Chapter 545 — This Is the New Laboratory

"I hope so," Kamael buzzed, then turned to Daniel, still standing to one side, and nodded slightly in greeting. "So this is your other subordinate, Daniel."

"Yes. Daniel is based in Typhon; the non-implanted neural cord was his achievement," Gao Yan nodded, then raised a hand and began introducing each person present in turn. "This is Kamael, legendary archmage of the ancient Gondor Empire, expert in classical spells and modern arcane technology; Hetty, my blood descendant, Cecil's chief administrator; Rebecca..."

Gao Cen introduced them one by one, and Hetty and the others exchanged slightly reserved greetings with Daniel at this first meeting. It was a peculiar experience for both sides—for Hetty and the others, this was the first time in their lives they had established communication and cooperation with people inside a virtual-reality network (or rather... made online friends?), while for Daniel, it meant he had finally met the "core envoys" of the "Vagrant from Beyond," that he had finally entered the inner circle of the power built by this indescribable "god" from another realm, that he had finally gained... the true trust of the Vagrant from Beyond.

When Gao Yang introduced Jenny, Daniel could not help but show surprise. He looked at the white-haired girl before him, disbelief all over his face. "You are Lady Jenny?"

Addressed so by an old mage old enough to be her grandfather, Jenny immediately waved her hands rather stiffly. "You... you can just call me Jenny."

"Ah, yes..." Daniel blinked. "Forgive my excitement—runic logic left a deep impression on me. It has almost changed my understanding of the very concepts of runes and magic circles."

Seeing Jenny's slight embarrassment, Gao Yun cleared his throat. "Ahem. Well, since you've all been introduced, let's sit down first."

Daniel quickly composed himself, and everyone sat down around the round table—much larger than the one that had been here when only Gao Yang and he had occupied this space, with more seats around it as well. One dark red chair with no markings on its back belonged to Gao Song; above each of the remaining chairs floated the name of its occupant. Clearly, Gao Yang had arranged this deliberately.

Daniel believed this "round table" perhaps reflected the tastes of the Vagrant from Beyond—He delighted in being with His followers, communicating in the manner of discussion—and the seating around the table more or less reflected the degree of closeness between the followers and Him.

In fact, Gao Yang had arranged the seating according to the order of meals at home—Hetty sat closest, Rebecca second, and the rest would be pushed further back if they ever came to mooch a meal...

Once everyone was seated, Gao Yang wasted no words and spoke bluntly: "Everyone who has made it here is someone I trust, one of my close confidants. You will also be colleagues working together, companions who must rely on one another. Here, aside from personal privacy and special confidential intelligence as I designate it, all other information should follow the principle of open sharing. So first, we must understand the nature of this space—my definition of it is: a laboratory."

An experimental space built upon virtual reality.

A place that, on the macro scale, can simulate more than ninety-nine percent of reality's laws.

A laboratory capable of verifying all manner of technical concepts, of instantly constructing experimental environments, of conducting trial and error at near-zero cost and virtually unlimited times.

This was a place that would send any technological researcher into transports of delight!

As Gao Yang introduced the nature and functions of this experimental space one by one, demonstrations began on the nearest alloy platforms—

Enormous components appeared out of thin air; a structure-complex magic-guided cannon and a magic-energy engine were assembled almost in the blink of an eye. They began to operate, began to undergo testing under all sorts of extreme conditions—the cannon fired, the engine roared, gears and levers whirled without cease, and everything seemed no different from the real world... no, better than the real world!

Rebecca's eyes went wide. She watched as a large engine on one of the platforms malfunctioned during operation; then everything on the platform instantly froze, the faulty engine was magnified, part of its structure turned transparent, and the misaligned and fractured components within were presented clearly before everyone's eyes in that "frozen" state—every break point and every flying fragment was distinctly visible.

The demonstration ended, and Gao Yang leaned back in his seat: "Its purpose is just as you have seen."

Rebecca drew a deep breath. This ever-carefree, optimistic, and recklessly bold girl felt an overwhelming shock at that moment.

She glanced at Kamael. Though she could not read his expression, she was certain that he too was equally stunned.

The ancient archmage sighed softly in admiration: "Seven hundred years... it seems not all technology has been in decline after all."

"We can use this to test the magic-energy train!!" Rebecca said excitedly to Kamael. "And we can test two designs at the same time! This time it won't matter how many times it blows up!!"

"And new rune arrays too," even the usually shy Jenny grew excited. "Hundreds of rune arrays can be tested very quickly! And we won't have to worry about wear and safety issues!"

Hetty looked at Rebecca, then at Jenny. This chief steward of Cecil blinked, and suddenly it dawned on her: "Wait, then does this mean I... won't have to approve any funding for you?"

The hand that approved the budgets suddenly stopped trembling.