The breeze blows through the vast green land, and the whispers of the wind echo in the wind that cannot be recognized by the human ear, even though the real world outside is already full of ice and snow, but in this neural network rooted in the spiritual world, the bright colors of spring still linger between the plains and the river valley for a long time.

In the center of the boundless "Plain of the Heart", next to several rolling hills, a huge city is standing quietly, the sky above the city is covered with a pale gold, a ring of countless rapidly refreshed runes, and between the city and the giant circle can be seen several golden streams of light that run through the heavens and the earth - those streams of light represent several information hubs that connect with the real world, and each light stream is connected to a large building in the city, and these buildings are the "residents" of the dream city We are a transit point in and out of the city.

In the central area of the city, corresponding to the location of the royal district of Cecil City in the real world, a largest-scale flow of light connected the pyramid facilities on the surface, and at this moment, the light flow above the facilities trembled slightly, and somewhere in the square next to the pyramids, a figure suddenly emerged from the air.

This is a middle-aged man with a simple temperament and a gentleman wearing monocles.

Yuri woke up from the momentary vertigo of connecting to the network, and moved his neck slightly—there was nothing behind his neck, of course, but the "nerve reverberations" that lingered from lying in the immersion pod and making contact with those cold metal contacts still lingered in his perception. He looked left and right at the people in the square, and then walked towards a figure not far away who was waiting for him, and as the "nerve remnant" in his mind gradually receded, he raised his hand and greeted the figure: "Magnum!" ”

"I've been waiting for you here for a century!" Magnum's loud voice exploded in Yuri's ears the next moment, and the latter even suspected that half of the square could hear it, "What are you entangled in in the real world?" ”

Yuri subconsciously rubbed his ears and looked at his old partner who was standing in front of him with a little dissatisfaction: "You have really been away from the real world for too long, have you forgotten how many troublesome things in reality will delay a person's time plan?" It's not a convenient neural network out there, and it takes time to do anything......"

Magnum looked impatient halfway through hearing this, and waved his hand to interrupt Yuri's words: "Okay, I understand, I understand, I'll go back and ask Pittman, I know he has a special medicine for constipation......"

Yuri was stunned for a moment at first, and the next second he almost completely lost the elegant demeanor he worked hard to maintain: "Damn! That's not what I'm talking about! ”

Magnum waved his hand absently: "I understand, I understand, I was also middle-aged like you when I was alive...... Okay, okay, I'm not going to talk about it. ”

The loud-voiced guy ended the conversation exactly before his old partner's anger reached the threshold, making Yuri, who usually maintained a gentlemanly demeanor in front of all the students and researchers, blushing but unable to do anything, the latter could only stare at Magnum for a long time before retracting his gaze with annoyance: "Open the passage - I'm not here to argue with you." ”

Magnum shrugged, waved his hand in mid-air, and said into the air, "Duvalt—we're coming." ”

Invisible ripples suddenly fluctuated, and in the seemingly calm and continuous mental space, a "habitat" hidden at the bottom of the data was silently opened, and a brief and hidden passage appeared in this dream city, and layers of aura appeared around Magnum and Yuri, and then the two disappeared in an instant as if they had been "deleted" by something.

In the next second, they had appeared in another space: a grassland that was equally vast and boundless, but more empty than the "previous layer", appeared in front of them, this grassland was shrouded in the night, but the starlight in the sky made the night not dark at all, and not far away stood a small hill, which was shrouded in a faint halo, as if all the starlight was focused on it, and a huge white spider lay quietly at the foot of the hill, looking to be resting.

This is the deeper space of the neural network, the "computing layer" located below the "surface layer" and the "interaction layer", where all network data is exchanged frequently and at high speed in the most primitive state - although this exchange and calculation process is essentially almost all carried out by the human brain, but the human mind cannot directly understand this place, so everything presented here - including the grassland at night and the starry sky - is only the manager of this layer of space to facilitate the reception of "visitors" and the interface that is manufactured.

For Magnum and Yuri, who are former Eternal Sleeper priests, this space has another meaning: it is the habitat of the upper narrators of the "gods of yesteryear", and the place where Naretil and Duvalt "store" their bodies.

Yuri and Magnum glanced at each other, both of them seeing some emotion in each other's eyes, and the latter looked up at the starry night sky, shaking his head and muttering, "Now these stars are in the same position as in the real world." ”

"The observatories everywhere have set aside a line for Naritil after the technology has been upgraded, and she can watch the starry sky through the observatory's equipment at any time - this is what His Majesty promised at the beginning," Magnum finished speaking, and a voice came from the side, Duvalt, dressed in a black dress and carrying a lantern, appeared there out of thin air, "The starry sky you see now is the one that Naritil has projected in the stars after seeing the stars in the various observatories of the Empire. Recently, she is trying to record the trajectory of each star, from which she calculates the position of our planet in the universe...... At least in the position between these stars. ”

Magnum blinked, "...... That sounds like a great thing. ”

"Your Majesty said the same," Duvalt nodded with a smile, and then he took a step forward with the two visitors, and in an instant they were next to the huge white spider, "Naretir was initially worried that she would be blamed for taking advantage of her spare power, but His Majesty was clearly very supportive of her doing so, and even arranged for a group of astrologers to get involved. Of course, we're not here to talk about that today. ”

As he spoke, he raised his arm slightly, pointing to the clearing not far away, Magnum and Yuri looked that way, and at first glance they saw that there was something like a cocoon that was fixed to the ground by a large amount of spider silk, the "cocoon" was more than a person tall, with a translucent shell, and something seemed to be vaguely locked inside, and Naretil's "humanoid form" was circling around it, as if it was communicating something with the things inside the cocoon.

Yuri looked a little surprised, "Naritir can communicate with the captured 'Fragment'?" ”

Duvalt shook his head, "It's just a one-sided inquiry—Naretil is trying to dig more secrets out of that mental fragment, but I don't think her approach works." ”

Yuri and Magnum glanced at each other and walked towards where the Cocoon was, and were halfway through when they heard Naretir's babbling question—the upper narrator walked around the Cocoon, pausing after a few steps and asking, "Where are you from?"

"The god of war you believe in, how many legs does he have?

"You've become like this, does the god of war know? Is He the one who changed for you? How did it change?

"How do you connect with that god of war? Do you still need to pray after you become like this?

"Can you hear me?

"Oh, you don't want to say it, that'...... Where are you from? ”

In the translucent cocoon, Malm Dunit's spirit is firmly imprisoned by the power of the upper narrator, and he has not yet dissipated, but has clearly lost the ability to communicate, leaving only a stiff face and godless eyes, looking dull and dull.

“…… All the ancestors," Magnum looked at this scene and immediately shrunk his neck, "Change me, I must have recruited ......"

"Ah, here you are!" Naretil heard a voice coming from beside her, and finally stopped from the circle, she looked at Yuri and Magnum happily, and ran over with a smile, "Where did you come from?" ”

"I just finished working in the real world, and Magnum should have been walking between nodes," Yuri said immediately, and then his eyes fell on the "cocoon" not far away, "Did you catch anything?" ”

"If you mean direct 'interrogation,' it won't be much to gain," Naret shook his head, "The internal logic of this fragment of mind has disintegrated, and although I have tried to stimulate and rebuild it in various ways, he has not been able to respond to the outside world communication until now - as you can see, most of the things that cannot be repaired. ”

Magnum reacted quickly: "In other words, there is something to be gained beyond the 'interrogation'?" ”

"Sort of," Naritir thought for a moment, "I've tried to disassemble the fragment by reading the memory directly - this method misses a lot of information, and may further 'damage' the sample, but it's somewhat rewarding.

"According to the memories I have extracted, this mortal pope named Malm Dunit ripped his soul world out of his body and offered it to his god through some kind of crazy sacrificial ritual, and then the god didn't know what to do, and the soul was in a state that could be split and reunited at any time...... That's why what we catch is just an 'avatar'......

"Malm Dunit's body is supposed to be no longer in this world, and he is likely to be by the side of the 'God of War', but the memories remaining in the fragments do not mention how to connect with that body, nor how to connect with the God of War.

"In addition, I found a very important piece of information - we are not the only ones who have captured an 'avatar', if correct, the human emperor named Rosetta Augustus should have also captured one."

Magnum's eyes widened suddenly: "Rosetta? Are you saying that Emperor Typhon also captured a Malm Dunit?! ”

"Well," Naritir nodded, "these avatars are capable of moving independently, but they also seem to be able to sense each other's incarnations - in a shattered and vague memory, I saw an avatar defeated in some kind of transcendent duel, and devoured by some very powerful force. And the strongest message that came out of that avatar at the time of defeat was a name: Rosetta Augustus. ”

Magnum and Yuri looked at each other for a moment, and after a brief moment of consternation, they both realized the importance of this information.

Malm Dunit in "Cocoon" is just a sluggish and fragile "incarnation" that looks miserable, but that's because he's here facing the power of the upper narrator - a former god who has left the throne, even if he is now weakened, it is far from being a mad mortal soul that can compete with it, and without Naretil's intervention......

Malm Dunit will be a terrifying threat! He has dedicated himself to the gods, and has gained strange and unfathomable powers, in addition to the elusive incarnation projection ability, he also carries the spiritual pollution from the god of war - this pollution is a particularly deadly and special thing, and ordinary mortals will have to take great risks and pay a huge price even if they can fight against it!

However, it was such an incarnation, but he was miserably defeated in the "transcendent duel" with Rosetta Augustus, and was even "devoured" by him......

Devour, it's not a word to be used casually - it means that Rosetta Augustus has hidden a card that's at least the equivalent of an upper-level narrator!

He kept this card just to deal with God of War? Or is it going to be used against Cecil after this catastrophe?

"We must inform Your Majesty of this!" Yuri immediately said, "Rosetta Augustus can 'devour' the god-polluted Malm Dunit, which is beyond the scope of a normal human, he is either no longer a normal human, or...... Borrowed some kind of very dangerous power! ”

"That's why I called you," Naritier nodded earnestly, "I know that both of you are from Typhon, and you happen to have special backgrounds - Yuri, you used to be a nobleman in Aldenan, and your family has dealt with the Augustus family for a long time, you should know about the 'curse' of the Augustan family, and Magnum, I know that you are from the Church of the God of War, you should know about the God of War, right?" ”

As a "god" created by the former Eternal Sleeper, Naretil obviously knew a lot of things, and Yuri was not surprised by this, he fell into a brief thought, and Magnum next to him muttered a little embarrassed, "This is ...... It's been so many years since I left the Church of the God of War......"

Yuri couldn't help but glance at him, "Your memory shouldn't have faded to the point where you can't remember the rules and precepts when you were a priest, right?" ”

"This ...... My career at the God of War Church didn't go well, and even after I became an official priest, I was mainly a part-time worker...... Occasionally, though," Magnum scratched his face even more awkwardly, "of course, of course, I've been exposed to those dogmas...... Well, I'm going to recall it, it seems really important......"