462: There are results.

In the hotel room, time passed quietly amidst the tapping of keyboards and the hum of running algorithms.

Night had fallen deep in the golden hour; the starry river outside the window grew increasingly brilliant, but the two people in the room were completely oblivious.

"We've got something." Dai Xing let out a long sigh of relief, rubbing his aching eyes as he pointed at the reconstructed signal protocol framework on the screen. "As for this thing's encoding method, you could call it ancient; the core is indeed a structure invented for external exploration between the late 20th and early 21st centuries AD."

"However, it seems to have fused three different models during its development, nesting several layers of error correction and redundancy. Its ability to resist fallacies during decoding is much stronger than the prototype."

"There are discoveries on the language side as well," Wang Yin chimed in. His screen displayed a language model that was constantly iterating and adjusting itself, attempting to map the encoded sequences in the signal to old english vocabulary and grammatical structures.

"Look at this section," Wang Yin pointed at the screen. "The model speculates that the core intent of this information block is 'greetings' and 'demonstrating goodwill'. The possible phrases it pieced together include 'voices from afar', 'seeking... connection', 'no malice', and 'sharing... knowledge'."

"Although the word order is still a bit messy, the logic holds up. Furthermore, the emotional sentiment analysis results are consistent with the Synesthesia Beacon's previous judgment."

Dai Xing leaned in to look. "In other words, the civilization sending the signal might possess a language based on old english but heavily distorted. Could it be..."

"That shouldn't be possible." Wang Yin shook his head. "Given the level of control the company and the Eastern Federation have over starships, there's no possibility of a Black Ship conducting a long-range voyage privately, let alone people from those Old Civilizations."

"Then how do you explain this situation? According to existing civilization models, the probability of two highly similar languages appearing without contact is practically low enough to be ignored."

"Hmm... if we temporarily set aside the scenario you mentioned, looking at this information alone, it seems more like there was a gap in the Legacy, where many grammatical details were lost, leaving only a 'skeleton' of core concepts and vocabulary. Then, later generations used new logical tools to try and make this skeleton 'move' again."

"Or perhaps, for some unknown reason, several languages were fused together in a great hurry. Over time, the users selected the simpler parts of several languages and pieced them together, finally resulting in what we see now."

"Thinking of it that way, such a coincidence is indeed possible."

"Furthermore," Wang Yin looked at another set of analysis results, his expression becoming a bit subtle. "When the model attempted to reconstruct a complete 'greeting', there were several recurring core roots. After etymological tracing and probability matching, the most likely corresponding old english words are..."

He paused and read the words on the screen: "'Sister', 'Seek', 'Echo', 'Home', 'Star- Trail'."

"'Sister', 'Seek', 'Echo', 'Home', 'Star Track'..." Dai Xing repeated, stroking his chin. "This doesn't sound like the official diplomatic rhetoric of a country; it sounds more like the internal slogan of a group or organization with a specific philosophy."

"If pieced together, it feels like they are looking for news about home within a network called Star Track. If combined with 'Echo', translating this 'HOME' as 'Origin' might not be out of the question either?"

"And this Star Track—looking at their description, why does it feel somewhat similar to Silver Rail? But logically, it shouldn't be the company's Silver Rail System, or there wouldn't be language translation issues. However..."

"Wait! If the Star Track they speak of is somehow connected to Silver Rail, then if they send messages through Star Track, it's possible they could enter the company's communication network!"

The two looked at each other, both feeling that the story behind this seemed even more interesting than they had imagined.

Combining this with the other contents of the message, it didn't look like an ignorant Elementary civilization shouting blindly; it looked more like an organization with a clear goal, possessing certain knowledge and technology, actively making a deep-space call.

"Interesting." Wang Yin's interest was thoroughly piqued. He checked the time; his remaining vacation time was quite sufficient.

"We've mostly finished the analysis, although many mysteries remain. How about we send a few words back?"

"Send a few words back?" Dai Xing was taken aback. "Is that appropriate?"

"Actually, it is." Wang Yin winked. "While I was analyzing, I applied for a project, and it was approved three minutes ago."

Dai Xing's eyes widened. "You moved so fast!"

"Hehe, I'm planning to get promoted twice this year, so of course I have to produce some results." Wang Yin smiled. "Although I'm not certain, maybe there will be a big harvest?"

He cracked his knuckles and began typing on the virtual keyboard. He didn't use the original English, but instead used the language of that unknown civilization based on the parsed translation model.

However, since he wasn't used to the spelling and grammar, it inevitably sounded more archaic.

"Greetings to the unknown intelligent existence."

"We have noticed your message. You call yourselves 'Sisters Seeking the Echo'? Please elaborate on your identity and origins."

"Where do you come from? Why do you use this language for communication? Have you already discovered the existence of the Silver Rail?"

"This contact is merely a preliminary inquiry. We look forward to a peaceful exchange."

The wording was archaic and the grammar rigorous. Wang Yin "thoughtfully" used the same vocabulary as in the original signal for several keywords like "Sisters", "Echo", and "Silver Rail", and even attached the original spellings.

"Done." Wang Yin checked it over and clicked send.

"The signal has been sent." Wang Yin leaned back in his chair, looking at the "Send Successful" prompt on the workstation screen, and stretched his aching neck. "Next is just waiting. Depending on their reaction, we should be able to confirm quite a lot."

"By the way, what's the name of the project you applied for?" Dai Xing asked curiously. "It's not something like 'Contact and Language Model Verification for Unknown old english Variant Civilizations', is it?"

"Hey, not bad, you basically guessed it. It's called 'Relic Signal Protocol Reverse Engineering and Initial Contact Attempt'." Wang Yin pulled up the project approval document, which bore the electronic seal of the Technology Research and Development Department under the "Non-Emergency Exploration Project" category, with the priority marked as "Low".

"I checked the regulations; the restrictions on this kind of indirect contact are much looser than we thought. Going through the process and getting a name on it also makes it easier to call up data from some equipment. If there really is a major discovery, we can apply for a resource upgrade then."

Dai Xing nodded and didn't ask further.

The two of them tidied up their messy desks, packaged and archived the analysis data, and marked the timestamps and preliminary conclusions.

After finishing this, both felt exhausted and decided to rest first, returning tomorrow to see if there was a reply.

What they didn't know was that shortly after they sent that message written in the "restored" old english variant, a storm was triggered in that remote observation station in New Eden.