It was night on the fifth floor of the East Cloud Academy Research Tower, in the Artifice Analysis Room. Under the deep blue night sky, the stars were sparse and weak, but continuous waves of artifice emanated from above. They shimmered with barely perceptible blue and white currents on the research tower's reception device.
Feng Ke stood in front of the artifice diagram board. He stared intently at the continuously pulsating artifice graph, his brows knitting tighter.
"Here it comes again, for the seventh time," he murmured. His left hand swiftly waved in the air, causing the artifice recording interface to expand. It revealed a complex pulse curve.
Livia Ains leaned against the window. Her red Joker emblem cloak fluttered gently in the wind. Her golden pupils were fixed outside. She seemed to sense something. Here it comes again, for the seventh time," he murmured. His left hand swiftly waved in the air, causing the artifice recording interface to expand and reveal a complex pulse curve.
Livia Ains leaned against the window. Her red Joker emblem cloak fluttered gently in the wind. Her golden pupils were fixed outside as if she could sense something."Do you think it is responding to you?" she asked, accurately pinpointing Feng Ke's doubts without looking back.
Feng Ke nodded gently. His gaze was steadfast as fire.
"This is an S-21A type artifice waveband, a signal pulse that only appears in the ruins of old artifice civilizations. And this one is responding to me."
The artifice strategist system in his mind operated at high speed. Feng Ke had detected this abnormal wave for five consecutive days, each time starting at 11:14 p.m. and lasting two minutes and 18 seconds. The signal was weak but extremely regular, such precision could not be the product of natural magical flow.
"You want to track it?" Livia asked.
"No," Feng Ke instead revealed a slight smile. "I intend to induce it in reverse." With a wave of his hand, the artifice connection platform appeared, and the control interface unfolded. It invoked the unused artifice channel of East Cloud Academy—S-Class Research Listening Level.
"We may not be researchers, but we deserve to know the origins of magic."
"I will formally send a response on behalf of the magic department."
He activated the artifice, and in an instant, the magical network of the entire research tower trembled slightly. A blue light reached up to the artifice domain in the sky, forming a resonant wave.
Livia's eyes widened suddenly, and she murmured, "That's not a response; that's awakening."Five seconds later, a prompt box popped up on Feng Ke's artifice platform: [Unknown Artifice Identification Code: K-XA13 Reverse Link Established][Temporary Transmission Channel Established][Dialogue Request Initiated By Permission Level: Observer.The two exchanged glances, and in a moment of silence, it was as if the air itself froze. Then, a voice echoed throughout the research room. It was not an auditory hallucination, but a true artifice projection call: "Responder Feng Ke Rein, you possess the qualification of 'Observer.' The preparatory phase for the Cube Protocol will be conducted by you for qualification verification."
This voice came from a distant, unknown existence.
—The key to the cube begins to respond to this world.
Character Quotes
Feng Ke (Rein): "It's not me who is searching for the Rubik's Cube; it's the Rubik's Cube that is searching for the person who can touch it."
Li Wei Ya (Ai En Si): "The key does not choose the door; rather, it chooses the hands that dare to open it."