202: The adventure of key fragments and the "Memory Corridor"

The cold and concise messages of "Origin Request" and "Insufficient Permissions" fed back by "The Weave" system were like a clear directive, pointing out a new way forward for the stalled exploration of "Homeland." The door to the truth had not closed; it simply required a higher-level "key" to open. The urgent priority was to find the "Origin Key"—that unique "identity credential" that could prove the visitor was of "pure descent" and possessed higher authority.

Where were the clues most likely to be hidden? Everyone's gaze turned once again, as if by prior agreement, toward the "planet core" floating in the center of multiple protective fields, containing endless mysteries. As an entity with clear homologous energy characteristics to "The Weave" system, it was the most critical link. A reasonable hypothesis was that the "planet core" itself might not be a complete "key," but merely a part of one—a "token" or an "inducer." Within its vast, sea-like deep memory bank, which had yet to be fully deciphered, it was highly probable that key clues regarding the whereabouts of other "key fragments" were hidden, or even lost memories about the civilization of "the watchers" themselves and the true purpose of "The Weave" system.

However, digging deep into the deep memories of the "planet core" carried risks far greater than any previous energy sensing or interaction. Previous readings had mainly been Excellence passively receiving relatively superficial memory ripples and information fragments naturally emitted by the core through energy resonance, which had already put a significant strain on his mind. Actively delving into its memory depths meant facing the core's natural defense mechanisms, which might protect its most precious or painful memories. He could encounter powerful energy imprint shocks, chaotic torrents of information, or even mental traps left by the ancient civilization to prevent the core from being misused. One mistake could result in mental trauma at best, or trigger a loss of control over the core's energy at worst, leading to catastrophic consequences.

"It's too dangerous! Absolutely not!" Su Mu was the first to stand up in strong opposition. She rushed in front of Excellence, her face full of worry and determination. "What if something bad is hidden inside that core and invades your consciousness like a virus? What if it triggers a self-destruct sequence? We can't let you take this risk!" She gripped Excellence's arm tightly, as if he would disappear the moment she let go.

Evelyn's expression was also exceptionally solemn, and she offered a more cautious suggestion from a technical perspective: "Excellence, Su Mu's concerns are not without merit. Our understanding of the core's deep memory structure is almost zero. Deeply connecting rashly involves too much uncertainty. We first need to develop safer, more controllable information extraction and analysis technologies, establishing multiple buffers and isolation layers. Ideally, we should achieve a non-contact, progressive memory reading solution. We cannot gamble with your safety."

Technical Innovation: The "Memory Corridor Probe" Plan

In the face of Su Mu's concerned interference and Evelyn's rational warnings, Excellence did not give up easily. He understood their worries, but the intense desire to explore the unknown in his heart and his recognition of the importance of the "Origin Key" made it impossible for him to stop there.

"The risk indeed exists, but the opportunity is equally vast." Excellence's gaze swept over Su Mu and Evelyn, his tone calm yet filled with determination. "If we stop eating because we're afraid of choking, we'll never move forward; we'll only be trapped where we are. 'The Weave' system has already given us a hint; this is currently our only and most clear direction for clues. Moreover," his tone shifted, and a light of confidence sparkled in his eyes, "the me now is different from before. Through deep study of 'Energy Programming' and preliminary interaction with 'The Weave,' my understanding of energy structures, my ability to parse information encoding, and my precision in controlling my own energy have all made qualitative leaps. We don't necessarily need to have my consciousness 'dive' directly into the depths of the core to take the risk like before."

He proposed a bold and ingenious technical concept—the "Memory Corridor Probe" plan. The core idea of this plan was not to perform a direct mental connection, but to use his mastery of "Energy Grammar" to design a highly intelligent, programmable "energy probe program."

"We can imagine this 'probe' as an extremely tiny, specially structured 'mechanical insect.'" Excellence explained to Evelyn and Su Mu while quickly sketching an energy structure diagram on the console. "It's made of pure energy, but contains complex search algorithms and information identification protocols written inside. I can control it remotely, letting it carefully 'dive' into the surface of the core's memory information stream, like... like a bookworm crawling into a massive library. Its task isn't to 'read' the whole book—that would be too dangerous—but to automatically scan and identify relevant 'pages' (memory fragments) based on keywords we set, such as energy signatures for 'authentication protocols,' 'keys,' 'origin,' 'the watchers,' and 'beacon.' It will then safely extract 'photocopies' (information copies) of these 'pages' and bring them back to an external analysis system. This way, my main consciousness remains in a safe, isolated state. Even if the 'probe' encounters an accident or is damaged inside the core, it will only result in a loss of some energy and won't cause a direct shock to my mind. We can establish powerful data buffers and multi-layer firewalls on the outside to ensure the extracted information is thoroughly 'disinfected' and 'tested' before analysis."

This creative idea transformed high-risk mental exploration into a relatively controllable technical operation, greatly reducing direct danger. After hearing it, Evelyn's eyes showed admiration and excitement. She immediately realized the feasibility and superiority of this plan. "Great thinking! Shifting the risk of active exploration onto a programmable, expendable energy entity! We can work together; I'll be responsible for optimizing the search algorithms and building the safe analysis environment, while you design the probe's energy structure and control protocols!"

Seeing that Excellence wasn't acting recklessly but had proposed such a thorough and relatively safe technical plan, Su Mu's tense expression softened considerably. Although her worry wasn't completely gone, she knew this was a necessary exploration. She squeezed Excellence's hand hard: "Be careful! Don't push yourself too hard! If anything feels wrong, withdraw immediately!"

Treasure Hunting in a Minefield: Precise Probe Operations

With the full support of the technical team led by Evelyn, the "Memory Corridor Probe" plan quickly entered the implementation stage. In the following days, the core laboratory of the "Star Sea Research Institute" became a high-tension technical assault site.

Excellence was responsible for the core design of the "probe." He pushed his understanding of the essence of energy to the limit, meticulously constructing this tiny energy creation. The probe's structure was extremely complex, requiring high stability (to avoid dissipating in the core's energy field), stealth (to avoid triggering the core's defense mechanisms), intelligence (to execute complex search and identification tasks), and ultimately the ability to carry and return information. He was like a micro-carving master, performing exquisite carvings at the microscopic energy level. Evelyn led the team in writing efficient search algorithms for the "probe," establishing a powerful external data reception, buffering, and analysis system, and setting up multiple energy firewalls and emergency cut-off protocols to ensure absolute safety.

Su Mu became the most diligent "logistics chief" and "safety supervisor." She strictly managed Excellence's working hours to ensure he got enough rest; during the experiments, she stayed by his side, staring intently at all the vital signs monitors and data fluctuations, her palms sweaty from tension.

The first "probe" infiltration mission began under high alert. Excellence was fully focused, like a surgeon operating a precision robotic tool, remotely controlling the invisible energy "insect." He carefully approached the boundary of the "planet core's" energy field, looking for an "entrance" where the energy flow was relatively calm. The process was like clearing mines in a minefield, requiring extreme precision, patience, and an intuition for energy flow. Any minor error could alert the core, leading to total failure or even an energy backlash.

The first few attempts failed. The "probe" either became unstable due to energy interference upon approach or failed to effectively identify the target information. But Excellence and Evelyn were not discouraged, constantly adjusting parameters and optimizing algorithms. Finally, after several failures, the "probe" successfully broke through the outer energy barrier, silently merging into the core's vast memory information stream and beginning its scan and search according to the preset program...

Lost Epic: A Shocking Discovery. The wait felt exceptionally long. When the "probe" returned at the scheduled time and successfully transmitted the first encrypted and compressed information packet it had carried back to the external analysis system, everyone held their breath.

The information packet was scanned for safety and decoded, slowly appearing on the main screen. However, the parsed content was not the technical drawings, coordinate formulas, or energy structure diagrams everyone had expected. Instead, it was more like fragments of a "narrative" or "log entries" filled with a sense of epic scale and tragedy! It was as if they were reading fragments of an ancient history book from a lost civilization!

The first relatively clear fragment showed that in a primordial era so distant it could not be measured by current time scales, there once existed a highly developed civilization (or organization) in the universe that took guardianship and observation as its duty, calling themselves "the watchers." To deal with a certain cosmic-scale "variable" or "potential threat," the civilization of "the watchers" exhausted its entire strength to build the unimaginably massive system known as "The Weave." The primary function of "The Weave" seemed to be to "monitor," "suppress," and even "seal" that "variable" to prevent it from going out of control and causing irreversible effects on the universe. The "planet core" was not the control center of "The Weave," but rather one of the "beacons" or "lighthouses" scattered throughout the universe by "the watchers" to serve as backups and communication Nodes! Each core held parts of the authentication passwords for "The Weave," star map coordinates, and the seeds of the civilization's knowledge.

The second, more blurred fragment pointed to a disturbing fact shrouded in mist: After completing "The Weave" system, the civilization of "the watchers" seemed to have encountered some unimaginable, massive upheaval. The fragment was filled with information codes carrying a sense of finality and sorrow, such as "silence," "dispersion," "the last seeds," and "continuation of the watch duty," strongly suggesting that this great civilization might have perished or merged into "The Weave" system in some form. Even more heart-pounding was the fragment's vague mention that the "variable" they had sealed possessed an unspeakable, extreme "danger" and "uncertainty"! "The Weave" system was both a prison to confine the "variable" and potentially an ultimate alarm to monitor its status!

The third fragment, which also had the most practical guiding significance, was severely damaged but vaguely mentioned the stellar coordinates where other "beacons" (i.e., other "planet cores") might exist. However, the specific coordinate information was largely missing, leaving only a blurred star cluster pattern with a unique energy resonance signature and a partial, encrypted set of resonance frequency parameters. This was like a treasure map that only left behind a vague outline of the area where the treasure was located and a clue for a "key" that could only be sensed at a specific frequency.

Sublimation of Mission: Searching for Lost Kin

As these memory fragments were pieced together, a grand, tragic, and crisis-filled ancient picture slowly unfolded before the high-level leaders of "Homeland." The laboratory was pin-drop silent; everyone was shaken by this epic information that had spanned billions of years.

"The 'Origin Key' we need..." Evelyn took a deep breath, her voice trembling slightly with excitement, "is very likely hidden within the other 'planet cores'—the other 'watcher beacons'! Only by gathering more beacons and mastering more complete 'watcher' identity codes and knowledge systems can we pass the verification of 'The Weave' system, obtain higher permissions, and finally figure out... what 'the watchers' were actually guarding, what the 'variable' they feared really is, and... whether this 'variable' is still safely sealed."

Excellence's gaze became incredibly deep and firm. He slowly stood up and looked out at the starry sky: "The goal of our exploration has changed. It's no longer just about satisfying our curiosity or finding more powerful technology for 'Homeland.' We may have, inadvertently, touched upon a massive secret that has slept for billions of years and concerns the safety of the entire universe. The civilization of 'the watchers' entrusted their duty and seeds to the scattered 'beacons.' Since we have inherited one of them, perhaps to some extent, we have also inherited this heavy responsibility of 'watching.' Our next step must be to follow these partial star map symbols and resonance frequencies to find our lost 'kin'—the other planet cores—within the vast sea of stars!"

The journey to find other "planet cores" was thus put on the agenda. This was no longer a simple adventure, but a root-seeking journey and a relay of responsibility across the sea of stars, carrying a heavy mission. The future of "Homeland" was now tightly bound to the destiny of the ancient "watchers."