Chapter 1383 Echo

Sir Scott Planting, the Director of Viplandon Observatory, and also the last Director of this Observatory - Gawain is no stranger to this name, he has heard about this ancient man from Diana. A few words from the people of Gondor, and knowing that it was Sir Scott who ordered Diana, who was then the guard of the observatory, to leave his post at the last moment and flee to the north. In the heart of this iron soldier with fragmented memories, Scott Sir Planting's image should be one of the few most profound things.

It is impossible for her to admit the wrong person at this time.

Gao Wen's heart moved, and he subconsciously took two steps towards the phantom - on the one hand, to confirm the appearance of the phantom, and on the other hand, to get close to protect Diana, after all, this phantom has existed here for many years. Its spirit does not know what state it is in. When Kamel was first discovered, there was a chaotic stage of indiscriminate attacks.

And just as Gao Wen approached, there was a new change in the hazy light. The tall and blurry figure in the center of the light seemed to wake up from the stillness, and a slightly indifferent mechanical voice came from it. : "Recognized that the door was opened...recognized the preset contact person...senior guard Diana...transferred to the setting process and started to play the recorded data."

After the words fell, the dim light shrank again, and the figure in the center of the light became clearer than before. Sir Scott Planting's phantom stood there, but his eyes did not fall on anyone. He looked directly at In front of him, his eyes passed over Diana, as if he was looking at a target that no longer existed here: "Diana, long time no see... I don't know how much time has passed outside when you see this record, but Since you can see it, it means that you have really returned here—among the possibilities that Alphonse and I assumed, the biggest miracle happened, and you opened the door to the observatory..."

"This is just a video record," Amber murmured softly, "I thought it was the same as Kamel back then..."

Diana didn't seem to hear Amber's whisper, she just stared at the phantom in front of her eyes, and subconsciously said softly: "Sir Scott..."

But she didn't go on, because it was just an image left a long time ago, and it wouldn't respond to her own words—the real Sir Scott may have left this world for many years.

She just wanted to know what kind of message her former master had left for her here, and whether this message was related to the memories she had lost due to a malfunction.

After a while, Sir Scott's phantom really broke the silence. He looked straight ahead and said calmly as if reminiscing about the past: "You should be surprised that after the disaster broke out, there are still people in this observatory who survived... the fact This was also beyond my expectations. An ancient artifact, which happened to be stored in the upper storage room of the Observatory, miraculously neutralized the terrible energy surge,

Although it only offset part of it, it allowed a small number of people in the observatory to survive.

"That artifact was part of the Viplandon Meteorite Shower in the past, which is also known as an 'exotic object' in the world. Unfortunately, mortal wisdom still seems to be insufficient to decipher its mysteries. Alphonse and I have studied here several times. We have not figured out its operating mechanism and control method for many years. The only thing we can do is to guide the huge energy it continuously releases. Combined with our only wisdom, we have built a small monster in this terrible purgatory. shelter, and survive as long as possible...

"Now that thing is placed in the center of the entire shelter, you will see it later, when you see this message, we obviously don't need it anymore-I don't know what the situation is outside, the earth Has it been healed? Has the order of civilization been re-established? This answer doesn't seem to make sense to me anymore, but now that you're back here, I hope things are better...

"Diana, when I decided to leave this message, twenty years have passed since the catastrophe erupted.

"At the beginning of the disaster, six people in the observatory survived, but Mark and Melsana only persisted for less than a month. They were eroded by deadly magic power and their bodies were severely mutated. We had to end their suffering early. Yu Levin died in the second year. He... failed to survive the transformation ceremony, and with his flesh and blood, he could not continue to survive in this predicament. Baierluo was the one who persisted longer among us, and he even persisted until the third year. Years ago. Now... only me and Alphonse are left here, and we have transformed ourselves into magical flesh puppets many years ago, so that we can keep moving until the matter of our bodies decays away Go on. You know, the Empire strictly forbids this wicked magic - but what does it matter now?

"But even with the transformed life form, our time is still limited, and Alphonse and I can feel that our souls are gradually decaying in the skin, so... Maybe it's time to leave something behind.

"Diana, we don't know if you'll actually come back, or if you, as 'Iron Man', will be able to take hold in the barbaric city-states and closed kingdoms of the north, and we're not even sure that in this catastrophe, Is there really any country that can survive, but we still decided to leave it all for you - this is the result of all our research in the past two decades, and you... may be the only one who can understand the meaning of it '.

"We cracked that signal.

"Diana, do you remember that signal? That signal that began to enter our line of sight a few years ago, resounding frequently in the night sky, lighting up among the stars, and conveying information to us in a wonderfully coded way... We know it What is it?"

Accompanied by Sir Scott's words, Gawain, who was listening quietly beside him, suddenly felt a jump in his heart—a signal with a wonderful code was transmitted among the stars, which reminded him of something suddenly, and at this moment, The phantom of Sir Scott took half a step back. He opened his hands and drew invisible lines in the air, and then a scene appeared in front of Diana.

Dots, radially connected lines, and rings, this is exactly the pattern stored in the core of Diana's mind, and it is also the pattern engraved on the wall of the lobby on the first floor of the observatory!

"This is the first content we have received, and it is also the most repeated content we have received in the past few years," Sir Scott's deep voice sounded on the platform, "We have always wanted to understand what this pattern represents. What, and boldly guessed that it might be some kind of blueprint, it might be some kind of religious symbol, it might be some kind of occult symbol, but we all guessed wrong...until Grand Maester Alphonse used the power of extraterrestrial objects in the A rift was opened in this shelter to observe a specific starry sky more clearly, and we finally understood the true meaning of this picture, Diana, this pattern...it is actually a 'map', a map of the stars. map'.

"Perhaps we should call it the 'star map'? Grand Maester Alphonse thought of a good name. What it marks is actually a star, and this star is at the intersection of these lines, you noticed The dots at the ends of the lines each represent a star twinkling at the standard frequency of C-26, and the ring... which surrounds the single focus of these rays represents a certain A man-made thing, perhaps a token, a 'signature' of identity...

"And the whole pattern, the only message to us is - WE ARE HERE!"

The illusion of Sir Scott opened his hands, with a smile on his face, as if to announce to the whole world that even though seven hundred years of vicissitudes had passed between him and Gawain and Diana before the illusion, even though When he left this message, he was in a desperate situation. The world outside the shelter had collapsed, but at this moment, he seemed to be burning with a raging flame. The heat of the flame almost penetrated the barrier of seven centuries. Burning on Gao Wen's face.

"There they are! They are in the focal point of those stars!" announced Sir Scott, as if for emphasis. As guessed - when Grand Maester Alphonse was biting into the roast, you were replacing the alchemy oil for your brass core, Byerlo stood up drunkenly and said: 'Maybe we are not alone in this universe'... …

"We are not alone in this universe! Diana, when I finally understood the meaning of this image, Alphonse, myself, and Byerlo, who was still alive at the time, were all ignited with great enthusiasm-even though the outside world Already falling apart, the order of civilization seems to be gone, but in this little sanctuary we still find what we can do as scholars of the stars, and that's the only thing we can do here Work - deciphering all signals received by the Viplandon Observatory in Gondor between 1730 and 1740!"

The phantom of Sir Scott said loudly, he raised a hand, and then a dense light curtain emerged in the air beside him, countless light spots and lines jumped in the light curtain, they were in front of Gawain and others Extending and connecting in front of them, they gradually formed basic geometric figures, mathematical symbols, and calculation formulas. This is exactly the kind of coding pattern that Sorin Hub and Winter Hub have received more than once, and it is also the pattern of the dragon god Enya. Personally confirmed "greetings" from the stars.

"This is their 'introduction' to themselves, a proof of identity passed on among the stars. They use mathematics as a 'standard language' to show their identity to every civilization capable of receiving signals, and to show that they are a human being capable of logic. An intelligent civilization that thinks and uses the language of mathematics..."

Immediately afterwards, Sir Scott raised his other hand, and more and more complex information was condensed in the light curtain on the other side of him, which were characters with delicate structures, which were completely It is different from any kind of writing on Loren Continent.

"And these are their words, a 'letter' sent by them in an attempt to communicate with other civilizations. Of course, we were aware of this possibility when we first received this part of the signal and successfully converted it into graphics , but for a long time, we didn't know how to decipher an 'alphabet' from strangers out of thin air, coupled with the large number of observation tasks undertaken by the observatory, the research work on 'exotic objects' and the imperial capital in In recent years, investment in various research fields has been tightened and talents have been transferred. We have never had enough energy to pay attention to these mysterious alien symbols. The secrets of these words were revealed in the huge monitoring records...

"They have their own 'interpretation' - in the signal of those mathematical graphics, the sending and ending of each geometric figure has a 'stamp', which is used to correspond to a piece of text description, those basic mathematical symbols, numbers and operations There are also corresponding annotation methods. In addition, these texts themselves actually have a certain "self-explanation". As long as enough samples are accumulated and a long enough time is added, an excellent linguist can slowly deduce Their possible meanings... The combination of these two methods is enough to decipher half of the information and slowly deduce the other half...

"I'm not an excellent linguist, but Baiero is, he completed 70% of the cracking, and after he died, Alphonse and I completed the rest of the work...

"But unfortunately, even if we decipher these alien texts, we still don't know how to establish contact with the civilization that sent the message—we don't understand how the signal is transmitted among the stars, and the observatory is currently limited. The only thing that Alphonse and I can be sure about the function of this signal is that it has undergone a 'secondary evolution' when it was transmitted to our planet.

"This process is very complicated to explain. To understand it in a simpler way, it is that a certain high-energy level and high-speed energy fluctuations reach our planet across the vast sea of ​​stars, and react with the magical environment of our planet. After the reaction, The released fluctuations are the information recorded by the observatory's listening system. This transmission method may deliberately consider the "receiving ability" of low-level civilizations, because low-level civilizations like ours may not be able to capture this signal 'primitive pulse', and correspondingly, it is extremely difficult to transmit such a signal that can shuttle quickly among the stars...

"Of course, judging from the current situation, it doesn't make sense even if we know the principle of transmitting the signal - most of the observatory's functions have been shut down, and outside the observatory there is only a terrible purgatory distorted in chaotic magic. We have tried to contact other site, tried to protect it and tried to explore further places, but all in vain. There is no response, and there are no survivors... We have confirmed the collapse of the civilized world. In this situation, the knowledge we have ...I'm afraid it's pointless.

"But Alphonse and I still keep hope, because we are sure that you will escape safely, and you will return here with new partners someday in the future, and in a certain exploration, we are still in Vipland The No. 2 Warehouse to the northwest of Dayton has found traces of personnel staying and facilities being violently demolished, which shows that at least a group of survivors have passed by here and fled to the north...

"We have been deeply trapped in this corrupt place, relying on this small sheltered space to barely survive, leaving the observatory is only a dead end, but the traces of those survivors keep Alphonse and I always hopeful, we choose to believe ...the resilience of civilization.

"Diana, this is the twentieth year that the observatory has been closed. After leaving this image, Alphonse and I will leave this sheltered space for the last time, and leave the 'star map' on the most conspicuous wall on the lower floor of the observatory. ', and then we will return here, close the gate, and never leave. In the next time, Alphonse and I will be with the starry sky above our heads, quietly waiting for the last moment to come.

"Perhaps when someone comes here next time, no one will be able to understand the meaning of the star map in the lobby on the first floor, and it is even possible that no one will visit this ruin until the observatory is completely destroyed, but we believe that knowledge It is always valuable, even if civilization is destroyed, even if the last intelligent life closes its eyes under the starry sky, knowledge - as the footsteps of civilization seeking the unknown, it will always have its meaning.

"Goodbye, Diana, maybe it's too late to say it now, I didn't have time to tell you that - you have completed your service with honor, and now, you are off duty."