Chapter 1005 — Analysis

A breeze swept across the vast, boundless green land, and within the wind echoed whispers no human ear could discern; even though the reality outside was already blanketed in snow and ice, here in the neural network rooted in the world of the mind, bright spring still lingered long among the plains and river valleys.

At the center of the endless "Mind Plain," beside a cluster of rolling hills, a colossal city stood quietly. Above the city hung a vast ring-shaped magical array of pale gold, composed of countless rapidly refreshing runes, and between the city and that array one could see several golden streams of light piercing heaven and earth like pillars—these streams represented the information hubs connecting to the real world, each ending at a large structure within the city, and these structures were the transfer stations through which the "residents" of the Illusory Pivot City entered and left the Xuan Yuan City.

At the city's central district, corresponding to the location of the Xuan Yao City's royal quarter in the real world, the largest stream of light connected to the pyramid facility on the surface. Just then the stream above the facility trembled faintly, and somewhere in the plaza beside the pyramid, a figure abruptly emerged from thin air.

It was a middle-aged gentleman wearing a monocle, refined and scholarly in bearing.

Yuri roused himself from the momentary dizziness of network connection and gave his neck a slight roll—there was of course nothing behind his neck, but the "neural afterecho" left by lying in the immersion pod and touching those cold metal contacts still lingered in his perception. He glanced left and right at the crowd flowing through the plaza, then walked toward a figure not far off who was waiting for him, and as the "neural afterecho" in his mind gradually faded, he raised a hand in greeting: "Magnum!"

"I've been waiting here a whole century for you!" Magnum's great voice burst next to Yuri's ear the very next moment—the latter even suspected half the plaza could hear it—"What in the real world kept you tied up?"

Yuri rubbed his ear reflexively and looked with some displeasure at his old partner standing before him: "You've truly been away from the real world too long—have you forgotten how many troublesome things there can delay a man's schedule? Out there is no convenient neural network where everything's at hand; doing anything takes time..."

Magnum began looking impatient halfway through and waved a hand to cut Yuri off: "All right, I get it, I get it. I'll ask Pi Yun about it later—I know he's got some kind of miracle cure for constipation..."

Yuri was stunned for a moment, then the next second nearly abandoned entirely the refined, scholarly grace he worked so hard to maintain day to day: "Damn it! That's not what I meant!"

Magnum waved his hand carelessly: "I know, I know. I was middle-aged once too, before I died... all right, all right, I'll stop."

The big-voiced fellow cut the topic off neatly before his old partner's temper reached its threshold, leaving Yuri—who kept a gentleman's bearing before all his students and researchers—flushed red with no recourse but to glare at Magnum for a long while before withdrawing his gaze in annoyance: "Open the passage—I didn't come here to bicker with you."

Magnum shrugged, gave a casual wave in midair, and spoke to the air: "Duvalt—we're here."

Invisible ripples stirred abruptly; within the seemingly calm and continuous mind-space, a "habitat" hidden beneath the data layer was silently opened, and a brief, secret passage appeared within the Illusory Pivot City. Rings of light bloomed around Magnum and Yuri, and the two then vanished on the spot as if "deleted" by something.

The next second they had already appeared in another space: a grassland just as vast and boundless, yet even emptier and more featureless than the "layer above," unfolded before them. This grassland lay beneath the night sky, yet the starlight filling the heavens kept the darkness from seeming dark at all. Not far off stood a small hill, wreathed in a faint halo as though all the starlight were focused above it, and at the hill's foot lay resting a gigantic spider, pure white from head to foot.

This was a deeper layer of the neural network, the "computation layer" beneath the "surface layer" and the "interaction layer." Here all network data underwent frequent, high-speed exchange in its most primitive state—though that exchange and computation was in essence carried out almost entirely by human brains, the human mind could not directly comprehend this place. Thus everything presented here—including the grassland beneath the night and that sky full of stars—was merely an interface manufactured by this layer's administrator for the convenience of entertaining "visitors."

To Magnum and Yuri, both former priests of the Eversleepers, this layer carried another meaning as well: it was the dwelling place of the "gods of old," the Upper Narrators, the place where Naritel and Duvalt "stored" their true bodies.

Yuri and Magnum exchanged a glance, each reading a touch of emotion in the other's eyes; the latter looked up at the star-strewn night sky and could not help shaking his head and muttering: "The positions of these stars match the real world now."

"After their technical upgrades, observatories everywhere set aside a dedicated line for Naritel—she can watch the stars through observatory equipment at any time. That was His Majesty's promise," Magnum had scarcely finished speaking when a voice came from nearby, and Duvalt, in black formal dress and carrying a lantern, appeared out of thin air, "The sky you see now is exactly what Naritel has seen from the Empire's various observatories, projected in here unchanged. Lately she's been trying to record the movement of every star and from that calculate our planet's position in the cosmos... at least its position among these stars."

Magnum blinked: "...That sounds like quite a remarkable undertaking."

"His Majesty says the same," Duvalt nodded with a smile, then stepping forward with the two visitors, in an instant they arrived beside the enormous white spider, "At first Naritel worried she'd be reprimanded for occupying idle computing power on this, but His Majesty clearly supports her doing so and has even arranged for a group of astrologers to take part. Of course, that's not what we came to discuss today."

As he spoke, he raised his arm slightly and pointed toward an open patch of ground not far away. Magnum and Yuri looked over and at first glance saw something like a cocoon fixed to the ground by a mass of spider silk; the "cocoon" stood taller than a man, with a semi-translucent shell, and something seemed faintly imprisoned within. Naritel's "human form" was circling around it again and again, as though communicating with whatever was inside.

Yuri looked somewhat astonished: "Naritel can communicate with that captured 'fragment'?"

Duvalt shook his head: "It's only one-sided, incessant questioning—Naritel is trying to dig more secrets out of that mind fragment, but I don't think her method is working."

Yuri and Magnum exchanged a look and walked toward the "cocoon"; halfway there they heard Naritel's ceaseless questioning—the Upper Narrator paced round and round the "cocoon," stopping every few steps to ask: "Where did you come from?

"That God of War you believe in—how many legs does He have?

"You've turned into this form—does the God of War know? Did He change you? How exactly did He do it?

"How do you and that God of War communicate? Now that you're like this, do you still need to pray?

"Can you hear what I'm saying?

"Oh, you don't want to talk, so... where did you come from?"