Chapter 482: Difference Engine
Bruce nodded, stepped into the pale blue space door first, and disappeared.
Luther waited for Eva to enter, then exchanged polite gestures with Allen, before finally being pushed in forcefully by Allen.
Pale yellow light shone. Several thick mechanical pillars towered high, forming a cube. Beneath their feet was a sturdy, metallic-colored floor. Several huge gears hung high in the sky, connected via levers to a mana source in the center that was as hot as the sun.
The roar of machinery was everywhere here, as if one had arrived at the mechanical workshops in the north of Nightlight City.
“This style? What kind of machine is that!”
Luther felt slightly dizzy. He looked carefully at the center of the space. At first, Luther thought it was an extremely thick mechanical pillar, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a machine with tightly packed gears running rapidly under mana. Looking closely at the other mechanical pillars, they were all similar precision machines, with gears meshing tightly—extremely complex and exquisite.
Watching the gears turn and listening to the roar, Luther felt an inexplicable shock in his heart. His right shoulder suddenly sank; it was Allen passing through the space door and appearing behind him.
“Pretty shocking, right? This whole machine is called a Difference Engine! I didn’t expect that the Dream Space could construct such an extremely complex magical machine so cheaply. It’s simply a miracle, hahaha!
“Mine is just a toy. If you are lucky enough to visit Lord Warren’s Dream Space, you will see a great machine that you will never forget in this life.”
Allen said with some pride and showiness.
Luther was a bit confused inside, though his expression remained serious. He didn’t understand these machines very well. In fact, Luther had barely paid attention to academic changes during his five years in the “Fantasia” world, let alone knowing about this kind of cutting-edge magic research.
Asking directly would make him seem ignorant and abrupt, but not asking seemed like he couldn’t carry on the conversation. At this moment, Luther decided to remain silent, acting as if he was immersed in shock.
Bruce and Eva walked over, and their words saved Luther. Bruce said with some emotion: “Indeed, no one expected the Dream Space to have such academic value. The computer concept proposed by Lord Ace can be realized here with almost zero loss.”
Eva also nodded and said: “Currently, there are two schools of computer research. One is Warren’s Mechanical Magic Computer School, which advocates using exquisite machinery to complete mechanized and formulaic complex calculations. The other is the Biological Computer School represented by the Lich Witte. Following the basic classification of computers, he used directionally cultivated biological tissues, especially brain tissues, as a foundation to construct Magical Biological Computers.”
Seeming to see the confusion in Luther’s eyes, Eva continued:
“No matter which school, a large number of experiments are required. This means time consumption and resource consumption. But the Dream Space has changed all this. If it were in the real world, manufacturing such a large scale of magical metal raw materials and processing them into corresponding mechanical parts would not be an easy task.
“But in the Dream Space, we only need to spend a certain amount of fantasy points, and we can exchange them for magical metal raw materials that can be reset infinitely. If we pay a certain amount of points, we can directly convert metal materials into the mechanical parts imagined in our hearts.
“For wizards, this is an excellent laboratory with ultra-low loss.”
Luther seemed to understand somewhat. He touched his head and said with some shame: “I’m so ashamed. Since opening the Dream Space, I have always treated it as a resettable magic training ground, only practicing and improving combat spells in it.”
Bruce smiled and said: “That is also a method of use. No need to be ashamed. Your combat talent is very high, so prioritizing the improvement of your combat power is normal. However, the use of the Dream Space is not limited to this. It has another very terrifying function that can only be used after advancing to an Official Wizard in the dream world.
“Only Official Wizards; no other profession can use it.”
Hearing Bruce’s emphasis, Luther asked in confusion: “What function? I just advanced to an Official Wizard and only saw the Dream Space upgrading.”
Allen snapped his fingers. Two clock phantoms suddenly appeared in the Dream Space. He walked forward solemnly and said:
“In the ‘Fantasia’ world, we obtained time ten times that of the real world, although limited by that damn rule, we can only stay for twelve hours within one day.
“This has already greatly changed our way of life, research, and combat. Our lifespan has been greatly extended by the dream world; we possess more time!
“However, this unique function of the personal Dream Space extends our lifespan even further.
“Here, we can make time flow three times faster than the dream world!”
The two clock phantoms gradually solidified; one clock was extremely slow, and the other clock was normal.
At the same time, Allen shared his Attribute Panel. Luther noticed that Allen’s fantasy points were decreasing regularly.
“You should have noticed. My fantasy points are decreasing rapidly. The only problem with this function is that it requires a continuous consumption of fantasy points.”
Allen snapped his fingers again. The fantasy points stopped decreasing, and the two clocks gradually turned into phantoms and slowly disappeared.
“For our school studying Mechanical Magic Computers, this acceleration function is not that important yet. But for the Biological Magic Computer School, this function is extremely important. All their experiments need time!
“Not just for computer research, but for any magic research. Whether it is the combat power improvement and personalized spell improvement you are conducting, theoretical spell innovation, or frontier theoretical innovation—only time can make the rose bloom.”
Luther roughly understood. He only had a smattering of knowledge about computer theory, but he knew that a computer was an auxiliary calculation tool comparable to an Auxiliary Brain. He asked somewhat cautiously:
“This machine is too grand and clumsy. If it is to assist in combat, it doesn’t seem as portable as an Auxiliary Brain.”
After hearing this, Allen smiled lightly: “You ignored an important magic school—the recently risen Space School. We can completely manufacture a magic item and put this entire Mechanical Magic Computer inside. That way, it can be carried easily.
“Why don’t you try synchronizing with the Difference Engine? I’ll open the interface to you.”
Luther’s eyes lit up. He nodded hurriedly, somewhat curious. Following Allen’s introduction, he synchronized with that clumsy sensor interface.
Buzz!
A tremor at the soul level. In less than a second, Luther felt as if he had synchronized with the super-large Mechanical Magic Computer that occupied the vast majority of the Dream Space. Each gear could store ten numbers. The gears formed extremely complex arrays, performing digital operations through meshing, rotation, and translation.
Luther felt his mind become incomparably clear and fast, easily coming up with the optimal optimization strategy for spells.
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