Chapter 967: Chapter 966: Unexpected Contact

Just like when he arrived, Gawain once again used Heragor’s near-teleportation power to leave the Upper Sanctum situated on the mountain. As the pale golden light gradually faded away, he and the high-ranked Dragon Priest found themselves standing on a platform halfway up the mountain.

Grand and magnificent large holographic projections along with ubiquitous neon lights illuminated the place. At the edge of the square, Gawain saw Melita Ponia waiting there, along with Amber and Veronica.

They were probably informed in advance to come to this square and await him.

"It looks like your friends are already waiting for you," Heragor said, turning his head to Gawain, "I’ll leave you here."

After the Dragon Priest spoke, layers of pale golden halos began to ripple around him. But before his figure could fade away, Gawain couldn’t help but speak up, "Mr. Heragor—"

Heragor paused, "Go ahead."

"Do you remember anything from before you became a Dragon Priest?"

"Sorry, it’s been too long."

Accompanied by the gold rings gradually dissipating in the night sky, the silhouette of the high-ranked Dragon Priest completely disappeared from Gawain’s view.

Melita and the others briskly walked over from a short distance. Amber was the first to reach Gawain, her eyes wide open, "Hey! You really were gone for so long this time! What did you all talk about? By the way, did you know there was a huge wind outside earlier? There even seemed to be a thunderstorm on the mountain, but unfortunately, I didn’t see it as I was in Melita’s house..."

Gawain looked at this shame of the Empire, and suddenly revealed a hint of a smile, "...Talked about many things. I’ll tell you slowly once we’re back. As for the wind, I did hear some of it."

"...Mysterious," Amber muttered. "I was just analyzing with Veronica whether you might have been abducted by the Dragon God—I even planned a route to escape..."

Veronica immediately gave Amber a serious look, "Miss Amber, please be careful with your words."

"I have to express my admiration to you," Melita looked Gawain up and down with an appreciative expression, "It’s rare to see someone who can get along so well with Mr. Heragor... I just saw you actively conversing with the high-ranked Dragon Priest."

Gawain only smiled, expressing neither agreement nor denial.

They walked towards the exit of the square. Melita’s residence was on the other side of the slope. However, before stepping onto the path leading to Melita’s Dragon Nest, Gawain couldn’t help lifting his head again to look at the star-studded north pole night sky.

The stars twinkled in view, even though Talronde was perpetually shrouded in layers of "human"-made lights, these pervasive "light pollution" seemingly failed to completely cover the starlit glory of the north pole night sky—Gawain only realized this anomaly now, thus his gaze towards the night sky was inevitably filled with a certain contemplation and amazement.

This was certainly not normal optical phenomena. Based on the latest information gathered, it seemed it wasn’t the unique function of the Great Shield of Talronde either, in the most radiant districts of the Dragon Kingdom, the starry sky remained remarkably bright—a seemingly unnoticeable "landscape" hides behind it...a miracle that has persisted for millions of years.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Amber noticed Gawain’s action and couldn’t help jumping over from the side, raising her head to gaze at the sky with him, "Is there something...stargazing?"

Gawain looked at her, seeing the reflection of Talronde’s starry sky in her amber eyes. The half-elf’s face carried a deep curiosity and a nearly carefree smile, which made him unable to resist smiling as well, "Amber...have you ever had this feeling—that the land we live on sometimes seems a bit...constricted?"

...

Heragor returned to the royal temple Hall filled with sacred radiance. He saw the graceful figure standing quietly in the center of the hall, the tables and chairs once used for hosting guests were gone, but neither the towering platform nor the popes appeared; the God was merely standing alone in the empty hall, seemingly lost in contemplation towards an infinitely distant place.

Faced with this scene, Heragor merely lowered his head, quickly approaching the Dragon God’s side, "My Lord, that human has left the temple."

"Heragor," the God did not turn back, only the unhurried voice came, "How long have you been my Priest?"

"...Your servant does not remember such details..."

"It is an order."

"...One million eight hundred seventy thousand two hundred twelve days."

"Is that so...it’s been quite a while," the Dragon God said softly, "Have you thought about ending it all?"

For the first time, Heragor responded to his God with silence.

However, the God didn’t seem to mind, only after a moment of quiet, suddenly spoke as if without direction, "I talked with that human about many things, many...things that shouldn’t have been discussed with others, it’s made me somewhat tired."

Heragor slightly lifted his head, "Do you need rest?"

The Dragon God did not respond to his Priest, He merely slightly raised His head, looking at the magnificent dome of the hall, His gaze seemed to pierce through the layers of illusion light and carvings, gazing far into the distance. After a long silence, He finally whispered, "Heragor, do Dragons still feel...constricted when they are flying in the sky nowadays?"

...

The light in the bedroom slowly faded and ultimately maintained an intensity sufficient to see in the dark yet not impede restful comfort. Gawain sat on a short couch covered with a synthetic fabric, stretched out his body, and leaned back in a slightly relaxed posture against the soft backrest, allowing his somewhat tense spirit to gradually unwind.

Conversing with God...although everything appeared smooth, the vast amount of information within and the constant need to remain tense still imposed great mental stress, which even Gawain was not immune to. Now, finally having had the chance to relax, he began to seriously contemplate the abundance of intelligence obtained from the Dragon God, simultaneously sorting out useful, reliable information from it.

Logically, he felt the Dragon God had no reason to deceive him; those pieces of information should be unquestionable, yet from a rigorous standpoint, he still had to carefully discern them. This was firstly because Gods and mortals perceive the world and ponder matters differently; what the Dragon God focused on may not be the most useful details for mortals, secondly...it’s something Gawain had long deeply understood:

In this world, Gods are neither omniscient nor omnipotent.

The Dragon God’s conversations with him might have been honest, but what the Dragon God knows may not be entirely correct, especially regarding the Voyager part...evidently shrouded in mystery, arousing endless confusion.

In his contemplation, he suddenly lifted his gaze and glanced around the room he had stayed in for several days.

This was a dwelling completely different from any architecture on the Loren Continent, and unlike the houses in his previous life memories. This was a place where the Dragonkin rested in their human forms, filled with incomprehensible, future-era technological artifacts. Here, a genuine "artificial intelligence" lurked behind the automatically operated home facilities, and behind every wall of shimmering silver light seemed to hide a pair of cold, mechanical eyes. For Gawain, this wasn’t easy to adapt to.

Living in this seemingly "alive" building always gave him a sense of awkwardness.

In this regard, Amber and Veronica appeared even more indifferent than him—Amber still hadn’t quite figured out what "strong artificial intelligence" and "controlled intelligent dwelling" were, so she lived happily every day, while Veronica... her alienated mind might no longer be purely human, as she seemed completely unbothered living a few days under an artificial intelligence’s watch.

With scattered thoughts flashing through his mind, Gawain shook his head, preparing to force himself to temporarily ignore Omega’s existence. Just then, a peculiar glint suddenly entered his field of view.

The glint came from the corner of the room, where there seemed to be a terminal device used to adjust indoor temperature, humidity, and airflow balance. It looked like a square pillar over a meter high, but on the surface of the pillar, the crystal interface, originally used to display room environment parameters, was disorderly jumping with data as if interfered with, as bright white lines continually scanned the entire interface.

Gawain turned over and sat up, cautiously approaching the device. He tapped the surface of the pillar with his knuckles and muttered quietly, "Is this thing broken?"

He wondered if the commonly used "forty-five-degree angle tapping repair method" on planet Earth would work in such an otherworldly cyberpunk place... or perhaps give it a kick?

It was uncertain whether Melita Ponia would have any objections about it.

Just as a bold idea flashed through Gawain’s mind, the fluctuating lines on the device’s surface abruptly stopped, and then the disorderly flickering data suddenly refreshed line by line, after several reorganizations formed clear and sharp words:

"Hello."

Gawain’s expression turned serious in an instant, all his actions coming to a halt.

The letters remained clearly and sharply floating on the crystal interface, using the common script of the humans on the Loren Continent. The owner of the text seemed full of patience; even though Gawain made no response, the symbols still patiently awaited.

After a whole half-minute of silence, Gawain finally broke it.

"Who are you?"

"Omega is speaking with you."

Gawain’s gaze fixed tightly on the small palm-sized interface, watching the words emerge without much surprise on his face.

When those letters popped up, he had actually already considered this possibility.

All of Talronde was under the control of the gigantic "artificial" intelligence Omega, whose network connected every device terminal on this continent, including both the Dragonkin’s brains and all their domestic intelligent facilities.

So, those who could directly intervene in these devices and converse with him beyond the regulations were none other than the potentially existing "super administrators" or Omega itself.

"Omega..." Gawain said calmly, "I thought you were merely a ’service program’ of Talronde—honestly, I’m a bit surprised now."

"Omega is the service program of the Dragonkin, and the administrator of Talronde," the letters on the interface swiftly refreshed, bearing a sense of mechanical coldness and logic, "hereby providing correction."

Gawain wasn’t interested in wasting energy splitting hairs with an artificial intelligence. He merely asked in a low voice, "Why are you looking for me? Moreover... in this manner."

"Omega attempted to establish contact with you through a method its more accustomed to, however, it was unsuccessful. You lack the necessary hardware foundation to directly hear the call of the Omega system, and a more conspicuous contact method would result in unnecessary resource consumption. Considering comprehensively, contacting you at this moment and in this form is the most reasonable solution."

No necessary hardware foundation?

Gawain was momentarily stunned, but then he quickly realized that the other party must have been referring to the "Resonance Core" that should be in every Dragonkin’s brain—clearly, as a human being, he certainly couldn’t use this means to establish contact with Omega.

And after Gawain’s brief moment of realization, the letters sent by Omega started refreshing for the next round:

"The purpose of this contact is... for the need of communication."

Gawain raised an eyebrow, "Communication need?"

"Omega has been observing you."

Seeing the words popping up on the interface, Gawain instinctively wanted to emphasize the issue of personal privacy, but he soon thought of this artificial intelligence’s "daily work" and the system rules it had been executing for dozens or even hundreds of thousands of years. He realized emphasizing personal privacy with this counterpart would likely be meaningless, so as the words reached his mouth, they veered in another direction: "What have you been observing about me?"

"Language, actions, logic, many aspects—it’s rare for Talronde to have outsiders appear, so every outsider is a valuable observation sample. This time Talronde has welcomed three visitors, and based on system evaluation, your behavior pattern is most worthy of observation, hence you are classified as a primary observation target."

Looking at the continuously refreshing lines of words, Gawain momentarily found himself speechless. He revealed a helpless smile—and he believed Omega must have seen such an expression, just as the other could "hear" his voice. In this small room, who knew how many perception-enabled devices under Omega’s control were silently operating: "Alright, a primary observation target is a primary observation target... so after observing, is there anything particular you wish to say to me or any questions you want to ask me?"

"Omega wants to know, what is the meaning of life’s existence."

Gawain: "..."

At that moment, he didn’t even know what expression to show, only feeling that the scene before him was utterly bizarre—after witnessing enough strange scenarios upon arriving in this so-called Dragon Kingdom, peculiar things still came one after another. After discussing how to "unbind" from a deity with a god, why had a super artificial intelligence jumped in to discuss philosophy?

And it was still such a question full of déjà vu...

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