- Goal
- Read what is inside the black box.
- You are
- Fang Li, researcher. The black boxes are already printed.
- Clue
- A song MV. Pause, drag the timeline, and even inspect it frame by frame—the controls are below the video.
When you return to the lab after dinner, the 3D printer has stopped.
There are two black boxes on the tray, not one: one orange and one gray.
“…Buy one, get one free?”
“There are always two black boxes.” Kate places them side by side，“The orange one is the flight data recorder ，it records data。the gray one is the cockpit voice recorder ，it records sound。”
【The two worlds are the same in this respect.】 Cloak says.
Kate connects the orange box to a tablet. A song MV appears.
““Another thing from the other world?””
“In this world the recorder stores only one kind of data.” Kate taps the orange box. “Time. Every clock in the video stops at the same moment. It is brief; blink and you miss it.”
You watch the clocks spinning on the screen until your eyes begin to ache.
〖Look frame by frame. Nobody will laugh at you.〗 Emotion says.
Hint 1 · Direction
When the clocks stop, all hands point to the same time; in the surrounding frames they spin wildly.
Hint 2 · Method
There are three clock-heavy scenes: the bedside clock during “Wild Thoughts,” the clock hanging in a tree during “Hurrying,” and the rainy clock-tower city. Pause and use the −1 frame / +1 frame controls, or play at 0.25× speed.
Hint 3 · Almost the answer
Around 0:39. The short black hour hand is between 2 and 3, and the thin red minute hand points to 43.
The orange box does nothing.
The orange box clicks.
“Two forty-three……” you mutter，“The plane took off at 00:41. That does not match.”
“Who says this is the time on a clock?” Kate drags the timeline to 2:43 。
Snowy mountains. A lyric crashes onto the screen: fear in the heart.
Then you see a strange character. Its typeface and color differ from the others, and it is slightly crooked. At exactly 2:43—for a single instant—it changes into another character.
Hint 1 · Direction
The strange character is the “fear” in “fear in the heart.”
Hint 2 · Method
Stop at 2:42, then move forward one frame at a time with “+1 frame.” The change lasts only two frames, exactly at 2:43.
Hint 3 · Almost the answer
The new character has to do with weather.
“That is not it.” Kate says，“What did you see before it changed back?”
“Rain,” you say. “Rain in the heart.”
Kate does not answer. She connects the gray box to another instrument.
“There is no rain in this song,” you say.
““What about after the song ends?””
You drag the timeline to the end. The song is over; only credits and faint sounds remain.
It is the sound of rain.
“The cockpit recorder captures everything it hears, including things someone did not want it to hear,” Kate says.
【You cannot hear it with your ears. Something is missing from the rain. Look at the spectrogram.】
〖〖A spectrogram draws sound as an image! Time runs horizontally and pitch vertically!〗〗
Hint 1 · Direction
First click “Load archived blog recording”; that is the sound in the gray box. The rain is at the very end.
Hint 2 · Method
The recording is about 263 seconds. Set the start near 252 seconds, duration 10 seconds, then click “Decode.” The letters are gaps: look where the color darkens, not where it brightens.
Hint 3 · Almost the answer
Two lines of four characters. The first concerns weather; the second concerns daily meals.
The gray box hisses like rain.
““Look again.”” Kate says。
You read the sentence aloud.
The gray box is silent for several seconds, then plays a recording.
““When the rain stops, come home for dinner.””
A very low voice, quiet but close, as if the speaker were crouching beside the box.
〖〖Who is that…〗〗
【【Not someone on the plane.】】
“This is not a recording from the plane, is it?” you ask.
Kate does not answer. She plays it again.
Then a third time.
“……“…She got it wrong again.”” Kate unplugs the gray box.
““Who?””
““A friend.””
““Then why does she—””
“She always thinks I am her daughter.” Kate puts both boxes in her bag and zips it up. “I am not.”
You open your mouth, but say nothing.
【【Sometimes people put someone important in the wrong place because that is the only place left empty.】】
“Let us go.” Kate shoulders the bag. “Rain stops more slowly in this world. We still have other boxes to find.”