Chapter 342: World-Class Spell

And just as the Phoenix Society and the Aurors were locked in a fierce battle.

Magic Research Institute.

A researcher pushed open the door to the underground machine room.

"Who are you? This is a classified area; unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering." Two wizards were guarding the end of the corridor. Seeing him, they blocked the way.

"I am Howard Jackson, the new software engineer. I am responsible for debugging Athena's system," the researcher took out his ID.

"Jackson?" A wizard took the ID and looked at it. "Magic Plant Research Department, you aren't..."

However, before he could finish speaking, he heard a thud; his companion had fallen down at some point. He subconsciously went to draw his wand, but heard the person who called himself Jackson say in a slow, gentle, and irresistible voice: "Sleep."

The uncontrollable drowsiness made the wizard unable to lift a finger. At the last moment of losing consciousness, he tried to pass a message through the mental network, but after the message was sent, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no feedback.

"Within the coverage of my mental space, any mental transmission will be isolated," 'Jackson' said, taking a card from the wizard's chest and pressing it against the blast-proof door behind them.

With a beep, the blast-proof door opened.

Inside was also a corridor. As soon as he walked in, he heard a female voice say: "Entering the sterile room, please accept disinfection."

Similar arrangements existed in every important laboratory, and this so-called "disinfection," besides the conventional effect of killing bacteria and viruses, also incorporated the goblin's "Anti-Intruder Jinx," which could eliminate the effects of most magic spells, thereby avoiding infiltration.

Jackson had already experienced "disinfection" several times and knew this was a routine step, so he didn't resist.

Several spray heads extended from the wall, spraying fine water mist.

However, as soon as the water mist touched his skin, Jackson suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.

Not good, there is poison in here!

I've been discovered!

He immediately took a cross-like object from his bosom, preparing to force his way out, but two gun barrels extended from the wall in front, and with two "bangs," his arm was broken.

"You can't trap me," Jackson said, preparing to abandon this body and leave, but the surrounding walls all lit up with an eerie blue.

A voice came from the loudspeaker. "Magic metal mesh is laid in the interlayer of the walls. Have you heard of electromagnetic shielding? This is a magic shielding device. We had over twenty wizards inject magic power simultaneously to attach a powerful magic field to it. Unless your magic intensity increases tenfold, no magic signal can leave here."

Jackson was stunned to find himself trapped in this body, unable to transfer through the mental space.

At the same time, several fine rays of light formed an interlocking network, slowly pressing over from the front.

"What is this?" Jackson felt a trace of danger.

"Laser network," the voice said again. "A quirky design from the Professor; he said it was a tribute to a certain movie. I don't quite understand. But these industrial lasers can cut steel plates."

"Holy Mother, let us test whether you are a body of steel."

……

"Strawberry flavor," Murphy breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally, a normal-tasting one. But you guessed tomato flavor. So, it's my turn to ask the second question."

"Regarding that secret, what can you tell me?"

Dumbledore was silent for a while. "I cannot tell you anything, Murphy."

Murphy frowned and looked at Grindelwald. "But Mr. Grindelwald also knows that secret? It seems that saying the secret won't directly lead to very terrible consequences, so why can't I know?"

"Because this secret cannot stop you; it might even be exploited by you and become your weapon."

"Oh?" Murphy turned many possibilities in his mind. "Then, let me take a guess."

"Judging from the current situation, you and the Holy Mother both want to stop me from destroying the Statute of Secrecy," Murphy said, then shook his head again. "No, if it were just worrying about this, we actually have room for discussion."

"After all, unlike Mr. Grindelwald back then, whose goal was to destroy the Statute of Secrecy, the Statute of Secrecy is irrelevant to me. I don't want to destroy it; in fact, the existence of the Statute of Secrecy is the foundation of the huge profits I was able to extract before. My rise to wealth relied on the information gap between wizards and Muggles."

"If possible, I would also be very happy to let the Statute of Secrecy continue to exist, to block other wizard competitors."

"If it were just to maintain the Statute of Secrecy, you could actually adopt more gentle methods, such as uniting with me, as long as you ensure that this information gap is only used by me personally and will not expand to the point where everyone knows, letting the Statute of Secrecy make an exception only for me."

"Such a special case is of course difficult for you to accept, but I think it should be better than going to full-scale war with me. You know, your chances of winning are not high. Even the choice to go to war with me could lead to the destruction of the Statute of Secrecy."

"But you still chose to go to war with me," Murphy said. "Then this shows that the impact of what I am doing is more serious than the Statute of Secrecy itself, and even more unacceptable to you and the Holy Mother."

"And this impact is the secret that the Holy Mother is guarding."

"I think I have some ideas," Murphy said.

Dumbledore sighed. "You are indeed very smart, Murphy."

"What could be more serious than destroying the Statute of Secrecy and letting wizards be known to Muggles?" Murphy thought for a moment. "Coincidentally, we previously discovered a strange phenomenon regarding magic, which we call the 'Observer Effect of Magic'."

"Magic will try its best to avoid being exposed to people who don't know it actually exists."

"If we understand this effect in reverse, it means that once someone definitely knows of the existence of magic, magic can no longer be completely hidden from this person."

"If Muggles knew about magic..."

"Wait..."

Murphy was suddenly stunned. "So that's it, so this is that 'secret'!"

"This secret is not information, not a sentence, but actually a concept?!"

"This is a spell... mental suggestion? No, that's not right, it seems to be more essential... Muggle-Repelling Charm? No, it's even stronger..."

Suddenly, a flash of lightning lit up in his mind.

"Fidelius Charm!"

Murphy looked at Dumbledore in astonishment. "This is a Fidelius Charm?! Treating 'magic' as the secret that needs to be guarded, and all wizards are Secret-Keepers?! That's why magic is ignored by Muggles... This is a world-class Fidelius Charm!"

"So that's it, this is the ultimate Statute of Secrecy, this is the role of the Statute of Secrecy."

Dumbledore was silent, but at this moment, silence meant agreement.

Murphy had goosebumps all over because of this discovery; he suddenly had a terrifying shock of glimpsing a trace of the true face of this world.

"So the Observer Effect of Magic is not a true objective phenomenon, but an influence of this world-class Fidelius Charm!"

"Then who cast this Fidelius Charm, and for what purpose?"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 343 =====