Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 535 - 534: Preparing for Rain Before It Falls

Aunt Heidi and Rebecca soon arrived at Gawain’s study, followed by Kamel and Pittman—besides Aunt Heidi who came from the Administrative Office, the other three were brought out from the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute’s laboratory by Amber.

Upon entering the room, Aunt Heidi noticed the serious atmosphere surrounding Gawain, an atmosphere so severe that even Amber couldn’t dilute it, so she immediately asked, "Forefather, what happened?"

"Before we get down to business, there is something I think it’s time to tell you," Gawain said while glancing around the room: these were the people he trusted most, "You should know, I once devoured the soul of an Eternal Sleeper."

Aunt Heidi nodded: "Yes, that was last year."

"I deciphered the secret of their mental network from the memory of the Eternal Sleeper," Gawain said in a low voice, "All along, I have been accessing their network through mental connections—and much of their confidential information and technology have actually come to me through this way."

After those words dropped, everyone in the room couldn’t help but glance at each other, but their expressions varied: Pittman looked unsurprised, Aunt Heidi had a thoughtful expression mixed with a trace of surprise, Amber eyed Gawain up and down with a look that seemed to say "you old man are indeed quite cunning," while Kamel flashed a four-four time gesture for courtesy—Gawain couldn’t decipher what it meant.

Rebecca couldn’t help but exclaim, "Wow!!"

Obviously, everyone present had at some point entertained such thoughts or suspicions more or less, except for Rebecca, the clueless one... who truly only realized today where her ancestor’s enigmatic knowledge and experience originated from.

"I did suspect you were investigating the Eternal Sleepers through some secret means but didn’t expect you actually... connected to their network," Aunt Heidi said with a hint of lament, "So, you haven’t been telling us because you were worried about information leaking?"

"The Eternal Sleepers have incredibly tricky abilities in memory peeping and illusion weaving. I didn’t want them to know their network was infiltrated, so I had to keep it even from those around me," Gawain nodded, affirming Aunt Heidi’s suspicion, "But now it doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve gained partial high-level access to their network and have thus purged the Eternal Sleepers’ followers in the Cecil Main City area."

Then, Gawain succinctly described the Eternal Sleeper’s mental network and the process of his accessing it—he omitted his special power as a "satellite spirit," instead using the mental anomaly brought by his resurrection to explain his ability,

As expanding his influence within the Eternal Sleeper’s network was inevitable, Gawain had planned early on to inform some trustworthy individuals of his connection to their network, but he had never found the opportunity until Daniel’s recent intelligence report made him realize that time was of the essence.

After Gawain revealed this part of the truth, Kamel, who had been engaged with Eternal Sleeper technology, quickly connected all the research he had been conducting. The two arcane lights at his head’s position glowed especially bright as he looked into Gawain’s eyes, "Since you can access the Eternal Sleeper’s mental network with your own power... then the equipment you’ve had the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute manufacture is for..."

"Expanding the results, the mental network is a good thing, and we need to use it too," Gawain nodded, then looked at Pittman standing beside Kamel, "So, how’s the test on the non-implantable artificial nerve cord going?"

The artificial nerve cord wasn’t developed from scratch; since the Oblivion Association’s biochemical engineers created it, this bio-mechanical construct has undergone decades of development and refinement in the hands of both the Oblivion Association and the Eternal Sleepers. Pittman, being a former dual evil cult follower, already mastered this technology, and Daniel had been studying the nerve cord implanted in him for over a decade, having already simulated the non-implantable nerve cord structure. Therefore, Gawain essentially had ready-made data, ready-made technical personnel, and a ready-made experimental processing environment. It wouldn’t take long to produce a usable product; the only time-consuming part was just the testing of the samples.

"In fact, a sample was trial-produced some time ago," Pittman said with a rather proud smile, then awkwardly glanced at Rebecca, "But during the testing, Miss Rebecca’s laboratory exploded, and it affected us as well... so the complete testing and adjustment work isn’t completed yet."

Rebecca immediately shrank her neck, while Gawain simultaneously recalled the situation at the time, realizing that it indeed happened—

Not long ago, Rebecca’s laboratory for testing the Magic Train’s power structure exploded, and the experimental accident even resulted in serious personnel injuries. At that time, Pittman and his team of Druids and Alchemist apprentices were the first to arrive at the scene. Pittman mentioned he was testing the nerve cord back then...

It was a regrettable and headache-inducing matter, but since the accident had already occurred, Gawain could only accept the fact: "So what are the results of the current stage tests?"

"The non-implantable nerve cord is indeed feasible, establishing a stable and reliable connection between the human brain and magic devices, and the damage and pressure on the human body have been reduced to an acceptable level, but the disadvantages are quite a few," Pittman said, "First of all, the current anti-interference ability is still too weak. Since there’s no direct connection between the nerve cord and the brain nerve, the subconsciousness of the human brain can’t be effectively controlled, so testers can easily be ’awakened’ by the external environment after ’immersion,’ requiring an environment that effectively isolates external disturbances. Secondly, short-term ’cognitive disorder’ situations have occurred, with some testers experiencing hallucinations for several minutes after the connection ended. We suspect this is because the nerve cord isn’t directly connected to the brain, resulting in the brain, after a prolonged period of connection, being unable to timely perceive the ’disconnection,’ hence continuing to be immersed in inertial illusions."

"Regarding this, I have a proposal," no sooner had Pittman finished than Kamel added, "We could design a scenario that serves as a strong reminder before the connection is interrupted—letting the brain know the return to the real world is imminent, which might reduce the duration of subsequent cognitive disorders."

"How do you ensure a one-hundred-percent match between this ’interruption scenario’ and the nerve cord’s disconnection process?" Pittman posed a question against Kamel’s suggestion, "If the ’interruption scenario’ occurs, but the nerve cord doesn’t disconnect, or the nerve cord disconnects and the interruption scenario has issues, the connective individual’s brain might instead fall into a more severe state of cognitive disorder..."

"We could perform a triple confirmation in this process. The nerve cord controller sends out an imminent disconnection signal to the illusion-generated matrix, indicating it’s ready to disconnect. The illusion matrix, upon receiving the signal, returns to the nerve cord controller, signaling preparedness. The nerve cord controller, receiving the secondary feedback signal, then transmits a final confirmation signal, indicating both sides have synchronized, and the illusion matrix, upon receiving this signal, generates a disconnection prompt to the brain while the nerve cord powers down—this could minimize synchronization errors."

"Oh? That’s a good idea... Right! We could apply this thinking to Magic Web Communication as well. This might solve the current signal misalignment issue in remote areas..."

Once technical personnel enter a technical discussion phase, it’s like they become different people. Even Pittman started an earnest validation of various experimental plans with Kamel. Meanwhile, Amber, watching the spectacle unfold, fell into a state of confusion as the topic suddenly turned technical. She stared blankly as the little old man and Pittman exchanged words back and forth, and finally couldn’t help but nudge Rebecca’s arm, "What are they discussing... can you understand any of it?"

Rebecca thought for a moment and said with a face of complete certainty, "Sure."

Amber: "..."

A massive sense of defeat engulfed the heart of the half-elf Miss Amber—Gawain noticed the change in expression of this disgrace to all things and deeply understood it. He guessed that Amber’s current mood was probably akin to suddenly discovering that the student in class who failed math with her was, in fact, a master of eighteen languages...

But this was not a laboratory, and Gawain had to interrupt the discussion between Kamel and Pittman: "Since you already have the next steps planned, please proceed with the subsequent tests as soon as possible. I need you to complete a working connection device in the shortest possible time."

Kamel slightly bent forward, his voice carrying an energy resonance: "As you wish."

Pittman asked curiously, "Is there something happening with the Eternal Sleepers? Why are you suddenly so anxious?"

Gawain shook his head and said in a low voice, "It’s not the Eternal Sleepers that something’s happening with; it’s Typhon."

Even Pittman was confused this time.

How could this be connected to Typhon?

"I’ve set up a secret line over in Typhon," Gawain looked at the confused expressions around him and spoke unhurriedly, "I’ll tell you the specifics of this line later. For now, what I need to tell you is that the Typhon people... are also entering the era of magical industry."

Among everyone, the person who reacted the fastest and had the biggest reaction was Aunt Heidi.

"Magical industry?!" The Great Steward of the Cecil Clan exclaimed, "They’ve also developed the Magic Web and magical machineries?"

"It’s not scary that they developed the Magic Web and magical machineries," Gawain glanced at Aunt Heidi, "In fact, their ’Magic Web’ technology is already within my plans."

"Within your plans?" Aunt Heidi was shocked again, then noticed Gawain’s enigmatic smile, a thoughtful look appearing on her face, "Do you... have some plan?"

"Indeed I do," Gawain nodded lightly, stating something that shocked everyone present, "I plan to help Typhon... help them enter the era of magical industry, and help them greatly."

The others couldn’t tell, but Gawain himself knew—the magical industry of the southern borders was something he had forcibly initiated—relying on experience from his previous life, the vast resources of the treasure house in the mountain, the situation forced by post-disaster conditions, and the existing technological accumulation of this world. He bypassed many processes that require time for gradual accumulation, illuminating the technological line of magical industry with a leapfrog developmental pace. His development methods could drastically compress time (because he skipped a large number of trial-and-error processes) but carried the risk of a weak foundation and over-reliance on "strongman politics." The time saved in the early stages would ultimately have to be paid for by addressing these hidden risks.

And Typhon... completed normal accumulation.

Even though Emperor Rosetta might take many detours and the people of Typhon may stumble many times in trial and error, this Empire, which completed normal accumulation, would soon form a crushing force against the Cecil Clan after entering the industrial era.

There’s no other reason—they have a vast population, abundant land, and rich food resources...

Under the push of a major trend, Typhon’s era of magical industry is unstoppable. They are already aware of Cecil’s Magic Web, and new technological breakthroughs continually occur domestically. They have significantly increased food production, and education and institutions are continuously developing. In this context, even if Gawain hadn’t arranged for Daniel, other Typhon Scholars would have figured out the secrets of the Magic Web and developed their own magical machineries. Therefore, if stopping them is impossible, it would be better to give them a push.

"Heidi, do you remember the things I asked you to tally?" Gawain looked at his great-xN granddaughter, "About our factory’s production history, the operation status of the Production Coordination Committee, the situation with progressive merchants and New Aristocracy investing in industries..."

"Yes," Aunt Heidi responded, "And I tally them every month."

Gawain nodded in satisfaction, "Very good, I need this data and more from other aspects..."

Next, he planned to present Typhon with a grand gift.

A gift sweeter than the "Magic Web."