There seemed to be a soft, cool wind blowing on his face.

How long has it been since I breathed so easily? How long has it been since you have been lying down so comfortably? How long has it not been so peaceful, comfortable - all pain and fatigue have been gone, all old diseases seem to have been cured.

In my memory, a similar feeling seems to have been decades ago.

"Blessed is the child with the land, and he bears the blessings of the goddess of the harvest......"

Suddenly, a voice that had settled deep in his memory suddenly burst into his mind, rearranging the chaotic and loose thoughts together, the feeling of not being able to distinguish between illusory realities suddenly dissipated, the wind blowing on his face became real, and the faint smell of green grass and earth penetrated into his nostrils—Norris's eyes suddenly opened.

The endless green fields stretched out in the sight, there was indeed a breeze blowing on the land, the blades of grass waving in the breeze, the strange peaks that seemed to be spliced together by color blocks stood in the distance, and the majestic array of formulas and runes could be seen among the clouds in the sky, and a huge sun with soft light was slowly crossing the sky, and he was lying in this strange world.

Norris wakes up in this strange place, bewildered by everything in front of him.

Some vague memories began to linger in his mind, remembering the figures that were swaying before his eyes, remembering the whispers of Margarita and Bertila beside the bed, remembering that he was walking in the last sigh of his life, and with the constant confusion, he got up from the grass and stood up.

He found his body more flexible than ever before—something he hadn't felt in years.

There was a small dirt slope nearby, and he should be able to see more from a high vantage point, and Norris stepped towards it, and he easily reached the top of the dirt slope, and then found that on the opposite side of the slightly undulating hills, there were people.

- A large beautiful city is lying quietly on the plain, surrounded by jewel-like rivers and lakes.

A voice suddenly came from the side: "Is it good-looking?" They made it from what they remembered. ”

Norris was startled by the voice, and he immediately turned his head to look, only to see another figure beside him, a young girl he had never seen before, wearing a plain white dress, with long hair like snow hanging down to the ground, she was standing there, looking at the beautiful strange city in the distance, and a simple and happy smile appeared on her face.

Noticing Norris' gaze, the girl turned back and showed a big smile: "Hello, my name is Naretil. ”

Then she pointed behind Norris: "He's Duvalt!" ”

Norris turned back suspiciously, only to see a figure behind him, an old man in a plain robe, with a kind face and a smile, nodding slightly to himself.

"I ......" Norris opened his mouth, but he didn't know where to start, he looked at everything around him suspiciously, and finally shook his head, "Is this the kingdom of God?" The kingdom of the goddess of harvest? ”

"It's not the kingdom of God, but it's a very nice place," the girl who called herself Naretil said with a smile, "but we're only responsible for bringing you here, and someone will explain the specifics to you." ”

Norris frowned: "Anyone?" ”

Naretir smiled and nodded, "He's already here." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the girl who called himself Naretil and the old man named Duvalt had disappeared from Norris's sight without a sound, and the latter subconsciously rubbed his eyes, and when he put his hand down, he saw a familiar and burly figure already standing in front of him, looking at him with a gentle smile.

"Your Majesty!" Norris immediately recognized who the other party was, and subconsciously shouted in surprise, "Why are you ......?"

"I'm here to see you," Gawain smiled and nodded, "I'm sorry I didn't make it in time in the real world." ”

"The real world?" Norris blinked and looked around, "Do you know what this place is?" I woke up and found myself lying here......"

"This is the mental space formed by the Imperial Data Network," Gawain said with a smile, "Norris, it seems that you don't usually have time to pay attention to this kind of thing." ”

Norris frowned, "I think I've heard people mention it...... But why am I here? ”

"In short, you're dead in the real world, a few hours ago," Gawain said in a calm tone, looking into the old man's eyes, "but I'm good at making a claim and letting you 'live' in another form." ”

……

It didn't take Gawain much effort to explain all this, and when he learned what had happened to him, Norris fell silent for a while.

Looking at the Minister of Agriculture, who fell silent, Gawain spoke after a short pause, "I heard from Bertila that she had privately suggested that you use a life replacement spell to draw life force from volunteers, but you refused. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, this is a thing that cannot be started," Noristan said, "and there are things that can never be taken as a price, even the lives of volunteers. The allure of this thing is too great, and once the 'life for life' behavior is allowed, even acquiesced, it will lead to its rapid abuse—someone will be forced to become a 'volunteer', or forced to become a 'death row prisoner'......"

As a man who struggled from the bottom of society, Norris had seen so many of the things like this, where a missionary would easily weave charges against a commoner and then "justifiably and legally" usurp his property and house, and even wealthy merchants would be extorted by the theocracy and the crown to give "voluntarily" to the church or the king every once in a while—money and even more precious lives.

He believed that Gawain, who had created the "Cecil Order" with his own hands, must know these things better than he did.

"You're right," Gawain said to Norris, "Berthira made a mistake, and I'm glad you didn't stumble into it." ”

"But you still let my soul 'live' and live in this 'mental space'," Norris looked around and couldn't help but say, "I wonder if you are only going to do this to me, or are you going to apply this technology to it?" ”

Although Norris used to read books and worked as a church attendant, he could not escape the shackles of civilian thinking, but after so many years as the Minister of Agriculture and witnessing the establishment of a country, he had already learned to look at things with a more far-reaching perspective - behind Gawain's move to preserve his soul, he vaguely felt that there should be more considerations.

"It's a more long-term plan," Gawain said calmly, "and I call it the 'Immortal' project."

"In short, after acquiring the key technology of the Eternal Sleeper and building the Narrator's neural network, I intend to build a special 'soul database' that will preserve outstanding or outstanding talents in the form of network minds, so that they can have the opportunity to continue to serve the Empire, and these people will be called 'Immortals'.

"You're the first, Norris.

"This is also some of my preparations for future changes in the world - the world we live in is not peaceful, and as a country that is not strong enough, we need to be prepared."

"Immortal ......" Norris subconsciously repeated Gawain's words, and couldn't help but show a trace of worry, "But I'm worried that this will affect our social order - in a sense, gaining immortality on the Internet is also a 'life chip', and according to you, the 'Immortal' itself has a special status and influence during his lifetime, such a thing...... Will it also be abused? ”

"Any good thing is at risk of being abused, the difference is only whether they have a chance to be controlled, and compared to Bertila's life replacement spell that is easy to manipulate in private, at least the Immortal Project that relies on the state system is easier to control," Gawain was not surprised by Norris's questioning, he said frankly, "The government department will simultaneously establish a management process to ensure that the 'immortals' do not conflict with the social order of the real world - of course, this will take a long time, And in the long future, these systems will also undergo damage and repair again and again, and these will be in our consideration.

"As the first Immortal, Norris, I'm sorry we didn't have your consent before this - all subsequent Immortals will follow the principle of voluntariness, and will clearly define the responsibilities, rights, and obligations after the 'Soul Regeneration', which is an important part of keeping the Immortal Project under proper control.

"In addition, in order to prevent the immortals from affecting the social order of the real world, Norris, I will take back your position as Minister of Agriculture, and there will be a successor who will replace you in the real world according to the legal process, and you can participate in the affairs of the government department in the form of an advisor - we will run this for a while to see if such a process is reasonable, and if something goes wrong, we can adjust it slowly.

Finally, the immortals who live in the narrator's neural network are also bound by the social order. As you may have seen, there are cities in this world, and there will naturally be residents in the future - they are the 'users' who access the network as 'short-term residents', and the immortals who are 'long-term residents' in this world, and the government department will establish a similar management structure in this special world as in the real world, and then you will find that living here is not much different from living in the real world. ”

Norris listened carefully to Gawain's every word, he tried his best to imagine what kind of future it was, but found that even with the vision that had been expanded over the years, it was difficult for him to keep up with Gawain's train of thought, and he could only roughly imagine some subversive and unprecedented "prospects" - the world was divided into two, the real world and the mental space in the network operated synchronously, countless people lived in these two worlds at the same time, and all knowledge and ideas would be exchanged and shared with unprecedented efficiency. The Immortals' long-term existence in the network may even give birth to a new "race", and perhaps one of the biggest challenges for Cecil in the future will be to balance this new race with the social order......

There are some challenges to look forward to.

While Norris struggles to conceive of the future, Gawain's mind is also in flux.

Project Immortals...... It was a bold and ambitious plan.

Outstanding talent will be protected, valuable knowledge will be used more thoroughly, and it can also serve as a great reward and motivation in itself, almost all of which at first glance seems to be merit.

But the risks also lurk deep within these exciting virtues.

As Norris feared in the first place, this disruptive technology that immortalizes souls is likely to conflict with the existing social order and threaten to be misused and out of control one day.

To this end, Gawain must lead the government affairs department to formulate a large number of rules and regulations to restrain the immortals, strictly control the channels, prevent it from blocking the flow of classes in the real world, prevent it from destroying the relatively fair social order that has been established with great difficulty, and prevent it from becoming an outlet for power to get out of control......

But despite the risks, Gawain decided to start the project and make it one of the important "reserve forces" of the Cecil Empire.

The world is not peaceful, and human beings ...... It is not a very powerful species in this uneven world.

Elves with a long history and rich heritage, dragons with extremely strong individual strength, and mysterious and powerful immortal krakens...... There are too many races that are inherently superior to humans, and they themselves have extremely advanced civilizations.

Another common trait of them is that they live a long life and are exceptionally able to live.

Any individual who lives to adulthood can accumulate knowledge and technology for several generations of human beings.

Although the relationship between the Cecil Empire and these forces is good at this stage, this does not make Gawain rest easy, because he still remembers how the Dragonborn not long ago saw through the investment plans and trade plans of the Cecil Empire at a glance. Although the Dragonborn finally agreed to join the Cecil Settlement Zone, on the surface it seemed that they had fallen into the Cecil's monetary siege, but all indications showed that the Grand Duke of Baloger had not fallen into the "trap" at all - since the Dragonborn could see through the Cecil's investment plan from experience, they must be no stranger to the human man's little tricks in terms of currency, and their understatement of accepting the settlement zone can only show ...... They don't care about it.

Behind them may be the dragon of Tallund, and in the depths of their mountains there may be buried "ancient superpowers" that the humans of the whole continent and a piece of it can't beat.

Gawain wanted to maintain long-term peace with those races, but there was one thing he knew very well: if you want peace, you must also have the capital of peace.

The Cecil Empire needs some "special heritage" that belongs to humanity itself.