The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

Chapter 692 What is Wisdom?

2024-05-27

As soon as the words were spoken, the noisy space fell silent. Everyone stopped moving—if they could still be called human.

"Marshal Anfortas, how much computing power do you need?" A point of light approached Anfortas, growing more and more like a person.

Perhaps the point of light was originally a person, but it only appears as a point of light because it is far away.

"Approximately...twenty percent?"

Anfortas opened his eyes and saw a bizarre scene, then closed his eyes again and spoke.

"we know."

After the response, wisps of blue began to appear in the pristine white space, and the source of this blue was the silent people.

If someone were to count them, they would find that the points of light emitting blue light make up exactly 20% of the total number of points of light.

The light converged from points into lines, and then from lines into a sphere. In a short while, this white space was tinged with a faint blue hue.

A blue orb of light, resembling the sun, hung above Anfortas's head, and a ray of light from it connected with Anfortas, who was walking alongside him.

When Anfortas opened his eyes again, he found that he could see a lot more things.

He raised his hand, then let it fall naturally. It was a normal occurrence, but he noticed something different.

【analyze……】

Gravity: Discontinuous gravity; Air resistance: Discontinuous air resistance; Element turbulence: None...

To onlookers, the arm's descent speed seemed normal, but Anfortas noticed something amiss—it was approaching a constant value.

The descent involved both acceleration and deceleration, but overall it remained stable.

Is there no gravity here? Anfertas jumped slightly and landed, looking no different than usual.

However, the hidden trick is the same as before: the process of falling and rising involves both acceleration and deceleration, and it is not a continuous process.

I waved my arm, and a breeze brushed against my fingertips. But the air around me was completely still; the sensation of the breeze felt more like a patch my brain had added to make the action of "waving my arm" more direct.

Anfortas wandered aimlessly with the flow of people, while also looking around.

Fueled by a collective consciousness, he saw not a vibrant world, but a world of absurdity and chaos.

When light falls on a person's body, the angle of reflection is completely illogical; the shape and distribution of leaves do not conform to the growth patterns of plants; and the twitching of facial muscles when people talk is simply not enough to produce the proper facial expressions.

The whole world seems to be permeated with a sense of "making do," as long as no abnormalities are detected on a macro level, things can be done however one wants on a micro level.

The movement of air, the scattering of light, even the dust stirred up by footsteps... countless minute details were captured by Anfortas, then quickly uploaded to the fusion will in his mind for analysis after passing through his eyes.

[Details are blurred... the logic of behavior is driven by common sense... the spatial boundaries are limited...]

[Conclusion: In collective dreams induced by a consciousness-guided device, the occurrence and consequences of actions within the dream are determined by the common sense of all the dreamers.]

[Should: Awaken, rest, escape the guiding device, find the main body of the dream...]

[Do not: wake the sleeper, leave the dream state, engage in prolonged mental activity...]

The voices of countless people echoed in Anfortas's mind. After gathering twenty percent of the mental power of the Kanria survivors, everything in the dream was exposed.

"Hopefully, this body's brain won't explode." Anfortas rubbed his temples. In the dream, he was a normal person, but he hadn't forgotten that he also suffered from "Alzheimer's" outside the dream.

After going through a terrifying amount of information, Anfortas seriously doubted whether his mind was still functioning properly.

No need to worry, the information flow has already been diverted to the region's database.

"database……"

Upon hearing this, Anfortas removed the Void Terminal from his ear. The emerald light dimmed, but the strange phenomena before him remained.

"Not good? That's really something." He shook his head, showing no surprise.

If taking down the Void Terminal is enough to escape the dream, then this collective dream that started silently is far too frivolous.

"Let me see what's going on."

Anfutas glanced at the blurry border of Sumeru City in the distance, then closed his eyes to rest.

He believed that a database that merely aggregated knowledge would not be able to stop them from integrating all consciousness into one.

His consciousness gradually blurred, and a blissful feeling swept over him. But Anfortas was not panicked, because he knew that this was a necessary step on the path to transcendence.

Like a drop of water merging into the ocean, Anfortas's consciousness merged into the whole; his perception spread and expanded infinitely, and his emotions gradually began to undergo some kind of wonderful change.

Up, down, left, right... every direction is filled with people just like him. Their life experiences and emotions are so vivid and lively that these joys and sorrows can be fully integrated into Anfortas's heart, making him happy for everyone's happiness and angry for everyone's anger.

The emotions of others affect Anftas, and Anftas's emotions also affect others.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that the emotions Anfortas is currently experiencing are a result of the integration of his own personal feelings.

Bound by something shared deep within everyone's mind, everyone's emotions intertwine and their thoughts connect with one another.

The will of people has never been so closely linked; this is no longer just a collection of many people's consciousnesses, but a complete person.

As for this person's name...

"This is the real... us."

Anfortas, no, at this moment it should be called [Kanria], was muttering to itself.

The fallen homeland has long since returned. It has no land or people, but it now possesses a concrete form and a concrete will.

"The incapacitated king, the golden witch..."

"I once perished because of your whispers, but not anymore..."

Kanria looked down at the points of light below. The ones connected to it remained still, while those not connected to it swayed back and forth, which made it feel a sense of warmth and familiarity.

They are themselves, and they are themselves.

In the past, everything in Kanria was decided by the towering palace of the capital. Thus, the whispers between the king and the sages determined the fate of the entire kingdom.

The veil of deep sin was lifted, and terrifying calamity instantly permeated all the lands of Kanria.

The people living there, however, knew nothing of this. By the time Marshal Anfortas led the knights back from Mount Sumeru, it was too late.

The ravaged land left the marshal and knights bewildered. The nation had crumbled, and Anfortas stepped forward resolutely. But the title of regent marshal was merely a means to make the fall of this massive body more dignified.

Warriors fought against dark monsters amidst flames; survivors rescued their comrades from the ruins.

Even with nothing at all, the curse of the gods fell like a blizzard, more deadly than the dead of winter.

Tragedy was happening all the time, and the whole land was shrouded in sorrow. The "wise" sages all fled, and the once invincible "great king" was no more.

But Anfortas saw hope in the tragedy: unarmed warriors used readily available junk as weapons to repel the attacking monsters; the survivors under the ruins continued to live amidst curses and desolation.

Only then did he realize that wise men were no more intelligent than ordinary citizens, and marshals were no more skilled in battle than ordinary soldiers.

Thus, the disabled king had his ring removed, and the true Canria came into being.

Chapter 693 Catherine Running Around

2024-05-27

[Consciousness successfully descended...Intrusion begins!] The collective consciousness replaced Anfortas's position in the dream, and the gap in his mind that had been secretly stealing consciousness was also found.

Entering through the gap, Kanria easily infiltrated the area. What appeared in its perception was a green pyramid composed of densely interwoven nodes.

Touching one of the nodes with the tentacles of consciousness, the vibrating green light bounced it away.

Canria stopped moving; it was deep in thought.

[Node is in sleep mode and unable to respond to complex functions.]

It quickly realized what had happened. The nodes within the void had all been shut down.

But they remain bright, their nodes gleaming, and the passageways between them pulsating with light.

[The purpose of transmitting stolen consciousness... is currently unknown.]

Kanria chose to spread and expand her vast consciousness. An ocean, an ocean of consciousness, was engulfing the nodes in the void terminal from bottom to top. Soaked in the "seawater," everything within the void terminal had nowhere to hide.

Consciousness spread to the top of the pyramid, and then, unsurprisingly, the unexpected happened.

The invading consciousness was bounced back by something unknown, and one "bubble" after another appeared in the ocean—that was the upper-level node repelling Kanria's consciousness.

[Forced entry...rejected.]

[Begin similar interpretations...]

Kanria's consciousness traveled through the void terminal to the closed nodes. By reversing the process of opening the dormant nodes, the tentacles of this consciousness reached into the subconscious of their owners.

Without exception, the owners of these closed nodes are all sleeping citizens of Sumeru.

The tentacles wandered through the subconscious, and soon, Kanria learned the brainwave frequencies of countless Sumerian beings.

The seawater of consciousness near the "bubble" began to tremble rhythmically, each tremor representing the brainwave frequency of a Sumeru person.

Moreover, in addition to the known frequencies, the consciousness bubble also has other brainwave frequencies inferred from the common characteristics of the Sumeru human brainwaves.

One by one, the "bubbles" in the ocean of consciousness disappeared amidst the violent tremors, and the entire emerald green pyramid was almost completely enveloped within them.

Thus, everyone learned the reason for the strange change that had occurred in Sumeru.

【…】

The ocean of consciousness subsided briefly before boiling even more violently.

[Notification: Suitable body found. Repeat, suitable body found!]

[Estimated load-bearing capacity: 80%]

"Do earthly kingdoms possess such advanced knowledge in the field of machinery?"

"Don't they already have their own gods? Why would they create a physical body for their gods?"

"Perhaps, like with the Red Moon before, their beliefs are different?"

In the pure white space, everyone who witnessed the teleportation back erupted in excitement. The reason was simple: someone had delivered a pillow to someone who was already sleepy.

[Proposal: Obtain this body.]

[Decision approval assessment begins...]