It was as if there was a gentle and cool breeze blowing on his face.
How long had it been since he could breathe so easily? How long had it been since he could lie down so comfortably? How long had it been since he could feel so peaceful and comfortable? All the pain and fatigue were gone, and all the old illnesses seemed to have been healed.
In his memory, this feeling seemed to be something that happened decades ago.
"This child is blessed to be with the earth. He is blessed with the blessing of the Goddess of Harvest..."
Suddenly, a voice that had settled in the depths of his memory suddenly broke into his mind, reorganizing his chaotic and scattered thoughts. The feeling of not being able to distinguish between illusion and reality suddenly disappeared, and the wind blowing on his face also became real. There was also a faint smell of green grass and earth entering his nostrils. Norris suddenly opened his eyes.
A boundless green field stretched out in his line of sight, and there was indeed a gentle breeze blowing on this land. The grass and leaves rippled in the breeze, and in the distance stood a strange mountain peak that seemed to be pieced together by pieces of color. Between the clouds in the sky, he could see magnificent formulas and runic arrays. A gentle giant sun slowly streaked across the sky, and he was lying in this strange land.
Norris woke up in this strange place, and looked at everything in front of him in confusion.
Some vague memories began to wander in his mind. He remembered the figures that swayed in front of him, remembered the whispers of Marguarita and Bertilla by the bed, remembered that he was walking on the last day of his life, and with a surge of confusion, he got up from the grass and stood up.
He found that his body was unprecedentedly flexible. This was a feeling that he had not felt for many years.
There was a small slope nearby, and standing on it, he should be able to see more things. Norris stepped in that direction, and he easily walked to the top of the slope, and then found that on the other side of the slightly undulating hill, there were actually people.
A beautiful city lay quietly on the plains, surrounded by rivers and lakes that glittered like gemstones.
A voice suddenly came from the side, "Is it beautiful? They made it based on what they remembered. "
Norris was startled by this voice and he immediately turned his head to look, only to see that a figure had unknowingly appeared beside him. It was a young girl he had never seen before. She was dressed in a simple white dress, her long hair as white as snow falling to the ground. She stood there, gazing at the beautiful foreign city in the distance, a pure and happy smile appearing on her face.
Noticing Norris's gaze, the girl turned back and showed a bright smile, "Hello, I'm Naretil."
Then she pointed behind Norris, "He's Duwalter!"
Norris turned back, puzzled, and saw that there was an additional figure behind him. It was an old man in a simple robe, with a kind face and a smile, nodding slightly to him.
"I …" Noris opened his mouth, but did not know where to start. He looked at his surroundings in confusion, and finally shook his head. "Is this a divine kingdom? The God's Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest? "
"This is not the God's Kingdom, but it's a very good place," the girl who called herself Naretil said with a smile, "But we're only responsible for bringing you here, someone will explain the situation to you."
Norris frowned, "Someone?"
Naretil smiled and nodded, "He's already here."
As soon as she finished speaking, the girl who called herself Naretil and the old man named Duwalter silently disappeared from Norris's sight. The latter subconsciously rubbed his eyes, and when he put down his hands, he saw a familiar and burly figure standing in front of him, looking at him with a gentle smile.
"Your Majesty!" Norris immediately recognized who it was, and subconsciously called out in surprise, "Why are you..."
"I'm here to see you," Gwen nodded with a smile, "Unfortunately, I couldn't make it in time in the real world."
"The real world?" Norris blinked and looked around, "Do you know where this is? When I woke up, I found myself lying here... "
"This is the mental space formed by the Imperial Data Network," Gwen said with a smile, "Norris, it seems that you don't have time to pay attention to this kind of thing."
Norris frowned, "I seem to have heard of it... but why am I here?"
"In short, you've died in the real world a few hours ago," Gwen looked into the old man's eyes and said calmly, "But I took the initiative to let you 'live' in another form."
...
It didn't take much effort for Gwen to explain all this, and when he knew what had happened to him, Norris was silent for a while.
Looking at the Minister of Agriculture who had fallen into silence, Gawain said after a short pause, "I heard from Beltyra that she had privately suggested you use the Life Swap spell to absorb life force from the volunteers, but you rejected her."
"Yes, Your Majesty, this is something that can't be started," Norris said frankly, "Some things can never be used as a bargaining chip, even if it's the life of a volunteer. This thing is too tempting. Once the practice of 'exchanging life for life' is allowed, even if it is tacitly allowed, it will lead to rapid abuse. Some people will be forced to become 'volunteers', or forced to become 'death row prisoners'... "
As a person who had struggled to climb up from the bottom of society, Norris had seen too many similar things. A preacher would easily fabricate a crime against a commoner, and then 'legitimately' seize his land and house. Even wealthy merchants would be blackmailed by theocracy and royalty, and would have to 'voluntarily' donate their belongings to the church or the king every few days. Money was already so precious, let alone life, which was even more precious than that.
He believed that Gwen, who had personally created the "Cecil Order", must know more about these things than he did.
"Your judgment is correct," Gwen said to Norris. "Bertilla made a mistake. I'm glad that you didn't stray into it."
"But you still let my soul 'live' in this' mental space, '" Norris looked around and could not help but say, "I want to know, are you only going to do this to me, or are you going to apply this technology to other people?"
Although Norris had read books and worked as a church attendant, he could not escape the shackles of civilian thinking. However, after being the minister of agriculture for so many years and witnessing the process of the establishment of a country, he had long learned to look at things from a more profound perspective. Behind Gwen's act of preserving his soul, he vaguely felt that there should be more to it.
"This is a more long-term plan," Gwen said frankly. "I call it the 'Immortal' plan.
"In short, after acquiring the key technology of the Eternal Sleeper and establishing the Narrator's neural network, I intend to establish a special 'soul database' to retain the distinguished talents or talents who have made outstanding contributions in the form of network minds so that they can continue to serve the Imperium. Those people will be known as' Immortals'.
"You're the first, Norris.
"This is also my preparation for the future changes in the world. The world we live in is not peaceful. As a country that is not strong enough, we have to be more prepared."
"Immortals..." Norris subconsciously repeated Gwen's words, but he could not help but show a trace of worry. "But I'm worried that this will affect our social order. In a sense, immortality in the network is also a kind of 'life chip.' And according to what you said, the 'Immortals' had a special status and influence when they were alive. Will such things... be abused?"
"Every good thing has the risk of being abused. The only difference is whether they have the opportunity to be controlled. Compared to Bertilla's life replacement spell, which is easy to manipulate privately, at least the Immortal plan relies on the national system and is easier to control." Gwen was not surprised by Norris's doubts. He spoke his mind frankly. "The government office will set up a management process to ensure that the 'Immortals' will not conflict with the social order of the real world. Of course, I'm afraid this will take a long time, and in the long future, these systems will be damaged and repaired again and again. These are all things we have to consider.
"And as the first Immortal, Norris, I'm sorry that we didn't get your consent before this. The subsequent Immortals will follow the principle of voluntary participation, and will clearly define the responsibilities, rights, and obligations after the 'soul regeneration'. This is also an important part of the Immortal plan to be formally controlled.
"In addition, and to prevent the Immortals from affecting the social order of the real world, Norris, I will take back your position as the Minister of Agriculture. There will be a successor to replace you in the real world according to the legal process, and you can participate in the government office's affairs in the form of a consultant. We will operate like this for a while to see if the process is reasonable. If there are problems, we can slowly adjust.
"Finally, the Immortals living in the Narrator's neural network will also be bound by the social order. You should have seen that there are cities in this world, and there will naturally be residents in the future. They are the 'users' who are 'short-term residents' of the network, and the Immortals who are 'long-term residents' of this world. The government office will establish a management structure in this special world that is similar to the real world. When the time comes, you will find that living here is not much different from living in the real world. "
Noris listened attentively to Gawain's every word. He tried his best to imagine what kind of future it would be, but he found that even though he had expanded his horizons over the years, it was difficult for him to keep up with Gawain's train of thought. He could only roughly imagine some subversive and unprecedented "prospects" — the world would be divided into two, and the real world and the mental space in the network would operate in sync. Countless people would live in these two worlds at the same time, and all knowledge and ideas would be exchanged and shared with unprecedented efficiency. The Immortals would live in the network for a long time, and this could even give birth to a new 'race'. And one of the biggest challenges that Cecil would face in the future would perhaps be to achieve a balance between this new race and the social order …
Some challenges were worth looking forward to.
And while Norris was thinking hard about the future, Gwen's mind was also in turmoil.
The Immortals Project … This was a bold and ambitious project.
Outstanding talents would be protected, and precious knowledge would be used more thoroughly. It could also play a huge role in rewarding and motivating people. At first glance, almost all of these seemed to be advantages.
But risks also lurked in the depths of these exciting advantages.
Just as Norris was worried, this disruptive technology that could make souls immortal was likely to conflict with the existing social order, and one day in the future there would be a risk of abuse and loss of control.
For this reason, Gwen had to lead the government office to formulate a lot of rules and regulations to restrict the Immortals, strictly control the channels, prevent it from blocking the social flow in the real world, prevent it from destroying the relatively fair social order that had been painstakingly established, and prevent it from becoming a vent for power to go out of control …
But even with the many risks, Gwen still decided to start this project and let it become one of the important 'reserves' of the Cecil Empire.
This world was not peaceful, and humans … were not a very powerful species in this unstable world.
The elves had a long history and rich heritage, the Giant Dragon with extremely tyrannical individual strength, the mysterious and powerful immortal sirens … There were too many races that were born with better conditions than humans, and they also had extremely advanced civilizations.
Another thing they had in common was that they had a long lifespan and could live exceptionally long.
Any individual who lived to adulthood would be able to accumulate the knowledge and technology of several generations of human beings.
Even if the Cecil Empire was on good terms with these factions at the moment, that did not mean that Gwen could sit back and relax. After all, he still remembered how the dragonkin had seen through the Cecil Empire's investment and trade plans with a single glance. In the end, the dragonkin still agreed to join the Cecil settlement zone, appearing to have fallen into the Cecil Empire's monetary siege. However, various signs indicated that Duke Balogel did not fall into a 'trap' at all. Since the dragonkin could see through the Cecil Empire's investment plans from experience, they would not be unfamiliar with the little tricks of human currency. The fact that they accepted the settlement zone so casually only meant that … they did not care.
They might have the Giant Dragon of Tarlonde standing behind them, and there might be an 'ancient super warrior' buried deep in their mountains that not even all humans on the continent combined could defeat.
Gwen wished to maintain long-term peace with those races, but there was one thing he knew very well: one must have the capital to achieve peace.
The Cecil Empire needed some 'special foundation' that belonged to humans.
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