As the frost moon enters the end, the cold winter has arrived in the northern countries of the mainland.

The cold north wind whistled across the city streets, bringing a sharp whistle between the gaps of buildings. The snow on the roof was blown off by the wind, and it flew into a hazy curtain in the air, as if another new snowfall was coming.

All of this is blocked by thick walls, mezzanine crystal glass and heating system.

Gao Wen sat in the study, flipping through a pastime reading about the records of the monsters in the North Mainland. He held a dip pen in his other hand, casually outlining some pictures and inspirations that appeared in his mind on the draft paper. The howling wind outside was filtered by the glass, and only a little weak residual sound was left when it entered the room. The residual sound was combined with the slow music sound from the magic device in the corner of the room, which made people feel more and more calm.

Bettyn ​​stood quietly at the desk, folded his hands on the apron of the maid's suit, lowered his head and lit his head, making a slight snoring sound.

Gao Wen looked at Betty who was dozing off, couldn't help but smile and shook his head, and put his attention back on the sketch. However, his hand holding the dip pen suddenly felt a strange touch, and accompanied by a "pop" sound, he looked down and saw that the tip of the dip pen that had been used for a long time cracked, and the leaked ink was falling on the paper along the crack, scattering a stain.

Gao Wen frowned, put the broken dipping pen aside, and looked at the lines outlined on the paper - the winding river flowing quietly, with ancient brick and tile houses on the river bank, and the small stone bridge spanned the river surface. The setting sun shone with sunset along the eaves of the houses on the water.

The dispersed ink traces spread on the small stone bridge, as if they were gradually devouring the picture.

Gao Wen randomly kneaded the draft paper into a ball and threw it aside. The door of the study opened almost at the same time. Amber pushed the door open and walked in.

Betty, who was napping, woke up suddenly and stood up straight, but after seeing who was coming, he yawned again and relaxed.

Gao Wen looked up at the half-elf lady who was pushing the door and couldn't help but curl up: "...It's really cold."

"...ah?" Amber heard this before he could speak, and he was a little embarrassed, "Why did he suddenly say this?"

Gao Wen pointed to the window: "This season, you won't even go to the window."

When Amber heard this, she immediately raised her waist and stared at her eyes: "Nonsense! It's still windy on this cold day. I'm climbing the window on your second floor in the wind and snow, and I'm still at the risk of being locked outside by you. I'm not a lunatic!"

As she said that, she saw the paper ball on Gao Wen's desk - as we all know, amber is a species with great curiosity - so she couldn't help but come up curiously. After judging from Gao Wen's eyes that this was not a secret, she opened the paper ball casually, but saw that it was just a strange picture on it.

"What is this place... is the Gondor Empire? Is the sun painted smaller..." Amber blinked, "What a strange architectural style, it looks weird and beautiful... But judging from the architectural shape, it shouldn't be the northern region, right? Where are you planning to promote it?"

"It's just a casual drawing, just take it as my imagination," Gao Wen flicked the paper in Amber's hand with his finger. The draft depicting the scenery in another world immediately turned into dust silently. "Let's not talk about this for now, what's going on?"

"Hey, don't ruin it, it's a pity..." Amber called out subconsciously at first, then curled his lips, "It's nothing big, but recently there was news that Tifeng's border troops have begun to equip magic vehicles... faster than we expected."

Hearing Amber's words, Gao Wen pinched his chin gently, and after pondering for a moment, he just smiled slightly: "Sooner or later, this is the general trend. Just inform Changfeng Fortress and maintain vigilance."

"I understand. In addition, when I came here, Hetty asked me to remind you," Amber continued, "Imperial College will be put into use next month. Scholars from all over the country will also arrive one after another at the end of this month. Have you set a specific opening time?"

"Imperial Academy...this matter is finally ready," Gao Wen said, nodding, "The open day is scheduled for the first rest day next month, and the rest of the timetable will not be changed."

"Okay, I'll write it down."

Gao Wen nodded, paused for a moment and asked casually: "By the way, what is that Bud doing now?"

"At the Druid Institute of Thorin Giant Tree, he served as a researcher and special consultant there. The surveillance personnel reported that he performed well, actively cooperated with various actions, and helped the staff there transfer large amounts of dangerous samples from the underground palace," Amber reported. "Now the transfer of those dangerous samples has basically ended. Bard's next job is to cooperate with the druids and scholars to study the photosynthesis of Thorin Giant Tree in winter - they hope this part of the research will be helpful for improving crops."

"Well, very good," Gao Wen nodded and asked again, "What is Belltila doing?"

“Photosynthesis is underway.”

Gao Wen: “…ah?”

Amber couldn't help rolling her eyes: "Otherwise, what else do you expect her to do?"

Gao Wen was stunned for a second, covering his forehead with his hands: "...It's true, she is a plant after all, and she is usually..."

As he sighed, a special fluctuation that came from the depths of his spirit suddenly appeared, causing Gao Wen to stop the second half of his sentence.

Amber across the table cast a curious look: "What's wrong?"

"Wait a minute, Daniel seems to have something to come to me," Gao Wen waved his hand. "You are watching from the side, I need to meditate. Betty, go to the door and don't let someone come in."

Amber agreed quickly, and the little maid ran out the door. Gao Wen no longer delayed his time, and quickly focused his energy, and sneaked his consciousness into the level of the spiritual network bit by bit.

After a brief illumination and the illusion of space replacement, the scene in front of him had become the endless and calm blue sky of the origin space. The huge geometric patterns and gear-like structures were running quietly in the sky. There were metal platforms standing on the vast water surface without wind and waves. However, unlike when this space was first born, those metal platforms were no longer empty at this moment, but were furnished with various experimental devices, forming experimental environments that did not interfere with each other.

There was a flash of light on the metal platform in the distance. It was obvious that at this moment, a group was connecting the cyberspace through the immersion cabin and conducting some experiments.

The open area located in the center of the Origin Space is never disturbed by those experimental environments. There is still a white round table here, and there is an empty seat next to the round table. Daniel was standing in front of one of the seats. When he saw Gao Wen appear, the old master immediately bent down respectfully: "My Lord, I'm sorry for disturbing you suddenly."

"No need to be polite," Gao Wen waved his hand and sat down on his own high-back chair casually. "What happened?"

Daniel immediately replied: "My Lord, my spiritual network has been somewhat strange recently, and I think it is necessary to report it to you."

"Oh?" Gao Wen raised his eyelids and said, "Tell me in detail."

"That's the case..."

Daniel talked about the rumors and strange stories that have appeared in the spiritual network of Eternal Sleepers in recent times, and said all the clues he investigated through his own connections and forces, and did not dare to report them in any detail.

"...Basically, these are the abnormal phenomena that have appeared in the spiritual network in recent times. Although the Supreme Bishops' Group stated that these are rumors, and my investigation has not yet found any evidence of the above abnormal phenomena, judging from the frequency and scope of the occurrence of "witness reports", coupled with the information I have found in the bishops' group, the situation is probably not that simple.

"I'm afraid there are some problems in the operation of the mind network. The stability of some virtual spaces is declining. Some of the Sleepers who have been connected to the network for a long time should have encountered trouble. I found some hidden help information in the deep database, but for some reason, when I found those believers who had sent letters to ask for help, they knew nothing about these things.

"There have been three areas on the edge of Dream City recently. The Supreme Bishops' Association said to the outside world that data reconstruction and necessary maintenance are carried out... It is a very normal operation in itself. It is not the first time that temporary blockade of edge areas has occurred, but this kind of thing has inevitably made people doubt it during this period of time."

Daniel said one by one the information he had collected, and the more Gao Wen heard it, the more his brows became tighter and tighter.

The abnormality is already very obvious. Perhaps ordinary believers are blinded by the words of the Supreme Bishops and the Pope of the Sleeper, but as a bishop, Daniel has collected enough information to confirm that there is indeed something wrong with the spiritual network.

Its operation has been a mistake, but...what is the reason?

Gao Wen subconsciously glanced at the space of origin around him, and the unreasonable association arose, making the expression on his face become strange.

This origin space was opened up by him from the underlying secret of the spiritual network, and used the computing power of the Eternal Midnight to borrow the traffic of the spiritual network. In recent times, due to the establishment of several new project teams at the Magic Technology Research Institute, the frequency of use of the origin space seems to be getting higher and higher...

Mom, I'm afraid I'm not just picking up the sheep too hard, so I'll kill the sheep...

Daniel could not guess what type of train was running in the powerful extraterritorial wanderer at this time. He was just a little nervous because of Gao Wen's sudden silence: "My Lord?"

Gao Wen woke up from his meditation and looked at Daniel: "You said... will the abnormal situation in the spiritual network be related to the origin space?"

"...My Lord, to be honest, I have doubted this direction," Daniel thought carefully and replied with his head down. "After all, the origin space is closely related to the operation of the spiritual network, and it has recently been carrying out several large-scale projects and has drawn huge computing power from the network, but after careful inspection, I think the possibility of the origin space causing the spiritual network failure is very low."

"oh?"

"The computing power drawn from the spiritual network in the origin space belongs to the 'redundant' part. In other words, it is the computing power outside the backbone of the spiritual network and does not affect the overall operation of the network," Daniel explained. "The network resource management method originally designed by Eternal Sleeper is very simple and crude, and there is a lot of waste of computing power. After I reconstructed their management mechanism, this part of the wasted computing power was hidden by me and was specifically used to maintain the origin space. Therefore, no matter how the origin space expands and develops, it will not affect the backbone network..."

"Well..." Gao Wen touched his chin and said in a deep thought, "If you say so, will the abnormal fluctuations in the spiritual network affect the origin space?"

"It's theoretically, but it's better for us to strengthen monitoring of the origin space in the near future," Daniel said, "After all, I haven't found out why the visions of the backbone network have been caused. If there is a hidden danger to the infrastructure of the "mind network", even if the origin space and the backbone network are isolated, it's hard to ensure that there will be no problems."

"Will researchers working in the Origin Laboratory be in danger?" Gao Wen said his most worried question at the moment.

"It seems not," Daniel has obviously thought about this issue, and he answered quickly. "There are common points among the abnormal states in the mind network: they maintain a long-term networking state, have received deep brain nerve modifications, and can hardly completely disconnect the network. Moreover, they often have deep immersion, and the connection between the spirit and the network is too close. The researchers in our Origin Laboratory are connected through immersion cabins. There is a layer of real-world protection and no deep immersion. At the same time, they strictly implement the working time system you stipulate, and will not maintain long-term connections. Security can be guaranteed."

Gao Wen breathed a little relieved after hearing this: "That's fine...but you should be more vigilant. I will remind my researchers here to pay special attention to their mental state when they are connected to the Internet recently, and you will continue to pay attention to all abnormal situations in the spiritual network."

Daniel immediately bowed his head deeply: "Yes, my Lord."

Gao Wen exhaled and looked up at the vast sky above his head.

The huge geometric structure and symbolic numbers are still running in the clear sky. The invisible wall of data blocks the connection between this secret space and the backbone network. Standing between the water and sky with a vast origin space, people visiting here will not feel that there is another larger network running synchronously with this space.

But after Gao Wen opened up more advanced permissions, he could see more-

He could see a larger online world that existed parallel to the origin space. A magnificent dream city covered the space. Countless light spots were flying and drifting in the void. They were the Eternal Sleeper who was a node of computing power, and they were the residents of this online world.

And under his feet, under the vast and boundless "water surface", there is a more chaotic and more complex light flow, which is the deeper foundation of the spiritual network, and the darkest "aby" of the virtual world that has been built for hundreds of years.

He frowned.

It seems that this sheep was not taken to death by herself...
Chapter completed!