Sword of Daybreaker

In the early morning, the tower guard Ge Lin woke up to the low sound of a mechanical device. Sunlight was spilling into the room through the crystal glass window on the side of the tower lounge, and the decorative iron lace on the window frame cast on the floor. A bright and dark pattern, the clear sky in the distance is vast and cloudless, and the mechanical antenna plate on the top of the Lu'an hub is turning an angle, the rugged alloy frame slowly moved past the window, cutting the sky out Several ingenious geometric patterns.

"It's not bad, it's good weather... The mages' weather forecasts are getting more accurate."

The tower guard squinted his eyes and looked at the sky outside, and then murmured a deep breath. Then he put on a loose and cool thin shirt, and after taking care of his personal image, he turned and left the room-the upper area The mechanical turntable and the linkage mechanism made a reassuring low sound. Accompanied by this accustomed sound, he walked through a short corridor and a small flight of stairs to the nearby equipment room, and a blonde in a brown shirt The young man is sitting in front of the Mowang terminal, paying full attention to the beating numbers on the holographic projection, and the latest newspapers and periodicals that have been neatly cut are stacked in front of the printing device next to it.

The young man's name is Ron, who is a colleague of Greene, another tower guard of this tower. It hasn't been long since he was transferred, but his down-to-earth, diligent and likable character has been given to the tower. The "old employees" left a deep and good impression.

"Ah, Mr. Green," the blond boy in front of the Monet terminal heard the movement from the door, and smiled immediately after seeing who came. "The shift time hasn't arrived yet, you got up so early?"

"A regular schedule is good for the body-especially for middle-aged people like me who are no longer young," Green said with a smile to the young man, "Is Vikson not back yet?"

"He just came back, but soon he took two technicians out again-the secondary hub in Corson Town reads a little abnormally, and a nearby factory reported that they could not receive the data from yesterday. Luan passed the signal, and Vikson thought it might be the second-level hub that was destroyed by the thunderstorm yesterday. He wanted to see the situation in person. By the way, he drove away the gray magic car."

"It seems that the thunderstorm yesterday was more powerful than we thought," Green said casually, walking to the Mowang terminal, and at a glance, he noticed that the neatly cut newspapers and periodicals printed out by the networked printer had been printed by others. I read it, and one of the pages was marked with a red pen, "Is there anything interesting in the newspaper, Ron?"

"Ah, I was just about to say it," the young man named Ron suddenly smiled with joy and mystery. "Do you remember the'monitoring project' that Vixen has been paying attention to? It's the hub of each region. There is a monitoring station project, and it seems that there has been a remarkable progress recently. It is said that a mysterious signal has been received. Scholars have also spent a lot of time discussing this matter! There is not only one issue of the newspaper... …"

In fact, Green didn’t pay much attention to the monitoring project, but at the moment he was already interested enough by Ron’s excited tone. Before the young man could finish speaking, he had already picked up the stack of printing paper that was still faintly smelling of ink. Come.

The first thing that catches the eye is a very bold and bold headline: "Among the vast stars, is it possible that there are creatures that can think rationally like us?" 》

This is... what kind of question?

The gaze of the tower guard was instantly attracted by this wonderful title. From serving as a noble scribe when he was young, to becoming a tower guard in middle age and becoming a magic net hub, what he has seen and experienced in half his life is not too much. Few, but he has never heard of such a thing, has never heard someone ask such a question...between the stars...why would anyone view what happened between the stars like this? Even discuss this matter seriously?

If according to the priests... among the stars, shouldn't it be the position of the kingdom of heaven?

Green frowned subconsciously, then looked down with confusion, and found that the entire page of the newspaper was almost discussing this issue, and in the subsequent pages, there were even more eye-catching, more confusing and curious. Another title: "From the cave to the plain, from the foot to the distance-Royal astrologer Mr. Morgan Hugo will show you the "breadth" of the world"

Ron’s voice came from the side: "These are very interesting-although they look like boring academic discussion articles, they are unexpectedly easy to understand. I have never seen them in any newspaper or magazine. Similar to the theory about the starry sky above my head, but I heard from my teacher that the land under our feet is actually a planet, we revolve around the sun, and the sun revolves around "Ao", and Every flickering light spot in the universe may be a similar celestial system..."

Green listened to Ron’s happily narration, but he could only simply perfuse a few words-what young people pay attention to and accept looks a little different from him, a middle-aged man, although he himself has received complete general knowledge. And literacy courses, but for these knowledge that sounds "away from life", his attention is obviously less than that of Ron, who is just in his early twenties, and it is naturally extremely difficult to keep up with the topic at this time.

At the same time, his eyes quickly swept over some irrelevant reports, advertisements, and trivia in the newspaper's follow-up. A "Cecile Weekly" that was pressed below came into his sight, as expected, He also saw a title similar to the previous two articles: "The Scale of Celestial Bodies in the Eyes of Master Kamal——Knowledge and Wisdom from the Gondor Period." In the follow-up part of this article, he also saw a propaganda. It was mentioned that in order to further improve the knowledge literacy of the whole people and enrich the reading enjoyment of citizens, the Supreme Council of the Empire has instructed to issue a new journal, the main content of which is Popularization of knowledge in the field of astrology...

Seeing those clear and sharp letters, Ge Lin suddenly moved in his heart, and immediately spread several newspapers on the table, flipping through their main pages and bold and emphasized headlines, so a lot of them looked different. , Academic, interesting, popular, or discussing articles with extremely high consistency in substantive content entered his eyes.

The tower guard looked at these newspapers and smiled. Experience has already made a judgment-it seems that the Supreme Council of State has any "big plan". These newspapers should be just the first step. Soon after, the Monet broadcast Maybe there will be related new shows coming out?

It is probably difficult for ordinary people to feel the emergence of this kind of "wind direction" from the limited media they come into contact with daily, but a tower guard who sits at the regional information hub can keenly feel the release of certain signals in advance. Of course, this is the case. The premise is to have enough work experience. Green himself is a very experienced tower guard, and the young Ron...obviously did not think so much.

"Mr. Green," Ron also noticed Senior's sudden move. He was a little startled and couldn't help asking, "What happened?"

"It's nothing, it's not a bad thing anyway. You'll understand after two more years of work here," Green laughed, and while talking casually, he set his eyes on the marked page again. At this time, he I noticed that the content of this edition is not an article on academic or knowledge popularization, but a special news and a publicity draft with a "civil recruitment" nature.

"Sorin Monitoring Station receives mysterious signals from unknown sources", "A nationwide solicitation of solutions for the following symbols."

He saw the patterns attached with the article. Those symbols did not look like universal letters at all, nor did they resemble southern hieroglyphs. Those continuous arcs and short line segments connected to the arcs looked mysterious and difficult. Understand, and beside the symbol, Ron has drawn many seemingly clueless letter strings with a pen.

"Don't tell me you are planning to crack these symbols-these symbols that even experts and scholars are helpless." Green couldn't help but look up at the young Ron.

"Why not?" the blond young man said immediately, "Don't you think this is a very challenging and proud, as if you are participating in historical things? And there are high rewards-as long as they can be The meaning of is cracked, and the bounty is even enough for us to buy an entire manor in Lu'an City!"

I created a WeChat public account [Kanwen Base] to send you year-end benefits! You can go and see!

Green was not infected by the immature joy and enthusiasm of the young man. He just looked at the reports and symbols that were not at all like any known text in this world. Anxiety arose in his heart, but he was very worried. Almost being suppressed, he turned into a question: "Then you have studied so much, do you see any pattern?"

"I didn't see it at all-these symbols are like some kind of encrypted graffiti, far from being able to be cracked by simple letter substitution or structural reorganization," Ron shook his head regretfully. "In fact, I have prepared Think of this as some sort of pastime after work... It may not be easy to get rich once, but the process of cracking these symbols is still a bit fun. And I believe that most people who are interested in these symbols will eventually also There is a mentality similar to mine. After all, just like you said, these things make the experts and scholars of the Imperial Capital helpless..."

Green shrugged, but did not continue the topic. He glanced at the mechanical clock hanging on the nearby wall and said casually to Ron: "It's time for shift."

...

A rare clear sky descended on Aldernan, and the sun near noon dispelled the haze that often occupies the sky above the "City of Rain and Fog." The moldy slabs and walls in the gutters and alleys also seemed to be removed little by little, becoming alive.

However, compared with last year, the streets of the Aldernan Noble Quarter are obviously deserted.

The doors and windows were closed in the hall where the banquets and banquets were constant day and night in the past, and there were only a few hurried cars left on the wide road with constant traffic and horses every day, passing by the closed doors, some houses before and after. Obviously, the garden has been neglected for many days, and the weeds that have grown due to the warmer weather are gradually occupying the flower bed nursery that was once carefully taken care of, squeezing the living space of those precious and delicate flowers, and some houses have been hung up. The heavy white and black curtains and curtains, and the dried-up chrysanthemum bouquet hung under the iron hanging lamp at the door, swaying desolately with the wind.

In fact, most of these mansions are not completely deserted. At this time, there are still sporadic low voices coming from inside. Those who still live here seem to be deliberately lowering themselves in order to reduce their own in this world as much as possible. The sense of existence, like a frightened beast that fears the world, curled up in his gorgeous lair, for fear of causing some "fatal attention" because of the high profile.

In the few mansions that have completely lost their breath, the former glorious families have lost their last effective heirs, their servants have been dismissed, their properties have been returned to the royal family, and the houses have become "assets to be assessed" that cannot be dealt with temporarily. The owner of the house usually has two completely different destinies when he leaves this world: some have lost all respect, lost their heads in the liquidation, and some are glorious and glorious, and they are safe in the imperial chase.

But no matter what their fate, the end result is no different.

"The era of nobility is dead in name. After so many years of see-saw stalemate, it is finally time to withdraw completely... Certain titles are still there, but it seems that there will never be a chance for glory again," Viscount Hemire said. He stepped back in front of the window and at the same time retracted his gaze to the street outside. He returned to his favorite high-back seat, but he did not take a seat for a while, just let out a long sigh with full of emotion. Alas... I really never imagined that I would see this day appear in my lifetime, let alone imagine it would come in this way..."

He raised his head and glanced at the opposite side of the wide straight avenue, only to see two servants hurriedly walking across the street like frightened beasts—walking like running.

"Was there ever been such a deserted situation in the past? Even on the day when the New Emperor's 22nd Act was promulgated, even on the day my father mentioned that there was a fire in the Obsidian Palace...This street was not so deserted. It's been desolate, and there have never been so many chrysanthemums...the little white flowers almost brought the breath of the underworld to the sun."

"Think in the right direction, Viscount Hemir," an old voice came from not far away, and the black-robed old mage sitting on the sofa looked at the young nobleman with a smile on his face and said, "You are still Standing here, the title of Viscount is still on you, and your family emblem and private property are intact. Each of these is enough to make many people envy-whether it is those who are dead or still alive, they should all be envied. you.

"You have a good team, Mr. Viscount."

"Ah, yeah, this is exactly what you said, Master Daniel," Viscount Hemire sat on the chair with a wry smile, took the wine glass from the side, and poured the liquid into his throat less gracefully, and continued. "Unconditionally support the decision of the royal family at any time, immediately cut off contact with all priests when the church has problems, support the front line of Winterhold as much as possible, and actively cooperate with all the censorships of His Royal Highness Hadillon... Frankly speaking, this If there is a wrong step in the middle, I may not be able to stand here and talk to you at this moment, and you may only have to toast me in front of my tombstone."

"But you are on the right track," Daniel smiled and raised his glass to the Viscount, "I still prefer to toast to the living."