Chapter 1384: Chapter 1383: Echoes

Sir Scott Prandin, the director of Wepland Observatory, and also the last director of this observatory—Gawain was not unfamiliar with this name. He had heard snippets about this ancient Gondorian from Diana’s mouth and knew that it was Sir Scott who, at the last moment, ordered Diana, who was then serving as a guard at the observatory, to leave her post and flee northward. In the fragmented memory of this Iron Soldier, the image of Sir Scott Prandin should be one of the few things etched deeply.

She could not mistake anyone at this time.

Gawain’s heart stirred, and he instinctively took two steps toward the phantom—partly to confirm the appearance of the phantom, and partly to get closer to protect Diana. After all, this phantom has been here for who knows how many years, and its mental state is uncertain. When Kamel was first discovered, he also had a chaotic phase of indiscriminate attacks.

And just as Gawain approached, new changes occurred within that hazy glow. The tall and vaguely featured figure at its center seemed to awaken from its stillness, and a voice slightly cold and mechanical came from within, "Gate opening identified... predetermined contact identified... Senior Guard Diana... Switching to set process, beginning playback of recorded data."

With those words, the hazy glow contracted again, the figure at its center becoming slightly clearer than before. Sir Scott Prandin’s phantom stood there, but his gaze did not fall on anyone. He looked straight ahead, his eyes bypassing Diana, as if looking at a target that had long ceased to exist here: "Diana, long time no see... I don’t know how much time has passed outside when you see this record, but the fact that you can see it means you’ve truly returned here—the greatest miracle among the possibilities assumed by Alphonse and I has occurred, you’ve opened the door to the star observation platform..."

"It’s just an image recording," Amber realized, muttering quietly, "I thought it was like Kamel back then..."

Diana seemed not to hear Amber’s muttering. She just stared at the phantom in front of her, softly speaking instinctively, "Sir Scott..."

But she didn’t continue, because this was merely an image left from a very long time ago, and it wouldn’t respond to her words—the real Sir Scott must have left this world many years ago.

She only wanted to know what kind of message her old master had left for her here, and whether it was related to the memories she had lost due to malfunction.

A moment later, Sir Scott’s phantom indeed broke the silence, his gaze level as if reminiscing, calmly speaking: "You should be surprised that after the catastrophe broke out, there are still people surviving in this observatory... In fact, this also surprised me. An ancient artifact, stored at the upper observatory at the time, miraculously counteracted that terrible energy surge, although only partially, allowing a small number of people at the observatory to survive.

"That artifact is part of the former Wepland Meteor Shower, also known as ’Extra-Terrestrial Object’ by the world. Unfortunately, mortal wisdom still seems insufficient to unlock its secrets. Alphonse and I studied it here for years but could not understand its operating principles and control methods. All we could do was guide its massive released energy and use our limited wisdom to build a small refuge amidst this dreadful purgatory, surviving for as long as possible...

"Now that thing is placed at the center of the entire sanctuary, you will see it afterwards, when you read this message, we clearly won’t be able to use it anymore—I don’t know how the outside world is now, whether the earth has been healed, whether the order of civilization has been reconstructed. This answer no longer matters to me, but since you’ve returned here, I hope everything has improved...

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

"At the beginning of the disaster, six people survived in the observatory, but Mark and Melshana could only persist for less than a month. They were fatally corrupted by magic power, their bodies severely mutated, and we had to end their suffering ahead of time. Youliwen died in the second year; he failed to endure the transformation ritual, unable to continue surviving in this predicament with his flesh. Bailo was one of those who lasted longer among us, surviving until three years ago. Now... only Alphonse and I remain here, and we transformed ourselves into Magic Flesh Golems years ago. This way, we can keep functioning until the material composing our bodies decays completely. You know, the Empire strictly prohibited this evil magic—but what does that matter now?

"Yet even after transforming our life forms, our time remains limited. Alphonse and I both feel our souls gradually degrading within our husks, so... perhaps it’s time to leave something behind.

"Diana, we don’t know if you will indeed return, nor do we know if, as an ’Iron Man’, you have successfully established roots in the northern barbarian city-states and closed kingdoms. We’re not even sure if any nation indeed survived this disaster, but we’ve still decided to leave everything for you—this is all our research achievements over the past twenty years, and you... may be the only ’person’ who can understand their significance.

"We cracked the signal.

"Diana, do you remember that signal? The one that surfaced a few years ago in our vision, echoing frequently in the nighttime sky, lighting up among the stars, conveying information to us in a wonderful encoding pattern... we know what it is."

Accompanying Sir Scott’s words, Gawain suddenly felt his heart skip—a signal transmitted among stars, with a peculiar encoding pattern, it suddenly connected him to something. And at this moment, Sir Scott’s phantom stepped back half a pace, opened his arms, sketching invisible lines in the air, followed by a scene emerging before Diana’s eyes.

Dots, radiating lines connecting them, circles, exactly the pattern stored in Diana’s mental core, and inscribed on the wall of the first-floor hallway of the observatory!

"This is the content we initially received, and it has been the most frequently repeated content in the past few years," Sir Scott’s deep voice echoed on the platform. "We have always tried to understand what this pattern represents, and boldly guessed that it might be some design drawing, a religious symbol, or some mystical symbol, but we were all wrong... It wasn’t until Grand Scholar Alphonse used the power of the Extra-Terrestrial Object to open a rift in this Sanctuary to observe a specific starry sky more clearly that we finally understood the true meaning of this image. Diana, this pattern... it is actually a ’map,’ a ’map’ among the stars."

"Perhaps we should call it a ’star atlas’? Grand Scholar Alphonse came up with this good name. What it marks is actually a star, this star is right at the intersection of these lines, did you notice? These dots at the ends of the lines, each one represents a star that twinkles according to the C-26 standard frequency, and this circle... it surrounds the only focal point of these radiating lines, representing some artificial object, perhaps a marker, an identifying ’distinctive item’...

"And this entire pattern conveys only one message to us——We are here!"

Sir Scott’s apparition opened its arms, a smile spread across its face as if to declare it to the whole world, even though he and Gawain, Diana, and others before the apparition were separated by seven hundred years of time. Even though he was in a dire situation when he left this message, with the world outside the Sanctuary in upheaval, a fiery flame seemed to burn within him at this moment, its heat nearly piercing through the barrier of seven centuries, scorching Gawain’s face.

"They are there! They are right at the focal points of those stars!" Sir Scott declared, as if reiterating, "Diana, this signal comes from between the stars, and just like when we boldly guessed during an anniversary dinner in the past——At that time, Grand Scholar Alphonse was chewing roast meat, you were replacing alchemy oil for your brass core, Bailo, drunk, stood up and said: ’We might not be alone in this universe’...

"We are not alone in this universe! Diana, after finally understanding the meaning of this image, Alphonse, Bailo, who was still alive then, and I were ignited with immense enthusiasm——even though the world outside had collapsed, the order of civilization seemed to have disappeared, yet in this small Sanctuary, we still found work that a scholar studying stars could continue with, and it was the only work we could do here——deciphering all the signals received by Wepland Observatory during Gondor 1730 to 1740!"

Sir Scott’s apparition raised a hand, and suddenly a shimmering light screen appeared in the air beside him. The light screen was filled with countless points and lines that leaped, extended, connected in front of Gawain and others, gradually forming basic geometric shapes, mathematical symbols, and calculation formulas. This was precisely the encoded patterns repeatedly received by Sorin Hub and Bitter Winter Hub, which Dragon God Enya had personally confirmed were greetings from between the stars.

"This is their ’introduction,’ their identity proof transmitted among the stars. They use mathematics as this ’standard language’ to demonstrate their identity to every civilization capable of receiving signals, showing that they are an intelligent civilization capable of logical thinking and using the language of mathematics..."

Soon after, Sir Scott raised the other hand, in another light screen beside him, more and more complex information condensed. These were intricately structured characters, entirely different from any script on Loren Continent.

"And these are their words, the ’letters’ they sent out attempting to communicate with other civilizations. Of course, when we first received this part of the signal and smoothly transformed it into figures, we already realized this possibility. But for a long time, we didn’t know how to decipher an ’alphabet’ from strangers out of nowhere. Coupled with the observatory’s heavy observation duties, the research work on the ’Extra-Terrestrial Object’ and the recent years of investment tightening and talent transfer in various research fields by the imperial capital, we never had enough energy to focus on these mysterious extraterrestrial symbols. But now, we have so much time, Alphonse and I finally uncovered the secrets of these words in the massive amount of listening records...

"They carry their own ’explanation’——within those mathematical signal figures, each geometric figure’s sending and ending come with a ’stamp’ correlating to a text description. Basic mathematical symbols, numbers, and operations have corresponding annotation modes. Moreover, these words themselves have a certain ’self-interpretation’ property. As long as enough samples are accumulated, with sufficient time, a brilliant linguist can slowly deduce their possible meanings... Combining these two methods, we’ve managed to decode half of the information and slowly infer the other half...

"I’m not an exceptional linguist, but Bailo was, he completed 70% of the decryption, and after he passed away, Alphonse and I finished the remaining work...

"But unfortunately, even after we deciphered these extraterrestrial words, we don’t know how to establish contact with the civilization that sent the message——we don’t understand the principle of the signal transmission between the stars, and given the current limited functionality of the observatory, the only thing Alphonse and I can confirm is that this signal has undergone a ’secondary evolution’ by the time it reached our planet.

"Explaining this process is very complex, but simply understood, it’s like a high-energy, high-speed energy fluctuation traversing the vast star sea to reach our planet, and reacting with our planet’s magic environment, after which the released fluctuation is the information recorded by the observatory’s listening system. This transmission method might be deliberately considering the ’receptive capabilities’ of low-level civilizations, as we such low-grade civilizations might be unable to capture the signal’s ’original pulse,’ while correspondingly, sending such a signal that can quickly shuttle among stars seems extremely difficult...

"Of course, in the current situation, even knowing the principle behind sending signals would be meaningless——most of the observatory’s functionality has already stalled, and outside the observatory there is only a horrifying Purgatory twisted in chaotic magic power. We have attempted to contact other sites, also tried to explore deeper after preparing well, but all efforts were in vain. No response, no survivors... We have confirmed the collapse of the civilized world, in such a situation, all this knowledge we possess... is probably rendered meaningless.

"But Alphonse and I still hold onto hope, because we are convinced you will escape safely, and will surely return here someday in the future with new companions, and during one exploration, we even discovered traces of personnel residence and facility being violently broken in Warehouse No. 2 northwest of Wepland, which indicates at least a group of survivors once passed through here and escaped northward...

"We are deeply trapped in this rotting land, relying on this small shelter space to barely survive, leaving the observatory only leads to death, but the traces of those survivors keep Alphonse and me hoping, we choose to believe... in the resilience of civilization.

"Diana, now it’s the twentieth year since the observatory was sealed off. After leaving this image, Alphonse and I will leave this shelter space for the last time, and leave that ’star atlas’ on the most conspicuous wall of the observatory’s lower layer. Then we will return here, shut the door, and never leave. In the remaining time, Alphonse and I shall accompany the starry sky above, quietly awaiting the last moment to arrive.

"Perhaps the next time someone comes here, no one will be able to comprehend the meaning of the star atlas in the first-floor hall, or possibly until the observatory is entirely destroyed, no one will visit this ruin again. But we believe that knowledge is always valuable. Even if civilization falls, even if the last intelligent being closes their eyes under the stars, knowledge——as the mark of civilization’s exploration of the unknown, always holds its meaning.

"Goodbye, Diana, perhaps it’s been too many years now to say, this is what I couldn’t tell you back then——you have honorably completed your service, now, you are off duty."

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