eye on the economic revitalization and industrial construction in the Eastern Region, especially the economic experiment in Suram Terrace. You have to prevent the local merchants and the old nobles from secretly colluding to drive up the price of food and inflate the new currency. Once such a thing happens, you have to punish severely according to the law and announce it to the entire Eastern Region."
Heti took the document with a serious expression. "Don't worry. I understand the importance of the economic experiment."
Gwen nodded. He could not help but look at Heti with concern. "How's your rest? Take care of yourself. "
"I'm ashamed to let you worry about this, ancestor …" Heti lowered her head. "The Government Office has not been very busy recently. After winter, many projects affected by the season have slowed down or temporarily stopped. The Ministry of Internal Affairs only needs to do a year-end summary and next year's plan. The interns who joined the Government Office last year can now be put to good use."
"That's good." Gwen nodded. "How's the Weave project in the North and West?"
"I've been keeping abreast of their progress with the two Grand Senators. At present, basic Mana Net facilities have been built in the main cities and sub-cities of the Two Realms, mainly because there are mages in those cities, as well as mage towers and mature supernatural material processing systems, allowing them to quickly complete the basic setup. However, there's not much progress in the cities and villages below."
Heti could not help but shake her head. "Besides, due to the arrival of winter, the areas outside the cities have become difficult to build. The Weave between the cities in the North and West has not been connected. They can only rely on relay equipment to barely achieve communication. And because of the lack of relay stations and insufficient power, the communication between the cities is often interrupted. It can be said that it has not been put into practical use yet."
"I can understand." Gwen was not surprised. "After all … relatively large construction machinery and vehicles are still scarce. The South can barely use them, and many areas in the North and West can only rely on manpower for construction. Winter is an insurmountable hurdle."
Only when the Weave became a "net" would it be able to display its greatest value.
The communications network that spanned the entire country, the energy system that surged with power, the cornerstone of industry, and the skeleton of society — all of these had to be built on the foundation of the Weave. And from the perspective of the 'Empire', Gwen also needed to connect every region of the country into a tighter whole. Only then could he avoid the retaliation of the old factions in the distance and prevent some provinces that were difficult to look after from falling back to the closed and divided state of the Empire.
However, it was not so easy to achieve this.
It was relatively easy to build a basic Weave facility in a city, but it was more than twice as difficult to build enough Weave stations in the wilderness where there were few people. Not to mention that many projects had to face extremely harsh environments — mountains, torrents, quagmires, the frozen soil of the North, the swamps of the West … Even with the help of magic, it was very difficult to challenge these challenges.
Small relay equipment could only allow two Weave stations to operate at the lowest power. And for the Weave to achieve full power transmission of energy and information, larger hubs or hubs had to be built. Back when Gwen was building the Weave in the South, he had relied on the aftermath of the unification war to carry out large-scale population migration, city integration, border military control, and other measures to achieve the Weave in a short period of time. But now that the unification of the Empire was complete, the country was no longer in a state of war, and the Empire was much larger than the South, such measures could not be used. Even if he wanted to use them, he would have to make considerable adjustments.
Based on this foundation, he could only proceed step by step and wait for this huge project to be completed slowly.
"Now, other than the main hub in the South, only the main hub in the East Holy Spirit Plains has been successfully activated," Heti said. "Solin helped us activate the hub in the East Holy Spirit Plains in advance. The others, such as the West Holy Spirit Plains main hub, the West Holy Spirit Plains main hub, the North Holy Spirit Plains main hub, and the Saint Sunil main hub, have all been shut down due to winter."
"… Actually, it's also good. If the projects are prioritized, there will be a chance to discover some hidden problems and not cause too much damage to the Weave of the Empire," Gwen said half-sincerely and half-consolingly. "Pay more attention to the news from Solin. The experience accumulated there should be a lot of help for our construction after spring next year."
Heti lowered her head and accepted the order. "Yes, Ancestor."
Then, she quickly looked at Gwen and confirmed that all the documents and reports had been handed over. She then took half a step back and said, "Then, if there's nothing else, I'll go back to the office first. There are still a few reports waiting for me to review."
Gwen was just about to fall into deep thought. Hearing that, he felt that there was no problem and nodded. Just as he nodded, Heti had already left the room quickly.
Not sure if it was an illusion, Gwen even felt that Heti left an afterimage the moment she walked out of the study …
"Looks like the pressure at work has been quite high recently," Gwen could not help but touch his chin and softly said. "I still have to find someone to share the pressure with …"
As soon as he said that, Amber seeped out of the air beside him. "You really don't know why she's been avoiding you recently?"
Gwen glanced at this half-elf and said, "Can't old people have this little bit of fun?"
As he spoke, he suddenly felt layers of ripples in the depths of his mind. A special identification mark called out to him in his consciousness.
"Daniel is looking for me. It seems to be urgent." He then looked at Amber. "Stay here."
Amber was startled for a moment and waved her hand. "Hey, I'm familiar with …"
As soon as her voice trailed off, Gwen had already sat on the wide armchair and entered the mental connection state.
Looking at Gwen who had closed his eyes, Amber could not help but frown. After a moment of silence, she sighed and said to herself, "Sigh … If you're like this, I'm afraid you'll die of exhaustion in this life … Is this the same as' die of exhaustion '?"
Chaotic flashes of light and shadow spread out in his field of vision. Gawain could still faintly hear Amber's low voice, but he didn't really care.
The scene in his field of vision had gradually stabilized.
On the endless vast surface of the water, huge metal platforms were arranged one after another. In the sky, there were huge geometries and numerical symbols operating silently. In the center of the sky and water, Daniel, dressed in a black robe, was already standing beside the white round table.
"My Lord." The old mage immediately bowed when he saw Gwen. "I've become the Archbishop of the Cult of Eternal Rest."
"You've passed the test and successfully promoted?" Gwen immediately looked up and down at Daniel, then nodded slightly with a smile. "That's good news, congratulations."
"This identity is no longer important to me." Daniel immediately bowed his head and said with sincerity. "The knowledge and health you've given me are priceless."
Gwen could feel that the old mage's words were from the bottom of his heart.
In the beginning, the old mage from Typhon and the Eternal Sleep Congregation's "loyalty" to the "extraterritorial wanderer" might really be because of fear, and loyalty from fear often could not stand the test. But as time passed, as more and more things happened, this loyalty had obviously quietly changed.
Knowledge and health, and after obtaining these two, the real life situation in the real world changed. All these could not be ignored.
The old mage bowed his head in front of the "extraterritorial wanderer," and the respect in his heart had long been greater than fear.
He knew that he was probably not a good person — even if he was, he was not now.
But at least he remembered to be grateful.
He had fallen into despair because of his talent problem, driven to madness by the incomplete biochemical transformation, and almost completely lost his mind. His heart was ruled by endless whispers and hallucinations. He had almost lost everything, including most of his humanity.
It was the gift of the "extraterritorial wanderer" that gave him the opportunity to find those things one by one.
Perhaps in the eyes of the extraterritorial wanderer, he had only given him some insignificant knowledge and some simple treatment methods, but this "small" help from a "higher being" was enough to change the fate of a mortal.
The gift of fate needed to be repaid with loyalty.
"My Lord," Daniel said respectfully, "after becoming an archbishop, I've obtained higher authority. I've investigated the truth of Project Zero, and I've also preliminarily come into contact with the source of the current crisis of the mental network!"
Gwen's eyes became serious. "Project Zero … What's going on?"
"They're trying to lift the 'Mental Seal'!" Daniel immediately replied. "And not just one or two people. They intend to lift the Mental Seal imposed by all the gods on the mortals by connecting the dreams of every mortal!"
Daniel's reply made Gawain's breath skip a beat. He almost lost control of the dignified and solemn image he tried so hard to maintain.
Two seconds later, he adjusted his state of mind and stared into Daniel's eyes. "They know about the 'Mental Seal'?"
"Yes, but they call it 'shackle' or 'god's chain'." Daniel nodded. "I don't know where they first learned about this phenomenon, but it's clear that the Eternal Sleepers who specialize in the study of the mortal mind and consciousness know more about the 'Mental Seal' than the Everythings Finality …"
"The research of the Everythings Finality stops at the 'body', but the Eternal Sleepers have obviously entered the realm of the mind and even the soul …" Gwen nodded slightly. "So what are they going to do? How does Project Zero work? "
Daniel nodded and began to report in detail. "First, they build a huge, independent mind world, which they call the 'sandbox'. This sandbox is a more complex and advanced space than the Dreamscape. Other than the necessary monitoring measures, it is completely isolated from the outside world.
"The human mind is led into this sandbox world, and before entering the sandbox world, it is subjected to complete hypnosis and memory stripping. All memories and concepts related to the gods are deleted, and the sandbox world itself does not have any information related to the gods.
"When the sandbox begins to operate, it will form a closed system. This system is self-sustaining because it does not exchange any information with the outside world, and its interior has been completely 'disinfected', so it should be a completely godless world. Those who 'live' in the sandbox world will not remember what the outside world looks like, and will only think that everything in the sandbox is real.
"Finally, through 'time iteration', the sandbox world's time flow is accelerated, and it is completely disconnected from the outside world. It will operate for more than a thousand years, and its internal mind will undergo dozens or even hundreds of 'reincarnation and remodeling' …"
"Time iteration?" Gwen immediately grasped a key word in Daniel's report. "Accelerate the flow of time in the sandbox world? Doesn't this require a huge amount of computing power? "
Daniel nodded with a serious expression. "Yes, a huge amount of computing power, and not only does it require a huge amount of computing power, it also requires a human brain that can be permanently connected to the network as the 'operating substrate'. This is because the sandbox must be completely isolated, not only on the network, but also in the real world. The ordinary Eternal Sleepers are floating on the network, and every node is constantly changing, so they do not meet this condition …"
The mystery was finally solved, and the question that had troubled Gwen for a long time was answered.
"That's why they need brain servants!"
The mental network itself did not need a fixed 'server'. According to Gwen's understanding, its entire operation process was based on the 'cloud' technology. As long as a certain number of users maintained a connection to the network, and as long as a small amount of computing power was distributed to those users, the entire network could operate. If one had to say that it required any hardware foundation, it would be some terminals used to connect to the network (most of the Eternal Sleepers even used their own superhuman abilities to omit this step), as well as the equipment needed to debug and monitor the network.
Therefore, the Eternal Sleepers did not need to turn anyone into a 'brain servant' to maintain their network.
However, their 'sandbox' did.
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