Sword of Dawn

Page 410

"Blessed is this child with the land, he is blessed by the Goddess of Harvest..."

Suddenly, a voice deep in the memory suddenly broke into my mind, rearranging the chaotic and loose thoughts together, the feeling of not being able to distinguish between illusory and reality dissipated all of a sudden, and the wind blowing on my face became real He got up, and the faint smell of green grass and soil drilled into his nostrils - Norris suddenly opened his eyes.

The endless green field stretches out in sight, there is indeed a breeze blowing on this land, the grass blades make waves in the breeze, and in the distance stands a strange mountain peak that seems to be spliced ​​​​by color blocks, the sky A magnificent array of formulas and runes can also be seen between the clouds, and a giant sun with soft rays of light is slowly passing across the sky, and I am lying in this strange world.

Norris woke up in this strange place, looking at everything before him in bewilderment.

Some vague memories began to linger in his mind. He remembered the figures dangling in front of his eyes, the whispers of Margarita and Bertila beside the bed, and he remembered that he was walking towards the end of his life With a long sigh, accompanied by the constant surge of confusion, he got up from the grass and stood up.

He found that his body was more flexible than he had ever felt before—a feeling he hadn't felt in years.

There is a small dirt slope nearby, and you should be able to see more things from a high place. Norris walked over there. There are smokers.

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

A voice suddenly came from the side: "Does it look good? They made it according to the appearance in their memory."

Norris was startled by this voice, he immediately turned his head to look, but saw a figure beside him at some point, a young girl who had never seen it before, wearing a plain white dress, with hair like Her snow-like long hair hangs down to the ground. She is standing there, looking at the beautiful strange city in the distance, with a pure and happy smile on her face.

Noticing Norris' gaze, the girl turned her head and showed a bright smile: "Hello, my name is Naritel."

Then she pointed behind Norris again: "He's Duarte!"

Norris turned his head in doubt, but saw a figure behind him at some point. It was 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 Goddess of Harvest?"

"This is not the kingdom of God, but it is also a very good place," the girl who called herself Naritil said with a smile, "but we are only responsible for bringing you here, and someone will explain the specific situation to you."

Norris frowned: "Anyone?"

Naritil nodded with a smile: "He's already here."

As soon as the words fell, the girl who claimed to be Naritil and the old man named Duvalt had disappeared from Norris' sight without a sound. The latter rubbed his eyes subconsciously, and when he just put his hand down, he saw a A familiar and burly figure was 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 called out in surprise, "Why do you..."

"I'll come and see you," Gawain nodded with a smile, "Unfortunately, I couldn't make it in time in the real world."

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

"This is the mental space formed by the empire's data network," Gao Wen said with a smile, "Noris, it seems that you usually don't have time to pay attention to this aspect."

Norris frowned: "I seem to have heard it mentioned...but why am I here?"

"In short, you have died in the real world, what happened a few hours ago," Gawain said calmly, looking into the old man's eyes, "but I made my own claim to let you die in another form' survived."

……

It didn't take Gao Wen a lot of effort to explain all this clearly, and after knowing what happened to him, Norris fell silent for a while.

Looking at the Minister of Agriculture who fell silent, Gao Wen said after a short pause: "I heard from Bertila that she privately suggested that you use the life replacement spell to draw life force from the volunteers, but you refused. gone."

"Yes, Your Majesty, this is a matter that cannot be started," Norris said calmly. "Some things can never be priced, even the lives of volunteers. The temptation of this thing is too great. "Ordering" is allowed, even if it is tacitly approved, 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 person struggling from the bottom of society, Norris has seen too many similar things. A missionary would easily fabricate a crime against a commoner, and then "reasonably and legally" occupy his land and houses. Businessmen in China will also be blackmailed by theocratic power and royal power, and they will "voluntarily" donate property to the church or the king every once in a while-if this is the case with money, let alone a more precious life than that?

He believes that Gao Wen, who personally created the "Cecil Order", must know these things better than him.

"Your judgment is correct," Gawain said to Norris, "Bertera made a mistake, and I'm glad you didn't get into it."

"But you still let my soul 'live', live in this 'mental space'," Norris couldn't help but said, looking around, "I want to know, you are only going to do this to me , or do you plan to apply this technology?"

Although Norris had studied and worked as a church attendant, he still couldn't get rid of the shackles of common people's thinking. However, after working as the Minister of Agriculture for so many years and witnessing the establishment of a country with his own eyes, he has already learned to use Looking at things from a far-reaching perspective——Behind Gao Wen's move to preserve his soul, he vaguely felt that there should be more considerations.

"This is a more long-term plan," Gao Wen said frankly, "I call it the 'Immortals' plan.

"In short, after obtaining the key technology of the Eternal Sleeper and establishing the Neural Network of the Narrator, I intend to establish a special 'soul database' to retain outstanding or outstanding talents in the form of network minds , so that they can continue to serve the empire, these people are called 'immortals'.

"You're the first, Norris.

"This can be regarded as some of my preparations for future world changes-the world we live in is not peaceful. As a country that is not strong enough, we need to make more preparations."

"Immortals..." Norris subconsciously repeated Gawain's words, and couldn't help showing a trace of worry, "But I'm worried that this will affect our social order—in a sense, the people who are obtained in the Internet Longevity is also a kind of 'life chip', and according to what you said, 'immortals' themselves have a special status and influence during their lifetime, will such things... be abused?"

"Any good thing has the risk of being abused, the only difference is whether they have a chance to be controlled, and compared with Beltira's private and easy-to-manipulate life replacement spell, at least the immortal plan that relies on the national system is easier to obtain Control," Gao Wen was not surprised by Norris's doubts, he said his thoughts frankly, "the Government Affairs Office will simultaneously establish a set of management procedures to ensure that the 'immortals' will not interfere with the social order of the real world." Conflict—Of course, this may take a long time, and in the long future, these institutions will also undergo repeated destruction and repair, all of which must be considered in our consideration.

"And as the first Immortal, Norris, I'm sorry that we didn't ask for your consent before this—subsequent Immortals will follow the principle of voluntariness, and will clearly formulate responsibilities after 'soul regeneration', Rights and obligations, this is also an important part of the formal control of the immortal plan.

"In addition, it is also to prevent immortals from affecting the social order of the real world. Norris, I will take back your position as the Minister of Agriculture. There will be a successor to replace you in the real world according to the legal process, and you can be limited in the form of a consultant. Participate in the affairs of the Office of Government Affairs—let’s run it like this for a period of time to observe whether such a process is reasonable, and if there is a problem, we can slowly adjust it.

"Finally, the immortals living in the narrator's neural network will also be bound by social order. You should have seen that there are cities in this world, and there will naturally be residents in the future - they are connected as 'short-term residents' For the 'users' of the Internet, and the immortals who are the 'long-term residents' of this world, the Government Affairs Office will establish a management organization similar to the real world in this special world. At that time, you will find that living here is also the same as living in the real world. Not much different."

Norris listened carefully to Gawain's every word. He tried his best to imagine what kind of future it would be, but found that even with the vision he had expanded over the years, it was difficult for him to keep up with Gawain's train of thought. I can roughly imagine some subversive and unprecedented "prospects" - the world is divided into two, the real world and the mental space in the network operate synchronously, countless people live in these two worlds at the same time, all knowledge and ideas will be Communicate and share with unprecedented efficiency.Immortals have been living in the Internet for a long time, which may even give birth to a brand new "clan", and one of the biggest challenges that Cecil will face in the future may be to strike a balance between this new clan and the social order...

Some challenges are worth looking forward to.

While Norris was trying to conceive of the future, Gao Wen was also thinking about it.

The Immortal Project... It's a bold and ambitious project.

Outstanding talents will be protected, valuable knowledge will be used more thoroughly, and it can also play a huge role in rewarding and motivating people. At first glance, it is almost all advantages.

But risks also lurk deep within these exciting advantages.

Just as Norris was worried for the first time - this subversive, soul-immortal technology is likely to conflict with the existing social order, and there is a danger of misuse and loss of control one day in the future.

For this reason, Gao Wen must lead the government affairs department to formulate a lot of rules and regulations to restrain the immortals, strictly control the channels, prevent them from blocking the flow of classes in the real world, prevent them from destroying the relatively fair social order that has been established with great difficulty, and prevent them from Become a catharsis for power out of control...

But even though there were many risks, Gawain decided to start this plan and make it one of the important "reserve forces" of the Cecil Empire.

This world is not peaceful, and humans... are not such a powerful species in this peaceful world.

Elves with a long history and rich heritage, giant dragons with extremely powerful individual strength, mysterious and powerful immortal sea monsters... There are too many races with better innate conditions than humans, and they themselves have extremely advanced civilizations.

Another common feature of them is their long life span and exceptional ability to live.

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

Although the relationship between the Cecil Empire and these forces is good at this stage, this does not make Gao Wen feel at ease, because he still remembers how the Dragonborn not long ago saw through the investment plans and plans of the Cecil Empire at a glance. trade program.Although the Dragonborn finally agreed to join the settlement area of ​​Cecil, on the surface it seemed that they had fallen into the currency siege of the Cecil, but there were signs that the Grand Duke Balogar had not fallen into a "trap" at all. ——Since the dragon descendants can see through the investment plan of the Cecils from experience, they must be no strangers to the tricks of human beings in terms of currency. They accept the settlement area lightly, which can only show...they don’t care about it .

Behind them may be the giant dragon of Tarrond, and in the depths of their mountains may be buried an "ancient super weapon" that cannot be beaten by all humans on the continent.

Gao Wen very much hoped to maintain long-term peace with those races, but he was very clear about a saying: if you want peace, you must have the capital of peace.

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

Chapter 0867 Restart

The boundless green field undulates slightly on the plain, and the breeze mixed with mud and grass blows slowly with a refreshing force. Standing in this far from "finished" world, Norris feels the sensations that are transmitted from all parts of his body. It was a relaxed and comfortable feeling that had not been experienced in decades, and I couldn't help taking a deep breath like intoxicated.

"This is really a good place, Your Majesty," he turned his head and said to Gao Wen with a smile, "I just hope that those young people who enter the Internet for entertainment purposes in the future will not be too addicted to it."

Gao Wen smiled: "We will establish corresponding management measures and preventive measures - after all, entertainment is a part of human civilization, but any entertainment may make people intoxicated."

"Everything you do is always well-prepared," Norris said with emotion, "Immortal...this is really a bold idea..."

"Since ancient times, extraordinary people have always had various ways to prolong their lives or even obtain near-immortality, from psychic spells to element promotion, and even 'resurrection' by chance like me... Long lifespan has become Extraordinary people have another privilege besides strength, and this privilege is only linked to 'strength'," Gao Wen said slowly, shaking his head, "As long as you have enough extraordinary power, you have a certain chance to transform into an immortal. If they abandon their human nature and choose those unscrupulous routes, then their success rate of obtaining a long lifespan will be greatly improved - most of the dark sects are "ancients" who have lived for centuries, the life Beltera showed you Replacing the forbidden technique is just one of the traditional methods of extending the lifespan of superhumans, and it's not even the worst method...

"If it weren't for the very low success rate of these 'traditional methods', and many of them have sequelae of memory confusion and loss of personality, then the superhumans who are desperate to take risks are probably far more than those from the dark sect.

"In addition, there are many races that have a long lifespan or even almost immortality. Their long lives don't even need to pay a price. These powerful ancient races have not annihilated human beings and occupied the entire world so far, just because this world is still... ... Enough to live.

"From ancient times to the present, death will not fall on every mortal head fairly-this is the iron law of this world, and it is also the biggest unfairness when humans compete with other races, or even when humans compete within each other. The Immortal Project is a It is an attempt to enhance the ability of human development, and in the distant future... maybe this is also an opportunity for the transformation of the human race as a whole."

"I'm not good at imagining things that are too far away, especially in this kind of field," Norris shook his head, "But in my opinion, at least your Immortal Plan doesn't extend the lives of other people by harming their lives." Lifespan, although the opportunity to save the soul itself can easily become a 'privilege', but this level of hidden dangers is at least within the scope of the system. What's more..."

Norris paused for a moment when he said this. He looked at the city under construction in the distance, and at the world that was still desolate as a whole, with a smile on his lips: "It seems that 'Immortal' is not a treat either. Qingfu's errand..."

"That's right, I'm afraid you will have to serve the Empire for a longer time," Gawain laughed, looking into Norris's deep and calm eyes, "Although it may be a little late to say it now, I still want to ask--you Will you be immortal, Norris?"

"Of course." The wrinkles on the old man's face stretched out. "In any case, this is also a chance to 'survive'—I didn't reject Ms. Bertila's suggestion because I pursued death."

"A very true answer," Gao Wen raised his eyebrows, "but...it's the best answer."

……

In the real world, Gawain opened his eyes.

The flower vines controlled by Bertila wriggled and removed the temporarily assembled nerve connectors one by one. Feeling the rapid recovery of some numb nerves, Gawain moved his neck lightly, then stood up and looked at the inside of the hut. of the people.

Rebecca, Amber, and Margarita stood in front of him, with undisguised tension and worry on their faces.

"It has succeeded." Gawain did not have the appetite to hang anyone on this kind of thing, and he announced the good news immediately, "Norris will become the first 'immortal' in the empire, and the first in human history." An 'ordinary person' whose soul is preserved through magical techniques."

Rebecca was the first to cheer and jumped up, followed by Amber, and Margarita couldn't help but put her hand on her chest, showing a sincere smile, and as a technical person who personally participated in this incident The personnel and the archbishops of the Eternal Sleeper at the scene couldn't help congratulating each other excitedly.

——No one has too many thoughts because they witnessed the birth of an immortal soul, because in this world, prolonging life through extraordinary technology is not unimaginable. Although Norris is an ordinary person who uses new technology to preserve his soul People, but this is not beyond anyone's imagination in essence, and especially in the eyes of the eternal sleepers, this is a category worthy of celebration but no need to make a fuss.

After all, in Cecil's imperial capital, there is a sea monster with an infinite lifespan who dies all day long, an arcane creature that has lived for more than 1000 years, and a big iron ball that is advertised as the soul container of an ancient magister. There is a dragon descendant with a lifespan of hundreds of thousands of years, and an emperor who has been dug up and revived after being dead for 700 years.

"He still needs to adapt and adjust in the network for a period of time, and we also need to do a short-term follow-up observation on his mental state," Gao Wen said after the congratulatory people quieted down, "This process will not It's very long, and you'll be able to see him in a few days—through the magic net communication, or the immersion chamber connected to the magic net.

"In addition, Norris will no longer serve as the Minister of Agriculture from now on, and the appointment and dismissal of the new Minister of Agriculture will be carried out unaffected--Margarita, you are ready to accept the notice from the Department of Government Affairs, the reconstruction area Work requires you to make some adjustments along with it.”

Margarita was startled for a moment, understood the meaning of Gao Wen's words, and nodded immediately: "Yes, I understand."

"In addition, what happened here today will be safely publicized through the official publicity channels," Gao Wen continued, "so I don't want to hear any rumors before the official caliber comes out."

Amber had already thought about this, and nodded immediately: "Don't worry, I will pay attention to this."

Margarita also immediately took orders: "I will handle the control of the camp."

Gawain nodded slightly.

The emergence of Immortal technology is indeed exciting and significant, but it must also be considered in advance of its possible impact-although people in this world are very interested in "mysterious magical powers that can create miracles of life, powerful transcendents have the opportunity to obtain "Longer lifespan" itself is not unfamiliar, and most people should be able to accept that a high-ranking person in the empire has changed his life form through a "secret ritual", but Gao Wen must be vigilant against the distortion of this news in the process of spreading .

After all, although there are several extraordinary powers that prolong life in this world, before the Eternal Sleeper's network mind technology was formed, the other several technologies had harsh conditions or had a huge negative impact. They either involved the taboo of the undead, or they would transform In the process, the original humanity is completely annihilated, and the "transformation" carried out by Norris itself is not a real resurrection or eternal life-he is indeed dead in the real world, but he is just captured in the form of "network mind". It is preserved in the data network, and it is not yet certain whether this "preserved mind" will never decay, and this form similar to "soul" is very likely to be misunderstood as some kind of "dead soul psychic spell" "A bad publicity will easily leave huge hidden dangers in the future.

In addition, he must also consider the issue of public opinion orientation-he does not want "immortals" to become a privileged product that matches their status and status, but in the foreseeable future, this tendency will definitely happen, after all, related technologies have already appeared and are on the verge of Mature, so even if they can only "survive" in the form of a piece of data on the Internet in the future, there will definitely be many people who will make a fuss about this aspect, and the confrontation with this "inclination" will be Gao Wen and the government affairs department in the future. One of the long-term jobs.

Therefore, as the starting point of this long-term work, the various work carried out around the first "immortal" of the empire must leave as few hidden dangers as possible.

During the short few seconds of silence, Gawain thought about a lot of things, and finally he exhaled lightly.

Magical technology breaks the barrier between the extraordinary and the mortal, and also brings many things that would not have been bargaining chips of desire into the vortex of human nature—technology allows ordinary people to come into contact with more things that they were not qualified to touch before, but technology The speed of development determines that all this is destined to have a process.

This "imbalance" of development is destined to become more and more of his daily considerations—after all, the extraordinary barrier has been broken, and the operating rules of the Cecil Empire doomed this barrier to not be rebuilt.

This even made him have some random associations - when human beings are gradually drifting away from the road of civilization development, and the complexity of thoughts and desires are increasing day by day, those gods born from the collective thoughts of human beings... Have you ever faced the same problem?

Everyone noticed Gawain's almost sighing reaction. At this moment of celebration, they were inevitably a little confused, but no one dared to ask questions. Only Rebecca jumped out first (in fact, Amber also planned to Jumped out, but her speed is obviously not as fast as Rebecca who grew up relying on conditioned reflex): "My lord ancestor? Why are you sighing?"

"It's nothing." Gawain was silent for a while, then shook his head suddenly with a relieved smile, "I thought about some irrelevant things. Then I will leave the follow-up matters to Margarita, and Norris must be properly handled." ...the body. He died in the real world after all, and our former Minister of Agriculture still needs a...standard funeral."

When he said this, Gao Wen's tone obviously paused, and he couldn't help but look weird when he looked at the old man on the soft couch, and when he heard what he ordered, everyone on the scene, including Margarita, Amber and even Rebecca, followed The expression became subtle—this is really a complicated and indescribable situation. Margarita believes that even if the old man Walder Pelich whom she respects is here, he must have no experience in dealing with related incidents...

At the scene, several archbishops, including Yuri and Semler, looked calm and indifferent, and even looked at each other tacitly - they have experience...

An annoying loud voice rang in Yuri's ear, and the timing was just right: "Ah... I'm familiar with this scene."

Accompanied by these words, Magnum's figure emerged from the air.

"Shut up." Almost all the Eternal Sleeper archbishops at the scene said in unison.

Gawain watched this scene, didn't say anything, just shook his head with a smile, turned and left the hut.

He came to a secluded open space near the hut, letting his thoughts gradually calm down along with the surrounding environment.

This is a small flower field. Unknown flowers spawned by the giant Sorin tree are blooming in the open space. When the wind blows, there is a soft rattling sound among the crowns of the giant Sorin tree, and some of the fragrance of the flowers spreads here. wandering in secluded corners.

Gawain raised his head, saw the psychedelic brilliance of the layers of huge leaves under the light of the magic spar, and exhaled lightly: "Beltera."

"I'm here," a voice of squirming flower vines came from nearby immediately, and Bertila's figure emerged from the flower vines. She came to Gawain's side and bowed slightly, "Brother Gawain."

After a brief silence, Gao Wen shook his head: "...don't force yourself to call me that when there are no other people around."

"After all, you have almost all his memories...and I also need to always pay attention to my words and deeds," Bertila said expressionlessly, "I don't want to cause unnecessary trouble because of a wrong name or attitude."

Gao Wen hummed, and nodded lightly: "You can decide on your own. Let's not talk about these things, let's talk about the things you mentioned in your previous report-you are in the crystal array on the top of the Thorin tree. Have you detected regular, unfamiliar signals?"

Chapter 0868 The Mysterious Signal

Hearing Gawain's question, Bertila nodded: "Yes, as I said in the report—and I still haven't figured out the source of those regular signals."

Gao Wen frowned slightly.

What he and Bertila were discussing happened not long ago - about a week ago, the magic net in the Solin area completed the intra-area network formation, and the eastern part that used to rely on relay towers for "wire connection" The grid distribution of energy and information has been successfully realized among several major cities on the plain. As a regional hub, Solinburg, the largest magic obelisk here also completed the mode conversion on the same day, becoming the general manager of the region. Hub, this thing itself went very well, but then some confusing "phenomena" happened.

On the third day after the network was established, Beltira began to detect some regular signals of unknown origin that did not belong to the magic net itself from the crystal array located on the top of the Thorin tree.

Since the obelisk of magic energy in the Sorin area is built on the top of the crown of the giant tree of Sorin, and many of its ancillary facilities are built on the structure of the giant tree itself, Bertila's "person" is equivalent to a living magic net Hub, after realizing this, Gawain's technicians reached a cooperation with Beltera, who began to learn and get used to the manipulation skills of those magic devices, and monitored whether there was any signal in the signal module of the magic obelisk. Abnormality is one of her daily jobs.

——By the way, the Sorin hub is currently the only magic net hub in the empire that can maintain itself. Gawain hopes to build more, but it seems that Bertila's cutting and transplanting technology still needs to make a breakthrough. Nowhere in sight, so a similar idea can only be an idea...