Chapter 845: Chapter 844: Arrival in the Future

Arriving in the future...

This is a brand new term, a saying never heard elsewhere.

It’s said that in the Cecil Clan, such new terms "emerge" from various fields almost every day. They are used to describe the ever-changing Magic Guide Technology, to narrate the transformative Cecil Order. Proud Cecil Citizens take pride in mastering and using these new terms, which even becomes a kind of label for many people to display "decency".

Yuri once felt quite puzzled by this during casual conversations, but at this moment, looking at the impressive facility before him, and with the scene Gawain described in his mind, he suddenly understands a bit.

This is indeed a creation worthy of anyone boasting with pride — even blind pride.

What made the archbishops of the Eternal Sleepers feel slightly ironic is that the technological foundation of this creation was sourced from the Eternal Sleepers. For hundreds of years, they held this technology capable of changing eras, yet never thought like Gawain Cecil. They cautiously hid the technology, burying it deep underground along with their "great plans." They viewed this technology as a "forbidden weapon" to challenge the gods, and a "forbidden weapon" is naturally rare, secretive, precious, and should be well separated from "ordinary people".

Gawain looked at the silent archbishops, knowing what they were thinking.

Their courage to challenge the gods is worthy of praise, but that kind of personal heroism of saving the world alone limited their direction. Like almost all transcendent beings of this era, they never thought of nor believed in collective power — naturally, they wouldn’t understand what a national machine means, let alone the concept of a war involving the entire nation.

"We spent centuries going in circles, burying ourselves underground until our minds are almost suffocated," Magnan muttered aloud (audible to the entire room), "Centuries..."

"These centuries were not wasted," Gawain shook his head, "You laid the technological foundation, and this cannot be denied by anyone. The creation of a technology is the most difficult part, fortunately, you completed it."

"I have a question," Wendy, who had been silent all this time, suddenly broke the silence, "Your Majesty, according to your plan, are you intending to cover the entire Empire with similar computing centers, and then let ordinary people connect to the network through that device called ’Immersion Capsule’?"

Gawain nodded: "Of course."

"Would ordinary people be willing to do that? Offer their brain computing power... Although it might just be redundant computing power, most people hold doubts, after all, this involves connecting oneself with the mysterious and powerful ’Magic,’ which most people rarely get a chance to encounter in their lifetime..."

"I’m pleased to see an Eternal Sleepers Priest starting to think from the perspective of ordinary people, but I want to correct you on one point first — in the Cecil Clan, ordinary people’s access to Magic isn’t as difficult as you imagine," Gawain interrupted Wendy, "Furthermore, after initial doubts, the public will soon start welcoming this. We’ll even have to take measures to limit the public’s use of the Immersion Capsule to prevent it from affecting the production order of the physical economy."

Gawain spoke while signaling to a nearby area. Yuri and others were filled with confusion at Gawain’s words, just about to ask questions when a cheerful voice with a metallic vibration suddenly "floated" from nearby: "Coming, coming — Your Majesty! I just finished calibrating the power spine of the west side area!"

As the voice fell, a huge silver-white metal ball with a whimsical smiling face quickly floated to Gawain. Its shiny surface reflected faces full of astonishment, and Magnan instinctively exclaimed, "Oh my ancestors... What is this thing?!"

Before Gawain could speak, Saint Nicholas Egg already turned (ball) and flew to Magnan’s side with a curious metallic vibration from the silver-white metal ball, "Ah, bearings and gears! What is this thing?"

As he spoke, he quickly circled around Magnan twice, and the latter’s original flickering psychological projection suddenly dimmed as if about to vanish into thin air. Even nearby Selena Gerfen was affected. As Saint Nicholas Egg flew around, he marveled, "Strange, non-material, energy interweaving, mixed with subtle magnetic fields able to interfere with the neuron signals of carbon-based organisms. It seems to have no fixed form but constantly marks its scope and features through energy interactions... Somewhat similar to Kamel, but much vaguer... Ah, levers and pistons! This lump of stuff even has emotional responses!!"

Magnan’s eyes almost widened to a full circle, struggling to dodge the invisible anti-mystic field surrounding Saint Nicholas Egg, he shouted, "What is this terrifying sphere saying!"

"Nicholas, this is a guest," Gawain finally responded and quickly stopped the bizarre actions of the metal-ball alien. After calling him back, he couldn’t help but ask curiously, "What you see is an energy body without fixed form?"

"To clarify, this sphere isn’t using ’eyes’ to see, but a kind of... okay, it can be regarded as eyes, it’s easy to understand this way," Saint Nicholas Egg casually replied, "As for the energy body... strictly speaking, I feel it is a kind of interwoven ’field.’ I know these two concepts can easily be confused, but they are simply not the same..."

Gawain quickly understood what just happened and realized he had overlooked something crucial before: Although Saint Nicholas Egg is a wise being capable of normal communication with humans, and possesses human-understandable emotions such as joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, he is nevertheless a life form extraordinarily bizarre, an "alien lifeform." When confronting phenomena familiar to human senses, he might perceive entirely different things!

This incident is the most obvious example — Magnan and Selena Gerfen have already become spiritual beings living in the mental network. They appear before ordinary people entirely through "psychological projection," disturbing the observer’s five senses to create the illusion of their "presence," but Saint Nicholas Egg... he doesn’t have a nervous system, at least not a human-type nervous system.

He still perceives the existence of Magnan and Selena Gerfen; however, what he "sees" is a vast interwoven and undulating, turbulent yet orderly "field"...

This is a very important phenomenon, possibly applicable in future research fields, such as... further analysis of magic power?

Gawain slightly shook his head, temporarily setting aside the sudden research idea in his mind, he simply introduced the Eternal Sleepers present, and then pointed to Nicholas, speaking to Yuri and others, "This is the Empire’s Grand Artificer, Nicholas, you’ll often interact with this Grand Artificer in the future."

"When you aren’t familiar enough, please call my full name, Saint Nicholas Egg," the silver-white metal sphere floated twice in mid-air, speaking in a tone of modesty and pride, "Moreover, from a credential perspective, you need to show some respect — the Grand Artificer is indeed a remarkable position."

Magnan looked at the metal sphere in front of him with lingering fear — he thought to himself that this land ruled by Wanderers from Outer Realm is indeed filled with terrifying and bizarre things, yet fortunately, he refrained from speaking his thoughts directly.

After observing for two seconds, he decided to greet the entity properly, which might help to draw closer relations and reduce unnecessary risks in future ’working together’: "Pleasure to meet you, Saint Nicholas Egg... sir, um, or madam? Sorry, are you a male ball or a female ball?"

Gawain immediately gave Magnan a long, deep look.

And Yuri once again failed to stop his longtime partner’s spontaneous speech.

In fact, he wasn’t very keen on stopping him, nor were the others — there was a subtle tacit understanding among the archbishops on this point.

Having worked together for many years, everyone was familiar with each other’s temper and personality. Often, they were actually happy to see Magnan speaking up first. This loud and straight-talking former War God Priest was always able to say the things that others wanted to say but found inconvenient to voice out directly. At any occasion, it was always like this, and as a result, the only one who ended up offending others was Magnan himself, while the others could fully enjoy the information gained after Magnan spoke.

No doubt, this was a good thing.

"You should refer to me as ’Sir’!" Saint Nicholas Egg’s buzzing voice suddenly intensified, and Magnan had offended someone again—possibly offended the ball, while others smoothly got the answer, "Damn, don’t you have eyes? This ball possesses such distinct gender features..." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

This time, even Gawain was rendered silent.

He felt this topic was becoming too bizarre if it continued.

"Stop for a moment—you’ll have plenty of time to bond later," he said solemnly, instantly quieting everyone at the scene, "Let’s get back to the main business. Nicholas, which room can we use now?"

"Available room? The computing facilities on the second floor are usable, the third floor still needs adjustment."

Gawain nodded (things finally got back on track): "Take us to the second floor, prepare a set of Immersion Capsules, activate demonstration sample number two."

"Hold on a moment."

Nicholas said simply, then slightly backed off to the side. It used an invisible magnetic field to directly activate a nearby device, accompanied by a very slight humming sound. Yuri and others saw a semicircular lift platform descending from the vicinity of the Mind Nexus.

Gawain walked towards the platform first, followed by the others immediately.

This pyramid facility was not yet completely finished, and many areas were still undergoing final touches. However, some rooms had already been handed over and entered operational state for equipment debugging. Under Saint Nicholas Egg’s guidance, the group entered the second floor of the facility, passed through a not-so-long corridor, and eventually arrived at a clean and tidy, brightly lit room.

In the center of the spacious room stood a cylinder made of alloy, surrounded neatly by more than ten silver-white Immersion Capsule devices. Magic symbol drag chains and devices resembling artificial nerve cords connected those immersion capsules to the central cylinder of the room. On that cylinder, Yuri and others once again felt the dark wave similar to the Mind Nexus in the hall.

Just as Gawain said, each thinking connection device in this facility is connected to the gigantic pillar in the center of the hall.

Gawain came to an Immersion Capsule with its cover already open, turned to look at the Archbishops, and smiled: "Anyone interested in trying the ’Mind Network’ of Cecil?"

The Archbishops looked at each other. After exchanging glances, the first to step forward was Wendy.

"Ladies first," said this beautiful lady with a smile as she walked to the Immersion Capsule, "I’ve been interested in Cecil’s ’Magic Guide Technology’ for a long time. How should I use it? Lie down? Do I need to prepare some spells or incantations?"

"Just lie down, it’s prepared for ordinary people, so naturally it doesn’t require any spells or incantations," Gawain said casually, "The experience time is only ten minutes, you won’t feel tired."

Wendy nodded, and with Amber’s help, she lay down in the Immersion Capsule. Then, under the watchful eyes of the other Archbishops, accompanied by a slight hissing sound from the cover, the Immersion Capsule closed, and the magic symbol drag chain connected to the device as well as many symbols on the base of the Immersion Capsule lit up one by one.

Magnan widened his eyes and watched this scene intently. While being concerned about the development, he couldn’t help but mutter: "At least in terms of comfort, this thing is better than ours..."

"That’s not something you need to consider now," Yuri glanced at him, "Unless you can crawl back into your body."

Magnan hugged his arms in front of his chest: "What if! What if!"

Except for the two of them, almost everyone on-site remained silent, just focused on waiting for Wendy to finish this ’experience,’ and they didn’t have to wait long.

Ten minutes later, the Immersion Capsule cover gently opened.

Wendy, with a hint of post-disconnection bewilderment, sat up from inside. Her fellow cult members immediately crowded around, yet faced with the curious Archbishops, her first reaction was to look at Gawain: "Can I watch a little longer? The plot just started..."

Yuri couldn’t help but be curious: "What did you see in there?"

"It’s an immersive theater," Gawain spoke first before Wendy could, "But since it’s in the testing phase, it can only replay some shorter fragments at the moment—Wendy, what you saw is already all there is, but rest assured, it will soon be perfected, and in the future, there will be more, even attractions beyond immersive theater within."

At this point, he smiled slightly: "Now, do you think ordinary people would be willing to lie down here to contribute computing power?"

"Let me confirm first," Wendy began, "Is this device and everything it presents not requiring spellcasters to maintain alongside it? Unlike the dream city needing constant extraction of the user’s spiritual power, nor will there be any risk of spiritual contamination?"

Gawain nodded: "Of course."

"Then I have no doubts—" Wendy said quickly, "If I were an ordinary person, I’d be willing to pay for it!"