Sir Scott Plantin, the director of the Viplanton Observatory and the last director of the observatory, is no stranger to this name. He has heard a few words about the ancient Gondor man from Diana, and knows that it was Scott Scott who ordered Diana, who was then the guard of the observatory, to leave his post and flee to the north at the last moment. In the heart of this iron soldier with broken memories, Sir Scott Plantin should be one of the most profound things.

She couldn't recognize the wrong person at this time.

Gao Wen's heart moved and subconsciously walked towards the phantom two steps - 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 been here for countless years, and his spirit is in no way clear. When Carmire was discovered, he had a chaotic stage of indiscriminate attack.

Just as Gao Wen approached, there was a new change in the hazy light. The tall and blurred figure in the center of the light seemed to wake up from the stillness, and a slightly cold and mechanical voice came from it: "Identify the door to open... Identify the preset contact... Senior guard Diana... Go to the setting process and start playing and recording data."

As soon as he finished speaking, the hazy light shrank again, and the figure in the center of the light became clearer than before. Sir Scott Plantin stood there, but his vision did not fall on anyone. He looked straight ahead and his eyes passed by Diana, as if he was looking at a target that no longer existed: "Diana, long time no see... I don't know how long it had passed when you saw this record, but since you could see it, it means you have really returned here - of the several possibilities that Alphons and I assumed, the greatest miracle happened, you opened the door to the observatory..."

"This is just an image record," Amber reacted and murmured in a low voice, "I thought it was like Carmier back then..."

Diana seemed to have not heard Amber's whisper, she just stared at the illusion in front of her and subconsciously spoke softly: "Sir Scott..."

But she didn't say it anymore, because it was just a video material left a long time ago, and it would not respond to its own words - the real Sir Scott has probably left this world for many years.

She just wanted to know what kind of information her former master left for herself here, and whether this information was related to the memories she lost due to the failure.

A moment later, Sir Scott's illusion really broke the silence. He looked straight ahead and said calmly as if reminiscing: "You should be surprised that after the disaster broke out, there were still people in this observatory in the observatory... In fact, this was beyond my expectations. An ancient artifact, which was stored in the storage room on the upper floor of the observatory, miraculously offset the terrible energy surge. Although it only offset a part, it allowed a small number of people in the observatory to survive.

"That artifact was part of the Viplanton meteorite rain in the past, that is, the 'extraordinary object' in the world. Unfortunately, the wisdom of mortals still seems to be insufficient to crack its mystery. Alphons and I have studied here for several years, but we have not figured out its operating mechanism and control method. The only thing we can do is to guide the huge energy it constantly releases, and cooperate with our only wisdom to build a small shelter in this terrible purgatory and survive as long as possible...

"Now that thing is placed in the center of the entire shelter, and then you will see it. When you see this message, we obviously can't use it anymore - I don't know what the situation outside is now, has the earth been healed? Is the order of civilization rebuilt? This answer seems to have no meaning to me, but since you have returned here, I hope everything has improved...

“Diana, it was twenty years since the disaster broke out when I decided to leave this message.

"At the beginning of the disaster, six people survived in the Observatory, but Mark and Melthana only lasted for less than a month. They were eroded by the deadly magic and their bodies were severely mutated. We had to end their pain ahead of time. Ulivan died the second year. He... failed to survive the transformation ceremony, and with his flesh and blood, he could not survive in this dilemma. Bairlo was one of us who had persisted for a long time, and he even persisted until three years ago. Now... only Alphonse and I remain here. We had transformed ourselves into spell flesh and blood puppets many years ago, so that we could continue to move until the material that constituted the body was completely destroyed. You know, the Empire strictly prohibited this evil magic - but what does it matter now?

"But even if our life forms are transformed, our time is still limited. Alphons and I can feel that our souls are gradually decaying in our skin, so... maybe it's time to leave something behind.

"Diana, we don't know if you will actually come back, and if you, as the Iron Man, will be able to successfully gain a foothold in the wild city-states and closed kingdoms of the north, and we are not even sure if there is really a country that can survive this disaster, but we still decide to leave it all for you - this is all our research results over the past twenty years, and you... maybe the only 'person' who can understand its meaning.

“We cracked that signal.

"Dianna, do you still remember that signal? The signal that has entered our sight a few years ago, frequently rings in the night sky, lit up among the stars, and conveys information to us in a wonderfully encoded way...we know what it is."

Accompanied by Sir Scott's words, Gao Wen, who was listening quietly beside him, suddenly felt a jump in his heart - a strangely encoded signal was transmitted among the stars, which made him suddenly think of something. At this moment, Sir Scott's illusion took a slightly back half a step back. He opened his hands and outlined invisible lines in the air, and then a scene appeared in front of Diana.

Dots, radioactive lines, rings, this is the pattern stored in Diana's mind core, and the pattern carved on the walls of the first floor of the observatory!

"This is what we first received, and it is also the most repeated content we have received in the past few years," Sir Scott's low voice rang on the platform. "We have always wanted to figure out what this pattern actually represents, and boldly guess that it might be a design drawing, a religious symbol, a occult symbol, but we all guessed it wrong... It was not until Mr. Alphons used the power of alien objects to open a crack in this shelter that could more clearly observe a specific starry sky that we finally understood the true meaning of this picture. Diana, this pattern...it is actually a 'map', a 'map' among stars.

"Maybe we should call it the 'star map'? Grand Secretary Alphons thought of this good name. It marked it as a star. This star is at the intersection of these lines. Have you noticed it? Each of these dots at the end of the line segment represents a star that flashes at the C-26 standard frequency, and this ring...it is surrounded by the only focus of these radiations, and it represents some artificial thing, perhaps a mark, a 'character item' that represents identity...

"And the only message that this whole pattern conveys to us is that we are here!"

Sir Scott's illusion opened his hands, his face filled with a smile, as if he was about to announce to the whole world. Although he had been separated from Gowen, Diana and others before the illusion for seven hundred years, and although he was in a desperate situation when he left this message, the world outside the shelter had collapsed, he seemed to be burning with a raging flame. The heat of the flame almost penetrated the barriers of seven centuries and scorched on Gowen's face.

"They are there! They are in the focus of those stars!" Sir Scott declared, as if he was again stressing, "Diana, this signal comes from among the stars, and as we had boldly guessed at an anniversary dinner - when Grand Secretary Alphons bites the barbecue, you are replacing your brass core with alchemy oil, and Bairro stood up drunk and said, "We may not be alone in this universe."

"We are not alone in this universe! Diana, after finally understanding the meaning of this image, Alphonse and I, and Berlo, who was still alive, were ignited by great enthusiasm - although the outside world had fallen apart and the order of civilization seemed to have disappeared, in this small shelter we still found the work that a scholar who studied stars could continue, and this was the only work we could do here - deciphering all the signals that the Viplanton Observatory received in Gondor from 1730 to 1740!"

Sir Scott's illusion said loudly, and he raised a hand, and a misty light curtain emerged in the air beside him. Countless light spots and lines jumped in the light curtain, which extended and connected in front of Gao Wen and others, and gradually formed basic geometric figures, mathematical symbols, and calculation formulas. This is the coded pattern that the Thorin Hub and the Winter Hub received more than once, and it was also confirmed by Long Shen Enya, and the "greetings" from the stars.

"This is their 'introduction' to themselves, the proof of identity passed among stars. They use the 'standard language' of mathematics to show their identity to every civilization with the ability to receive signals, and to show that they are a smart civilization who can think logically and use mathematical language..."

Then Sir Scott raised his other hand and condensed more and more complex information in the light curtain next to him, which were exquisitely structured characters, completely different from any text on the continent of Loren.

"And these are their words, a letter from them that they tried to communicate with other civilizations. Of course, we realized this possibility when we first received this part of the signal and transformed it into a graph. But for a long time, we didn't know how to crack an "alphabet" from strangers out of thin air. Coupled with the large number of observation tasks undertaken by the observatory, the research on "extraordinary things" and the capital's investment in various research fields in recent years, we have never had enough energy to pay attention to these mysterious alien symbols. But now, with such sufficient time, Bachelor Alphonse and I finally uncovered the secrets of these words in those huge listening records...

"They come with an explanation - in the signals of those mathematical figures, each geometric figure has a "stamp" for sending and ending, which corresponds to a text description, and those basic mathematical symbols, numbers and operations also have corresponding annotation methods. In addition, these texts themselves actually have a certain "self-solving". As long as enough samples are accumulated and a long enough time, an excellent linguist can slowly deduce their possible meanings... These two methods are combined to crack half of the information and slowly deduce the other half...

“I’m not a good linguist, but Berlo is, he completed seventy percent of the cracks, and after he died, Alphons and I completed the rest of the work…

"But unfortunately, even if we deciphered these words from alien stars, we don't know how to connect with the civilization that sent the message - we don't understand the principle of signal transmission among stars. With the current limited function of the observatory, the only thing Alphons and I can confirm is that the signal had already undergone a 'second evolution' when it was transmitted to our planet.

"This process is very complicated to explain. It is to understand it in a simple way. It is a high-energy level, high-speed energy fluctuation across the vast starry sea and arrives at our planet and reacts with the magic environment of our planet. The fluctuations released after the reaction are the information recorded by the observatory's listening system. This transmission method may be deliberately considering the "receiving ability" of low-level civilizations, because low-level civilizations like us may not be able to capture the "primitive pulse" of this signal. Correspondingly, it is extremely difficult to transmit such a signal that can quickly shuttle between stars...

"Of course, judging from the current situation, even if we know the principle of transmitting signals, it doesn't make sense. Most of the functions of the observatory have been shut down, and there is only a terrible purgatory that is distorted in the magic of chaos outside the observatory. We have tried to contact other sites, tried to protect them and then tried to explore further places, but they are all futile. 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 mastered... is probably meaningless.

"But Alphons and I still maintain hope because we are sure that you will escape safely and will definitely return here one day in the future with new partners. In a certain exploration, we also found traces of personnel residences and facilities being violently demolished in Warehouse No. 2 northwest of Viplanton, which shows that at least a group of survivors have passed by and fled to the north...

"We are already deeply trapped in this corrupt land, and relying on this small sheltered space to survive. There is only a dead end to the observatory, but the traces of those survivors have kept Alphons and I always maintained hope. We chose to believe in the resilience of civilization.

"Diana, now is the 20th year of the observatory's closure. After leaving this image, Alphons and I will leave this sheltered space for the last time and leave that "star map" on the most conspicuous wall on the lower floor of the observatory. Then we will return here, close the door and never leave. In the next time, Alphons and I will be with the starry sky above our heads, quietly waiting for the last moment.

"Maybe when someone comes here next time, no one can understand the meaning of the star map in the first floor hall, and it is possible that even until the observatory is completely destroyed, no one will visit this ruin again. But we believe that knowledge is always valuable. Even if civilization is destroyed, even if the last wise life closes its eyes under the starry sky, knowledge - as a footprint of civilization's pursuit of unknowns, it will always have its meaning.
Chapter completed!