Chapter 397 Curator
There was dead silence in the laboratory.
Everyone was shocked and speechless by the greeting that came across the void.
After a long silence, Luo Yan slowly spoke.
They no longer need to use the magic circle for translation, but can directly use pure spiritual power to communicate with this mysterious old man.
"How long have we been separated?"
He was certain that the friend in front of him was not the pope whom he had enlightened. Although their spiritual ripples were highly similar, there were still subtle differences.
That old and kind voice echoed in everyone's minds again.
"If we record the year by the rotation of the sun and the moon, it has been fifty centuries now."
Fifty centuries...
Five thousand years?
Even Luo Yan, who was used to seeing strong winds and waves, felt dazed for a moment when he heard these words.
In the eyes of him and the scholars in Xuebang, only two months have passed, and five thousand years have passed on the other side of the virtual realm.
He stared at the old Solipsi man in the virtual world and said with a hint of melancholy.
Luo Yan looked at the face covered with tentacles behind the virtual realm and continued to ask.
"What's your name?"
A long and soft voice emerged in his mind, like the long cry of a whale in the deep sea.
"My name cannot be pronounced in your language, but... you can call me 'curator'."
Curator...Luo Yan pondered the word in his mind, trying to decipher the deeper meaning, but he had no clue.
In previous research, they did not retrieve relevant information, and this word bothered him as if it appeared out of thin air.
h "It seems that a lot of things happened to you during the time we were apart."
h "Yes."
Faced with those caring eyes, there seemed to be no point in pretending, especially what he saw gave Luo Yan reason to believe that the positions of both parties had been exchanged.
After a long period of baptism, the Solipsi people standing behind the virtual world have become "mature adults", but the researchers of Xuebang are standing in the position of infants.
At least, this elder took the initiative to show kindness.
Luo Yan chose to reciprocate the favor, no longer claiming to be an omniscient god, but took the initiative to take off the coat of "ancient god".
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"Of course."
There were ripples of relief and joy behind the virtual world, and it was obvious that the Solipsi man who claimed to be a curator was very satisfied with his honesty.
"Fifty centuries have changed many things, whether it is the universe we know or the world we live in."
h "I would like to tell you all this one by one, but we have been separated for too long. It has been so long, and so far away in the long river of time, that most of my people have forgotten the way we came and where we are going."
After a pause, he confided in joyful ripples.
"But fortunately, we met again."
Immediately, he sent an earth-shattering invitation to the "god" who had enlightened their civilization.
"I would like to invite you to our world as a guest."
That invitation was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, causing an uproar in the silent laboratory.
After a brief moment of astonishment and shock, a hint of panic appeared on the faces of all the researchers.
Miller was the first to come back to his senses.
He looked at the thoughtful mentor with a pale face, and loudly dissuaded him desperately: "No! Mentor, this is too dangerous! You must not be deceived by the voice behind the virtual world, this is definitely a trap!"
Other assistants also echoed with uneasy expressions, expressing their worries in various tongues.
"Yes, mentor! The other side of the virtual realm is a completely unknown territory for us!"
"Once your spirit enters it, you are putting yourself on the chopping block to be slaughtered by others!"
Their worries are not unreasonable, but Luo Yan also has his own considerations.
He is weighing the risks and benefits and analyzing whether it is worth the risk.
This is an idealistic civilization that is suspected to be even higher than Taph's hometown.
Considering the help he had given them, the gratitude in their hearts should be greater than the feelings of complaint...
At the same time, in Luo Yan's mind, the voice of Youyou was also calling urgently.
"Lord Demon King, please calm down! We cannot guarantee that the other party does not have any malicious intentions. They cannot directly affect you through the virtual realm, but if you go there in person, the situation will be completely different!"
At this moment, an older assistant coach mentioned a name that everyone present knew in a trembling voice.
"Have you forgotten the tragedy of Professor Keynes? Just last year, he took the risk of projecting his soul behind the void, and he is still sleeping in the life-sustaining circle, like an empty shell without a soul!"
There was a lot of noise in the laboratory, and almost everyone was trying to persuade His Highness Colin to calm down and not be fooled by the whispers in the void.
On the other side of the virtual world, the Solipsi man who calls himself the "curator" seems to be able to "hear" their communication clearly.
But he did not interrupt, let alone interfere with their choices, he just watched all this quietly and peacefully. He is like a wise man who has made peace with time, waiting patiently for his confused father to make the final decision.
In fact, the answer is obvious.
If it were the ancient god Colin, he would definitely respond to the expectations of his children.
Otherwise they would never meet again across time and space.
Faced with everyone's anxious dissuasion, Luo Yan raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet.
"Don't worry, everyone," he soothed the frightened faces with a calm and gentle voice, and then said with a smile, "I have always valued my life and will never do anything dangerous that I am not sure about."
After saying that, he ignored the commotion behind him, refocused his mental power on the virtual passage, and asked the mysterious curator questions.
"I'm very interested, but how do I get there?"
If it's too dangerous, of course he will refuse.
Perhaps seeing through his concerns, the curator's kind and gentle mental fluctuations were clearly transmitted into everyone's mind.
"It's easy. We have already prepared a "soul mirror" for you. You only need to establish resonance with it, and you can send a ray of consciousness into the body we prepared for you without having to take risks yourself. This is absolutely safe for you."
Soul mirror? !
Isn't this the "body" that players use to log into the game? !
Luo Yan's heart instantly stirred up a storm.
For a moment, I didn’t know whether I should be shocked by the "coincidental coincidence" of the God of Machinery Lint Isaac across the void, or I should be amazed by the Solipsi people's research on the soul field to such a skilled degree.
"Incredible..." Youyou exclaimed in Luo Yan's heart, "Lord Demon King, they have actually mastered this technology!"
"Hmm..." Luo Yan nodded slightly and said silently in his heart, "And, they are undoubtedly ahead of us."
But this way, his worries were dispelled.
His players have died countless times, and they have not seen any physical or mental trauma in reality.
At most, some people become night owls because of the reversal of day and night, or some people accidentally become obsessed with raising spiders or lizards.
This is fine.
As long as you are not trying to use flying in reality, it is not a big problem.
Unlike Luo Yan, who was solemn in his heart, Miller and other teaching assistants looked at each other in shock, completely unable to understand what "soul mirror" was.
In their knowledge system, the soul is a unique existence, and it is also an area that magic cannot interfere with. And the unbelievable thing of making a mirror image for the soul is completely beyond their cognitive scope!
Knowing that he was absolutely safe, Luo Yan no longer hesitated at all.
He felt the sincere and expectant mental fluctuations behind the virtual realm, and gave an affirmative answer with a firm will.
"Okay, I'll do it."
Hearing Luo Yan's affirmative reply, a ripple of joy appeared in the curator's calm spiritual sea.
"Praise my Lord, thank you for your care."
"We... are waiting for your arrival."
However, after hearing the words of His Highness Colin, the researchers in the laboratory exploded.
"No! Your Highness, please think about it carefully!"
Miller rushed forward again, his eyes full of anxiety and pleading, "Professor Keynes's tragedy happened just last year. We can't bear such a loss again!"
"Yes, mentor!" Another young researcher also advised with tears in his eyes, "Exploring the unknown is our destiny, but not in this way! Please don't take risks!"
Looking at the faces full of true feelings and worries, Luo Yan felt warm in his heart. He knew that these people were really thinking about him.
They have not been together for a long time, but they really regard themselves as their mentors, rather than a boss temporarily arranged by the upper management.
Luo Yan looked at them and said to the people who were watching him in a gentle but firm tone.
"Any experiment has risks, but if we stop moving forward in front of the waves, the next thousand years will actually be no different from yesterday."
"I believe that a true explorer must face difficulties and will never be afraid of the vast waves."
"Of course, the tragedy of Professor Keynes will not repeat itself, I can guarantee you this. Of course, if I unfortunately break my promise, please do not take me as a warning, but as an example for moving forward."
Miller's eyes are red.
In Xuebang, the assistant teachers have always been the guinea pigs who serve as mentors. Has there ever been a precedent for a mentor to personally go to the forefront in order to protect his subordinates?
He and the other teaching assistants choked with sobs, but could no longer say a word to dissuade them, so they could only silently make way for them.
Luo Yan was very satisfied with the expressions on their faces, and then walked to the magic circle in the center of the laboratory, sat down cross-legged, and slowly closed his eyes.
"Miller, look after this place for me."
"Well! Your Highness!" Miller clenched the wand in his hand and vowed, "I swear I will protect your body with my life!"
Luo Yan smiled.
"It's no need to be so exaggerated, I just took a nap, at most I had a dream, and it's not like I can't feel this place at all."
He is very aware of the player's status, and he can wake up by setting an alarm in reality.
And even if something happens, Youyou can wake him up.
The moment the words fell, Luo Yan's consciousness sank into an endless sea of stars.
That is his sea of consciousness!
At this moment, a flickering light point appeared in the sea of consciousness.
That light spot was emitting ripples similar to his spiritual frequency, like a buoy floating on the vast ocean, guiding him closer.
Luo Yan leaned over.
At the same time, his mental tentacles were like invisible threads, penetrating the barrier of the virtual realm and establishing a connection with the new "soul mirror" at the other end.
After a slight dizziness, he finally regained consciousness.
He "opened" his eyes and looked at his brand new body with surprise.
That is a colorful butterfly.
The scene of the world presented a kaleidoscope-like beauty in his compound eyes. He only had to flap his wings gently, and all the gorgeous beauty came close to him.
To be honest, this feeling is quite amazing.
It is more interesting than being a human being.
Just when Luo Yan was experiencing this feeling with great interest, a wrinkled gray-white tentacle stretched out and carefully lifted up the butterfly that relied on the soul of the "Ancient God".
"My lord, you are here."
"Well, your world is great, to be honest... it is much more beautiful than when we parted."
"Thanks for your care."
Luo Yan smiled faintly and responded to the praise of the Solipsi man who claimed to be a curator with gentle spiritual ripples.
"Thank you, you did it yourself, I just gave you a gentle push at the right time..."
After a pause, he continued.
"Is there more? Is this all there is in your world?"
If this is all, it is not worthy of his surprise.
"Of course not, this is just one of the entrances to our world... Please come with me."
While saying this, the curator gently guided the butterfly, which carries the consciousness of God, to his shoulder.
Then, the curator took him across the fields and into a castle.
In the gallery of the castle, there is a peculiar oil painting. It depicts not the poetic scenery, but the gallery itself.
Luo Yan didn't see clearly what he did, and didn't even hear the sound of the curse. They seemed to have stepped through a door, passing directly through the painting that was less than one meter wide.
The surrounding scenes rippled and dissipated like water waves, replaced by a completely different world.
This is an extremely majestic giant gallery. The oil painting in the castle only shows the tip of the iceberg, and the library of Xuebang is as insignificant as the dust on an elephant in front of it.
Gorgeous paintings are displayed on both sides of the curved corridor.
What makes Luo Yan even more surprised is that the paintings engraved in the frame do not seem to be paintings, but real and broken fragments of the world!
There are never-ending storms, overhanging mountains and cliffs, prosperous cities and desolate ancient ruins!
This place is both like an all-encompassing art exhibition and a scroll containing an endless world!
Soon, Luo Yan saw an oil painting of countryside and stone monuments behind him, and there were windmills and castles in the distance of the painting -
That was exactly where he came from before!
“Welcome to the ‘Resound Gallery’,” the curator’s voice rang in his consciousness, “This is our only remaining home in this universe.”
The only remaining home?
Luo Yan savored the weight of these words in his heart, while vibrating his wings slightly, and sent out a question from the depths of his soul through mental fluctuations.
"The pastoral just now was...?"
The curator cast his gaze into the distance, along the winding corridor with no end in sight, and spoke in an extremely nostalgic tone.
"Of course it is also our home, and it is our starting point, and at the same time... it is also one of the scrolls we have specially reserved for you."
The curator walked through the silent and majestic reverberation gallery with the ancient god who turned into a butterfly on his shoulders.
Soon, he stopped in front of a huge painting and continued speaking in a eloquent tone.
"After your departure, my lord, our world entered the first era. We call it the era of 'faith and reason'."
Luo Yan's eyes focused on the picture in front of him.
That is a composition that presents a clear opposition between "light and dark".
The left side of the scroll is bathed in a warm glow, depicting the priests of the "Holy Light Society" as secular rulers, showing "god-given" miracles in front of the people, granting abundant harvests to the land, and curing incurable diseases, thereby maintaining the belief in the name of "Colin" and the stability of the entire theocratic society.
The right side of the scroll is shrouded in deep shadow.
Scholars of the "Shadow Society" secretly founded by the first Pope explore the nature of the void in secret underground laboratories.
They abandoned prayers and rituals, and used logic and empirical evidence to rigorously analyze "source power" as a purely natural phenomenon, trying to gain insight into the nature of this great force.
and——
They evolved a brand new theory and named it "arcana" to distinguish it from "source power".
After narrating this history, the curator used ripples of expectation to send an invitation to the butterfly carrying the will of the gods on its shoulders.
"Do you want to go in and have a look? Every scroll here is accessible. They are the most representative slices of time and space that we carefully selected and preserved."
"No need." Luo Yan responded through the butterfly's mental fluctuations, "I can probably guess what happened by referring to our history... Let's move on to the next one."
He had seen similar memories in Virtual Realm No. 178, and he wanted to know even more why the Solipsi people named this "Reverberation Gallery" the last world.
And what incredible knowledge and secrets they discovered on the way to explore the void.
This is a rare opportunity.
Perhaps he can learn things that the void cannot usually convey.
There was a wave of relief in the curator's consciousness, and he felt sincerely happy for the extraordinary wisdom of "our Lord".
"As you wish."
He said no more and continued to lead Luo Yan towards the depths of the gallery to the painting that once again changed the fate of their civilization.
That was the second scroll shown by the Solipsi to their ancient god.
Standing in front of this magnificent painting, the curator's spirit was filled with a hint of childish pride and excitement.
"My Lord, please look! This is the second era we have entered in our exploration after you left us, and its arrival is marked by the breakthrough of "subspace texture technology"!"
If the standard for material civilization to move into a new era is nuclear fusion and warp engines, then for spiritual civilization, the comparable Holy Grail is probably the "subspace" closest to the void.
Luo Yan looked at the scroll.
The main body of the painting is a huge fortress that is so majestic that it cannot be described in words. It is quietly suspended in the bizarre and twisted space.
Countless energy pipes visible to the naked eye extend from the fortress like giant snakes. One end is connected to the real universe, and the other end goes deep into the core of the fortress, as if it is breathing some kind of breath.
It is like a heart.
This is what the Solipsi people successfully created, the first "small world" that can stably exist in the main universe.
I see, this is the real subspace technology...
Luo Yan listened and compared it in his mind.
He thought of the rough method used by the Dragon God to "cut" the continent of Janna from the main material plane. It was more like a child breaking a toy with brute force rather than sophisticated technology.
Obviously, the Solipsi people have gone beyond simply "cutting" and have mastered the technology of "weaving" time and space. This is a much better idea than what Taff came up with in her previous life!
"This is an era of unlimited prosperity."
"If you want to ask which painting best reflects our enterprising spirit, then I will definitely recommend this scroll to you!"
"In this great era, the power of the Holy Light Society has reached its peak, and we have established a great civilization with unprecedented cohesion. More than that, I They also did not give up the exploration of the unknown world, and after several generations of hard work, we finally ushered in the most critical technological breakthrough -"
"We discovered "ether"."
Before the ancient god asked, the curator told this story in detail.
Just as Luo Yan had guessed before, there is indeed a base material in the universe where they and the Solipsi people live that can respond to spiritual will.
Their shapes not only depend on the observer's "observation behavior", but also are superimposed on the observer's mental fluctuations at the moment of collapse, and their macroscopic performance is in line with the observer's "expectations"!
The Solipsi people conducted further research on this basis, just like the civilization on the material side deeply analyzed the atomic nucleus.
They defined this type of matter that pervades the universe through rigorous axioms, stripped it of theological color, and renamed it with more precise vocabulary - "ether"!
More importantly, based on their deep understanding of "ether", they created a brand new technology - "subspace texture technology".
This technology makes the Solipsi civilization no longer just a user of dogma, but a "weaver" of reality!
They used this technology to create an instrument that can actively observe the virtual environment, and for the first time looked outside their own "picture frame"!
Although the curator did not say it clearly, Luo Yan had already guessed it.
At this point, the Solipsi people have also begun to study the void.
Moreover, the method used is more reliable than Xuebang!
"I want to know," Luo Yan asked with mental ripples, "Including the previous scroll, and the one in front of me...are the people living in it real? Or... some kind of recorded phantom? Or NPC?"
The curator said happily.
"Of course they are real, they are all Solipsi people."
Luo Yan asked in confusion.
"They chose to seal themselves in the scroll?"
"Compared to 'seal', I prefer to use the word 'stay'."
The curator continued with a gentle correction in his mental fluctuations, and continued in a eloquent tone.
"In the long exploration, we have gradually understood the essence of life. We no longer run for other people's ideals and start to focus on our own lives."
"Every adult Solipsi can choose which era he wants to stay in. I made a separate picture scroll for each scene in each era... However, our population is becoming increasingly scarce. Maybe in a few centuries, we will only have traces of the Solipsi people left in the original world. "
That sounds pretty good.
Luo Yan fell into thinking.
Although he wanted to ask a lot of questions, in the end he only asked one question that he himself felt was a bit childish.
"Don't you feel tired doing the same thing all the time? For example...working in the fields?"
"When you work for survival, you will naturally feel tired. But we no longer need to work for survival." The curator smiled, with a hint of indifference in the mental ripples of the world.
"We are just looking for something to do for the last days of this journey. Or... you can understand it as an essential ritual for spiritualists."
"That's it." Luo Yan understood in his heart.
While chatting, they came to the next painting.
The picture is no longer as grand as before, but focuses on a quiet and empty church.
A simple and cold coffin is placed in the center of the church. There are no mourners around, only the light beams cast by the high windows outline the outline of silence in the floating dust.
There is a line of small characters at the bottom of the scroll that reads the title of this painting - "The Gods are Dead".
The curator read out the title of the painting.
His mental ripples no longer had the previous pride and ostentation, but became more complicated. There is both a deep nostalgia for that era and a subtle sadness.
Luo Yan savored this sentence carefully, trying to read the deeper meaning.
In fact, that is obvious.
Once he sees the small room behind the virtual world, even the most devout believers may lose their filter for gods.
They will find that the gods in the void are actually no different from themselves.
They are not created by one person, but create and achieve each other.
The curator stared at the painting and spoke softly in a nostalgic tone.
"Our civilization is entering middle age from its youth stage, and what you are about to see is our third era."
"It was an era of infinite light, but it also laid the beginning for a prelude to darkness."
(End of this chapter)