Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 294 - 293: A Strange Encounter

Gawain left the easily noticeable Crystal Square area, but he didn’t head towards the massive palace-like building at the city center either—that enormous palace is likely where the highest authority of the Eternal Sleepers resides. Although he has high-level access in this network and has found quite a few breaches in the mind network, he doesn’t intend to take unnecessary risks for now; unless it’s necessary, he doesn’t plan to go to places that require higher permissions.

He walked away along a beautiful path covered with fallen leaves, leaving the area where crystals were placed, and stopped in a serene garden. There were very few Eternal Sleepers active here—they seemed to be resting here as well. These evil cult followers strolled leisurely among the flowerbeds or sat on benches engaging in casual conversations, just like ordinary citizens. Without knowing the truth of this virtual world, even Gawain might have been fooled by this peaceful and harmonious appearance.

Gawain pondered over the mysterious evil cult organization "Eternal Sleepers," their future, the virtual reality technology they created, and the experimental field he built.

This "eternal dream-realm" is incredibly useful—even knowing how it was established, Gawain couldn’t deny this fact.

Although the initial purpose of the Eternal Sleepers in creating this virtual world was to allure mortals, to pursue their own eternal dreams, and to escape reality, if this virtual world is applied appropriately, its value cannot be ignored. Gawain has already secretly established his own simulation experiment field here. Honestly, he hopes that the experimental field could be used continuously, and even that the entire mind network could continue to develop—however, the bloody technology used by the Eternal Sleepers is a significant problem.

Building a human-brain array calculator at the cost of innocent lives... To be honest, although Gawain has always considered himself an "extractor" who doesn’t let any value slip away, he’s not at the level of the evil cult followers; he still cannot adapt to such things.

Therefore, he has been trying to decipher the essence of the technology used by the Eternal Sleepers, trying to figure out the principles of this "human-brain array network." He wants to find a way to improve it, and he believes such a method must exist.

Because, in the divine arts of the Church of Dreams back in the day, human brains were not used as casting substrates—the linking of human thoughts could also be achieved with dream theurgies without using human-brain substrates. According to the method of converting druidic theurgies into natural spells, the conversion of divine arts into spells doesn’t require any change in casting materials, only the casting process changes. So there must be something wrong with the technology currently used by the Eternal Sleepers.

As Gawain contemplated stealing technology from the Eternal Sleepers to build a kind of improved mind network, he observed the evil cult followers in the garden and under the canopy trees with a detached eye.

These folks don’t seem at all crazy while in the eternal dream-realm—they genuinely seem to have created all this just to live well within it.

As an evil cult group, they seriously lack dedication—the truly dedicated evil cult followers should probably be wearing black capes even while sleeping at home, and use toilet paper with goat heads drawn on it when going to the bathroom, shouldn’t they? You’ve created an ideal kingdom and then become utterly engrossed in it—what’s that supposed to mean!

Gawain couldn’t help but mumble in his mind. The longer he stayed in this dream realm, the more incomprehensible the Eternal Sleepers seemed. Clearly, they could cause chaos outside, disturbing the entire kingdom, yet in this dream realm, each of them turned into elegant and polite residents. Even though Gawain had been here for so long, he hadn’t heard a single person discussing the beliefs of the Eternal Sleepers... do these folks truly forget they’re evil cult followers here?

While Gawain was musing over these thoughts, a small, pleasant voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting his thoughts:

"Uncle! Can I sit next to you?"

Gawain felt a chill in his heart, but he forcefully steadied himself before any change in his expression occurred. He turned his head calmly and unexpectedly found it was a girl who looked only eleven or twelve years old—she was wearing a pretty light-white dress, had smooth, light brown long hair, big bright eyes, thin lips, and a small upward curve as if she was always smiling.

It was a very pretty young girl, and she seemed polite. However, Gawain would not be fooled by such shallow appearances—in his previous life, he had experienced the age of the internet, and he knew this mind network supported face-altering features. So he was even less likely to be deceived by the appearance before his eyes. Heaven knows what kind of person might be behind this sweet and adorable girl. She might not only pick her feet but might also wear a black cape while sleeping and use toilet paper with a black goat’s head drawn on it when going to the bathroom...

A standard image of a middle-aged evil cult follower flashed in Gawain’s mind, so the sweetly smiling girl in front of him was processed into a bunch of mosaics. He nodded at this mosaic with particular calmness: "Of course."

"Phew—" The young girl came in front of the bench where Gawain was sitting, turned around, and jumped softly, landing steadily on the bench, smiling happily, "I ran in the park for so long! It’s exhausting!"

Even the tone was just like a young girl’s... Gawain felt a chill.

He knew there couldn’t be real children in this virtual world—it was the mind network of the Eternal Sleepers, and the prerequisite for connecting was to be a devoted Eternal Sleeper with some spell-casting ability. How could an eleven- or twelve-year-old child project their mind into this network? Therefore, any children’s "characters" that appeared here must be face-altered...

Gawain turned his head and glanced at the young girl who was happily swinging her legs, feeling cold sweat pouring out. He finally saw an Eternal Sleeper in this dream realm fitting a cult follower’s characteristics: though not violent, at least... peculiar.

The young girl noticed Gawain’s gaze and curiously turned her face, "Uncle, why are you staring at me?"

Still... still calling him uncle!

Have these Eternal Sleepers been immersed in the network for so long that they’re sprinting straight towards the road of peculiarity?!

Gawain forced a smile, ignoring the convulsions of his facial muscles, and decided to follow the "young girl’s" conversation: "Where’s your family?"

"They’re not here!" The young girl swayed, seemingly unable to sit still for a moment, "But Sister Selena will take care of me; she lives in the city center!"

The city center? That enormous palace building?

Gawain’s heart skipped a beat, and for a moment he even forgot about the possibility of this little girl being an evil cult follower. If it was that palace building at the Dream City Center... then that should be a place only accessible with the highest authorization of the Eternal Sleepers!

He couldn’t help but carefully examine the little girl in front of him again. She still had an innocent look as if she had just casually spoken those words earlier...

Would an Eternal Sleepers follower really "get into character" so deeply?

Gawain furrowed his brows and seemingly casually asked, "What’s your name?"

"Patty!" the little girl cheerfully said, "My name is Patty Gran."

A name he had never heard before, although the surname was familiar... but there were many people with the surname Gran, which didn’t provide much reference.

"What’s your name, uncle?" The little girl blinked curiously at Gawain after she finished speaking.

"...Celsey, without a surname." After some thought, Gawain casually fabricated a name for her—this mind network lacked a mature ID system, making it easy to fake names. No matter how capable this little girl might be in reality, she couldn’t possibly find out the true identity of this intruder who had exploited a breach.

"Oh, what a strange name," said the girl who called herself Patty, nodding her head. She seemed to have more to say to Gawain, but at that moment, someone from the other side called out to her, and she immediately jumped off the chair, waving vigorously toward the direction of the voice, "I heard you, Sister Selena!"

Gawain looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young woman in a pale purple dress with a purple veil standing next to the flowerbed opposite, her gaze sweeping over him.

Gawain nodded calmly at the woman, while Patty made an exaggerated bow toward him, "Uncle Celsey! I’m leaving now!"

"Hmm, nice meeting you, see you next time."

Gawain politely bid farewell to the little girl, then watched as the girl who called herself Patty skipped over to the veiled woman’s side. She excitedly grabbed the woman’s hand and quickly began chatting, seemingly recounting her day’s adventures while introducing the new acquaintance, "Uncle Celsey." Gawain saw the veiled woman bend down to tidy Patty’s slightly disheveled dress, then shift her gaze back again.

The woman silently nodded to Gawain, slightly bowed, and then left with the little girl in tow.

Gawain watched all this expressionlessly until they left the garden and their figures disappeared behind a wall.

An odd sensation lingered in his mind. Gawain shook his head and stood up, deciding to leave this place.

He severed his connection to the mind network, letting his mental perception whirl and descend rapidly in a void, and fully returned to the real world.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Amber sitting across from him, staring intently with a serious expression, as if she were guarding a bag of money.

Gawain blinked, and the wide-eyed Amber snapped back to reality, suddenly startled: "Wow!"

"You ’wow’—you scared me," said Gawain as he stretched his slightly stiff neck, "What were you doing?"

"Watching you," replied Amber matter-of-factly, "Didn’t you tell me to keep an eye on you?"

Gawain’s mouth twitched, "Uh... I didn’t mean for you to stare like that."

"You really looked like you were asleep just now," Amber, confirming that Gawain was fully awake, leaned in curiously, circling him like studying a rare creature, "Were you really sleeping? What did you dream about?"

Gawain gave the person a helpless look, "Is it alright if I say I saw a little girl?"

Amber’s circling suddenly froze, and the next second she jumped back two meters with a horrified expression, "You, you, you... you don’t even spare little girls?!"

Gawain hadn’t even had time to respond before she added another sentence, "So that novel about your romance with over eighty princesses is actually non-fiction?!"

"Stay right there!"