Chapter 2225: Adaptive Virtual Time

————I only made up for yesterday today; today's work can only be made up for tomorrow. Combined with what needs to be updated tomorrow, it won't be dragged to the day after tomorrow~

————

The inspection of the Central Energy Conduction Network in the Time Acceleration Zone was completed, and new tasks were assigned. Jianaer also left quickly, leaving Xia Duo alone in the reserved Time Acceleration Zone to continue his inspection.

This time, he mainly inspected the design plan for Time Acceleration and the actual situation of this area. Of course, this area was not originally intended to be a Time Acceleration Zone, but rather a Rest Plaza within the Research District.

That it has become this way now is simply a part of the design plan being implemented; he only checked it one more time to ensure nothing would go wrong before starting the subsequent construction work.

Even though much of the preliminary work had already been completed by the Magic Technician Office, Xia Duo still worked until late at night. Niya urged him many times, but he kept saying to wait a little longer; later, Niya simply came to the construction site herself.

"Can't you come over tomorrow?"

"It's already finished; let's retreat to the edge of the plaza first."

As he spoke, Xia Duo took Niya's hand and walked toward the outer perimeter of the Rest Plaza, only stopping after crossing a bright red line two fingers wide that surrounded the entire plaza.

Niya looked back, pointed inside the red line, and asked curiously: "Is that the Time Acceleration Zone in there?"

"Not entirely; there is still about two meters inside the red line where time will not be accelerated."

Although there were markings, Xia Duo wouldn't be foolish enough to make the area immediately past the marking line the Time Acceleration Zone; a little extra buffer was still needed. The true Time Acceleration Zone was only the circular area in the middle of the plaza with a diameter of one hundred meters.

It was just enough to fit one Mythallar device, but since it was only used for Mages of the Tower of Time to study and research, it was barely enough.

Not everyone could accept Time Acceleration, especially those with families. Accelerate once and you're the same age as your parents; accelerate again and you're older than your parents—that's just too absurd.

Xia Duo speculated that for a short time, he would likely be the only one using it.

……

"I'm going to activate the Time Acceleration. You didn't make it to Master Eriwen's Ascension Ritual last time, but this time we can see the scene of Time Acceleration right in our own home. Watch closely!"

After speaking, Xia Duo began to communicate with the Floating City's Adaptive Mythallar, and by linking the Mythallar with the Main Energy Control Center's Mythallar device, he focused the Arcane Energy Field onto this area.

The Mythallar device previously in the Research District Sub-Energy Center had been sold to Kelifu by him. Of course, even if it hadn't been sold, it could still only be powered by an Arcane Energy Field, since the Central Energy Conduction Network hadn't been fully built yet!

It only ensured that the energy flow within this Time Acceleration Zone was stable and orderly; it couldn't yet transmit the Arcane Energy generated by the Main Energy Center over here.

For now, it could only be powered by a "wireless" Arcane Energy Field.

As for the focusing, it was because the intensity of the Arcane Energy Field naturally emitted by the Mythallar was insufficient to sustain the Time Acceleration in this area, requiring the energy density to be increased through focusing.

Theoretically, this kind of focusing could be precise to a single point, but in reality, it couldn't be done. If it could, wouldn't that be equivalent to shrinking the entire Mythallar, and being able to move it at will within a certain spatial range?

Additionally, there was the difficulty of real-world engineering implementation; currently, Xia Duo could only complete the field focusing within a spherical range with a diameter of one hundred meters, and a smaller range was not yet possible.

If he could improve this in the future and control the focusing range to a smaller area, then charging for the Arcane Energy Field would no longer be a problem.

Xia Duo initially thought about charging through the Activators of quasi-Magic Items within the Arcane Energy Field; that was essentially letting users record it themselves. But if field focusing could be developed, it would be possible to realize recording at the energy output end.

This way, even if the energy reception records on the Activator side were tampered with, the energy output records on the Mythallar side would still be preserved, so there would be no need to worry about being deceived.

……

As the energy was ready, the Time Acceleration Zone quickly entered its state, though the first activation inevitably required some initialization settings.

At this moment, it was already late at night, and Niya asked impatiently: "Is it activated? Why is it no different from before?"

"It's activating; you'll see the phenomenon soon. However, since this is for the internal personnel of the Tower of Time to use, I was worried about accidents and placed certain limits on the Time Acceleration cap. The phenomenon might not be very obvious, so you have to look carefully!"

The more Time Acceleration there is, the more obvious the phenomenon; this is self-evident. A simple thought experiment yields the answer—if there were no Time Acceleration, that area would be exactly the same as the outside!

"It's starting! It's five times acceleration now!" Xia Duo whispered a reminder.

His keen perception had already discovered that a self-illuminating "glass cover" had appeared about two meters inside the plaza's red line, shrouding the main body of the plaza within it.

At the same time, the interior of the Time Acceleration Zone had become slightly darker than just a moment ago.

Such a change was not very obvious, to the point that Niya was still trying to discover what was different about the scene before her. If an average person didn't know what the phenomenon was beforehand, they probably wouldn't even think in that direction when seeing this extremely subtle phenomenon.

Next, Xia Duo did not continue to remind her, but instead increased the time flow rate inside the acceleration zone bit by bit, and the Change of Change soon appeared.

Niya pointed in surprise at the "glowing glass cover" in the center of the plaza and asked Xia Duo: "Is the phenomenon that? It looks like a transparent yet glowing cover, and inside, it seems a bit darker than before, right?"

"Yes."

Xia Duo nodded and then introduced further, "The faster the time flow rate inside the Time Acceleration Zone, the darker it will be inside, and at the same time, the boundary between the inside and outside will become more obvious. It looks like that transparent cover is getting brighter and brighter. After the acceleration reaches a certain degree, looking at the acceleration zone from the outside, it is completely pitch black, and you can't see anything at all, rather than a glowing cover."

"So magical?"

Niya couldn't help but exclaim, but then, as if thinking of something, she said: "I understand. Even if the light elements received by the area are limited, and from our perspective they are spread out over an infinitely long time line, for us, the light elements that can be observed or perceived at the same moment are also nearly zero!"

"Not bad. From the perspective of light elements, it can indeed be explained that way. However, this perhaps also involves the nature of space and time. If you don't believe it, try throwing something into the acceleration zone."

"Involves the nature of space and time?"

Niya didn't understand what Xia Duo was talking about, but she heard the latter part, so she casually fished a Gold Coin from her pocket and threw it hard toward the center of the plaza.

At this time, the time flow rate inside the Time Acceleration Zone had already reached the cap Xia Duo had deliberately set, which was about one hundred times that of the outside. Under this difference in time flow rate, the interior of the acceleration zone had become quite dark due to the lack of a light source.