The howling lasted for half an hour before it finally subsided.
In the Imperial Hub Control Centre, the technicians were still on edge. Every one of them was busy checking the status of the system, repairing the malfunctioning nodes and rebooting the equipment that had gone offline. Commands and reports were ringing every second. While there was no smoke in the huge hall, it was like a battlefield.
The power spine of the entire facility had been reconnected, and the hub tower on the surface had been reactivated. In the few minutes after the howling ended, more than ninety percent of the nodes and facilities had returned to normal. The arcane technicians in charge of monitoring the system were surprised to find that the terrible chaos did not cause any damage to the hardware. It was like an illusory storm that blew across the entire network, but in the end, it did not take away anything. Even the traces were quickly fading away.
Only the other nodes in the Empire that were still in a disconnected state reminded everyone that the anomaly was not an illusion.
Rebecca looked nervously at the center of the hall where a silver-white metal pillar stood as if it ran through the entire facility. Kamel, who was shining in arcane radiance, was floating beside the pillar. His body had almost doubled in size, and he stood there like a radiant giant. Countless arcane rays shot out from the gaps of his runic armor plate, connecting to the many runes and arcane nodes on the pillar. The arcane master from a thousand years ago was using his own method to sense the remaining energy noise in the Mana Net. There was a certain risk in doing so, but it was the most efficient and most reliable method.
After a while, Kamel finally ended the connection. His body slowly recovered, and he floated to the commander's seat at the front of the hall.
"Master Kamel," Gwen asked before Rebecca could. "What's the situation? Have you found the cause? "
"We can confirm that a very powerful energy body had entered our network. The traces left behind by the neural network show that the scale of this energy body is beyond our imagination. If it had gone out of control, it could have burned the entire Mana Net!" Kamel's voice had a hint of lingering fear, and what he said made everyone gasp. "However, this energy body had cleverly 'self-divided' countless times when it passed through the network. It distributed itself, flowing through those nodes without causing any damage, just like flowing water. It 'seeped' into the bottom layer of our network and disappeared there."
Gwen felt like he was listening to a fairy tale. Even with the worldview of this world, he could not understand what Kamel was describing. Even Rebecca, who had always been carefree, was stunned. "Oh my God, what is that thing? Why does it sound like … some kind of living thing?"
"This is a bit beyond common sense, but it seems that … it is really alive, and even rational," Kamel said in a low voice. "I just tried to track its traces, but all the traces were cleverly erased. This is not a phenomenon that can be caused by an unconscious energy turbulence."
Gwen frowned as all kinds of speculations surged in his mind. He felt that he seemed to have some ideas. "… Did that energy body 'distribute' itself to avoid destroying the network?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. If it's really something with intelligence, then it's diverting the Mana Net to avoid self-destruction. Even if that thing could burn down the Mana Net, it would definitely be heavily damaged in the process, and could even be directly annihilated. That's a magical energy source that spans the entire Empire, and its combined power is far beyond what mortals can imagine. I think even the gods would not take the initiative to attack such a powerful energy source …"
The scene described by Kamal made Gawain even more solemn. The accident that happened today was beyond any of his previous plans. It even made him feel a sense of helplessness that he hadn't felt in a long time. However, just as he was about to ask for more details, a technician in the monitoring seat suddenly shouted, interrupting the conversation on the podium.
"We have received the signal from Ten Forest City!"
Rebecca, Gwen, and Kamel said almost in unison, "Connect!"
The next second, the information from Ten Forest City was displayed through the holographic projection at the front of the hall. Gwen saw Great Governor Bodwin Franklin standing there, and behind him was the busy hub control hall. Ten Forest City had obviously experienced serious chaos, but everything seemed to have calmed down.
"Your Majesty," Bodwin Franklin said hurriedly as soon as the communication was connected. "We have just experienced an abnormal accident here. All communications are down, and the energy source is down, and …"
"It is the same here, but the situation here seems to have calmed down," Gwen interrupted. "How is the situation on your side?"
"Ah … it has also returned to normal here." Bodwin was stunned for a moment before he quickly reacted. "We are reactivating the various nodes, and now we have reconnected to the main hub of Saint Sunil and the capital …"
While this Duke of the Western Region was talking, Gwen saw that the image of the entire territory had once again appeared on the largest projection device at the end of the hall. The originally completely dark nodes of the magic network gradually lit up, and after a few jumps and fluctuations, the nodes of Ten Forest City and Saint Sunil's radiation area lit up one after another.
Very soon, the technicians in the monitoring seats reported, "We have received the signal from Winter Fort Academy!" "Communication with Changfeng Fortress has been restored!" "Solin Fortress channel is clear!"
"Looks like … everything is returning to normal." Gwen was relieved, but the strong doubts and uneasiness in his heart did not disappear at all. "But we still don't know why …"
"What is that energy entity that suddenly invaded the network …" Rebecca also subconsciously muttered. "It's a pity that we didn't catch it and let it escape …"
Just as Rebecca muttered halfway, a small magic network terminal on the command deck suddenly lit up, and a slightly old voice came out from it. "No, Your Highness, that thing hasn't escaped yet. We caught its tail."
"Duwalter?" Rebecca immediately looked at the sky above the terminal. Duwalter, dressed in black, had emerged from the holographic projection. "You said you caught it?"
"We are." Duwalter nodded. "That thing hasn't completely left the network. It is moving quickly along the 'unconscious zone' of the neural network. Naretil is tracking it at the border area. We need more computing nodes, which can strengthen Naretil's perception range and movement speed."
"Inform the computing center." Gwen immediately looked up at Kamel. "All standby personnel with no mission to enter the immersion cabin!"
…
The 'unconscious zone' of the neural network.
A vast and chaotic fog shrouded the entire world. Sunlight of unknown origin floated in the sky, sprinkling strange and distorted light beams through the fog, illuminating the grayish-white water at the bottom of the world. Countless strange clouds and vortexes were constantly condensing and dissipating in the depths of the fog, making the whole world in a state of unstable change. The hollow sound of the wind came from the distance from time to time, making the place even more eerie and desolate.
This was the border area of the vast and complex network, the symbolic state of the 'chaos' in the deepest part of the neural network. It was a chaotic area formed after a large number of mental nodes that made up the network intersected, interfered, and iterated with each other.
Here, any orderly calculation would eventually lead to a disorderly result. Every minute and every second, useless data would be destroyed here, and unformed 'thoughts' and 'memories' would turn into nothingness. Those thoughts and memories were the result of the interaction between the connectors of the network in their sleep, the result of countless minds roaming together. They were constantly formed and disintegrated in this border zone, and what appeared was the clouds and vortices.
A mind that was normally connected to the neural network would never visit this area. More than a dozen security protocols protected the user's brain to prevent reckless Internet roamers from being swallowed and digested by the "unconscious zone". But today, this "border" that should have been unvisited had uninvited guests.
A huge, pale purple phantom flashed across the depths of the fog. The phantom was projected on the grayish-white water at the bottom of the fog, but what it reflected were countless bizarre runes and colorful light balls. Around the phantom that flashed by quickly, fine spider silk and illusory spider limbs were constantly growing and extending like a dream that would not disperse.
A gigantic, snow-white spider was moving rapidly above the fog. A massive spider web rapidly formed and spread around her. Her long limbs stirred up the thick fog as she ran. The power of the "boundary" was being mobilized by the spider, constantly forming interference barriers and false paths. And the white spider's eyeless head was always looking in one direction.
Although the lavender phantom was fast, it had already fallen into the spider's web. For a predator, any escape of the prey in the web was just an entertainment before the net was closed.
Naretil was an impatient predator.
So after confirming that the time was right, she immediately stopped all information flow in the border area.
The lavender phantom was instantly bound by an invisible force in the fog. Countless runes and disordered light and shadow burst out on its surface like a spell model that had gone out of control and was on the verge of collapse. But the next second, the 'out-of-control spell model' quickly stabilized itself and began to collapse inwards. A large number of colorful light balls and runes first spread out and then condensed inwards. In just a few seconds, the chaotic, bizarre shadow had a definite 'appearance'.
It was a woman — at least some of the features looked like a woman.
Her body was as large as a clock tower, and her beautiful face had a strange feeling that she did not look human. Her eyes were like broken stars, and there was no distinction between the white of her eyes and the pupils. Her long black hair flowed down her back, and there was a large amount of moving light and fine lightning flashing on her hair. However, from her head down, her entire upper body was in an illusory state, as if it was condensed from clouds and mist. One could only vaguely see a short black robe draped over her body, and under the short robe was the outline of a woman's body. Her lower body was only a thin cloud, and that cloud was constantly dispersing and gathering. There was no body inside, only endless, faint runes and light orbs that appeared and revolved there.
The "lady" that was as huge as a clock tower finally stopped. She raised her head and saw a huge white spider descending from the fog. Dense spiderwebs appeared around the spider, and the spiderwebs extended into the surrounding space, forming a fine encirclement.
She finally shouted angrily, "Why do you keep chasing me?!"
The white spider stopped on the grayish-white water. After hearing the shout, she seemed to be startled. Then, a small figure with white hair slowly emerged from the dense fluff on the top of the spider's head. Naretil looked at the 'huge lady' not far away and said with a serious face, "You broke the magic net. You have to pay."
"I didn't break anything!" The huge lady seemed to become even angrier. She glared at the little girl on the spider. In her eyes, the little girl and the spider were obviously one entity. "I have done precise calculations since last year. Nothing is broken! I can't be wrong! "
Naretil blinked, and then seemed to confirm with someone in the distance. She nodded and said, "It seems that nothing is broken …"
"So you are wrong. I don't want to argue with you, but I have to …"
"But I still can't let you go." Naretil shook her head. "You have delayed the project. This is called 'economic loss' …"
"… Damn it!"
The clocktower lady could not help but curse after a moment of shock. Then, her whole body suddenly became illusory. While the white spider was stunned for a moment, she broke free of the spider's web and the shackles of the surrounding fog. She once again became a phantom and disappeared in an instant!
However, this sudden escape, which seemed to have a high success rate, did not succeed. She had just moved a short distance when the white spider's limbs blocked all her way. She had failed.
After several unsuccessful breakthroughs, the clock-tower-like lady once again took form. She looked at Nareltyr with a shocked and angry expression. "This is impossible … How can you be so fast!?"
Naretil thought for a moment and looked down at her spider body. Then, she looked up at the lady and said, "I have many legs."
Then, she looked at the 'huge lady' seriously. Her eyes fell on the fog that was gathering and dispersing on her lower body. She shook her head regretfully and said, "You don't even have legs."
“？？？”
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