Chapter 290 — Invasion of the Mind Network
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
Amber stared at Gaosong in utter bewilderment. She blinked at the lord who had suddenly announced he was going to sleep, her face plastered with the look of someone convinced he was about to drop dead on the spot. "Are you sure it's just a nap?"
"What's that expression supposed to mean?"
"I keep feeling like you're about to enter your eternal rest..."
"What?!"
"Really! I've heard loads of bards tell tales of legendary heroes. Usually, when one of those legendary heroes suddenly turns to the people around him and says, 'I'm going to sleep for a bit, stay by my side,' it means he's about to die. Not a single one of them ever didn't die. Want me to go get Rebecca and Hedy for you? You can give them your last instructions first, and I'll go dig the grave..."
"Could you try thinking something nice about me for once! It's just a nap!" Gaoyang was concentrating on locking onto his own psychic frequency at that moment, so his reply to Amber really hadn't passed through his brain much at all. Only now, hearing her say that, did he snap back to himself—and the veins promptly bulged at his temples. "Don't ask why, just—I need to enter, immediately... fine, call it a meditative state if you like. The point is I can't be disturbed during this time. You stand guard beside me. If anyone comes looking for me, or wants to deliver reports, just take them—you're at my side all day anyway, you know how all the documents should be filed and recorded."
Amber thought it over and found that she could probably handle that kind of work, so she nodded. Though she was still terribly curious why a knight like Gao Cen would suddenly announce he was going to "meditate," the latter looked dead serious, so the half-elf lady immediately reined in her urge to stir up trouble and nodded in cooperation.
Gaoyang wasted no time. There was no bed in the study, but he wasn't really going to sleep anyway, so he simply found a comfortable position in the broad armchair and prepared to slip into the sleepers' mind network. Before beginning the connection, he gave Amber one last look. "If something truly urgent happens, just slap me hard—or use shadow power to drag me into the Shadow Realm."
"Got it, got it. Don't worry about a thing."
Having given that final instruction, Gaoyang completely released his mind, actively merging his consciousness into that special psychic frequency.
After a familiar spell of haziness, his mental vision crossed that hazy darkness, and a radiant, magnificent, inconceivable world unfolded before his eyes—the very "realm of fantasy" he had glimpsed before: the sleepers' eternal dream.
Just as during his first connection, no people could be seen upon first entering this world. The broad, magnificent streets were utterly empty, the whole world like a dead city. Gaoyang knew this was some kind of "loading" process, so while no one was paying attention he swiftly altered his appearance, then walked openly down the streets of this Phantom Hub City.
Moments later, figures began to gradually emerge along the streets, coming and going, bustling with life.
Gaoyang advanced toward the city center along the route he remembered, but he had barely taken two steps before he felt as though a faint voice was echoing ceaselessly in his mind. The voice was impossible to ignore, so he had no choice but to first find an empty corner, then focus his mind and try to make out what it was saying.
Thanks to the knowledge he had devoured, he quickly locked onto the voice. In the instant his mental power concentrated, an odd corresponding message suddenly surfaced in Gaoyang's mind:
"Calling all mid- and high-level nodes. Project Zero is soliciting computing power. Connect immediately upon receiving this message."
Gaoyang frowned.
This was a mass-sent "notice"—and it had been sent to him?
Could that sudden fluctuation he'd felt in the mental world before connecting have been because he'd received this message?
What was Project Zero?