The vast sea of ​​stars, vast and vast, and endless stars have endless possibilities, and the endless darkness hides these possibilities. As a planetary civilization that has not yet broken free from the constraints of gravity, mortals can only imagine when they look up at the sky. Use reasoning to guess what the opposite side of the star sea looks like. Therefore, in this case, every message from the star sea will particularly stimulate the nerves of those who look up.

The setting sun has gradually sunk to the edge of the horizon. The daylight in late autumn has begun to appear short. The joyous atmosphere of the Victory Day celebration has not completely dissipated from the city. The streets outside the window can still see the flow of celebration people and sales. The street lamps of souvenir vendors and shops are lighting up in the distance, and in the gradually dimming sky, twinkling stars are faintly visible.

Frostsky hasn't appeared in the sky yet-but it is there.

Gao Wen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the study, looking at the stars faintly in the sky outside the window, his expression was more serious than before, and Amber’s voice came from the side: "It seems you are very concerned about this. what…"

"There is a civilization capable of sending superluminal communications that has cast our sight on us in the stars. Of course, this matter is worth paying attention to." Gao Wen did not look back, but said slowly. For a civilization that has truly stepped into the universe, living in the world feels like trekking in the dark. We cannot be sure what is in the darkness around us, nor can we be sure that the neighbors that may exist nearby are enemies or friends. We have already paid attention. When it comes to the existence of night, but still has no ability to light up the lights to dispel the night-this stage is the most tense state.

"Over the years, we have been able to be sure that at least one figure is walking with us in the night. This figure has a torch in his hand, but has not noticed us who are still in the dark, but suddenly, he seems to be aware of the darkness around him. There are other people, now this figure is looking towards our hiding place...I think you can understand this feeling."

"...Indeed, I understand it too much," Amber's hairs were standing upright after listening to Gawain's analogy. "It's like being kicked out by someone in a sneaky state, and I'm shocked to think about it."

"...When traveling alone, I hope that someone will walk with me in the night, but I really feel nervous and resisted when I walk with me," Gao Wen sighed softly, "I can only blame Xinghai for being too vast, which contains too much uncertainty."

Amber thought for a while: "But then again, in fact, we are the one who has the initiative in a certain sense. After all, we have known the existence of'them' for so long, but'they' did not know us. Even now, it seems that the alien civilization that sends the signal is not sure whether the'Unknown Civilization Alpha' exists or not. We are the figure that has always been hiding in the dark... Generally speaking, this is the more nervous side. "

"It's undeniable that the situation you said does exist," Gawain said slowly, and then frowned in confusion. "So sometimes I suspect that the civilization that sends signals is really advanced than us. Ethnicity? If the signal is not a trap, then their performance is too shabby and reckless. If the signal is a trap... then a civilization capable of ultra-light communication should also be capable of high-precision deep-space scanning. The demon once mentioned that deep-space scanning is a pre-technology for super-light communication, so it’s impossible for the civilization that sends signals to know our existence..."

"Didn't you say that the'tech trees' of different civilizations may be completely different," Humber looked serious. Did not point out the skill of deep space scanning."

Gawain glanced at the Shadow Assault Goose that was seriously analyzing with a weird look: "To be honest, you follow me all day to say these ‘special nouns’, do you really understand what they mean?"

Amber immediately felt confident: "I only understand part of it, but don't I know how to bullshit? Simply associate the context..."

It's not leaking to talk nonsense to others without knowing it half-knowledge-Gawain thinks this is really an amazing talent.

And thanks to Amber’s interruption, Gawain also felt his emotions relaxed a lot. He sighed lightly and saw that the setting sun outside the window had completely fallen to the end of the earth, leaving only a faint red color permeating the city along the clouds. In the sky, Xinghui became more and more eye-catching, and several stars in the frost constellation gradually appeared in the night sky—the agreed meeting time was approaching.

He sorted his thoughts, turned his head to look at Amber: "Help me keep a watch later."

Amber patted his chest: "Don't worry if you know it, I'm familiar with this."

…

Neural network, a special encryption space, a breeze suddenly rolled up in an endless open white flower field, the breeze blew across the sea of ​​flowers, and then turned into a white round table and several gorgeous chairs around the round table, and then, Several figures appeared around the round table one after another—the first one appeared was Gawain, followed by the serious and thin Rosetta Augustus, and then another glare emerged, a tall and beautiful one. The blond figure came out of the light. It was Belcetia Morningstar.

Under normal circumstances, Gao Wen used conventional holographic projections for such remote meetings, but this time the situation was special. He set the address of the meeting in the "white sea of ​​flowers" of the neural network-long before the Wasteland War, The Cyr system communication network has already appeared in Typhon and the Silver Empire. Although it is still in its infancy, at least in places such as Obsidian Palace and the Elven King Court, there are a full set of wizards that can communicate with Cecil City in real time. For equipment, this includes magic net terminals and immersion cabins.

However, whether it is used frequently is another matter. After entering the cyberspace, Rosetta is obviously still a little uncomfortable. The Typhon ruler looked down at his body in the default mode and lifted it up again. I shook my hand, and couldn't help but mutter softly: "...It really is an incredible technology, it can really be simulated to this degree..."

Then he looked up at Gao Wen and the Queen of Silver, and greeted the rulers of the other two empires with a decent attitude.

"Welcome to this sea of ​​flowers-this is the encrypted space I prepared specially for special meetings," Gawain nodded to Rosetta and Bersetia, motioned for them to sit down at the round table and said, "This is us It’s the first time to meet in this form, but as you can feel, it’s almost as real as the real world, and there is no need for any additional adaptation. Just treat it as meeting in the real world.”

"I think this is more convenient than the real world," Belcetia smiled, and after sitting down, she knocked on the table, and a beautiful tea set appeared in front of her. "The real world can't do this. matter."

Rosetta next to him suddenly glanced at the Silver Queen in surprise, but before he asked, Gawain was a little surprised: "You seem to be quite skilled."

"I have always been interested in this new technology," Belsetia said with a smile. "Although the number of immersion pods in the Silver Empire is still very small, and the corresponding network has only just begun to be built, but my courtiers and I I have already begun to study how to use this thing efficiently-speaking of this, the "disconnection" during the previous war was really frustrating."

Speaking of this, she glanced at Rosetta Augustus next to her: "Your Majesty Augustus, don't you use it frequently? The connection between Typhon and Cecil should be much better than the Silver Empire. Bar."

"...I have only used it once or twice, and I don't usually have much time to spend on it," Rosetta said sternly, "but Matilda and Hadillon seem to use it often, and I saw them use it. "

Immediately afterwards, he looked at Gao Wen who held the meeting: "Let's talk about business. Why did you suddenly contact us and chose such a special...meeting format?"

"It has something to do with the'Xinghai signal' that we have been receiving," Gao Wen nodded and said, "We parsed the disturbing content from the recently captured signal, but the specific situation...we have to wait for several other participants to attend the conference. The participants will be present to explain. The reason why the conference address is selected in the neural network this time is also because of these special participants."

"Special participant?" Bersetia frowned suspiciously, as if faintly guessing something, and almost at the same time as her voice fell, a twisting light curtain suddenly appeared in the air beside the round table, tightly. Then, in the light curtain, there were flowers and vines growing and condensing rapidly, and in the brilliant light and shadow, an old elven man with a calm face stepped out of it.

Bersetia was a little puzzled for a while after seeing the figure of the old elven man, but soon she realized the identity of this "incarnation", and the color of consternation suddenly appeared on her face: "You..."

"I'm here for a meeting," Amone gave a gentle smile and nodded slightly to Bersetia. "Just call me Amone here, or you can call me the code name in the theocracy,' Mr. Deer'."

"Um..." Bersetia's gaze fell involuntarily on the head of the old elf in front of her, and swept across the letters of "High Speed ​​Buck", using her strong willpower to control her impulse to ask questions. "Okay, Amone... Your Excellency."

Rosetta was also aware of who the "participants" in front of him were. Although he already knew the situation of several senior advisors in the Theocracy Council, and also knew that these "old gods" are now working and living with mortals, but Knowing, knowing, seeing the incarnation of the **** of nature in this almost real cyberspace is another matter, especially since this incarnation has the name of "high-speed male deer" on top of his head, which makes me always calm. Emperor Typhon, who showed a calm posture, showed a little stunned expression on his face: "'God of Nature'... Then it seems that this matter is really no small thing."

"Are you the only one here?" Gawain glanced behind Ammon and found that only the **** of nature himself appeared in the venue. "Ms. Mirmina and Ms. Enya are not here?"

"They are researching something, they look busy," Amone shrugged. "Let me come first-they said they will be there later."

"Are you doing research... well, let's not wait for them," Gawain nodded, and after Amone took a seat, his eyes turned to Rosetta and Bersetia in front of him, "I want to let them You see one thing."

After speaking, a phantom image of a document appeared in front of him, and when the phantom became solid, he divided it into two and sent them to the two imperial rulers.

Rosetta's gaze swept across the document quickly, and her expression immediately became very serious.

"As you can see, the civilization that has been sending out signals has suddenly changed a bit," Gao Wen said in a deep voice, "They changed their style of sending information aimlessly in the past, and instead sent such a communication. The "letter" with very obvious intentions, they are calling "Unknown Civilization Alpha" purposefully and hoping to get an answer. This is something that has never happened before."

"...Is the ‘Unknown Civilization Alpha’ mentioned here we?" Bersetia looked up from the document and looked at Gawain with scorching eyes.

"Not sure," Gawain shook his head, "Our current technology can't tell whether this signal is pointing in our direction or a wide-area broadcast as usual, let alone whether the sender has locked the coordinates of our planet."

"So I don't rule out the possibility of a trap," Rosetta rubbed her ring, slowly speaking in thought, "They may not know where we are, or even if there is anyone in their broadcast range. So use this method to let us take the initiative to'make a sound'."

"This message mentions the sailor... and the keyword eyes like the stars flashing," Bersetia focused on another vital message. "There is too much information in it."

"Facts have proved that the sailors did not only leave footprints on one planet," Gawain nodded. Of course he also noticed this part of the details. "We can boldly judge that the world that this message-producing civilization lives in is also The planet where the sailor has stopped-and what the sailor left on that planet has a profound impact on this'messaging civilization'. Judging from the content of the message, this message civilization's understanding of the sailor and the'stars twinkle' may be Far deeper and clearer than us."

Rosetta frowned. He had never let his mind fall into such a complex, chaotic, and busy thinking state like today. The problem that suddenly lay before his eyes was so unprecedented, beyond his previous experience in dealing with any problem. In fact, the scene Except for Gao Wen, I am afraid that no one would have thought that he would suddenly face the problem of "extraterrestrial civilization exchange", but he still maintained his rationality and calmness, and slowly said in his thoughts: "No matter this Whether the message is a trap or not, the sender obviously has an extremely important secret, the twinkling of the stars and the cycle... Frankly speaking, this is reminiscent of the magic wave."

Regardless of whether the sending civilization is fishing or not, at least the "bait" is real. This is the fact before the three imperial rulers.

But this is not enough to make them make a reckless decision.

"The most critical issue now is that we are not sure whether this message-sending civilization is good intentions or malicious," Rosetta said. "They did express their willingness to communicate friendly and help each other in the subpoenas, but to be honest. Yes, I don’t dare to believe it—there are so many things on our planet that people don’t dare to trust easily, let alone alien stars that are hundreds of millions of kilometers away."

"And even if the content of the information is all true, the attitude of the other party is not false, we also need to be cautious," Gawain continued, "Alien civilization...different from the alien races on our planet, the alien civilization is extremely different. There may be thinking logics, judgment standards, and even thinking organs that are completely different from ours. Their'goodwill' is not necessarily goodwill, and their'malicious' is not necessarily harmful to us, just in case they Regarding the devouring of a friend’s life as a virtue, and a friendly greeting as a declaration of war? These are all things that are inaccurate."