To be honest, when he saw the handwriting on the table, Gawain was not as calm as he appeared - although he had said a few minutes ago that the goddess of magic had to thank him, he really didn't expect the other party to really thank him......

Is this the "character" of the goddess of magic? It feels so different from Amon or Naretir-Duvalt......

But even if there were a lot of messy thoughts in his heart, he still controlled the change in his expression very well, after all, there were several people in the room, and he still had to maintain his majestic personality on this occasion.

"Ancestor," Hettie, noticing Gawain's movements on the desk, couldn't help but ask curiously, "What's going on...... Yes? What's wrong with the table? ”

Gawain glanced down at the desktop, the new desk that had not been replaced for a long time was first engraved by the goddess of magic to thank you, and then he erased a layer by him, leaving a big hole in the middle, as the emperor's desk seemed to be a bad thing - this made him feel a little pity: "Just now...... There are mosquitoes. ”

The three archons present were dumbfounded: "......"

This is obviously not easy to believe, but since the ancestors/His Majesty the Emperor said that there are mosquitoes...... That is, there are really mosquitoes.

"Ahem, turn around and ...... this table" Gawain coughed dryly, wanting to end this awkward topic as soon as possible, "Well, let's change this table." ”

"Yes...... Ancestor," Hetty nodded, and then hurried to the end of the conversation as Gawain had indicated, "What about your plans to go to Talrond......"

"That's exactly what I'm going to say," Gawain nodded immediately and picked up Hetty's words, "According to the agreement I made with the 'representative' of the Talrond side, after the 'burial' of the Goddess of Magic, it's almost time for me to leave - not immediately, of course, we can still prepare, but after all, it is something that has been promised, and I don't plan to delay too much." ”

"You really decided to go to that ...... The mysterious Talrond? Although Bai Dewen knew that this was a matter that had already been decided, he couldn't help but ask more.

"Don't be so nervous - Tarlund is not a god or a hell, it's just another country on the same planet," Gawain said unhurriedly, "The dragons are indeed a mysterious race, but they are also a civilization that can communicate, and we can officially establish diplomatic relations with the Holy Dragon Principality, so it is the right mindset to think of Tallrond as a 'country'." ”

Standing next to him, Victoria, whose face did not change with no expression, broke the silence: "In the North, there have been many legends about 'dragons' since ancient times, although most of them are nonsense, but the legends themselves can reflect a lot of information - dragons are a mysterious race, but in fact they have been active in the Loren continent and on the border of human civilization, and they have a mysterious purpose, and we don't know anything about it...... Your trip to Tallund may help humanity understand what the dragons are trying to do, but be prepared for the risks. ”

"Of course," Gawain nodded slightly, then looked at Victoria's eyes as clear and indifferent as ice crystals, "Regarding this trip to Talrond, the internal affairs of the empire have basically been arranged, and I believe that you will take care of the daily affairs of state during my temporary absence, and other than that...... I have a special task for you. ”

Victoria immediately straightened up, a hint of solemnity appeared on her face: "You please command." ”

"Don't be so nervous," Gawain gestured, "I just want you to make sure that all of the Magic Web Hub Towers in the North are in the best possible condition, and adjust all the Crystal Arrays on the North Coast so that they listen for signals from the North Pole with the highest sensitivity - in the meantime, I'll bring a set of state-of-the-art Magic Web Terminals to keep in touch with the North Coast." ”

"How do you plan to maintain ties with the Empire?" Victoria frowned slightly, "...... IMHO, this shouldn't be feasible, it completely exceeds the communication distance of the existing magic web hub, and there is still a very high intensity of interference in the vast ocean, not to mention a storm in between......"

"Of course I know," Gawain interrupted, "I want to take this opportunity to collect data on the magic network hub and the magic interference in the ocean area, especially the latter, this part of the data is very useful, and it is also what we are in need of now." The offshore route to the Mossy Forest on the North Harbor side has begun trial operation, but the progress of data collection in the far sea has been slow, and it is difficult for our current technology to collect the magic parameters beyond the Violet Strait - it just so happens that the Dragons have provided us with a 'free ride' this time. ”

"I see...... Then I see," Victoria bowed her head, "I'll do what you tell me to do." ”

"Hmm. As for my connection with the country, you don't have to worry about that," Gawain nodded, and continued, "The dragons have the technology to maintain communication across the Endless Sea, and I will leave a 'Mithril Ring' for Heti to keep when the time comes, and use it to contact me in case of special circumstances." ”

Then he discussed some details of the preparations with Hetty and the other three, and it was the last time to confirm the arrangements for domestic affairs before leaving, and after the discussion was over, Hetty exhaled slightly, and shook his head helplessly: "No matter how you arrange, I always feel that you are on a hasty trip......"

Gawain smiled: "It's really in a hurry, but there won't be too many things in the world that will develop the way we expect." ”

Hetty nodded helplessly, but soon asked like an overly worried housekeeper, "So what about the entourage of this trip...... Are you really sure you only bring Amber and Veronica? ”

"Shall I take an entire Praetorian Guard with me as a 'guest'?" Gawain glanced helplessly at Hetty, who was obviously a little too nervous, "I was invited to Tarlund as a guest, not to attack the Dragon Nation or to explore the Dragon Cave in the past, too many entourages will not come in handy, so it is enough to bring Amber and Veronica - Amber is clever and good at spending, and Veronica is more aware of God's affairs, which is just right for me." ”

Hetty thought for a moment, and finally bowed his head and said, "Since this is what you mean......"

"We can leave that at that," Gawain waved his hand, and then his face turned serious, "There's a report from Solinburg today, and I'm going to discuss it with you." ”

"Solimburg?" Hettie gave a puzzled look, but almost instantly she reacted, and a faint guess emerged, "Is it about the mysterious signal that I heard earlier?" ”

"That's right—that mysterious signal," Gawain grimaced, reaching out to pull out a copy of some of the sorted documents next to him, "Many scholars in the field of cryptography and writing have been studying for a long time and have not been able to find clues in those tremors of unknown significance, but Bertila has taken a different path, and she seems to have found some kind of pattern in those tremors......"

As soon as his words fell, the three archons on the scene leaned over, and even Victoria, who was almost expressionless, had a faint look of curiosity on his face, obviously, it was not only those experts and scholars who were hooked by the mysterious signal.

Gawain didn't deliberately antagonize anyone, he simply unfolded the sorted document, pulled the most important page out of the clip, turned it around, put it on the table, and pushed it in front of Hetty and the others.

"It's ...... What the? Patrick Franklin looked at the contents of the paper in bewilderment, and he saw a strange picture of a square made up of a series of small dots, and next to the square was a short diagonal line that seemed to be unfinished—the line was also made up of a series of small dots. In the blank space next to the picture, you can see some ripple legends of tremors, indicating the tremor period, tremor category, and so on.

Not only Patrick, but Hetty and Victoria were obviously just as confused after seeing this.

"This is what Bertilla 'restores' from those signals, an incomplete picture," Gawain said, briefly explaining the "technical idea" mentioned in the document: "She transforms the tremor directly into the picture, using a 'rule of interpretation' that no one has ever thought of, and she treats the tremor and the white noise as dots and blanks, respectively, and outlines them in the clock order of the signal itself......"

Bertila's method was not complicated, and the people on the scene were all clever people who were good at mathematical and technical deductions (except for Amber, who was standing next to the window), so Gawain only explained a few words, and the three archons fully understood the connection between the picture and the mysterious signal.

Hetty's eyes couldn't help but widen, and she looked at the picture with an incredulous gaze: "That's it...... It's that simple? The essence of this signal turned out to be a picture?! ”

"It's incredible, but I'm afraid it's the truth," said Bodwin thoughtfully, "and it's impossible to get such a neat picture from random testing, and the perfect shape of this square shows that Bertila is thinking correctly—there's a picture hidden in that signal, and that's really ...... Interesting. ”

"But what's the point of this painting?" Hetty frowned, "And who did this kind of thing?" ”

"It's obviously incomplete, and there are unfinished lines next to it, and Bertila thinks we've only received a small part of the complete signal, and thinks that the signals we've received several times should be different 'segments'—it's a pity that the previous two times were not clear enough or not recorded in time, so the only sample she could use for analysis was the one she received on the 32nd of this month," Gawain said casually, "and based on what has been recorded and analyzed so far, Berthira speculated that the full form of the drawing might be some kind of design drawing...... Of course, this speculation is only for reference, and there are too many subjective assumptions in it. ”

Drawings...... It's a subjective argument, but it's quite attractive," he said, shaking his head, "Whatever it is, it's clearly the work of an intelligent being...... When sending such a signal, the sender must have a purpose, and the other party wants to convey some kind of information to us...... Or to any one of the unspecified targets, one that has the ability to collect and translate that information......"

"That's my opinion," Gawain said, "I think it's very likely that this signal is 'broadcasting' non-stop, it's going on, it's constantly posting this 'drawing', and the reason why we only receive a few fragments of it once in a while is probably because our Magic Net Crystal Array is not specifically designed to receive this thing - it's all just a coincidence."

"That's what I'm going to say to you: we have to find a way to reproduce this 'coincidence' in a stable way.

"These signals are unusual, and I'm sure you can feel that, too. Whether it is for academic research or to eliminate the hidden dangers of the magic network's communication system, it is necessary for us to investigate the secrets behind these signals, and for this reason, I intend to make the capture, tracking and research of these signals a formal and long-term project, and carry out planned continuous listening within the scope of the magic network.

"This project is called the 'Listening' program.

"So far, we didn't know where to start, so I asked Bertila to find all the operating parameters of the main hub of Solin when it captured the signal, as well as the weather, magnetic field, and magical environment data at that time. There may be many 'coincidental factors' that caused the main hub of Thorin to receive the signal, which may be related to the direction or combination pattern of the crystal array at that time, it may be related to the working state of the magic network in the Thorin area at that time, and it may even be related to the weather and wind direction at that time.

"Without affecting the daily operation of the Imperial Demon Net, let the hubs and nodes with spare power in various places adjust to the operating state as close as possible to the 'Thorin Standard Parameters', and see if we can detect anything, even if we don't find anything at that time, we have at least conducted a running test of the entire Demon Net."

Gawain said as he looked at Victoria, who was listening intently.

"Victoria, the north is the key testing area - because the first anomalous signal was received at Wintercastle. Even though you've only received it once, and the signal is extremely poor, we still have reason to suspect that Winterhold's environment may be just right to listen for this anomalous signal, so you need to be careful about this. ”

Victoria immediately took the order: "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

Gawain nodded, he exhaled, his gaze swept over the three people in front of the desk, and then he reached out and took out three identical documents from the drawer under the desk and placed them in front of Hetty and the others.

"This is a copy of the Solimburg report, and it also includes more details of the 'Listening Project' and the 'standard parameters' that Bertila has put together, so you can get the technicians in there and take a good look at it. While I'm away for a while, you can begin to prepare for this project.

"So let's talk about it today, if there is nothing else, go about your own business.

"The main process of the 'divine burial' has ended, but there is still a lot of finishing work before the sun sets, and this aspect is left to Heti."

The three archons took orders and turned to leave, but just as Victoria was about to walk out of the room, Gawain suddenly stopped her again.

"Victoria, wait a minute."