Chapter 23: Research

Allen quickly found an abandoned restroom, closed the door, hid in the innermost stall, sat on the toilet, and then tested every spell he had mastered; the results made him ecstatic once again.

The text on the light curtain for the same spell always has the same length and format.

The text on the light curtain for different spells is obviously different.

Although he couldn't understand what the text meant, Allen knew he had touched upon the most fundamental mechanism of casting magic.

This made him wildly excited; life had been too bitter since he transmigrated to this world!

First, he was unconscious for five months, then drank various strange medicines for treatment, then was subjected to all sorts of research; finally discharged, he ended up owing a huge debt and could only work to pay it off; after finally arriving at Hogwarts, he was bullied by classmates, and even the owl delivering his letters looked down on him.

Moreover, the transmutations brought about by his daily talent were mostly torture; he wanted to work hard on magic but found his magical talent was just so-so.

Every day, so many transmigrators travel from Earth to various planes, showing off, slapping faces, enjoying revenge, and ruling with power while drunk on beauty; only he had almost become the shame of all transmigrators.

Why are all my brothers and sisters showing off, while I'm the one getting beaten up?

Now it's good; my golden finger has arrived, allowing me to see the most primal mechanism of magic release. Although this ability doesn't seem very strong, for me right now, it is like rain in a drought; I can finally make a big splash on the path of magic!

Allen excitedly envisioned the future, but he soon calmed down.

The problem now is that the characters on the light curtain are too small and appear and disappear too quickly; I really can't see them clearly!

Thinking of this, Allen's face fell into a frown; having a good golden finger but being unable to use it, what should I do?

Unwilling to give up, Allen cast a spell again; this time he widened his eyes, preparing to see clearly and memorize the characters on the light curtain.

As if hearing the thought within Allen's heart, Allen felt he had entered a strange state; he felt the flow of time seemed to be slowed by an invisible hand; he could clearly see every detail of the characters on the light curtain until he had completely finished releasing the spell, only then did he suddenly emerge from this state.

Allen laughed heartily; indeed, the golden finger is very considerate. Although I don't understand the meaning of the characters now, being in the Wizarding World at Hogwarts, which has the largest collection of magic books, and with so many knowledgeable professors around me, I have absolutely no pressure to figure out the meaning of these characters.

He quickly found his notebook, cast the spell again, and entered the time-slowing state; this state is slow when described as slow, and fast when described as fast; since the characters are quite complex, Allen only had time to memorize two characters before he was forced out of the time-slowing state.

He hurriedly took out the pen in his hand, and while those two runes hadn't slipped from his mind yet, quickly wrote them in his notebook, then began repeating the above operation.

The notebook was soon densely filled with characters; soon, half of the characters for a Cleaning Charm were recorded, but when Allen prepared to press on, he suddenly felt darkness before his eyes, slid off the toilet, fell to the ground, and lay unconscious.

Not knowing how long passed, Allen finally woke from the darkness; he felt his whole body aching, as if he had been beaten up, his mind was foggy, and he couldn't concentrate for a long time.

He changed to a more comfortable posture, leaning against the stall wall, and only after a long while did he recover; at this point, Allen discovered there was a lot of fresh blood on his chest, though it had all dried.

He struggled to get up from the ground, leaned on the wall, walked to the restroom mirror, and discovered his face was very pale; there was some blood on his nose and mouth, but judging by the trail of the blood, it should have flowed from his nose.

Allen gazed at his haggard reflection in the mirror,

silently thinking: indeed, everything has a cost; although time slowing is very useful, the burden on my body is also great. But it is all worth it; I have recorded many characters.

He slowly opened his notebook, carefully looked at the densely packed characters on it, and a gratified smile appeared on his face; while copying, he also copied down the format and order of the characters.

He looked greedily at the characters in his notebook; although he didn't recognize a single character, the more he looked, the more familiar they seemed, feeling as if he had often dealt with this thing before.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind! Why does the format of this thing look so much like a key-value pair? Although it doesn't use the familiar colon and equals sign to connect, every two words on each line are connected by a special symbol.

Allen, a programmer in his past life, was extremely familiar with this thing; although key-value pairs sound somewhat hard to understand, they are visible everywhere in life, for example:

Name: Allen Finis;

Gender: Male;

Birth Year: 1991;

This is the most common key-value pair; "Name" is the key, also called a key, and "Allen Finis" is the value, also called a value; the key is fixed, but the values are all kinds of things.

This is the data structure most familiar and most basic to programmers.

Allen couldn't help but fall into deep thought; why does something resembling a key-value pair appear when casting a spell?

He frowned tightly, feeling he had grasped something, but couldn't quite catch that feeling.

Suddenly, he remembered the function of key-value pairs when doing software development in his past life; key-value pairs are the main format for data interaction between various computer systems and terminals.

Interaction?!!

Allen's gaze froze instantly.

What needs to interact?

At this moment, he suddenly recalled Professor McGonagall's explanation of the essence of magic: a wizard can release magic because the wizard themselves resonates with this world!

Then the function of the key-value pairs on the light curtain is to interact and transmit information during resonance; but what is the use of transmitting this information?

Could this world have a will?

Allen pondered, constantly recalling various theories about magic in this world.

Suddenly, he understood everything!

The four elements of spellcasting!

The correct incantation and specific wand movements are information; the caster's subjective consciousness of the spell's effect is also information; the caster's certain level of focus is to better resonate with the World Will and better transmit the information.

Allen thought of the light wave when the light curtain shattered at the instant the spell ended; is this sending information to the World Will?

He also thought of what Professor Dumbledore said about the function of wands:

The function of a wand is to make the connection between the wizard and this World Will even tighter!

The appearance of wands greatly lowered the threshold for casting magic, giving many wizards with less magical talent the opportunity to master magic!

Allen stared tightly at his wand, feeling an impulse to split it open to see its internal structure, but he held back.

He continued thinking.

A tighter connection with the World Will?

Connection?!!

Allen completely understood everything; wizards with strong magical talent can cast spells without a wand because they are strong enough to send sufficient information to the World Will, while those with weak talent must use auxiliary means—namely, wands—to send sufficient information to the World Will.

Simply put, people with weak talent find themselves an "antenna" to assist in sending information.

Allen looked at his wand; you don't say, it really looks like an "antenna"!

So, why do wizards go to such great lengths to send information to the World Will?

The answer is obvious.

Cast magic!