The notification box on the screen was still lit up, and the words "[82% matching rate of similar coding structure found]" were slightly white in the dim light.
Chen Hao stared at the line of text for three seconds, then suddenly slammed his hand on the table: "Is this guy out of his mind? He recognizes it but won't pass?"
No one laughed.
Nana's fingers hovered over the keyboard, motionless and silent. She had just paused the parsing program, and system resources were still slowly decreasing. That fleeting moment of hope was like a thin thread, stretched too taut for anyone to dare pull.
Susan pulled a pen from her toolbox, drew a circle on her notebook, then crossed it out. She looked up and said, "We've been trying to crack it, but maybe... we don't necessarily have to."
Karl looked up, his brow furrowed: "How can we activate it without cracking it?"
“We can lie to it,” Susan said, “to make it think we’re right.”
Chen Hao grinned: "Are you trying to impersonate an alien?"
“The system authentication relies on the response format,” Nana suddenly said. “If the response is correct, it will accept it regardless of who sent it.”
"So that means—" Chen Hao slapped his thigh, "we don't need to be top students, we just need to know how to copy homework?"
Carl shook his head: "The problem is we don't know what the standard answer looks like."
“But it’s already shown it to us three times.” Nana pulled up the log records, switching the screen to the startup attempt from the early morning of the day before yesterday. Three failures, each time rejected. But when she compared the return codes after the three rejections, she found that the redundant data at the end was exactly the same.
“This isn’t randomly generated,” she said. “It’s fixed.”
Susan leaned closer to look: "So every time it says 'no,' it's actually using the same phrase?"
“Yes.” Nana nodded. “It’s like an automatic response. And this kind of fixed response often means the system is waiting for human intervention.”
Chen Hao scratched his head: "You mean... it's stuck, waiting for someone to click 'confirm'?"
"Possibly."
Carl paused for a few seconds: "Then let's create a 'certain'."
The air suddenly came alive.
Chen Hao stood up and walked around, nearly kicking over the parts box at his feet. "Fine, let's send a fake signal then! At worst, it'll just yell at us again."
“It’s not as simple as sending a message.” Carl opened his notebook. “We need to create a simulation environment so that the system thinks we’re interacting normally.”
“But our equipment doesn’t have enough computing power,” Susan reminded us. “Last time we ran the complete decryption process, the monitoring frequency was reduced.”
“Then don’t run the full version,” Carl said. “Make a minimal model that only handles the authentication process.”
"What should we use to make it?"
“Disassemble the communication module.” He pointed to the broken repeater in the corner. “The chip is still usable, and the power supply is stable. It should be able to assemble a low-power simulator.”
“I’ll take it apart.” Chen Hao rolled up his sleeves. “Anyway, I can’t read the blueprints, so I’m better suited to doing some manual labor.”
Nana has already started writing the script. She embedded the code that matched 82% of the time and added error-correction instructions. "As long as it recognizes a similar structure, it will lower the verification level."
“What about the risks?” Susan asked.
"The most likely scenario is that the encrypted packet will be locked," Carl said. "Then we won't even be able to analyze it."
The room fell silent for a moment.
“We can’t stop.” Susan closed her notebook. “Every extra day we wait, the construction progress is delayed. If the accommodations are built, but the lights can’t be turned on and the water can’t be boiled, what’s the difference between that and camping in the wilderness?”
Chen Hao chuckled: "At least we can still see the stars."
No one responded.
But they all knew they couldn't wait any longer.
Carl started drawing the circuit diagram, Nana debugged the simulation program, and Susan checked whether the main system interface could be temporarily disconnected. Chen Hao squatted next to the repeater, inserted a screwdriver into the gap in the casing, and pried it open with a click.
"This broken machine is older than me, isn't it?" he muttered, pulling out a chip and holding it up to the light. "There's even dust on it."
"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up." Karl didn't even look up.
Two hours later, the simulator was set up.
A crooked box, connected to several exposed wires, was plugged into a spare port on the side of the control panel. A connection prompt popped up on the screen, and Nana clicked "confirm."
"What do we do now?" Chen Hao sat down to the side with the welding torch. "Wait for it to heal on its own?"
"Let's get it working." Nana pressed Enter to run the simulation program.
The progress bar slowly climbed, and after the number jumped a few times, it stopped at 73%.
"Is it stuck?" Chen Hao peeked out.
“Normal.” Carl stared at the voltmeter. “Low power mode is slow to begin with.”
A few minutes later, the progress jumped to 91%, and then it skipped directly to completion.
The screen flickered the next second.
A new notification appears: [Authentication successful, temporary connection established]
Chen Hao jumped up from his chair: "It really worked?!"
Nana quickly switched the interface to check the welding torch status. The power indicator light, which was originally gray, was now flashing, indicating that it was starting to charge.
“It’s awake,” she said.
Susan immediately grabbed the testing device and rushed to the edge of the cable tray, pressing it against the main power supply node. The reading jumped from zero to 3.2, stabilizing.
"There's output!" she shouted, turning around. "Voltage is normal!"
Carl didn't move; he stared at the processor indicator light deep inside the console. Where there had been no movement, a green dot flickered faintly, then flickered again.
"The core module... has responded." His voice was a little hoarse.
Chen Hao grabbed the welding torch and pressed the switch.
"Sizzle—"
Blue-white flames shot out, burning steadily.
He spun around in place, holding the welding torch: "I'm Thor now!"
Nobody stopped him from being silly.
Nana quickly recorded the data, her fingers flying across the keyboard. She saved this successful handshake as a template, ready to extend it to other devices.
“The next step is the water supply system,” she said. “As long as the filtration module can be activated, we will be able to use purified water.”
"Don't be greedy," Karl cautioned. "This is a breakthrough at a single point, but it doesn't mean the entire agreement can be bypassed."
“I know,” Nana nodded, “but we already have the shape of a key.”
Susan had already marked the locations on the wall where rewiring was needed. She circled one in red: "An insulation layer must be added here, otherwise signal interference will cause disconnections."
"I'll do the welding." Chen Hao raised the welding torch. "I'll make sure it's done in one go."
"You just said you're clumsy with your hands."
“That was before,” he said, puffing out his chest. “Now I am someone chosen by technology.”
Carl lowered his head to revise the circuit diagram, the pen scratching softly across the paper. He added the new certification process to the design, a slight smile unconsciously playing on his lips.
Nana activated the holographic projector and lit up the equipment list in the research area one by one. Welding torches, lighting units, temperature control valves... although most were still dark, five had already turned green.
“We can wake them up one by one,” she said.
“As long as we don’t crash the system,” Carl said. “We might not be so lucky next time.”
"Then let's not try a second time." Chen Hao put the welding torch on the table. "Can't we just get it done the first time?"
Susan came back, holding a spare chip in her hand: "There are only three left in stock. If there's another problem, we won't even have a chance to repair it."
“Then be careful.” Nana opened the emulator in the background. “I’ll lower the response latency to reduce system load.”
Carl suddenly looked up: "Wait."
"how?"
He pointed to the timestamp on the screen: "Have you noticed? The time for each successful authentication is always a whole minute and a whole second."
Nana zoomed in on the record: "Indeed. The first time was 14:00:00, the second time was 16:00:00, and this time it's also 18:00:00."
“It’s not a coincidence,” Carl said. “It refreshes the verification status periodically.”
"Does that mean...we can only connect on the hour?"
"Or, they're only willing to talk to us on the hour."
Chen Hao's eyes widened: "So this system has obsessive-compulsive disorder?"
"It's more likely an energy-saving mechanism," Nana speculated. "It only opens low-privilege channels during fixed periods."
Susan immediately pulled out her work schedule: "Then we'll operate on the hour. The next hour is 8:00, so there are still forty minutes left."
“That’s enough.” Carl closed his laptop. “Make a copy of the emulator and prepare to connect two devices simultaneously.”
"I'll go prepare the water purifier's connection." Susan turned and walked towards the equipment room.
Nana began debugging the second response script. Chen Hao sat beside her, turning the switch on the welding torch, listening to the slight hum of the current.
"You mean..." he suddenly began, "when the aliens were developing this system, were there also a bunch of people gathered here, waiting to go online on the hour?"
Carl glanced at him: "They're probably complaining about the bad signal too."
Chen Hao laughed: "Then we can be considered to have achieved cross-civilizational resonance."
Nana typed the last line of code and pressed save.
The countdown on the screen shows: 19:58:37
All four of them stopped what they were doing.
She moved the mouse over the execute button, her finger hovering over it.
Chen Hao placed the welding torch on the table and sat up straight.
Carl took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on.
Susan stood at the door, holding the testing device in her hand, neither coming in nor leaving.
The countdown reached 19:59:59
Nana pressed Enter.
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