When the two archbishops Yuri and Magnum regained consciousness, Gawain stopped communicating directly with Daniel and reverted to a harmless outsider wanderer who was quietly listening by.
From a certain point of view, he felt that he, the "extra person" who had followed the Eversleepers from beginning to end but was unknown to everyone, seemed to be the most terrifying element in this strange place...
On the other side, Daniel learned from Archbishop Yuri his experience in recalibrating his mind.
"You said...you saw the projection of the upper-level narrator deep in your memory?" Daniel's expression was particularly serious, staring into Yuri's eyes, "And the symbol in your memory is the 'potential self' The part has begun to praise the upper-level narrator?"
Archbishop Yuri nodded gloomily, and Magnan next to him also echoed: "I have also encountered a similar situation - damn, I Back when I was a pastor in the Church of the God of War decades ago, the church was full of people. Suddenly, everyone began to pray to the upper storyteller... I swear, from the moment I gave up my belief in the God of War, I became the Nightmare Mentor. Now, this is the worst nightmare I have ever dreamed of!"
Gawain listened to the two archbishops talking about their experiences and realized that these two people should belong to the same group. The Eternal Sleeper priests who were "transformed" halfway. One of them was once a nobleman of Typhon, and the other was once a priest of the Church of the God of War. However, it is obvious that they have completely broken with the past and have been promoted to the priesthood through their own strength and long-term loyalty. The upper echelons of the Eternal Sleeper.
This is very similar to Daniel's experience - before becoming a dark priest, he was a high-level mage who ran away from the Typhon Mage Association, and was "transformed" into the Eternal Sleeper halfway.
"Now I must confirm something," Daniel stared at the two archbishops Yuri and Magnum, "have you been contaminated by the upper-level narrators?"
You Lee and Magnum looked at each other, neither of them showing any objection.
In the depths of their respective memories, at the bottom of the subconscious that should belong to them, they have personally experienced the strange erosion of the "upper-level narrator", and they have no regard for that power that is difficult for humans to understand. Will look down upon, let alone blindly trust their own judgment of their own situation.
After all, if the pollution comes from one's own subconscious, then it is impossible for a person to realize that he has been contaminated.
As for Daniel, who is the security director of the psychic network, he has high attainments in the fields of mental early warning and pollution protection. It is very reasonable for the archbishop to conduct the inspection.
But before that, Archbishop Yuri first asked: "Archbishop Daniel, how are you not affected by the abnormal environment here?"
The expression on Daniel's face was unclear. Change - because he had already communicated with Gao Wen and had conceived the answer he should give at this time: "As a safety director, I have a habit developed at work.
“I have never completely immersed my mind in any level of consciousness. When conducting this exploration, I also retained part of my thinking threads in the shallower level of consciousness.< /p>
“When the town changed, my mind that stayed outside noticed the abnormality and woke myself up. ”
Daniel was not just talking nonsense. What he said was an effective protection plan that he and Gawain discussed just now when they were discussing the strange situation in this phantom town. The only part that the two archbishops lied to was that he actually did not have this unique habit, and he did not do any "distribution of thinking" during this exploration.
But after returning this time... maybe it is true. You should develop such a "habit".
After all, the psychic network is no longer safe. Before the threat of the upper-level narrator is completely resolved, he, the security director who often deals with network pollution, must be protected. You can do it yourself.
The two archbishops, Yuri and Magnan, seemed to have no doubts about Daniel's words. They nodded, and Magnan, who had a loud voice, immediately asked: "How do you plan to check whether we have suffered any injuries? Contamination of upper-level narrators? "
As he spoke, the Archbishop of the Eternal Sleeper, who was short in stature but had a big name, couldn't help but look down at himself, with a rather dissatisfied tone: "I still have to use this damn place. This appearance moves..."
"Our virtual disguise doesn't seem to work here," Archbishop Yuri glanced at Magnum, "You should accept your true appearance calmly - indulge in In his virtual disguise, he was not behaving as an archbishop should. "
"I know, I know...you talk too much! "
Daniel didn't pay attention to the conversation between the two colleagues in front of him. He just nodded and answered Magnum's question just now: "It's easy to check whether you are contaminated, but it requires a certain amount of cooperation from you—— Free your mind and let me examine your surface memories. Don’t worry, I will only check the surface level to confirm whether there is any belief about the upper storyteller..."
He hoped to take this opportunity to reasonably check the surface memories of the two archbishops to collect some information. Intelligence - It would not be too sensitive or offensive if you only check the surface memory, but you still need a reasonable enough reason, and this seems to be a very good opportunity to "exclude the upper-level narrator." "Contamination" as the reason, I think the two archbishops will not refuse.
Gawain on the side also showed a faint smile, obviously quite satisfied with Daniel's performance.
However, things happened It did not develop as Gawain and Daniel expected -
Before Daniel could finish his words and before the two archbishops Yuri and Magnum could answer, a voice suddenly came from a nearby street. came out, it was Selina Gelfen's voice:
"There is no need to confirm, Archbishop Daniel - if they are contaminated by the upper-level narrators, theyAt this moment, he has become a resident of this small town. "
The expression on Daniel's face almost changed, but in the end he remained calm and turned towards the direction of the sound - Yuri and Magnum also turned their heads curiously and saw a light The lantern first appeared at the entrance of the alley not far away.
Selena Gerfen was not affected by the strange environment here!
With the questions that suddenly emerged in her heart. , Gawain also turned his eyes with a little surprise, and saw the figure walking out of the alley with a lantern in his hand.
He saw Dame Patty.
The daughter, the child running in the dream city, Patty, who calls Gawain "Uncle Selsey" in the dream world, is just as Gawain remembers, wearing a pure white dress. , with long light brown hair hanging behind her back, big eyes, and sound limbs in the dream world, but she also has an expression completely different from what Gawain remembers: that expression is calm, indifferent, and has an expression that does not suit her age. She was steady, and there was a trace of experienced maturity deep in her eyes.
She was holding Selina Gerfen's lantern in her hand, followed by four high-ranking priests wearing owl masks. Walking towards this side slowly
Gawain blinked, calmed down from the explosive shock, and realized one thing:
He saw. It's not Patty, but Selena Gerfen who wears Patty's face.
In this "town after the bell rings", everyone has been removed from the spiritual network. The virtual disguise turns to show the true appearance of the real world, so why does Selina Gurfen, an ancient soul who has lost her real body and lives on the Internet with ideology, appear as Patty Gurfen? Lan's appearance?
Is Patty Grant the disguised one? Or...
In a brief moment, Gawain thought of it. Countless clues and a large amount of fragmented information appeared like an explosion, and were finally connected into a whole by a thread. He thought of Patty Grant's crown, and thought of Selina Gallen carrying Patty Grant. Strolling and playing on the tree-lined avenues of the City of Dreams, I even thought of the lantern that appeared inexplicably in the Kant area, and of the traces of the Eversleeper's activities that appeared around Cecil before the Southern Unification War...
In the end, what he thought of was what he was investigating recently, which was a passage he saw in Selina Gerfen’s information last time:
Selena Gerfen Erfen, Archbishop (death), female, soul body
Current location: Anzu/Cecil Empire-Southern Territory
That’s it.
Gawain breathed a sigh of relief, and many thoughts slowly settled in his heart. He was not in a hurry to make any conclusions about Selina Gerfen or Patty's condition, but he already had a few more reliable ones in his mind. Guess, while his thoughts were busy, Selena...Selena with the appearance of Patty also came to DannyIn front of you and others.
Gawain's concealment effect was still in effect. Except for Daniel, no one among the Eternal Sleepers at the scene knew that there was a bystander standing quietly next to them.
The three Daniels saw Selina holding a lantern, and they did not hide their surprise - obviously, not only Daniel saw it for the first time, but also the two archbishops Yuri and Magnum It was also the first time that he saw the "Dream Saint" like this. Magnum was the first to say: "Archbishop Selina, what are you..."
"Don't you also? Have you restored your true posture?" Selena responded calmly before the other party finished speaking.
Her attitude is very calm and calm, and her voice is that of an adult, but when placed in the body of a little girl who is only thirteen or fourteen years old, it seems particularly weird.
In fact, Patty in the real world should be almost fifteen years old this year. However, due to injuries, she has always been much thinner than her peers. This also affects her in the psychic network. image, and indirectly reflected in Selena Gerfen's "real posture".
"True posture..." Daniel muttered subconsciously, and it took a lot of effort to keep his expression from looking too strange.
"...My situation is very complicated, so don't delve into it," Selina shook her head, then raised her head, her eyes falling on Yuri and Archbishop Magnan, "You are lucky , only exposed to the erosion of the upper-level narrator, but not contaminated."
"You don't seem to be affected?" Yuri looked at Selina and the one behind Selina in confusion. Several owl priests asked, "How did you do that?"
Selena glanced at Yuri, lowered her head and looked at her young body, with a sudden hint of self-mockery in her eyes: "Upper Narrative The contamination of others will erode deep consciousness... As a pieced-together soul, a mind running in a network, I have no deep consciousness.
"It is precisely with this specialness that I not only resist. In order to avoid the erosion of this town on itself, it can also have the opportunity to protect other compatriots who are being eroded. "
As she spoke, Selina looked back at the four high-level masked priests following her, sighed and shook her head.
"What a pity. , I was a step too late. The deep consciousness of two people had been contaminated, and they had become believers of the upper-level narrator and became part of this town. With my ability, I can no longer find them. "
The weirdness and danger of the Phantom Town made Daniel and others feel frightened.
Gawain carefully observed Selina and the people behind her as she spoke. Through careful observation of several "Owl Priests", especially the latter, he did not find that these people had any sense of disobedience caused by being replaced by the "Upper Narrator". While he felt slightly relaxed, he did not dare to completely Relax.
This made him sigh - the "strange things" brewing in Sandbox No. 1."Abnormality" is really weird and dangerous, especially since it directly threatens people's minds and is even more difficult to guard against. People never dare to let down their guard, even if he himself seems to be unaffected. In the face of the upper-level narrator and its related influences, I don't dare to feel relieved at all!
"Archbishop Selina, we are now trapped in this 'town after the bell rings' and can no longer contact the surveillance team at the rear." Yuri did not show any signs of relaxation after confirming that Archbishop Selina in front of him was indeed him, but reported the current terrible situation, "Moreover, we still cannot sense the boundaries of reality and cannot directly leave the network. The situation is not optimistic. "
"I don't need to perceive the boundary of reality, but I can feel that there is a twisted barrier between this town and the normal network, which should be preventing us from leaving," Selina Shen said Although this calm voice seemed a bit inconsistent for a little girl to pretend to be an adult, no one at the scene cared about this, "I guess the key to this twisted barrier is in the center of the town, where The place where the church stood..."
"It makes sense," Daniel said with a sudden look. "In the first exploration, the church appeared after the bells rang-and here It's the town after the bells ring! We didn’t find that church ‘out there’, but it might be here! "
"Let's get going," Selena breathed out softly, "The church is not far away, but we have already wasted a lot of time. ”
When she finished speaking, she turned around, holding a lantern in her hand, and walked towards the town square.
The Eternal Sleepers, who had already lost two people, stepped to follow, and Gawain also He followed behind silently and glanced at Selina quietly.
...The short legs were flying quite fast, he couldn't help but think.