Chapter 919 — The Howling
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The grid-integration project was pressing forward at a feverish pace.
From Tenwoods City in the western provinces to Tamdul and Longwind Fortress in the east, from Winterhold in the far north to Cecil, the imperial capital in the south, every main hub across the empire was running its final test before the official switch-on. The Magic Web nodes at every level beneath those hubs were likewise making ready for the coming "sequential roll call." This project, years in the making and the most thrilling undertaking in all history, had finally reached the point where it could be inspected and accepted—and everyone who had ever had a hand in it now held their nerves taut, unwilling to see anything go wrong.
And this thrilling project did not touch only the physical world; another "world" was preparing for the coming integration as well.
In that "new world" woven out of psychic power, a brand-new city spread across the plains, gleaming under the skylight. In outward appearance the city of the Phantom Pivot looked like a mirror image of the imperial capital, Cecil—everywhere the contours of the real-world Xuanyao City could be made out—yet in its details it was altogether different: newer, larger, and filled with many structures that did not exist in the real world. It was as though a more imaginative, more forward-looking "urban model" had been built upon the foundation of reality, and now stood proudly upon that broad land.
In the western district, in a block that had no counterpart in the real world, crowds and traffic flowed ceaselessly; the bustling streets were packed with carriages and pedestrians the like of which even the real Cecil had never seen, until the whole block was jammed and the order of the shops along both sides of the street began, little by little, to fall into confusion.
But all at once everything went still. The crowded people and vehicles on the street began to dissolve with great speed; the shops open along the way winked out one after another; then the brightly colored buildings drained of color, becoming gray-white geometric patterns, which in turn swiftly became monotonous lines and noise. Everything vanished in a few seconds, leaving only undefined blank ground behind—and from the wilds in the distance the grassland came racing in, beginning to backfill this undefined block.
A gentle, scholarly man in the white robe of a researcher, a monocle over one eye, materialized on the gray-white ground. He glanced at the block undergoing reset and remarked offhandedly to the air: "Western District, Phase VI urban planning simulation concluded. Congestion has not improved appreciably; the road scale must be replanned and traffic signal positions adjusted. I'll put together a report on the specifics afterward."
Leaping golden runes surfaced in the air, and from them came the reply of the real world's urban planning department: "Received. Thank you for your work."
"Only doing my job," Yuri said politely, then glanced at the sky not far off—where an enormous countdown hung, reminding him that the hour drew near. "So this is the last simulation today. The integration begins shortly; until the Magic Web returns to normal, the neural network will be temporarily cut off from all conventional nodes."
"Understood. Good luck to you all. Ending connection."
"Thank you. Ending connection."
Yuri cut the link with the real world, and the grassland creeping in from the distance happened to backfill the last patch of gray-white undefined ground beneath his feet.
He turned, meaning to head back into the city nearby, but a familiar presence suddenly drew close and brought him to a halt.
Magnum's figure surfaced before Yuri.
"I'm not late, am I?" The big-voiced man glared. "I came the moment I got the notice—didn't even have time to leave those students homework for their homework..."