Chapter 499: Cooperation Ice-Breaking

Just before this week was over, Harry was called to a meeting by the Prime Minister again, and this time, he showed unusual urgency, just like the previous discussion about the Iron Curtain.

When Harry rushed to the venue, he finally understood what the topic was this time—evaluating and responding to the concept of an air-space carrier proposed by the Pentagon. Although the Muggle professors present were all like facing a great enemy, for Harry who had just chatted with Tang Nade about this matter not long ago, it was not a big deal.

"I think this is your first meeting," the Prime Minister said solemnly. "This is Sir Edwin Travers, Professor Emeritus of Trinity College, an expert in the field of quantum physics, and it has been preliminarily decided that he will serve as the Vice Dean of the Royal Carya Academy afterward, assisting the people in the Wizarding World to communicate with the Cambridge school authorities."

Arthur stepped forward and shook hands with this spirited old professor.

"I have heard many things about the Wizarding World, because my grandniece is at Hogwarts." Sir Travers revealed a kind smile. "You must be Minister Wei Silai, this is Principal Snape, ah, and General Potter. The little granddaughter said you can defeat everyone in the Magical Congress single-handedly. Is it true?"

Harry's face turned red, and he answered ambiguously: "That would require giving it my all."

"That's really good news. We are not too far behind yet." Sir Travers nodded. "I'd like to introduce my team to you, to be precise, the 'Abnormal Physical Phenomena Research Group' formed at the Prime Minister's request."

"This is Dr. Roll, a materials scientist; Professor Flee, an energy engineer; Professor Borst, a meteorologist; Dr. Romis, an electronic technology engineer." Sir Travers introduced his team very quickly. "We formed a report this time, regarding the feasibility of air-space carrier technology. The conclusion is... completely impossible. They must have used magical assistance."

The Prime Minister nodded, then signaled everyone to take their seats, and said peacefully: "Please speak in detail."

"First is the problem of propulsion power. The ion propulsion technology they proposed is indeed true, but according to current laboratory data, the power of ion thrusters is still stuck at the millinewton level, while the weight of the air-space carrier is at the ten-thousand-ton level. This huge difference in magnitude determines that this technology is absolutely impossible to be applied in the air-space field in the short term, at least for several decades."

"Secondly is the material strength problem. The anti-gravity engine suspension node and the connection between the hull are a very obvious stress concentration area. Even if we assume that the ion propulsion engine is indeed true, a simple calculation shows that the local stress peak at the connection between a single engine and the hull can reach about 300,000 to 500,000 megapascals, and this number far exceeds the strength of any existing material. Even carbon nanotubes, which only exist in theory, can only reach 300,000 megapascals, and the material they use is obviously not carbon nanotubes, nor is there any corresponding evidence about material technology breakthroughs."

"Next is the energy problem. According to the functions they claimed, we estimate that the power consumption of the air-space carrier is at the petawatt level, and the steady state is about 3 petawatts. What is this concept? That is, if we drain all the oil reserves explored by humanity at present, it can only run it for 4.6 minutes. And the cold nuclear reactor technology they cited is an experiment that was falsified long ago. Current technology is not enough to maintain long-term controllable operation."

"So, the conclusion is obvious." Sir Travers summarized. "They must have added magical assistance in one or more links to make the entire system project possess a certain feasibility."

The Prime Minister sighed lightly. "Is it like this again."

Harry knew what he wanted to say. Both sides of the Cold War began to use magical assistance to create some military miracles, which was obviously not a good thing, but it was hard for him to stop it.

"Is there a possibility that we can also make one?" After a brief silence, the Prime Minister suddenly asked.

"From a military perspective, there is no need." A staff member from the Ministry of Defense opened his mouth. "We have a floating city. As long as General Potter lives in the floating city, he can be worth ten air-space carriers."

Harry looked elsewhere, unable to laugh or cry.

"Let's adjourn the meeting first, everyone have lunch," the Prime Minister closed the memorandum in front of him and said helplessly. "We will continue to discuss countermeasures in the afternoon."

Harry and the people from the Wizarding World walked together, swaying toward the restaurant. At this time, Arthur said with some emotion: "I feel that recently, cooperation between wizards and Muggles has become more and more, which has never happened before."

"It's hard to say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing." Snape shook his head. "I have already seen that this kind of cooperation is usually wizards casting one or two very simple spells, and then watching Muggles busy back and forth. I feel this is of no benefit to the development of magic."

"According to this, what cooperation is beneficial to the development of magic?" Arthur asked while dragging a huge apple pie into his plate.

"Our concept of the university is that if those excellent wizards can spend more time learning and researching deeper magical knowledge, magic can be further developed."

"And," Harry added, "letting wizards learn some Muggle knowledge, opening up their thinking, is also helpful for improving spellcasting levels."

"What you two said is very reasonable, but what I am wondering is, why couldn't we do it before?" Arthur looked a bit lost. "The fact is, I feel the Wizarding World doesn't necessarily need wizards to start working as soon as they graduate. There are many wizards who are idle after graduation, and there are many jobs that are unknown and don't really need anyone to do those things."

"Unemployment rate, we have to face these problems at any time." The Prime Minister suddenly joined their conversation. "Arthur, those jobs you see that are unknown, many of them were added by me. Do you know why? This is to avoid the next Dark Lord recruiting those idle wizards who have no work to form unrest."

Harry listened silently. Among the people he knew, Lucius was undoubtedly a very vivid example: although he was not short of money, because he had no formal job and was idle, he actively ran to respond to Voldemort's cause.

"Very reasonable, but compared to meaningless registrars, tally clerks, etc., I feel it's better to let them go to university." Snape said slowly. "Even, I feel it's necessary to open some Muggle courses in the Wizarding World. We haven't had a decent magical primary school for wizard families so far, right?"

"But children of that age can't be taught to cast spells anyway. The significance of primary school is not much." The Prime Minister passed over this topic. "And air-space carriers, or floating cities, this is what I feel can provide the most employment, and more importantly, it can save the unemployment rate in the Muggle world."

"My meaning is, it's unlikely that any lawbreakers will emerge for a long time. The unemployment rate in the Wizarding World is not that tense. It's better to send more graduates to university instead of doing these meaningless jobs." Snape was still obsessed with the university.

"Gentlemen, I have a bolder idea." The Prime Minister suddenly said. "Since our Wizarding World has many jobs that lack meaning—of course I'm not just talking about the ones I added, there were many such jobs originally, such as employees in shops in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, reporters and editors of the Daily Prophet, Quidditch logistics, etc. —we might as well try to liberate all these wizards and replace them with Muggles. This can also further alleviate the unemployment rate in the Muggle world."

"But the entire Wizarding World doesn't have that many similar jobs, and it doesn't have much meaning compared to the Muggle population." Harry tried to refute this bold idea from a pragmatic perspective.

"Oh, there are no jobs, jobs can be created," the Prime Minister said happily. "For example, Ollivander, since I was in school, he has been selling his wands in person. I think this is undoubtedly a waste of talent. We can hire dozens of Muggles to form a team for him, establish an Ollivander Wand Company, let Muggles be responsible for registering wand information and conducting sales, and even further, wand making is not full of technical content from beginning to end. Muggles can complete some raw material processing, decoration carving, etc. for him—the ultimate goal of all this is to let Ollivander have more time to delve into wand-making technology, and finally make better wands for the Wizarding World."

"Sounds beautiful, but, can the profit of wand trading alone support such a huge team?" Harry expressed doubt.

"Hmm, it's a problem, but it's not that hard to solve." The Prime Minister nodded. "For some Muggles, as long as they can be exposed to magic, it is the greatest benefit. We only need to provide them with simple food and housing and a salary like a little pocket money."

"The impact on the current Wizarding World is still too big," Arthur's words were full of worry. "We are still used to living under the framework of the Statute of Secrecy."

"So, we can try this social system on the floating city, use Muggle labor to liberate wizard experts as much as possible, and assist in the breakthrough of magic." The Prime Minister set the conclusion very optimistically. "And for those Muggles who reject wizards, or wizards who reject Muggles, let them still stay in the old world on the ground and live their old lives."

They carried their trays and sat at the dining table. Several Muggle experts were chatting here, but the topics they discussed seemed more novel and exciting.

"According to this, the Apollo program is likely not completed independently by the scientific community." Sir Travers said slowly. "Their Magical Congress secretly provided a lot of help." ===== CHAPTER 500 =====