Chapter 289: Think Outside the Box

“????” The science fanatic blinked, then finally remembered his mentor was referring to the earlier “spell master device,” and promptly praised him:

“Ah, you mean that thing? It’s amazing! No wonder you’re you—I scratched my head for weeks and couldn’t figure it out. Old hands know best!”

“Don’t flatter me. I recall you went into software development after graduation—why’d you suddenly go back to analog circuits?” Professor Wang asked gently, but the science fanatic suddenly felt something was off.

This mentor was kind, always patient when answering questions, but he was still a professor—why would he conduct a post-graduation “after-sales check” on a circuit design from a student who’d graduated years ago?

Realizing this, he forced his still-dizzy mind to clear: “Professor Wang, just ask straight out…”

“Then I’ll ask. If there’s any confidentiality rule, pretend I didn’t say it.” The moment Professor Wang spoke, the science fanatic’s instincts flared—he grew wary—

“Has Professor Wang turned traitor? No, that doesn’t make sense—I’m just a coder, not some classified unit… If he’s talking about confidentiality, doesn’t he have more secrets than I do? Could this be an AI scam? Someone’s monitoring my chats with my mentor and trying to extract info from me, then reverse-engineer it from the professor?”

The science fanatic’s gaze sharpened instantly—but then the professor spoke again:

“What exactly was that analog circuit you asked me to make for?”

“Huh?” The science fanatic hadn’t expected this question—he was caught off guard, but answered honestly:

“It wasn’t a circuit board at all—it was something in a game… ” He paused, considering the professor’s age, then continued: “You know Diablo, right? Like runewords—there are four total, different arrangements produce different effects. I built one that could handle all possible combinations…”

“You’re serious? You didn’t secretly take on some classified project? And you didn’t just randomly tinker as a backyard scientist?” Professor Wang’s sudden loud question cut him off, leaving the science fanatic utterly bewildered—

“Why are you bringing up classified projects and backyard science… Have you been reading too many novels?”

“Forget it. Are you in the province? You know where my lab is? Get over here right now—you have no idea what you’ve built!”

“Huh?” Professor Wang’s tone carried an excitement the science fanatic had never heard before—he was momentarily speechless.

“Stop saying ‘huh!’ Get over here now! You’re lucky you ran into me—if you’d gone to someone without ethics, you’d be crying! By the way, where are you staying? If you’re far, I’ll send someone to pick you up!”

“No, no, don’t bother—I’m coming right now! It’s just a few subway stops!”

The science fanatic finally realized he was truly in trouble. Holding onto his last shred of suspicion about “phone scams,” he refused to let anyone come to his home, changed clothes, and headed for the subway station…

…

“Why’d you take so long!”

Back at the school he hadn’t visited in years, the science fanatic hadn’t even had time to mourn his lost youth when he saw an old man waving at him:

“Why are you so slow? I told you I’d send someone—hurry up!”

Watching Professor Wang grab his arm without a word and drag him inside, the science fanatic felt a chill:

“Wait, Professor—can we at least talk about what’s going on? You’re freaking me out!”

“I can’t explain it exactly, but your circuit’s electricity meter ran backward!”

After struggling for a while, Professor Wang finally found a fitting description—but the science fanatic was stunned:

“Professor, when did you start using internet slang?”

“Who said I was using slang? The electricity meter literally ran backward! Your circuit only had input and output terminals—it looked like some kind of charger. I didn’t pay attention at first, but then I kept thinking it was suspicious, worried about safety risks, so I built a real version and ran a power test—and the readings were wrong…”

Professor Wang himself felt slightly embarrassed—he should’ve just called to ask, but he didn’t understand what his student had built and didn’t want to look foolish; if it turned out to be nothing, he’d look even worse, so he decided to build it himself first.

But the science fanatic had no idea what the professor was thinking—he only felt awkward and said:

“It was just a game…”

“So what it was before doesn’t matter—what matters is what it is now!” Professor Wang shook his head, dragging him to the innermost room of the lab, where a circuit board over half a meter long sat on the workbench.

Without further delay, Professor Wang connected a 3.3V interface to the input port and hooked up the measuring device to the output port—

“Look—the input is 3.3V, but the output is high voltage, and the current decay is far less than what’s expected from a step-up transformer. In other words, even if you just hooked up a simple transformer, the output current exceeds the input. Isn’t that what you call an electricity meter running backward?”

“????” Even without technical knowledge, anyone who understood energy conservation would find this absurd—but how?

“How did you do it?”

Hearing the science fanatic ask this, Professor Wang shrugged:

“I’d like to know too. You said it’s from a game—how do they use it in the game?”

“As a staff! You feed it mana, then cast a spell…” The science fanatic felt the world turning surreal. Professor Wang didn’t look skeptical as he’d expected—he instead asked seriously:

“Can it cast only one spell? Or multiple? If one, which one? If multiple, how do you control them?”

“It’s all imagination—you feel like each spell has its own circuit, and this is just a base template. You guide the mana through a specific path, then think in your mind of the exact shape you want, and the spell forms.” The science fanatic wasn’t used to being questioned like this by an elder, but he endured the awkwardness and described his in-game spellcasting sensation.

To his surprise, the professor nodded thoughtfully after listening:

“So spellcasting requires software—but in the game, the software is driven by consciousness… Then in reality, you’d need external programming to guide energy through specific circuits? Describe a simple spell to me—I’ll try writing a simulation. By the way, there’s materials in the cabinet—use any standard parts. First, add a programming interface…”

(End of Chapter)