Chapter 125: The Physical Magical Connector and Its Potential
Chapter 125: The Physical Magical Connector and Its Potential
<But where is this machine made? Meta Hardware?>
The employee named Charles knew it was not, but he sent the message to probe.
There was a possibility that the seller, desperate to make a sale, might lie and say it was a major company’s product. However, considering that he talked through chat, received money transfers, and then actually made and sent the item instead of swallowing the money, he did not seem like that cunning of a person.
<No...>
Dual Class seemed to hesitate for a moment. But soon, another message came.
<Actually, I made this myself.>
<Wow! Really? You must be a wizard?>
<Haha. For now, yes.>
“He says he made it himself.”
Unlike his overly excited chat messages, Charles turned to Persple with an expressionless face and said this.
“Good work!”
It was not as though Charles had conducted some difficult interrogation, but he had still managed to get an answer from the person in question. After that, they spent a while testing whether the person called Dual Class was just bluffing. They could not obtain firm proof through this kind of chat, but for now, they got the sense that he really was the maker.
Then again, when the Server Management Team employees had asked their messenger acquaintances while searching for the seller, Dual Class was the only seller they found. It seemed almost certain that he was either the maker himself or at least someone closely related to him.
<You’re in Kames City, right? It should arrive in about two days.>
To begin with, Dual Class did not seem particularly interested in hiding his information. Otherwise, he would not so easily say something that allowed them to roughly estimate his location.
Unlike Earth, neither roads nor automobiles were very developed yet, so this world’s delivery system was quite poor. If the item could arrive within two days, that meant he was somewhere fairly close to Kames City.
In any case, after ordering the item, Persple headed to the chairman’s office to report everything so far.
“A magical connector?”
Ras’s eyes widened in surprise when he heard about the machine. This was the name Dual Class had given the item he sold, probably meaning a device that connected to Spirit Stone’s Spirit Realm, but to Ras, it sounded like an internet connector.
It was a truly absurd machine.
Ras had come from a world where the internet was developed, and he also wanted to recreate it in this world. It was partly because the game industry he worked in was closely related to it, but also simply because he himself wanted to use the internet again.
Anyone would understand. A world without the internet was too stifling and inconvenient.
However, recreating it was absolutely not easy. In the first place, building infrastructure was not something an individual could do. It was not merely a matter of money. Such large-scale facilities required demand from many people and social consent before they could proceed as a business.
Because of that, recreating the internet world was a project he viewed over a very long time frame. Yet now there was an item that could connect without needing any such infrastructure, as long as one had a single machine. He truly never imagined it.
No, since this was a world with magic, he had imagined similar fantasies before. However, even magic in this world was something that existed within reality. It clearly had limits and restrictions.
But ten Del a month...
That was cheaper than the internet fees he used to pay on Earth. No, compared to early internet service plans, it was only about a third or even a quarter of the cost.
If Ras worked a little and diligently created initial content to draw people in, he might be able to recreate the internet in no time.
Of course, he still did not know this equipment’s exact specifications, so it was too early to get excited. If it was truly only capable of using Spirit Stone’s network, then all these thoughts would become meaningless. No, even that level would be enough for the PC communication service he was preparing, so it seemed possible to build a foundation for the future internet world.
“Good. He said two days later, right?”
“Yes? Yes. He said it should arrive around then.”
“Good. We’ll need to examine what kind of item it is properly then. Ah. And you said tracing should also be possible, right? Please proceed with that as well.”
“Yes. Understood.”
It was not exactly because he intended to arrest the person called Dual Class. Of course, since the man had caused damage to Ras’s company, he would have to be questioned about that.
However, taking a fine from an individual would not amount to much money, and rather than making an enemy over that, Ras coveted this connector, and the ability to make it.
Two days later, Persple came to Ras’s chairman’s office again. This time, he was with Tata, the wizard from before.
“It is an honor to meet you.”
“Ahaha. Thank you.”
Tata looked to be around thirty, but he was extremely respectful toward Ras, who had not yet turned twenty. Then again, it was not that strange. The more someone experienced society, the more they learned that a person’s achievements and current position mattered more than being the same age.
And since Tata liked games and computers, there was probably quite a bit of fan enthusiasm mixed in as well.
“So this is the magical connector.”
Dual Class was apparently not a scammer after all, because he sent the item on schedule. Ras examined the cylindrical metal machine from different angles.
For now, it was about the size of a human head. It had only a hole for inserting a small magic cartridge and a port for connecting to a Communication Card. Other than that, it was a plain-looking object.
Normally, if it were an ordinary machine, it would at least have a heat sink.
The finishing also looked quite crude. Since it was a machine made by an individual, that was only natural.
“First, let’s see whether this actually works.”
“Yes.”
At Ras’s words, Persple immediately installed the machine while looking at the manual enclosed with it. It was a single-page manual printed with a dot printer, and in truth, there was almost nothing to explain.
(Translator’s Note: Dot printer — Refers to a dot matrix printer, an older type of printer that forms characters and images using a matrix of tiny dots.)
One simply connected it to the Communication Card, inserted the cartridge, and turned on the machine’s power. Ordinary electrical products at least had a lamp to show whether the power was on, but this had nothing like that.
<Connecting to the Spirit Realm.>
Of course, they could confirm whether it worked by watching it directly like this.
The three people in the chairman’s office waited for the monitor message with slight tension. Before long, the next message appeared on the screen.
<Connected to the Spirit Realm. Searching for an opponent.>
“...It works.”
Ras said this while feeling goosebumps rise all over his body. The Communication Card clearly was not plugged into a telephone line, yet it connected to the opponent network, and the match list appeared one after another.
“Yes. And it seems a little faster too.”
Persple, the head of the Server Management Team, caught this point immediately.
“Of course, we’ll have to measure it for accuracy, but it certainly seems faster than connecting by phone.”
“Is that so?”
Ras’s conviction that they absolutely had to introduce this machine grew stronger. He looked back and forth between the network screen and the machine for a while, thinking over various things, then turned to the wizard Tata.
“Then please go ahead.”
“Yes. Understood.”
They had called Tata to investigate this machine. They needed to know what technology it used, whether it really could communicate without issue for only ten Del a month as Dual Class claimed, and whether there were any problems.
Before calling Tata for this matter, Ras had already signed an exclusive contract with him. Until now, he had been somewhat neglectful of magical technology, but after experiencing something like this, he decided he needed to pay more attention to it, starting with securing someone he could consult.
He also planned to hire several people outright as engineers. Among the candidates was Dual Class, who had made this device.
Tata began dismantling the machine with a slightly flushed expression. He was also interested in it. As someone confident in the latest technology, he could not help wondering what kind of amazing magic had been used to create an item with efficiency this far beyond common sense.
Ras and Persple quietly watched him dismantle and inspect the machine piece by piece.
It would be refreshing if they could receive a detailed answer immediately, but they did not expect much. After all, they had called him because they knew nothing about this field and wanted at least a rough explanation.
“Hmm...”
However, Tata kept tilting his head as he inspected the machine. After dismantling and examining it down to the last screw, he spoke with an expression that said he could not understand it.
“This is strange.”
“Yes?”
“There doesn’t seem to be any particularly special technology here.”
Since Ras knew nothing about this side of magic, he could only wait for Tata’s explanation with a look that asked what he meant.
“The thing is, for network play to be possible for ten Del a month, there should be some revolutionary technology involved. But all the magic here is ordinary. It is definitely magic that can connect to a network, but it should absolutely not be capable of that level of efficiency.”
“Ah. Then are you saying it’s a scam?”
Ras asked, slightly disappointed, but Tata did not immediately say yes and instead scratched his bangs.
“I think we’ll need to run it ourselves and check to know for sure. That is what my calculations say, but magic has many unexpected areas...”
Ras could understand that much. Magic had long since become a technology, but it still did not fit perfectly into exact calculations like science or mathematics.
In the first place, the entities implementing it were beings with their own subjectivity.
In any case, as Tata said, Ras operated the machine and measured its mana consumption. This was carried out at the same time as the Server Management Team confirmed the machine’s performance.
“It’s definitely faster than using the telephone network.”
Persple measured it himself, and his expression was extremely flushed.
First of all, the response speed was very fast. He did not know what this was doing or how, but the ping did not even reach 20 ms. That was more than twenty times faster than the telephone network.
(Translator’s Note: Ping — Network latency measurement, usually expressed in milliseconds, indicating how long it takes data to travel to a server and back.)
The data transmission speed was also much faster.
“For now, it can receive up to the maximum speed supported by our machine.”
They could not determine the upper speed limit. That was because the server and computer had limits on the speeds they supported. But compared to the telephone network, which was only 0.15 kb/s, it was incomparable.
(Translator’s Note: kb/s — Kilobits per second, a unit of data transmission speed.)
It reached as high as 3.6 kb/s.
Of course, compared to Earth, where gigabit internet existed, this speed was absurdly low, but in this world, it was practically revolutionary.
(Translator’s Note: Gigabit internet — High-speed internet service with data rates around one gigabit per second, far faster than early dial-up or low-speed connections.)
And since most of the data exchanged in this world was still text, this speed was more than sufficient. It was excessive.
Ras was extremely excited by the result. At this level, even if it cost not ten Del but one hundred Del, it would still be worth using. Things that had once seemed distant, such as portal sites, email, and real-time online games, now seemed possible to make at once.
Then, a while later, Tata also informed them of the result of measuring mana consumption.
“This is strange.”
Tata looked as if he could not understand it. Ras stared hard at his mouth, wondering what that meant.
“The mana consumption is strangely low.”
“Ah! Then?”
“Yes. It seems Dual Class’s claim is true. It should be possible to operate it for around ten Del.”
Ras’s face instantly brightened. Unlike Tata, who was worrying over a phenomenon a wizard could not understand, Ras was a businessman, and what mattered to him was the result.
In his eyes, he could almost see the internet era he had thought was still about ten years away beginning to open.
We need to mass-produce this.
Ras stared at the crude magical connector with eyes full of heat and thought this.
“How did the phone number tracing go?”
“Ah. Yes. We found it.”
Persple was slightly overwhelmed by Ras’s changed mood. That was how excited Ras was. When Ras heard that they had found the creator’s location, his expression brightened even more.