"The storage unit is in even worse condition than I expected. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info" Spred's face was not very good as it appeared on the screen, "The damage to the inner tank is worse than the outer shell, almost half of it is gone, and the remaining parts are fused with the neutron matter stored inside the device. ”

"Doesn't that mean that the neutron matter in it is no longer usable?" Zhou Xin asked in extreme disappointment. Anyone who knows that they have spent so much time finding something that still doesn't work is going to be disappointing.

"Even if it works, it's not enough." Spred explained with a little reluctance, "There is less than a kilogram of neutron matter stored in the device. Who knew that with such a small thing, the Kazlan people would build such a huge device to store it. ”

"In other words, if you find it, you don't find it." Zhou Xin's expression was even more disappointed, and then he whispered to himself, "I also told Demancha that we were going to leave. ”

"Not really." Spred shook his head, "Although the amount of neutron matter is a little less, it cannot form a self-consistent stable aggregate. But according to my estimates, these quantities of neutron matter are enough to support a short-range jump of no more than three light-years. Of course, only once. After a pause, he added, "I'll try to separate the neutron matter from the mixture as much as possible, even if we can't find more neutron matter in the future." ”

Nodding, Zhou Xin said: "If that's the case, then it's best, the Atlanteans and I are not as familiar with neutron matter as you are, and this matter can only be handed over to you." ”

"Don't worry, even I won't be at ease if this matter is handed over to you." Spred agreed, "However, if you want to get neutron matter from the mixture, the ship currently lacks the necessary separation equipment, and this needs your support." ”

"No problem, just let the robot controlled by Atlas help you. I'll send in some engineering robots to help. Zhou Xin said.

It took nearly half a month for Spred to finally separate the neutron matter from the recovered device. Although he had tried his best to find a way, he was able to isolate less than 500 grams of neutron matter from the twisted inner tank of the device. As a result, the effective transition distance he had calculated was significantly reduced, from three light-years to less than one-light-year. This made Zhou Xin a lot less selective in the targets they could go to.

Of course, during this time, the planet's probes did not give up on continuing their exploration in the territory of Kazran. However, after months of investigation, there is not much left of the unexplored area at all, and all that remains is remote. Therefore, the probe's investigation still found nothing, and Zhou Xin and they were once again in an impasse.

However, after taking a closer look at the badly damaged storage device, Spred came up with another idea. He believes that there may be other storage sites of neutron material in Kazlan, but the radiation emitted by the neutron material is blocked by the shell of the storage device, so that the detector cannot find it. In this regard, he did not have any good solutions, but could only suggest that Zhou Xin find a way to obtain this information from within the Kazlan people.

However, in the attack of the Eun, the losses in Kazlan were not insignificant. Even the database was lost, and Atlas spent a lot of time searching for clues in the Kazlan communication network, even rummaging through the database that had not been used for more than a decade, and finally only analyzed a few suspected locations where neutron matter had been stored. However, the investigation has reached this point, even if it is only a suspected clue, it can only be used as a dead horse doctor. Anyway, the end result didn't disappoint. Of the seven locations analyzed by Atlas, the probe found a storage unit in a warehouse facility that had not been used for several years, already covered in a thick layer of dust. I don't know if it was forgotten or for some other reason, but the storage device still has a little more than a kilogram of neutron matter intact. Although the quantity is far from reaching Zhou Xin's needs, this undoubtedly gives everyone a good signal. But it's just a signal. Next, Zhou Xin's good luck seems to have come to an end. Atlas searched the database of the Kazlans, and even searched the database within the Eun Empire, but did not find any clues related to neutron matter.

Time flies, and now it is the sixteenth day that Zhou Xin and the others have found the broken storage device, and the probe has almost turned the entire northern continent upside down, but it still has gained very little. Zhou Xin and the others have even begun to discuss whether to let the probe give up the search operation. Based on the amount of neutron matter recovered so far, they have already delineated the next few possible targets within the reach of the jump engine. According to Dart's idea, they had been here long enough that all the search methods they could use had been used. Even if there are indeed some neutron substances in Kazran, what can be found has already been found, and what cannot be found can not be found no matter how much you look for it, and it is not very meaningful to continue to stay here, even Zhou Xin's heart has a thought. It's not just a matter of how long they've stayed here, Zhou Xin has a hint of inexplicable discomfort with the two civilizations on this planet. If it weren't for the fact that the Republic of Kazlan had the neutron matter they desperately needed, Zhou Xin would have ordered the Voyager to leave here long ago.

However, everything was so unexpected. Just after Zhou Xin repeatedly confirmed to everyone involved in the investigation of the Northern Continent, even Atlas and the Voyager, that there was nothing missing from their investigation, Atlas suddenly reported a message to Zhou Xin.

"Brother Captain! Brother Captain! At that time, Zhou Xin was thinking about whether to give everyone an order to prepare to leave here, when Atlas's voice rang in his ears.

"What's wrong? Anything new? Zhou Xin's train of thought was disrupted all of a sudden, and when he heard the excited voice of the little girl, he subconsciously thought that something good was happening. Although the idea of leaving had already popped up in everyone's hearts, Zhou Xin still did not withdraw the probes on the planet, because he still held out the hope that he would be able to make discoveries in the last few days. Hearing Atlas's tone, he immediately thought of this direction.

However, the little girl's answer made him slightly stunned, "Brother Captain! Box! The box has been opened! After saying this, her face showed a look of asking for praise.

"Chests? What box? Zhou Xin didn't react to what Atlas was talking about at all, he looked at the little girl on the screen blankly.

"It's the box, the one with the complicated combination lock we found on the fusiform device at the beginning." Atlas on the screen waved his hands excitedly and reminded, "The combination lock on it has been unlocked." ”

Even with Atlas's reminder, it still took Zhou Xin a moment to remember the box she was talking about. He couldn't be blamed for that, after all, it had been more than half a year since they found the box, and no one had mentioned it in all this time. No matter how impressive the impression was at first, so many things that happened in the past six months were enough to make Zhou Xin forget about that box.

"The box is open? Very good, well done. Zhou Xin, who knew the news, was not as excited as usual. After being bombarded with unexpected news from the planet over the past few months, he didn't think there was much more shocking news to be hidden in a box. But knowing Atlas's temper, he still praised the little girl, and then asked about the box while recalling, "I remember you didn't say that the combination lock on the box is very complicated?" How did you open it? ”

"At that time, people just didn't know much about Kazran's writing." Atlas explained.

"In other words, after understanding it, the cracking of the combination lock becomes very simple?" Dart asked curiously, and after Zhou Xin, he also remembered the box, "No, I remember you didn't mention before that you didn't even know the number of digits of the password?" Even if you understand Kazran's text, does this help in cracking the code? ”

"It's still a little bit." The little girl scratched her head in embarrassment, "Anyway, if the number of digits in the password is particularly long, they won't take a long string of garbled characters as the password, so that anyone can remember it." I must be looking for a sentence with a certain meaning as a password. ”

"It's not for nothing. So you found that phrase? Zhou Xin asked curiously, "Where did you find it?" What exactly is a password? ”

"This—" replied with an embarrassed look on the little girl's face, and she blushed slightly, "They—they haven't found any passwords." ”

"Didn't find the password? So how did you open that box? Hearing Atlas's answer, Zhou Xin was quite surprised.

"Actually, that box doesn't have a password at all." The little girl replied with a wry smile. Then, before Zhou Xin asked, she explained: "In the first two months of finding the box, people were thinking about what the password to open the box was. Even people looked at all the objects with text in the fusiform device they found several times, trying to find clues to the code, but still found nothing. Later, I saw that it was hopeless to unlock the code, so I sealed the box in the warehouse. ”

"However, during this time, Brother Captain, don't you plan to leave, and people just thought of that box. Anyway, we don't know how to open it properly, and that box won't be of much use to us after leaving. So people plan to violently dismantle it to see what is inside, even if the things stored inside are destroyed, then at least people can know what the structure inside the box is, and maybe they can analyze what the password is that has plagued people for so long. ”

"So you took the box apart with that in mind?" Zhou Xin asked with a strange expression.

"That's right." The little girl nodded, then said, "The easiest thing to remove from that bulky lockbox is the panel where you enter the password." In the process of disassembling the panel, people feel that something is not quite right, and the whole process of disassembly does not seem to be as simple as people thought before. Sure enough, after removing it, people found that there was no expected complex line behind the panel, but only one button. As she spoke, she showed the screen a picture of the previous disassembly. In the picture, Zhou Xin saw that the input panel that was once in the middle of the box had disappeared. Instead, there is a square groove, and in the middle of the groove, a large white round button is attracting everyone's attention. As for the lines extending from the edge of the groove and connecting to the panel held by the robot, no one paid much attention.

After staring at the screen for a long time, Zhou Xin still didn't accept the facts he saw in front of him. No matter what he thought, he couldn't imagine that the box was so easy to open. While Zhou Xin was still in a daze, Dart couldn't wait to ask Atlas, "What's in the box?" ”

Hearing Dart's voice, Zhou Xin finally came back to his senses, and he looked at the little girl on the screen with expectant eyes, waiting for her answer.

Shaking his head, Atlas replied, "When they saw this button, they stopped disassembling the box. Although, people think that this button is likely to be the switch that opens this box. However, the possibility that it is an emergency self-destruct switch cannot be ruled out. So, in the end, they decided to ask for your opinion, brother Captain. Should you press this button or not? ”

At this moment, everyone didn't dare to answer immediately, even Zhou Xin and Dart frowned and showed a thoughtful look. Nearly ten minutes passed, Zhou Xin made a decision, and he said: "Just like you said before, we are ready to leave anyway, and I am afraid this box will be useless in the future." In that case, it doesn't matter if it's good or bad, the main thing is that I'm also curious about what's in the box. After Zhou Xin finished speaking, Dart also expressed the same idea.

The little girl nodded, switching the still scene to the room where the lockbox was being dismantled. Then, under the gaze of everyone in the command module, a robotic arm reached for the button on the box......