The shock in Gawain’s heart was beyond words.
However, he still maintained his hidden presence within the ntal network, not allowing his startled emotions to show.
He rely glanced at Selena Gerfen once more and again verified her details through the network’s backend.
His first reaction was a malfunction in the address recognition feature—after all, the system had just recently been completed, and there were many areas that required debugging. However, he also knew that attributing the problem to a system fault right away was the least advisable approach.
Selena Gerfen was very likely indeed hiding sowhere in Cecil Clan’s territory, in the southern borders!
Moreover, in the state of a soul.
His gaze lingered on those words for a long ti.
Archbishop (deceased), Soul Body...
This part of the content also stirred sothing within him, but it wasn’t very strong. After all, Selena was rely a figure from Gawain Cecil’s mory, and from seven hundred years ago at that. It would be no surprise if a human being, having existed for so long, had transford into any kind of state—especially since Gawain had witnessed with his own eyes one capable of photosynthesis, his capacity for acceptance in this regard was rather high.
What he was more concerned about was in what state the soul-form Selena Gerfen had been hiding in the southern borders till now.
anwhile, the conversation between Daniel and the others was nearing its conclusion.
"...That’s the situation. The newly erged overflow pollution zone is still in the ’Imaginary Number District’ outside the city. We temporarily call it ’Illusion Town,’" explained the Archbishop nad Yuri. "His Holiness the Pope believes that the twisted and bizarre state this area presents is very peculiar, and has thus ordered no reset for now, opting instead for a period of investigation first."
Selena also nodded: "The area has already been masked, so as not to be noticed by the residents of the dream city. Archbishop Daniel, this is your first ti entering an overflow pollution zone. The main point is to familiarize yourself with the environnt and situation. Please keep this in mind."
"I understand, Archbishop Selena," Daniel responded earnestly. "I am ready."
"Very well, let us depart now," Archbishop Yuri turned to glance at a clock face that appeared in mid-air, as layers of rune circles appeared beneath his feet, gradually rendering his figure faint and ethereal. "Everyone, enter the teleportation area; transfer will comnce in fifteen seconds."
The three archbishops and three senior priests wearing owl masks all stood within the range of the rune circles, while Gawain silently stood among them—each person was precisely an elbow’s length apart from him, yet no one noticed anything amiss.
Amidst the flickering light and shadow, the scenery around them rapidly changed.
Gawain felt as though he had traversed a "tunnel" filled with chaotic mist, the resplendent dream city flashed by on the chaotic barriers surrounding the tunnel. When the scenery stabilized, he was already standing at the center of a gloomy small town.
Was that "tunnel" just now symbolic of an "unmarked port" in the ntal network?
With fleeting thoughts in mind, Gawain shifted his attention to the ruined town in front of him.
Somber and chaotic clouds covered the sky, shrouding everything in view. Beneath the sky were the disorderly arrayed old houses, unlike any architectural style of the real-world countries. These houses had black slanted or pointed roofs, with weathered and faded exteriors, and a bizarre mural always adorned one wall: a hand seemingly symbolizing so kind of imnse power covering the sky, casting a shadow over the land below.
The town was silent and desolate, as if abandoned for a century. The neat, iron-black streetlamp posts lined the roads, while weeds and vines grew rampant between the lamp posts and cobblestones.
Gawain looked up into the distance but couldn’t see beyond the town’s edges. All he saw at the horizon was a wall of swirling mist, isolating the entire town within its bounds.
Is this what they call the "overflow pollution zone"?
Though desolate and abandoned, judging by its realism, much like the dream city, it’s a place hard to distinguish between real and unreal... but why is it deserted?
According to Daniel, such overflow pollution zones should have human activities—or rather, in the network space sustained by ntal power, a zone only appears due to ntal activities and having soone observing it.
What is the deal with this empty town?
While Gawain pondered, Archbishop Yuri spoke up: "This place is quite different from the previous overflow zones... Although the atmosphere here is eerie and oppressive, the scene still adheres to logic. There are no twisted overlapping buildings, no washed-out ground, or sky with gaps."
"This is one of the reasons why His Holiness considers this place particularly unusual and in need of thorough investigation," Selena Gerfen nodded. "Previous overflow zones exhibited phenona completely illogical in reality—stacking, fading, voids, curling, much like scenes within a sandbox experiencing information distortions and losses when projected outside. However, this Illusion Town... aside from it being devoid of people, the physical structure of the town is intact and orderly."
Gawain listened while analyzing—previous overflow zones sound a bit like a virtual scene with rendering failures coupled with model glitches... Is it a sign of inadequate ntal network computational power?
"It’s very quiet here, and the streets are empty of people," said Daniel on the side, echoing Gawain’s earlier question. "I rember you ntioning to before that residents can be seen in overflow zones. Regardless of whether they appear strange or distorted, at least the ’residents’ themselves exist."
"That’s also sothing we need to investigate and verify," Selena Gerfen nodded and said, "In any case, this place is incredibly eerie, and it may already be beyond the rules and constraints of the ntal network. There may be so mind we cannot comprehend influencing and observing here. Everyone’s actions must proceed with caution."
After issuing a warning, the Eternal Sleepers heightened their vigilance and began gradually exploring this eerie "Phantom Town."
They first checked the deserted streets, confirming at least there were no signs of any living activity around, then confird the terrain structure near the streets, roughly grasping the surrounding environnt and the distribution of several main exits and entrances.
Throughout this entire process, Gawain followed them at a leisurely pace, listening to their conversations, or accompanying them to record maps, checking the abandonnt of facilities such as wells and street lamps.
After completing the preliminary exploration of the surrounding environnt and confirming there were no dangerous factors, the attention of this Eternal Sleeper squad naturally shifted to those houses on both sides of the road.
In this abandoned town, all the houses had their doors and windows tightly shut, with no lights or sounds within the windows, and heavy curtains or crisscrossing wooden planks blocking external view into the houses. Yet this obstruction beca a kind of lure, making people curious to take a glance inside the houses, even though they felt strange and dangerous.
The Eternal Sleeper squad treated this town with the utmost caution; therefore, they first checked for street dangers. But no matter what, to complete the investigation mission, they would eventually have to check those enclosed houses.
The three senior priests wearing owl masks arrived in front of a house with a tightly closed door. Before they attempted to open the door, Selena Gerfen first shone her portable lamp outside the house to check for possible abnormal data or malicious hidden intellect, then nodded, "Open the door."
One of the masked priests pushed the door, yet the seemingly frail wooden door did not budge.
They started checking the lock on the door, examining whether sothing was blocking the wooden door.
Gawain ca near them, approaching the street-facing window of this house, which was nailed with crisscrossing broken boards. The gaps between the boards were quite wide, and Gawain’s gaze fell inside the house through those gaps.
Inside was pitch black, and only the silhouettes of so furniture and objects could be vaguely seen, everything seed to be shrouded in a heavy black veil, appearing indistinct and unclear.
A creaking sound ca from the direction of the door, and Gawain turned his head to see the three owl-masked Eternal Sleeper priests had successfully opened the tightly closed wooden door. One of them held a bright light ball in their hand, while the other two respectively cast spells for ntal protection. The three cautiously covered each other, carefully stepping into the house.
This was a world projected by the mind network, where everything was the result of ntal simulation, and conventional spells from the real world basically had no effect here. Only the power of the mind could take effect, and the Illumination spell, Mind Protection Spell, and the like that those three Eternal Sleeper priests used were probably simulated "special effects" to produce a stronger ntal guide and suggestion, preventing the caster from losing themselves in the network.
Gawain turned over the many rules of action in the ntal world in his mind, while he stepped forward, catching up with the three priests, and walked into the house.
The light ball of the Illumination spell emitted a ghastly white glow, illuminating the furnishings inside the house. However, this light seed to be interfered with and suppressed by so unknown force, spreading only a few ters and illuminating only nearby objects. anwhile, the depths of the house and everything in the corners remained shrouded in shadow like a heavy curtain.
Gawain stared into those shadows, feeling that deep inside those shadows was emptiness, as if the unlit places were not just darkness but truly non-existent — he even had so baseless associations, thinking that if soone rudely stepped into those dark areas without light, they would directly fall into the void, their mind obliterated in the network’s emptiness.
The three priests responsible for exploring the house clearly realized the peculiarity of those shadow areas as well. They cautiously maintained their actions within the range of the Illumination spell, with none approaching the darkness.
"No dust... but there’s a sense of being abandoned for years..." One priest ran a finger over the square table in the center of the room, a low voice coming from beneath the owl mask, "It seems to be an ’emotional resonance’ phenonon."
"It’s possible," nodded another priest, "So force capable of affecting human thought is present here, creating a ’long-abandoned’ ’atmosphere.’"
The third priest checked a few other places: "Furniture and objects are placed in everyday positions, there’s still clear water in the water bottles, and the flowers stuck in the wooden post haven’t withered. It seems the people living here left suddenly not long ago..."
"This is likely data leaked from Sandbox One, a projection of a town within the sandbox. Judging by the undistorted state of the projection, it probably restores the conditions inside Sandbox One quite accurately," said the first priest in a low voice, "Is this what Sandbox One looks like now?"
"At least one town looks like this."
Gawain, standing beside the three priests, followed them to inspect the situation inside the house but found no noteworthy clues, so he turned and exited the house, returning to the street where Selena and others stood.
While the three priests were inspecting the house, the three Archbishops outside were not idle. They maintained ntal protection in this area to prevent any malicious intellect hidden in the depths of the town from attacking the priests entering the house. At the sa ti, they monitored movents around the town, paying attention to any changes occurring in Phantom Town synchronously when the three priests entered the house — in a ntal world involving consciousness activities, such "linked reactions" must be considered.
Gawain overheard Selena Gerfen conversing with Daniel.
"... This town is not on Sandbox One’s ’blueprint,’ " the woman with the portable lamp said blandly, "nor in the subsequent blueprint deduced. It was a historical creation autonomously evolved after Sandbox One lost control."
Daniel asked, "Are there other similar ’autonomously evolved products’?"
"Yes," Selena nodded, "We’ve already observed a mysterious plain, several broken streets, and a mountain appearing from nowhere — that mountain floats above the dream city. If it weren’t for the Pope perceiving the anomaly in advance and sealing it, it might have directly exposed itself to ordinary followers."
Daniel was sowhat curious: "... These overflows seem to revolve around the dream city but at most only affect the edge districts, not directly invading the dream city’s central area?"
"Correct, the dream city is tightly protected and not so easy to invade."
Both Daniel and Gawain standing beside Selena showed thoughtful expressions.
Just then, a gentle yet mysterious bell sound suddenly echoed within the town!
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