More than twenty days later.
Late at night, the sky is clear and full of stars.
Outside Atlanta, on a raised ground in the wilderness, there was an ordinary-looking courtyard.
There are three stone buildings standing in the yard, the middle one is the tallest with six floors. There is a huge long cylindrical structure on the top that is slowly rotating, as if someone is using this prop to observe something in the sky.
This is the No. 361 station.
On the ninth floor underground, in a huge and empty room.
In the center of the room was a set of seemingly complicated mechanical equipment that was connected to the top. Other than that, there was nothing else, not even the most basic tables and chairs.
A tall, thin old man in an indigo robe, who looked to be in his seventies, stood in front of the mechanical equipment in the center of the room and fiddled with it.
His name is Nicholas Tycho. He is a powerful but extremely low-key wizard. He reached the level of a fourth-level wizard decades ago, but there are almost no rumors about him on the main continent. This is mainly because he has a weird hobby - stargazing, studying the mysterious and infinite starry sky. For this reason, he spent most of his life away from the crowd, eliminating meaningless interference, hiding in remote places with few human traces, observing and recording numerous things. The movement of stars.
It was precisely because of this interest that he was invited to Salin two years ago and became the director of the 361 Institute.
Tycho, who had a wrinkled face, squinted his eyes and pointed at a glass hole in the instrument, and pressed the two crystal hemispheres on the surface of the instrument with his hands.
A trace of finely controlled mana flow is injected into the crystal hemisphere. The crystal hemisphere shines with light, and the sound of intensive gears can be heard inside the instrument. In addition, there are fluctuations of high-intensity energy activating magic patterns. The instrument makes subtle adjustments under control, many internal structures operate, and the angle and direction of the stargazing tube on the ground outside change accordingly.
Tycho kept observing the stars formed in the glass hole, and occasionally reached out to press several other buttons on the instrument, looking focused and smiling.
The process lasted for dozens of minutes. Tycho ended the stargazing, pulled down a white joystick on the mechanical instrument, left the instrument, and turned to look at the door.
Within half a minute, the sound of small steps sounded outside the door, and then the door was pushed halfway open. A young male wizard apprentice entered, holding a shining crystal ball in his hand, and respectfully saluted: "Master Tycho, I recorded the star map you observed today for you next door. It has changed slightly compared to last time. Do you want to check it?"
"Well, give it to me." Tycho said, waving his hand, the crystal ball flew up under the influence of extraordinary power, escaped from the palm of the wizard apprentice, drew an arc in the air, and was grabbed by Tycho catch.
Tycho held the crystal ball tightly and poured mana into it. The crystal ball that was already flashing suddenly lit up, and the light cast from the top of the room quickly dimmed. Countless light points were seen flying out from the inside of the crystal ball, floating in the air of the room, occupying fixed positions, forming a three-dimensional star map.
Tycho raised his hand and gently pushed the star chart to rotate slowly, occasionally stopping to observe one of the light spots for a long time.
Tycho watched like this for dozens of minutes more. He stretched out his hand, gathered all the light spots into a ball and stuffed them back into the crystal ball. He waved his hand and restored the light to the room.
Holding the crystal ball, Tycho looked at the wizard apprentice who was still standing at the door, and asked a little strangely: "Why are you still here? Do you have anything else to tell me?"
"Yes, Master Tycho." The wizard apprentice looked over eagerly, "There is one more thing - Master Emerson from the 362nd Institute came just now and said that he has something from the 'Research Project No. 9' to give to you. .”
"So, that Emerson has been waiting for me for almost an hour?"
"Yes." The wizard apprentice was a little uneasy, "I wanted to tell you just now, Master, but you reminded me that no one is allowed to disturb you when you are stargazing and observing the star map, so..."
"Yes, yes, you did a good job on this matter." Tycho raised his chin, "You should let that arrogant gambler wait a little longer. I heard that this time he and Lord Richard proposed to use seven Chengduo’s capital budget for the next quarter is a bet, and as long as our 361 Institute cannot complete the tasks delivered, the funds will be transferred to their 362 Institute.”
"Huh, sure enough, that old guy has never given up on his idea of annexing us. However, he also thinks too beautifully. Our 361st Institute is no worse than their 362nd Institute. The things that Lord Richard entrusted to us, Not only was it completed, but it was also completed much ahead of schedule, so if he wants to win, he should do it in his next life." Tycho said, holding the crystal ball tightly.
After hearing what he said, the wizard apprentice asked tentatively: "Master Tycho, do you need to let Master Emerson wait a little longer?"
"Forget it." Tycho waved his hand, "It's enough to let him wait for so long. If it takes longer, I can't prevent that guy from speaking ill of me in front of Lord Richard again. Call him in quickly."
"Yes." The wizard apprentice nodded, turned around and walked out.
After a while, rapid and dull footsteps sounded in the corridor outside.
Then there was a "bang" sound, and the opposite door seemed to have been hit by a siege cone. It bounced inward with a roar, hitting the walls on both sides. Emerson, with a dark face, stepped in.
Tycho raised his eyebrows and looked at Emerson who looked very angry. The wrinkles on his face were smoothed out by the iron in an instant. He asked with a smile: "Mr. Emerson, you have so much time, you are willing to come to me." Three hundred and sixty-one come."
"Huh, I'm just inspecting the future branch of my 362nd Institute to see how to improve it." Emerson said expressionlessly.
Tycho was stunned and chuckled: "A branch of your 362nd Institute? Are you overthinking it? You did not win this bet. You have completed your work and we have completed ours. After all, draw."
"I know." Emerson said calmly, "But I will always win in the future. Your 361st Institute doesn't have much value at all, and sooner or later it will fall under our 362nd Institute."
“No one can say for sure what the future holds, so don’t draw conclusions so early.”
"No, I said I could." Emerson said with emphasis. As he spoke, he took out a gray crystal ball from his arms and threw it towards Tycho, "By the way, take this, this is our Research No. 9 The content of the project records the location, scope of influence and testing methods of the remaining dozens of ancient gods in the void that were inquired from the captured gods.
I really don't see what practical value this has, but since Lord Richard asked me to give it to you, just take it and hope not to waste my time. "
Tycho caught the thrown gray crystal ball and opened his mouth to say something to annoy Emerson, but Emerson did not give him this chance. He turned around first and walked out of the door without looking back.