Chapter 545 — This Is the New Laboratory
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The technicians began their final inspection and calibration of the immersion pods. Hetty stood beside the pod assigned to her, a touch nervous, and murmured under her breath: "I really never thought... that one day I'd have to enter a world created by the Dreamless Ones..."
"A virtual world," Gao You corrected from beside her. He had noticed his eldest granddaughter's unease. "What's wrong? Feeling anxious?"
"A little, but mostly... conflicted," Hetty said candidly. Before the Arcane Vein Sect there was nothing she felt the need to hide. "I know technology itself is neither good nor evil, but the Dreamless Ones' mind network isn't merely 'technology.' You told me yourself—it's the projection and aggregate of countless Dreamless Ones' inner worlds. And now we're going to that place... it just feels strange."
Gao paused a moment, then nodded slightly. "I understand how you feel, but rest easy—this is only temporary. Our neural-link technology has only just begun; we aren't yet capable of building a mind network of our own, so for now we can only 'borrow' the Dreamless Ones' ready-made network. But once the technology matures, we'll naturally build a virtual environment of our own—a technology this important can't be left forever in someone else's hands."
Hetty's expression softened with relief. Gao Yang, meanwhile, turned to look at Kamael, who floated beside another immersion pod. "How's it going? Can you connect?"
Around Kamael surged the radiance of arcane energy; leaping bolts of power swept, under his precise control, across the neural connection points inside the pod. A steady hum rose from the pod's base. Kamael spoke with a hint of delight: "It should be no problem now... Though I no longer have a nervous system, I do have a body of magic. By directly reading and writing the magical fluctuations in the neural connection points, I can enter the network just like the rest of you."
"Truly incredible..." Gao Yang looked Kamael's inhuman body up and down. "Magic... its mysteries only grow more fascinating the more one looks."
Kamael bowed slightly. "One day, we will uncover its secrets."
A technician's report came from nearby: "Network frequency calibration complete!" "Neural cord calibration complete!" "All immersion pods are ready for use, my lord."
Pi Yun drew a deep breath and walked toward the pod assigned to him. "Let us begin."
Those preparing to connect to the network each made their way to their assigned pods and lay down one after another. Kamael floated beside the apparatus, his arcane arcs connecting directly to its various contact points. As the only one present who could connect to the mind network without external equipment, Gao Yang had not prepared a pod for himself—chiefly because those long, human-sized containers with lids on top gave him a certain psychological shadow. He simply sat down on an ordinary chair beside the connection platform and addressed the others, all ready to link: "I'll enter the network first. The rest of you connect one minute later. This time we'll skip the conscious layer and go straight into the virtual space—if you find yourself at the wrong landing point, or see fragmented images, don't hesitate, disconnect immediately. Understood?"
"Understood!"
"Good," Gao Yan nodded, then spoke to the air beside him: "Keep watch. Wake me if anything happens."
Amber's voice came out of the air: "Yeah, yeah, yeah—but it's a deal, next time you have to take me to see that mind network thing!"
As everyone knew, if the air around Gao Yang were left to sit too long, Amber would grow out of it.
Gao Yi narrowed his eyes. With a mild dizziness so familiar he had long since adapted to it, the light and shadow before him shifted, changed, and reassembled at breakneck speed.
An instant later, he had arrived in that patch of virtual space he had "stolen" from the Dreamless Ones' mind network.