Sword of Dawn

The scene in front of him blurred for a while, and when the chaotic light and shadow stabilized again, the empty phantom town appeared before Gao Wen's eyes.

He and ten other Eternal Sleepers stood on the square in the middle of the town, which was exactly where they left here last time.

The turbid and dark clouds enveloped the entire town as usual, and the strange fog was undulating in the distance. The huge town was empty, without any residents, and without any lights.

There is no bell in the town, and the church cannot be seen in the square. The last change seems to have completely disappeared, and the town looks like it did when I first visited.

"There is indeed a very weird atmosphere," Archbishop Magnum looked around, nodded his head and said, his voice was very loud, and the sudden explosion in this empty and quiet place had quite a shocking effect, "Empty Dreams of no one... In psychological symbolism, does this represent some kind of escape? Or extreme loneliness?"

Everyone seems to have gotten used to the voice of Archbishop Magnum, and Archbishop Yuri just frowned upon hearing this: "If this is a dream of a certain 'one' mind, maybe it can be analyzed and explained by psychology, but here may be a dream. It’s hard to talk about the psychological projection formed by countless people in No. [-] sandbox.”

"That's group psychology." Archbishop Magnum waved his hand indifferently. "In the final analysis, there are only a few points in the dream of this tendency: fear, avoidance, strong desire, or extreme rejection of certain things."

"It is still too early to analyze these. So far we have only come into contact with one mind related to the No. [-] sandbox, which is the weird and suspected malicious old priest. It cannot be confirmed that the operation of the No. [-] sandbox is in line with Various psychological laws in the real world," Selena shook her head, "but what happened in this small town should indeed reflect reality to a certain extent——according to the report of the sandbox management team, the one who rang in the bell The legend that the day will be 'deleted' if it is not avoided in time should correspond to the timing reset operation in the early stage of No. [-] sandbox operation..."

Gao Wen immediately became interested in the new term Selena mentioned.

"Timed reset?" After exchanging eyes with Gao Wen, Daniel showed a puzzled look just right, "What is that?"

Considering that Daniel was only recently promoted to archbishop, it is understandable that he did not know something about the early days of the No. Perfection requires a partial reset every ten days to delete the virtual residents generated in the sandbox and only keep the 'world' itself in the sandbox.

"We suspect that those virtual residents left some memory fragments after being deleted, and they have been preserved in the brains of some brain servants until today. These memory fragments have affected the collective subconsciousness of No. [-] sandbox, causing the sandbox world to appear. The quaint custom of 'the day the bells tolled'."

Daniel nodded, and said suddenly, "I see."

On the side, after hearing these contents, Gao Wen showed a thoughtful expression.

Chapter 0780 "Delete"

The conversation between Daniel and others made Gao Wen have some uncontrollable associations.

Ever since he learned that the concept of "upper-level narrator" and its related beliefs were produced in Sandbox No. [-], he has been thinking about the nature of the gods in this world and the process of generating various concepts related to gods, and what he is most concerned about is Two questions:

First, how did the gods of this world come from?Second, what role does the "precept system" surrounding these gods play in the entire belief system?

In this world, many beliefs and concepts corresponding to gods all originate from the "Eternal Slate", and according to Gao Wen's judgment, the role of the Eternal Slate to mortals in the world should be only a kind of "guide medium", which came from the god-killing fleet back then , due to some temporarily unknown reason, it carries the breath of the gods that were destroyed by it. Ordinary people in this world cannot read the battle report records of the God Slaughter Fleet from those ancient metals like him, but can only sense it. The little power left by the gods—since the power of the gods often means the knowledge of the gods at the same time, the mortals who first came into contact with the eternal slate also indirectly learned the knowledge of the gods.

The knowledge of the gods has an irresistible erosion and assimilation effect on the mortal mind.

On this basis, many religious beliefs in the world today have been stimulated and gradually developed. This is obviously different from the "upper narrator belief" that was completely created from scratch in the No. [-] sandbox.

Gao Wen has always been confused about this—in the actual history of this world, the mortal civilization of this season came into contact with the fragments of information left by the ancient gods, and then there were many religions, and then mortals practiced beliefs and Worship, and form a religious system belonging to this season's civilization in the process, and get feedback from the gods. In this process, what position and state are those ancient gods in?

Perhaps it is possible to boldly guess that they were revived in the belief behavior of the new season of civilization—and because the customs, historical trajectories, and even the main races of civilizations are very different in each season, these revived gods have long since been revived. Become a completely different individual from the gods of the ancient times, but because of the information carried by the eternal stone as the "basic guidance", these "gods of recovery" must be inextricably linked with the "primordial gods" of the ancient times contact.

Do the gods themselves know this?Do they care about this?

Leaving their own fragments of information in the eternal stone slab, maybe it was the means of self-protection they left behind when they were on the verge of destruction?Some kind of solution that is not a solution, some hugely flawed "resurrection"?

If the above conjectures are all true, what is the "precept system" built around the gods and occupying an important position in the behavior of faith?

The precept system can also be regarded as the "dogma" and "clear rules" of various religions. It is a combination of a series of rules used to regulate the daily words and deeds of believers. Restraint, it also means the acquisition of divine power, the effect of prayer, and even closely related to "divine punishment".Every mortal who believes in a specific god needs to carefully abide by the various precepts in order to maintain his connection with the gods. From this point of view, the precept system seems to be the constraint formed by the gods on people.

But if the gods of this world were really born from faith, or resurrected from faith, then the precept system...is it really just a "one-way constraint" that God imposes on people?

The Eternal Sleeper team began to explore this phantom town. Headed by Selena, Daniel and other archbishops, the ten-member team first began to investigate this quiet square. Gawain followed them silently, with thoughts in his mind. .

In the belief of the "upper class narrator", there is a "rule" that "on the day when the bell is ringing, you must not stay in the street, otherwise you will be 'deleted'". This is a very typical "commandment", according to Archbishop Yuri According to the clues, the origin of this commandment is most likely because the No. [-] sandbox ran an early "periodic reset" operation.

An ordinary technical operation, in the closed No. [-] sandbox, has evolved into a part of the later rules and regulations. The residents in the sandbox have completely forgotten the original reason for this "rule", or do not know it at all. The real reason for the rule, but since it is part of the "dogma," they follow it religiously.

Even though, sandbox No. [-] no longer has the operation to reset every ten days...

Two eternal sleeper priests wearing owl masks finished exploring the nearby streets and alleys. They returned to Daniel and bowed: "I didn't find anything, Archbishop—this place now looks like an ordinary uninhabited town. .”

Daniel nodded, and Archbishop Yuri next to him said: "The situation in the nearby houses is the same. Everything has returned to 'normal', and this time there are no bells ringing, and no lights suddenly turned on."

"Normal..." the red-haired, tall Archbishop Magnum muttered, "The more normal this kind of place is, the more weird it is."

Archbishop Yuri frowned slightly, and said as if talking to himself: "I have a feeling that this town seems to have its own mind. This mind tried to influence us last time and tried to break through the blockade, but it failed, so this Once it chose to close itself, close the 'truth' deep in this town, and no longer reveal any information to us..."

"You mean, this town is 'alive'?" Archbishop Magnum raised his eyelids, suddenly showing interest, "Then if I give it a Psychic Storm, will it jump up?"

Yuri glanced at the grumpy archbishop: "You can try."

Magnum froze for a moment, then shrugged: "...that's really boring."

Gawain listened to the conversation of these eternal sleepers, and walked casually to the center of the small square.

This used to be the site of the small church, but now the church has disappeared, leaving only a slightly potholed, old stone floor and a few puddles of water on the ground.

He stopped beside one of the puddles of water, his eyes swept randomly, and landed on the puddle of water.

Reflected in the water was a scene that seemed to be normal: an empty square, extinguished street lights, dark houses, and Gawain's calm and indifferent face.

The "mirror surface" in the dream world often has special meanings, so Gao Wen also became a little curious about the possible reflections on the water surface, but he watched for a few seconds, but he did not see things such as himself blinking strangely in the reflection, The "classic" vision of an extra figure.

This made him smile and shook his head, feeling that he was thinking too much, and the ghost novels he had read in his previous life had entered his mind.

But just when he was about to look away and look elsewhere, the reflection on the water really changed——

In the small town in the reflection, the street lights suddenly started to light up, and warm and soft lights suddenly appeared in the dark houses!

Gao Wen was slightly taken aback, and almost at the same time that the town reflected in the water surface changed, he heard a melodious bell ringing in the town as if from the sky!

The sudden ringing of the bell made him subconsciously raise his head and look around, and Daniel and others near him reacted at almost the same time—obviously, Gawain was not the only one who heard the bell.

"It's the bell..." Selena frowned, and the light of the lantern in her hand became brighter, "I still don't know where it came from..."

"Just now I said that there were no bells ringing," Yuri said with a hint of self-mockery in his tone, and at the same time showed a hint of confusion, "but there were only bells ringing and no lights were on. This is different from last time."

As he said, in the quiet and deserted town, only the strange and melodious bells sounded, but the surrounding street lamps and the portals of the houses did not light up with warm and soft lights like last time.

However, Gawain glanced over the ponded water in the square, and he clearly saw that in the reflected town, the lights were lighting up one by one, and they were rapidly spreading towards this side!

Suddenly, he seemed to have guessed what the malicious mind hidden in this town wanted to do, but before he had time to remind him, he saw Archbishop Yuri who was still talking just now disappeared in front of him out of thin air.

Immediately afterwards, those high-ranking priests wearing owl masks who seemed to have not reacted, followed by Daniel and Archbishop Magnum, who had just reacted and were about to cast spells to protect their own minds, finally raised their hands. The lantern seems to want to dispel the darkness and illuminate the hidden mind of Selina Gerfen nearby.

Everyone disappeared in front of Gao Wen in just an instant, as if they were "deleted".

They were deleted because they violated the precept of "not staying in the street on the day when the bell is ringing", and were deleted by the "God's Rule" believed by the "Upper Narrator" sect!

Gao Wen stood quietly in the middle of the square, looking at the phantom town that was still empty as usual, with a calm expression.

I was actually a little flustered.

He himself didn't seem to be affected, but...he wasn't sure if he was also "deleted".

After all, he still doesn't know the nature of this "deletion", and he can't find an additional observer to confirm his current state.

But these changes in mentality did not affect Gao Wen's next actions. He quickly calmed down his mind, and first weakened the "strength" of his access to the spiritual network in a sober and calm state, confirming that he is still in a state where he can Disconnect from the network at any time and return to the state of the real world.

This seems to indicate that he has not been affected by the strange power of the town, and his own mind is still able to come and go freely in the network.

Afterwards, he began to try to sense Daniel's mental frequency, trying to use a "secret port" to establish contact with him.

Daniel disappeared together with the other priests, but Gawain didn't think that this weird town could directly "kill" so many powerful superhumans so easily. After all, it was just a projection of sandbox No. It has some strange powers, and it should be limited.

As early as when they secretly transformed the mind network, Gao Wen and Daniel considered what to do if the main ports of the network were shielded and blocked in case of an unexpected situation. A monitored "dark line" is used for emergency contact.

It's just that Gawain originally imagined that the Pope the Sleeper and the Supreme Bishops would block the network when they sensed the invasion of "rogues from outside the territory", but he didn't expect that these hidden links would come in handy.

Consciousness precipitated, spirit condensed, and the secret spiritual connection was established in an instant. Gawain quickly sensed the familiar fluctuations from the depths of his consciousness, and heard Daniel's voice in his mind: "My lord, how is the situation over there?" ?”

Gao Wen breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm not affected," Gao Wen said in a deep voice after calming down a bit, "Where are you now?"

Hearing that Gao Wen was not affected, Daniel didn't seem to be surprised at all, as if he felt that this is what a wanderer outside the territory should behave, and then he reported the situation around him: "My lord, I don't know where this place is. ——It was dark around me, and I could only see the faint shadows of the mist churning, which seemed to shield my senses and block my mind."

Gawain frowned slightly. From Daniel's description, he had no way of judging the state of the other party.

But there is one thing he can be sure of - he really doesn't seem to be affected by the strange power of this phantom town.

Daniel is currently in a dim and hazy environment, surrounded by fog that blocks perception, while Gawain sees the normal Phantom Town, and his own mind can perceive the surroundings normally, and he can leave here at any time. The situation between the two is obvious. different.

Why not be affected by yourself?

Because the No. [-] sandbox can't recognize the soul of this "outside wanderer"?Or is it because I didn't use the standard port of the eternal sleeper to access the mind network, but the "vulnerable port"?

Gao Wen briefly analyzed it, but it was not the time to get entangled in this matter. He could only temporarily put aside his doubts in this regard, and began to think of ways to help Daniel get out of trouble.

Chapter 0781 The Town After the Bell Rings

After a simple trial, Gao Wen confirmed that the situation on Daniel's side was indeed different from his own.

Not only is there a significant difference in the surrounding environment, but more importantly, Daniel does not seem to be in a state where he can leave the Internet at any time like himself.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get out of the Internet, Daniel reported his state with a trace of worry: "...my lord, I can't feel the boundaries of the real world. The hazy and illusory fog here seems to not only block my dream world The five senses also interfere with my positioning of the real world, and if I cannot locate reality, I cannot leave the Internet.”

Are you interfering...

Gao Wen didn't answer for a while, but just analyzed silently in his heart.

He was able to connect to Daniel's consciousness, which means that the other party's mind is still in the network, but some unknown "power" shields it, and the hazy and illusory fog mentioned by the other party... has the ability to block the five senses, The nature of interfering with reality positioning may be the embodiment of this shielding power on Daniel's side.

But this kind of interference and shielding power obviously didn't work on Gao Wen, a wanderer from outside the territory who came in from the Internet.

Can this peculiar "immunity" quality be used to help Daniel out of trouble?

Gao Wen wasn't sure about this. He felt that he had to at least find out Daniel's "position" and contact him before he could verify it.

It is possible to "locate" the target in the mind network, and this positioning technology is the result of joint development of Gao Wen and Daniel - the reason why Daniel was successfully promoted from the nightmare tutor to the bishop position is also a part of this achievement credit.

The weird "blocking" state that Daniel and others are in now seems to have interfered with the positioning function of the network. When Gao Wen tried to search for Daniel's location, all he "seeed" was a shadow of nothingness and chaos.

But just as Gao Wen left a lot of secret ports and exploitable loopholes in the login and communication layers of the psychic network, this positioning system... has also been stuffed with almost double-digit "hidden lines" by him and Daniel, These dark lines are almost equivalent to another set of hidden positioning mechanisms, which are not monitored by the spiritual network, and are not even known by anyone other than Gawain and Daniel.

With the idea of ​​verifying some conjectures, Gao Wen slightly closed his eyes, and quietly activated a network link that had never been used before. In the hazy darkness, a "net" with flickering light appeared in his spiritual vision , and overlapped with this weird town.

A flickering light spot appeared not far away, which was Daniel's mind.

Gao Wen was quite calm in his heart, with the expected indifference.

Sure enough, the power of No. [-] sandbox has no effect on the various "secret ports" and "secret links" set by him and Daniel.

Because these hidden ports and links are not known to outsiders, the Eternal Sleeper does not know them, and the Psychic Network does not know them, so the No. [-] sandbox built by the Eternal Sleeper and rooted in the Psychic Network...naturally does not know them.

Just as Gao Wen thought: the virtual system cannot simulate things beyond the system itself, and no matter how powerful the "weirdness" brewed in the No. [-] sandbox is, it can't touch things it doesn't understand.

This should also be the reason why he himself is not affected by the many strange forces of the No. [-] sandbox: he, an "outsider wanderer" who came in through the Internet and whose soul does not belong to this world, should be the most indescribable, Incomprehensible "things", even... No. [-] sandbox should not be able to perceive his existence from the structure.

Just like those priests of the Eternal Sleeper who have been working with Gawain until now, but have never known the existence of the latter.

But this should be limited to the current situation. When the power of No. [-] sandbox exceeds the sandbox itself and becomes a kind of god-like existence, whether this restriction will still take effect is another matter.

Thoughts were turning in his mind, and various speculations and plans were being formed, Gao Wen had already strolled through the quiet and deserted streets of the small town, and came to the depths of an alley near the square.

This is where Daniel is shown by the positioning system.

However, it was empty and there was no one there.

Gawain closed his eyes slightly. In the illusory positioning grid, the light spot representing Daniel was flashing in front of him, and the signal was clear and stable.

"My Lord," Daniel's voice sounded in his mind at the same time, "I sense that you are already nearby, but I can't see you..."

"I can't see you either, but since you can sense my breath, it seems that the 'shielding' loophole in this sandbox is not small," Gao Wen said lightly in his mind, "It seems that it can't shield us Set up a series of 'deep channels' that you should be able to leverage off the network.

"You try it first, but don't really disengage - this town seems to have a lot of weirdness, let's explore more.

"And I'm also a little concerned about where the other 'deleted' people are."

"Yes, my lord," Daniel replied respectfully, and then he became quiet, and began to try to use those "deep channels" that can bypass the surface of the mental network to rebuild the connection with the real world. About ten seconds later, his voice came again. Come, with a trace of relaxation and respect, "My lord, it is indeed as you said! After enabling the deep channel, I have re-perceived the boundary of reality, and I should be able to escape from the current state smoothly."

"Okay," Gao Wen nodded, "then the next step is to find your real location..."

As he spoke, he looked around, trying to find the inconsistencies.

Daniel's "location" is here, there is no doubt that No. [-] sandbox can't block those hidden links in the "deep channel", so the positioning system should be working well, but he can't see people... Sensory interference?Parallel space?still……

While thinking, his eyes swept across the nearby ground, and a small puddle of water came into view.

This made his heart move, and he couldn't help but think of the reflections in the water he saw in the square.

He came to the stagnant water, and saw the reflection of the surrounding streets in the calm mirror-like water—just like the reflection in the water seen in the square, in that reflection, the phantom town lit up with warm and bright lights. Street lamps, every household lights up.

Gao Wen squatted down beside the stagnant water, recalling the mystic knowledge he had mastered in his mind, and he had a clear understanding.

He stretched out his hand and touched lightly on the calm water surface, some fine ripples spread in the reflection, the shadow of the town shook and trembled in front of him, and when the water surface gradually became still, he saw the town in the reflection The light was turned off, and it was silently shrouded in boundless darkness.

Gao Wen stood up, listening to the indistinct sound of laughing and talking from the residential houses behind him, bright and warm lights were sprinkled from the top of the iron black lamppost nearby, illuminating the street, making his figure stretch out a lot on the road. long.

This is the town after the bell.