Overturned Tower

Russell was deeply shocked by the almost cruel beauty of the deer head statue.

The body suspended in the air reminds people of the suffering saint.

If you think about it this way, those messy pipes and cables are like dense metal thorns, or like a sea of ​​fire condensed into steel.

After missing most of the body, the gender and age characteristics of the deer head become blurred.

"He" has the appearance of a beautiful girl, but also has huge antlers that only a stag can have; the calm and heavy temperament on his body is full of the reliability of an elder, but "his" face is as childish as a child.

Even from this point of view, the deer's antlers, which shine like silver foil and are wrapped in tin foil, cannot be judged to be the spiritual characteristics of the deer head statue. Because it is entirely possible that the spiritual characteristics of the deer head statue itself have also been destroyed, and the antlers are completely mechanical external decoration instead of ordinary antlers coated with a metal film... This is all possible.

Like Venus with a broken arm, it is uniquely beautiful because of its incompleteness.

At this moment, the deer head statue is not as breathtakingly beautiful as it is... but rather has some kind of divinity.

"'Hello, Russell.'"

The overlapping sounds sounded again.

The deer's mouth did not move and its eyes remained closed. Because there is no chest that can rise and fall with breathing, it is not even sure that "he" is really alive.

Multiple old-fashioned synthetic sound devices sounded simultaneously in the corners of the space: "'You can call me 'mentor', 'sage', 'chief'... Of course, I prefer others to call me 'deer head statue' directly. '"

"...Hello, deer head statue."

Russell put away his shocked mood and responded seriously.

And the moment they formed a conversation.

A soft voice, like a whisper, sounded in Russell's heart:

【I will always watch you】

[If you need my help, just call my name...I will open the 'door' for you]

Is this... telepathy?

Russell was a little confused for a moment as to what the spiritual power possessed by the deer head statue was.

But he soon realized the nature of this ability: "Is this... a cyber ghost?"

This is not using psychic energy to talk to oneself, but quietly invading one's own chip, causing one to have such auditory hallucinations.

It's like the sound that sounds directly in your head when videos, movies, and games are played in the chip.

The deer-headed statue is like a cyber ghost...it said this to itself in Russell's chip.

The so-called cyber ghosts are psychic hackers and cyber detectives who, when they dive into the network matrix, die suddenly or are disconnected from the Internet and do not wake up in time, they will always wander in the matrix world and become homeless.

Ordinary psychic detectives only dare to use the scripts on the disk to attack other people's prosthetics, but usually do not dare to directly attack the opponent's chip.

The chip itself is a one-way firewall. It is easy to get in but difficult to get out. If you are not the most top psychic detective, you will basically become a vegetative state if you dare to enter the body.

However, Cyberghost has no such taboo - at worst, he can live in another body.

Better than wandering around in the matrix.

【almost】

The soft whisper continued.

[My consciousness has long been divided into countless parts, and they all resonate with each other. Based on different uses, there are different restrictions]

[For example, the 'impression' you formed on me during our conversation is a shadow]

[As long as you still remember my appearance and my voice, then when you call me and talk to me, the ‘I’ here will be able to hear you]

Hearing this, Russell suddenly realized something.

"Could it be that the strange virus at the Tower of Babel..."

[Yes, that’s me too]

The deer-headed statue answered unabashedly.

No wonder it has an irresistible but invisible medium... Russell still doesn't know what medium the virus spread by that group of mercenaries entered the first-class cabin.

But it would be reasonable to say that this "virus" was alive from the beginning.

Russell also understood why the virus could only be used once before it would self-destruct...it was the deer head statue itself that caused it to self-destruct.

And it is also very simple to be unable to disassemble and analyze. Because the virus itself only serves as an intermediary, allowing the deer-headed statue's consciousness to enter the target. This is actually equivalent to putting an elite psychic hacker in, and the hacker will directly self-destruct after completing the task.

And soon, Russell also meant, what exactly does this mean——

If we talk about elite psychic hackers, they can use different boards to penetrate into various levels of the network and learn different secrets.

So if the deer head statue can be divided infinitely, it can also mean that it is "everywhere".

It's like an out-of-control artificial intelligence...

"You are wondering whether the deer-headed statue is an out-of-control intelligence, right?"

Bad Day guessed what Russell was thinking at a glance.

He found a random pipe, sat on it and crossed his legs: "Actually, the deer head statue is much older than us. When I entered the Tower of Babel, and when your father and mother entered the Tower of Babel, she That's already it.

"And in the older past, she was also a member of the Tower of Babel. She was a living person."

Russell noted that Bad Day was called "she."

"You said it was once? Could it be that the current leader...is an undead?"

"That's not true, but do you think--can the leader's current posture be called alive?"

Bad Day asked rhetorically.

Russell shook his head.

He couldn't even tell whether the person hanging on the wall just closed his eyes and said nothing, or whether he had lost his life.

"Before she became like this, she was only fourteen years old. At that time, she was already an elite fighting on the front line of the war between the Holy See and the Mage Tower."

"...Mage Tower?"

Russell repeated.

He answered uncertainly: "Mage...is that what I understand?"

He even thought that the words "mage" and "magic" were just a legend...or an ancient name for psykers.

【Yes】

The deer-headed statue then replied.

[Mages not only existed in the past, they still exist now. It’s just that they are all on the ground, living lonely and painful lives]

"On land contaminated by radiation and curses?"

[Yes, because the mages were defeated - in the battle with the Holy See]

[It was January 1, 1100, the Second Mage War, a war between the mages and the Holy See. It can also be called the war of teachings. It is a war that so far, no one knows why it started, but neither side gave in, and in the end almost destroyed the world]

Following the soft voice of the deer head statue.

History that Russell had never heard of emerged out of thin air along with knowledge, slowly pouring into his mind.

——Everyone in this world is born with the ability to contact the collective subconscious. The only difference is whether they can realize it.

This ability can be awakened only after "the most unforgettable day" that can completely change a person.

"...Wait a minute, isn't this spiritual awakening?"

Russell's ears twitched suddenly and he couldn't help blurting out.

【--Yes】

The deer-headed statue affirmed.

But unlike Psionics, which is different for everyone... If Psionics is a stand-alone construction simulation game, then Spells is an open-world game.

After awakening, every mage will reach the "Primary Wasteland" in his dream. It is a dream that is intertwined with the collective subconscious of everyone in the world and has countless possibilities.

They can travel in any direction, passing through woodland, snowfields, a maze of countless doors, an endless fall, or a candy house in a fairy tale... After any dream trip, The consciousness will stay in place and acquire "spells".

Spells are far less powerful than psionics. But spells can be taught and inherited - as long as you imitate the same adventure trajectory, you can get the same spells.

From making flames cold and bending steel for no reason, to breaking the eyes of people who are looking at you from thousands of miles away, to making people living on a certain land sterile for life... or to rejuvenating people who are cut into pieces. , or walking on the clouds...or building a floating tower that reaches the sky. The nature of the spell is related to the experience in the dream; and everyone's dreams are related to everyone's "common consciousness".

"Tower to the sky..."

Russell muttered and repeated.

He was vaguely aware of something.

[Yes, it is the predecessor of Floating Island]

[Today’s floating island is a renovated mage tower that can float in the air]

The deer-headed statue gently tells the truth about the world——

[The Holy See also has a special power, which they call "Holy Order\