There were simply too many angels.

After Setsuna accepted Nymph and Astraea, he stuffed the remaining ones into the hull of the Eternal Snowfall.

He planned to take them back and slowly engrave them, or distribute them as gifts to the shipgirls, letting each shipgirl adopt a few angels.

The people of Synapse had no objections, as they were all asleep.

Over the long years that had passed, they had already become indifferent to the outside world.

Half a day later.

Setsuna finished dealing with the aftermath of the angels.

He then summoned the two Siren girls, Observer and Purifier, from the base.

With Minos, they arrived at a corner of the floating island, inside Daedalus' research station.

He was preparing to carry out the final task:

To put the Master of Synapse into a dream.

To Setsuna, this task was to ensure that the Master of Synapse, like everyone else, could indulge in dreams and not stir up trouble out of boredom.

It would be best to trap him in the virtual world forever.

Minos felt the same way—so long as he could enter the dream, anything was fine.

Although their true thoughts differed, the goal was the same.

Daedalus' laboratory was fully equipped.

The two Siren girls quickly got to work with practiced ease.

Together with Daedalus, they set Minos onto the equipment and began an inspection.

"You two seem quite familiar with high-tech equipment?"

Daedalus looked at Observer and Purifier in surprise, realizing that despite their young age, in terms of knowledge, they could easily match him.

"Of course, we do research in the base too."

"From now on, we're colleagues."

Purifier patted her chest proudly.

"Tsk tsk tsk... A new species, huh? I really want to slice one open and study it..."

Observer the little loli showed a rather wicked expression.

"Stop! We must honor the contract and find a way to make him dream."

Setsuna stopped Observer's inappropriate thoughts.

"Hmm..."

The two operated the equipment for a while and came to the same conclusion as before.

"Because Minos' body is damaged, he can't project himself onto Earth through the dream device like the others."

"We'll have to use the alternative plan: consciousness upload."

"..."

As members of an advanced technological civilization, both Daedalus and Minos were very familiar with this technology.

It involved extracting a person's consciousness and uploading it into a virtual world.

Civilizations that pursued mechanical ascension were especially fond of this.

They would chant slogans like "flesh is weak, machine ascends," while stuffing their consciousness into robotic bodies,

Replacing fragile flesh with metal parts to achieve a different kind of immortality.

However, the Synapse people were already extremely long-lived, so they had no need for mechanical ascension.

"Another function of consciousness upload is to extract your consciousness from your body and place it into a virtual world~."

"Just like immersing yourself in a game. What do you think, exciting, right?"

Observer tilted her head as she asked.

"Interesting. Why didn't I think of such a technology before?..."

"You bugs—ah no, your ideas are quite fascinating. Make sure to choose an interesting world for me."

Minos nodded, looking very much forward to it.

"Of course."

Setsuna smiled slightly.

Following Purifier's instructions, Minos lay down inside the hibernation pod.

Daedalus connected various tubes and devices to his head.

Click—the hibernation pod closed, and with a humming sound, a mist of white vapor filled the interior.

A few minutes later, the Master of Synapse's body tensed, and he lost consciousness.

However, from the outside, he still appeared to be breathing, had a heartbeat, and was alive—just like the other people of Synapse, in a dream state.

"It worked."

Observer took out a chip from the hibernation pod and twirled it in her hand.

"Now, the Master of Synapse's consciousness has been extracted and stored inside this."

"Oh..."

Belfast, Tohru, Kurumi, and the others stared curiously at the chip.

Storing a person's consciousness inside such a tiny chip—this was something only an advanced technological civilization could achieve.

—Though it was of no real use to them.

"I didn't expect you to actually help him dream. I thought you'd imprison him."

Daedalus asked curiously.

"No, this is his imprisonment."

Setsuna replied slowly.

"We can banish the Master of Synapse to the virtual world forever."

"From the outside, he appears alive, dreaming just like the others—but inside the virtual world we control, he can never wake up."

"This way, he won't cause trouble for us, and it'll be much easier to operate within Synapse."

"!!!"

Daedalus was stunned, shocked by the man's thinking.

Killing the Master of Synapse would plunge Synapse into turmoil. If those angels used the Wishing Stone Tablet or hidden technologies, there's no telling what chaos might ensue.

But imprisoning him forever in a virtual world—on the outside, Minos would simply appear to be dreaming, everything as usual, and he'd no longer interfere with Setsuna's actions.

With the Master of Synapse dreaming, Daedalus herself would become one of the de facto leaders of Synapse, and Setsuna could operate through her to manage Synapse's affairs.

It would be far more convenient to act here in the future.

"Setsuna, did you plan this from the beginning? Incredible..."

Daedalus was full of admiration.

"I only had a rough goal when I arrived. The detailed plan came later."

Setsuna replied casually.

"So, which world should we place the Master of Synapse in?"

"Do we need to program a new world for him on the computer? Hmm, that might be a bit troublesome, but I should be able to do it..."

Daedalus tapped on the holographic interface—Synapse had never tried consciousness upload before.

"That's easy. I've got ready-made ones, perfect for Minos."

Setsuna pulled out a thick stack of discs from his storage space.

They were all game CDs imported from other worlds.

"After analyzing and materializing the game content on the computer, it shouldn't be hard to throw Minos into one of them, right?"

"Putting someone into a game world? That's actually a good idea—not difficult..."

Observer and Daedalus both nodded.

They casually picked up a few and looked through them.

Goblins Cave, Kuroinu, Ambrosia, Lilitales, Alisa's Grimoire...

The covers immediately looked strange, full of content that clearly wouldn't pass any censorship.

"???"

Purifier was stunned.

"Commander, you're clearly settling personal scores, aren't you?!"

"Mhm."

Setsuna nodded.

"These game genres are quite diverse. I think the Master of Synapse could play in them for a few hundred years without issue..."

...

Whoosh—

After lying in the hibernation pod, Minos's vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the wilderness, deep within a forest.

"Ugh..."

Minos rubbed his head and sat up from the ground.

Unlike a normal dream, his consciousness had been uploaded into a virtual world, so he retained some memories.

Looking down, he saw snow-white thighs, dressed in a somewhat revealing set of armor.

"I've been turned into a woman?"

The Master of Synapse was a little surprised.

In past dreams, male projections stayed male, and female projections stayed female, to avoid memory confusion upon waking.

"Oh well. Let me think, when was the last time I entered a game world... probably tens of thousands of years ago?"

"That bug said this world would be exciting?... Heh, what haven't I seen before?"

Seeing the surroundings styled in medieval fashion, Minos was unimpressed.

He figured it was probably just another boring monster-slaying game.

Suddenly, a rustling noise came from the bushes nearby.

Bang—

A group of ragged goblins jumped out and surrounded him.

Each one looked at him with ill intent, their eyes filled with greed.

"Hey?! Where is this place!!"

The Master of Synapse was completely shocked.

"This is the Goblin World."

A voice came from the sky—it was Setsuna.

In the virtual world, those outside were essentially administrators.

"In this dream, you're playing the role of a defenseless knight princess. Have a fun adventure."

"Once you clear this stage, there are even more exciting worlds waiting for you."

"!!!"

"Wait!! I regret it! Change the world! Or let me go back!! Seriously!"

As the goblins began dismantling his armor, Minos realized he had walked right into a trap.

This was something he truly hadn't experienced before.

He immediately shouted desperately at the sky.

"No chance. We've already publicly declared that the Master of Synapse has successfully entered a dream. The Synapse people are still thanking us."

Setsuna cleared his throat.

"The door's welded shut. Until you unlock all CGs, don't even think about leaving this world."

"May you have a pleasant dream."

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