The probe sphere's screen was still lit, with the words hanging in mid-air: "Welcome home, Heir."
Chen Hao stared at it for three seconds, then plopped down on the ground.
"Home?" He grinned. "I can't even pay the community property management fees. Who would recognize me as their heir?"
Nana ignored him, retracted the probe ball with the robotic arm, and retrieved the data stream from before. Her system was still running, but its speed had noticeably slowed down—not because of lag, but because she was filtering information.
The cave was so quiet that you could hear the gears turning inside.
"Did you bump into the wall again?" she asked.
"I just touched it lightly," Chen Hao said, shrugging. "Who knew it would be so sensitive?"
“It’s not that it’s sensitive,” she said. “It’s that the wake-up mechanism is triggered a second time.”
"So it uses me as a key?"
"It's more like a screwdriver that can be inserted into a keyhole; the model is wrong, but it works out of the blue."
Chen Hao snorted: "So, are you planning to dismantle the lock or repair it now?"
"Let's see what the lock looks like first." She turned on the analyzer, and the low-frequency resonant wave was slowly released, sliding along the surface of the ring device.
Chen Hao propped himself up on his knees, walked to the sled, pulled out a shock-absorbing pad, and squatted down to reinforce the instrument bracket. His fingers were still a little numb, as if they had been bitten by static electricity.
"What exactly is this thing?" he asked as he worked on it. "A communicator? A generator? Or a Wi-Fi codebook left behind by humans from a previous era?"
“It cannot be classified at present,” Nana said. “Its shape is similar to a particle accelerator ring, but it does not have a magnetic field generator; its structure is similar to a quantum entanglement node, but no signal outlet can be found.”
"So you mean—it looks good but is useless?"
"It's also possible that we don't know how to use it."
Chen Hao stuffed the last mat in and clapped his hands. "Then you'd better go check the instruction manual. I don't want the whole mountain to explode the next time I touch it."
Nana retrieved the database and loaded a fragment of the "High Energy Physics Experiment Handbook". When the page popped up, the progress bar was stuck at 78%, and it took ten seconds to fully expand.
“Found it,” she said. “Project T-427, the interregional energy projection experiment.”
"It sounds like a science fiction movie title."
“It’s not fiction.” She pointed to a piece of blueprints. “This ring structure was used to receive energy from the upper ionosphere and transmit it to the shelter through an underground network.”
"Like wireless charging?"
"That's one way to understand it."
Chen Hao looked up at the mural. "That tall tower painted on the wall, is that a charging station?"
"To be precise, it's an energy harvesting tower," she said. "It uses atmospheric ionization to generate electricity, which is then stored or transferred through such devices."
So this thing is a charging station?
“It’s a node,” she corrected. “A terminal of a distributed energy network.”
Chen Hao walked around the circle once. "But it's not plugged in, how can it work?"
“That’s the problem.” She pointed to a tiny scratch at the bottom. “There’s a grounding symbol here, which means it needs some kind of medium to activate.”
"For example what?"
"Water, metallic conductors, or... biological tissue."
Chen Hao abruptly withdrew his hand. "Wait, you mean when I touched it just now, it was like electrifying the humanoid plug?"
"Your body temperature and weak bioelectricity may have created a temporary pathway."
"Then am I not a human battery?"
“There are no signs of energy depletion at the moment,” she said, “but I suggest you don’t touch it unnecessarily.”
"I told you I shouldn't have touched it." He muttered, taking two steps back. "Couldn't you guys make a button for these high-tech gadgets? Why do we have to use our hands to test them?"
Nana didn't reply, but instead activated the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to remotely scan the device. The data slowly emerged.
"The main material is a silicon-germanium composite crystal," she said. "It contains stable isotopic states and is almost impossible to form under natural conditions."
"Man-made?"
“It requires extreme pressure and precise electromagnetic fields for cultivation.” She pulled up a table of laboratory parameters. “Only the underground research center of the pre-era era has these conditions.”
Chen Hao whistled. "So this is a limited edition?"
“It’s not just a limited edition,” she said. “This crystal has self-healing properties and cannot be scratched by ordinary tools.”
She tried to bring the sampling needle close to the surface, but the needle bounced off as soon as it touched the surface.
"The hardness is more than three times that of existing alloy standards," she said. "Forced disassembly could damage the equipment."
"Then let's take a picture and bring it back," Chen Hao said. "Anyway, the model can be copied."
Nana began recording 3D modeling data while simultaneously acquiring frequency response curves. The entire process lasted twenty minutes, during which the rock wall vibrated slightly twice, nearly causing the instrument to tip over.
"This spot isn't very stable," Chen Hao said, supporting himself on the scaffolding. "Shouldn't we get out of here sooner rather than later?"
“The analysis isn’t finished yet,” she said. “There’s still one problem that hasn’t been solved.”
"What?"
"Why did you trigger it?"
Chen Hao was stunned. "Didn't I say I was just being impulsive?"
“It’s not a random event.” She pulled up the video playback. “The moment your palm touched it, a 0.3 millivolt bioelectrical signal pulse was generated.”
The image zooms in, showing the moment his fingertips touched the wall, a very thin stream of data seeped from his skin into the surface of the device.
"Is this normal?" he asked.
“Everyone’s skin generates minute electrical currents,” she said, “but the frequency is usually unstable.”
"Am I stable?"
"Your pulse wavelength happens to match the resonant frequency of the symbols in the seventh column of the third section of the mural."
"Isn't that the starting point?"
“It is also the only complete symbol region,” she said. “The frequency range it corresponds to falls exactly within the range of human heart rate fluctuations—60 to 100 beats per minute.”
Chen Hao looked down at his hand. "So it doesn't recognize identity, it recognizes heartbeat?"
“That’s a hypothesis,” she said. “Any intelligent agent with a biological rhythm can wake up the system.”
"So this isn't an access control system, it's a life detector?"
“It’s more like a screening mechanism,” she added. “It excludes inanimate objects and only responds to living people.”
Chen Hao was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed. "So those scientists thought two thousand years ago that robots might come knocking on doors in the future, but they didn't recognize machines?"
“The robot has no heartbeat,” she said. “And no metabolic fluctuations.”
"Then you'll never be able to get in the door?"
“Unless you simulate biological signals,” she said, “but I don’t have the authority to do that.”
"So you can only stand at the door and watch me go in?" Chen Hao raised an eyebrow. "So I've really become the main character?"
"You are the first human to successfully trigger this."
“A second human being,” he corrected. “Do you remember what you said in the last chapter?”
"I'm just stating the facts."
“But now I think…” He leaned against the rock wall, looking up at the circle, “they weren’t there to transmit a message.”
"What was the purpose of that?"
"It was to confirm that someone was still alive."
Nana turned to look at him.
“Think about it,” he said, counting on his fingers, “mining in a blizzard, finding footprints, finding a cave, seeing murals, touching a switch, hearing ‘Welcome home’—this whole process can’t go wrong at any point.”
"You mean, this is a survival test?"
"Pretty much," he said. "Like a game's level completion verification. You have to go through all the steps before the system finally acknowledges: 'Oh, someone actually made it this far.'"
“The logic holds true,” she said, “but the purpose remains unclear.”
“Perhaps the goal is simply to ‘know,’” he said, “to know that civilization has not been interrupted.”
Nana paused for a few seconds, and the system indicator light flashed green.
“Data acquisition is complete,” she said. “The 3D model, material composition, and functional inferences have all been archived.”
"Can we go now?"
“Evacuation is possible,” she said, “but it is recommended to retain the alert sensors.”
Chen Hao nodded and began packing up his tools. He put the shock-absorbing pad back into the sled and turned off the analyzer. The cave temperature remained constant, but he felt a little stuffy.
"Do you think it might already be daylight outside?" he asked.
"Based on the time calculation, there are still four hours until dawn."
"Will we have time to have breakfast?"
"The base canteen opens at seven o'clock," she said. "If you speed up..."
"I can't go on anymore." He gasped for breath. "I'm sure I'll be exhausted when I get back."
“You are 37 percent overweight,” she said. “I recommend reducing your carbohydrate intake.”
"Shut up." He rolled his eyes. "All I want to do right now is lie down."
After they finished packing, Chen Hao slung his backpack over his shoulder and took one last look at the ring. It stood there quietly, showing no reaction.
"Will it still make a sound?" he asked.
"Unless a matching signal is received again."
"Like, shall I touch it again?"
Repeated operations are not recommended.
“I know,” he waved his hand. “I was just asking.”
They walked towards the cave entrance, their footsteps echoing through the passage. A probe sphere hovered ahead, guiding the way, its blue light illuminating the slippery ground.
When they reached the fork in the road, Chen Hao stopped.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “I forgot something.”
"What?"
He turned to face the wall, raised his hand, and gently pressed it in the same spot.
The moment the palm landed, the entire rock wall trembled slightly.
Nana immediately turned around.
Chen Hao's fingers were still pressed against it, and the blood vessels under the skin throbbed.
drop--
A soft click came from deep within, like a lock loosening.
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