Chapter 768 — The Birth of a God

The Arcane Technology Research Institute, second underground level, classified conference room.

Gao Yang stepped into the room in his dark blue coat. In this heavily guarded conference chamber that had never been opened to outsiders, he found that everyone attending the meeting was already waiting.

Wright and Virodai were conversing in low voices; Pi Yun was somewhat absently twirling his beard; Kamael floated beside the conference table, the arcane glow around his body calm and azure. As soon as Hedy spotted Gao Yang, she was the first to rise and bow. "Progenitor."

The others likewise set aside what they were doing and rose one after another to pay their respects.

Gao Yang swept his gaze across the room, pausing briefly on a certain empty seat by the long table. "No need to stay hidden at a time like this."

Amber's figure promptly materialized. "Force of habit, force of habit..."

Gao Yang shook his head and made his way to the head of the table. As he sat down, he spoke: "It's an internal meeting, no need for formalities. Today is mainly to exchange some intelligence, and... I need a few professionals here present to offer some suggestions."

Virodai lifted his head, glanced at those present, and already understood. "It has to do with the knowledge of gods?"

"Correct," Gao Yang nodded. "Regarding the recent anomaly in the minds of the Dreaming Ones—Amber should have briefed you before the meeting, yes?"

"Just half an hour ago," Wright replied. "I hadn't known until now that our infiltration of the Dreaming Ones' cult had already reached such a level."

"This matter has always been kept highly confidential, and it doesn't intersect with the church's operations, so it's only natural you wouldn't know," Gao Yang said, his expression growing grave. "But now things have changed somewhat. Certain intelligence has to be made public."

"In short, according to intelligence I've just received, a covert plan the Dreaming Ones have been executing within the mind has very likely inadvertently touched upon the realm of gods, and... they may have come into contact with the secret of how gods are born."

Gao Yang came straight to the point. The conference room fell instantly silent. Everyone's breathing seemed half a beat slower, and even Kamael, who did not need to breathe, dimmed for an instant. Several seconds passed before Pi Yun's mouth twitched, breaking the silence. "I said a meeting this urgent and this classified had to mean something major, but this... this is a bit too exciting."

As he spoke, he lowered his head and looked with no small distress at the several hairs he had just accidentally plucked from his beard. After hesitating for a long while, he rubbed them back onto his chin and carefully reattached them with a spell.

Gao Yang paid no mind to Pi Yun's muttering. Seeing that his bombshell had successfully roused everyone to attention, he then recounted in detail his earlier experiences within the mind, his exploration of that "phantom town."

Everyone present listened intently. Even Amber, who dozed off or let her mind wander at every meeting, pricked up her ears this time and listened with exceptional focus.

"...That is the whole account," Gao Yang said only after nearly twenty minutes of narration, exhaling and summarizing. "By my guess, the worship of the 'Upper Narrator' is likely the main cause of the sandbox's loss of control. And what precisely this 'Upper Narrator Church' has been brewing within the dream—whether this 'thing' is merely a conceptual product belonging to the dream world—will be the crux of the matter."

No sooner had he finished than Virodai, seated second on the left, broke the silence. "You suspect... that the acts of faith toward this so-called 'Upper Narrator' have in fact created a god within Sandbox One of the mind?"

"There's no proof yet, but I do suspect exactly that," Gao Yang nodded. "The Dreaming Ones have yet to find the 'pathway' by which a god contaminated Sandbox One. There is no evidence or clue to indicate which god, by what means, and at what time bypassed the layers of protection around Sandbox One and entered its interior. We all know the three great dark cults are the ones with the deepest understanding of gods, yet even their top researchers cannot find any trace of a divine intrusion into the sandbox system... So we might as well make a bolder assumption: the contamination never came from an external intrusion at all..."

...

Within the mind, inside the central temple of the highest clearance, the high priests of the Solar Pole Order sat around a round table painted with all manner of symbolic glyphs.

Every member of the Mystic Pivot Order attending this meeting had shed their disguises and assumed their true appearances from the real world. According to the order's internal rules, this meant the meeting's confidentiality level was extremely high, and its standing was equally high.

Clad in white robes, High Priest You Yaoheng stood beside the round table, his tone grave: "...According to the deductions of myself and High Priest Selena Yaozhen, the contamination... may have come from within Sandbox One, and the so-called 'divine erosion' should all originate from that cult which worships the 'Upper Narrator.'"

Opposite Yuri, a shorter man in black robes rose to his feet—his red hair standing on end, his voice remarkably loud. "This is truly preposterous! Residents of the dream world suddenly begin to doubt the reality of their world, then start worshipping an 'Upper Narrator' they fabricated, and a god is actually born from it? And this god causes Sandbox One to lose control? Is this really not just an excuse concocted because we genuinely can't find the cause?"

Yuri looked at the red-haired man opposite him with some resignation. That was Mag Mingheng, possessed of a fiery temper and a famously loud voice. But he also knew that this loud gentleman's raised doubts here were born of no ill will, nor of any personal objection—it was simply his nature. Once the thought entered his head, it naturally came out of his mouth.

It was just that this gentleman's voice was truly so thunderous it was hard to adapt to, and then again... in a mental space like this, couldn't he just turn his "volume" down a little?

"Mag Mingheng," Yuri shook his head slightly, "everything I have said is indeed mere conjecture, and I know this matter is preposterous. But do not forget—we are dealing with 'gods,' and gods... are themselves preposterous."

A cluster of starlight floated above the ornate round table, and the voice it emitted reached the ears of everyone present. "Is there any evidence at present to prove that the 'Upper Narrator' worshipped by that cult born within the dream world already possesses certain divine attributes?"

"Your Holiness the Pope," You Yaoheng immediately lowered his head, "there is no evidence yet. The intelligence we possess is still too scant. At present we can only confirm that such a cult has indeed appeared within Sandbox One, and that its activities correspond in time with Sandbox One's loss of control."

The starlight cluster swelled and shrank, brightened and dimmed in midair. "Then as long as there is evidence proving that the 'Upper Narrator faith' within Sandbox One has truly produced a god, or some 'thing' akin to a god, all answers will come to light."

Yuri's brows knitted tightly. "But... if that thing really is a god, how are we to deal with it?"

"We cannot know for now, but is this not precisely the answer and the secret we have been seeking all along?" The gentle voice of Pope Megor III echoed in everyone's mind. "We have always striven to unearth the secrets of the gods, to find the truth of Their birth. And now, we may already be infinitely close to that truth..."

...