bookbashuk Chapter 424 It's Listening!
Chapter 424 It's Listening!
The pressure data for all six gates has been reduced to zero for seven hours.
Zhang Yan sat at the worktable in the underground laboratory, in front of him was the complete parameter diagram of the Vermilion Bird mecha.
He didn't move, he just stared at the six zeros on the screen.
He maintained the same posture as Nie Qingcheng walked down the stairs.
"What's wrong?" she asked directly.
Zhang Yan didn't turn around. "It stopped."
"That's a good thing." Nie Qingcheng walked over and naturally put her hand on his shoulder.
"No." Zhang Yan's voice was flat, but Nie Qingcheng could hear the coldness in it.
"It has never stopped for 30,000 years. It gnawed at the ice for 70 years 100,000 years ago. In all the observation records of the Opener over the past 300 years, it has never stopped completely."
He turned around and looked into Nie Qingcheng's eyes.
"It stopped attacking for only one reason: it learned of our new plans."
Nie Qingcheng tightened her grip on his shoulder.
She didn't ask "How is that possible?" because she knew Zhang Yan wouldn't draw such a conclusion without reason.
"Who?" she asked.
"Those who know about the New Anchor Point Project." Zhang Yan stood up and walked to another terminal. "Me, you, Guan Xing, Qin Xiao, Qin Changfeng, and the locksmith. Six people."
"You trust the first four."
"Yes. Qin Changfeng has passed the test of the sealing battle."
Zhang Yan swiped his finger across the screen, bringing up the record of his collaboration with the locksmith.
"The locksmith—when I was working with him at the sixth gate, the Heart of the Craftsman and the lock underwent compatibility verification. During the verification process, there was a brief two-way data flow at the system's underlying level."
He turned to Nie Qingcheng.
"If there is some kind of backdoor inside the lock, someone outside the door can read the operation logs of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart through it."
Without any hesitation, Nie Qingcheng picked up the communicator.
"Qin Xiao".
"Yes," Qin Xiao's voice came quickly.
"Contact a locksmith. Have him perform a full self-inspection of the lock."
"receive."
Zhang Yan is already obtaining the locksmith's contact information.
The communication was established via stargazing.
"Something's up," Zhang Yan said directly.
There was no further reaction from the stargazing side.
Five minutes later, the locksmith's voice came through the communicator. His accent had a certain ancient tone: "Maintainer."
"Your lock," Zhang Yan said, "check the underlying protocol."
The locksmith fell silent.
Then Zhang Yan heard a series of complex mechanical sounds—it was some kind of ancient instrument at work.
Ten minutes later, the locksmith's voice came back, but his tone had changed.
"Found it," he said. "A passive listening module. Built into the design of the first-generation lock. It existed 30,000 years ago."
"Where is the designer?"
"I don't know. It might be to keep the information between the lock and the key synchronized."
The locksmith paused.
"Now it's being used for something else."
Zhang Yan closed his eyes.
"Physically disconnected".
"It will affect collaboration efficiency, decreasing it from 97.3% to 91.2%."
"Acceptable. Execute."
A dull, snapping sound came from the other end of the communication line.
Then came the locksmith's confirmation: "Done."
When Zhang Yan hung up the call, Nie Qingcheng was already recording data.
She looked up: "Efficiency has decreased by 6.1%. The coordination time will be shortened when repairing the second door."
"I know." Zhang Yan walked back to his worktable. "But the source of the information leak has been cut off."
His tone sounded very certain.
But looking at his back, Nie Qingcheng knew that his feelings were far more than just confirmation.
Two hours later, the system alarm sounded.
The pressure values at the second and fourth doors began to rise.
The gnawing resumed outside the door.
But this time the intensity was noticeably weaker—it was like a test.
What are you testing?
To test how much information it can still obtain after disconnecting the listening module.
Looking at the data fluctuations of the two doors, Zhang Yan gained a new understanding.
It not only learned about the new anchor point plan, but it also learned that Zhang Yan had discovered the leak.
It is adjusting its strategy.
Nie Qingcheng sat next to him, also looking at the same data.
Her voice was calm: "And then?"
Zhang Yan turned to her.
"Let's continue. The transformation of Suzaku will proceed as planned."
"It knew the plan."
"So it will react," Zhang Yan said. "But no matter how it reacts, we only need to win once. Send the sub-core to L2. Once is enough."
Nie Qingcheng looked into his eyes and then nodded.
In the afternoon, Qin Xiao called.
"The last batch of materials for the Vermilion Bird's modification has been delivered. Qin Changfeng has also confirmed the launch site."
"When?" Zhang Yan asked.
"Seven days later."
Seven days.
Zhang Yan silently recited the number in his mind.
The space-based transformation of Suzaku was completed within seven days.
Maintain the stability of the door network during the seven days of continuous probing outside the door.
Ensure there are no unexpected events within seven days.
He looked at Nie Qingcheng.
She had already opened her notebook and written "7 days" on a certain page.
"Let's begin," she said.
Zhang Yan didn't say anything more.
He entered the underground laboratory, and Suzaku was released from the storage space.
The sound of the mechs spreading their wings echoed through the space.
He began to disassemble the outer armor.
……
On the second day after the renovation, Qin Xiao reported the new data.
The efficiency of the second gate dropped from 43% to 40.8%.
The gnawing intensity outside the door is intensifying.
On the fourth day of the upgrade, the system issued an upgrade warning.
The efficiency of the second gate plummeted to 35.2%.
The creature outside the gate abandoned its strategy of evenly nibbling away and instead concentrated all its power on attacking a single target.
At this rate, the second gate will drop below 20% in three days, triggering a cascading collapse of the entire network.
It's racing against Zhang Yan for time.
Zhang Yan put down the Thousand-Machine Arm and directly dialed the locksmith's contact number.
"I need help."
"Speak," the locksmith replied quickly.
"Second layer of security. Emergency lockdown protocol. How long can you maintain this?"
The locksmith remained silent for three seconds.
"Eight minutes. The last collaboration was too taxing. This time, only eight minutes."
"That's enough," Zhang Yan said. "Eight minutes to stop the decline in efficiency. After eight minutes, there's a need to regroup outside the door, about twelve hours later. We have three days."
"receive."
The locksmith carried out the agreement.
The efficiency of the second gate is frozen at 35.2%, and no longer drops.
Zhang Yan looked at the stable number on the screen and returned to his worktable.
He continued to modify the Vermilion Bird.
Nie Qingcheng got off the machine again while the vacuum propulsion nozzle was being welded.
She glanced at the progress and sat down on the chair next to her.
"How long can locksmiths survive?"
Eight minutes.
"Then what."
"Then it needs twelve hours to recover. After twelve hours it will come back again. We have three twelve-hour periods." Zhang Yan's hands didn't stop. "That's enough."
Nie Qingcheng did not ask any further questions.
She sat there, watching Zhang Yan's movements.
Every time he stopped to check the parameters, she would point out what needed to be adjusted.
There was no need for further explanation between them.
Late at night on the sixth day of the renovation.
The space-based transformation of Suzaku is complete.
The fiery red paint job was replaced by silver-white heat-insulating armor, the back thrusters were rearranged into a space-age configuration, and a specially designed cargo bay was embedded in the abdomen.
The golden glow of the sub-core could be faintly seen through the bulkhead.
Zhang Yan conducted a final self-check.
His finger swept across the various parameters on the screen, and the system evaluation passed one by one.
Transatmospheric flight capability – possessed.
Capable of continuous acceleration in a vacuum environment – possessed.
The estimated time to reach point L2 is nine days.
Everything is ready.
Then the system popped up a message.
It was not a regular warning generated by the system, but a preset instruction from the depths of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart, a remnant of the "superior protocol" from 30,000 years ago.
Zhang Yan's hand froze in mid-air.
He finished reading that passage.
Nie Qingcheng noticed his unusual behavior.
She got up from the sofa and walked over to look at his expression.
"What's wrong?"
Zhang Yan turned around.
Something was changing in his eyes—not fear, but a deeper understanding was shifting.
"Alternative anchors have an expiration date," he said.
"How long?" Nie Qingcheng asked.
Zhang Yan looked at her.
"Three hundred years."
Nie Qingcheng's expression remained unchanged.
But Zhang Yan noticed that her fingers were tightening.
Three hundred years.
Not permanent.
This is not a real solution.
We're just buying time.
"That's three hundred years." Nie Qingcheng's voice was calm. "That's enough."
"Is that enough?" Zhang Yan asked.
"That's enough for us," she said, looking into his eyes. "Let people three hundred years from now think about what's to come."
Zhang Yan did not answer.
He turned to look at the Vermilion Bird mech, at the silver-white fighter jet carrying the sub-core, about to fly 1.5 million kilometers away.
Three hundred years.
Humanity has existed for three hundred years.
He took a deep breath and picked up the communicator.
"Qin Xiao".
"exist."
"Prepare for launch," Zhang Yan said. "Tomorrow morning."