The Most Arbitrary Wizard

Chapter 156: Chapter 94: Consciousness Riverbed 2

"I’ve got two more cars at home. Go on, steal them all if you’ve got the guts!"

At this point, Kate and Sopea hadn’t yet realized there was something wrong with the "New World."

Not until they reached a fork in the road.

The two had zero coordination. One used Magic to travel, the other drove a car, and after a while, they met up again.

This time, Sopea and Kate had the same idea and chose to take a side road.

If the highway represented autophagy, then they couldn’t just follow the script. They had to find another way.

Especially since there was a sign on the road.

NO TRESPASSING.

It seemed to be some kind of restricted area.

All the more reason to go check it out.

And at the end of this side road were the Kovri Ruins.

Sopea and Kate were still arguing over whether to drive in brazenly and attract attention or to sneak in carefully. Suddenly, they felt a faint fluctuation of Magic Power from within the city. They subconsciously looked up and saw, in the distant sky, a shimmering golden matrix pieced together from various characters and formulas.

"Isn’t that magic from that kid, Sean?"

Kate said, uncertain and astonished after using the Eagle Eye Technique to get a closer look. "How did he end up in our Meditation World?"

Sopea only noticed Kate’s form of address for Sean.

’Kid?’

Heh.

He glanced at Kate, thinking to himself, ’Let’s see if you still dare to call him that after you find out who Sean really is.’

A single spell with similar characteristics wasn’t enough to confirm the caster’s identity, of course, but when something like this happened, they definitely had to check it out. Thinking there might be a fight in the city and that the ruins would be full of "roadblocks," making driving slower, Kate abandoned his newly bought sedan. He and Sopea used Invisibility to enter the city and followed the trail here.

The city had been deserted for so long that it was unrecognizable. Even now, neither of them knew this was Kovri.

"So, you’re the real Sopea and Kate?" Sean asked.

"Who else would we be?" Kate finally came to his senses. Being controlled for so long by a Tier Three "junior" made his old face flush with embarrassment. He couldn’t help but snap, "Your magic is getting weirder and weirder, kid. Who taught you all this?"

Sean: "Lord Blake."

Kate: "..."

He immediately took back his words and said, "He taught you well!"

"As expected of Lord Blake’s magic! It’s truly amazing!"

Sopea: "..."

’What a suck-up.’

He couldn’t be bothered with this two-faced boss and said to Sean, "We really are who we say we are. If you don’t believe us, you can ask us anything."

Sean shook his head. "No need to ask anything."

The "New World" was constructed from his and Elvire’s perception. In other words, whatever he knew, the "New World" also knew. If the Sopea and Kate before him were "NPCs" generated by the "New World," then asking them questions would be useless.

But he had another way.

"Let’s go offline," Sean said.

It was the simplest, easiest, and also the safest way to prove it.

He would know if they were the real Sopea and Kate by going offline and asking.

Sopea nodded. "Alright."

He had actually been suspicious about whether Sean and Elvire were real, too. But out of respect for Sean, he hadn’t said anything. After all, the "New World" was similar to a dreamscape, his area of expertise. If Sean were fake, he had many ways to test him.

"So Kate and I will wait for you here?" Elvire asked.

Sean: "Okay."

...

「On the train.」

Sean exited his meditative state, got out of bed, and opened the door to his room.

Sopea’s room was diagonally across the hall.

He actually hoped he wouldn’t see Sopea open his door.

Because that would make things even more complicated and harder to understand.

But the truth was, Sopea opened his door the very next second.

"..."

Sean couldn’t help but fall silent.

When Sopea saw Sean, the shock and bewilderment in his eyes surpassed even Sean’s.

He knew a lot about dreams, but there was a saying from the old Hall of Truth: "The more you know, the less you know."

A person’s perception is like a circle; inside are the things one knows, and outside are the things one doesn’t. When the things you know increase, this circle expands, and its circumference also grows, thereby coming into contact with a larger expanse of "unknown" things.

The more Sopea understood dreams, the more he realized they were far more than just a projection of a person’s inner self.

From the small dining car, Yisha noticed the commotion in the hallway. She tilted her chair back and peeked out.

"Huh? You’re done?"

"That was quick... How did it go?"

Neither Sean nor Sopea paid her any attention.

The two exchanged a look, then each closed their doors, returned to their beds, and re-entered a state of Meditation.

Yisha: "..."

’Why are they ignoring me?’

’So weird. Hmph.’

She brought her chair back down and went back to doing her exercises.

...

「The New World.」

When Elvire and Kate saw the two "come back online," they didn’t even need to ask to know that everyone was real.

To be more precise, they had already confirmed it the moment Sean and Sopea disappeared simultaneously.

After all, "NPCs" can’t go offline, so Sean and Sopea had to be real.

And if Sopea was real, then Kate was naturally real as well.

But even if they were all real, they were two separate pairs who had started their Meditation at different times. How did they run into each other and arrive in the same "New World"?

"What in the world is going on?"

’Meditation can be "multiplayer"?’

Elvire was baffled. Don’t tell her that Sopea and Kate’s perception was identical to hers and Sean’s, causing their "New Worlds" to be exactly the same and accidentally connecting them.

"Perception," in a sense, was equivalent to "thought." People are defined by their thoughts, and no two people in the world have ever had completely identical thoughts, let alone two pairs of people.

Plus, Sean had previously guessed that Little Black’s perception was also part of the "New World." Elvire was now highly suspicious that there was something wrong with this two-person Meditation Technique.

Since it was kept in the Holy Sanctuary, it was probably harmless to Wizards, but it was definitely not as simple as the book described.

Sopea was silent for a moment before speaking. "It might be the ’Consciousness Riverbed.’"

"The Consciousness Riverbed?" Kate had never even heard the term. "What’s that?"

"The foundation that nurtures the consciousness of all life," Sopea replied. "If I explain it too technically, I’m afraid you won’t understand. Let me give you an analogy."

"You understand the internet that’s developing in our current era, right?"

"The Consciousness Riverbed is like an internet, or a data terminal. People are the computers. Whenever we dream or meditate, we connect to this internet and receive some data from the Consciousness Riverbed. At the same time, everyone’s data is constantly being uploaded, continuously enriching the content of the Consciousness Riverbed. This is why many people dream of completely unfamiliar environments and people, and of many impossible things."

"But in reality, all these things have actually happened before, just not necessarily to you."

Sopea paused before giving his conclusion. "What I mean is, the Fallen Nether Technique might just be a method for Wizards to enter the Consciousness Riverbed. The ’New World’ isn’t constructed by individuals like us. It originates from all life, is not bound by time, and we can potentially encounter anything that has happened at any place on any timeline."

Sean said quizzically, "So, isn’t it just a multiplayer game?"

Sopea: "..."

’He’s not wrong...’

’But it’s so unsophisticated.’

’How can you compare something as serious as Mysticism to a form of entertainment?’

If it were anyone else, he would have corrected them long ago, probably adding a cold snort and a comment about being "unambitious," thinking about games all day with no drive to improve.

But this was Sean.

So he let it slide.

’Lord Blake is always right.’

’If Lord Blake says it’s a multiplayer game, then it’s a multiplayer game.’

"Then who created the Consciousness Riverbed?" Elvire asked, confused. "Who has that kind of power?"

From Sopea’s description, the Consciousness Riverbed contained the memories and experiences of all life throughout the long ages. If it were an ocean, it would be truly boundless. Who could possibly have the ability to create something so vast it defied imagination?

Sopea didn’t know either.

The Consciousness Riverbed itself was not something he could come into contact with at his current stage. He could only give the answer from the books—

"The Gods."

It was precisely the existence of the Consciousness Riverbed that made the Grand Mages of the Era of Polymath understand that Tier Ten was far from the limit of life. Beyond this world, there were "beings" more terrifying than Tier Ten, whom they called "Gods."

And so, research into the "Path of Divinity" began.

...