Chapter 545 — This Is the New Laboratory

The technicians began their final inspection and calibration of the immersion pods. Hetty stood beside the pod assigned to her, a touch nervous, and murmured under her breath: "I really never thought... that one day I'd have to enter a world created by the Dreamless Ones..."

"A virtual world," Gao You corrected from beside her. He had noticed his eldest granddaughter's unease. "What's wrong? Feeling anxious?"

"A little, but mostly... conflicted," Hetty said candidly. Before the Arcane Vein Sect there was nothing she felt the need to hide. "I know technology itself is neither good nor evil, but the Dreamless Ones' mind network isn't merely 'technology.' You told me yourself—it's the projection and aggregate of countless Dreamless Ones' inner worlds. And now we're going to that place... it just feels strange."

Gao paused a moment, then nodded slightly. "I understand how you feel, but rest easy—this is only temporary. Our neural-link technology has only just begun; we aren't yet capable of building a mind network of our own, so for now we can only 'borrow' the Dreamless Ones' ready-made network. But once the technology matures, we'll naturally build a virtual environment of our own—a technology this important can't be left forever in someone else's hands."

Hetty's expression softened with relief. Gao Yang, meanwhile, turned to look at Kamael, who floated beside another immersion pod. "How's it going? Can you connect?"

Around Kamael surged the radiance of arcane energy; leaping bolts of power swept, under his precise control, across the neural connection points inside the pod. A steady hum rose from the pod's base. Kamael spoke with a hint of delight: "It should be no problem now... Though I no longer have a nervous system, I do have a body of magic. By directly reading and writing the magical fluctuations in the neural connection points, I can enter the network just like the rest of you."

"Truly incredible..." Gao Yang looked Kamael's inhuman body up and down. "Magic... its mysteries only grow more fascinating the more one looks."

Kamael bowed slightly. "One day, we will uncover its secrets."

A technician's report came from nearby: "Network frequency calibration complete!" "Neural cord calibration complete!" "All immersion pods are ready for use, my lord."

Pi Yun drew a deep breath and walked toward the pod assigned to him. "Let us begin."

Those preparing to connect to the network each made their way to their assigned pods and lay down one after another. Kamael floated beside the apparatus, his arcane arcs connecting directly to its various contact points. As the only one present who could connect to the mind network without external equipment, Gao Yang had not prepared a pod for himself—chiefly because those long, human-sized containers with lids on top gave him a certain psychological shadow. He simply sat down on an ordinary chair beside the connection platform and addressed the others, all ready to link: "I'll enter the network first. The rest of you connect one minute later. This time we'll skip the conscious layer and go straight into the virtual space—if you find yourself at the wrong landing point, or see fragmented images, don't hesitate, disconnect immediately. Understood?"

"Understood!"

"Good," Gao Yan nodded, then spoke to the air beside him: "Keep watch. Wake me if anything happens."

Amber's voice came out of the air: "Yeah, yeah, yeah—but it's a deal, next time you have to take me to see that mind network thing!"

As everyone knew, if the air around Gao Yang were left to sit too long, Amber would grow out of it.

Gao Yi narrowed his eyes. With a mild dizziness so familiar he had long since adapted to it, the light and shadow before him shifted, changed, and reassembled at breakneck speed.

An instant later, he had arrived in that patch of virtual space he had "stolen" from the Dreamless Ones' mind network.

An endless expanse of calm water stretched out of sight. Countless giant alloy platforms, neatly arrayed, floated upon its surface. In the vast blue sky above, complex and ever-shifting symbols, formulas, runes, mechanical structures, and blueprints drifted and refreshed as always. And at the center of this whole vast space stood the "datum point" Gao Yang had set for this experimental space.

On a small platform, a round table, chairs, and refreshments had all been laid out. The old mage Daniel stood respectfully beside the table. The moment Gao Yang appeared, he stepped forward and bowed. "I salute you, my lord."

Gao Yang waved a hand, bidding Daniel rise. "Is it quiet on your end?"

"I've arranged a dedicated rest period. No one will disturb me for the next half day."

"Very good. They'll be here soon."

After a short wait, Gao Yang sensed several connection signals pointing toward this virtual space—

He had carved this space out at the very bottom layer of the Dreamless Ones' mind network. To keep it safe and hidden, the entire space was cloaked in heavy data camouflage and layer upon layer of encryption. Only those holding the specific mind-network frequency could find its true address, and to connect to that address, one still needed Gao Yang's personal permission.

After confirming the identity of each signal, Gao Yang opened the connection permissions. The next instant, amid columns of light descending from the sky and a flood of refreshing runes, one figure after another materialized on the small platform.

Hetty and the others swayed a few times under the dizziness and weightlessness, then got their bearings.

Nearly everyone's eyes went wide with astonishment. Rebecca could not help but let out a cry: "Whoa!!!"

"This is truly... incredible..." Hetty stared in shock at the scene before her—this vast world of water and sky, those neatly arrayed alloy platforms, the formulas and blueprints in the sky... Sights impossible to behold in reality were now presented before her eyes so vividly, every one of them so clear that even though she knew in advance all of this was virtual, she could not help but wonder whether she had truly crossed through time and space into a new world parallel to the real one.

In that moment, she finally understood what her ancestor had meant by the term "virtual reality."

The calmest person present was perhaps Pi Yun. In the previous test he had already visited the Dreamless Ones' "conscious layer" and seen a portion of Fantasia City, so he was mentally prepared for how magnificent a virtual world could be. Looking at the scene, he merely observed with some feeling: "I never imagined you had already built such an expansive space."

A middle-aged man who looked utterly ordinary—ordinary features, ordinary build, ordinary clothes, even an ordinary hairstyle and voice—nodded slightly and remarked: "Looks rather empty."

Gao froze for a moment. "Well, it's meant for experiments, not for people to live in... Wait, who are you?"

Hetty and the others stared in astonishment at this stranger standing among them. Jenny was the first to react: "You're... Kamael?"

"That's me," Kamael said, looking down at his own body, then raising his head and spreading his hands. "I actually wanted to recreate my original appearance, but... I've forgotten what I looked like."

Then he shook his head, as if trying to offer a self-mocking smile, but he had forgotten how to make expressions too. So he simply waved a hand; the middle-aged man's appearance scattered, and amid a flash of energy sparks, the arcane body bound together by rune-armor plates reappeared before them all. "I'll use this body instead. I'm more used to it, more or less."

"It'll get better," Gao Yang said, looking at the two points of arcane light where Kamael's head was. "You can adapt slowly, and remember slowly. Used properly, the mind network benefits both memory and mental strength—perhaps it will work for you too."