198: Whispers of the Star Chart and “Trap” Coordinates

While Excellence "hid" in the star sea sandbox laboratory partly to temporarily escape the overwhelming "sweet burden" of adoration and curiosity, the main reason was that he was fully immersed in the arduous stage of deeply analyzing and deciphering the vast, ancient information contained within the planet core and the mysterious star map. As his understanding of "Energy Grammar" improved and his perception of the essence of energy deepened, he became like an increasingly skilled archaeologist. Armed with a precision tool called "Resonance Perception," he was able to "listen" to and interpret more and clearer fragments of information from that silent, ancient core.

This process was long and arduous, requiring immense patience and incredible focus. Day after day, Excellence sat before the massive control center of the star sea sandbox, surrounded by invisible yet vast streams of data and energy ripples. His consciousness seemed to transform into a sensitive probe, cautiously delving into the star-like yet chaotic depths of the core's memory to capture fragmented streams of information that had crossed eons. Most of the time, he obtained seemingly disordered snippets: a fleeting glimpse of an ancient starry sky, the brilliant afterglow of a galactic collision, the final magnificent glory before a supernova's death. There were also strange symbols filled with abstract geometric beauty that could not be explained by current scientific systems; they seemed to describe some fundamental laws of the universe's operation, obscure and difficult to understand. Occasionally, he could even feel some vague residual consciousness with strong emotional colors, such as wonder at a cosmic phenomenon or awe toward an unknown existence.

Like a persistent puzzle player, Excellence patiently categorized, compared, and attempted to piece together these fragments of information from different times and levels. The technical team led by Evelyn provided him with powerful computing support and database comparisons to help him build models and verify hypotheses. Gradually, a corner of a grand, blurry, yet vaguely discernible ancient cosmic picture began to slowly reveal itself before them.

However, during this seemingly smooth progress, an extremely unusual and recurring anomaly caught the high alert and deep unease of Excellence and Evelyn.

Within that massive and dizzyingly complex star map composed of countless stars, nebulae, and gravitational lines, a specific region of space in a remote corner of the universe was marked in an extremely obscure yet persistent way. This marking was not clear like a label for an important resource point or a habitable system. It was more like a deep "scar," a "warning" carrying strong negative emotions, and even... faintly exuding the sense of a set "trap!" The energy coding method used for the marking was extremely ancient and complex, filled with wariness and alienation, as if desperately reminding of information like "do not approach," "danger," or "lies."

"Sister Evelyn, look here." Excellence pointed to the regional coordinates on the holographic star map that were surrounded by special energy ripples and appeared particularly conspicuous. His brow was furrowed, and his voice carried a hint of subtle gravity. "This location... is very wrong. In the residual consciousness fragments of the core, the 'feeling' about this place... is terrible. It's not simple danger, but a... mixture of 'loathing,' 'vigilance,' and even... a trace of... 'fear.' It's as if there's something there that makes it... or rather, makes the ancient existence that left this information, feel extremely uncomfortable and... wary."

The Eerie "Void Desert" and Sandbox Simulation Anomalies

Evelyn immediately mobilized all external astronomical databases that Homeland could connect to, including deep-space observation data from several major nations at the classified level, to conduct an exhaustive cross-comparison and verification of this coordinate region. The results were even more unsettling. In actual astronomical observations, this region was the famous "Void Desert"—a vast and oppressive cosmic blank space almost entirely devoid of significant galaxies, star clusters, or quasars. It was like a giant dark patch on the cosmic curtain; when telescopes were pointed there, they usually only received weak cosmic background radiation along with a large amount of unexplainable signal loss and interference noise. Because it was "barren" and "difficult to observe," the mainstream scientific community had long regarded it as an "observational blind spot" with no research value and rarely invested resources in it.

"A region deliberately marked by an ancient civilization as requiring high vigilance appears in reality as a seemingly worthless 'void'..." Evelyn pushed up her glasses, her gaze behind the lenses sharp as a blade, her tone so heavy it seemed it could drip water. "This cannot be a coincidence. There must be a massive secret hidden behind this, or... a massive danger. If something truly exists there that can make even the ancient civilization that created this planet core feel threatened or even fearful..." She didn't finish her sentence, but everyone in the lab felt a chill crawl up their spines.

"Focus the sandbox on this area and zoom in to the highest precision!" Excellence ordered in a low voice. He wanted to see for himself what this "void" actually looked like from an energy perspective.

The star sea sandbox, a simulation system that embodied Excellence's blood and sweat and Homeland's highest technology, began to operate at full capacity. Massive computing power was mobilized, and energy flows, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, constructed a miniature model of the target star region above the control center.

However, the simulated scene made all the watching researchers gasp! Compared to the normal cosmic space dotted with stars, this "Void Desert" presented an extremely eerie and highly uncomfortable "dead silence" from an energy perspective! It wasn't empty, but filled with an... indescribable, unnatural, and highly ordered "nothingness!" It was as if an invisible, gargantuan "membrane" had completely wrapped and isolated that region. Ordinary energy radiation, starlight, and even gravitational ripples underwent incomprehensible distortion, attenuation, and even... disappearance upon touching the edge of this area! Even more mind-boggling was that when the sandbox system tried to simulate the flow of time within that region, the timeline actually showed tiny but clearly discernible disturbances and fluctuations that could not be explained by any known laws of physics! It was as if... time itself there was fragmented and incoherent!

"This... this is too abnormal!" a young astrophysicist blurted out in shock. "The 'flatness' of this energy background is as if it were... ironed out by something using unimaginable technology! And the time turbulence... it violates the Law of Causality!"

"It's not a natural phenomenon." Excellence stared fixedly at the eerie energy simulation, his tone more certain than ever. "This is... artificial. Or rather, it's a trace 'processed' by some incomprehensible, extremely high-level existence. A trap? A cage? Or a... disguise?" However, a light mixed with vigilance and... a hint of irrepressible excitement uncontrollably flickered in his eyes. Challenging the unknown and exploring ultimate mysteries was the most primal drive that kept him moving forward.

Strategic Divergence: The Temptation of Adventure vs. Cautious Weighing

This startling discovery was immediately reported to Wang Jianguo and triggered a heated debate within Homeland's highest decision-making level.

Excellence was undoubtedly of the radical exploration faction. He believed that great risks often came with great opportunities. This region, regarded as a "trap" or "threat" by an ancient civilization, likely hid key clues about the origin of the planet core, the mystery of the star map, and even the existence of a more powerful civilization. "The fact that the planet core feels fear toward it precisely shows there is something there it cannot face or understand, which in itself is extremely valuable information!" He advocated for the immediate dispatch of highly stealthy unmanned probes equipped with the latest sensing technology to conduct a preliminary, cautious reconnaissance of that area. "Even if it's just to take a look from afar and obtain some boundary data!"

However, Wang Jianguo, Evelyn, and most of the experienced senior advisors held an extremely cautious and conservative stance. Wang Jianguo pointed at the star map, his expression cold. "A region that could make an ancient civilization—one likely far beyond our current technological level—so wary that they left warning marks is predictably dangerous. Our current understanding of it is nearly zero. Rashly sending probes, even the most stealthy ones, would be like lighting a torch in the dark. It might not only expose Homeland's existence and coordinates but could even... directly trigger an unknown reaction that we are completely unable to handle. This is no different from a suicide mission." Evelyn added, "From a technical standpoint, we cannot guarantee that a probe would still be able to transmit valid data after entering that anomalous region, nor can we guarantee it wouldn't become a 'beacon' that leads unknown dangers directly to us. We need more thorough preparation and more complete backup plans."

The debate lasted for several days, with both sides sticking to their arguments and neither able to convince the other. The entire upper management of Homeland was shrouded in a tense and oppressive atmosphere. To satisfy curiosity and take a risk, or to prioritize safety, set it aside for now, and continue to accumulate strength? It was a difficult choice.

Echoes from Deep Space: A Sudden "Greeting"

Just as the debate reached a stalemate and Wang Jianguo was leaning toward the conservative plan of temporary suspension to prioritize theoretical reserves and technical verification, something happened that caught everyone off guard and made their skin crawl!

It was a seemingly ordinary research night. Excellence, Evelyn, and several core researchers were in the star sea sandbox laboratory performing a new round of more refined simulation analysis on the data from that eerie region. Suddenly, a set of extremely sensitive ultra-long-wave signal receiving systems inside the lab, used for monitoring cosmic background noise in specific frequency bands, emitted an extremely faint yet exceptionally sharp alert! This system was usually almost like a decoration because it monitored frequency bands where intelligent signals were almost impossible to appear!

Everyone froze for a moment, their gazes simultaneously snapping toward the main control console. On the screen, an extremely weak data stream—with a signal strength so low it was nearly drowned in background noise, yet with a modulation method so clear it made one's heart skip a beat—was automatically captured and enlarged by the system!

Even more shocking was that the preliminary signal characteristic analysis conducted by the communication expert group immediately showed that the underlying coding protocol structure of this signal actually had a staggering similarity of over 80% with an extremely ancient basic communication protocol—one used for ultra-long-distance, low-power communication—that Evelyn's team had just deciphered from the planet core's information database! It was as if they were two different dialects of the same language!

The entire laboratory was deathly silent; one could hear a pin drop. An indescribable emotion, a mixture of excitement, fear, and a sense of absurdity, seized everyone's hearts!

The content of the signal, after emergency deciphering (thanks to the preliminary understanding of the core protocol), slowly appeared on the main screen. There were only two words, expressed in a way similar to mathematical logic symbols, yet conveying a clear meaning:

"Coordinates... confirmed...?"

And the direction of the signal source, after being verified by the triangulation of multiple monitoring stations, was locked without any suspense—it pointed directly to that region of space they had just marked as "highly dangerous" and an "eerie trap!" That "Void Desert" which was "loathed" and "guarded against" by the ancient core!

"Boom—!"

A bone-chilling cold instantly swept through the entire laboratory, as if every trace of heat in the air had been sucked away! Everyone felt their scalps tingle, and their blood nearly froze!

Was it a coincidence? How could there be such a coincidence in the universe? Not long after they had focused their research on that area, a signal using an ancient protocol arrived from there? The probability was hundreds of millions of times lower than winning the lottery jackpot a hundred times in a row!

Then, there seemed to be only one answer: it was not a coincidence! Their act of detection—perhaps the extremely weak energy ripples emitted by the high-precision simulation of the star sea sandbox, or perhaps the sustained attention to the region itself—had somehow alerted "something" deep within that dead region! This "trap" was not discovered by them at all; rather... they were being guided, perhaps even "invited," to approach step by step, and then they received this cold "greeting" from the abyss!

Excellence snapped his head up to look at Evelyn; both saw unprecedented shock and solemnity in each other's eyes. Wang Jianguo's holographic communication request flashed urgently almost the next second.

A new storm—a silent provocation or a summons from the other side of deep space—had already crossed unimaginable distances and been precisely delivered to the heart of Homeland. An unprecedented chess game filled with the unknown seemed to have quietly begun. And Homeland was forced to make a move.