Chapter 360 - 349: Magic Power Key Resonance Equation
Chapter 360: Chapter 349: Magic Power Key Resonance Equation
A dedicated reception area had been set up in the living quarters, where the temperature was kept at a constant twenty-three degrees.
The Captain sat on a plush sofa, cradling a steaming cup of nutrient solution.
He gazed outside through the enormous window.
The arctic wind howled across the ice field. Twenty jet-black Peacekeeper Golems stood like statues, surrounding the building.
Farther out, amidst the ruins, the faint shapes of the remaining metal monsters could be seen prowling.
They had been saved.
But the Captain felt none of the joy that came with surviving a disaster. Their investigation was not yet complete.
"Well? Did you get a read on him?"
The Female Wizard from the Mind School sat in a corner with her eyes closed, her expression grim. "Captain, I can’t sense that Second-level Wizard’s emotions or thoughts."
"I can’t detect any emotional fluctuations you would call ’human.’ No joy, no fear."
"All I can faintly sense is terrifyingly complex calculation and logical deduction, and even that is behind a thick mental wall. He’s in a state of absolute rationality, just like those Golems."
"If you can’t get a read, then stop trying. Just gather whatever ambient information you can from his surroundings. Don’t provoke him. It seems this Golem Wizard’s mental defenses are ironclad."
The Captain looked down at the nutrient solution in his hands. "We’ll leave as soon as we’re rested. Let’s finish the mission and get out of this place."
「Deep within Cybertron, in the Ore and Crystal Laboratory.」
White lights illuminated the analysis table.
Several of Allen’s thought threads engaged one after another, pushing his research efficiency to its absolute limit.
On the analysis table, a metal monster the size of a soccer ball was locked down by rings of Magic Power inside a containment unit.
It resembled a small, four-legged beast, its head held low and its whip-like tail lashing continuously against the tabletop.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.
It had no gears, no hydraulic pistons, no drive shafts.
Yet its limbs could bend, twist, and extend at will, like soft modeling clay. No mechanical friction could be heard when they moved, and previous dissection experiments had already confirmed its interior was pure, solid metal.
Allen watched from behind the transparent blast shield, his gaze intent.
"Jarvis, record the morphological changes."
"Recording."
"Target unit designation: M-02. Mass: 13.7 kilograms. Primary components: 61.3% Earth Vein Tempered Steel, 22.6% Darkken Iron, 4.9% unknown silvery-white alloy, with the remainder being trace amounts of various Magic Metals."
"No artificial Runes, Golem control hub, or conventional joint structures detected internally."
"In other words, it’s definitely not a Mechanical Body."
"Faint soul fluctuations detected. Based on battlefield performance, subject is assessed as a metallic lifeform with extremely low intelligence."
Allen moved closer to the containment unit.
The small, beast-shaped metallic lifeform suddenly stopped struggling and turned its head toward Allen.
The next second, the metal of its body rippled as if liquefying. Its tail-whip shot out, stabbing toward the blast shield.
VMM!
A shield of Magic Power flared to life. The tail stopped in midair, its tip only thirty centimeters from Allen’s face.
Allen didn’t even blink.
"Attack response time: 0.13 seconds. It prioritizes attacking organic life."
He pointed a finger, and an incredibly fine, high-temperature beam sliced through the tip of the metal beast’s tail.
The severed tail fell onto the table and instantly ceased all movement. There was no blood, no sparks. It was as if it had become a dead object.
"The detached segment does not retain motor functions."
"Hypothesis: a core may be present. Recommend gradual dissection of the metal for observation."
Allen operated the instruments, stripping away the metal that formed the beast’s body layer by layer until a different color was revealed.
It was a date-sized, dark-gold object. The instant it was exposed, the surrounding metal liquefied to cover it again.
"Found it."
A mechanical arm descended, its silver pincer plunging precisely into the metal beast’s body. A high-voltage Magic Pulse surged through the pincer.
HISS!
The small beast convulsed violently. Its limbs collapsed as if melting, leaving only a roiling puddle of metallic sludge. The moment the core was forcibly extracted, the entire mass lost its structure, splatting outward before solidifying into a hard metal slab.
Allen placed the core into a High-tier analyzer.
"Begin tomographic scan."
"Scanning..."
The dark-gold core was magnified tens of thousands of times, its internal structure peeled back layer by layer.
The core’s surface was covered in tiny, natural pores, and it was radiating invisible waves of Magic Power at an extremely slow frequency.
Allen stared at the screen, recording the experimental data.
"Core confirmed to possess a stable, low-frequency Magic Power field. This field can influence the crystalline lattice arrangement of metals within a 2.7-meter radius."
A concept from his past life surfaced in Allen’s mind—self-organized criticality.
It was the phenomenon of a complex system spontaneously giving rise to order under specific conditions. A pile of sand forms its own critical slope; neurons form their own firing networks.
And this core before him, it seemed, was doing the exact same thing.
It required no external programming, no Commander—with nothing more than its insect-level intelligence and a minuscule soul, it could drive the surrounding metal to perform orderly movements.
"Just how many wondrous species does the Wizarding World hold," Allen murmured to himself.
"Establish a new classification?"
"Do it. Name it: Self-Regulating Metal Core."
For the next two days, Allen immersed himself completely in his research, dismantling and studying a large number of the metallic lifeforms’ cores, while Jarvis organized every piece of data.
Cybertron’s servitor Golems delivered nutrient solutions at regular intervals, brought in new samples, and carried away batches of inert wreckage.
By the morning of the third day, seventeen metal cores were laid out on the analysis table, alongside forty-three pulse-test records from different Magic Power frequency bands.
The critical breakthrough had been made.
While comparing the ninth and twelfth cores, Allen discovered a discrepancy. The "command frequencies" they used to control metal weren’t exactly the same; there was a variance of approximately 0.7%.
"Jarvis, pull up the alloy composition ratios for the metal that originally encased these two cores."
He overlaid the data.
The variance value was directly correlated with the difference in the alloy composition of the metal surrounding each of the two cores.
A spark of insight flashed in Allen’s eyes.
Each core inherently "knew" the material composition of the metal surrounding it.
It would automatically fine-tune its radiated frequency based on the material to achieve a perfect match.
Allen braced his hands on the console, staring at the final derived formula taking shape on the light screen.
He defined the internal binding force within the metallic lifeforms as "Magic Bonds."
The formula showed that the strength of a Magic Bond was determined by three variables: the type of metal, the alloy ratio, and the concentration of residual Magic Power.
Low-grade metals, with simple compositions, had simple and regular Magic Bonds.
High-grade metals, with complex compositions, had tightly integrated Magic Bonds.
Allen stared at the cross-sectional diagrams. ’The reason the core can freely twist and manipulate metal, even fusing and reorganizing different pieces of wreckage... is because the pulse frequency it releases perfectly matches the resonant frequency of the target metal’s Magic Bonds.’
’As long as the frequencies match, the hard metal loses its rigidity through resonance, becoming a malleable fluid.’
’That’s the secret to their reconstitution.’
’This is the key that was always missing from *Reverse Alchemy*.’
Allen pulled up his old business proposal for *Reverse Alchemy*.
He had previously tried to establish a third line of business for Weisren Heavy Industry: salvaging and recycling abandoned Golems and various metals from battlefields.
But the main obstacle was the "pre-processing" stage; forcibly dismantling Magic Metal consumed so much energy that the costs outweighed the returns.
He had originally planned to complete the necessary R&D within five years, but now, the problem had solved itself.
’No need for brute-force disassembly. No need for high-temperature smelting.’
’All I need to do is release a resonant wave at a specific frequency to directly disrupt the Magic Bonds within the Magic Metal, allowing it to deconstruct itself or even be reshaped entirely.’
Allen looked at the formula derived from his experiments and couldn’t help but recall a saying from his past life: "Learn from nature."