A gentle breeze swept across the vast green earth, carrying low murmurs that human ears could not recognize. Though the real world outside was already blanketed in ice and snow, in this Neural Network rooted in the world of the mind, bright spring still lingered long among the plains and river valleys.
At the center of the boundless "Mind Plain," beside several rolling hills, a gigantic city stood quietly. Above it hung a pale golden ring-shaped megastructure magic array composed of countless rapidly refreshing runes. Several golden streams of light, seemingly piercing heaven and earth, could be seen between the city and the megastructure array—those streams represented information hubs connected to the real world. The end of each stream connected to a large building in the city, and those buildings were the transit stations through which the "residents" of the Dream City entered and left this city.
In the central district of the city, corresponding to the Royal District of Cecil City in the real world, the largest stream of light connected to a pyramid-shaped facility on the ground. At that moment, the stream above the facility trembled slightly, and somewhere in the plaza beside the pyramid, a figure abruptly materialized from thin air.
He was a refined, scholarly middle-aged man wearing a monocle.
Yuri recovered from the dizzying sensation of connecting to the network and gently moved his neck—there was, of course, nothing behind his neck, but the "neural afterimage" left from lying in an Immersion Pod and touching those cold metal contacts still lingered in his senses. He looked around at the bustling plaza, then walked toward the figure waiting for him nearby. As the "neural afterimage" in his mind gradually faded, he raised a hand in greeting. "Magnan!"
"I've been waiting here for a century!" Magnan's booming