Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 546 - 545: This Is the New Laboratory

The technicians began the final inspection and tuning of the Immersion Capsules. Aunt Heidi stood somewhat nervously beside her assigned capsule, murmuring, "I truly didn’t expect... to one day enter the world created by the Eternal Sleepers..."

"It’s a virtual world," Gawain said beside her, noticing his granddaughter’s nervousness. "What? Feeling uneasy?"

"A little, but there’s more... ambivalence," Aunt Heidi said frankly in front of her ancestor, hiding nothing. "Though I know technology is neither good nor evil, the mind network of the Eternal Sleepers is not merely ’technology’. As you mentioned, it’s a projection and aggregation of countless Eternal Sleepers’ mental worlds. Going to such a place... it feels strange."

Gawain smiled slightly and nodded: "I understand your feelings, but don’t worry, it’s only temporary — our neural link technology is just starting out and hasn’t yet developed its own mind network, so we can only ’borrow’ the Eternal Sleepers’ pre-existing network temporarily. Once the technology matures, we will naturally build our own virtual environment — such an important technology certainly can’t rely on others forever."

Aunt Heidi showed a slightly relieved expression, while Gawain turned to look at Kamel, who was floating by another Immersion Capsule: "How is it? Can it connect?"

Arcane energy radiated from around Kamel, with jumping energy arcs meticulously sweeping over the neural connection points within the capsule under his precise control. A stable hum emanated from the capsule’s base, and Kamel said with some joy, "It should be alright... Although I no longer have a nervous system, I possess a body of magic power. By directly reading and writing the magic power fluctuations in the neural connection points, I can enter the network just like you."

"Truly remarkable..." Gawain scrutinized Kamel’s non-human form. "Magic power... its mysteries are increasingly intriguing."

Kamel bowed slightly: "One day, we will unlock its secrets."

The sound of technicians reporting came from nearby: "Network frequency calibration complete!" "Neural link calibration complete." "All Immersion Capsules are ready for use, sir."

Pittman took a deep breath and approached his assigned capsule: "Let’s begin."

The people preparing to connect to the network each moved to the capsule assigned to them, lying inside one by one, while Kamel floated beside the device, directly connecting with the capsule’s touchpoints using arcane arcs. As the only one on site who could connect to the mind network without external apparatus, Gawain didn’t prepare a capsule for himself — mainly because he had a psychological aversion to long containers one could lie in with a cover overhead — he simply sat in a regular chair next to the connection platform and addressed those prepared to connect: "I will enter the network first; you connect one minute later. This time, we bypass the consciousness plane and directly enter the virtual space. If you find your landing point is wrong or see fragmented images, don’t hesitate — disconnect immediately, understood?"

"Understood!"

"Good," Gawain nodded, then spoke to the air beside him, "Stand guard, wake me if there’s an issue."

Amber’s voice came from the air: "Alright, alright — but remember, next time you have to take me to see that mind network too!"

As everyone knows, if the air by Gawain’s side lingers for long enough, Amber will grow out of it.

Gawain narrowed his eyes slightly, accompanied by a slight dizziness, so familiar that he had completely adapted. The light before his eyes swiftly shifted, transformed, and reassembled.

After a brief moment, he arrived at the virtual space he had ’stolen’ within the mind network of the Eternal Sleepers.

An endless, calm water surface extended in his view, with countless neatly arranged giant alloy platforms floating atop. In the vast blue sky, complex symbols, formulas, magic symbols, mechanical structures, and blueprints floated and refreshed as always, while in the center of this broad space was the "reference point" Gawain had established for this experimental space.

On a small platform, everything was ready with a round table, chairs, and refreshments. The old mage, Daniel, stood respectfully by the table. When Gawain appeared, he immediately stepped forward to bow: "Greetings to you, my lord."

Gawain waved his hand to allow Daniel to rise: "Is your environment stable over there?"

"I’ve arranged a rest period, and no one will disturb us for the next half day."

"Good, they’ll be here soon."

After a moment’s wait, Gawain sensed several signals pointing to this virtual space —

This space was carved out by him at the bottom level of the Eternal Sleepers’ mind network. To ensure safety and concealment, the whole space underwent extensive data masking and layer upon layer of encryption. Only those who mastered certain mind network frequencies could locate the correct address of this space, and to access this address, they needed Gawain’s permission.

After confirming the identity of each signal, Gawain enabled connection permissions, and in the next instant, following beams of light descending from the sky and numerous refreshing magic symbols, one figure after another materialized on this small platform.

Aunt Heidi and others wobbled through dizziness and weightlessness before they could make out everything before them.

Almost everyone widened their eyes in amazement. Rebecca couldn’t help but exclaim, "Wow!!!"

"This is truly... unbelievable..." Aunt Heidi stared in astonishment at the scene before her — this vast aquatic world, the neatly arranged alloy platforms, the formulas and blueprints in the sky... these were sights impossible to see in reality, yet now they appeared so vividly before her. Each was so clear that even knowing in advance everything here was virtual, she couldn’t help but wonder if she had really traversed time and space into a new world parallel to the real one.

At this moment, she finally understood the meaning of the word "virtual reality" that her ancestor had mentioned before.

Perhaps the calmest person at the scene was Pittman, as he had visited the "consciousness plane" of the Eternal Sleepers during the last test and had seen part of the dream city, so he was psychologically prepared for how spectacular the scenes in the virtual world could be. He gazed at the scenes with a slightly just appreciation: "I never expected you’d already built such a vast space."

A seemingly ordinary-looking, ordinarily-dressed, ordinarily-hairstyled middle-aged man nodded slightly and commented: "Seems quite spacious."

Gawain laughed: "After all, it’s a place for experiments, not for living... wait a minute, who are you?"

Aunt Heidi and the others looked at the stranger standing among them with surprise. Jenni was the first to react: "Are you... Kamel?"

"It’s me," Kamel looked down at his own body, raised his head, and spread his hands, "Actually, I wanted to recreate my original appearance, but... I’ve forgotten what I look like."

He then shook his head, seemingly trying to make a self-deprecating smile, but he forgot how to emote, so he simply waved his hand, and the appearance of a middle-aged man dissipated. Amidst sparks of energy, an arcane body bound by rune armor plates reappeared before everyone: "I’ll use this body instead; it’s somewhat familiar."

"It’ll get better," Gawain said, looking at the two points of arcane light on Kamel’s head, "You can gradually adapt and recall. If used properly, a mental network is beneficial for memory and mental strength; perhaps it’ll work for you too."

"Let’s hope so," Kamel buzzed and then turned towards Daniel, who was still standing aside, nodding slightly in greeting, "So, this is your other subordinate Daniel."

"Yes, Daniel, he is located in Typhon, and the Non-Implantable Neural Link is his achievement," Gawain nodded, then raised his hand to introduce everyone present one by one, "This is Kamel, a legendary Master Mage of the Gondor Empire, an expert in classical spells and modern magic guide technology; Aunt Heidi, my bloodline descendant, Cecil’s Internal Affairs Manager; Rebecca..."

Gawain introduced everyone, and Aunt Heidi and the others exchanged greetings with Daniel, feeling a touch of awkwardness in their first encounter — for Heidi and the others, this was their first time establishing communication and collaboration in a virtual reality network (or perhaps... making online friends?), while for Daniel, this meant he finally met the "Core Emissary" of the "Wanderers from Outer Realm," he finally entered the core circle of this force created by the nameless "God" from another domain, he finally gained... the true trust of the Wanderers from Outer Realm.

When Gawain introduced Jenni, Daniel couldn’t help showing a look of surprise. He looked at the silver-haired girl before him, full of disbelief: "You are Lady Jenni?"

Being addressed in such a way by an old mage who could be her grandfather, Jenni felt a little shy and waved her hands: "You... you can just call me Jenni."

"Ah, sure..." Daniel blinked, "I’m a bit excited — rune logic has left a deep impression on me, it nearly changed my understanding of runes and magic circles."

Seeing Jenni’s slightly embarrassed look, Gawain coughed lightly: "Ahem, now that you’ve all been introduced, please have a seat."

Daniel quickly composed himself and sat down at the large round table with everyone — compared to the original small round table in this space when it was just Gawain and him, this new table was much larger and had more seats. Among them, a dark red chair without any marks was Gawain’s, and above each remaining chair was the floating name of everyone, clearly arranged by Gawain.

Daniel thought that this "round table" might reflect the Wanderers from Outer Realm’s preferences — they enjoyed being with their followers, communicating in a discussion manner, and the seating around the round table somewhat reflected the degree of closeness between followers and them.

In fact, Gawain just arranged it according to the order of family meals — Aunt Heidi closest, Rebecca second, and the others sit behind if they come to join the meal...

After they sat down, Gawain got straight to the point and said: "Everyone present here is a trusted confidant of mine, and you will also be colleagues who need to rely on each other. Here, except for personal privacy and particularly classified information I designate, all other information should follow a principle of open sharing. So first, we need to understand the nature of this space — I define it as a laboratory."

A laboratory built on the basis of virtual reality.

A place that can simulate over ninety-nine percent of real-world rules on a macro level.

A laboratory that can verify various technological concepts, instantly construct experimental environments, and conduct trial and error with almost zero cost and unlimited attempts.

It’s a place that would make any technology researcher ecstatic!

As Gawain explained the nature and function of the experimental space, demonstrations began on several nearby alloy platforms —

Giant parts appeared out of thin air, complex structures of magic-guided artillery and Magic-Powered Engines were assembled almost instantly; they started operating, undergoing tests under various extreme conditions. Cannons fired, engines roared, gears and levers spun continuously, everything seemed indistinguishable from the real world... no, even better than the real world!

Rebecca’s eyes widened as she watched a large engine on one platform malfunction during operation, then everything on the platform instantly froze. The faulty engine was magnified, parts of its structure became transparent, and the misaligned and broken components were clearly displayed to everyone in the "frozen" state, every fracture point and flying fragment visible.

At the end of the demonstration, Gawain leaned back in his chair: "Its use is just as you have seen."

Rebecca took a deep breath, feeling an extreme sense of shock, something the usually carefree, optimistic young lady had never experienced before at this moment.

She glanced at Kamel. Although she couldn’t discern his expression, she was sure he was equally stunned.

The ancient Master Mage softly sighed: "Seven hundred years... it seems not all technologies are declining."

"We can use this to test the Magic Train!!" Rebecca excitedly said to Kamel, "And we can test two plans at the same time! We don’t have to worry about how many times it explodes now!!"

"And the new rune arrays," even the usually shy Jenni became excited, "Hundreds or thousands of rune arrays can be tested quickly! And there’s no need to worry about wear or safety issues!"

Aunt Heidi looked at Rebecca, then at Jenni, blinking momentarily before reacting: "Wait, does that mean... I don’t have to approve funding for you anymore?"

The hand that approves funds suddenly stopped trembling.