84: Chapter 84 The Deep Space Discovery of "Fuxi": Accelerated Signal Analysis
While Lin Mo was immersed in the creative passion of independently developing the "Quantum Long-Distance Sensor" and had just sent out the preliminary design, inside the "Tian Suan Center" in Xijiang, the "Fuxi" quantum computer, which carried the highest computational hopes of the Dragon Kingdom and even all of humanity, was focusing its vast quantum bit resources in an unprecedented direction—fully decoding the increasingly strange "beacon" signal coming from the edge of the "Oort Cloud".
In the past, for such extremely complex signals full of non-periodic and high-dimensional encryption features, even using global traditional supercomputing clusters, the analysis progress was like a snail crawling, often taking months to make even a negligible amount of progress. But after "Fuxi" intervened, the situation underwent an earth-shattering change.
The massive, near-infinitely superimposed quantum parallel computing capability allowed "Fuxi" to simultaneously simulate and verify hundreds of millions of signal decoding models and mathematical transformation paths. Those possibilities that, to a classical computer, would require sequential processing and a lifetime to attempt, were, for "Fuxi", just one of countless superimposed states processed at the same moment.
The team responsible for monitoring the analysis progress was holding its breath, staring at the data streams and progress bars on the main screen that were jumping at an unprecedented speed.
"Report! Based on the new quantum Fourier-Zernike transformation model, signal noise filtering efficiency has increased by 1200%! The core information carrier is highlighted!"
"Report! Detected multi-layered nested non-linear encryption structures, "Fuxi" is simultaneously attempting 7,300 cracking paths based on quantum random walks!"
"Report! The progress bar has jumped again! Overall resolution has reached 37%... 41%... 49%... breaking the 50% mark!"
A suppressed murmur echoed through the control center. What did breaking 50% mean? It meant they were no longer blind men touching an elephant, but had truly begun to touch the core framework of this alien signal!
Suddenly, the frantically scrolling data stream on the main screen paused abruptly, and a clear structural diagram was extracted, magnified, and presented before everyone.
It was a... star map!
It was not a star map familiar to humans, centered on the "Solar System", but a local star map centered on an unknown star located near the end of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. In this star map, a clear flight path with obvious traces of artificial planning was highlighted. It wound tortuously, cleverly utilizing the gravitational slingshot effects of several massive celestial bodies, and its final destination pointed startlingly at—the "Solar System"!
More precisely, it pointed to the "Kuiper Belt" at the edge of the "Solar System", highly consistent with the general direction from which the current "beacon" signal was coming!
"My God... is this a... flight path map?" an astronomer exclaimed, his face full of shock, "Whose... whose flight path map is it?!"
The answer seemed self-evident.
Immediately after, another information stream that had been successfully stripped and deciphered was displayed in the form of extremely concise, cold mathematical code. It did not look like language, but rather like machine instructions or status identifiers.
[ ...Coordinate confirmation... Flight path locked... Status: Cruising... Estimated arrival window: [Unparseable time unit]... Identification code: "reaper"... Repeat... Identification code: "reaper"... ]
""reaper" (reaper)?!"
This ominous word poured like ice water over the hearts of everyone who saw it. Combined with the clearly directed flight path map, a chilling inference formed almost instantly: this unknown existence known as the "reaper" was traveling along a pre-set route toward the "Solar System"! Was this signal its navigation "beacon"? Or... some kind of declaration?
""Fuxi" is currently performing reverse calibration and conversion on the time units of the 'estimated arrival window'..." the staff member's voice trembled slightly, "Preliminary... preliminary estimate, calculated in Earth time, the earliest time range for it to reach the "Kuiper Belt" is... within five to ten years!"
Five to ten years!
This timescale might be brief for cosmic travel, but for a human civilization not yet prepared to welcome any form of extraterrestrial contact, especially contact bearing the name "reaper", it was suffocatingly urgent!
"Immediately! Send all findings, at the highest security level, to the "Supreme Command Headquarters" and Elder Chen! At the same time, copy it to the "Zhulong" safe house!" Academician Zhao suppressed the stormy waves in his heart and ordered sternly. His palms were already soaked with cold sweat.
The message reached all parties instantly via the "Mozi Network".
In the capital, the lights of the "Supreme Command Headquarters" remained on throughout the night again.
At the "Guanghan Palace" base, Wang Yan looked at the emergency notification sent from Earth, looked up at the deep starry sky outside the base dome, which now seemed to hide a giant beast, and felt an unprecedented weight.
Inside the "Zhulong" safe house, Lin Mo had just recovered from the fatigue and excitement of his independent design when he received the astonishing discovery parsed by "Fuxi". Looking at the clear flight path on the holographic star map shooting toward the "Solar System" like an arrow, and that cold identification code "reaper", his eyes suddenly became as sharp as knives.
The "Quantum Long-Distance Sensor" he had designed with his own hands was still just a prototype, while the enemy (if they were indeed the enemy) had already clearly placed their itinerary and name on the table.
Time suddenly became incomparably precious. The tranquility of deep space had been broken, and the acceleration of signal analysis revealed not hope, but an unknown encounter currently counting down. "Fuxi"'s powerful computing capability allowed humanity to hear the approaching footsteps of crisis so clearly for the first time.