This was Gawain's first time entering the central temple of the City of Dreams.
This temple is located in the center of Dream City, and from the structure of the spiritual network, the data that constitutes this temple is also located at the deepest part of the entire network—it is directly monitored by the Supreme Bishops, and it is always under the supervision of Pope Megaul III. Under "watching", all mental activities in the temple area are based on the highest security policy, and data flow control is extremely strict.
Therefore, for a long time, Gawain had no idea of this area. In order to prevent his "smuggler" from being discovered by the temple monitors, he would not even move around the temple area.
Until today, Daniel became the monitor of the temple area and restructured the data flow of the entire area.
Gawain calmly teleported to the inner corridor of the central temple, and then walked into the resplendent and resplendent circular hall unhurriedly.
In the magnificent hall illuminated by passive light, the figures of the archbishops emerged one after another. The surface of the golden round table in the center of the hall was depicted with many mysterious runes, and each rune appeared with the arrival of the participants. Glittering, Gao Wen walked slowly to the round table, his gaze calmly swept over the magical and sacred imprints floating on the edge of the round table, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart—
Those who engage in the Internet just like rgb, as if this thing can really improve the performance of the mind network...
While his thoughts were floating, the figures quickly solidified. The archbishops of the Eternal Sleepers arrived at the venue and came to Gao Wen.
Gawain looked at the seats at the scene, and saw that there were a total of twenty-three seats arranged around the gorgeous round table—this corresponds to the twenty-three archbishops including Daniel.
But at the moment one chair is vacant.
Gawain recalled the situation reported by Daniel - in the previous exploration of the No. 1 sandbox, an Archbishop of the Eternal Sleeper was spiritually polluted by the upper-level narrator in order to cover others, and he has been isolated in the real world. The vacant seat was hers.
Gawain came to the vacated seat and sat down casually—it was a good seat, and it was his now.
Except for Daniel, the archbishops had no idea that wanderers from outside the territory had come to them. They took their seats around the round table in sequence, Yuri Charvin sat on Gawain's left, and an unknown archbishop sat. Gawain's right.
Several participating bishops couldn't help casting their gazes at Gao Wen's seat. Of course, they saw only an empty seat, and one of the bishops shook his head and sighed: "Oh... I hope Wendy The Archbishop can recover as quickly as possible."
There were a few voices of agreement from around, and the sights cast on Gao Wen's position were full of exclamation and melancholy.
Gao Wen felt a little embarrassed, but he still sternly slumped on the seat... After all, Daniel was sitting across the table, and his personality as a wanderer outside the territory could not be collapsed—as a wanderer outside the territory, he couldn't just walk away from it because of embarrassment. Run away from the seat.
At this moment, a voice from the venue announced the start of the meeting and relieved Gao Wen's embarrassment: "Everyone, let's start."
Gao Wen followed the prestige and saw Selena Geer sitting not far from him. She was wearing a simple and elegant white dress, and her tone was as calm and gentle as in memory.
"The Pope will also participate in this meeting." Selina continued.
Megal III
Gao Wen's heart moved, and the face of the pioneer who was famous for his loyalty and gentleness in the north marching team appeared in his mind, and almost at the same time as his thoughts were floating, a star light that was constantly wriggling and deforming, floating above the golden round table The aggregate suddenly appeared in everyone's sight.
Gawain's eyes froze for a moment, and the memory from Gawain Cecil surged in his mind, but he couldn't overlap the indescribable starlight with the "comrade in arms" in his memory.
He couldn't help but think of Bertila who turned into a plant, and Franken, the "Grand Master" who merged with the body of a false god and died...
It seems that ordinary people have to pay a huge price to fight against the passage of time and live a long time.
Later, he heard a trembling voice from the starlight, whose original voice could no longer be discerned. The voice said to the archbishops present: "We are facing a special crisis—Sandbox No. 1 The "upper-level narrator" brewed in the novel has begun to infect the real world, and you must have understood the specific situation.
"In addition, all the minds in the No. 1 sandbox have been confirmed to have disappeared, including three thousand fellow church members as test entities, and millions of virtual minds formed by the sandbox system.
"We have not been able to confirm why these minds disappeared - they may have been 'swallowed' by an out-of-control upper-level Narrator, or they may have... somehow integrated into the Sandbox One, or even penetrated the shield and entered our surface network .”
The voice of Megal III echoed in the hall, and Gawain's eyes gradually became serious.
The minds in the No. 1 sandbox disappeared... It actually contained millions of minds, most of which were virtual personalities generated by the sandbox system...
The huge number of "virtual personalities" did not surprise Gao Wen, because what runs in the sandbox is an extremely simulated "real world", and with the development of the internal historical "script", the scale of civilization in the sandbox world will definitely change with time. However, the large number of "residents" cannot all be real testers - that means that the eternal sleepers have to put the entire population of an entire country into their sandbox, which is obviously unrealistic of.
Therefore, it was their inevitable choice to use the virtual personality as the "npc" of the sandbox system, and it was also expected by Gao Wen.
But he didn't expect that the No. 1 sandbox, which seemed to be operating normally on the surface... was actually empty inside
As for whether those virtual "npcs" can simulate the real human mind and realize high-level artificial intelligence, this also makes Gao Wen very concerned, but now is obviously not the time to care about such things.
While Gao Wen kept thinking, the archbishops in the hall also started a formal meeting discussion.
The archbishops who participated in the No. 1 sandbox exploration operation described more details of the exploration operation, and the technical archbishops headed by Daniel proposed several plans. During the discussion, the severe situation became more and more obvious. The pressure of the crisis weighs heavily on everyone's heart.
Selena stood up, her eyes were calm, and her tone was low:
"... As of now, we are still unable to confirm the essence of the upper-level narrator. His power is invisible and pollutes everything that enters the No. 1 sandbox. Conventional means of confrontation are ineffective.
"The advance troops under attack were attacked by an invisible enemy after nightfall, and we still don't know anything about this attack except for the hallucination phenomenon of suspected mental backlash.
"My compatriots, we are trying to fight against a force that may be above the human mind... Conventional solutions are probably useless."
There were murmurs of discussion in the hall, and the archbishops exchanged opinions quickly. Even Gao Wen, who was watching the meeting incognito, couldn't help but fell into deep thought, conceiving possible countermeasures based on the large amount of information he had just heard.
In any case, he still didn't want such a useful psychic network to come to an end so soon—not to mention, the upper-level narrator sounded weird and dangerous, and he didn't want to let that thing really enter the real world if possible.
Selina Geerfen quietly looked at the archbishops who were discussing. After a few minutes, she suddenly broke the silence.
"My countrymen, listen to me—
"Maybe my next words will make you feel unbelievable, but the seriousness of the situation is obvious to all, and I hope that all of us can seriously think about more possibilities.
"Aiming at the current situation, His Majesty Megal III and I have discussed, and we have a bold plan—"
Gawain raised his head subconsciously, and looked in the direction of Selina Gerfen together with the other archbishops.
"Perhaps, we should seek cooperation from rogues outside the territory." Selina said calmly.
The hall was suddenly so quiet that a needle could be heard.
Gao Wen: "...?"
Daniel: "...?"
The next moment, buzzing discussions suddenly sounded, and the whole hall seemed to become a pot of boiling soup in an instant. When a name that the Cult of the Eternal Sleepers regarded as a "large-scale neutral boss in the wild" appeared in this special meeting place, it was a big surprise. Even the archbishops of the dark sect couldn't help but fell into shock and confusion.
At this moment, Selena's voice sounded again, making the scene quickly quiet: "Quiet, everyone, please listen to me—this is not a whimsical idea, but a serious idea.
"Through the continuous observation and analysis of wanderers outside the territory so far, we should already have a certain understanding of this indescribable existence. Various characteristics show that although he has shown extremely high danger and various abilities in the process of wandering in many worlds. It is a strange method, but in a certain period of journey, He has relatively certain rules of conduct-according to the summary of those memory fragments by the 'Outside Wanderer Analysis Group' and the observation of the Cecil area, every time the outside Wanderer When he comes to this world, he will have a specific goal, and all his actions will be carried out around this goal, and in our world, his goal is... to build a new order.
"And according to the various new policies of the Cecil Empire and the details of the religious reforms he implemented, we can be sure that there should be some kind of opposition between him and the gods. At least, the two are not in the same camp.
"Based on this, it is not impossible for us to cooperate with the wanderers outside the territory when it comes to matters involving the upper-level narrators."
After Selina finished speaking, the archbishops discussed again, and someone couldn't help standing up and saying, "But can we conclude the 'rules of conduct' of an unknown person based on the fragmented information we have so far? His mode of action and goals It is likely to be beyond human understanding, how can we ensure the accuracy of what we have summed up now?"
Selena looked in the direction of the voice: "I can't guarantee the accuracy, I can only say that within a certain period of time and within a certain range, his goals do not conflict with us, and we also have the possibility of cooperating with him."
Someone stood up again: "Bishop Selina, I don't think this is appropriate—the extraterrestrial wanderers may not be in the camp of the gods, but they are obviously not on our side. Cecil is doing everything possible to wipe out the dark sect, and all things will die." Being uprooted, our compatriots in Cecil are also constantly being arrested and reformed by the local security forces and the Superman Correctional Center. He obviously doesn't like us... "
"The order he promoted does not allow the existence of out-of-control and extreme groups like the Dark Sect, but this does not mean that we cannot carry out 'partial cooperation'," Selina said again, "The main forces of the Sect are in the territory of Typhon, We don't need to be active in Cecil, so that we won't be in direct confrontation with wanderers outside the territory, on this premise, we and him may be able to reach a tacit agreement on issues involving 'gods'."
Archbishops, look at me, I look at you, obviously still in astonishment and shake, Yuri Charvin, who was sitting on Gawain's left, couldn't help turning his eyes to the right, and another seat away from him The archbishop was exchanging ideas, while Gao Wen, who was caught in the middle, was leaning on the chair, listening to the group of eternal sleepers discussing themselves, and at the same time, his mind was a little blank, and his mind was wandering...
An extraordinarily loud voice sounded, and Magnum's voice made Gawain wake up again, and the short and grumpy archbishop stood up: "The extraterrestrial wanderer may be able to deal with the things in the No. 1 sandbox, he It has a corresponding level, but will He really help? Or after He really helps, will we face a bigger threat? We can't deal with the upper-level narrator—but we can't deal with Him either!"
Obviously, this was the common concern of everyone at the scene, and many voices immediately echoed it. Yuri, who was sitting on Gawain's left, stood up and looked at Daniel across the table: "Archbishop Daniel, what do you have to say about this?" what idea?"
Daniel: "?"