Chapter 1432 — The Observer's Conjecture

Then she shook her head. "Perhaps I am too fixated on these questions, Brother... Theoretical knowledge of the magic tide is clearly not my forte. I am better suited to handling matters in the druidic domain."

"The role you can play in the druidic domain is equally vital," Gao Yang said, straightening up, "especially during this critical period of post-war reconstruction."

He and Beyila chatted idly for a while longer before he finally ended the connection to that encrypted space.

The boundless sea of flowers swiftly receded from view, dissolving into garish phantoms that scattered upon the wind. The surface scenery of the Phantom Pivot City then covered his vision, and that "conceptualized Xuanyao City" built within the mental network appeared before Gao Yang, its streets as prosperous and magnificent as he remembered.

Crowds flowed like a river, traffic bustled. Ordinary users who had entered the neural network walked the streets and alleys in the form of "citizens," while researchers and network controllers worked busily within the city's various facilities. All of these people contributed an extra measure of computing power to sustain the operation of this vast network and to support the Empire's one astonishingly large-scale research project after another—all of this unfolding continuously in the depths of the network, in the form of data.

Gao Yang blinked, preparing to disconnect fully from the network, but at the very moment he was about to go offline, a few odd notions welled up in his mind against his will.

After a moment's thought, he opened a confidential line known to only a few and composed an email in his mind: "Do you think the simple-minded are immune to the uncontrolled observer effect caused by the magic tide?"

Without hesitating even a second, Gao Yang chose to confirm and sent the email to the High Advisory Council of the Theocratic Council (Work Group).

Seconds later, a few messages entered his mind.

The High-Speed Stag and the Tower Witch each sent a question mark: "...?"

Tea Egg: "...What kind of weird question is that? If you're so idle, come taste the cola I just made. I had Tyr try it a moment ago, and right now he still looks... oh, never mind, you don't need to come."

Gao Yang: "...?"

...

In the Typhon imperial capital of Aldnan, within a special room deep in the Obsidian Palace, Luo Yan Augustus stood before a floor-to-ceiling window, lost in thought—beyond the window stretched a scene of a lush garden bathed in sunlight, wholly out of keeping with this late autumn season. Above the garden, a faint magical shield was visible, countless minute runes crawling across its surface, sustaining the evergreen artificial ecosystem of the courtyard.

Behind Luo Yan, a large magical apparatus was fixed to the floor at the center of the room: a set of the most advanced "Thought Acceleration Type II" immersion pods, imported from the Cecil Empire. At this moment, the magical runes on the pod's base had dimmed.

A voice came from beside Luo Yan: "Father, do you truly believe that 'alien civilization' might establish... 'cooperation' with us?"

"At the very least, they have expressed a willingness to communicate, and we now have no choice but to respond," Luo Yan said, turning to look at Matilda standing beside him. "The initiative is not in our hands—but if handled properly, it will not fall entirely into theirs either. This is, at present, the best situation we could hope for."

"...Lady Dylan has been busy these days studying the materials brought back from the Vipranton Observatory. She seems to have great 'confidence' in that 'alien civilization' that sent the signal," Matilda said with a shake of her head. "She does not yet know that we are about to initiate 'interstellar communication,' but I believe she would be a supporter of this endeavor."

"She was once a senior guard at the Vipranton Observatory. Toward those materials brought back from the observatory, and the alien civilization revealed within them, she harbors a special attachment," Luo Yan said slowly. "But whether or not she supports this matter, the project will proceed... Matilda, you and Dylan will be jointly responsible for this affair—you will lead, she will assist. The two of you will organize the Empire's Star-Readers and liaise with the technical teams from Cecil and Silver."

Matilda bowed her head slightly, a strand of long black hair falling forward. "Yes, Father."

"Next we shall see what our new allies—the sea-folk—can do, and when they will have their 'communication device' ready," Luo Yan said. "Before they finish their preparations, we must draft a 'text' for establishing first contact with the alien civilization... I hope Gao Yang Cecil will have some suggestions in this regard."

Matilda was somewhat puzzled. "Why wait for his suggestions?"

"...I believe this is a matter that rather tests one's imagination and creativity," a hint of a smile seemed to flicker at the corner of Luo Yan's mouth. "His 'creativity' in this area has always been excellent."

Matilda: "..."

The future Empress of Typhon stared at her father for a long while with a rather peculiar look in her eyes before she finally broke the silence, somewhat hesitantly: "Did you just... make a joke?"

"Can't you tell?" Luo Yan kept his face perfectly straight. "Of course I'm capable of joking too—you really shouldn't hold such a rigid impression of your own father."

Matilda blinked, momentarily at a loss for how to respond—she had spent more than twenty years as the daughter of Luo Yan Augustus, yet lately she found herself increasingly unable to keep up with the changes in her father these past two years. Still, no matter how one looked at it... this was hardly a bad thing.

Luo Yan, for his part, seemed not to have noticed Matilda's reaction at all. He simply drew his gaze back from the window and let it settle upon the immersion pods at the center of the room.

"...This is a remarkable technology," the sovereign of Typhon, who always carried himself with such gravity, finally broke the silence after a long scrutiny. "I once heard those Longdusk cultists explain the principles behind this controlled 'mind-mapping' technology, but compared with the mature neural network the Cecilians employ... what they described is still as crude as a rough draft."

"All mature technologies begin as rough drafts. We did get off to a late start, it's true, but we have already begun to catch up," Matilda said at once. "The Imperial Artificers' Association and the Royal Mage Association have now established several joint research groups attempting to reverse-engineer the Cecilians' 'Neural Thorn' technology, and we have already seen some progress. That technology is one of the prerequisites for the neural network..."

Luo Yan nodded slightly, then asked, as though the thought had merely crossed his mind: "From what I understand, you and Hadrien use the immersion pods rather often? That is to say, you frequently enter the Cecilians' neural network?"

Matilda's expression seemed to flicker with embarrassment for an instant, but she quickly found her voice: "Yes. We... use it in our spare time. Through the public neural network one cannot access anything too deep, but if it is only a matter of learning about a neighboring country's culture, news, and social changes, then it is remarkably convenient. Hadrien is even considering establishing a dedicated department—staffed with intelligence personnel skilled at gathering information and handling communications—to collect intelligence within the public regions of the neural network."

"And even setting that aside, the neural network itself is a... very useful thing. The information it contains is vast as a sea of smoke, and the entity itself grows by leaps and bounds every second. Leisure and entertainment are merely its most trivial functions."