We Fixed the Bug Without a Player Interface and Optimized a More Realistic Physics Engine

Chapter 30: We Fixed the Bug Without a Player Interface and Optimized the Physics Engine for Greater Realism

When Murphy first arrived in this world and saw the damaged Steam 800 refrigerator in Triss's courtyard, he knew this world possessed "unique technologies" that defied conventional understanding.

Later, encountering a steam-powered repeating crossbow in Morland Village, he once thought that applying Steam Power to warfare was the most extreme feat steam mechanics could achieve. However, the reality proved that the words he used to persuade the Little Players to approach the New World with humility could also be applied to himself.

"Psionic... Computing Orb?"

Murphy looked at Mirian with an expression that was a mixture of four parts confusion, three parts curiosity, and three parts bewilderment.

He could understand the meaning of each of those six words individually, but he had no idea what they meant when combined.

Maxim, standing beside him, looked equally clueless.

Mirian merely told him that the matter was serious, but her understanding of "Steam Engineering" was limited to the five words themselves.

Like his master, he was truly ignorant in this regard.

"Sigh, I'll explain from the beginning."

Seeing the bewildered expressions on the faces of the master and servant before her, Mirian knew they didn't grasp her concerns at all.

She took another orb from the box beneath her, holding the array of orbs in her hand. She lifted it, positioning it at a specific angle above her eyes, and said to Murphy:

"Look at the orb from this angle, and tell me what you see?"

Murphy raised the gem array in his hand as Mirian instructed.

Vampires have excellent night vision. As soon as the gems in his hand rotated to the correct angle, he immediately saw unique structures reflected within the translucent gems.

It resembled an extremely complex system formed by the combination of tiny gears and mechanical structures. They were densely packed yet assembled in a highly organized and industrially aesthetic manner. Within the transparent gem, no larger than a fingernail, there were three such systems, interconnected by a set of levers to form a larger whole.

"This is impossible!"

Murphy immediately retorted:

"Unless I'm hallucinating... No, I must be hallucinating! Even with the highest level of Halfling industrial standards, they couldn't possibly create such precise micro-components!

This alone must contain at least tens of thousands of parts.

Is this some kind of illusion?"

"To be precise, it's a triple-unit simplified Psionic Differential Machine composed of forty-four thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven parts, a new iteration of the third generation.

They say its computing speed is incredibly fast!"

Mirian shrugged and smoothly uttered a rather complex phrase in Transylvanian, causing Maxim's brain to spin a little.

But Murphy understood.

He continued to look at Mirian with a questioning gaze. She explained:

"Don't look at me like that. I don't understand its specific operational mode either. I'm just an administrative student, and I only came across these terms in Professor Old Bach Gas Lamp's writings to get credits for the elective 'Brief History of Machinery.' I never expected it to be useful in this situation.

In short, the micro-differential machine inside the Computing Orb isn't real!

The prototype of this thing occupies an entire exhibition hall in the underground museum of Shardo Artisan University. However, the Halfling mechanic artisans drew inspiration from the 'Psionic Erosion' phenomenon that exists everywhere in this world.

They and their Dwarf brethren used special techniques to manipulate psionics. With the help of Psionicists from the Ring Tower, they used psionic formulas to mobilize the widely present Psionic Factors in nature, forming a peculiar Sorcery Formula. Ultimately, they simulated the operation of a differential machine at the microscopic level.

Since then, the micro-Computing Orb has emerged, and the Steam Engineering of the Halflings has successfully entered a new era."

Mirian flicked the orb in her hand and said, "Various Automatons in Shardo Port contain these. The ones we have are purely computational, without any manipulation attachments. You only need to infuse them with psionics, and they can help the user accomplish many things."

"Like what?"

Maxim asked foolishly.

His mind, having been exposed to too much metaphysics since childhood, couldn't comprehend anything Mirian had just said. However, his question came at the perfect time.

The red-haired lady rolled her eyes and patiently explained:

"For example, it can help you translate a poem written in Elvish in under a minute. Or it can help you plan how to spend your salary next month and how much you've already spent this year in a matter of seconds.

If necessary, it can even help you create a detailed income and expenditure statement. With an activated Psionic Projector, you can even see its calculation results with your own eyes.

When I enrolled at the Artisan University, I was also issued a second-generation Computing Orb, about the size of my fist, as part of the student benefits.

Now, many campuses of Shardo University are undergoing 'storage reform.' Those professors intend to replace ancient paper documents with psionic orbs and accompanying databases.

It's incredibly convenient!

An area the size of a castle can store all the information from an old library as large as Cadman City. If you need a specific book, just tell your Computing Orb, and it can retrieve and copy it for you.

If you're lazy enough, you can even have it read it aloud to you.

Of course, an external Psionic Microphone costs extra. Only those wealthy noble scions use this service. I heard they use Computing Orbs to read very lewd things to liven up certain occasions..."

"That's not the point!"

Murphy had a general understanding of what this Computing Orb was. While it might not be exactly the same, it could essentially be considered the world's "computer and operating system." However, it seemed that this technology had only just begun to emerge and be used in the Halfling territories of Shardo, and hadn't yet spread to other parts of the continent.

So he asked:

"The point is, why is the Guelderland Kingdom going to such lengths to smuggle Computing Orbs from the Shardo Halflings? And why are they marked as military supplies?"

"Because it can indeed be used for warfare, Murphy."

Mirian sighed and said, "I heard about this when I first enrolled, from my elderly Halfling advisor. Apparently, it's because the Ring Tower sided with the Guelderland Kingdom during the Ten Years' War.

When the situation was unfavorable in the early stages of the war, the Psionicists proposed deploying the Computing Orbs for military use. They had also been involved in the development of the Computing Orbs, and their understanding of these devices was second only to that of the Halfling Mechanics.

They modified the internal logic and simulation algorithms of the Computing Orbs and spent three months establishing a communication and command system that covered the entire Greeny Legion. They used each Computing Orb and its user as communication nodes, and even calculated artillery firing solutions, thereby achieving a leap in command efficiency.

Two years before the Ten Years' War, the Old Church Rebels and their allies spent sixteen months conquering two border provinces of the Guelderland Kingdom. After the Computing Orbs were deployed in the war, the re-equipped Greeny Legion and the Old Guards only took three months to drive the rebels out of the country.

I can't imagine how they used these things to fight, but after that incident, the Steam Lords immediately ordered a ban on the outflow of Computing Orbs.

Clearly, the Guelderland Kingdom's use of their hard work in war angered the Mechanics, and it's said that they completely cut off further cooperative research and development with the Ring Tower because of this.

The 3,000 Orb arrays we've recovered now were ordered by the Pioneer Legion. Perhaps the legendary General Loren also wants to emulate the Greeny Legion's reform and improve his own legions.

However, if I had to guess, these Orbs are likely not from the Shardo Halflings."

The red-haired young woman turned the Orb array in her hands over and over, and said to Murphy, "There's no serial number on this, and the style is a bit different from the genuine ones I've seen. These might have been made by someone else.

But honestly, besides Halfling artisans, I can't think of any other force on the continent that could create such precise items!"

Murphy nodded.

Mirian had revealed all the information she knew. As she said, this batch of goods was of great significance to the Guelderland Kingdom and was indeed a hot potato.

That General Loren would likely not give up.

However, Murphy was still a little confused. He held the Computing Orb array in his hand and used Item Appraisal. A second later, an information tag popped up before his eyes:

Name: Third Generation Psionic Computing Orb - Cracked Version

Effects: Can form a regional psionic encrypted communication network by completing psionic resonance with upper-level nodes, preset standard permission tree, achieve simple information transfer between parallel nodes and upper/lower nodes, various communication modes and relative position calculation, custom coordinate marking and sharing, simple psionic projection, simple translation in multiple languages, etc.

Hint!

The encryption lock of this Computing Orb has been completely cracked, so it supports user-defined editing of additional functions.

However, this operation requires a certain understanding of the Micro-mechanical Field of Steam Engineering, Psionic Erosion, Binary Information Storage Theory, Third Generation Psionic Differential Machine Structure, and Cybernetics.

Hint!

Please find the superior node to activate and initialize Computing Orbs of the same batch.

Creator: Skeuomorphic Flywheel

Item Description:

[After I left Shardo Port, the steam engineers' research into marvelous machinery has stagnated. Especially after seeing the so-called third-generation Computing Orbs, I am convinced of the degeneracy of my foolish peers. After all, cracking their proud seven-layer encryption is no harder than tricking a troll out of the last piece of meat in its pot.

The fact is, I not only cracked it, but upgraded it!

They wanted to monopolize this wonderful technology, but I insisted on giving it to everyone who needed it or didn't, and earning some pocket money for myself along the way.

Hmm, thank goodness I was born into a world where smart people establish the rules and the fools get eaten! - Skeuomorphic Flywheel]

Murphy narrowed his eyes.

He immediately thought of the best use case for this Psionic Computing Orb and began to thank fate for the gift in his heart.

"Find it!"

He looked up and said to Mirian and Maxim, "Search the cargo! If that General Loren intends to use this to establish his own legion command system, then there should be a superior node, the Commander's Orb for himself. Find it!"

"Oh right, how could I forget this!"

Mirian immediately jumped up.

Murphy was right. Psionic Computing Orbs have a strict permission tree design. Without activating the superior node, the entire system cannot be activated.

She directed Maxim to step forward and lift the overturned carriage, but it was too heavy, and the Blood Servant was injured. Murphy shook his head and stepped forward, his hands gripping the edge of the carriage.

Relying on the 10.5 Strength granted by his upgraded Rare Character Template, he exerted his power in the darkness of the night and easily lifted one side of the entire carriage.

The two assistants immediately climbed in, first pushing out the crushed soldiers, and then taking out all the boxes, large and small, from inside.

In the deepest part of the carriage, Mirian found an exquisite brass box.

She carefully carried the item out and placed it before Murphy. The lock area of this item had a metal plate, but it only had two buttons, 0 and 1.

"It's a binary encrypted lock. I've seen this type of safe in books! It's a very traditional purely mechanical structure, but very effective. It contains inert materials so it's not affected by psionic spells. Usually, they contain acid bottles or finely crafted Gold-Infusion Bombs, which can destroy everything within ten meters."

The red-haired girl rubbed her head and said, "This is troublesome. Entering the wrong password might destroy the contents."

Murphy remained silent, simply placing his hand on the brass box.

Item Appraisal activated! An information tag popped up:

Name: Skeuomorphic Flywheel's Self-Destructing Safe Model 400

Effect: Storage of valuables.

Item Description:

Skeuomorphic Flywheel was a talented Halfling Mechanic, born into a prestigious family but a rebel at heart. He had many bad habits! For instance, all his combination locks used a standard, uniform code. This was just one of countless little secrets belonging to the mad genius who now resided in the Dark Mountains.

No one knew the background or origins of the Mechanical Weapon Black Marketeer, Skeuomorphic Flywheel, but rumors whispered that his favorite girl's birthday was April 14th.

Clap, clap, clap.

As a former professional software tester, Murphy didn't hesitate to input the binary string 110011110. Mirian, standing beside him, looked on in horror.

She thought Murphy was just randomly mashing keys. She quickly backed away a few steps, crouching down with her hands over her head, just in case the safe exploded and hurt her.

But then, a miracle happened!

As Murphy lifted his fingers, the small brass box clicked open, revealing a perfectly round Computing Orb within.

It was larger and more exquisite than other Psionic Computing Orbs, about the size of a baby's fist. The silver-gray base plate on the exterior, used for decoration and protection, even bore the factory number left by the Halfling Mechanic.

This was an authentic item?

But why did its appearance differ so much from ordinary Computing Orbs?

With such questions, Murphy reached out and took out the Core Computing Orb from the box, which served as the upper node. The moment he touched the thing, the semi-transparent Character Card in front of his eyes flickered, like the snowy static that appears after TV signal interference.

It returned to normal after a second.

Then, to Murphy's astonished gaze, a line of text popped up before his eyes:

Detected Special Tech Item [Fourth Generation Psionic Computing Orb Prototype - Codename 003]. The psionic technology level possessed by this item is sufficient to complete a simplified replication of some functions of the Test Administrator System!

Please designate the function to be simplified and replicated from the currently unlocked function list, Alpha.

Note!

Due to the item's outdated manufacturing process and complex principles, still in the early stages of this technology tree, its data memory is small. Therefore, please do not designate complex functions for replication.

"My luck today is truly incredible!"

Murphy whistled, a wide grin of double happiness spreading across his face.

Although he still didn't understand how this thing worked, nor did he fully grasp the strange level of development that Steam Engineering had reached in this world, none of that mattered!

Because, the Player Interface he had been longing for was right here!

Ah, thank you, Mother Nature!