Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 765 - 764: The Qualitative Transformation of Dreams

The Supreme Narrator.

Upon hearing this awkwardly formed phrase, Gawain was briefly confused for less than a second, and then he faintly began to speculate on its meaning.

This made him instantly adopt a serious expression and attitude.

In Sandbox One... indeed something unforeseen by everyone had occurred, and this so-called "God’s pollution"... is probably more complex than anyone had guessed!!

What Gawain could think of, naturally the "Archbishops" like Selena could also think of. The phrase "Supreme Narrator" itself contained much information that could be directly understood. Yuri, the gentle-mannered man wearing a monocle, quickly furrowed his brow and looked at the elderly priest being hypnotized by Selena: "What specifically does ’Supreme Narrator’ mean?"

"It is the creator of the world, also the destroyer of the world, the monitor of the world, and also the guide of the world..." The old man in the gray robe revealed a peaceful and serene smile on his face, speaking slowly with the joy of proselytizing, "To our world, He is the omniscient and omnipotent ruler that cannot be defied..."

Listening to this standard proselytizing speech, Selena slightly frowned, barely noticeable, and interrupted: "How was the world created?"

The high priests of the dark sect are all experts with deep research in religion. They know well how to quickly gather intelligence and grasp the essence when first encountering an unfamiliar belief system—generally speaking, all mature beliefs will inevitably attempt to interpret the birth of the world, and their process of interpreting the birth of the world will most fully reveal their worldview and thinking approach, as well as their main doctrines and core mythological tales.

The old man in gray robe was slightly baffled, then under the guidance of hypnosis, he spoke out those things he had memorized:

"The world... is woven by the Supreme Narrator. He first created a chaotic sky and gray-white earth from a void, then bestowed color and form upon all things... Then, the Supreme Narrator set the rules for the operation of all things, and wrote the initial history. Thus, the world began to operate, surviving endlessly under the power of laws..."

"...conforming to the activation process of Sandbox One," Selena whispered to Yuri and Daniel, "the Supreme Narrator... refers to us."

"A religion that believes in the ’Supreme Narrator’ emerged in the sandbox?" Yuri looked incredulous, his voice low as if talking to himself, "Is this what we observed as ’God’s trace’? A sect generated in dreams... could it possess ’the power of gods’?"

"I don’t know, but if this sect generated in dreams is indeed what we observed as ’God’s pollution’..." Selena’s voice suddenly carried a hint of etherealness, with a slight tremor in her tone, "Then... we might have unconsciously touched upon the ultimate secret of this world, the ultimate taboo!!"

Gawain, having a multitude of speculations and hypotheses passing through his mind, suddenly thought of a question and couldn’t help but look at Daniel: "Did this religion that believes in the Supreme Narrator emerge only after the loss of control of Sandbox One? Before the loss of control, did the monitoring personnel not discover this religion?"

Daniel immediately turned to Selena and asked the question Gawain had posed verbatim.

Without any doubt, Selena nodded in response to Daniel’s question: "Before the sandbox lost control, the personnel responsible for monitoring did not discover the presence of such a religion within the sandbox... However, because of the limitations of monitoring methods, external personnel cannot grasp every detail of the sandbox world, only manage the general situation and ’historical direction’. Therefore, one cannot rule out the possibility that the seeds of religion sprouted in some remote corners of the sandbox world... But overall, even if some seeds of belief emerged, Sandbox One certainly did not see the emergence of such a mature religion capable of establishing churches, with a complete creation myth, before the loss of control. Such significant abnormal phenomena would definitely be observed."

Gawain rubbed his chin, muttering to himself: "So, this church that believes in the ’Supreme Narrator’ was born after the sandbox lost control, and before that at most there were some thoughts or seeds of belief that could not be observed by external monitoring personnel... Daniel, ask another question, does the ’God’s pollution’ observed by the Eternal Sleepers refer specifically to the emergence of churches and sacrificial activities? Did anything like ’Divine Arts’, which could affect reality, appear?"

Daniel faithfully relayed Gawain’s question, and this time the answer came from Archbishop Yuri standing to the side: "What we observed as ’God’s pollution’ were some chaotic silhouettes of churches and blurred images of sacrificial activities. Considering that the sandbox world is a completely ’godless domain’, the emergence of such distinct fragments within the sandbox itself already indicates it being subjected to God’s pollution. As for something like ’Divine Arts’ that could affect reality... this was not observed."

Then the Archbishop paused and added: "If in the sandbox world based on dreams, something capable of affecting reality, like ’Divine Arts’, has dissipated, then the severity of the situation would not be the same as now. It would not be just God’s pollution, but would mean that the power of a true god had already descended and started to distort the real world! At that time, regardless of the cost, even with great sacrifice, we would spare no efforts to shut down the entire network of consciousness."

In pondering, Gawain let out a breath: "For now, there are no further questions."

Daniel then indicated to the two archbishops that he had no more questions, while Selena began to inquire the old man in the gray robe about other matters to further understand the changes within the world of Sandbox One.

"You mentioned earlier about the day the bell rings—what does the day the bell rings signify?"

"The day the bell rings is the ’Sanctuary Day’ proclaimed by the ’Supreme Narrator’, occurring once a week. On this day at dusk, the bell will ring in the last minute before the sun sets, and people should return home, or to another sanctuary, light the lamps, and in the light’s protection, stay with family, absolutely avoiding venturing onto the streets... Did you come to the church on the day the bell rang because you lingered too far on the streets and couldn’t make it home in time?"

"I suppose," Selena casually replied, and then asked, "What happens if one remains on the street after the bell rings?"

"One will suffer the punishment of the Supreme Narrator, subjected to the sacred and irresistible ’Deletion’, disappearing from this world..."

Selena furrowed her brow once more.

"How many people in the entire world believe in the ’Supreme Narrator’?" she asked again.

"How can I count clearly?" The old man in the gray robe shook his head, "Everyone in the world believes in Him, as many people as there are in the world, that’s how many believe in the great Supreme Narrator..."

"...It seems that the entire Sandbox One has been thoroughly corrupted," Archbishop Yuri sighed softly and said to Daniel beside him, "A church has even been born inside it... This is something that no one expected."

"Just the birth of a church isn’t terrible; what’s terrifying is... if behind this church..." Daniel paused halfway and shook his head, "From a security perspective, my suggestion is to immediately stop the operation of Sandbox One, no matter how many secrets it still holds inside— the situation has spiraled out of control, and now is not the time to continue research."

Daniel’s suggestion is the most reasonable choice in the current situation, but he knows that the other archbishops are surely aware of this choice as well. It’s not like they haven’t tried to stop Sandbox One—the key is that this out-of-control dreamscape simply cannot be stopped.

Moreover, for some reason, these evil cult followers, who should be cold and ruthless, are surprisingly resistant to the idea of "physically severing" Sandbox One by killing all the Brain Servants. Even though they already realize the situation is beyond control, they have not yet considered this seemingly most effective means.

This left Gawain and Daniel quite perplexed.

Even so, Daniel still has to put forward his suggestion—this is his duty as Chief of Security that he must fulfill here.

Upon hearing Daniel’s words, Selena did not immediately speak. Her deep, calm eyes revealed no emotions, while Archbishop Yuri sighed, "We certainly understand this; in fact, no one expects Sandbox One to be repaired and return to normal anymore. The unanimous opinion of the Supreme Council of Bishops is to stop it, but..."

"Stopping the operation of Sandbox One is not that easy," Selena spoke calmly, "We have tried various methods, but Sandbox One refuses to execute any commands, and all our methods have failed."

Daniel hesitated for a moment, only speaking after confirming Gawain’s expression from the corner of his eye: "I heard there’s still one method that hasn’t been tried... which is to forcibly sever the neural cords of all Brain Servants."

Selena quietly looked at Daniel, who stood before her in the guise of a suave middle-aged man, and after a long pause, she asked softly, "Do you support this method?"

"...I do not support it," Daniel shook his head, "The loss would be too great, and from a technical perspective, I’m not sure if the sudden offline state of numerous Brain Servants would cause unpredictable effects on the normal mental network—the excessively strong fluctuations in information might even destroy the entire network."

Daniel didn’t explain from the perspective of "conscience" or "compassion" but rather from a technical perspective. This was to prevent his attitude from arousing suspicion—on one hand, discussing conscience and compassion within a dark sect is somewhat strange, and on the other hand, he had been a cold and heartless person when he was half-tormented to madness, something the upper echelons of the evil-cult should be aware of. He didn’t want to show too drastic a change in personality in front of a senior archbishop like Selena.

"Half of the archbishops also oppose doing this," Selena said after hearing Daniel’s response, "This includes myself, His Holiness the Pope, and Archbishop Yuri."

"I know... so I’m actually a bit curious, Archbishop Selena," Daniel nodded, carefully choosing his words as he asked, "If not from a technical standpoint, and if higher costs can be accepted, destroying the ’material basis’ of Sandbox One on a physical level should be the most likely effective means, your and His Holiness the Pope’s reasons for opposing this..."

Daniel didn’t finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear enough.

Archbishop Yuri turned his gaze to Selena, who was holding a portable lamp. Selena stood there calmly and serenely, her deep, water-like gaze resting on Daniel for a long time.

The look didn’t seem to carry any pressure, yet it still made Daniel feel as if all his secrets had been seen through—if it weren’t for the pre-set safety measures not sounding any alarms, he might have suspected that Selena was reading his deep memories.

After nearly ten seconds of staring, Selena finally withdrew her gaze and slowly said, "Some things are almost no longer secrets.

"There are many reasons why we don’t take the ’effective means’ you mentioned—technical, cost, or... compassion, but these are not the main ones.

"The main reason is that if Sandbox One maintains its current state, then the ’things’ inside the sandbox... can at least still be contained within it."

A slight chill rose in Daniel’s heart.

"What do you mean..."

"Even though we still cannot determine exactly what has brewed inside Sandbox One, His Holiness the Pope has already sensed some clues... that thing has undergone a qualitative change, and along with it, Sandbox One itself has also changed. It’s no longer just a dreamscape. While the mental matrix formed by Brain Servants is the material basis for the sandbox’s operation, from another perspective, it’s also the last lock of this mutated dreamscape... Breaking this lock, the dreamscape might disappear, but it could also..."

Daniel murmured, adding the part Selena left unsaid: "It could also awaken in the real world..."

Selena looked at Daniel and gave a slight nod: "As long as you understand."