Sword of Dawn

Page 436

Cohen Rollen stood side by side with the Earl of Bahrain on another tower near the tower. Through the window, he watched the tower, which embodies the most advanced technology in the empire, gradually wake up from its deep sleep, feeling excited and disturbed.

Unlike the main hubs elsewhere, this high tower in the Silver Fort is not completely new—in fact, it was rebuilt from the previous main tower of the Silver Fort, and the main structure is part of this royal fortress, Saint Souni It took Er's craftsmen and technical consultants from the southern imperial capital almost a year to complete this project, and now the complex and precise set of mechanical supports and crystal arrays are slowly running above the former "King's Eye", and It was originally the place where the members of the Moen royal family looked at the entire royal capital.

Such "renovation of old things" does not mean that the quality of San Sunil's hub engineering is worse than other places - in fact, on the contrary, Silver Fort was the heart of Anzu in the past, and the Moen royal family spent a lot of money to use magic blessings and precision Materials are used to reinforce every corner of this fortress. Regardless of the cost, the magic skills of the old days are not inferior to today's magic industry. The sturdiness and anti-aging ability of the main tower can completely match the new hub of reinforced concrete. Comparable, or even better.

Seeing such a symbolic building representing the ancient kingship undergo a makeover in the new era and become one of the pillars of the empire's magic net is what moved the two former Ansu nobles the most.

"After the tower is in operation, Saint-Sunil will also be reborn..." Earl of Balin broke the silence. He looked a little thinner than the year before, and his eyes were more calm and concise than before, "Economy and culture should There will be a certain degree of development..."

"This tower is a signal, it will tell those guys who only know how to drink in their homes to give up unrealistic nostalgia, let them forget the old times as soon as possible, and adapt to this new era," Cohen Rollen nodded, "As for the economy and culture... I'm just like you, Earl of Bahrain, I'm optimistic."

Both of them showed a smile.

Since the establishment of the empire, the country's political and economic center has been transferred from Saint-Sunil to Cecil City in the south, and the former royal capital has inevitably experienced a certain degree of decline-although the city's normal functions and basic business Order, industry, etc. have been restored, but a city has suddenly changed from the capital to an ordinary municipality, and the gap in the middle is easy to imagine.

There is not only an economic gap, but also a gap in cultural status, and even a psychological gap among the citizens.

Bringing this once glorious ancient city back to life has always been the most important thing in the minds of the officials of the San-Sunil Government Office—even an obsession.

"The time is coming soon," Earl Bahrain glanced at the mechanical watch on the nearby wall, and suddenly said softly, "Get ready."

Cohen Rollen turned his head and saw that the magic net terminals in the room were running smoothly, many consoles with runes were flashing lights, and the magicians and rune masters were waiting beside the machines, as if waiting to go out soldiers.

He himself also spontaneously felt a sense of being a general about to go to war.

A few minutes later, the magic net terminal set in the center of the room in advance activated itself, and the figure of Rebecca, the head of the magic technology department of the Empire, appeared in the holographic projection. No one had ever seen such a serious expression on her face——

"This is the highest dispatch center. Now the main hubs are starting to roll call the secondary hubs in order, and report the progress in 15 minutes."

……

In the command center on the basement level of the Magic Technology Research Institute, bright magic spar lights illuminated the huge hall, and a large number of technicians sat beside each monitoring device, executing procedures that had been rehearsed countless times in advance.

Rebecca was sitting on a chair at the front of the room, and several magic net terminals were running in front of her, projecting the scene of the main hub control room from all over the empire, connected through a single line.

"The sequential roll call in the western region is over, and all nodes are normal."

"The sequential roll call of Tamdul in the East Territory is over, and all nodes are normal."

"The order roll call of Changfeng Fortress in the East Territory is over, and all nodes are normal."

"Northern Winterhold's sequential roll call ends..."

Within the scheduled time, all sequential roll calls were successfully completed, and the main hubs and their subordinate nodes distributed throughout the empire were connected one by one, and a huge network was gradually taking shape.

Gao Wen sat on a chair not far behind Rebecca, feeling a little nervous.

According to his original plan, he actually did not intend to complete the "overall merger" of the magic net in the entire empire in one operation. He had planned to divide the entire empire into several regions, and let the networks of each region slowly form one by one. , and then connect these branch networks to the main network one by one in sequence, the duration of the entire project will be lengthened many times, but everything will be more secure and have a higher risk tolerance rate.

But the problem is that he doesn't have that much time—especially after experiencing the divine disaster caused by the Eternal Sleepers, and realizing that the "countdown" of the gods is getting closer, the sense of urgency in his heart is getting stronger , so I had to choose the shorter time-consuming and more difficult plan in front of me.

To be honest, even with the pressure brought by the sense of urgency, Gao Wen actually hesitated for a long time before this plan. It was the appearance of "Naritel" that made him finally make up his mind-an old god entered the network , when he was connected to the grid, he had more confidence. Naritil was the most effective "insurance" he could think of. With this insurance, he dared to face the risks of connecting the whole territory of the magic net.

While Gao Wen's ideas were surging, Rebecca's work was also proceeding in an orderly manner.

All the main hubs have been inspected, and now we are about to reach the most critical step.

"Here is the highest dispatch center, now issuing instructions:

"Except for the San Sunil main hub, each main hub will execute the power-on standby command 120 seconds after the start of the timer;

"The San-Sunil main hub directly enters the connection state after it is turned on, and the first channel points to Cecil;

"Except for the San-Sunil main hub, the rest of the main hubs are on standby for 60 seconds, and then call San-Sunil in turn at 60-second intervals and establish connections, the sequence is as follows:

"Ten Forest City, Winterhold, Tamdul, Changfeng...

"The order is consistent with the previously published documents, I repeat, you confirm:

"Ten Forest City, Winterhold..."

Gawain looked at Rebecca who was meticulously issuing instructions personally, took a light breath, and unconsciously tapped the armrest of the seat with his fingers.

"Attention, the timer starts!"

The crowd in the hall became extremely quiet, only the hum and click of various equipment, and Rebecca's command.

Then, every few tens of seconds, a controller in front of an operation seat reported loudly:

"The signal from San Sunil is received, and the strength is in line with expectations... It has been connected to the western node group of the Holy Spirit Plain."

"Received a signal from Shilin City..."

Gawain looked towards the front end of the hall, where there was a magic net terminal with the largest scale, and a map of the entire Cecil Empire was displayed on the large holographic projection.

Spots of light on the map are lighting up in sequence, and the originally dark earth seems to be being illuminated by clusters of stars.

Soon, those bright spots of light covered most of the land of the empire, just waiting for the final closure——

"Sorlingburg signal received, strength..."

On the projected map, the last point of light lit up from the Thorin area, and the entire empire was covered with a bright glow.

However, all this only lasted less than two seconds.

A sharp, weird howling sound that made one's soul tremble suddenly came from every magic net terminal on the scene, and all the lights in the hall began to flicker violently!

Chapter 0919 Hole

The god on the Holy Throne suddenly opened his eyes, and there was an awe-inspiring aura in the golden vertical pupils.

The dragon priests waiting near the holy seat almost immediately fell down and paid homage to the gods they served, and the leader of the dragon priests with the highest status and closest to the holy seat, Heragor, was no exception.

After a while, the dragon priests heard the voice of the gods from above, with a slight sigh: "Only He can do this..."

"My lord?" Heragor raised his head cautiously and looked at the Dragon God above, "What happened?"

"You don't have to worry about it," the dragon god Enya glanced indifferently at the silent priests in the temple, his tone sounded calm, "it has nothing to do with the dragon."

……

The howling sound came suddenly.

Accompanied by this unexplained scream, all the equipment in the hall showed obvious abnormalities, and the magic net terminal began to project various weird lines and patterns that are difficult for humans to understand, and the call signals from all over the empire were instantly crowded It became a mess and became a mess, the energy supply system also went wrong, and the lighting began to flicker violently—all of this, like an invisible storm suddenly swept through the entire magic net, causing this huge system to roll up. There was a stormy sea.

The staff in the hall were unsurprisingly caught in a brief moment of panic and tension.

But the panic only lasted less than two seconds—Gao Wen had already reacted after a moment of astonishment. He stood up abruptly, and the halo effect that could calm the spirit unfolded. The person returned to the calmest state. At the same time, Rebecca's voice came from the front of the hall: "Keep calm—all systems will start self-checking immediately!"

Immediately afterwards, Kamel's voice sounded not far away: "First confirm the situation of the building's power ridge—is there a problem with the energy source?"

The ear-piercing whistling sound continued, and the technicians shielded this part of the disturbing factors under the protection of the knight halo, and began to check all the systems nervously and quickly according to the plan and everyone's experience, and soon there was a report One after another came from all over the hall: "The power ridge is still running, and the main systems are not offline..." "A few buffer units and safety barriers have been broken down, but the equipment in the rear is still in good condition." "Reconnecting The Empire Hub establishes a connection..."

The Empire Hub is the magic net hub tower located in Cecil City, and it is also the highest-level node of all the "main hubs". When the howling sound suddenly sounded, some kind of powerful energy surge affected its operation. Now it has Temporarily offline.

"Is the internal channel still available?" Gawain left his seat, walked to Rebecca's side, and patted Rebecca's shoulder at the same time, "Take a look at the situation outside."

Rebecca was obviously a little flustered, but after Gao Wen put his hand on her shoulder, she suddenly calmed down.

"The internal channel is isolated from the main network. Let me take a look..." She said quickly, while controlling the rune "palette" in front of her very skillfully. After a while of operation, she breathed out, "Can you Use, I changed the screen to—"

In the next second, a picture captured by a monitoring device on the surface was projected over the crystal array at the front of the hall. In the holographic projection with a few clutters, a huge white tower was standing in front of the magic hall. On the high ground near the Energy Research Institute, the tower itself didn't seem to have suffered any damage, but the mechanical devices and crystal arrays on the top of the tower had stopped operating, and the crystals that were supposed to be charged and shining were also obviously dimmed at this moment.

Gawain watched all this with a frown, but soon, he saw that the dimmed crystals became brighter little by little.

The power ridge in that high tower was successfully restarted, and the surging energy was injected into each unit again, and the huge crystal array was revived again within a few seconds, and the emergency self-locking mechanism before it was also unlocked by itself , they began to slowly rotate and recalibrate themselves, and a technician in the hall shouted loudly: "Reconnected to the Imperial Hub!"

Gao Wen breathed a sigh of relief, but his expression was still tense, and Rebecca immediately asked loudly: "How is the situation of the main hubs?"

"I can't get in touch for the time being... All channels are down, but if we can restart here, they should be able to... We are trying to make a single-line call..."

"Keep calling, anyway, contact the main hubs in various places to confirm their safety," Rebecca spoke quickly, "Master Kamel, please contact the computing center to confirm the situation on the neural network side; Cohen, take your team to the third basement level, the energy team at the bottom needs help; Marin, open the public window of the Imperial Hub, other main hubs may actively call us through that window..."

She has completely calmed down, and has begun to assign tasks in an orderly manner and stabilize the situation.

Gawain looked at this completely different Rebecca in surprise. After a long time, he sighed in his heart with some relief—his "steel mind halo" was indeed very effective.

……

The chaotic whistling phenomenon didn't just happen in the control center of Cecil City, it happened in every main hub and the magic net terminal connected to the main hub.

At that moment, and within a few minutes after it, every magic web main hub in the empire encountered the same thing. The terrible howling sound came suddenly, and the powerful energy surge destroyed the connection that had just been established. A large area of ​​equipment was shut down, and the control center was in chaos.An invisible storm was raging in the magic net that covered the entire empire. From Ten Forest City to Changfeng Fortress, from San Sunil to Cold Winter Castle, the leaders of all areas were in a hurry.

A cold will suddenly descended, "freezing" the minds of everyone in the hall like a sudden condensed frost, and then the cold will gradually faded, and the technicians quickly calmed down—the first person to react was the first to see On the high platform not far away, Grandma Victoria Wilde stood there quietly, surrounded by crystal clear ice crystals, her frosty face was expressionless.

"Keep calm and start troubleshooting," Victoria's cold voice sounded and spread throughout the hall, "Confirm the energy situation first, and then try to restart our hub tower."

"My lord," Victor, the high-level mage advisor, flew directly to the platform where Victoria was, "Our communication with the imperial capital has been interrupted—the communication with the main hubs in all other regions has been interrupted."

"The energy outage just now has affected all systems. It is normal for communication to be interrupted," Victoria said expressionlessly. "First try to call San Sunil, which is closest to us, to confirm whether similar situations have occurred in other areas."

"Yes, my lord." Victor bowed his head to accept the order, and bowed back.

After the old mage left, Victoria looked around the hall calmly.

Under the effect of "cold mind", the panicked technicians have all calmed down. Although the situation is still not clear, everyone has returned to work and began to troubleshoot nervously, looking for the cause of the anomaly. reason.

Perhaps in the future, all important departments should install a set of magical equipment with "cold mind" or similar spell effects, just like a water tank for firefighting, as an "emergency disaster prevention device", once it happens, it will be enough to cause chaos in the entire department If there is an incident, you can directly activate the magic device to force the staff to calm down. Even if it only lasts for half an hour, it is enough to save many situations... This is a feasible idea, which can be discussed with His Majesty later.

For a moment, some things irrelevant to the current situation appeared in Victoria's mind, but she immediately restrained her thoughts and refocused on the current situation.

This sudden abnormal situation... What is going on?

The Grand Duke of Ice and Snow has profound knowledge in the field of traditional magic, but feels that she lacks knowledge in the field of modern magic. She shook her head in confusion, and prayed softly as if talking to herself: "Goddess of magic... Where did it come from?" problem..."

After praying, there was no response, and Mirmina, the goddess of magic, did not respond.

No, not only was there no response, even the vague sense of prying and the "transcendence" of establishing a connection with an extraordinary existence that should appear after praying to God under normal circumstances did not appear. Victoria felt that there was nothing at the end of her prayers. In the keen spiritual perception of the legendary powerhouse, she even felt as if she was facing some kind of "emptiness".

There should have been a god there, but now there is no one—on realizing this, the Duchess' eyes widened instantly.

……

There was also a "gale wind" in the neural network built on the basis of the magic net, and this wind was completely substantive to the world in the network.

In the vast expanse of heaven and earth, countless gray and white chaotic lines entangled and danced rapidly in the air, mixed with the whistling wind blowing across the whole world, during which the originally clear and bright sky became flickering. , large and small cracks and some kind of shimmering disordered light and shadow kept growing from every corner of the sky, but they were quickly repaired by another force.The current only "city" in the world is protected in a layer of translucent silver-white "light cocoon". The light cocoon blocks the harsh "weather" outside, and the city remains stable inside.

In a large pyramid-shaped building in the center of the city, Yuri is nervously watching the runes and data rising and falling in front of him, and his tone is urgent: "There is a large-scale abnormal data flow 'flowing' through our network, it is very huge! "

"Can it be captured?" Wendy asked from the side.

"I can't help it here, it's too weird, and it's impossible to attack, and it's still moving rapidly along the 'unconscious zone' at the outermost border of the network..." Yuri was full of confusion, "What the hell is this... "

"No matter what it is, it's clearly here to cause damage!" Magnum's loud voice burst out suddenly, "If necessary, I can go to the border of the unconscious area and try to send a few mental storms..."

"Shut up, be quiet, your psychic storm may not have any effect on this weird data!" Yuri immediately glared at Magnum, and then an even more confused expression appeared on his face, "Wait a minute, this weird alien Or... moving away? It is receding from the border, faster and faster..."

"What do you mean?!" Magnum stared, "Don't tell me it's just 'passing by'!"

"I don't know if this thing is 'passing by', but it is about to disappear from our sight," Yuri said quickly, "Semler, can you contact Naritil and Duval outside the city?" What? Let's see what they can do."

"I'll try—now that the load is a little lighter, it should be fine."

In the hills outside the city, the huge white spider was still quietly crawling on the top of the hill. The strong wind in the online world could not shake her body at all, but the chaotic data and information quickly calmed down beside her.

The safety of the city has been guaranteed, and the overall load of the network is improving. This sudden storm seems to be over, but Naritel does not relax at all, and invisible threads are spreading out from the nothingness beside her , like a huge net covering the sky, the earth, the water, and every mind behind it all, everything in the neural network gradually became the end of her spider silk, and her perception spread like never before——

At this moment, the "neural network" is perfected, and it begins to reorganize itself the way it was designed to function as its name.

Duarte stood on the high ground near the hill, watching Naritel's work from a distance, he could see the way those silk threads spread, and at the same time he was using his own power to help Naritil go further. Expand your perception and search for the "outsider" who is trying to create damage.

At a certain moment after that, a certain "spider thread" on this giant web was suddenly moved abnormally.

It might just be a careless touch, or it might be a temptation from excess curiosity, or a bold provocation, no matter what the reason behind it is, the spider thread... was plucked.

The web-weaving spider disappeared on the hill in an instant—she had traced along the plucked thread, and in this world built by the mind, her speed surpassed the fastest and fastest of human beings. A fleeting thought.

Duarte only heard a sentence left by the other party: "I'm going to hunt! You stay here and take care of it!"

Standing on the high ground, the old man in black dress was stunned for a moment, shook his head with a helpless smile, and said to himself: "...After splitting into two individuals, I feel more and more like a nanny... ..."

At this moment, some jumping golden runes appeared out of nowhere in the air beside the old man, and the runes trembled and made a sound: "Duwart, this is Semler—how is the situation on your side?"

"Naritiel seems to have found the traces of the intruder, and she has gone to prey," Duvalt said casually, "The situation here is gradually stabilizing—but before the definite news from Naritil , I do not recommend turning off the city shield."

"Okay, we understand."

Chapter 0920

The howling sound lasted for a full half an hour, and then finally gradually subsided.

In the control center of the Imperial Hub, the technicians are still tense with all their nerves. Everyone is busy checking the system status, repairing the faulty nodes, and restarting the offline equipment before. It was constantly ringing, and although there was no gunpowder smoke in the huge hall, it was like a battlefield.

The power ridge of the entire facility has been brought back online, and the hub tower on the surface has also resumed operation. Within a few minutes after the howling ended, more than 90.00% of the nodes and facilities returned to normal status. The magician responsible for monitoring the system The technicians were surprised to find that this terrible chaos caused almost no hardware damage-it was like an illusory storm, blowing through the entire network quickly and violently, but in the end nothing was taken away, not even traces. fades quickly.