Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The magic circle where silver and black brightness entangled raised electric light, enveloping the matter at the center that was in the middle of fission. The overwhelming energy generated was transformed by the magic circles nearby into the energy that the City in the Sky could make use of.
The fission reactor this time was no longer fierce and untameable like before. Although it still contained grave dangers, it was now steady and controllable.
“Master, congratulations to Granny Hathaway, Mr. Raventi, and President Morris,” Lucien said sincerely. He had barely made any contribution to the achievement except for proposing the fission reaction and helping with the analysis of the self-explosion. It was the product of the wisdom of the four legends.
Such a fission reactor was designed in different ways from that on Earth. Since it was a combination of reverse engineering and regular research, many unknown dangers might be lurking in the middle, and one might suffer explosions and curses after one moment of carelessness. Therefore, no personnel below legendary were involved in the project. Because of the shortage of hands, Fernando and Hathaway dragged Raventi and Morris, two legends in the school of elements, into the project.
Fernando was smiling, but he snorted and said, “It should’ve been completed a long time ago. I was too idiotic and made many unnecessary mistakes.”
He did not even let go of himself when it came to rigorously demanding and habitually despising products.
“In any case, with a stable, enormous fission reactor, the City in the Sky will have a regular source of energy. It’s safe to say that this is a major breakthrough in our research on the energy well. The energy problem that shackled us before will be solved effectively.” Lucien was rather glad to see the product.
Combing his messy hair, Fernando stared at the fission reactor with his slightly cloudy eyes. “Next, we will focus on the minimization of fission reactors. By then, artificial planets, airships, cosmic observatories, and the steam trains that are in need of powerful defense and attack magic circles will be given a powerful ‘heart’.”
By then, artificial planets and airships would be able to conduct attacks that consumed a great amount of energy, like electromagnetic cannons or laser beams. In a war, blockage would not only include the ground, the sky, and the space around, but also the cosmos… Lucien subconsciously thought of the paradigm shift of war. It would not be a dream to launch “meteorites” on the enemy’s head without resorting to any sort of magic.
Also, for a magic world, minimization was much simpler than stabilization!
“However, the energy of the fission reactor was still not good enough. If we can achieve the controllability, stabilization, and minimization of nuclear fusion, all of us will be the Sun King,” Lucien said humorously. “Also, many particle experiments in the microscopic domain can be put on the agenda right now. The super large collider that I proposed in the meeting of the Highest Council can be included in the secret projects of the Magic Research Board too.”
In many projects of the microscopic domain, fission reactors were indispensable. They could provide many particles that could be found under normal circumstances, and they could directly participate in the experiments. Therefore, the stable fission reactor was the achievement that many researchers were in dire need of.
Lucien proposed the super large collider because the regular cyclotrons and colliding magic circles could not meet the demand of the senior-rank sorcerers.
“That’s right. When we studied the nature of neutrons, I already discovered the importance of a stable reactor.” The moment arcana studies were mentioned, Fernando became solemn and grave. Then, he said self-mockingly, “I didn’t know that neutrons of different speeds could result in such great differences…”
As he spoke, he was deep in thought. “The experiments on neutrons and protons give me the feeling that they are not necessarily fundamental particles. For example, the super heavy particle that can participate in the nuclear force is rather weird to me.”
In the past year, thanks to the new particle—muon—that Heidi discovered, more and more arcanists had devoted themselves to the study of cosmic rays. There were too many applicants in either the Atom Institution or the Tower, and it was anything but unusual to wait in line for three months. Among them, Annick discovered muons with a positive charge and those without charge, and Annonis of the Tower discovered a particle that was heavier than neutrons and protons. The new particle could also participate in the strong interaction—or to wit, nuclear force—and it had been named as “hyperon”.
“I never said that neutrons and protons are necessarily fundamental particles. At the very least, no theory so far can naturally lead to the conclusion. I’ve always described them as the internal structure of the atomic nucleus.” Lucien understood that his teacher was merely reminding him based on his keen instincts, in case the founder and pioneer of the microscopic domain would lose his head when the more fundamental particles were discovered.
He had to admit that as time went by, the grand arcanists and the legendary sorcerers were no longer following him blindly in microscopic research but had their own expansion after the digestion.
Seeing that Lucien was open-minded, Fernando stopped saying anything else. There were no experiments or phenomena that could directly lead to the question after all. It was only his arcana institution.
“Alright. I have to seize the day to discuss minimization with Hathaway.” Now that everything was settled, Fernando left the core of the City in the Sky in a hurry, as impatient as before.
“Minimization… That’s beyond the Earth level…” Lucien shook his head with a smile. It was both a beautiful and dangerous path. For example, would the minimized fission devices be easily damaged, and would there be ways to deal with the possible nuclear leakage? In that aspect, fusion devices were much safer. The explosion could only cause damages within a certain range. There wouldn’t be any long-term problems. It was clean and safe.
……
The moment he returned to the Atom Institution, Lucien saw Heidi’s complaining eyes.
“Master, you’re late…” Heidi had been preparing her presentation in uneasiness for a long time, but her teacher, who usually arrived early, was late.
Lucien said in a good mood, “I was delayed by something unexpected. Let’s begin.”
Heidi removed her pretended complaint and walked into her own laboratory with Chelly, Lowi, and Alfalia. Lazar, Annick, Sprint, and the other arcanists who were in the institution followed them. For them, the monthly presentations always gave them something new, particularly in the fields that they were not good at. Therefore, even though Lucien did not demand them to participate, they still volunteered to join every time.
This time, Heidi and Chelly’s “artificial intelligence” was half the size previously. Although it was still huge, it was more or less acceptable right now.
Heidi turned on the power. Vague sounds of electric currents echoed, and the red and green lights flashed.
“After the test run last time, we found many problems and made the following improvements…” Naturally, the presentation was conducted by Heidi who was best at public speaking. She controlled “artificial intelligence” while she introduced the theory, the specific design, the modularized applications, the storage of programs, etc.
Although there was still a long way from real arcana studies, all of the audience could tell the mathematical ideas behind it and the simulation of human thinking thanks to Lucien’s “torture”. Also, the system where 0 and 1 represented everything gave them the deepest astonishment. It seemed to be a representation of the simplistic beauty and the nature of the world.
After Heidi’s introduction, she looked at Sprint “provocatively”. “Didn’t you say that your mind calculated faster than our ‘artificial intelligence’?”
Sprint had always been strongly confident, if not arrogant. So, he snorted and said, “Fine, if you lose, you will work as my assistant for one month, and if I lose, I’ll do the same for you. However, you cannot give the tests.”
As he spoke, he looked at Lucien. “Please give us a test, Master.”
Lucien nodded and picked a difficult question that required the calculation of massive data. Then, he announced the beginning of the test with a smile.
The red and green lights flashed nonstop, so fast that nobody could distinguish them. The whole laboratory was turned into a ball. After four seconds, Heidi declared delightedly, “Here’s the result!”
She had inputted with her spiritual power, so the input did not take much time.
Sprint raised his head and looked at Heidi in disbelief. After ten seconds, he finally said in a low voice, “I’ve got the result too. It’s correct… Let’s try one more.”
It was not because he was a sore loser, but more like he was testing the limits of artificial intelligence.
Annick and Katrina gave tests this time, but Sprint failed even though he used the ancillary computation circles.
“Haha. Our artificial intelligence this time equals the computational ability of the senior-rank sorcerers. Also, it is better at processing massive data and long-term calculations than the senior-rank sorcerers are. Annick, you can give it a shot.” Heidi laughed gloatingly.
Annick did not bet but still joined the competition in curiosity. With the help of ancillary computational circles, when given tests that did not require the calculation of massive data, he had some wins against the “artificial intelligence”, but when it came to the massive data that had to be processed after a long time, he had to admit that the “artificial intelligence” was stronger than him.
“Very good. Congratulations on making a solid first step. You may submit the paper now. This should help you win a prize,” Lucien said with a smile.
The discovery of the new particle did not bring any honor to Heidi. Although she proved that the particle was not involved in the strong interaction and was not the predicted meson but a new particle, she was not given the Holm Crown Prize because the standard for the prize was much higher.
Heidi and Chelly both put on a brilliant smile and soon looked forward to the future. “Hathaway, Hellen, and Oliver are introducing part of the knowledge in the quantum field into the studies of magic crystals. Hopefully, there will be a major breakthrough. By then, ‘artificial intelligence’ will no longer be heavy and clumsy.”
At this moment, Sprint was keen enough to notice a weird icon on the screen, so he activated it with his spiritual power curiously. As a result, the picture on the screen changed, and a simple process where squares fell on each other showed up.
“What’s this?” Lucien raised his eyes with a half-smile.
Heidi and Chelly blushed. In the end, it was Heidi who stammered, “Master, it’s a little game to test the modules. We… We didn’t…”
“Okay, that’s good,” Lucien said without waiting for her to finish. He did not sound angry at all.
Huh? Heidi was immediately stunned.
