A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 674 New Equipment
While Hogsmeade Village was immersed in the hustle and bustle of the weekend, with the sounds of students chatting and laughing echoing through the streets, a completely different atmosphere pervaded a basement in Farbatton Castle.

Here, time seems to flow at a different rhythm, slow and profound, and every stone is imbued with solemnity.

Deep within the castle, in a specially modified research room, the air was so heavy it almost seemed to freeze.

The only entrance to this windowless chamber is a heavy, lead-lined metal door that requires a specific incantation to open.

Several magic lamps fixed to the wall emitted a cold white halo, like solidified moonlight, evenly illuminating the awe-inspiring behemoth in the center of the room.

It was a huge, intricately designed piece of equipment.

The main body is a golden ring with a diameter of two meters, cast from magical metal that shimmers with a cold luster. Its surface is etched with dense ancient runes and magic channels, and faint energy flows beneath the fine lines, emitting a continuous low hum.

However, the most striking feature is the chilling "grains of sand" on the inner wall of the ring, which are countless tiny "eyes" the size of sand grains, arranged in an orderly fashion.

Upon closer inspection, each "eye" gleams with an unnatural glassy luster, and its deep pupils are as black as ink.

They remained motionless, yet seemed to be collectively gazing at the nothingness at the center of the circle, converging into a strange pressure as if being watched by countless consciousnesses simultaneously.

A black conveyor belt made of light-absorbing magical material extended from the hole in the wall, passed precisely through the center of the ring, and disappeared on the other side.

The entire research room, including the ceiling and floor, was covered with thick lead plates, which tightly isolated it from all dangers.

Charles Smith stood on the mobile scaffolding, conducting a final inspection.

He was focused, checking every detail with precision, his eyes only on the pursuit of safety.

Director of Magic Chris stood below, his brow furrowed, his gaze uneasily drifting towards the array of "eyes" within the ring.

The “eyes” sent a chill down Chris’s spine; those dense little things always reminded him of Alastor Moody’s mad eye.

They share a similar penetrating gaze, yet are distinctly different. Moody's magic eye is wild and restless, while these miniature eyes are too orderly and silent, like precision instruments without soul.

"Alright." Charles jumped down from the scaffolding, landing as silently as a falling leaf, and clapped his hands.

After the last lead plate was inspected, the entire room became an airtight metal box, making the air feel heavy and stagnant.

Chris finally couldn't help but point to the golden ring and ask, "Boss, what exactly is this?"

“These little things look so much like Moody’s eyes that I feel uncomfortable looking at them.”

Charles walked to the circle, sensing the magical fluctuations through his fingertips, and calmly explained, "Your feeling is correct."

"These are indeed detection units made using the same principle as Moody's Magic Eye, and can be called 'miniature Magic Eyes'."

Chris's breath hitched.

Moody's single eye is difficult enough to deal with; with so many eyes here, they could probably stare the mysterious man to death.

“But,” Charles changed the subject, “the way they ‘see’ things is different from any known visual magic; these miniature magic eyes primarily perceive X-rays.”

“X…rays?” Chris repeated the unfamiliar term blankly. “Is it a new magical spectrum?”

He searched his mind for the corresponding object, but found only a blank.

“No, it’s not traditional magic.” Charles shook his head. “You can think of it as a special kind of ‘light,’ a kind of ‘light’ with extremely high energy and strong penetrating power.”

"Invisible to the naked eye, yet able to penetrate materials that ordinary light and magical barriers cannot—wood, cloth, and even metal."

"It can reveal the internal structure of objects, skeletal outlines, and hidden items..."

Chris's confusion was mixed with a primal fear. Peeking inside? Ignoring obstacles? It was both powerful and blasphemous, completely beyond his understanding of "visual magic."

“Muggles discovered and used this X-ray very early on,” Charles added, “primarily to detect bodily injuries or internal defects in machinery.”

“I drew on their physical principles and used magic to achieve similar or even stronger effects.”

Once the equipment was installed, the cold metal and countless silent "eyes" created a futuristic scene.

Charles knew that the real test of patience was about to begin.

“Now,” he turned to Chris, his tone focused, “begin the most crucial step—numbering these units.”

He walked toward the lead door connecting to the operating room.

The control room was relatively simple: a console full of levers and knobs, a wireless magic keyboard and mouse, and a huge magic oil painting monitor hanging on the wall, the screen of which was still a snow-white canvas background at the moment.

"Number?" Chris asked, puzzled.

“Yes, number.” Charles sat down at the control panel and started the device.

The oil painting monitor on the wall lit up instantly, displaying an interface.

Charles clicked on the corresponding system settings section with the mouse, and soon countless jumping dots appeared, each corresponding to a miniature magic eye.

“Each Magic Eye is an independent sensing node. The X-ray signals they sense need to be accurately identified and located, and then reconstructed into a clear internal image through algorithms.”

"Any error in node identification or coordinate deviation will lead to distortion in the final image."

Charles explained as he demonstrated, then paused and added, "It's like piecing together a precise anatomical diagram with countless tiny mosaics; you have to know exactly where each piece should be placed."

The console started operating, a bright spot was highlighted on the monitor, and complex magical rune numbers appeared next to it.

Charles explained as he worked, "There are no shortcuts in this process; the initial calibration and identity binding can only be done manually."

“I need to confirm the spatial coordinates of each magic eye in the array, and their correspondence with its unique magic identifier.”

"This is related to the imaging accuracy of the entire scanner."

Charles’s voice was calm, but Chris could imagine how immense and tedious the work must be.

Encoding tens of thousands of tiny "eyes" that are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye requires extreme patience and focus.

Seeing that Charles had already immersed himself in the vast and complex numbering work, with the console lights flickering and data streaming like a waterfall on the screen, Chris stopped disturbing him and quietly left the control room.

The heavy lead door closed behind me, once again separating the two worlds.

Outside the door lies the silent stone corridor of an ancient castle; inside lies a cutting-edge realm where magic and unknown principles intertwine.

Chris thought to himself that Charles was using amazing perseverance to weave the gaze of thousands of "magic eyes" into an invisible net that could see through the mysteries of matter, which must have taken a lot of energy, so he went to the restaurant to order food for him.

At the same time, he was moved. Charles had brought him to see this extremely cutting-edge project, which showed that Charles had no reservations about him and believed in him.

Little did he know that not long after he left, Charles, seeing that the preparations were all in order, began to slack off.

Charles took out two Shanghai dolls from his bag, programmed them, one to give a signal to the "magic eye" at the magic CT machine, and the other Shanghai doll to confirm the number.

These tedious and monotonous tasks can be done by machines, which is both faster and reduces errors.

(End of this chapter)