Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

Jiang Chen began counting his heartbeats.

【Long Short, LongLong, Short...】

Binary, two numbers form a group.

Long Long equals 00;

Long Short equals 0 and 1;

Short Long equals 10;

Short Short equals 11.

He converted these combinations into hexadecimal and then mapped them to the ASCII character table.

Shiyu helped check the data, her eyes darting back and forth between the heart and the system panel.

"Long Long, Short Short, Long Short," she counted.

Jiang Chen gestured in the air.

The hexadecimal value of 【00, 11, 01】 is 3.

"continue."

It took them about thirty seconds to decipher the first eight characters – “OBS-07-TAM-”.

It's not garbled text, it's the filename.

"This thing is telling us the filename," Jiang Chen said, his voice a little strained.

"It's making us look for something."

The heartbeat continues.

【Long Short, Short Long, Short Short, LongLong】

He continued counting.

The hexadecimal value of 【01, 11, 10, 00】 is 2.

"Shigure, did you see that?"

"I saw it. From the side. A line of text flashed by."

"What character?"

""save"."

Jiang Chen's breathing stopped for a second.

The heartbeats are getting faster and faster, and the binary information continues.

【Long Short, Short Long, Short Short, Long Long, Short Long, Long Long, Short Long, Short Short】

He counted until his palms were sweaty and his eyes were sore.

[300 seconds]

How much time is left?

He opened the system panel and glanced at the countdown.

[240 seconds]

Four minutes left, that should be enough.

【Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short】

He suddenly realized something.

This binary string is too long; it's not the length of the filename, but a complete piece of information.

The heart is speaking to them in this way.

"Shigure." He turned to her.

"This thing isn't just a file system. It's talking to us."

Shi Yu nodded, her eyes fixed on the rhythm of her heartbeat.

"I counted. From just now until now, a total of forty-seven sets of binary numbers have been output. If converted to characters—"

"About twenty characters."

"More or less." She frowned.

"But we only saw the filename and the word 'rescue,' where is the rest of the information?"

The heartbeat didn't stop.

The rhythms of Long and Short were still flashing, as if answering her question—the information was still there, keep reading.

Jiang Chen focused his attention back on his heart and continued counting.

【01 01 01 01】

【AAAA】

"What is it saying?"

Shiyu leaned closer and looked at the decoding results on the panel.

Jiang Chen continued counting and decoding.

【Long Short, Short Long, Short Short, LongLong】

【0110 0011】

Hexadecimal 63, ASCII character "c".

"ac—" Shigure said.

"This is not a complete word."

"continue."

【Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short】

【01 01 01 01 01 01】

【AAAAAA】

It's AAAA again.

Jiang Chen frowned.

[Long Short, Short Long, Short Short, Long Long, Short Long, Long Short, Short Long]

【0110 0011 0110 0110】

Hexadecimal 63 66, ASCII character "cf".

"acf—" Shigure said.

"It's still not right."

"What is it saying?" Jiang Chen stared at the string of characters, then suddenly realized something.

"Shiyu, don't you think the arrangement of these characters is strange?"

Shi Yu looked at it carefully.

"AAAA followed by cf. It doesn't sound like a normal word."

"Yes. It doesn't sound like an English word," Jiang Chen said.

"But what does it resemble?"

Shigure remained silent for a few seconds.

"Like code," she said.

Jiang Chen opened the system panel and entered the binary number.

【Long Long, Long Long, Long Long, LongLong】

【00 00 00 00】

Hexadecimal 00 00 00 00.

All zeros.

"No," he shook his head.

"It's transmitting data, but not text."

The heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

【Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short, Long Short】

Jiang Chen quickly counted and entered the information on the panel.

【01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01】

Hexadecimal FF FF FF FF.

All are Fs.

"All zeros and all Fs," Shigure said.

"This is not normal text encoding."

"Yes." Jiang Chen's eyes lit up.

"This is a memory address."

He re-examined the binary number.

If this is a memory address, then it points to a specific data block—a hidden data block.

He opened the system panel and entered that memory address.

[System message: Error. This memory area is protected and cannot be accessed directly.]

[System notification: Authorization from the core consciousness is required to read data in this area.]

Authorization is required.

Jiang Chen looked at the heart.

Its pulse suddenly changed; it was no longer an alternation of Long and Short, but a new rhythm.

Long Long, Long Short

He froze for a moment.

Long Long, Long Short

【0001】

It is not binary.

It is a certain character encoding.

He looked closely at the rhythm and suddenly realized something.

LongLong, LongShort

【0001】

He mentally converted it into ASCII.

It's not binary; it's Manchester encoding.

Long represents 0;

Short represents 1;

0001 converted to hexadecimal is 11;

The ASCII character is DC1.

DC1, Device Control Character.

Jiang Chen suddenly understood.

The heart no longer speaks to them through text.

It is using device control codes; it is trying to communicate directly with their receiving devices.

That is, the system panel – communication.

He opened the system panel and checked the communication logs.

System Log: Unknown device control signal detected.

System Log: Signal Content: DC1 XON

XON.

The flow control signal continues to transmit.

The heart's pulse changed again.

【Long Short, Long Long, Short Short, Long Long, Short Short, Short Short, Short Short, Short Short】

【0001 1100 0011 0011】

Hexadecimal 1C 33.

1C is not a printable character; it is a control character.

33 is the ASCII character "3".

"What is it saying?" Shigure asked.

Jiang Chen stared at the string of characters, then suddenly realized something.

"Shigure, do you still remember the serial number OBS-07-TAM?"

"Remember."

"What if we take it apart?" Jiang Chen asked.

"OBS-07 is the system number, what is TAM?"

Shi Yu thought for a moment.

"It might be an abbreviation for the project, or—"

"Or three names," Jiang Chen interrupted her.

"O, B, S, T, A, M. The first letters of six people's names."

Shigure's expression changed.

"You mean—"

"The watchmaker mentioned in his log that he wasn't investigating alone," Jiang Chen said.

"There are other players looking for the Rift. Others are investigating the truth behind the old version."

"If any of them were involved in this project—"

"It will then be marked as OBS-07-TAM," Jiang Chen said.

"Observation Seven: Target and Monitor."

Shigure remained silent for a few seconds.

"If that's the case, then this anomaly report—"

"It's not just about consciousness," Jiang Chen said.

"It's about those who try to get to the truth."

Just then, the heartbeat changed again.

It was no longer Manchester encoding, nor binary, but a rhythm he had never seen before.

【Long Long, Short Short, Long Short】

【0000 11 00 11】

wrong.

This is not any standard encoding.

He looked closely at the pulse and suddenly realized that it was mimicking a specific rhythm.

SOS.

Three short, three long, three short.

Help.

Jiang Chen's blood suddenly turned cold.

"This thing—it's not transmitting data," he said, his voice strained.

"It's crying for help!"

Jiang Chen's mind was racing.

A distress signal; the consciousness is calling for help. What does this mean?

This means that it still has self-awareness, is still thinking, and is still waiting for someone to rescue it.

But there are still more than 200 seconds left before the forced restart.

"Shigure".

He said quickly, "If this thing really dies, I mean, the kind where its consciousness completely disappears, how do you think it will cry for help?"

Shigure's eyes flickered.

"Compress all critical information into the smallest possible unit, and transmit as much as possible."

"right."

Jiang Chen stared at the heart and said, "So the filename isn't complete. There's more after OBS-07-TAM, but it doesn't have enough energy to send it all."

"But it's still issuing."

"Still being sent out."

Jiang Chen glanced at the countdown on the panel.

[217 seconds]

"It's using its last bit of strength to tell us the filename. It means this file is more important than its own life."

Shigure was silent for a second.

"Then let's find it."

"Where to look?"

"The watchmaker said he left all the documents in the S-07 management room."

Shi Yu said, "That folder is in there too."

Jiang Chen's heart raced. No, they had already searched the management office thoroughly but hadn't found anything with OBS-07-TAM in its filename.

unless--

"It's encrypted."

He said, "Or is it hidden somewhere we haven't seen it, in the last few pages of the journal?"

Shigure's expression changed.

She quickly opened her backpack and pulled out a stack of yellowed papers—[Zhong Yuan's Diary]

They only skimmed the last few pages because the handwriting was too messy and the content seemed like nonsense.

But it's different now.

She quickly flipped to the last few pages, and Jiang Chen leaned over to look.

The handwriting was indeed messy, but still legible.

Most of the content repeats the same sentence:

They are watching us, they have been watching us all along. Don't believe anything, don't—

Then came a string of numbers.

Jiang Chen stopped breathing.

【7-15-22-1-14-15】

"This is not gibberish."

Shiyu's voice trembled slightly.

"This is--"

"ASCII".

Jiang Chen said, "Decimal ASCII."

He quickly switched the numbers in his mind. 7=G, 15=O, 22=V, 1=A, 14=N, 15=O.

GOVAN-O.

No, there's a space in the middle.

他把数字拆开：7-15-22是三个数字，1-14-15是三个数字。

7=G, 15=O, 22=V.

1=A, 14=N, 15=O.

GOVA, NO.

It's not a person's name, it's an address.

Jiang Chen suddenly looked up at the heart.

With its last strength, it was telling them: go to that address, where you can find what you need.

The heartbeat suddenly changed.

It was no longer the rhythm of SOS, but a rapid, dense flashing.

It's as if it's saying: Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

[System Warning: The core consciousness is about to be forcibly restarted]

[Countdown: 180 seconds.]

180 seconds, three minutes.

"Shigure".

Jiang Chen's voice was tense.

"How long does it take to walk from the management office to the core area?"

"Five minutes at normal speed."

Shigure said, "It would take two minutes to run."

"But we need to decipher that string of numbers first, and then find the correct document."

Jiang Chen said, "And there's more to that address. OBS-07-TAM definitely has a file extension, like pdf, txt, or something else."

Shiyu looked down at the numbers in her diary.

"GOVA. NO what?"

"have no idea."

Jiang Chen said, "But this string of numbers is definitely not complete; there might be other clues in the log."

He quickly flipped through the journal. Before the SOS distress signal, Zhong Yuan had written a passage:

It's calling me, it keeps calling me, I can hear its voice, but I can't understand what it's saying. It says it's trapped, it says it needs help, it says—

Then the handwriting became extremely messy, as if it had been written in extreme fear:

It said there were no living people left outside.

Jiang Chen and Shi Yu exchanged a glance.

There are no living people outside.

What did Zhong Yuan see when he wrote this sentence?