201: A silent standoff and the whispers of "weaving a net"

That cold, soul-piercing ‘scanning sensation’ from beyond deep space, like a bitter winter wind sweeping through the ‘Star Sea Institute,’ brought not just an instant chill down their spines, but a deep-seated, instinctive tremor of fear towards an unknown higher existence. The laboratory fell into a brief, almost frozen silence. All the researchers present, no matter how experienced, seemed to have their strength drained by that incomprehensible glance, their faces pale, their breathing rapid. Some even instinctively took half a step back, as if to distance themselves from the holographic projection displaying the eerie starfield. The air was thick with fear and uncertainty. The faint hum of the instruments now sounded particularly grating, rattling everyone’s taut nerves.

However, the expected thunderous strike did not follow. The other end of deep space, after casting that incomprehensible glance, once again fell into a deathly silence, as if the heart-stopping sensation had been a collective hallucination. But this silence, compared to a direct attack, was even more unsettling and oppressive. It hung over them like a Sword of Damocles, ready to fall at any moment. What did that silence truly mean? Was it a top-level warning, signaling them to immediately cease all prying? Was it indifferent observation, viewing them as insignificant ants? Or was some more complex, incomprehensible logic at play?

In this suffocating silence, the first to recover from the shock and fear was, surprisingly, Zhuo Yue. He took several deep breaths, forcing down his racing heart and instinctive unease. The panic in his eyes quickly receded, replaced by a surgical-knife-like calmness and a desire for analysis. The fear hadn't vanished, but it was suppressed by a stronger curiosity and sense of responsibility. He knew that as the backbone and technical core of the team, he had to calm down first.

“It found us,” Zhuo Yue’s voice rang out in the silent laboratory, clear and steady, breaking the unbearable quiet. His voice wasn’t loud, yet it carried a strange calming power, pulling everyone’s attention back from the boundless unease. “But it made no further moves. No attack, no expulsion signal, not even a clear warning. This is very telling.” He walked to the main console, his gaze fixed on the slowly pulsating energy network simulation, trying to glean more information from the flowing energy lines.

“There are two main possibilities,” Zhuo Yue began to analyze methodically, as if solving a complex mathematical problem, attempting to completely detach emotional factors and return to pure rational deduction. “First, this entity (or system) itself is constrained by some unknown rules, unable or unwilling to directly intervene or attack us. Perhaps its ‘code of conduct’ does not include pre-emptive strikes against low-threat targets, or its actions require specific trigger conditions, and our current ‘stimulation’ has not yet reached the threshold. Second, perhaps what we perceive as an extremely serious act of ‘prying’ is, in its view, utterly trivial, like humans not caring about the prying of ants underfoot. It poses no threat at all, and therefore it can’t be bothered to deal with us, possibly not even recognizing us as an ‘intelligent interactive target.’”

“Based on the existing data models and the high regularity displayed by the energy network,” Dr. Evelyn immediately interjected, her professionalism quickly bringing her into focus. She hurried to her control console, her fingers rapidly typing on the virtual keyboard, bringing up the detailed energy network structure map and dynamic energy flow model just transmitted by the ‘Eye of Deep Space.’ “I lean towards Zhuo Yue’s first judgment. This massive energy network’s operational mode exhibits extremely strong regularity, closedness, and automated characteristics. Look at the self-consistency of these energy circuits, the unidirectional and hierarchical nature of the information flow, and its delayed response pattern to our previous probing pulses—this is more like an exquisitely complex, automated system operating according to predetermined procedures, rather than a living entity with complete autonomous consciousness and adaptive capabilities. That ‘scanning sensation’ just now is more likely an automatic reaction triggered by a built-in, high-level defense or early warning mechanism; it’s a passive, programmatic ‘detection’ and ‘logging’ behavior, not an active ‘attack’ or ‘expulsion’ stemming from explicit hostility. Its silence, perhaps, is a manifestation of its ‘non-living’ system attribute—after determining, based on its built-in logic, that the threat level of the current ‘intrusion’ or ‘detection’ behavior is insufficient to trigger higher-level response procedures (such as attack, shielding, countermeasure), the system automatically returns to a low-power standby monitoring state.”

Strategic Shift: From Prying to “Knocking”

Su Mu listened to their calm analysis, her tense mood relaxing slightly. She patted her chest, letting out a long sigh, trying to lighten the atmosphere in her unique way: “So, according to this, we might have accidentally triggered the alarm system of a super powerful ‘cosmic-level automatic doorman’? And then this doorman uncle squinted at us sleepily, realized we were just a few harmless kids wanting to see the excitement, and then dozed off again, too lazy to bother with us?”

This slightly teasing yet vivid analogy immediately eased the heavy atmosphere in the laboratory, and some even let out a few suppressed, relieved laughs. Zhuo Yue also couldn’t help but smile, nodding at Su Mu with approval in his eyes:

“Squad leader’s analogy is very apt. Since this ‘doorman’ uncle didn’t directly throw us out, and didn’t even bother to say ‘get lost,’ it means we still have room to operate ‘at the door,’ and even might have a chance to ‘chat’ with it. Moreover,” he changed his tone, his eyes sparkling with challenge and exploration, “the more ‘silent’ and ‘ignoring’ it appears, the more it indicates that behind the door it guards, there are extremely important secrets it doesn’t want people to easily know! Our previous passive observation has already reached its limit in terms of information gathering. Now, perhaps it’s time for a smarter, bolder approach.”

Zhuo Yue made a bold decision: to change strategy, from completely passive “peeping” and “waiting” to limited, highly restrained “active interaction”! He called it the “limited stimulation, observe reaction” strategy. Its core idea was: without touching the threshold that might trigger a strong defensive reaction, by sending a series of carefully designed, non-invasive “inquiry signals,” they would actively “test” the “temper” and “reaction mechanism” of this vast system, thereby reverse-engineering its internal working logic and possible “interface protocols.”

He no longer commanded the “Eye of Deep Space” to forcibly scan the most core, most sensitive areas of that region (which would be tantamount to directly picking a lock or smashing a door, inevitably inviting strong retaliation). Instead, he began to meticulously adjust the energy output parameters and mode of the “Eye of Deep Space.” He switched it from a high-power, wide-range “searchlight” mode to an extremely weak, highly concentrated, and precisely targeted “probe” mode. It was like a master locksmith or security expert, not using brute force, but using the finest tools and most sensitive touch to gently tap and test the internal structure of a lock cylinder, judging its internal construction by the subtle vibrations; or like gently stroking a calm water surface with a feather, observing the shape and propagation of the ripples to deduce the underwater topography.

Drawing on his profound understanding of "energy grammar," he designed a series of "inquiry pulses" with special structures and energy levels deliberately suppressed to extremely low levels. These pulses themselves carried no offensive code or malicious payload, and their energy intensity was so low that they would barely cause any substantial interference to the normal operation of the vast network; they were more like a form of "energy Morse code" or a "system knock." The core of these pulses contained "questions" or "signals" with different mathematical laws, energy encoding patterns, and logical structures. Zhuoyue attempted to use these pulses to "knock" on different "nodes" of that energy network, testing its reaction to different "inputs"—would it ignore them? Would it produce fixed-pattern feedback? Or would it trigger some conditional judgment? This would allow him to reverse-engineer its internal "communication protocols," "verification logic," and even "functional divisions."

Cipher Game: An Ancient Response

Initially, his attempts were like stones sinking into the sea. No matter what structure of pulse Zhuoyue emitted—whether simple energy frequency modulation, complex phase encoding, or background noise simulating natural celestial radiation—the vast energy network remained unresponsive, still pulsating at its inherent, slow, and regular rhythm, completely oblivious to this faint "disturbance." It was as if it truly felt nothing from an ant's touch, or perhaps categorized it as irrelevant cosmic background noise and filtered it out automatically.

But Zhuoyue did not lose heart. He continuously adjusted the pulse parameters, attempting to combine different encoding methods, from the simplest energy frequency modulation to complex multi-dimensional signal superposition and chaotic encryption. He was like a tireless cryptographer, facing an enormous, structurally unknown combination lock, constantly trying various possible "password" combinations, patiently recording the silence from "inside the door" after each "knock."

A turning point appeared during a seemingly inadvertent, somewhat adventurous attempt. Zhuoyue suddenly had a flash of inspiration, recalling that he had once extracted an extremely ancient, strangely structured, and functionally unknown energy sequence from the vast sea of memory fragments within the "planet's core." This sequence had never been fully deciphered, but its inherent mathematical beauty and resonant characteristics had deeply impressed Zhuoyue; he privately called it the "ancient lullaby." He thought: Since the planet's core and that region might have some deep-seated connection, perhaps even a common origin, would attempting to communicate using its "language" be like hitting the right secret code, triggering a special reaction?

He carefully deconstructed and simplified this segment, which he suspected was an ancient authentication protocol or identity marker, removing parts that might contain sensitive information. He only retained the most basic encoding framework, representing an "identity inquiry" or "friendly contact" intent. Then, he encoded it into an inquiry pulse with the lowest possible energy level and cautiously selected a non-core node in the energy network that appeared to be an "external interface" or "signal reception area," and transmitted it.

A miracle happened!

The instant the pulse touched the network, several extremely subtle veins within the originally silent energy fibers, as if specifically designed for communication, suddenly lit up with a faint but clearly discernible glow, pulsating with a specific rhythm! A subtle information flow, like a lock spring gently touched by the correct key, was instantly activated, quietly flowing along the network's preset, extremely complex paths at lightning speed, like an activated neural network, ultimately converging towards the powerful energy source deep within the network!

Everyone in the lab held their breath, their hearts practically pounding out of their chests, staring nervously at the main screen and data stream monitors! A few seconds later, an extremely concise, cold, emotionless information packet, composed entirely of non-verbal symbols and specific energy characteristic spectra, was precisely "delivered" back to the "Deep Space Eye's" receiver by that "web-weaving" system, like a reflected echo, along a peculiar, seemingly specially established temporary communication channel!

"Feedback signal received! Signal structure stable! Encoding pattern identifying..." The researcher responsible for monitoring the communication channel shouted excitedly, his voice slightly distorted by exhilaration!

The information packet was quickly imported into the powerful decoding system. Because the underlying encoding method used by the signal had significant commonality and similarity with the ancient protocol of the planet's core, the deciphering work proceeded relatively smoothly. When the content of that information was translated into visible text and clearly displayed on the main screen, everyone was stunned, and a collective gasp echoed through the lab:

["Sequence verification... partial match... authorization level: insufficient... triggering origin tracing verification protocol... awaiting origin tracing key input..."]

New Riddle: The Origin Tracing Key

"Origin tracing verification? Awaiting key input?" Su Mu frowned in confusion, repeating the concise yet information-rich text almost instinctively, "Is it... asking for our 'household registration' or 'letter of introduction'? Does it mean our 'key' (the knowledge from the planet's core) is correct, verifying that our 'identity' is somewhat related, but the level isn't high enough? Like having a door card but no password, and needing a higher-level 'credential' that proves we're 'legitimate' and 'well-connected'?"

"Insufficient authorization... origin tracing key..." Evelyn murmured, repeating these keywords, her eyes gleaming with intelligence, her mind racing. "It seems our previous speculation was correct. The knowledge and energy characteristics contained within the planet's core are only part of the 'key' to opening this grand door, perhaps just a 'primary password' to verify if the visitor belongs to the 'relevant system.' To gain higher access privileges and glimpse deeper secrets, we need to find other 'key fragments'—what it calls the 'origin tracing key.' This 'key' might point to the planet's core's creators or origin, or more fundamental, unique identity information related to this ancient system's creators. 'Origin tracing'… means it wants to trace back to the source, to confirm whether we truly possess 'legitimate' 'inheritance rights' or 'access rights.'"

"This is fascinating! It's even more exciting than I imagined!" Zhuoyue slammed the control panel, his face radiating extreme excitement and fighting spirit. The previous tension and unease were completely replaced by immense curiosity and the passion for a challenge. "This isn't some cold trap or silent behemoth at all! This 'cosmic program' is engaging in a 'dialogue' with us across the stars, a question-and-answer session! It has a rigorous, automated, hierarchical identity verification process! Our previous probes inadvertently triggered its primary verification mechanism. Now, it has given us the next instruction! This is like a grand, real-life 'code-breaking game'! And the prize is higher-level access to that astonishing secret!" He saw this as the ultimate challenge and validation of his abilities in "energy programming" and "information deciphering," his heart filled with a desire to explore the unknown.

Under Zhuoyue's bold yet cautious attempts, this confrontation with an unknown higher creation dramatically transformed from an unsettling silent stalemate into a cross-time-and-space "code-breaking game" requiring immense wisdom and skill! The opponent was a colossal, automated ancient system that had slumbered for eons, and the prize was a higher level of access to an astonishing secret that could potentially overturn existing cosmic understanding.

"Homeland's" deep space exploration thus officially entered a new, more exciting and challenging phase—the active interaction and code-breaking phase. And this brief whisper from the cosmic "web-weaving" system, like opening a new Pandora's box, portended deeper, more complex mysteries that would be unveiled layer by layer as the "origin tracing key" was sought. The true adventure has only just begun.