In the early morning, the tower guard Gelin woke up from a low sound of mechanical devices. The sunlight was pouring into the room through the crystal glass window on the side of the tower lounge. The decorative iron lace on the window frame casts light and dark patterns on the floor. The clear sky in the distance is vast and cloudless. The mechanical antenna plate on the top of the Lu'an Hub is turning at an angle. The rugged and high alloy skeleton slowly moved past the window, cutting the sky with several clever geometric patterns.

"It's not bad, it's a good weather... The meteorological forecasts of the mages are getting more and more accurate."

The tower guard squinted his eyes and looked at the sky outside, muttering softly before he breathed a deep sigh. Then he put on a loose, cool thin shirt, probably took care of his personal image and turned away from the room. The mechanical turntable and linkage mechanism in the upper area made a reassuring low sound. He walked through the short corridor and a short staircase with this sound that he had been used to, and came to the nearby equipment room. A young blonde wearing a brown shirt was sitting in front of the magic net terminal, focusing on the beating numbers on the holographic projection, and the latest newspapers and magazines that had been neatly cut were stacked in front of the printing device next to him.

The young man's name is Ron, who is a colleague of Green. Another tower guard of the tower. He has just been transferred to the tower for not long, but his down-to-earth, diligent and likable personality has left a deep and good impression on the "old employees" in the tower.

"Ah, Mr. Glen," the blonde man in front of the magic network terminal heard the movement from the door. After seeing who was coming, he immediately smiled. "The shift time has not come yet. Have you gotten up so early?"

"A regular routine is good for the body - especially for middle-aged people like me who are no longer young," Glenn greeted the young man with a smile, "Wickson hasn't come back yet?"

"He just came back, but soon took two technicians out again - the reading of the secondary hub in Cosson Town was somewhat abnormal. A nearby factory reported that they had not received any signal from Luan since yesterday. Vickerson thought it might be that the thunderstorm yesterday damaged the secondary hub, and he wanted to go and see the situation in person. By the way, he drove away the gray magic car."

"It seems that the thunderstorm yesterday was more powerful than we thought," Gerlin said casually, and came to the Magic Net terminal, and found that the neatly cut newspapers and magazines printed through networked printers had been flipped through, and one of the pages was marked with a red pen. "Is there anything interesting in the newspaper, Ron?"

"Ah, I'm about to say it," said the young man named Ron, who immediately showed a happy and mysterious smile. "Do you remember the 'monitoring project' that Vickson has been paying attention to? It is the project with a monitoring station in the main hubs in various places. Recently, it seems that there has been a sudden progress. It is said that he has received a mysterious signal. The scholars have spent a lot of time discussing this matter! Not only is there a newspaper here..."

Green didn't pay much attention to the monitoring project, but he was already interested enough by Ron's excited tone. Before the young man could finish speaking, he had already picked up the stack of printing paper with a faint ink smell.

The first thing that caught my eye was a line of extremely eye-catching bold titles: "Among the vast stars, is there a creature that can think rationally like us?"

What kind of question is this?

The tower guard's eyes were instantly attracted by this wonderful title. From being a scribe of the nobles when he was young to becoming a tower guard who became a magic net hub in middle age, he has seen and experienced very little things in his half life, but he has never heard of such a thing, and has never heard of anyone asking such a question... between the stars... Why do anyone look at what happened between the stars like this? He even seriously discussed this matter?

If according to the priests... between stars and stars shouldn't it be the direction of heaven?

Green subconsciously frowned, looking down with confusion, but found that the entire newspaper almost discussed this issue, and in the subsequent page, there was even another more eye-catching and confusing title: "From the cave to the plain, from the feet to the distance - the royal astrologer, Mr. Morgan Hugo, takes you to understand the "breadth" of the world"

Ron's voice came from the side: "These are very interesting - although they seem to be boring academic discussion articles, they are surprisingly easy to understand. I have never seen a similar theory about the starry sky above my head in any newspaper or magazine, but I have heard from my teacher that the land under our feet is actually a planet. We revolve around the sun, and the sun rotates around the "O", and every flashing light point in the universe may be a celestial system similar to it..."

Listening to Ron's excited remarks, Green could only make a few simple perfunctory words - what young people pay attention to and accept seems to be a little different from that of him, a middle-aged man. Although he himself has received complete general and literacy courses, his attention to these knowledge that sounds like "staying away from life" is obviously not as good as Ron, who is just in his early twenties, and it is naturally extremely difficult to keep up with the topic at this time.

At the same time, his eyes quickly swept through some irrelevant reports and advertisements in the newspaper. Trivia, a "Cecil Weekly" pressed down below, entered his sight. As expected, he saw a title similar to the previous two articles: "The scale of the celestial body in the eyes of Master Carmier - Knowledge and Wisdom from the Gondor era". In the subsequent part of this article, he also saw a propaganda, which mentioned that in order to further improve the knowledge literacy of the whole people and enrich the reading enjoyment of citizens, the Supreme Government Office of the Empire has instructed the issuance of a new journal, whose main content is the popularization of knowledge in the field of astrology...

Looking at the clear and sharp letters, Gerlin suddenly moved his heart and immediately spread several newspapers on the table, quickly flipping through their main pages and bold and emphasized titles. So a large number of articles that looked different but had a very consistent academic nature, and interesting and popular or discussion-oriented were in his eyes.

The tower guard looked at these newspapers and smiled. His experience had already made a judgment - it seems that the Supreme Government Affairs Department has had another "big plan". These newspapers should be just the first step of laying the groundwork. Soon, there will probably be related new programs on the Magic Network radio?

It is probably difficult for ordinary people to feel the emergence of this "wind direction" from the limited media of daily contact, but a tower guard who is in the regional information hub can keenly feel the release of certain signals in advance. Of course, this premise is to have sufficient work experience. Gerlin himself is a very experienced tower guard, and the young Ron... obviously didn't think so much.

"Mr. Glen," Ron also noticed the sudden action of his senior. He was slightly startled and couldn't help asking, "Is there something happened?"

"It's nothing, it's not a bad thing anyway. You'll understand it after working here for two more years," Ge Lin laughed, and while talking casually, he looked at the markings on the newspaper. Only then did he notice that the content of this page was not an article on academic or knowledge popularization, but a special news and a promotional manuscript with the nature of "civil recruitment".

"Solin Monitoring Station Receives Mysterious Signals of Unknown Sources", "Analysis Plan for Soliciting the Below Symbols from All Over the World".

He saw the patterns attached to the article, those that did not look like general letters, nor were they like southern hieroglyphic symbols, those continuous arcs and short-line segments connected to the arcs looked mysterious and incomprehensible, and next to the symbol, Ron had already drawn many strings of letters that looked thoughtless with his pen.

"Don't tell me that you are planning to crack these symbols - these symbols that even experts and scholars can't help but look up at the young Ron.

"Why not?" said the blonde young man immediately. "Don't you think this is a very challenging and proud thing, as if you are participating in a historical matter? And there are also high rewards - as long as they can crack their meaning, the bounty is even enough for us to buy an entire estate in Lu'an City!"

I have built a WeChat official account [Viewing the Text Base] to send you year-end benefits! You can go and have a look!

Glen was not infected by the young man's immature joy and enthusiasm. He just looked at the reports and symbols that were completely different from any known text in this world. Uneasiness rose in his heart, but it was quickly suppressed and turned into a question: "Then have you studied so much, and you can see what rules?"

"I didn't see it at all - these symbols are like some kind of encrypted graffiti, far from being able to crack it by simply replacing letters or structural reorganization," Ron shook his head with regret. "In fact, I'm ready to treat this as a kind of pastimes after work... It may not be so easy to get rich once, but the process of cracking these symbols is still a bit fun. And I believe that most people who are interested in these symbols will eventually have a similar mentality to me. After all, as you said, these things make the experts and scholars in the imperial capital helpless..."

Green shrugged, but did not continue the topic. He glanced at the mechanical clock hanging on the nearby wall and casually said to Ron: "It's time to change shifts."

...

The rare clear sky descends to Aldernan. The sunlight near noon dispels the haze that is often entrenched over this "rain and fog capital". Under the bright sunlight, the black roofs and spires are shining brightly. The moldy stone slabs and walls in some gutters and alleys seem to be removed from the dusk air and become vibrant.

However, compared with last year, the streets and alleys of the Aldernan Noble District are obviously much deserted at this moment.

The hall, which was filled with banquets day and night, closed its doors and windows, and there were only a few cars left on the wide road, which were rushing to pass quickly by the closed doors. The gardens in front and behind some houses had obviously been neglected for many days. The weeds that grew up due to the warmer weather were gradually occupying the flower beds and nurseries that were once carefully cared for, squeezing the living space of the precious and delicate flowers. Some houses were hung with thick white and black curtains and curtains, and the dry bouquet of chrysanthemums hanging under the iron hanging lamp at the door, swaying desolately in the wind.

Most of these mansions were not completely abandoned. At this time, there were still scattered low voices coming from it. The sounds that still live here seemed to be deliberately suppressing themselves to reduce their presence in this world as much as possible. They curled up in their gorgeous nests like frightened beasts fearing this world, for fear that they would attract some "fatal attention" due to their high profile.

In a few mansions that had completely lost their voice, the former glorious families had lost their last effective heirs, the servants were dismissed, the property was taken over to the royal family, and the houses became "assets to be valuated" that could not be handled temporarily. The owners of these houses usually have two completely different destinies when leaving this world: some lost all respect, lost their heads in liquidation, while others were glorious and glorious, and were buried in the royal family's posthumous seal.

But no matter their fate, the final result is no different.

"The aristocratic era has been in name only. After so many years of trunks and stalemate, it is finally time to withdraw completely... Some titles are still there, but they will never have a glorious opportunity again," Viscount Hemil took a step back from the convex window, and at the same time retracted his gaze to the streets outside. He returned to the high-backed seat he loved most in his daily life, but did not sit down for a while. He just sighed with emotion, "Oh... I really never imagined that I would see this day appearing in my lifetime, and I never imagined that it would come in this way..."

He raised his head and looked at the opposite side of the wide and straight road, only to see two servants walking in a hurry, like frightened beasts, walking quickly across the street - like running.

"Have you ever had such a deserted scene in the past? Even on the day when the New Emperor's Twenty-Two Bills were promulgated, or even on the day when the fire broke out in the Obsidian Palace mentioned by my father... This street has never been so deserted and desolate, and there have never been so many death-taking chrysanthemums... Those white flowers almost almost lure the breath of the underworld under the sun."

"Think about the better direction, Viscount Hemil," an old voice came from a distance. The old wizard sitting on the sofa looked at the young nobleman with a smile on his face, "You are still standing here, the title of Viscount is still on you, your family emblem and private property are not damaged at all, each of which is enough to make many people envy-whether those who are dead or still alive, they should envy you.

"You have a good team, Mr. Viscount."

"Ah, yes, this is indeed as you said, Master Daniel," Viscount Hemil sat in a chair with a wry smile, and took the wine glass from beside him, pouring the liquid in the glass into his throat less gracefully, and then said, "At any time, unconditionally support the royal decision, immediately cut off contact with all priests when there is a problem in the church, support the Winter Fort front as much as possible, and actively cooperate with His Highness Hadilan's all review... Frankly, if there is a mistake in this, I may not be able to stand here and talk to you at this moment, and you may only be able to toast me in front of my tombstone."
Chapter completed!