Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1060: Chapter 1059: Breaking Through the Limit

The "Synthetic Brain" made by Beltira... To be honest, even Gawain himself was startled the first time he saw this thing. After all, it bears a strong resemblance to the style of the Oblivion Association, with a sinister and bizarre appearance from principle to form. In any situation, when this item floats onto the battlefield, both sides in conflict are likely to assume it’s sent by the opponent...

However, after adjusting to the style of the "Synthetic Brain," Gawain quickly began to consider its practical value.

The Dark Flesh Regeneration Technique can also be used for medical treatment of injuries, and terrifying Nightmare Spells can be used to create neural networks. Technology has no inherent moral value, nor should it be judged by its "style" as good or evil. Since Beltira managed to create such a safe and reliable thing, it needs to be considered whether it has a place in today’s Cecil industrial system—clearly, it does.

After seriously analyzing the essence of the "Synthetic Brain," Gawain quickly discovered its potential: this technology can fill the largest gap in the current Cecil Magic Technology Tree, which is the field of automation and intelligence.

In this field, Gawain has never found a breakthrough. He knows what revolutionary changes automation and intelligence can bring to industrial society and their indispensable role in the future development of the magical industry, but neither he nor the scholars in the Magical Technology Department have any ideas about this.

The technicians once considered traditional mages’ magic artificial intelligence or Tower Spirit Technology, but the black box nature of these was even more severe than the communication spell back then, making it extremely difficult to decipher. The related projects have made no progress to this day. However, the breakthrough unexpectedly came from another direction—the wetware mainframe.

Regarding those incredible "Synthetic Brains," Gawain has countless exciting ideas—in his vision, the applications of those brains go far beyond such limited functions as controlling machines and commanding factories.

Actually, his idea is quite simple. Having accepted the whimsical style of those Synthetic Brains, he realized that their essence is not much different from computers on planet Earth. While "brain" has an organic material base, this does not mean they are more dangerous than silicon-based chips—broadly assuming that data devices made on a biomass basis are easier to lose control than "chips" is actually a stereotype of travelers, a mindset that Gawain can now easily control.

Certainly, getting ordinary people to accept those artificially synthesized "brains" is also a challenge, yet perhaps not as difficult as imagined: This is a world with extraordinary powers, and the general public’s acceptance capabilities might even be stronger than Gawain’s. Precisely, from some perspectives, the "Synthetic Brains" from the Sorin region may be no more than a concept to the common folk, like those automatic water pumps back in the day. Since they have accepted the common knowledge such as "there are no little devils inside the machines" and "Magic Web Devices won’t devour souls," they will also understand that the wetware mainframe in factories is just part of machinery.

Gawain shook his head, pulling back his wandering thoughts, and looked at Veronica with a curious expression on his face and could not help asking, "I heard you’ve been soaking in the defied Laboratory recently, spending time with those War God’s remains. Have you discovered something new?"

"There’s no new discovery," Veronica replied with a gentle smile, shaking her head lightly, "I’ve just been pondering a question lately..."

"Pondering a question?" Gawain raised his eyebrows. "In what aspect?"

"Do you remember when Amon once described the concept of ’The Deep Sea’ to you?" Veronica said softly, "The Deep Sea is the foundation and bottom layer of the entire world. Everything in the world reflects in the Deep Sea, interacting and mapping with the basic rules of this world... Mortal thoughts act in the Deep Sea, ultimately leading to the birth of gods. But before the birth of the gods, even before mortals began to think, the ’inclination’ belonging to gods already existed."

Gawain raised his eyebrows, looking into Veronica’s eyes: "You mean..."

"We eliminated a god, the War God’s body turned to ashes on the Winterhold Fort Battlefield, but according to Amon’s theory, what we obliterated... should be just a very insignificant projection in this ’Deep Sea.’ This projection even interacts only with a small part of our current mortal thoughts... Is the true ’War God’ still slumbering in The Deep Sea? Perhaps... It hasn’t even realized our mortal actions."

"Perhaps so, but for us, the chains from the War God have indeed been released," Gawain said. "Feedback from various places is being gathered continuously. At least from the information channels we have, the influence of the War God within the Empire and outside, including elves, dwarves, and other species, has disappeared, and the corresponding mental Steel Stamp is also gone. Perhaps, after all those sacrifices we made, we actually only eliminated ’our god.’ But what difference does it make? Mortals can only contemplate the domains they can understand, and those things that are beyond comprehension, unreachable, unverifiable, or unfalsifiable don’t exist for us."

"Unreachable and incomprehensible things are equivalent to nonexistent for mortals? That is indeed a profound yet insightful understanding," Veronica sighed, with a bit of emotion. "Everything is indeed as you said... Moreover, I also suddenly realized my insignificant existence as a ’mortal.’

Gawain chuckled, prepared to say something more, but just as he opened his mouth, a loud noise that sounded like some heavy ball rolling and bumping down the hallway suddenly came from outside, followed by a "bang" as the study’s door was forcefully pushed open from the outside — Tiel appeared at the door, her lower body coiled into a massive snake ball. Upon entering, she widened her eyes and shouted, "Dead, dead, dead! I don’t know what on earth just slammed into me with a bang and killed me! I mean, this is the Empire’s capital, do you still talk about law and order?"

This dramatic and forceful appearance of the deep-sea saltwater creature startled both Gawain and Veronica, leaving them frozen in place for a moment until Tiel repeated her cry before Gawain came to his senses, looking at the sea demon rolling around in the study with a perplexed expression: "Clarify, how did you die? Who hit you?"

Tiel struggled to untangle her tail while continuing to shout: "How would I know! Wasn’t I just taking advantage of the warmer weather to nap by the river, and I heard a boom while I was sleeping, then boom, dead! Let me tell you, at that instant, I even thought I was directly knocked into the elemental world by something..."

"You..." Gawain opened his mouth but barely got a word out when the Magic Web Terminal placed by the side of his desk suddenly buzzed urgently, accompanied by a conspicuous red flash—this is the mark of an emergency communication. Instinctively, Gawain first connected to the Magic Web Terminal, and the next second, the terminal projected Soldrin’s image and conveyed his urgent voice:

"A moment ago, someone observed a huge flash and sound near Test Site One on the south bank of the White River. Now, unusual phenomena are occurring in the low-altitude region there—Rebecca’s laboratory might have had an accident."

Gawain instantly stood up from behind his desk: Test Site One, it is indeed where Rebecca is conducting her super high-speed material acceleration project!

He strode towards the study’s door, saying only two words: "Prepare a vehicle."

"Hey, I’ll go with you!" Finally, catching her breath, Tiel didn’t hesitate to follow him quickly, shouting as she hurriedly fluffed her tail, "Just in case there are injured over there, I can help with emergency treatment..."

Gawain quickly turned his head to glance at Tiel, nodding slightly. On his other side, a faint dark shadow instantly appeared and quickly disappeared in the previously empty air—Amber had already gone to prepare the vehicle.

...

In the shortest time possible, Gawain arrived at Test Site One located outside the city. Before entering the site, he already saw from afar the wisps of smoke still lingering above the large laboratory, as well as a strange "trace" in the air, only a dozen meters above the ground, between the laboratory and White River.

The trace floated in the air, semi-transparent. It seemed to have dissipated quite a bit over time, but until Gawain arrived, it was still visible to the naked eye.

Before reaching the test site, Gawain had already been relieved: a nearby Cavalry Scouts team, who quickly arrived on scene, reported back that there were no deaths or serious injuries in this accident. Only a few people sustained minor injuries, and Rebecca was safe and sound.

After arriving at the parking lot outside the laboratory, Gawain immediately saw a large hole on the side of the white building—calling it a "hole" was an understatement; it had torn away almost three-quarters of the wall and a large portion of the roof, as if some enormous, frightening beast had bitten off a massive chunk of the structure.

By the time Gawain arrived, the vicinity of the "hole" was still shrouded in smoke, with countless shards of the broken structure scattered across the wide area. Many disheveled technical personnel were also retreating from the laboratory. They were scattered across the open ground, some receiving medical treatment for injuries, others passionately discussing various topics.

Gawain also found Rebecca—she was covered with soot, her hair a tangled mess, and a torn cloak draped over her dress, looking as disordered as the other technical staff.

Upon seeing her ancestor, this silly girl ran over happily, a bright smile spreading across her smudged face, revealing her white teeth: "Ancestor, you’re here! Guess what I’ve achieved this time?"

"Let’s not talk about that now," Gawain, seeing that Rebecca was indeed unharmed, remained stern, but inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He ignored her question and instead called out to Tiel, "Give her a wash; she’s barely recognizable."

Rebecca was momentarily stunned and was about to wave away the offer when a large water ball formed from thin air and, under Tiel’s precise control, splashed right onto her face—whoosh, the magic-infused pure element water washed the soot clean off her face and hair, simultaneously healing some minor injuries on her body, all within seconds.

After the water ball dissipated, Rebecca was still somewhat dazed until Amber emerged from the air beside her and clapped her hands. Only then did she snap out of it, belatedly nodding to Tiel, "Thanks..."

"Now you can talk about your ’achievement,’" Gawain cleared his throat, looking at Rebecca. "Of course, if your achievement was blowing such a huge hole in your laboratory, then there’s no need to explain; we can go and explain to Aunt Heidi together."

However, Rebecca seemed not to have heard Gawain’s last comment, as she was clearly too exhilarated, practically glowing with excitement: "We broke through the limit! Ancestor! We’ve successfully broken through the limit!"

"Break through... the limit?" Gawain momentarily didn’t comprehend, "What limit did you break through?"

"The Missile Limit!" Rebecca said excitedly, "After utilizing multi-stage orbital acceleration and a new elemental amplification shell, we’ve accelerated the projectile to nearly twice its previous limit!"

Gawain took two seconds to process this, then gradually widened his eyes: "You successfully broke the Missile Limit? By using a brute-force acceleration method?"

Rebecca nodded rapidly.

"...But what happened on site?" Gawain blinked again, unable to help but look at the buildings nearby, asking, "Why would your acceleration experiment result in such a massive... ’hole’ in the wall? Did you build a giant cannon with the acceleration track and fire the projectile like a shell against the wall?"

"Well... some unexpected things happened, phenomena I can’t fully explain right now," Rebecca scratched her head, looking a bit embarrassed, "Originally, there was a small window in the wall for the projectile to exit through, with a long deceleration distance and many layers of intercepting steel plates outside the window. But somehow, after the projectile shot out, it caused a massive explosion... nearly an entire wall and all the intercepting steel plates outside were gone.

"Ah, and it wasn’t just an explosion—you saw it, didn’t you? There’s still a trace in the air. It was much more prominent before, only now it’s gradually dissipating.

"We’re currently analyzing the cause of the accident and what that trace is, but we haven’t got any leads yet, and there’s another big problem—the projectile is missing. It flew too quickly, the explosion disrupted subsequent tracking, and no one knows where it ended up."

By the end of her explanation, Rebecca’s face betrayed clear worry: "It’s dangerous; it’s a metal rod weighing over a hundred kilograms, flying out at twice the speed of the missile limit... it could cause trouble wherever it lands..."

She hadn’t finished speaking when Tiel stepped forward a couple of paces, gesturing to her head: "It landed on my head."

Rebecca immediately exclaimed "Ah," before looking at Tiel with a mix of shock and helplessness: "Are you... alright?"

Tiel: "..."