Exploring Technology in a Wizard World-Chapter 282 - 281 Printed Circuit Board and Magic Rune
Chapter 282: Chapter 281: Printed Circuit Board and Magic Rune Deciphering
Chapter 282 -281: Printed Circuit Board and Magic Rune Deciphering
The same night.
The laboratory, main experimental room.
Richard sat in front of the experiment table, working diligently.
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Many candles were lit, casting a dim yellow light, which was reflected by several mirrors, making a small specific area on the table exceptionally bright. It was in this area that Richard studied the magic runes on the Papyrus Scroll, which he had copied down from three Magic Rune Magic Tools obtained at an auction a few days earlier.
Each copied magic rune was extremely complex, dense and dizzying to the eye. Richard, with his meticulous gaze, studied the direction of the runes, pondering methods to decrypt them in order to absorb, utilize, and improve them.
Generally speaking, in the current world, magic runes were very hard to decrypt, let alone having a systematic method of decryption.
But Richard didn’t confine his thinking to the present; he related it to some relevant knowledge from modern Earth.
In Richard’s view, the magic runes of the current world were quite similar to the circuits of modern Earth, sharing many commonalities. Even if they couldn’t be completely equated, he could still apply some knowledge from electrical circuits.
And on modern Earth, the development of circuits was always accompanied by encryption and decryption—like the spear and the shield. Circuit designers for precision instruments went to great lengths to encrypt their circuits to prevent imitation by competitors, while the competitors made great efforts to decrypt them and obtain what they desired.
In the development of circuits, they were continually miniaturized, with large circuits slowly turning into tiny ones. The wiring between electronic components was printed onto insulating boards using printed metallic lines, becoming Printed Circuit Boards, or PCBs.
There were many methods for encrypting PCBs, typically including potting, spray painting, buried vias, and blind vias.
As for the decryption of highly encrypted PCBs, known as reverse engineering, the techniques were numerous and varied. Technically speaking, decrypting PCBs wasn’t a question of possibility but of value.
In other words, there were no PCBs that couldn’t be decrypted; it was all about the investment. If the investment was too high and the return too low, then it was better to decrypt another PCB of value.
Looking at the magic runes of the Wizard World from the perspective of modern Earth’s circuit decryption made everything seem simpler.
Although the magic rune patterns were dense and intricate, they couldn’t match the complexity of modern Earth’s PCBs. If modern Earth’s circuit complexity was at the level of a smartphone, then the Wizard World’s magic runes were like baby rattles or old brick-sized mobile phones in comparison.
Their methods of encryption were basic, such as intentionally adding or hiding certain lines, or camouflaging the truly central and functional magic runes among many incorrect and meaningless ones.
This was enough to deter the average plagiarist, and even if it couldn’t completely prevent copying, it could make the costs prohibitively high for most.
For example, a simple magic rune that could create a paralysis arc might be expanded by a Magic Rune Master into many useless rune patterns, of which a significant part could not even be replicated by the master themselves.
In this way, a plagiarist would have to go to great lengths to successfully mimic the magic rune. And during this process, a single careless mistake in etching a line of the core rune could cause the entire rune to fail and lead to despair.
However, such encryption methods were somewhat insufficient for Richard.
Under the light, Richard’s eyes flickered as he looked at the lines on the scroll. He placed his finger on it and slowly slid it around, dividing areas, and quickly extrapolating combinations of some magic rune patterns to formulate a specific test plan.
The next moment, he took out a White Jade Plate from the Space Iron Ring, and based on the lines on the Papyrus Scroll, he quickly etched them onto it.
“Shhh…”
The White Jade Plate was soon processed and had many fewer lines than the original magic runes.
Richard tentatively infused mana, the White Jade Plate vibrated, and with a “crack”, it shattered.
“Hmm… It seems that the magic runes in areas A2 and D4 can be excluded.”
After one failure, Richard was not discouraged at all. He took out a new White Jade Plate and began to etch on it, creating a set of magic runes completely different from the previous ones.
Holding the second White Jade Plate, Richard cautiously infused it with mana, and then with a “crack”, it also shattered.
“The magic runes in areas B3 and C5 can also be excluded.”
Richard said, taking out a third White Jade Plate to process, etch, and test again.
“Crack,” the third one shattered.
Then the fourth, the fifth, the sixth…
White Jade Plate after White Jade Plate broke, until Richard took out the eleventh and carved intricate Magic Rune patterns onto it. His eyebrows lifted, his gaze somewhat solemn.
“Huff—inhale—”
Richard took a deep breath and muttered to himself, “If my previous speculations aren’t mistaken, then this time, it should be successful.”
No sooner had he spoken than Richard grasped the White Jade Plate and infused it with Mana.
“Buzz, buzz, buzz!”
The White Jade Plate vibrated slowly, and in the next moment, a “snap” was heard as several centimeters of orange-yellow electric arc appeared on its surface—the true effect of the Magic Rune Magic Tool, “Paralysis Ring.”
Richard continuously injected Mana, causing the electric arc to emerge non-stop for well over half a minute, then with a “crack,” the White Jade Plate shattered.
Richard understood that the White Jade Plate’s energy endurance had reached its limit, causing it to break. Had he not chosen a White Jade Plate but some other high-quality material to carve the Magic Rune, as long as there was enough Mana, the duration of the electric arcs could have been virtually everlasting.
In other words, if the Magic Rune were inscribed on a blank Magic Tool, a qualified Magic Rune Magic Tool with a paralyzing effect—the Paralysis Ring Magic Rune—could have been created. The Paralysis Ring Magic Rune had been successfully decrypted!
A success in decryption!
Richard blinked, recorded the deciphered Magic Rune on a new Papyrus Scroll, and compared it with the original version. He realized it was nearly halved. That is to say, the Magic Rune Masters who made the tools added almost half of the useless patterns to encrypt the Magic Rune, which was sheer madness.
“Huff—”
Richard expelled a breath and tucked the new Papyrus Scroll away, tidied up his desk, and stretched his body.
At this moment, he did not plan to decipher all three Magic Tools acquired from the auction in one go; it was too energy-consuming. It would be better to switch gears.
Thinking so, Richard took out seven books—books passed down from the Black Spirit Empire and obtained from the briefcase of a deceased young man.
These seven books, which he had already studied briefly beforehand, revealed only two with the insignia of the Black Spirit Empire, much like “My Autobiography – Moratos,” on the last page. The numbers on the insignias were 11 and 34, respectively.
From this, he deduced two things.
First, not every book passed down from the Black Spirit Empire was related to secrets; it was very likely that only an exceedingly small portion was.
Second, even if only a tiny fraction of the books were related to secrets, their number would not be less than 34, possibly even more. To collect all of them or the majority for study was probably not going to be simple.
Comparing these two issues, what he found even more challenging was that he still had no clue what the secret clues hidden in the books were—the content of the books appeared to be just simple text, nothing seemingly irrelevant.
He had considered situations like hidden text, whether it be through burning, soaking, or applying special reagents as a simple chemical reactions:
Writing with vinegar, the liquid would seep into the fibers, then upon heating the paper, the acetic acid would accelerate the carbonization of the fibers, making the writing turn yellow and appear;
Writing with a solution of blue copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate, the dry copper sulfate would turn colorless and disappear. When soaked in water, the anhydrous copper sulfate would revert to copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate, showing the writing;
Starch turning blue when reacting with iodine, phenolphthalein turning purple in the presence of an alkali, and methyl orange turning red when encountering a strong acid.
He had tested all of these, to no avail.
Actually, upon serious consideration, these books were over a hundred years old, and even if there were any chemical reagents, they would have evaporated by now. If someone truly wanted to leave a clue, they would not use such methods unless they were foolish; if they were foolish, then… they simply didn’t understand this method at all.
In any case, the clue related to the secret should be hidden very stealthily.
So, where exactly was it hidden?
