Magus Tech - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Death of the Spirit

“Damn it, boy!” The voice of the spirit seared with revenge. It rudely interrupted Richard and yelled, “Damn boy, you’re cheating! You know the riddles and answers… you must have gotten it from those who passed the test before you! Though your answer is correct, your behavior is despicable and shameless! I’ll remember you…!”

 “Wait a minute!” Richard interjected. “You said that I got my answer from those who’ve passed before? So, you mean to tell me that you tested everyone with the same question?”

“…..” There was a long silence. After what seemed like half a day, the voice of the spirit said bluntly, “Boy, don’t speak nonsense!”

“Very well. Then it’s my turn to ask you,” Richard pondered for a moment. “Here’s a question. In physics, there are four fundamental interactions, or otherwise known as fundamental forces –– gravitational force, electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. It’s a systematic theory. But what force will emerge on combining all four fundamental forces? Will it explain all the physical phenomena? If so, what is the core of this theory?

“…..” Silence, a long silence.

“Can you verify this grand theory?” Richard glanced at the book. “Is this kind of question too difficult? Well, then for a simpler judgement, all you’d have to do is choose between right and wrong like the Riemann Hypothesis, one of the seven major problems in mathematics.

“Mathematically, there exists numbers that have special properties that cannot be expressed as the product of two smaller numbers like 2, 3, 5, 7, and so on. Those numbers are called primes, or prime numbers. Primes play an important role in pure mathematics and applied mathematics. If we look at them roughly, the distribution of prime numbers in all natural numbers doesn’t seem to follow a set of law.

“But a man named Riemann once speculated that the frequency of primes is closely related to a complex function. The function is: Zeta (S) = 1 + 1 / 2S + 1 / 3S + 1 / 4S+… Do you think this conjecture is right or wrong?

“…..” Silence, a long continuing, eerie silence.

Richard raised his brows. “Or is it that you can’t answer? I see. Interesting. So, you’re unable to answer questions beyond the limits of human thinking. You don’t have the attributes of super intelligence, do you?”

“…..” Still silent.

“All right,” Richard sighed and whispered, “Then, a simple question. This one, you should know. How do you find the diameter of a circle from the circumference? To put it simply, what is the length of a carriage? And how many times longer when the two converge together?” 

The question asked priori was a simple expression of pi (π). Based on Richard’s understanding of the history of his old world, Ancient Egypt accurately quantified pi (π) based on a formula that gave the approximate value of 3.1605. Around 250 BC, Greek mathematician Archimedes created an algorithm that gave a 5-decimal digit approximation.

So long as the spirit of the book held this sort of knowledge, it would be able to answer Richard’s simple question, and according to the accuracy of the spirit’s answer, Richard would be able to roughly determine the current level of mathematics in this world. It would give him an understanding of the wizardry system. After all, whether it was magic or science and had a complete system, it should conform to logic. Then there can be no lack of mathematical use. 

“3…” A moment later, the voice of the spirit answered, lacking the momentum it once had.

“Can you be more accurate?” Richard asked. “What’s behind the decimal point?”

“3.1415926…” There was a mechanical sound in the spirit’s tone.

The other party accurately answered pi (π) to the 7th place after the decimal point.

Richard was impressed. The intelligence was at the level of Ancient China and could possibly exceed it. Once the spirit’s intelligence exceeded the scope of Richard’s evaluation, its development would explode. Richard grew excited. 

Around 480 AD, Chinese mathematician Zu Chong calculated pi (π) to the 7th first decimal digits. His record remained unbroken until the 15th Century when an Arab mathematician calculated to the 17th-digit approximation. Then, in 1789, Slovenian mathematicians gathered together and quantified pi (π) to 137-digit approximation. In 1948, mathematicians gathered once again, this time the British, and calculated 808-digits after the decimal point. In 1949, 2037-digits after the decimal point of pi (π) was calculated. In 1973, over 1 million digits were found, and in 1989, the digits of pi (π) grew to 480 million. In 2010, the figures grew to 5 trillion digits…

At this thought, Richard asked, “If you define this value as pi (π) what are the digits on the 100th place after the decimal point of pi (π)?” 

“…..” The spirit’s voice came to an abrupt end as if it had never appeared.

Richard’s eyes flashed. “Why haven’t you reached this level of accuracy yet? What about the 10000? 1000? 100?”

“Damn it, boy…” The spirit complained, voice trembling. The tone of its voice was both high and low like a machine unable to bear too much data. “Your damn question is too difficult. It’s difficult… the answer is… yes… yes… ah…!” The spirit issued a cry and suddenly froze. The flames on its eyes solidified instantly, like a mechanical failure or a computer crash. 

Richard tentatively touched the middle of the page where the spirit of the book was located. It was cold and no longer at the temperature it once was. “This is… was I qualified? Or is it because of computing overload and there was damage of irreparable error?”

Richard carefully observed the page and found no special structure but an ordinary piece of paper tainted with a skull pattern. He knew the spirit exists in the page through a system he was unaware of, but he shook his head, not wanting to waste time understanding the spirit’s existence, and quickly turned to the next page.

Dense red handwriting soon appeared on the second page. 

“Listen to me, remember me. You are witnessing a whole new world. –– Munro”

The first line. A quote.

“The Chapter of Munro.”

The second line. A little bigger. And the name of the book.

“The wizarding world is mysterious and filled with dangers at every turn. A caution to readers when reading this book, a door to a new world will slowly open…”

The third line. It seemed to be a note and a warning.

Richard narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. He turned to the next page and read carefully. “Tonight will be a sleepless night,” He thought.