Chen Hao stared at the stone door, his throat bobbing. When Nana said there were energy fluctuations coming from inside, his first reaction was to run away, but now it felt like the door was waiting for him to push it.
“It flashed,” Nana suddenly said.
"Who flashed?" Chen Hao asked.
“The symbols on the door.” She raised her hand, and the light swept across the lintel. “The third set of circular patterns showed a faint glow thirty-seven seconds ago, lasting for 0.6 seconds.”
Karl immediately leaned closer: "Is it consistent with the timing of the energy pulse you detected?"
“It matches.” Nana nodded. “The cycle is once every eleven minutes.”
Susan squatted on the ground, her finger tracing the edge of the threshold: "If it's a system that starts on a schedule, it means it's still running some kind of program."
"So that means..." Chen Hao grinned, "not only was this place once inhabited, but it also has an alarm clock that turns on automatically?"
No one laughed.
But the atmosphere relaxed a bit.
“Record all the symbols first.” Carl took out his sampling knife and pulled out his portable terminal from his backpack. “We need to figure out if there’s a pattern to these patterns.”
Chen Hao plopped down and pulled out a charcoal pencil and a notebook: "I'll trace the left side, you trace the right side, and Nana will take photos for archiving."
“No need.” Nana had already activated the scanning mode. “I’ll use the ancient script comparison module in the knowledge base and filter based on geographical features. I’ll prioritize excluding non-human civilization systems.”
"You still remember so many outdated words?" Chen Hao said as he drew.
“My database contains 327 known models of lost language structures from Earth’s history,” she said. “As long as these symbols conform to any kind of evolutionary logic, they can be matched.”
"What if they were written by aliens?" Chen Hao looked up.
“Based on current planetary geological evolution data and biological trace analysis, the origin path of intelligent life here is similar to that of Earth,” Nana said calmly. “Furthermore, the building materials contain titanium-iron mixtures, and the processing methods are close to the level of human technology in the late Neolithic period. The possibility of extraterrestrial construction is less than 3.2 percent.”
"Couldn't you just say 'I don't think so'?" Chen Hao sighed. "You have to give a percentage to scare people."
Susan didn't speak, her eyes fixed on a row of short scribe lines in the corner. The lines, varying in length, resembled some kind of counting marker.
“These lines…” she gestured to her arm, “are somewhat similar to human proportions. The longest one roughly corresponds to the distance from the feet to the chest.”
Karl glanced at it and said, "It could be a standard unit of measurement. Ancient architecture often used body parts as a basis for measurement."
“Then use it as a ruler.” Chen Hao casually drew a little figure on the paper and marked a few lines. “If we find any mechanisms later, we can figure out where to press them.”
Nana's screen suddenly flickered.
“A synchronization signal has been detected,” she said. “After that pulse ended, there was a low-frequency resonance feedback inside the wall, pointing towards the right rock wall.”
"Is something inside responding?" Susan stood up.
"It's more like a system self-check," Nana adjusted her tone, "similar to the handshake protocol after an electronic device restarts."
“Then could you…pretend you are that device?” Carl asked.
“We can try simulating signal input.” She paused for a second, “but we need to build the communication logic based on the deciphered symbol sequences.”
"So I still have to understand the words first?" Chen Hao scratched his head.
"To be precise, it is about finding the first recognizable semantic unit."
In layman's terms, it means recognizing a word.
"correct."
“Let’s start with the simplest ones.” Chen Hao stood up and walked to the wall. “Like ‘water,’ ‘fire,’ or ‘eat.’”
He pointed to a wavy engraving: "Doesn't this look like flowing water?"
“It looks very similar.” Susan approached. “And look at the combination of the semicircle and the vertical line next to it, it looks a bit like a well opening with a rope.”
Carl's eyes lit up: "If that's the case, maybe the whole wall is about survival techniques."
Nana immediately brought up the image analysis interface, set the two sets of symbols as keywords, and began to associate them with the surrounding patterns.
Five minutes later, a matching result popped up on the screen.
Water purification begins at the Stone Heart Well, drawing water from underground sources and filtering it three times before it becomes drinkable.
"It's working!" Karl's voice changed. "It's a complete sentence! The grammar is clear, and it has all the verbs and nouns!"
“The Well of Stone Heart?” Chen Hao read it aloud. “It sounds like some kind of core facility.”
“The key is ‘triple filtration’,” Carl exclaimed excitedly. “This is a very mature water purification concept that has undergone at least three generations of technological iteration. The person who could write this sentence is not from a primitive tribe.”
“In other words…” Susan looked around, “there used to be stable settlements here, or even long-term communities.”
Nana continued scanning other areas and quickly identified another set of similar structures.
The heat source is hidden underground, burning invisible gases to drive the machine.
"An invisible gas?" Chen Hao frowned. "Marsh gas? Natural gas?"
“The possibility is extremely high,” Nana said. “Combined with the geothermal anomalies detected previously, this civilization may have already mastered rudimentary energy extraction technology.”
“My God,” Karl muttered, “this isn’t a relic, it’s a technical manual.”
"Then haven't we struck gold?" Chen Hao slapped his thigh. "If we do as instructed, we won't need to boil water, we won't need to burn wood for heating, and we can save fuel."
“The prerequisite is to find physical evidence,” Susan said calmly. “Written evidence alone is not enough; we need to see the corresponding device or structure.”
“Then let’s search.” Carl put away his terminal. “Start from where we are and search by functional area.”
They split up. Nana continued scanning along the main wall, Carl checked the load-bearing structure of the ground, Susan observed the ventilation, and Chen Hao walked around the corners, tapping the stones as he went.
"You can pinpoint the location by sound," he said. "Hollow places sound different when you tap them."
The sound changed when he tapped the third stone slab.
"Wait a minute." He crouched down, his fingers digging into the edge of the crack. "This piece seems to be movable."
Susan immediately came to help. With a push from the two of them, the stone slab slowly slid open, revealing a narrow passage behind it.
The passage was short, and at the end was a secret room.
The four men went inside with flashlights.
Inside the room were several sealed earthenware jars, a stone tablet engraved with formulas stood against the wall, and in the corner were several metal tools with strange shapes, like parts of some kind of manual pump.
Nana stepped forward to scan.
"The earthenware jar contains plant seeds of twelve kinds, including high-protein beans and drought-resistant grains, and they are well preserved."
"The inscription on the stone tablet relates to fluid pressure conversion and simple piston structure design."
"The metal tool prototype has basic mechanical transmission functions, presumably for lifting water or supplying energy."
“These are all real,” Carl said, his voice trembling. “They’re not just for show; they are actual, usable technological prototypes.”
“And it’s so well preserved.” Susan picked up a ceramic lid. “There are almost no signs of dampness, which means the room has been in a dry and sealed state for a long time.”
“The mechanism is ingeniously designed.” Nana pointed to a groove at the entrance. “The stone slab we just pushed triggered the balance system. It will only open if the angle of force is correct.”
"In other words..." Chen Hao chuckled, "we were lucky; we just happened to figure out the right way to open the door."
“It’s not luck,” Nana said. “It’s that the point of application you chose happened to fall within the margin of error allowed by the original design.”
"Are you trying to dampen my spirits?"
Carl had already begun taking photos and documentation, while Susan carefully placed the seed samples into a sealed bag. Chen Hao, staring at the stone tablet, suddenly blurted out:
"Do you think... we can take these things back with us?"
“Of course we should bring them.” Karl said without looking up. “Especially these formulas. Once we figure out the basic principles, we can build equipment suitable for the base.”
"Pay attention to shock protection and temperature control during transportation," Nana added. "It is recommended to use double-layer packaging and prioritize carrying information carriers."
"Then let's record the entire contents of the stone tablet first." Chen Hao took out his terminal. "I'll film it, and you guys keep an eye out for anything I missed."
He had just raised the device when the symbol on the wall suddenly flashed again.
There was more than one dish this time.
The three sets of circular patterns lit up in sequence, like a heartbeat, flashing once and then flashing again.
"The energy pulse has arrived earlier." Nana quickly checked the data. "The original cycle was eleven minutes, but now it has been shortened to nine minutes and forty seconds."
"Why?" Susan asked.
“The system response frequency is increasing.” Nana stared at the screen. “It’s probably because we’ve entered the core area, triggering a higher-level activation procedure.”
"Could something be about to be activated?" Chen Hao took a half step back.
“There are no danger warnings at the moment,” she said, “but we recommend speeding up the data collection process.”
Carl hurried to continue filming, while Susan sealed the last batch of seeds. Chen Hao went around to the back of the stone tablet to check for any missed engravings.
The ground trembled slightly as soon as his hand touched the monument.
It wasn't shaking, but a rhythmic vibration coming from deep within.
Thump.
It's like there's a machine underneath that's starting to turn.
“Did you hear that?” he said.
The others stopped what they were doing.
Another sound.
Thump.
"The power system... is awake," Nana whispered.
Chen Hao swallowed hard and looked up at the doorway.
The narrow path was pitch black; the flashlights that had been on just moments before had gone out.
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