Chapter 416 — Those Who Journey Into the Unknown

To be honest, the communication device that Kamael and Rebecca had created—and the degree of completion it had already reached—far exceeded Gaoyang's expectations. Not only on the technical level, but in its design philosophy as well.

On the technical level, Gaoyang could already understand it. After all, this world had its own unique technological path; things that seemed utterly inconceivable to him might be nothing more than a petty trick in the field of magic. And with the Sleepers' ready-made research as a foundation, the "advanced functions" of the communication device were not really difficult to imagine. What genuinely surprised him was Kamael's mature design philosophy.

The device not only had a design for mutual identification within a network, but could also perform a fairly simple form of "dialing." It simultaneously possessed the functions of receiving broadcasts and communicating with distant places. And to guarantee its long-range communication capability, Kamael had even devised a scheme to use mana obelisks as "relay stations." Such a relay station must necessarily encompass a whole series of complex functions—information forwarding, amplification, channel management, and so on. All of this had been accomplished without Gaoyang offering the slightest hint.

He could not help praising Kamael's design, praising his ability to realize these incredible functions—only to find that, upon hearing his praise, Kamael appeared quite dismissive: "Aren't these the most basic requirements for long-range communication?"

Gaoyang was taken aback. Seeing Kamael's matter-of-fact attitude, he suddenly realized that he had fallen into another trap of his own thinking:

He had once again underestimated the technological level of this world—and forgotten the technological level of the Gondor Empire in its day.

The lower strata of this world's society might be primitive and backward, its average level of development perhaps not high, but its top-tier technology, and the technological heights it had once attained in history... had never been backward at all.

A convenient, cheap, stable, and reliable general-purpose communicator might be something entirely new in this world, but the communicator itself was not—nor was communication technology.

As early as the Gondor era, humanity had already established an information network spanning the entire empire. Even today, the elves' Radiant Vault still provided convenient broadcast services to the whole Silver Empire. Even contemporary Ansu, seemingly so backward and benighted, was not entirely without advanced holographic video-call technology within a very limited scope—was it not simply the court mage's Sending spell?

For those who had come into contact with such technological peaks, certain highly refined and advanced things were never a question of "whether they existed," but only of "how widely they were spread."

Of course Kamael would have a mature design philosophy—because he had used equally advanced things himself, back in the day.

Gaoyang quietly studied this master of magic, and a sudden understanding dawned in his heart: perhaps in the eyes of outsiders, everything Cecil had experienced was a rise, but in Kamael's eyes, most of the technological achievements that had appeared on this land to date could only be counted as a "revival."

The revival of human civilization.

Of course, the so-called "mature design philosophy" was only mature relative to this era. As a new thing, the communicator still had enormous room for improvement in Gaoyang's view—how to encrypt information, how to prevent the communication network from being wiretapped or exploited by hostile parties, how to keep the network controllable, whether the network could remain stable once the number of connected communication terminals grew enormous, how to solve the problem of "numbers" running out once there were too many terminals, how "bandwidth" should be calculated for a magic-based transmission technology—or rather, what exactly was limiting its "bandwidth"... All these detailed problems would need to be solved slowly in the future.

Gaoyang said that Kamael and Rebecca had certainly not yet thought about these problems, because a great many of them would only surface once the network was large enough and the technology for attacking networks sufficiently developed. Even the Gondor Empire in its day, at the time when its Imperial Information Network was at its largest, could not compare with any single national-level network on Earth. Just as the Sleepers, who had only just completed their psychic network, could not imagine that someone might use a brain-computer backdoor to invade their "server," so too could Kamael never imagine how complex a network containing hundreds of millions of information nodes would become, or what kind of intricate design it would require.

But that was all right. These things could be dealt with slowly.

"We should put these things to use as quickly as possible," Gaoyang said, turning to Hetty. "First, set up communication stations in Cecil and the Kant region as soon as possible, at least ensuring communication for key departments at every level—administrative halls, outposts, military barracks, and the like. After that, set up civilian communication stations. Both regions have plenty of mana obelisks, so information transmission should be no problem. As long as the communication devices are in place, contact can be established immediately...

"After that, the first thing to solve is communication with the Horsman region. A secondary administrative hall is being built there, and a communication station can ensure we stay informed of the situation on that side. Horsman's home territory has enough mana obelisks, but Count Horsman died too early—he never had time to extend the mana web a bit farther... We could consider setting up relay points between the Horsman region and the Leslie region, which would incidentally let us establish contact with Leslie as well.

"Communication is of paramount importance. There needs to be a dedicated institution to manage it. Regarding this institution's role, its basic functions, and how it interfaces with other departments, I have some suggestions..."

By this time Hetty had already summoned a Hand of Evocation and snatched up a stack of white paper and a dip pen from a nearby lab bench, and was scribbling away furiously, recording the great heap of things Gaoyang rattled off. Her practiced efficiency was almost painful to watch...

Meanwhile Rebecca, still hanging on the line inside the communicator, whispered to Kamael: "See, my Frostvein Sect is at it again—it's as if he'd long since worked out this whole pile of supporting measures, just waiting for our physical prototype to come out so he could instantly hand you a complete management plan and application plan..."

Kamael did not answer. He merely floated quietly beside the communicator. Though no one could read his expression, he seemed at this moment to have fallen into thought.

On the other hand, though Rebecca had tried hard to lower her voice, in fact every bit of her quiet muttering landed squarely in Gaoyang's ears. But Gaoyang did not want to make trouble for the girl: Rebecca had once again proven her ability in the field of research, and Gaoyang was only too eager to reward her now.

After explaining some of the general issues to Hetty, Gaoyang turned back and looked at Kamael beside the communicator: "If this device can already work stably, then arrange a trial production run first. It's only through actual use that we'll be able to sum up what problems it has. Don't forget to compile a report for me on any newly discovered problems regarding production cost, manufacturing cycle, and difficulty as well."

"Yes."