God is dead.
Gwen stared at the words engraved on the stone for a long time. He did not know how to react. Behind him, Yuri and the other two also came closer. The crooked, dark red engravings were reflected in everyone's eyes.
"All the ancestors of my family …" Magnum's eyes widened. "What does this mean?"
Gwen finally recovered from his initial shock. Although the blasphemous words at the entrance of the temple stunned him for a moment, he still remembered the rule of not trusting anything and not making any conclusions easily in Sandbox No. 1. At this time, the first thing he did was to ask Selena more about the situation. "Didn't the previous group of explorers see this sentence in this city?"
"No, I'm sure," Selena said immediately. "Although the previous group of explorers did not have time to explore the inside of the buildings in the city, they had already found the entrance of this temple. If they really saw this sentence, it is impossible that they did not report it."
"God is dead …" Yuri muttered to himself. "During the last exploration, this sandbox world was empty. Who left this sentence?"
"Think about the phantom town," Magnum muttered. "No one … Maybe it's just that we can't see them."
"We should search this temple. What do you think?" Selena said, turning her eyes to Gwen. Although she and the other two archbishops were "professionals" in Sandbox No. 1, they had to listen to Gwen's opinion. After all, they might be facing a god. In this regard, the "extraterrestrial wanderers" were the real experts.
Gwen knew what the eternal sleepers thought of him. In fact, he did not think that he was a professional in fighting against the gods. After all, this field was too high-end. He really could not think of anyone who could give guidance in killing a god. But after all, he had been exposed to a lot of secrets of the gods and participated in the encirclement and suppression of the God of Nature (a folk imitation) and the cooking operation. At least in terms of self-confidence, he was much stronger than ordinary people.
Of course, if he added the theoretical knowledge he gained from communicating with Veronica and Kamel, plus the experience he accumulated from studying ancient classics and the books of the Church of Holy Light, he was indeed an expert in the field of theology and god-defying.
"Let's search the temple," Hao Ren said, nodding. "Religious places are the 'channels' through which the gods affect the world. It can often show the nature and state of the corresponding gods.
"But remember to be vigilant. If you see an unusual scene or hear a suspicious sound, immediately say it. Don't trust your own mind here."
The three archbishops nodded, and then strode together with Gawain towards the interior of the temple that had a rich desert vibe.
The temple had been abandoned for a long time. It looked ancient and full of traces of time.
After a short corridor, there was a hall for religious activities. The lights that were used to illuminate the hall had long been extinguished. Huge pillars and curtains hanging from the air interweaved layers of shadows in the hall. The sunlight from the narrow high windows shone into the room and cut out a bright "path" between the shadows. It was the afternoon in the sandbox world. The sunlight that shone down at an angle was not very strong, adding a mysterious and ancient charm to the entire indoor space.
Gawain casually turned his head to take a look. Through the narrow window, he saw the sun on the horizon. It was also a huge sun, with wood-like patterns vaguely appearing on its glorious corona. It looked just like the "sun" in the real world.
Living on the satellite orbiting the gas giant, the eternal sleepers could not imagine what the sun of other planets looked like. In this No. 1 sandbox, they also set up a sun that was no different from the real world.
"This place has been abandoned for at least a few decades … maybe a century, but not longer." Yuri bent down beside a collapsed stone platform, his fingers stroking a piece of weathered cloth on the stone platform. "Otherwise, these things would not have been preserved."
"But the words on the door look like they were just carved." Magnum frowned and muttered.
Gwen looked at Yuri's action and asked casually, "Will the things in the sandbox world also decay like the real world?"
"Yes." Yuri stood up. "And the form and speed of decay is almost the same as the real world. These details are based on the real world. After all, it is almost impossible for mortals to rewrite the whole set of details. "
"Sigh." Gwen could not help but shake his head and sigh. "The real world can give birth to gods. How can a similar religious phenomenon not be born in such a world that is so similar to the real world?"
Selena, who was walking next to him, shook her head. "Before this, who knew that gods were 'born' and not 'existing forever'?"
The three archbishops were speechless. They could only continue to examine the clues in the temple in silence.
Magnum walked to the front of the hall, where there was a special round high window. Light shone down from the high window onto a platform that looked like a pulpit. Tiny dust particles fluttered in the light, disturbed by the uninvited guests who had come to this place.
Yuri came to Magnum and asked casually, "Are you sure you have removed the psionic storm from your subconscious?"
"Damn it, how many times do you want to confirm it? Of course I have removed it!" Magnum glared. "Have I hurt you many times with the psionic storm? Do you have to be so vengeful? "
"… I have even trained myself to be resistant to the psionic storm. What do you think?"
"… I-I-I-REMOVED! Absolutely! Removed! " Magnum emphasized each word again. At the same time, he was sizing up the platform that looked like a pulpit. Suddenly, his sweeping gaze stopped and fell on a corner of the ground. "… There's one here too."
Yuri followed Magnum's gaze and saw a line of rough carvings deeply engraved on the stone slab. It was the same handwriting as the one at the entrance of the temple.
God is dead.
The two archbishops were silent for a moment. Magnum suddenly said, "Yuri, tell me the truth, do you believe what is written here?"
"There is only one 'god' in the sandbox. If this sentence is true, and the god is really dead, then we can go back and celebrate," Urey said with a wry smile. "It's a pity that the contaminated people are still contaminated, and the out-of-control sandbox shows no signs of recovery. At this time, when I see this sentence that the god is dead, I can only feel that it is even weirder and scarier."
Magnum nodded in agreement. "You're right. No matter who left these terrible words here, his mind doesn't seem to be normal."
On the other side, Gwen and Selena were checking several rooms connected to the hall.
In a showroom behind the pulpit-like platform, which seemed to be dedicated to storing important items, they saw many offerings from the believers. They were placed in square holes in the wall and kept well.
Selena frowned slightly as she looked at the exquisite gold and silver utensils and jewelry. "The upper-level narrator is devout by the local people. I'm afraid these offerings are only a small part of it."
"It's a pity that these mundane things don't mean much to a god." Gawain said casually. Then, his eyes were attracted by a gorgeous and exquisite one-handed sword placed alone. The one-handed sword was not placed in a hole in the wall like the usual offerings. Instead, it was placed on a platform at the end of the room. It was protected by runes and there seemed to be words on the platform, which made it stand out from the rest.
Gwen came to the platform and saw a line of text on it.
The Most Holy and Great King Balmorra presents to my Lord, the Year of the Chrysanthemum, the Day of Summer.
"It seems to be a king's offering to the upper-level narrator," Gwen said casually as he looked at the line of text.
"King Balmorra …" Selena also saw the line of text, and there was a hint of thought in her eyes. "I seem to have some impression."
"Oh?" Gwen raised his eyebrows. He thought it was just an insignificant name, but he felt something strange from Selena's expression. "What did this King Balmorra do?"
"According to the data output from the log system, it was a virtual personality automatically generated by the sandbox," Selena said as she thought. "He was born as a slave in the city of Nim Dror. Later, according to the system settings, he won his freedom through slave wrestling and became one of the city's guards. He was slowly promoted to the captain of the guards …"
"A guard who was a slave?" Gwen could not help but be surprised. "Then how did he become a king?"
"Let me think … According to the time in the sandbox, it should be about two hundred years before it went out of control. The city of Nim Dror was shrouded in a plague of insects, the water source was polluted, and the food harvest was ruined. Locusts and black beetles ate most of the stored food. The nobles of the city fled, and the king also took refuge in a nearby country with his confidants and treasures. In the critical situation, the people who were still alive in the city decided to elect a new king. The one who could find a way to fight the insects, find a source of food, and a new water source would be the new king.
"Just as you thought, this' sandbox resident 'named Balmora did all these things. He found the root cause of the pest outbreak, led the people in the city to find a new water source, led the soldiers to catch up with some of the fleeing nobles, and took back part of the food that they had taken away … All of these are great feats, even beyond our preset' script '. No' virtual resident 'has ever done these great things that have driven the course of history, and such things are often done by external input scripts … So, it left an impression on me."
"What happened to this great king in the end?" Gwen could not help but ask curiously.
Selena seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying softly, "… Deleted."
"Deleted?"
"The deviation in the script was too great. The sandbox thought that the system was at risk of imbalance, so it automatically corrected it. Balmorra's sudden death in the prime of his life was actually deleted. Of course, he left his own reputation in the history of Sandbox No. 1. At least this part of his reputation was not reset."
Gwen did not say anything for a moment. He just quietly looked at the sword placed on the platform. It was as if he was looking at a virtual personality born in the dream world, created by the system. He watched as he turned from a slave to a soldier, from a soldier to a general, from a general to a king, and finally … deleted.
Suddenly, he had a strange feeling about the living beings in the sandbox world.
His attention quickly returned to the temple that belonged to the Narrator from the upper echelons.
"Then, according to the clues here, King Balmorra dedicated his sword to the gods," he said to Selena beside him. "That is to say, in the era when Balmorra was active, the faith of the Upper Narrator had already been born and had even become the core faith of the city of Nim Sanjo."
Selina clearly thought of the same thing. Deep in thought, she said, "It seems … that's the case."
"At that time, the sandbox system had not yet gone out of control. You external monitors knew nothing about the appearance and existence of this temple."
"Indeed."
Gwen raised his eyelids. "Why do you think this is?"
Thinking for a moment, Selina slowly said, "Either … the Narrator from the upper echelons twisted time and history after the sandbox went out of control, creating a world process that didn't exist in the sandbox world, or the sandbox system went out of control earlier than we thought, and even the surveillance system has been lying to us."
Gwen was silent.
Either way, it wasn't good news.
If it was the first possibility, it meant that the Upper Narrator's degree of erosion and control of the sandbox system was more serious than expected. He even had the ability to manipulate time and history in the sandbox world. This was beyond simple mental corruption.
If it was the second possibility, it meant that his corruption had leaked earlier than everyone expected. It meant that he had likely left hidden dangers in the real world that could erupt at any time.
In all fairness, Gwen would rather encounter the first situation.
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