Chapter 808 — A Visit to Sandbox One

Gao Yang had long been watching Sandbox One with interest, and had always been quite curious about where its entrance might actually be. According to the intelligence gathered earlier, Sandbox One, though an independently operating mental network, still had an entry point connecting it to the trunk network—yet when Gao Yang and Daniel had scanned the entire mental network, they had found no trace of where that entry point lay.

And now, at last, he understood why no one had ever known of this mysterious entrance—

Once the decision to act was made, the Solaris Pontiffs of the Golden Council Hall rose from their seats one after another. Gao Yang, though unsure what was happening, stood up as well, and then saw everyone take a step backward. At that, the surface of the great golden round table, graven with countless arcane runes, suddenly rippled outward in rings of light that were half real and half illusion.

The ever-pulsing cluster of starlight that was Megor III drifted slowly down from midair, touching the center of the round table like some viscous liquid. In the next instant, the rippling light of illusion was abruptly shot through with layer upon layer of starlight, which then expanded swiftly like a halo across the entire surface of the table—

Within the starlight, a vortex-like opening took shape. Inside the vortex one could dimly make out drifting mist and sand, and the hazy suggestion of mountains, rivers, and the like.

As this entrance opened, the round table sank as a whole until it was level with the floor: it had truly become a portal inlaid in the ground.

The round table in the Golden Council Hall was the entrance to Sandbox One, and Megor III was the "key" that opened it!

"...This is a little beyond what I expected," Gao Yang said with a smile, standing beside the vortex-like entrance and looking down at the hazy mist and sand within. "So Sandbox One is down there? I can just walk straight in?"

"Entering Sandbox One is easy, but we cannot be certain what will happen once you are inside. When the last exploration team entered, it had already undergone many bizarre changes—proof that Sandbox One, deprived of monitoring, has been evolving ceaselessly on its own," Megor III said, floating back up into midair, its voice somewhat weaker than before. "Wanderer from Beyond... though my charge may seem superfluous to you, please remember—be careful in all things."

"I will remember."

Gao Yang nodded. Beside him, Selina Gale had already stepped forward into the mist-wreathed vortex of the entrance.

Gao Yang, Yuri, and Magnum followed close behind, stepping in after her.

The four figures quickly vanished into the depths of the vortex. When the wreathing mist closed again, the rings of starlight rippling around the entrance stirred and crept back into their original form, and the round table inlaid in the floor returned to how it had been at the start.

Silence held in the hall for two seconds before Megor III's voice broke it: "Everyone, it begins—let us do what must be done.

"Concentrate all remaining computational power on Sandbox One and the security systems. Shut down all non-essential functions of the trunk network. Shut down... Illusory Pivot City."

The Solaris Pontiffs answered in unison: "Yes, Your Holiness!"

One figure after another vanished from the golden council hall, and with each disappearance, the light within the golden hall seemed to dim by a measure.

And beyond the golden hall, the whole of Illusory Pivot City began to change as well—

The clear, bright sky abruptly drained of color. A boundless gray-white chaos enshrouded the world. Those resplendent palaces, those elegant soaring towers, those rare and dreamlike plants—all dissolved into nothingness amid a drift of fine scattered motes of light. Black-and-white grid lines spread across the city's earth, and then even those grid lines were swallowed by endless fog...

Illusory Pivot City, once so exquisite and wondrous, wrought by the utmost reach of human imagination, was reduced within a few breaths to the most primordial dream of chaos. And in that boundless darkness lit only by fog and the light of chaos, only the "Golden Council Hall"—now shrunk to a single chamber—still stood upon the earth.

In the hall, its light already dim, the writhing cluster of starlight grew quiet, floating silently in the air, as though pondering, as though remembering...

...

In the underground palace of the Sleepers in the real world, priests robed in black or white returned to reality one after another, maintaining their most basic connection to the mental network and contributing their surplus computational power even as they hurried to and fro through the palace.

"Dream control begins! Dream control begins!"

Some priests were shouting orders; some were inspecting every ward and seal throughout the palace; some set out for the surface to carry out dream surveillance over the entire Orlandell region.

Even in the deepest level of the underground palace, the clamor within could be heard. Wendy the "Spirit Song," held in the containment zone on that lowest level but now downgraded in containment level because her contamination symptoms had eased, sensed the shift in atmosphere out in the corridor. She could not help raising her head and going to stand behind the iron door graven with intricate runes. "Guard, sir," she asked, "might I ask what is happening outside?"

"Dream control, Pontiff Wendy," the guard's muffled voice came from beyond, as though he wore a thick helmet. "Please wait calmly. Do not enter a dream."

"...I truly wish I could be of help."

"Staying awake tonight, my lady—that is the greatest help you can give us all."

"You are quite right, Guard, sir."

Wendy said softly, and retreated to the side of her bed, sitting down quietly upon it.

On the wall opposite her, a coating of glittering crystal dust depicted a set of complex symbols—symbols formed of many curving lines and circles, like the emblem of some deep-sea creature, carrying a profound and mysterious significance.

Looking at those symbols, Wendy's mind quickly grew clear and rational, and the tense, oppressive feeling of moments before largely dissipated.

She was just a little hungry, that was all—she wanted to dig up a giant squid...

...

Gao Yang felt as though he were walking down a slope that stretched endlessly downward, deep into boundless yellow sand and mist. How long he walked, he did not know, but suddenly the uncanny, hard-to-distinguish atmosphere of real and illusion around him was swept clean away. The mist parted, and the view before him opened wide.

A city standing amid the yellow sands appeared before him, Selina, and the others.

The city had earthen-yellow outer walls, and its towering ramparts rose in clear, distinct tiers. Its arrow towers and watchtowers looked imposing beneath the azure sky, yet neither on the walls nor before the gates could any guard be seen.

And as he beheld this desert city, a strange stench of decay drifted into Gao Yang's nostrils.

"This is the first city one sees upon entering Sandbox One—the city-state of Nim Sanzhuo. It is also the cradle of civilization in the sandbox world," Selina said in a low voice. "This desert was once grassland—at least, that is how it was set at the sandbox's beginning. But later, as history unfolded and the climate shifted, the desert encroached upon it. Still, it remained a vital thoroughfare, its commerce flourishing."

"It is an empty city now," Yuri added. "The exploration team that went in last time reported that within the city and in the villages and towns around it, there was not a single soul. Moreover, it was while they were spending the night inside the city that they were attacked. We must be especially wary of that."

"There is a stench here," Magnum muttered, frowning. "As though something has rotted away."