Sword of Dawn

Page 219

Of course, people in this age of the world probably don't think so, because magic vehicles are the most advanced and powerful means of transportation they have ever seen, but Gawain has seen something even better than magic vehicles—— Those running on the rails, capable of transporting tens of thousands of tons of goods at a time, are the kings of land transportation as powerful as the blood vessels of the industrial society.

train.

Compared with that thing, the transportation capacity of the magic vehicle in front of me would naturally pale in comparison.

In the final analysis, the magical vehicle was not born entirely to solve the transportation problem in the southern border—it was just a supplement in this regard. Its real meaning was to initiate a subsequent major transformation of transportation, to replace traditional horse-drawn carriages, and to Build farm machines, build construction machines, and even prepare military vehicles.

Gao Wen knew that the birth of trains on the earth was much earlier than the practical automobiles powered by internal combustion engines (not counting the early steam engine-powered and experimental locomotives), because the trains on the earth used The technical starting point of the "silly big black thick" steam engine is far lower than that of the precise, compact and efficient internal combustion engine. At the same time, various front-end technologies (tyres, batteries, electric spark plugs, etc.) In the period of development, all these are determined by objective historical facts, but in this world, the development laws of many things are destined to be different from those on Earth, and the order of many things is naturally different.

The steam engine could not be realized, but the rotor-type magic energy engine was born, and a high-efficiency power source similar to "internal combustion engine" or "electric motor" appeared in this world. At the same time, due to the technology accumulation and Gawain's conscious guidance made the "magic car", a complex vehicle, appear in this world earlier than trains, but this does not mean that this world does not need trains.

In fact, now is the time when the southern border needs it, and it also has the technical foundation to develop it.

Having lived here for so long, Gao Wen has already learned to abandon some old views, and realized the real situation hidden under the dark and ignorant appearance of this special era - the world's technological reserves are far richer than he imagined, The starting point of technology is also far higher than what he saw, but these technologies are concentrated in the hands of a few people, or scattered in the hands of scattered intellectuals in a fragmented state (this kind of "over-concentration of technology" and "technical fragmentation" phenomenon was the result of the collapse of the ancient Gondor Empire), which resulted in the society here appearing to be far behind its true technological heights.

After understanding this point, Cecil's technology development speed is naturally not difficult to understand: in many cases, those technologies are not developed from scratch at all, but are only mass-produced with existing "upper-level" technologies , or reconstructing and transforming broken technologies, or even to be honest - if a copy of Gao Wen's "scientific thought" is thrown into a country with a strong foundation and a large number of talents like Typhon, their development speed Only faster than Cecil.

But even so, Gao Wen will still recognize and respect the talents and efforts of those researchers, and maintain the highest degree of trust in the research department under him. He knows that science is gradual—with broken technology Fragments are constantly being reconstructed, and as various theories in the field of magic technology become more and more perfect, sooner or later, this land will get rid of the shadow of the ancient Gondor Empire, and step into a land that even the great magisters of the Starfire era have never set foot in. field.

"Master Ancestor? Master Ancestor?"

Rebecca's voice suddenly came from the side, waking Gao Wen up from his thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?"

Rebecca leaned in front of Gao Wen, with a look of concern and curiosity on her face.

Gao Wen realized that he had thought too much and was a little distracted just now, so he quickly coughed twice to adjust his expression, and then said while thinking: "Rebecca, do you know that magic guided vehicles are not the most A powerful land vehicle..."

Rebecca blinked her eyes: "You mean... a larger magical vehicle?! Use multiple rows of linked engines to tow a larger vehicle body?"

"...It's not the same, it is indeed a bigger car, but its operating mechanism is completely different from that of a magic car," Gawain organized easy-to-understand words to describe the car that has never appeared in this world. "You can imagine such a car: it has a 'magic engine' that is ten times, dozens of times, maybe even hundreds of times stronger than the magic car, and this magic engine pulls a dozen The carriages run across the ground..."

Rebecca's eyes widened: "How is that possible! The ground will collapse! And what about turning? What about bumps?"

"So it needs to run on the track - the so-called track is the groove or guide rail made of steel laid on the ground, which can disperse the pressure brought by the heavy carriage, reduce the wear and tear of the metal wheel, and improve the stability of the train... ..."

Chapter 0517 Pittman's Assistance

The prospect Gao Wen described seemed to open a new door for Rebecca.

In the vast southern wilderness, the steel-paved track extends to the boundless distance. The magic-powered locomotive pulls hundreds of thousands of tons of goods and gallops on the ground. The mechanical gears and levers are roaring, and the powerful magic The energy engine is roaring, and the creation that is far beyond the reach of human beings is like the artery of the Principality of Cecil. It only takes a few days to transport materials and personnel to a distant place—and it may take a month's journey in the past , and even life-threatening.

She really wanted to see the scene painted by her ancestors.

"We can give it a name," Gao Wen said. He wanted to say the word "train" directly, but after thinking about it, he decided not to continue to embarrass the editors of the magic industry textbooks—those respectable people. In order to explain why there is an inexplicable word "electricity" in the "magic capacitor", scholars have begun to lose their hair in handfuls, "For example, it is called a magic train, so as to distinguish it from a magic car. The guide car is completely different, it uses higher efficiency to transport larger quantities of goods, although it can only travel along a fixed track route, its efficiency can make up for this limitation.”

Then he paused, and then said: "The magic train also has its own field of application. It is more flexible and convenient, and can play a role in the transportation of short-distance and small goods. It forms a perfect combination with the magic train." Complementary, the transportation network they form can cover every corner of the southern border."

Rebecca's eyes sparkled, and she had already begun to outline in her mind how such a means of transportation should be realized: "First of all, this requires a very, very powerful magic energy engine... Now we don't have such a large-scale... ...But you can consider connecting several engines together...or disperse the engines on several cars as a power pack. You also need to set a very powerful magic net on the car to power the engines...the space in the front of the car I'm afraid it's not enough, we need to distribute the magic grid units in those 'carriages'...the brakes need to be redesigned, and the track needs to be designed...Ah, there are so many things to consider!!"

"I'll give you a conceptual document with a more detailed description, which should inspire you." Gao Wen looked at Rebecca, but then changed the subject, "But this is a big project, and it must be It will involve a lot of energy, so don't affect the follow-up R&D and manufacturing of magic vehicles and other concurrent projects. As far as I know, the Magic Technology Research Institute has recently expanded its staff, and you can take this opportunity to set up a new research group."

The magic energy train is a very important idea. Of course, Gao Wen is looking forward to it, but he knows that people's energy is limited, even if it is a talented head like Rebecca, it is not to give her a plan and then "ding "A result will pop up in one click.Moreover, although the magic vehicle has been finalized, it does not mean that the relevant technical research and development in this area has been completed, and there is still a lot of follow-up technical work that needs to be done by someone. A few threads, can she handle so much work...

After all, judging from this girl's consistent way of speaking in a head-to-head manner and her style of doing things without thinking, she should not have many threads...

"I know!" Rebecca nodded her head vigorously, apparently her eagerness to try hadn't calmed down yet, "I'm sure I won't delay the business!"

Looking at the excitement in the girl's eyes, Gao Wen knew that his reminder just now was probably useless.

……

Magic Technology Research Institute, in the laboratory of the great magister Kamel, a magician wearing a white researcher's robe stood up from a strangely shaped seat with the support of others, and then walked stiffly. The pace came to the chair resting next to it.

The magician's eyes were a little dazed, and his muscles were tense all the time. After more than ten seconds, he recovered, and then looked at Kamel floating not far in front of him: "Master, I recovered."

Kamel immediately took half a step forward: "Okay, how do you feel?"

"Vertigo, seeing a lot of intricate hallucinations, hearing noises with unknown meaning, and occasionally hearing the sound of the broadcast—it seems to be a program broadcast by the magic net," the magician said about his feelings, "sitting on that chair Afterwards, I always felt that my muscles were tense, even if my brain wanted to relax, it didn’t work, as if the connection between the brain and the body was disturbed by something.”

Kamel listened carefully to the experimenter's description, and let out a sigh (although he was not breathing): "...It seems that the neural interference and information injection functions have indeed been realized, but there are problems with the connection and compilation, and The 'dipping' process is very unreliable."

Afterwards, he floated to the center of the laboratory, and came to the weird chair that the magician had sat on before.

This seat is obviously a magical creation, but it is different from any kind of magical machinery made by Cecil - it is a reclining chair that can be half-ly reclined, and the entire lower part of the seat is a structure The extremely complex metal base is covered with flickering magic lines. The rune structure on the base is slightly similar to the base runes of the magic net communicator, but it is obviously more complicated and profound.On the upper part of the seat, behind the backrest, you can see many metal arc-shaped structures extending from the middle of the backrest to the position where the neck and the back of the head rest. The stretched, curved spine is normal and extends into the base of the seat bottom.

On the front of the seat, the area for people to lie down is covered with a layer of dark blue leather-like wrappings. The leather "chair cushion" is lined with neat metal contacts, which extend from the lumbar spine to the Extending upwards, it corresponds to the general structure of the human spine, forming a matrix.

It looked weird and mysterious, even almost a little scary. If it was an ordinary person who had never seen anything in the world, he would probably not dare to sit on such a seat that looked like some kind of sacrificial prop.

"It was manufactured strictly according to the information provided by the lord, including the basic rune array and every nerve connection point. We only reset its connection direction so that it points to the magic net," another magician said in Said next to it, "But it seems that ordinary people have no way to connect their consciousness with the seat, let alone launch it."

Another magician took over the words: "Even if you remove the clothes and let the skin directly touch the nerve contacts, there is no way to improve the connection effect, but it will aggravate the side effects."

Kamel didn't say a word, just floating in front of the seat, the two arcane flames on his head fixedly "watched" the flashing runes on the chair.

This weird and somewhat unsettling device was manufactured under the behest of Gao Wen, and the technology it uses may seem almost terrifying to most ordinary people——

This is the creation of the Eternal Sleeper, a variant of the magic circle known as the "neural interactive mind network connection circle". The lord found this complex and profound magic circle from the knowledge of the Eternal Sleeper, and ordered the magic technology The Institute used new techniques to restore it.

The researchers didn't fear it because of the source of this technology—because everyone who can work here at least knows the words "technical innocence", but when they finally constructed those complex and profound magic runes, And after making such a chair, they found that this thing did not meet the requirements of the lord.

"Maybe we are missing some key elements," said the magician who tested the seat after a while of silence. He had regained some energy and his voice became steady and powerful. Using sorcery and magic, and using all kinds of terrible methods to transform themselves—just like those fallen druids, I suspect that this seat also has requirements in this regard: it is useless for ordinary people to sit on it, it must be with the Like those who sleep forever, they have carried out a 'transformation' on themselves."

A magician standing next to him immediately shook his head: "This is not good news..."

Kamel listened to the discussions of other researchers, but couldn't help but sigh in his heart——

It would be great if my nervous system is still there, maybe I can actually feel what is wrong with this chair, but it's a pity that let alone the nervous system now, I don't even have eyes and expressions...

He shook his head and made a buzzing voice: "Continuing the discussion won't help, let's re-adjust the position of the connection points and the state of the curved spine bridge, and try again."

The magicians acted immediately and began to readjust the state of the seat, and a new tester also stepped forward, ready to test after the seat was restarted: there is a legendary mage named Kamel watching here So, there is no need to worry about life-threatening, directly going to the human body test is the easiest and quickest solution.

This can also be regarded as the unique "efficient mode" of a laboratory with extraordinary powerhouses.

But just when a group of magicians were busy readjusting the seats, and Kamel was about to order the start-up test, a voice suddenly came from the direction of the laboratory door, interrupting their work.

"Try it a few more times and it's the same - there is a key link that is wrong."

Kamel raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw Pittman, who was stooped, walking slowly into the laboratory. This little old man was still wearing his gray druid robe, with a beard and hair Messy, but with a rather smug smile on his face.

Pittman seemed to be in a hurry when he smiled, so Kamel decided to ignore the guy's expression.

"The key link?" He looked at Pittman who had already approached, "Also, why are you here when you are free?"

"I heard about your research project from Ms. Rebecca before, and she seems to think that I, a druid, can help you—and I think her idea makes sense," Pittman laughed twice , and then turned around the strangely shaped seat, "The technology of the Eternal Sleeper is a technology that connects magical creations and human brains. Note that it is the human brain and magical creations. You seem to only pay attention to magical creations. part, but ignores the subtle role of 'biological structure' in this process, you lack the guidance of a professional druid..."

Kamel nodded slightly, with a serious tone: "The research institute has a lot of funding."

"...I haven't asked for money yet!" Pittman stared at him, and then squinted at Kamel, "By the way, you, a guy who has never died for a thousand years, have learned how to joke?"

"I'm not kidding, I'm just stopping the loss of the institute's funding," Kamel said with a blue-green face, "You came to provide guidance last time and directly caused us to lose half a month's funding of a team. Of course, if you It can really help us, and I wouldn't mind treating you to a meal in my personal capacity."

"...Forget it, no one who eats with you wants to have a second time. I sit and eat, and then you float next to me and cut more than 1 colors in one minute. I can't eat it," Pittman posed He waved his hand, and then pointed to the chair in the center of the laboratory, "There is nothing wrong with the design of this thing, but I am afraid that even the lord does not know that there is a technical detail in it - this is used to connect the basic rune array, It's something called an artificial nerve cord, which cannot be replaced by ordinary magic-guiding materials."

Kamel's tone was full of curiosity: "Artificial nerve cord?"

"Something made of a mixture of biomass and channeling metal, you can think it's alive, even though it's actually closer to a magic puppet," Pittman said slowly, "I'm not sure I can Made it, but maybe try it."

Kamel looked carefully at Pittman's face that never seemed to be serious: "...I'm afraid this is not knowledge that ordinary druids can master?"

Pittman smiled. "Who knew? I happen to be a naturalist."

Chapter 0518 Pittman's Secret

The first snow after winter has finally come.

Fluttering snowflakes fell from the leaden sky, gently covering every inch of Cecil City, all the bell towers, roofs, city walls, and sentry towers were covered with a layer in a short period of time Pure white, in this boundless and soft snow, the boundary between sky and earth, city and wilderness, house and street, all boundaries become blurred.

Till cautiously squirmed to the front of the porch, she poked her long tail out of the porch, quickly poked the layer of snow under the porch that was not too thick with the tip of her tail, and then a trembling visible to the naked eye followed The tip of her tail spread all over her body—Miss Siren shivered a bit, and immediately retracted her tail into a ball: "It's freezing! I don't want to go out in this kind of horrible weather!"

However, Rebecca stood in the middle of the courtyard, turning her head and waving at Tyre vigorously: "It's rare to have a weekend off today, why don't you try it! Snowball fights are very fun! I like snow the most since I was a child!"

In Cecil, people have eight working days a week, and every Saturday and Thursday are days off, but due to the progress of a large number of research projects recently, Rebecca has not had a vacation for a long time, this belated The first snow made her finally have a reason to take a holiday, and it also reminded her of the happy time when she was a child playing in the snow—although she has grown up and the world has been turned upside down, snow is snow, as always, it is exciting hapiness.

Tyre, who was born in the deep sea, couldn't understand Rebecca's source of happiness. This was her second winter on land. This season of snow, ice, and extremely inactive water elements meant nothing to her. The words have no fun at all: "Isn't it just a ball of snowballs throwing each other around - you humans like throwing all kinds of things around since throwing stones, I can't understand this kind of love... and If you want to have a snowball fight, at least wait until the snow stops, what can you do with this little snow now..."

While speaking, Miss Siren worked harder to roll her tail up, and tried to retract her upper body into the ball formed by the tail: "I'm sleepy, I want to go back to sleep..."

However, before she finished speaking, a cold snow ball suddenly flew in the air and landed firmly on her forehead.

"Wow!!" The balance that Tire had managed to maintain was instantly broken, and the coiled tail ball almost rolled backwards, "I even said I don't want to play anymore!"

"It's not me!" Rebecca also saw the snowball on Tyre's face, and quickly waved her hands, "The snowball came from another direction..."

Before she could finish her sentence, another ball of snowball flew out of nowhere from the corner of the courtyard, and this time it landed firmly on her forehead.

"……amber!!"

Till finally screamed, and her scream reminded Rebecca, who was still covered in circles, the two of them raised their heads together and looked towards the direction where the snowball was flying - there, a handful of snowballs were condensing out of thin air , there are sneaky footprints on the snow...

In the first snow that was still fluttering, a small scuffle broke out in the courtyard of the Lord's Mansion.

"It's nice to be young..."

Behind the floor-to-ceiling windows of the study, Gawain averted his gaze to the courtyard below, and sighed softly.

Pittman sat on a chair beside the desk. He took a sip of hot tea, raised his eyelids and looked at Gawain: "Your physical age is only 37 years old—still quite young."

"37 is already an unsuitable age for snowball fights with juniors in the yard." Gao Wen went back to the desk, sat down on his large chair, and picked up the teacup in front of him, "drinking tea in the study is quite OK."

Pittman chuckled: "It's a pity that a sloppy old man is sitting across from you."

Gao Wen didn't answer, but took a sip of hot tea slowly, then looked at Pittman's face that seemed to be able to maintain a hippie smile under any circumstances, and after staring at it for two seconds, he said: "I heard You solved the technical problem that Kamel encountered—is that thing called an artificial nerve cord?"

"That's right, the product of the combination of druid technology and alchemy engineering, something that most people can't think of."

"Ordinary druids can't think of that kind of thing," Gawain said calmly. "That's the technology of the eternal sleepers. Strictly speaking, it was created by the fallen druids of the Doom Society and passed on to the eternal sleepers. Or, the nerve connection technology improved by the biochemical engineers of the Eternal Sleeper."

Pittman's expression finally showed a hint of astonishment, and then he shook his head with a helpless smile on his face: "I thought you didn't know this - since you know, why didn't you tell Kamel? Just to let me Say it?"

"No, I don't like to use this method to test or investigate my subordinates. The current situation is just an accident to me," Gao Wen said frankly, "The reason why I didn't tell Kamel is because of this The technology is not humane, and it has huge hidden dangers: implanting artificial nerve cords can drastically change the personality of the recipient, and there is even a risk of mental breakdown."

"...Indeed, the artificial nerve cord is a very uncontrollable thing," Pittman nodded, "It seems that you do know a lot of secrets about the eternal sleepers and the end of all things... I'm curious. After learning about them, what do you think of them?"

"They have extremely advanced technologies in specific fields, and they seem to have a sense of mission. I even suspect that they think they are saving the world-this can be seen from some of their grand plans. But neither Changing the fact that their methods are evil will not prove their goals are correct," Gao Wen put the teacup on the table, and said unhurriedly, "If the direction is wrong, the more knowledge you have, the more reactionary you will be. If the methods are wrong, work hard. The more the more sinful."

There was a change in Pittman's eyes at that moment. Gao Wen couldn't tell the specific reason and content of the change, but at this moment, he did feel that Pittman's disguised hippie smile and cynical appearance were short-lived. It subsided, and a heavy and lonely temperament actually appeared on this little old man—but it was only for such a short moment.

"You're right, the direction and means..." Pittman smiled, full of self-deprecating smiles, "Talent does exist, some people are born to easily do things that others can't - you It’s so simple to point out the key point, but it took me most of my life to figure out the meaning of your two sentences.”

"I didn't create these words. They are the wisdom of the predecessors. I just borrowed and transformed them," Gao Wen said, with a serious expression on his face. "Pittman, it's time to be honest."

Pittman met Gawain's gaze, and after a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke in a low voice: "I am the withering priest of the end of all things, I used to be."

Sure enough.

Gao Wen breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. It was not once or twice that he had doubts in this regard, but Pittman did not take the initiative to ask, so he did not take the initiative to ask. Today, taking advantage of the "artificial nerve cord technology" as an opportunity, he The suspicion was finally confirmed.

However, before he opened his mouth, Pittman actually had something to say: "At the same time, I am also the nightmare instructor of the Eternal Sleeper-I used to be."

A believer in the Society of the End of All Things and a member of the Sleepers? !

This was completely beyond Gao Wen's expectation. He looked at the wrinkled little old man in front of him in astonishment: "You joined two sects at the same time?!"

"The first to join is the death of all things," Pittman shook his head, "That was when I was very young-to be honest, I did want to be an orthodox druid at first, and I was really a tree Heart school, but things like fate are so unreasonable... There was a famine in the town, which was caused by the erosion of magic power, and the conventional druid spells had no effect at all. There was no way until an outside druid solved the problem, so I followed the new druid and became his apprentice——I later learned that he was the forest shepherd of the end of all things."

"Then you joined the End of Everything?" Gawain looked into Pittman's eyes, unable to hide his curiosity, "Then how did you join the Eternal Sleepers?"

"I originally thought that the technology of the End of All Things Society could heal the land, solve the famine, and allow me to learn real knowledge, but then I found out that they were just a bunch of lunatics, so I took the opportunity of an exchange to join Eternal Sleep The ones—the memory tanks of the Sleepers contain the most abundant knowledge in the world. Although I am not good at dream spells, I am very interested in their other knowledge..."

"Then you found out that they are another group of lunatics." Gawain knew that Pittman's experience in his youth could never be so simple, but obviously the other party was unwilling to go into details, so he just skipped the topic, "You Freed from the Sleeper? Then?"

Pittman spread his hands: "Then? Then I met a crappy little thief, and followed him to adopt a half-elf who twittered and had no respect for the elderly."

Gao Wen was dumbfounded, and then smiled: "I thought you would join the Son of the Storm, after all, you have joined two of the three sects."

Son of the storm...

A look of reminiscence appeared on Pittman's face for a moment, and then he shook his head with a wry smile: "I really looked for them, but I can't learn to swim, and I get seasick, and more importantly, I can't eat sashimi, so I don't know what to do." Go for it."

Gao Wen: "..."

This seemingly unscrupulous, deceitful, skinny, and disrespectful old druid once had a magnificent life.

Although Gao Wen was indeed a little interested in Pittman's unknown and magnificent life, judging from the other person's appearance, the little old man was obviously trying to avoid that period of life, so he just nodded: "You have left them now .”

"It's been many years since I left," Pittman said calmly. "To be honest, I almost forgot that I was one of them. I was shocked by the reformer who exploded on the pier. I thought they finally They came to the door—it turned out that compared to a small person like me who defected halfway, you, a historical figure who came out of the legend, attracted their attention more."

"I'm curious about one thing, are you really just a low-level druid of level three?" Gawain looked Pittman up and down, "Your truth..."

Pittman smiled indifferently: "There is a price to be paid for the two defections—the current me is indeed just a low-level druid of the third level."